A method for restricting a use of a portable device is provided. The method includes receiving an input for selecting an icon displayed on a screen of the portable device, the icon corresponding to an application for executing a concentration improvement mode that restricts the use of the application, setting a restriction time for the concentration improvement mode, deactivating the selected icon in the concentration improvement mode, and blocking a notification message provided by the application corresponding to the selected icon in the concentration improvement mode.

Portable devices are electronic devices which have been developed for a user's convenience, and which may be implemented in various kinds of devices, such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), video players, feature phones, smart phones, or the like. Smart phones have the advantages of downloading and installing various applications as may be desired by a user, as well as a high portability factor, in addition to typical phone call service functions.
However, the use of smart phones can produce adverse side effects, such as a disturbance in work or a degradation of concentration. For example, with certain game applications installed in the smart phone, a push notification message may pop up in the display of the smart phone in order to invite a user to interact with the game even when the game application is not in progress. Another example is a case in which an application having a function of receiving advertisements is installed in the smart phone, and advertisement notification messages are frequently displayed on the screen of the smart phone. Such a notification requires the user to check the corresponding massages in the display of the smart phone time after time, which deteriorates a user's concentration.
Therefore, a need exists for a method of restricting the use of a portable device.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.

Portable device and method for restricting use of portable device


A fluid-property detection device includes a housing attached to the external device, the housing being configured to hold the outer electrode and the inner electrode, an outer insulating member provided between the housing and the outer electrode, the outer insulating member being configured to insulate between the housing and the outer electrode, and an inner insulating member provided between the outer electrode and the inner electrode, the inner insulating member being configured to insulate between the outer electrode and the inner electrode, being configured to insulate between the housing and the inner electrode. The outer electrode and the inner electrode respectively have tip end portions, the tip end portions projecting out from the housing and being configured to expose to the detection target fluid contained in the external device.

JP2009-25185A discloses an electric conductivity meter for measuring electric conductivity of a liquid that is provided with a pipe-shaped outer electrode and a bar-shaped inner electrode. In the electric conductivity meter, the outer electrode formed of a conductive metal is screw connected to an electrode seat formed of a conductive metal, and the electrode seat is screw connected to a container that contains the liquid as the measurement target.


A heat pump system operates in heating and cooling modes. The heat pump is provided with both a reheat function and economizer circuit. The economizer circuit provides augmented performance to the heat pump, while the reheat coil allows enhanced control over temperature and humidity of the air supplied to the conditioned space. A bypass line around an outdoor heat exchanger is also provided to achieve additional flexibility of control for a sensible heat ratio. Selective operation of the abovementioned components and subsystems allows precise control over system operation parameters and hence satisfaction of a wide spectrum of sensible and latent load demands and improved reliability.

This application relates to heat pump refrigerant systems that can be operated in either a cooling or heating mode, and wherein a reheat coil, and an economizer circuit are both incorporated into the system schematic and in combination provide augmented performance and enhanced control.
Refrigerant systems are utilized to control the temperature and humidity of air in various indoor environments to be conditioned. In a typical refrigerant system operating in a cooling mode, a refrigerant is compressed in a compressor and delivered to a condenser (or outdoor heat exchanger in this case). In the condenser, heat is exchanged between outside ambient air and the refrigerant. From the condenser, the refrigerant passes to an expansion device, at which the refrigerant is expanded to a lower pressure and temperature, and then to an evaporator (or indoor heat exchanger). In the evaporator, heat is exchanged between the refrigerant and the indoor air, to condition the indoor air. When the refrigerant system is operating, the evaporator cools the air that is being supplied to the indoor environment. In addition, as the temperature of the indoor air is lowered, moisture usually is also taken out of the air. In this manner, the humidity level of the indoor air can also be controlled.
The above description is of a refrigerant system being utilized in a cooling mode of operation. In the heating mode, the refrigerant flow through the system is essentially reversed. The indoor heat exchanger becomes the condenser and releases heat into the environment to be conditioned (heated in this case) and the outdoor heat exchanger serves the purpose of the evaporator and exchanges heat with a relatively cold outdoor air. Heat pumps are known as the systems that can reverse the refrigerant flow through the refrigerant cycle in order to operate in both heating and cooling modes. This is usually achieved by incorporating a four-way valve or an equivalent device into the system schematic downstream of the compressor discharge port. The four-way valve selectively directs the refrigerant flow through the indoor or outdoor heat exchanger when the system is in the heating or cooling mode of operation respectively. Furthermore, if the expansion device cannot handle the reversed flow, then a pair of unidirectional expansion devices, each along with the corresponding check valve, is to be employed instead.
In some cases, while the system is operating in the cooling mode, the temperature level, to which the air is brought to provide a comfort environment in a conditioned space, may need to be higher than the temperature that would provide the ideal humidity level. This has presented design challenges to refrigerant cycle designers. One way to address such challenges is to utilize various schematics incorporating reheat coils. In many cases, the reheat coils, placed on the way of indoor air stream behind the evaporator, are employed for the purpose of reheating the air supplied to the conditioned space, after it has been cooled in the evaporator, and where the moisture has been removed.
One of the options available to a refrigerant system designer to increase efficiency is a so-called economizer cycle. In the economizer cycle, a portion of the refrigerant flowing from the condenser is tapped and passed through an economizer expansion device and then to an economizer heat exchanger. This tapped refrigerant subcools a main refrigerant flow that also passes through the economizer heat exchanger. The tapped refrigerant leaves the economizer heat exchanger, usually in a vapor state, and is injected back into the compressor at an intermediate compression point (or in between the compressor stages, in case multi-stage compression is utilized). The main refrigerant is additionally subcooled after passing through the economizer heat exchanger. The main refrigerant then passes through a main expansion device and an evaporator. This main flow will have a higher capacity due to additional subcooling obtained in the economizer heat exchanger. The economizer cycle thus provides enhanced system performance. In an alternate arrangement, a portion of the refrigerant is tapped and passed through the economizer expansion device after being passed through the economizer heat exchanger (along with the main flow). In all other aspects this arrangement is identical to the configuration described above.
If a reheat function is implemented, as known, at least a portion of the refrigerant upstream of the expansion device is passed through a reheat heat exchanger and then is returned back to the main circuit. At least a portion of a conditioned air, having passed over the evaporator for the moisture removal and humidity control, is then passed over this reheat heat exchanger to be reheated to a desired temperature.
Recently, the assignee of this application has developed a system that combines the reheat coil and economizer cycle. However, variations of this basic concept have yet to be fully developed. In particular, the combination and selective operation of the reheat coil and economizer cycle has not been incorporated in heat pump system designs and their applications.

Heat pump with reheat and economizer functions


Curable dental compositions, dental articles, and methods of making or using such compositions or articles are described. In one embodiment, the curable dental restoration composition comprises a resin system comprising a free-radically polymerizable semi-crystalline resin having a molecular weight no greater than 3000 g/mole and at least 50 wt-% of nanocluster filler.

U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,674,850 and 7,816,423 describe compositions, particularly for forming dental products, having a hardenable self-supporting structure with sufficient malleability to be subsequently customized into a second shape and then hardened, and methods.
US2009/0305196 describes dental compositions that include a polymerizable component and an organogelator. In certain embodiments, the hardenable composition can be in the form of a hardenable, self-supporting (i.e., free-standing) structure having a first shape. The self-supporting structure has sufficient malleability to be reformed into a second shape, thereby providing for simplified customization of a device, e.g., simplified customized fitting of a dental prosthetic device. Once reformed into a second shape, the composition can be hardened using, for example, a free radical curing mechanism under standard photopolymerization conditions to form a hardened composition with improved mechanical properties.

Dental compositions comprising semi-crystalline resin and nanocluster filler


An object is to provide a user with motivation to enjoy waking up in the morning and guide the user to sufficient awakening by generating a breeding event in a breeding game of a virtual life form when the user wakes up in the morning. A game server that manages progress of a breeding game of a virtual life form can provide a user with motivation to enjoy waking up in the morning and guide the user to sufficient awakening by generating a breeding event in a breeding game of a virtual life form when the user wakes up in the morning. The game server includes circuitry configured to acquire a wake-up time of a user; and a update the breeding game in accordance with the acquired wake-up time.

