A non-transitory computer readable storage media having computer-executable instructions, when executed by a processor, performs a method for evaluating a reach of a social media influencer. The methods provides for receiving a plurality of influencers at a server, wherein a data set is associated with each of the plurality of influencers; parsing the data set into quantitative data readable by a machine learning algorithm at the server; receiving, inputting, or both, a type of product or service at the server; classifying the type of product or service into at least one class of goods or services; training a node using the machine learning algorithm using the date set an input; and executing the machine learning algorithm to determine a score of each influencer for each class of goods or services. Systems for evaluating the reach of a social media influencer as it relates to advertisers and content is also disclosed herein.

Social media is the use of web-based technologies, computers and mobile technology (e.g., smartphones) to create highly interactive platforms through which individuals, communities and companies can share, create, discuss and modify user-generated content or pre-made content already posted online. The advent of social media has introduced many changes to the way companies and individuals communicate.
Social media differs from traditional forms of media such as paper and TV broadcasting in many ways, including larger reach, frequency, usability, immediacy and permanence. Social media involves a large number of users that interact socially with one another and in which such users can freely express and share opinions among themselves.
It can be argued that social media truly came to age in the early 2000s, with the advent of social networking sites MySpace® and Facebook. From 2005-2009, MySpace was the largest social networking site in the world, and even surpassed Google® as the most visited website in the United States in June 2006. However, due to quickly changing cultural and social atmosphere, as well as advances to technology, Facebook overtook Myspace in 2008 and has continued its upward climb ever since.
According to Facebook, there are over 1.86 billion monthly users worldwide as of Feb. 1, 2017, a 17% increase over 2016. Daily, there are 1.15 billion users who log into Facebook on their mobile devices. On average, five new Facebook accounts are created every second and individuals spend about 20 minutes a day on Facebook. Facebook is not the only social media giant these days, however.
Other largely popular social media websites include content communities (e.g. Instagram®, Pinterest®, YouTube & Snapchat®), blogs and microblogs (e.g. Twitter), virtual game worlds (e.g., World of Warcraft®), and virtual social worlds (e.g., Second Life®). Social media companies have grown so large that they are actually going public now, such as Snapchat.
The benefits of social media aren't limited to the users' ability to freely share content and opinions; marketers and brands have benefited greatly from the advent of social media, as web based social media can be used to generate data regarding products, services, brands, competition, and industries to better target your customer base to actively influence customer consumption patterns. Because of the power of social media, those individuals who have a greater impact on consumer's consumption decisions may be treated as a powerful promoter and/or an influencer (commonly referred to as a "social media influencer" or "influencer"), and their opinions may thus determine the market's acceptance of a certain product or brand.
However, sometimes it may be chaotic for a business, advertiser or marketer, to find the right social media influencer to utilize for a specific campaign because there may be hundreds of social media influencers that any one business, advertiser or marketer can choose from and many different analytics that can be used to judge the influencing power of a social media influencer. Some clarity may be provided by setting campaign goals (e.g., reaching x amount of individuals) and then choosing a social media influencer that has the best likelihood to make that goal (e.g., a social media influencer who has a reach of x). However, such a system is extremely limited and not ideal in an ever-evolving digital marketing world where one data set never tells the whole story, especially when you attempt to evaluate an influencer's influencing power over multiple social media channels. As such, various tools have been developed to determine a social media influencer's actual influence, but unfortunately, they still leave much to be desired.