Recently, there are techniques for raising a user's awareness of health care by causing the user to continuously check measured health information. For example, PTL 1 describes executing game processing in conjunction with a state related to sleep of a user to cause the user to continuously check results of measurement and analysis related to sleep.
[PTL 1] WO 2016/021235

Gamification of health awareness based on a wake-up time


A hinge device having a bearing member and a shaft. The bearing member has a sleeve section having a through hole, in which the shaft is inserted. The inner circumferential surface of the sleeve section contacts the circumferential surface of the shaft. The sleeve section has slits which extend parallel to the axis of the sleeve section. Ring springs are mounted on the sleeve section. In their non-expanded state, the springs have an inside diameter smaller than the outside diameter of the shaft. The ring springs tighten the sleeve section onto the shaft, thus generating a frictional force between the sleeve section and the shaft.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hinge device for coupling a member rotatably to another, and more particularly a hinge device for coupling two members, holding and inclining the first member to the second at any desired angle by virtue of friction.
2. Description of the Related Art
Lap-top personal computers and word processors comprise a main body and a rotatable unit such as a display unit, and a hinge device coupling the unit rotatably to the main body. Various hinge devices of this type are known, one of which has a bearing fastened to the main body, and a shaft rotatably supported by the bearing and connected at an end to the rotatable unit.
Some of the conventional hinge devices further have friction means designed to hold and incline the rotatable unit to the main body at a desired angle. The friction means includes a resilient member such as a wave spring or a belleville spring. The resilient member is interposed and compressed between the bearing and the flange formed on the shaft, thus exerting a friction force between the bearing and the flange. By virtue of this frictional force, the rotatable unit is held and inclined to the main body at any desired angle. If an external force greater than the frictional force is applied to the unit, the unit will be rotated in the direction the external force is applied.
The frictional force which the resilient member generates is applied in the axial direction of the shaft. The resilient member should have a greater spring constant than in the case where the frictional force is applied in the radial direction of the shaft. Further, the frictional force much depends on the size of the resilient member. If the resilient member has a size different from the design one, or has its size reduced due to wear, the frictional force will change greatly. To eliminate or reduce this change in the frictional force, a shim may be inserted between the resilient member and the flange or the bearing. The use of the shim is an addition of a component, and it is not easy to select the shim from many, which has the most appropriate thickness.
Since the resilient member exerts a force in the axial direction of the shaft, it needs to have a relatively large outside diameter in order to obtain an appropriate frictional drag. Consequently, the friction means is proportionally large, which makes it difficult to miniaturize the hinge device.

Hinge device for coupling a member rotatable to another


A method and apparatus for receiving status information from shared logical memory modules in a computer system including redundant memory. The status information includes whether the shared logical memory modules are in a transitional state and the number of logical memory modules in the mirror set. When shared logical memory modules are added or removed from redundant memory they go through a transitional state when the memory card may respond to a request for data held on the card, but that data may be unreliable. Checking this status information allows better error checking of data and fault detection of the shared logical memory module.

The present invention relates to a high availability or fault tolerant memory system for a computer system. Such a computer system may be employed in telecommunications network switches, where high availability and fault tolerance is required.
In such memory systems, memory is often duplicated in shadow or mirror shared memory cards so that system performance is not halted or degraded by an error or fault in one shared memory card. It may be necessary in these systems to discover when a shared memory card has an error or fault and to diagnose the error or fault. As well, the systems need the capability to add or remove redundant shared memory cards, in order to enhance fault tolerance or eliminate excessive redundancy.
A common difficulty with systems having redundant shared memory is keeping track of how many redundant copies of data are stored and allowing a variable number of redundant copies to be stored. Many systems require a fixed number of responses to all memory requests. This reduces system flexibility and fault tolerance.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,995,040 issued Feb. 19, 1991 to Best et al. discloses a fault tolerant, fail-safe computer system including a management unit and buffer to manage asynchronous redundant digital messages, to sort the redundant messages and to compare redundant messages. The messages are compared by a majority voting scheme. The system disclosed by Best may provide high integrity but is unlikely to provide high availability or high reliability.

High availability asynchronous computer system


The subject matter described herein includes methods, systems, and computer readable media for PCRF node selection. According to one aspect, a system for PCRF node selection is provided. The system includes a first PCRF selection node for receiving a first request message for which PCRF node selection is required. The first PCRF selection node determines whether to select the PCRF or to delegate selection of the PCRF. In response to a determination to delegate the selection of the PCRF, the first PCRF selection node generates and sends a second request message related to the first request message. The system further includes a second PCRF node for, in response to receiving the second request message from the first PCRF selection node, determining whether to select the PCRF or to delegate selection of the PCRF. In response to determining to select the PCRF, the second PCRF selection node selects the PCRF.

In communications networks, such as long term evolution (LTE) networks, the PCRF is the node that executes user policies that control aspects of a user's network services, such as authentication, authorization, bandwidth, other quality of service features, etc. A PCRF may obtain the policies for subscribers from another node referred to as a subscription profile repository (SPR), which may be co-located with a home subscriber server (HSS). The PCRF may communicate with a policy and charging enforcement function (PCEF), which enforces policies for subscriber terminals. When a user first communicates with a network, the user is assigned to a PCRF. Once a PCRF has been assigned, subsequent session related traffic for the user must be sent to the same PCRF because the PCRF stores policy state for the user. For example, the PCRF may store the volume of data accessed by the user while the user is attached to the network. The user's policy maintained by the PCRF may specify that the user's network access bandwidth is to be adjusted once the volume of accessed data reaches a threshold level. In order to manage such a policy, all traffic intended for the user during a particular network attachment must traverse the same PCRF.
More generally, when a node seeks to establish a session with the user, the node may contact the PCRF to request a particular level or quality of service for the session. The PCRF may execute the user's policy and respond to the request, indicating the quality of service that will be provided for the session. The PCRF may instruct the PCEF to enforce the policy as communicated to the requesting node.
Another function performed by the PCRF is charging. The PCRF may implement charging on a per packet flow basis. Packets matching filters of a particular policy rule are referred to as a service data flow (SDF). By identifying all packets associated with the same flow, the PCRF may charge for the flow in accordance with policy rules defined for the subscriber.
A DRA is responsible for routing or relaying Diameter signaling messages between Diameter nodes. In networks with very few Diameter nodes (such as PCRFs), there may be little need for a DRA. However, as the number of subscribers served by a network increases, it is necessary to scale the policy control functionality of the network and thus to add PCRFs and other Diameter nodes to the network. With plural PCRFs, it may be necessary to add plural DRAs to the network. While DRAs route Diameter signaling messages based on Diameter parameters, the base Diameter protocol specified in IETF RFC 3588 does not specify a methodology for selecting a PCRF in a network with plural PCRFs. As set forth above, there is a need to assign a PCRF to a user when the user first connects or attaches to the network and to ensure that subsequent session related traffic for the user is routed to the same PCRF. When there are plural DRAs and/or PCRFs in a network, optimally assigning subscribers to a PCRF and ensuring the proper routing of signaling after assignment has been made become important.
Accordingly, there exists a need for methods, systems, and computer readable media for PCRF node selection.

Methods, systems, and computer readable media for policy and charging rules function (PCRF) node selection


Techniques for electronic messaging including receiving a first request to send a first attachment to a first recipient body with a first message, receiving a second request from an end-user device to send a second attachment to a second recipient body with a second message, obtaining a first fingerprint for the second attachment, determining that the first fingerprint matches a second fingerprint for the first attachment, determining, based on the first fingerprint matching the second fingerprint, that the end-user device does not need to provide the second attachment, and indicating to the end-user device, in response to the determination that the second end-user device does not need to provide the second attachment, that the end-user device does not need to transmit the second message attachment to another device in association with the second message.

Computing device users are increasingly accustomed to generating, receiving and sending many types of electronic content items (which may be referred to as "content items"), such as documents of different types, photographs, videos, images, and so forth according to different formats. In particular, electronic messaging services (which may be referred to as "messaging services") have made it simple and fast for users to send both content items and text-based communications in real time among each other, which far greater convenience than pursuing similar interactions via electronic mail. As a result, content items have been observed to be far more likely to "go viral" via messaging services, resulting in large numbers of repeated transmissions of content items among users. Since these content items are often media items (such as, but not limited to, videos and images), substantial amounts of resources are consumed by the repeated transmissions of "viral" content items, including multiple transmissions of content items to and/or from individual users. The circulation of such items, and other redundant transmissions of attachments among various messaging service user bases, can result in undesired increases in device power demands, device storage space demands, and data communication network bandwidth usage (including, for example, via metered data communication networks).
In a typical electronic messaging setting, a user can identify an electronic content item to be sent to other users and/or groups of users as a message attachment (which may be referred to as an "attachment"). This often results in the attachment being transmitted to, and stored by, the recipients' end-user computing devices. Current messaging services will transmit attachments to and/or from end-user computing devices with little or no reference to the redundancy of that attachment within a messaging service. There is a need for methods and systems for allowing the service and/or users to more selectively receive relevant content items so that a user may reduce the time-consuming and inefficient process of receiving, storing, and disposing of redundant content items.

Reducing avoidable transmission of an attachment to a message by comparing the fingerprint of a received attachment to that of a previously received attachment and indicating to the transmitting user when a match occurs that the attachment does not need to be transmitted


When connecting a multi-profile device by Bluetooth, an in-vehicle apparatus performs a MAP connection establishment process in succession to an HFP connection establishment process to have a MAP connection established earlier than a conventional timing, thereby reducing a waiting period before receiving a new message arrival notification from the multi-profile device through the MAP connection.

A short range wireless communication technique known as "Bluetooth" allows multiple profile connections (i.e. multi-profile connections) between two devices. During such multi-profile connections, simultaneous use of two or more data communication type profiles substantially slows down a communication speed of each of those profiles, due to exhaustion of required bandwidth for the data communication.
Therefore, the data communication type profile of the Bluetooth standard is connected under an exclusive control to, for example, a Bluetooth enabled cellular phone. In patent document JP-A-2003-92643, the specification discloses that a dial-up networking profile (DUN) connection is prioritized among multiple data communication type profiles.
However, in a situation where a message access profile (MAP) has not been established between the cellular phone and the in-vehicle apparatus, a "new massage arrival notification", which notifies a user that the cellular phone has received a message, cannot be delivered/transmitted to the in-vehicle apparatus. In other words, because a current MAP standard defines the "new message arrival notification" as a real-time notification mechanism for delivering the notification in real-time, in order for the in-vehicle apparatus to receive such new message arrival notification the establishment of a MAP connection must have been finished and the in-vehicle apparatus must be in a new message arrival notification waiting condition when a new message is received by the cellular phone.
Therefore, until after a completion of another data communication type profile, which has a higher connection priority than the MAP connection, the in-vehicle apparatus cannot receive the "new message arrival notification" from the cellular phone even when the cellular phone is receiving a new message, indicating that there is a long waiting period from a connection establishment of the cellular phone to a delivery of the new message arrival notification.


A branching and merging determination apparatus includes a recognizer and a determiner. The recognizer recognizes a target present in front of an own vehicle. The determiner determines, based on a result of the recognition of the target by the recognizer, presence or absence of branching and merging of roads. Specifically, the determiner is configured to: estimate a traveling section where branching or merging of roads is probably present; and determine that no branching or merging of roads is present in a region of the estimated traveling section where there is a preceding vehicle traveling at a higher speed than the own vehicle.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to apparatuses that determine the presence or absence of branching and merging of roads.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP2009035213A (to be referred to as Patent Document 1 hereinafter) discloses a lane departure prevention apparatus that prevents departure of a vehicle from its traveling lane. Specifically, the apparatus sets, based on navigation information, a traveling section where the probability of the vehicle changing its traveling lane is high. Further, the apparatus determines a direction in which the tendency for the vehicle to depart from its traveling lane in the set traveling section is high. When the probability of the vehicle changing its traveling lane in the determined direction is high, the apparatus suppresses a lane departure prevention control from being performed. In contrast, when the probability of the vehicle changing its traveling lane in the determined direction is low, the apparatus allows the lane departure prevention control to be normally performed so as to prevent the vehicle from departing from its traveling lane in the determined direction.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP2010221859A (to be referred to as Patent Document 2 hereinafter) discloses a vehicle driving support system that identifies the traveling lane of a vehicle in real time and controls driving of the vehicle based on the identified traveling lane. Specifically, the system includes a camera, a white line type recognition unit, a white line type storage unit, a white line type estimation unit and a controller. The camera captures images of a road on which the vehicle travels. The white line type recognition unit recognizes, based on the images captured by the camera, the type of a white line which defines the traveling lane of the vehicle. The white line type storage unit stores therein the white line type recognized by the white line type recognition unit. The white line type estimation unit estimates, when the current white line type cannot be recognized by the white line type recognition unit, the current white line type based on the past white line type stored in the white line type storage unit. The controller controls driving of the vehicle based on the current white line type recognized by the white line type recognition unit or estimated by the white line type estimation unit.
However, it is impossible for both the lane departure prevention apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 and the vehicle driving support system disclosed in Patent Document 2 to accurately determine the presence or absence of branching and merging of roads.

Branching and merging determination apparatus


The present invention provides a memory architecture that allows memory checking and replacement of defective words by spare elements already provided on the chip that do not increase the chip size. The method of the invention uses a separate redundant array architecture to provide address translation, so that the redundant entries are represented as the correct entry index that they are replacing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to semiconductor computer memories, and more particularly to a redundancy architecture and technique that provides a separate array for word replacement without impacting the size or performance of content-addressable memories (CAM).
2. Background Description
The ability of a memory system to continue correct performance of its tasks after the occurrence of hardware or software faults is highly important. The physical replication of hardware is perhaps the most common technique of providing of fault tolerance used in the memory systems. As semiconductor components of memories have become more densely integrated and increased of capacity, the concept of hardware redundancy has become more common and more practical.
According to the trend of high density of semiconductor devices, redundancy techniques are employed to substitute defect-free memory cells for defective redundant memory cells in order to improve the manufacturing yield of products. At the same time, high-density semiconductor memory devices require division of memory cells into a plurality of blocks containing predetermined memory cells in order to achieve high-speed operation and low power consumption. Since semiconductor memories comprise a matrix of memory cells arranged in rows (word lines) and columns (bit lines), redundant word lines and/or redundant bit lines are provided to functionally replace defective word lines and/or defective bit lines, respectively. Generally, since memory cells in a memory device have relatively more defects in columns, the semiconductor memory devices arrange spare or redundant columns in which redundant memory cells are associated with each block and have used a column redundancy scheme which replaces a normal column containing a defective normal memory cell or cells with a redundant column having defect-free redundant memory cells in the same block. In some high-performance SRAM, a separate redundant array has been used for word line replacement.
Associative memories or content-addressable memories retrieve information on the basis of data content stored rather than addresses. An associative memory performs comparison (i.e., exclusive-OR or equivalent) operations at its bit level. The result of comparison on a group of bits in words in the memory are transmitted to a register called a response register or flag. In general, CAM can be viewed as comprising a number of bit-serial processing elements. Furthermore, the bit-level logic is moved out of the memory part of the processor so that the memory part of the processor comprises a number of random-access memories called word modules. This type of organization of CAM provides a simplicity in design and low cost of an associative processor, but the bit-serial operations slow down the system drastically while the growth in the communication industry is driving the need for larger CAM circuits. Therefore, the area of the CAM increases as well as the probability of a possible defect occurring. Therefore providing redundancy of CAM circuitry is a very important issue. However, the known approaches to provide redundancy in CAM present substantial problems.
Known CAM redundancy techniques generally have used additional redundancy circuitry which takes space on the memory chip. Techniques which have minimized additional circuitry (e.g., use of priority encodes to implement word-line redundancy) typically limit test capability and/or increase the test time. Thus, there is a need for improved architectures and techniques for implementing redundancy in CAM.
In view of foregoing, a new redundancy architecture in a CAM has been invented. This type of redundancy does not increase chip size and allows CAM testing and replacement of defective words by spare elements already provided on the chip. The invention provides improved fault tolerance for semiconductor CAM.
In one aspect, the invention encompasses a content-addressable memory system with a separate array for word redundancy comprising:
a default CAM memory array for storing data;
a redundancy latch;
a redundant CAM memory array containing redundant word-lines;
a redundancy register array for storing at least one respective address of a defective word and for performing the index translation between the redundant array and default memory arrays;
a compare logic, coupled to the redundancy memory array.
In another aspect, the invention encompasses a method of redundancy of word-lines in a content-addressable memory, comprising the step of parallel search of both default and redundant arrays and capturing hit/miss data for each of the word lines in the default CAM array and the redundant CAM arrays.
These and other aspects of the invention are described in further detail below.

Redundant array architecture for word replacement in CAM

International Business Machines Corporation


An apparatus for detecting a shape of a groove, comprises: a device for forming picture images of a groove and a groove face of a work piece of metal to be welded with the use of a welding arc as illuminating light; a storage device for storing information on picture elements of the picture images formed by the device for forming picture images; an integrating device for integrating the information of the picture elements stored in the storage device in a predetermined direction of a memory in the storage device; a differentiating device for differentiating the integrated information in the direction rectangular to the predetermined direction of the memory; and a detecting device for detecting information of shapes of the groove and the groove face on the basis of the differentiated information on the picture elements. The apparatus for detecting a shape of a groove is provided with a processing device which processes command values of welding current and of a welding speed on the basis of information on shapes of the groove and the groove face. The device for forming an image is provided with an air nozzle open toward an image forming area.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for detecting a shape of a groove, and more particularly to an apparatus for detecting a shape of a groove which processes an image formed by an image forming device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A prior art apparatus for detecting a weld portion as shown below is disclosed in a Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 154771/86.
(a) Arc is observed with an optical system for observation;
(b) Linearly converging light beams are shot on a groove face in the vicinity of an arc point ahead of the formation of the arc point;
(c) An optical system for observation is arranged so that reflecting light beams of the linearly converging light can be observed with the above-mentioned optical system for observation simultaneously when the arc is observed; and
(d) An arc image and an image formed by cutting the light beams shot on the groove come within the range of a detector for picking up a position of light beams in two dimensions and this makes it possible to detect simultaneously the arc image and the image formed by cutting the light beams shot on a groove in a simple constitution.
The prior art apparatus for detecting a weld position has disadvantages, however, in that a necessity for illuminating light source leads to an intricate constitution of the apparatus and to a complication of the adjustment of the apparatus. In addition, there is a possibility of a mixing of the illuminating light emitted from a light source with the arc light caused by welding. This makes an illumination unequal and leads to an unsatisfactory detection of the groove.