For example, current tools designed to calculate the ability of a potential individual to serve as an influencer, such as Radian6, Sysomos, and Klout, provide algorithms that score and rank a user's influence in a social network based upon a single score value without any insight towards the success of certain content or topics discussed or posted by that individual. Instead, the algorithms take into account items such as the network metrics (e.g., number of followers, page rank) or an activity-centric metric in the social network (e.g., frequency of posts, responses, number of likes or comments within user's direct connections, etc.). By failing to take into considering the topical context, brands do not get a true indication of the likelihood of customer adoption of the messages given by their potential influences. Advances in technology, however, may help to solve many of these issues.
For example, data mining is a technique by which hidden patterns may be found in a group of data. Typically implemented as software or in association with database systems, data mining does not just change the presentation of data but actually discovers previously unknown relationships among the data. Normally, data mining models are generated based on one or more data analysis algorithms. Initially, the models are "untrained" but are then "trained" by processing training data generated information that defines the model. The generated information is then deployed for use in data mining, for example, by providing predictions of future behavior based on specific past behavior.
Data mining, however, is a computer intensive and complex tasks. Furthermore, data mining in the social media context requires the mining of very large datasets, which may include millions of records. In such a scenario, it may take hours or even days to build a single model based on such a dataset. Current systems that perform data mining analysis tend to provide inadequate performance for large datasets, and in particular, do not provide scalable performance, as a wide variety of models must be generated to meet specific yet widely different needs.
In addition, current systems do not provide adequate integration with multiple databases and otherwise provide limited flexibility in terms of specifying and adjusting the model being built to meet specific needs. Likewise, the various models that are built must be arranged so as to operate properly on the particular system for which the models were built. Current systems provide limited model arrangement and export capability.
With that being said, classification is a statistical process used to partition a collection of items (e.g., social media network metrics) into homogeneous classes according to their measurable characteristics or features. Generally, a typical classifier is first trained via machine learning techniques to recognize and label key patterns in a set of available training samples, and is then used to predict the class membership of future data.
One of the most recent advances in classification is the random forest (RF) methodology, which is a non-parametric ensemble approach to machine learning that uses bagging to combine the decisions of multiple classification trees to classify data samples. Of the many classifiers that have been developed, few have addressed the aforementioned issues as effectively as the RF, which has been demonstrated to be highly accurate, robust, easy to use, and resistant to overtraining.
RFs address numerous issues that often times complicate and impact the effectiveness of other classification methodologies leveraged across diverse application domains. For example, the RF requires no simplifying assumptions regarding distributional models of the feature data and error processes. Thus, there are fewer restrictions on the applications and conditions in which the RF can be effectively applied. Moreover, it easily accommodates different types of data since there are no model parameters that must be estimated from the data. Hence, the RF can be viewed as a nonparametric classification/detection methodology, which is a highly desirable trait in modern statistical analysis.
Overall, advanced data mining techniques such as the use of RFs offer many advances in statistical analysis, especially when dealing with large data sets such as those often dealt with when examining social media statistics.
As such, a need exists for a system and method utilizing RF methodology to identify the best social media influencer for a specific campaign utilizing key performance indicators to judge a specific influencer's influencing power as well as metrics specific to the business objectives of the individual or company wishing to enlist the services of a social media influencer.