Apparatus for detecting a shape of a groove


In a moving picture transmission in which each picture frame is inter-frame coded for information suppression, and coded data is divided into blocks for transmission, any changes resulting from the loss of transmission blocks in order reproduce a picture on a receiver side is automatically corrected. A receiver side calculates an area in a picture frame affected by the loss of the transmission blocks, conceals the affected picture area by using information from a former picture frame, and affected picture area. A transmitter side, having a propagation table for each encoded picture frame, which shows picture areas affected by a loss of a picture area in a former picture frame, identifies a picture area affected by the lost transmission blocks, repetitively calculates picture areas in succeeding picture frames affected by the picture area in a former picture frame which was affected by the lost transmission block up to the picture frame just before the currently coded picture frame, and encodes the currently coded picture frame without using affected picture areas in the former picture frame. The encoding is for instance intra-frame encoding.

The present invention relates to an error correction system used in a picture transmission which uses an inter-frame coding for information suppression in a video transmission system such as a televideo conference system, and/or a videophone which handles moving pictures.
In a moving picture transmission system using an inter-frame coding for information suppression, a picture signal is divided into blocks each of which has a predetermined code length, or the picture signal is transmitted for each predetermined area portion. The example of the former is shown in Japanese patent application No. 33782/1986, and a conventional asynchronous transfer mode (ATM).
In such a transmission system, a picture area in a received picture frame is sometimes lost due to an error of an address of a transmission block, loss of transmission blocks, and/or traffic overflow in multiplexing transmission modes. When a picture area is lost in an inter-frame coding system, correct decoding becomes impossible unless the lost picture area is compensated.
Conventionally, when a picture area is lost, the succeeding receive data after the lost picture area is disregarded, and the decoding operation stops. Then, the transmitter side switches the coding mode an entire picture frame from the inter-frame coding to the intra-frame coding which uses only the data in the same picture frame. Alternatively, transmission blocks are classified to important blocks which significantly affect decoded pictures, and less important blocks which do not significantly affect decoded pictures.
When a transmission block is lost in the prior art, a decoded moving picture stops for a significant portion of time, and therefore, a decoded moving picture becomes unnatural. Further, the coding efficiency is seriously deteriorated due to intra-frame coding of the entire picture frame.

Error correction system used in picture transmission


Leakage in a scroll wrap compressor is reduced by providing a roughened scroll wrap tip surface at the gap between the tip and the cooperating base so as to increase the frictional resistance to flow of fluid through the gap and to cause turbulence within the gap to further increase the resistance to the flow of fluid from the high pressure to the low pressure side across a scroll wrap tip. Various types of surfaces are shown for increasing the frictional resistance to flow such as knurling, grooving, cast cavities, metal particles and fibers and the like.

This invention relates to rotating pumps or compressors of the scroll type and more particularly to reducing leakage of the fluid being compressed across the tips of the scroll wraps in a scroll compressor.
Scroll type compressors have been known, in principle, for several decades. In general, a scroll-type compressor or similar machine comprises a pair of mating scrolls, each of which has an involute spiral wrap of similar shape, mounted on respective base plates. Normally, one scroll is held fixed, and the other is movable, to orbit but not rotate, about the axis of the fixed scroll, being held by an Oldham ring or other anti-rotating structure. The walls of the two involute wraps define crescent-shaped volumes which become smaller and smaller and move from the outside to the center of the mating scrolls as the orbiting scroll revolves. A compressible fluid, such as a refrigerant gas, can be introduced at the periphery of the spiral wraps, and is compressed as it is moved under the orbiting motion of the device. The compressed fluid is then discharged at the center. By introducing a compressed fluid at the center and permitting its expansion to drive the devices, the scroll machine can be used as a motor.
The orbiting motion of the moving scroll means that at the tip of the scroll wrap of both the orbiting and the stationary scroll there is a convoluted interface across which the fluid being compressed can leak from the high pressure side to the low pressure side of these devices. To minimize leakage at the scroll tip the devices have been manufactured with extremely tight tolerances but it still has been found desirable to modify the tip to further reduce leakage. The standard type O-ring material placed in a slot in the scroll wrap tips has been unsatisfactory for a number of reasons, principally swelling of the material and consequent loss of spring rate such that the sealing effectiveness of the material is lost or the material disintegrates and inhibits the orbiting action of the movable scroll.
As proposed in the copending application Ser. No. 461,759 assigned to the common assignee of this application previously filed on the day of Jan. 8, 1990, a compound "C"-shaped cross section spring having an O-ring sealing core has been proposed as one method of reducing fluid leakage across the tip of the scroll wrap of the scroll compressor. For many applications, this type of scroll wrap tip seal works very effectively, however, for certain types of materials being compressed and for certain applications other leakage reducing means are preferred.

Method and apparatus for reducing scroll compressor tip leakage


Permanent magnets are arranged at the interior of a rotating body at uniform intervals. The device comprises: a rotating body which is rotated by a motor; a heat generation part, which is disposed in the vicinity of the rotating body, which includes an electroconductive material, and which is disposed within the magnetic fields of the permanent magnets; and a hot air capture plate, which is disposed in the vicinity of the heat generation part, and in which a plurality of hot air flow passage holes are provided, the rotating body being rotated by a rotating shaft, which is coupled to the motor. Furthermore, a thermocouple may be connected to the heat generation part, and the heat energy that would be dissipated to the outside air is converted to electrical energy by the thermocouple. Furthermore, the electromagnetic induction device is constituted such that a hot air capture plate, in which a plurality of hot air flow passage holes are provided, is disposed in the vicinity of the heat generation part.

The present invention relates to electromagnetic induction type heating devices, hot air generating devices and an electrical power generating devices, wherein hot air is generated as a result of Joule heating produced by generating an eddy current, using permanent magnets; more particularly it relates to electromagnetic induction type heating devices, hot air generating devices and electrical power generating devices, suitably employed as hot air generating devices, which use the hot air generated for heating greenhouses, for residential heating and for melting accumulated snow, and as power source devices, wherein some of the heat that is generated is reconverted to electrical power.
Conventionally, various different electromagnetic induction type heating devices have been proposed, which use induction heating methods in which an AC magnetic field is generated by an AC current. For example, in terms of induction heating devices comprising an electroconductive heated body and means for generating an AC magnetic field, an induction heating device has been proposed in which the heated body is rapidly heated by using a permanent magnet as means for generating a DC magnetic field and causing the DC magnetic field to act on the AC magnetic field (see Patent Document 1), and a heating device has been proposed in which a plurality of permanent magnets are disposed on the outer circumference of a rotor allowing for the generation of an eddy current (see Patent Reference 2) and the like.    Patent Document 1: JP-2002-343541-A    Patent Document 2: WO 2003/053103 A

Electromagnetic induction type heating device, hot air generating device and electrical power generating device


Systems and methods for deciding whether to void a payment are provided. The method includes sending a signal to a web service provider to request information as to whether a payment has been reconciled, and receiving a first response from the web service provider. If the first response from the web service provider indicates that the payment has not been reconciled: performing a void process to void the payment, committing data related to the void process to an interface table, and receiving a second response from the web service provider. The second response includes status information of the payment replicated from a second interface table associated with the web service provider to the interface table. If the first response from the web service provider indicates that the payment has already been reconciled, deciding not to perform the void process.

Bank statement reconciliation is a process of reconciling or matching lines of a bank statement with actual transactions or customer's internal records. The customer, in this situation, may be an enterprise, corporation, business, family, individual, or other entity.
In business enterprises, a customer may deploy financial software applications in such a way that data is distributed across multiple database instances. This can provide flexibility in managing the applications on different parts of the enterprise. An enterprise may handle data associated with a first software application pertaining to payroll, for example, and also handle similar data for another software application pertaining to auto-reconciliation, for example.
One solution for allowing accessibility to financial information stored in two different databases is to store transaction data in one database, such as the one associated with the payroll application, for example, and allowing the reconciliation software to access the transaction data. However, this would result in poor performance since auto-reconciliation functionality is computationally intensive and ideally requires the transaction data to be local.
An alternative solution that does not suffer from poor performance is to replicate payroll transaction data from the payroll database to the reconciliation database at regular intervals. However, the technique of maintaining multiple sources of data suffers from the problem of data conflicts, because users associated with the two different databases could potentially work on two copies of the same data at substantially the same time. A conflict might not be recognized until later when synchronization of data is attempted. Of course, this problem would not occur if there were only one set of data transactions.
Therefore, there appears to be contradictory objectives in this respect. On the one hand, it is desirable to allow applications to operate on information stored locally for the sake of processing speed. On the other hand, when data is replicated on the multiple databases, it can be difficult to avoid the issue of data conflict.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


By using one photo mask in the manufacturing steps of a liquid crystal display device, steps such as resist coating, prebaking, exposure, development, and postbaking, as well as the formation of a covering film, etching, resist peeling, rinsing, drying and the like before and after the aforementioned steps are required, which make the process complicated. To solve the problem, a channel-etch type bottom gate TFT (inverted staggered TFT) is employed to pattern source and drain regions and a pixel electrode with the same mask. Moreover, according to the invention, among the patterns required to form a liquid crystal display device such as a conductive layer for a wiring layer or an electrode, a mask for forming a predetermined pattern and the like, at least one or more of them is formed by a method by which a pattern can selectively be formed, thereby manufacturing a liquid crystal display device.

In recent years, a technology to form a thin film transistor by using a semiconductor thin film (film thickness of about several nm to several hundred nm) formed on a substrate having an insulating surface is attracting attentions. A thin film transistor, which is widely applied to electronic devices such as an IC and an electronic optical device, is rapidly developed in particular as a switching element of an image display device.
In general, a liquid crystal display device is known as an image display device using a thin film transistor. An active matrix liquid crystal display device is becoming to be more used which can provide an image in higher resolution as compared to a passive matrix liquid crystal display device. In an active matrix liquid crystal display device, a pixel electrode provided in each of the pixels in matrix is selectively driven to form a display pattern on a display. That is, by applying a voltage between a selected pixel electrode and a counter electrode corresponding to the selected pixel electrode, a liquid crystal layer between the pixel electrode and the counter electrode is optically modulated. This optical modulation is recognized as a display pattern by an observer.
Application range of such an active matrix liquid crystal display device is expanding and demands for a high resolution, high aperture ratio, and high reliability are increasing in accordance with a display size becoming large. At the same time, demands for the improvement of productivity and cost reduction are increasing.
The production cost of a conventional active matrix liquid crystal display device is high since TFTs are formed on a substrate by using a number of photo masks by photolithography technology. In order to improve the productivity and yield, it is considered efficient to reduce the number of steps.

Liquid crystal display device and manufacturing method thereof

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A pipe coupling includes tubular body and a retainer having a continuous strap-like base band and a plurality of spring fingers that extend inwardly therefrom into the inner periphery of the body, and which are cammed outwardly by a pipe when inserted into the coupling, the spring fingers then returning to their original position under the stored spring force for them to snap into a groove in the pipe exterior, and thus provide a positive stop preventing withdrawal of the pipe axially of the coupling. The spring fingers have a generally frusto-conical configuration. In an improved embodiment, the retainer is configured as a single continuous strap-like member having a generally rhomboidal cross-sectional configuration at substantially all cross-sections therearound, and is devoid of the spring fingers and base retainer portion disclosed in the previous embodiments.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a coupling for joining together lengths of pipes, or, for attaching a fitting to a length of pipe, or, for joining fittings to each other.
2. Description of the Related Art
Couplings of this type are well-known in the art, a typical example being illustrated in Mahoney, U.S. Pat. No. 2,458,714 issued Jan. 11, 1949.
The coupling includes a tubular member which internally houses a sealing ring for cooperation with a pipe exterior, and a locking groove for the reception of a locking member, typically, a length of ductile wire or a coil spring which is inserted tangentially through an opening in the wall of the tubular member, and which extends between a groove formed in the tubular member and a juxtaposed groove formed in the outer periphery of the pipe. Thus the coupling includes the tubular member in combination with the locking member.
One disadvantage of such couplings is that the tubular member must first be assembled onto the pipe. The locking member must then be inserted tangentially through the aperture in the wall of the tubular member, and then pushed into encircling relation with the pipe periphery. The locking member is in this manner properly positioned within the internal groove in the tubular member and the external groove in the pipe periphery in bridging relationship therewith.
As will be readily apparent, the locking member can only be inserted tangentially into the tubular member at the time the groove in the interior of the tubular member and the exterior of the pipe periphery are in correct position of axial alignment. This, in turn, demands an extremely close tolerance in the positioning of the pipe and tubular member axially relative to each other for their respective grooves to be in axial alignment with each other. Commonly, a radial abutment is provided on the exterior of the pipe periphery, as taught by Mahoney in U.S. Pat. No. 2,458,714. More conveniently, the abutment can be provided internally of the tubular member as a shoulder that is engaged by the pipe end when the tubular member is correctly positioned over the pipe end.
It is known in the art to provide a locking member for such a coupling that can be withdrawn from the tubular member in the event that it is desired to disassemble the coupling from the pipe. This is done by pulling the locking member circumferentially out of the tubular member by grasping a free end of the locking member that extends out of the tangential opening in the tubular member. There still remains the problem that to secure the tubular member to the pipe, the member must be correctly assembled onto the end of the pipe, and then, and this possibly in a most inconvenient location, the retainer inserted into the tubular member and then forced circumferentially within the coupling into encircling relation with the pipe groove.

Snap-action pipe coupling retainer with a rhomboidal cross-section


The invention is a carrier projectile 10 having a safety venting system wh prevents expulsion of the projectile cargo during accidental or inadvertent initiation of the expulsion charge 21. The venting system comprises a collar which closes vent holes when the projectile is fired. The normal activation sequence of the carrier projectile is firing to a predetermined range or time, activation of the expulsion charge thereby bursting open the carrier shell, and dispensing of the cargo. The venting system incorporated into the present invention precludes bursting of the carrier shell, even if the activation of the expulsion charge occurs, unless the vents have been closed by the actual firing of the projectile. The venting system provides a safety feature in the event that the projectile is subjected to fire or other thermal stress and in the event of a hot gun misfire the collar is operated by either angular acceleration or longitudinal acceleration.

Cargo or carrier projectiles typically include projectile-shaped bodies, cargo, and a time fuzed ejection charge to expel the cargo during projectile flight. When exposed to flames, heat or other thermal stimuli, the most vulnerable element of this system, i.e. the expulsion charge, may reach its cook-off temperature and expel a large quantity of hazardous material from the projectile. Safety features are necessary to reduce the hazards of an accidental cook-off. Some older methods employed to protect ordnance from the effects of heat include a thermal insulation coating, used primarily on aircraft-delivered bombs, and low-temperature melt-out plugs, used primarily on certain U.S. Army projectiles. Thermal coatings are acceptable for bombs, but are not suitable for Naval guns because the coatings are susceptible to handling damage and may cause disturbances to projectile aerodynamics. Melt-out plugs are also unsuitable because they must be replaced with live fuzes just prior to firing. These replacement procedures are prohibited aboard U.S. Navy ships for safety reasons. Neither coatings nor melt-out plugs provide any significant protection for a misfire in a hot gun breech.

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


An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to a present embodiment includes: a transmitting and receiving circuit configured to transmit an ultrasonic wave to an ultrasonic probe and receive a signal based on the ultrasonic wave received by the ultrasonic probe; a generation circuit configured to generate multiple 2D image data in a chronological order based on the signal; an acquisition circuit configured to acquire three-dimensional multiple position data of the ultrasonic probe; an associating circuit configured to associate the multiple position data with the respective multiple 2D image data; and a correction circuit configured to correct the multiple position data associated by the associating circuit.

In the medical field, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is used for imaging the inside of a subject using ultrasonic waves generated by multiple transducers (piezoelectric transducers) of an ultrasonic probe. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus causes the ultrasonic probe, which is connected to the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, to transmit ultrasonic waves into the subject, generates a received signal based on a reflected wave, and obtains a desired ultrasonic image by image processing.
An operator may acquire multiple 2D image data in a chronological order while moving the ultrasonic probe, and may also acquire multiple position data of the ultrasonic probe. In this case, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus arranges the multiple 2D image data based on the respective multiple position data and three-dimensionally reconstructs the image data, to thereby generate and display 3D image data.
A problem to be solved by the invention is to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and a medical image processing apparatus which are capable of appropriately correcting the multiple position data of the multiple 2D image data.

Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and medical image processing apparatus


A rotary piston machine, with a driving part and a driven part, which are geared together, is proposed, for which these parts 17 and 18 run on a common stationary main axle 8.

The invention relates to a rotary test machine. Such a rotary piston machine is known (German patent 4241320) as a pump, compressor or motor, for which the ridges of teeth of a rotating driving parts, in order to limit the working spaces, run on a cycloid surface of an also toothed driven part, driving the latter. The aforementioned working spaces, which are increased or decreased in size for their work during the rotation of the parts, in order to produce the delivery action on a medium, are formed between the teeth of the driving and driven parts.
It has also already been proposed (patent application DE 103 35 939.7 of Aug. 2, 2003) that a portion of the machine housing be mounted in a "floating manner", in order to be able to equalize gap losses and the like better by these means. However, such a floating arrangement has the disadvantage that, at the expense of a decrease in the losses through the gap, the danger of imbalances arises. The significance of this disadvantage depends on the practical use of the object, the rpm then actually employed and the pressure aimed for playing an important roll.