System and method for evaluating the true reach of social media influencers


A system includes a view screen with polarized output. A window capable of blocking the polarized output at least in part cloaks the view screen to frustrate viewing of the view screen through the window. In some cases, the window comprises an array of panels capable of blocking multiple polarizations. The array may disrupt multiple different polarized view screen outputs while maintaining transparency to unpolarized light. In some cases, the window capable of blocking polarized output may be paired with view screen cover that converts view screen output in an unblocked polarization to one of the one or more polarizations blocked by the window.

Rapid advances in communications technologies and changing workspace organization have provided workforces with flexibility in selection and use of workplace environment. As just one example, in recent years, open plan workplaces have increased in utilization and popularity. Improvements in workspace implementation and functionality will further enhance utilization and flexibility of workplace environments.


An exemplary embodiment of the present invention is an autofocus method that includes moving a focus lens according to an image signal generated from an image of a subject formed by an imaging optical system with a focus lens, obtaining a focus contrast of each of multiple image signals generated in a case of moving a position of the focus lens; and determining a moving direction of the focus lens according to the multiple obtained focus contrasts in response to a focus instruction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an autofocus technology that automatically adjusts the focused state of a subject in an imaging apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
The imaging apparatuses such as a digital still camera and a digital video camera which has an image sensor, for example a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) sensor and a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) sensor, have been input into practical use. As the autofocus (AF) method applied to these imaging apparatus, the contrast detection method which uses through-the-lens images obtained by the image sensor is known.
The contrast detection method uses that the contrast of the through-the-lens image obtained by the image sensor increases if the subject image formed by the imaging optical system on the imaging surface is focused.
Specifically, by moving the position of the focus lens or the image sensor included in the imaging optical system, and sequentially changing the imaging position of the subject image, the through-the-lens images are sequentially obtained. Then, the contrasts of multiple through-the-lens images sequentially obtained by the image sensor are obtained, and the imaging position of the subject image where the contrasts reach their maximum is determined as the focal position.
The integrated value of the high frequency component in the spatial frequency is used for the contrasts, for example. In the continuous AF, the position of the focus lens where the contrast of the through-the-lens images reaches its peak is searched while driving the focus lens by step.
Further, there is a known imaging apparatus for performing the face detection process that detects the image of a person's face included in the shooting screen obtained by the image sensor, and the focusing control in order to focus on the detected face image (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-34261 (Sugimoto)).
In the technique disclosed by Sugimoto, as illustrated in FIG. 9, in a case of the continuous'AF (YES in the step 35), the focusing range which is to be the moving range of the focus lens in the usual search process is determined using the result of the continuous AF (step 36). Then the focus lens is moved within the determined focusing range, and the usual search is performed.
FIG. 10 illustrates the result of the continuous AF (upper side), and the usual search operation (lower side) in the technique disclosed by Sugimoto. As illustrated in the upper side of FIG. 10, by performing the continuous AF using the through-the-lens image data, it is possible to obtain a position Z12 of the focus lens when the through-the-lens image is focused. The range between the distance a on the NEAR side away from the position Z12 of the focus lens and the to distance b on the INF side from the position Z12 is determined as a focusing range (Z11 to Z13).
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-348426 (Aoki) discloses that when a shutter button is pressed during the continuous AF, the operation of the usual search afterward is determined depending on the operation in the continuous AF. If the shutter button pressed state is in the finely adjustment of the focus lens position or movement of the focus lens to the focused position corresponding to the peak position, in the usual search, the search is performed in the range of the current position or the peak position. Further, in the state of moving the focus lens and searching for the peak position, the usual search is performed from the current position of the focus lens toward the current driving direction.

Apparatus, method, and program product for autofocus including a contrast obtaining unit that obtains a focus contrast and a control unit that controls a focus lens according to the focus contrast


[Object] To provide a sound processing device capable of effectively reducing ambient noise at low cost.

A noise cancelling system that provides a satisfactory music playback environment for a listener (user) by reducing (cancelling) ambient noise (noise) in the external environment when the listener listens to music or the like through earphones, headphones, or the like is known. In one example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a twin-type ambient noise cancellation device in which a feedback-based noise cancelling technique using a microphone installed in the inside of a casing and a feedforward-based noise cancelling technique using a microphone installed on the outside of the casing are integrated.

Sound processing device, sound processing method, and computer program

Abstract: [Solution] Provided is a sound processing device including: a first sound collector configured to collect a first noise signal from a noise source of noise leaking into a casing mounted to a user's ear; a first signal processing unit configured to form a first noise reduction signal used to reduce noise at a cancellation point on the basis of the first noise signal; a second signal processing unit configured to form a second noise reduction signal used to reduce noise at a cancellation point with respect to a first pseudo noise signal; an adder configured to add the first noise reduction signal and the second noise reduction signal; and a sound emitter configured to emit an output of the adder into the casing as sound. The first pseudo noise signal is a signal obtained by subtracting an output of the adder applied with a simulation transfer characteristic from an output of the first sound collector, the simulation transfer characteristic being obtained by simulating a transfer characteristic from the sound emitter to the first sound collector.