A cerebral interface system has a housing mechanism configured to be at least partially spaced in a cavity formed in the subject's skull; an attaching mechanism for attaching the housing mechanism to the subject's skull; a sealing mechanism for providing a fluid-tight seal between the housing mechanism and the subject's skull; a control mechanism spaced within the housing mechanism; a communication mechanism with one or more sensors embedded in the subject's brain connecting the control mechanism to the subject's brain; and a power source spaced within the housing mechanism. Preferably, an inner wall thereof is substantially aligned with the surrounding inner surface of the subject's skull and an outer wall thereof is substantially aligned with the surrounding outer surface of the subject's skull, or may include an auxiliary portion extending tangentially outwardly from the cavity formed in the subject's skull and having substantially the same profile as the subject's skull thereunder. The system may include a communication link wirelessly connecting the control mechanism to external apparatus for transmitting or receiving information related to detecting, predicting, controlling, or aborting abnormal brain activity of the subject. Alternatively, the control mechanism may be self-contained without need for such external apparatus. An output mechanism is provided that is activatable by the control mechanism. The attaching mechanism may include removable fastening means. The housing mechanism is preferably constructed of titanium. The invention also comprises a method for practicing the invention.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of neuroscience and, more particularly without limitation, to a subfield of neuroprostheses for housing devices in close proximity to the brain.
2. Glossary of Terms and Useful Definitions
The term "electroencephalogram" ("EEG") refers to voltage potentials recorded from the scalp and encompasses any recordings obtained from a source outside the dura mater. The term "electrocorticogram" ("ECoG") refers to voltage potentials recorded intracranially, e.g., directly from the cortex. "EKG" is an abbreviation for the term "electrocardiogram," "EMG" for the term "electromyogram" which records electrical muscle activity, and "EOG" for the term "electrooculogram" which records eye movements.
The term "real-time" as used herein describes a system with negligible latency between input and output.
As used herein, the term "outer table" refers to the outer bony sheet of the skull in contact with the scalp; the term "inner table" refers to the inner bony sheet of the skull in contact with the outermost brain membrane or "dura"; and the term "diploe" refers to the part of the skull between the outer table and inner table that provides nutrients and minerals necessary for developing and maintaining the skull.
3. Description of the Related Art
Humans and animals have several normal states of behavior, such as wakefulness and sleep, as well as multiple sub-states, such as attentive wakefulness and REM sleep. Abnormal states of behavior in humans and animals include reversible states, such as seizures, and progressive irreversible states, such as dementia.
Recent advances in the field of clinical neurosciences have opened a new era for the use of and need for implantable therapeutic devices. For example, the use of prostheses, for the diagnosis or treatment of neurologic illnesses, is rapidly growing and will continue to expand as new applications are found. As new technological developments take place, so does the opportunity to improve current designs or performance, decrease power requirements or cost, or minimize complications associated with chronic implantation. For instance, a device to electrically stimulate brain regions, via chronically implanted electrodes for Parkinson's disease, has been recently approved for commercial use by the Food and Drug Administration. Implantable devices to detect and control abnormal brain states, such as epileptic seizures, are currently under development (see Osorio et al., Epilepsia 39(6):615-627, 1998).
Currently, brain devices, such as the one used for Parkinson's disease, are implanted under the collarbones at a substantial distance from the brain. For example, the use of wires or conductors to carry a signal into or out of the brain, requires a special, time consuming procedure and careful placement of wires and connectors to avoid scalp/skin erosion, a common and serious complication which often requires removal of the device with loss of benefit to the subject. More specifically, such an approach has several significant disadvantages: (i) the long conductors for connecting the device to electrodes implanted in the brain require tunneling under the scalp and skin, thereby requiring prolonged surgical and anesthesia for installation; (ii) the tract along the conductors often becomes infected requiring, in many cases, that the conductors be explanted with consequent cessation of treatment to the subject; (iii) the conductors often erode the overlying scalp, forcing removal of the cables so that healing can take place but, at the same time, removing the means for warning of or treating impending abnormal activities; (iv) the conductors often fracture since they are subjected to torsional and other forces generated by normal head/neck movements with consequent corrective surgery to replace the faulty conductors; and (v) in the case of telemetered signals, closer proximity of the emitter to the receiver would increase fidelity of the transmitted signals and decrease power requirements, hence prolonging battery life and decreasing frequency of surgical replacement procedures.
The placement of prior art brain devices outside the skull, such as in the infra-clavicular regions, is due to lack of space between the brain and the skull to position such devices and also to the inability to convert virtual into real spaces without affecting the integrity of the skull. Indeed, while the brain is closely apposed to the inner table of the skull, leaving no usable space to safely house any device, the skull has several properties that enable conversion of virtual into real space for use of the integrated ergonomic placement of devices. These properties, which have not been heretofore exploited, include:                a) sufficient wall thickness to allow housing of access systems/electronic components partially or completely within the confines of the two tables of the skull;        b) high tensile strength; and        c) semi-circular configuration allowing equal distribution of forces over its surface.In addition, scalp tissue has the elasticity or deformability necessary for accommodation of housing devices.
Accurate and reproducible prediction of behavioral or biologic signal changes associated with abnormal brain activities has not been generally possible as such events typically occur unpredictably. This limitation has been recently overcome, making it possible to accurately predict various types of brain states, such as epileptic seizures, etc., as taught in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/778,771.
Thus, what is needed is a cerebral interface system that permits spacing essential mechanisms, which perform these or other tasks in close proximity to a subject's brain.

Bi-directional cerebral interface system


A method and device for increasing pFET performance without degradation of nFET performance. The method includes forming a first structure on a substrate using a first plane and direction and forming a second structure on the substrate using a second plane and direction. In use, the device includes a nFET stack on a substrate using a first plane and direction, e.g., (100)<110> and a pFET stack on the substrate using a second plane and direction, e.g., (111)/<112>. An isolation region within the substrate is provided between the nFET stack and the pFET stack.

Field effect transistors (FET's) are a fundamental building block in the field of integrated circuits. FET's can be classified into two basic structural types: horizontal and vertical. Horizontal, or lateral, FET's exhibit carrier flow from source to drain in a direction parallel (e.g., horizontal) to the plane of the substrate and vertical FET's exhibit carrier flow from source to drain in a direction transverse to the plane of the substrate (e.g., vertical) on which they are formed. FET structures may include a single gate (e.g., for forming a single channel) or a pair of gates (e.g., for forming a pair of channels), with double-gate versions providing an advantage of an increased current carrying capacity (e.g. typically greater than twofold over the single-gate versions).
A FET typically consists of source and drain electrodes interconnected by semiconductor material. Conduction between the drain and source electrodes occurs basically within the semiconductor, and the length between the source and drain is the conduction channel. In particular, the output current is inversely proportional to the channel length, while the operating frequency is inversely proportional to the square of the channel length.
The basic metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) structure has a so-called "flat design". A nFET structure is a four-terminal device and consists of a p-type semiconductor substrate, into which two n-regions, a source electrode and drain electrode are formed (e.g., by ion implantation). The metal contact on the insulator is a gate. Heavily doped polysilicon or a combination of silicide and polysilicon can also be used as the gate electrode.
The basic device parameters are the channel length L, which is the distance between the two metallurgical n-p junctions, the channel width W, the gate oxide thickness t, the junction depth, and the substrate doping. When voltage is applied to the gate, the source-to-drain electrodes correspond to two p-n junctions connected back to back. The only current that can flow from source to drain is the reverse leakage current. When a sufficiently positive bias is applied to the gate so that a surface inversion layer (or channel) is formed between the two n-regions, the source and the drain are connected by the conducting surface of the n-channel through which a current can flow.
It is known, though, that the nFETs are optimized in the horizontal plane of the substrate. That is, the electron mobility across the channel is optimized when the nFET is fabricated on the 100 plane and the 110 direction. This is a typical flat structure fabrication. The pFET device, on the other hand, has significantly decreased performance characteristics when it is fabricated on the 100 plane and the 110 direction; namely, the hole mobility is significantly decreased, thereby degrading the performance of the entire device. However, it is typical in semiconductor fabrication to build both the nFET and pFET structures in the 100 plane and the 110 direction, using well-known processes.

Structure and method of three dimensional hybrid orientation technology

International Business Machines Corporation


Radar reflector structure is disclosed including a plurality of reflector elements which in use are arranged in a non-planar configuration, the reflector elements include a thin flexible member extending between adjacent reflector elements substantially at or below the surface of the elements, the thin flexible member thereby providing a flexible hinge between the elements.

The present invention relates to a radar reflector structure of the type used, for example, to enhance the radar signature of an aircraft, ship or other vehicle.
The present applicant's earlier unpublished application number 8911792.3 and published application GB-A-2216725 disclose reflector structures formed from a number of trihedral re-entrant corner reflectors, each corner reflector comprising three planar elements lying at angles to each other. It has previously been proposed to form such structures either by folding from a single blank or by joining together a number of separate elements with hinges. The use of hinges has the advantage that the structure can be made to fold flat for storage prior to deployment. As described in GB-A-2216725 the structure may be made self-erecting by the use of springs fitted between the elements so as to pull them into the desired shape. Although mechanical hinges may be used these are costly to produce and because of their physical bulk place constraints on the location of the hinge axes. The assembling of the separate reflector elements and the fitting of the hinges also adds considerably to the time taken for manufacture.


A data caching circuit and method are provided. The circuit is configured to cache data for a feature map calculated by a neural network, wherein a size of a convolution kernel of the neural network is K*K data, and a window corresponding to the convolution kernel slides at a step of S in the feature map, where K is a positive integer and S is a positive integer, the circuit comprising: a cache comprising K caching units, each caching unit being configured to respectively store a plurality of rows of the feature map, the plurality of rows comprising a corresponding row in every K consecutive rows of the feature map.

The neural network is the core of artificial intelligence technologies. Currently, the neural network has been extensively studied and has drawn much attention, which is applied in the field of artificial intelligence applications including computer vision, speech recognition, robots, autonomous driving, etc.
In practical applications, the neural network usually has a very large number of layers, in some cases up to thousands of layers, thus the amount of input data and intermediate data of the neural network is also extremely huge. Accordingly, data caching for neural networks can limit the speed and energy efficiency of neural network computations.
Methods described in this section are not necessarily methods that have been previously conceived or employed. Unless otherwise indicated expressly, it should not be assumed that any of the methods described in this section are considered to be the prior art just because they are included in this section. Similarly, the problem mentioned in this section should not be considered to be universally recognized in any prior art, unless otherwise indicated expressly.

Hangzhou Zhicun Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd.


An optical fiber coating die assembly is provided. The optical fiber coating die assembly includes a housing defining a guide chamber having an inlet for receiving optical fiber and an outlet, a guide die located at the outlet of the guide chamber, and a sizing die. The optical fiber coating die assembly also includes a coating applicator disposed between the guide die and the sizing die, and a tube operatively coupled to the inlet of the guide chamber and axially aligned with the chamber to receive the optical fiber fed into the guide chamber and provide a barrier to air flow.

Optical fibers are generally manufactured to include an inner glass core surrounded by a glass cladding and multiple layers of coatings for bend and damage resistance performance. Most optical fibers currently are manufactured with three coating layers of ultraviolet (UV) curable acrylate polymers. A first coating layer applied onto the outer surface of the optical glass cladding serves as the primary coating layer that acts as an absorbing layer and prevents thermal and mechanical stresses induced in the cable from transferring to the glass. The second coating layer is a high modulus secondary layer which is hard and abrasion resistant. The third coating layer is a thin ink tertiary layer that is applied on the outside of the fiber for identification purposes and this layer is also a high modulus layer that contributes to the abrasion and puncture resistance performance of the fiber.
The individual coatings are typically applied to the optical fiber by passing the fiber through a die coating assembly at a draw speed above 40 meters per second. During the coating process, it may be possible for voids to become entrained in between the coating layers which can result in a visual defect and increased optical fiber attenuation, particularly during thermal cycling. These voids may also be associated with abrasions or roughening of the primary coating and may exist between the secondary and tertiary ink coatings and also between the ink coating and a ribbon matrix in a ribbon stack of optical fibers. The presence of voids in the coating layers typically results in lower yields and higher manufacturing costs and generally make it difficult during the start-up operation of an optical fiber draw. It would be desirable to prevent the creation of voids in the optical fiber coating(s) during the coating process.

Optical fiber coating die assembly having inlet tube


The variable pitch propeller assembly includes a hub. The variable pitch propeller assembly also includes a plurality of propeller blade assemblies spaced circumferentially about the hub. Each of the plurality of propeller blade assemblies configured to rotate a respective propeller blade. The variable pitch propeller assembly also includes a hydraulic fluid port assembly integrally formed and including at least three hydraulic fluid ports configured to receive respective flows of hydraulic fluid from a stationary hydraulic fluid transfer sleeve. The variable pitch propeller assembly also includes a pitch actuator assembly coupled in flow communication with at least three hydraulic fluid ports through respective hydraulic fluid transfer tubes. The pitch actuator coupled to the plurality of propeller blade assemblies to selectively control a pitch of the propeller blades. The pitch actuator assembly includes a travel stop configured to limit a rotation of at least one of the pitch actuator assemblies.

The field of the disclosure relates generally to gas turbine engines and, more particularly, to a method and system for supplying hydraulic fluid to an integrated pitch control mechanism (PCM) actuator.
Gas turbine engines typically include a fan assembly that provides air to a core engine and compresses the air to generate thrust. At least some known fan assemblies include variable pitch fan blades that are controlled by externally modulated flows of hydraulic fluid. Fan blade pitch controls the performance of the fan, so it may be optimized at various aircraft conditions. Fan pitch is typically controlled by hydraulic fluid transfer from a stationary supply system to a rotating actuator. At least some known gas turbine engines use an intermediate tubing mechanism to supply hydraulic fluid to the rotating actuator from the stationary supply system. Intermediate tubing mechanisms add weight to the aircraft and occupy valuable space on the engine.

Method and system for integrated pitch control mechanism actuator hydraulic fluid transfer


A method is disclosed for operating a motor vehicle having a computing device providing computing power, a communication device for communicating with a vehicle-external cloud provided with a server device, and a control device, wherein the control device performs an availability check indicating the existence of free computing power available from the motor vehicle for executing a computing task provided by a currently-reachable cloud as determined by the motor vehicle's communication device. From within a list of currently-reachable clouds, a target cloud to which the motor vehicle's computing power must be provided is selected either manually by user input or at least partially automatically based on availability parameters. Once a target cloud is selected, a communication link with the target cloud is established and the motor vehicle is logged into the target cloud as a provider of computing power. A motor vehicle for performing the method is also disclosed.

From today, into the future, the need for performing computing in a cloud ("cloud computing") will experience a strong growth. The computing power required in the cloud will similarly experience a rapid rise. These computing powers are usually provided by computing devices, which have one or more processors, each provided with one or more cores. In addition to classic processors, such as central processing units (CPUs), dedicated processors, such as those dedicated to machine learning, in particular graphic processing units (GPUs) and neural processor units (NPUs), are used. A further development of the cloud system is known as fog ("Fog computing"). Fog networks are characterized in that, in addition to the computing power of server devices, such as in data centers, more computing power is required on the edge of the cloud to reduce the computing latency and to avoid unnecessary data transmissions in the network to very remote computing nodes. The computing power at the edge of the cloud may be provided, for example, by end user devices or edge apparatuses (edge devices) positioned near the end users.
In parallel to these computing power requirements of the clouds, the computing power requirements within motor vehicles are growing in a drastic way, for both classic computing power (CPU) and more specialized computing power (GPU, NPU). Motor vehicle computing power requirements are driven by so-called evolved driver assistance systems, such as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), infotainment systems such as In-Vehicle-Infotainment (IVI), and in particular systems adapted for an at least partially automated driving of the motor vehicle. The main computing power requirements regarding ADAS reside in the provision of autonomous driving, a completely automatized driving experience that requires additional redundant computing power and high availability and compliance with safety standards. In the case of IVI systems, the requirements of an increasing computing power are mainly due to the desire for a higher number of displays with higher resolutions and advanced infotainment applications, such as in the case of Augmented Reality (AR), extended 3D navigation, video games, and so-called smart systems, such as connected devices within the Internet of Things (IoT), for example.
The fundamental concept of a cloud, in particular of a fog, lies in the reduction of the required computing power or complexity in computing devices of the end user, such as on a motor vehicle, and in the remote execution of more complex computing steps in the cloud or fog.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,146,603 B2 discloses a cloud computing system, a motor vehicle cloud computing device, and a method for the use thereof. In this disclosure, it is proposed that a parking place for motor vehicles that are not in use is provided with a server device, to which parked motor vehicles may log in to create a local cloud, which may provide various services.
In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical or similar elements. Additionally, generally, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears.

Method for operating a motor vehicle and motor vehicle


A timing controller includes a receiver and a processor. The receiver is configured to receive image signals of image frames to be displayed. The processor is configured to determine refresh rates of the image frames to be displayed according to the image signals of the image frames to be displayed, and output different control signals according to different refresh rates of the image frames to be displayed.

Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) have advantages of low radiation, small volume, low power consumption and the like, and are widely used in electronic products such as notebook computers, flat-panel televisions or mobile phones.
Currently, various types of liquid crystal displays, such as a twisted nematic (TN) type, an advanced super dimension switch (ADS) type, a high aperture ratio and advanced super dimension switch (HADS) type, and an in-plane switch (IPS) type, have been developed. Their driving modes or display effects are not exactly the same, and each has its own advantages.
Among the various types, the ADS type liquid crystal display has both its common electrode and pixel electrodes disposed on its array substrate, and are widely used due to its advantages of wide viewing angle, high aperture ratio, high transmittance and the like. In ADS technology, a multi-dimensional electric field is mainly composed of an electric field generated by edges of slit electrodes in a same plane and a electric field generated by a slit electrode layer and a plate electrode layer, so that in a liquid crystal cell all, liquid crystal molecules oriented in different directions between and above the slit electrodes can both rotate, thereby improving working efficiency of the liquid crystal and increasing light transmission efficiency. The ADS technology may improve an image quality of thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) products, and has advantages of high resolution, high transmittance, low power consumption, wide viewing angle, high aperture ratio, low chromatic aberration, no push mura and the like. HADS is an important implementation form developed from the ADS technology, and has a greater aperture ratio.
In order to reduce power consumption, HADS type panels currently in use usually have two refresh rates. However, images displayed at the two refresh rates have different brightnesses. As a result, switching between the two refresh rates may cause a viewer to see an image flicker.

Timing controller for adjusting refresh rates based on image signals and method for driving display device

Chongqing BOE Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.

Beijing BOE Technology Development Co., Ltd.


A process and apparatus are described for recycling dust generated in rotary kiln processes such as cement manufacture. The invention resides in enriching the atmosphere in the kiln with oxygen so as to increase the heat generated and accommodate the introduction of recycled kiln dust. The oxygen enrichment and dust recycle are balanced so that the kiln operates to produce the same quality product as it did without either oxygen enrichment or dust recycle.

Due to the tumbling action and gas flow patterns, rotary kilns generate dust. This dust consists of the fines in the feed materials and fines generated by the breakdown of larger feed particles due to attrition. To date, no one has been able to eliminate dust generation in rotary kilns.
This invention is a process by which two opposing effects are used to maintain a desired flame geometry in a rotary kiln. Dust insufflation will cool and lengthen the flame in a rotary kiln. Oxygen addition will shorten and intensify it. By suitably proportioning dust and oxygen addition while properly fueling the furnace, the flame geometry required for a particular rotary kiln is maintained while dust utilization is increased.
During the thermal processing of mineral products a certain amount of dust is entrained in the gas system exhausting the kiln. This dust is primarily composed of partially processed product. Some of the dust may be completely processed product, unburned carbon, condensates and eroded furnace lining. The dust is usually collected in an environmental control system (baghouse, cyclone separator, electrostatic precipitator, etc.) to keep the furnace particulate emissions within the air quality guidelines.
This dust is not marketable as the originally intended finished product. It presents a disposal problem and is sometimes hazardous. The amount of dust generated can vary widely but is typically 4 to 15% of the theoretical yield of product.
If this dust can be recycled into the product, a disposal cost is eliminated and production can be increased with no cost increases upstream of the kiln (i.e. mining, grinding, etc.)
Heretofore little or no waste dust could be recycled into the kiln. Mixing with kiln feed does not work because the fine dust particles become entrained in the counter flow (flue) gas stream. Introduction into the furnace hot end produces a lengthening of the flame and a cooling in the flame temperature causing lower heat flux and incomplete heat treatment of the product.
Some dust has been successfully recycled in wet process cement kilns. This technique. known as insufflation, is very limited, however, in the amount of dust which can be recycled. Insufflation has been done through the fuel burner pipe and also through dust injection pipes located near the burner pipe. The most common position of the dust injection pipe is above and parallel to the burner pipe. slightly offset from directly above the burner pipe.
Previous recycle attempts have had limited success for a number of reasons. The primary reason is that the dust decreases the rate of the combustion reaction and thereby lowers the flame temperature. Other undesirable operational effects include high CO emissions, increase in the cold end kiln temperature, too long a flame, product increases greater amounts of incomplete clinker formation, low free lime, and increased cold end dust generation.
Historically, high dust losses were not a high priority concern until government land reclamation laws such as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) affected disposal. Costs associated with mining and feed preparation are not a significant part of production cost, as are product firing cost.


A sintered elongated core made of a ceramic type superconductive material consisting essentially of (R.sub.x Ba.sub.(1-x)).sub.3 Cu.sub.2 O.sub.z in which R is Sc, Y La, Ho, Dy or Eu; x is in the range of from 0.3 to 0.8; and z is in the range of from 6 yo 7, is encased in glass and then heated, stretched and drawn.

The present invention relates to an improved process for producing a superconductive wire, and more particularly relates to improvement in production of fine superconductive wires used, for example, for superconductive coils.
Conventional production of fine superconductive wires mostly relies on extrusion of superconductive alloy ingot such as hot extrusion and hydrostatic extrusion. Nb-Ti alloys are, for example, suited for such a manner of production. This conventional process, however, is not applicable to production from superconductive materials which are quite unsuited for extrusion. Thus, despite recent significant development in ceramic type materials which exhibit high superconductivity at liquid nitrogen temperatures, utilization of the ceramic type material is quite limited in production of fine superconductive wires.

Method of drawing glass encased superconductive oxide core


A process for producing processed minced meat foods comprising adding from 0.01 to 0.04 parts by weight of an alkaline substance to an aqueous sol containing at least 1 part by weight of konjak mannan, 0.2 to 10 parts by weight of other gel-forming materials and 15 to 50 parts by weight of water, mixing the resulting swollen gel with minced meat and, optionally other food ingredients, and then freezing the resulting mixture.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel process for producing processed minced meat foods. More particularly, it relates to a process for producing processed minced meat products such as hamburgers, and the like whose characteristic heterogeneous feel does not suffer deterioration over time, and which also do not suffer shape deformation and reduction in volume because of heat shrinkage.
2. Description of the Background
One major characteristic of the feel upon the eating of processed meat products consisting mainly of minced meat such as hamburger lies in the heterogeneous feel or so-called "feeling of meat grains". In general, such minced meat products are typical of high caloric foods since meat is used therein as a main raw material. Upon cooking, they tend to shrink because of so-called "roast-shrinkage" which results in deformation of the meat shape, reduction in volume of the meat, and the like.
One method for reducing the caloric value of processed minced meat foods is to replace a portion of the minced meat with a low caloric foodstuff such as konjak jelly. Konjak jelly is a traditional food prepared from swollen konjak mannan, a component present in devil's-tongue, by the addition of an alkaline substance, such as lime milk, or the like to the konjak mannan followed by heat gelation. Upon eating it gives a characteristic feeling based on its high elasticity.
In known methods of producing processed meat foods, a hydrated product of konjak mannan is mixed with a foodstuff such as minced meat, or the like, and then is subjected to gelation before or after the mixing. However, when konjak mannan is mixed with processed minced meat foods in this manner, the feeling of the products upon eating is seriously impaired by the viscoelasticity characteristic of konjak, and the desirable heterogeneous texture based on the feeling of meat grains is very difficult to obtain.
Accordingly, when konjak mannan gel is used to reduce the caloric value of a meat product or to alleviate "roast shrinkage," it is difficult to obtain processed minced meat foods which exhibit the desired heterogeneous feeling upon eating. A need therefore continues to exist for minced meat products which exhibit a desired heterogenous feel upon eating.

Process for producing konjak mannan containing processed minced meat foods


A frontal center curtain airbag for a vehicle may include a pair of housing frames spaced from each other in forward and rearward directions to cross the vehicle in a widthwise direction of the vehicle, a plurality of connecting frames connecting upper ends and opposite side ends of the spaced housing frames in forward and rearward directions to form an installation space together with the housing frames, an airbag cushion installed in the installation space and surrounded by the housing frames and the connecting frames, and an airbag door coupled to lower ends of the housing frames and the connecting frames to close a lower end of the installation space.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a frontal center curtain airbag for a vehicle which prevents a collision between an interior material and a passenger in the vehicle through control of a front deviation of the passenger in a rear seat of the vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Various safety devices are mounted to an interior of a vehicle, and airbags are the most representative safety devices. According to the related art, various types of airbags are installed to protect passengers, and mainly include a front airbag, a side airbag, an assistant airbag, a knee airbag, and a curtain airbag.
Meanwhile, during a head-on collision of a vehicle, damage to front and rear seat passengers due to collisions in the interior of the vehicle is becoming a serious problem. That is, when a rear seat passenger does not wear a belt, secondary collisions between front and rear seat passengers, or a seat and an interior part, and a rear seat passenger occur, increasing a damage value to the front or rear passenger.
Thus, a rear seat safety device for a vehicle has been poorly provided, and in most cases, rear seat passengers do not wear safety belts, which deteriorates the problem. As compared with a front seat equipped various safety devices such as an airbag and an PT belt, a rear seat is poorly equipped with a safety device except for a curtain airbag, which especially causes a problem during a head-on collision.
However, there is provided almost no safety device for protecting a rear seat passenger who does not wear a safety belt during a head-on collision, and even in this case, a need for an airbag for sufficiently protecting a rear seat passenger is acute.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.

Frontal center curtain airbag for vehicle