A sample analyzer comprising: a reagent container set section for setting a reagent container; a reader/writer configured to read out an information from the recording medium attached to the reagent container set in the reagent container set section and configured to write an information on the recording medium; a writing instruction section configured to issue an instruction to write the information on the recording medium; and a controller configured to control the reader/writer to write the information on the recording medium attached to the reagent container set in the reagent container set section if the kind information read out from the recording medium indicates the specific reagent and the writing instruction section has issued the writing instruction. Also, a method of writing information on a recording medium attached to a reagent container.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sample analyzer analyzing a sample by using a reagent and a method of writing information on a recording medium attached to a reagent container.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been known a sample analyzer which suctions a reagent from a reagent container, to which a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag storing reagent information is attached, and analyzes a sample by using the reagent. In U.S. Patent Publication No. 2010/0001854, there is a description of an analyzer which performs biochemical analysis by dispensing samples into reaction containers which are transported on a reaction table and by dispensing reagents corresponding to analysis items from a plurality of reagent containers accommodated in a reagent housing. The analyzer includes an RFID reader/writer which reads information from an RFID tag attached to a reagent container and writes information to the RFID tag. In the analyzer, information is read from the RFID tags of the reagent containers when the analyzer starts up, and it is determined whether a new reagent container is set in the analyzer based on the read information. If a new reagent container is set in the analyzer, the RFID reader/writer writes the time of initiating the usage of the reagent to the RFID tag of the reagent container.
There has been known a sample analyzer which analyzes a sample by a flow cytometry method. In the analyzer using the flow cytometry method, specimens for analysis are prepared from different reagents for each analysis item and are supplied to a flow cell. Accordingly, a fluid system supplying a specimen for analysis to the flow cell and a reagent set section for setting a reagent container used therefor are provided for each analysis item (for each analysis reagent), and thus it is necessary to confirm whether a reagent container set in the reagent set section is appropriate for the analysis item when the reagent container is newly set. The analyzer described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2010/0001854 includes a reagent housing which has chambers for accommodating a plurality of reagent containers. In the analyzer, it is allowed to set a reagent container in any chamber and there is no technical necessity to confirm whether a reagent container containing a specific reagent is set in a specific chamber (reagent set section).

Sample analyzer and information writing method


A method of detecting a phase winding fault in a multi-phase electric machine is executable via a motor controller, and includes measuring feedback signals of the machine, including each phase current, and generating reference phase voltages for each phase. The method includes calculating a predetermined voltage value using the feedback signals and reference phase voltages, and comparing the voltage value to a corresponding threshold to determine the fault. A control action is executed when the voltage value exceeds the corresponding threshold. The voltage value is one or more of: a ratio of a normalized negative sequence voltage to a modulation index, an RMS voltage for each phase, and total harmonic distortion of each phase current. An apparatus detects the fault, and includes a motor controller and an algorithm as set forth above. The apparatus may include a voltage inverter for generating a multi-phase alternating current output for powering the machine.

Electric power may be produced using poly-phase electric machines, also referred to as motor/generators. Synchronous electric machines may operate at constant speeds and frequencies under steady-state conditions. Synchronous electric machines, e.g., permanent magnet (PM) motors, operate via the principal of electromagnetic induction, with an electromotive force (EMF) generated via an induced flux by relative motion of conductive coils or windings. A synchronous electric machine typically includes a magnetic field structure and an armature. The armature may have a three-phase load winding, which in turn generates an alternating current (AC) EMF. In particular, a stationary or stator portion of a three-phase synchronous electric machine carries the armature winding, which carries a three-phase excitation.
Induction machines are another type of poly-phase electric machine that are also widely used for electric power generation. Like the synchronous electric machine described above, the induction machine or motor includes a stator and rotor, with the stator having a cylindrical core portion carrying windings or coils within its slots. AC is supplied to the stator windings, and a current is thus inducted in the windings of an opposing cylindrical rotor, with the opposing fields acting to rotate the rotor.
Regardless of whether they are used in synchronous-type or in induction-type electric machines, motor phase windings may have minor manufacturing defects between turns or slots, or may develop such defects over time. The defects, although minor, may cause a phase imbalance. A motor controller may perform a stable operation with such defects being present in the phase windings without experiencing any unduly degraded performance. However, over an extended period any incipient defects in the phase windings can lead to a breakdown in the surrounding winding insulation material, which may ultimately lead to other defects or performance issues, such as open and/or shorted phase windings.

Motor phase winding fault detection method and apparatus


The invention discloses a printed label and a display shelf for a business establishment, including a display shelf having a length and at least one area on which at least one product is to be placed. The area has a length and a depth. The label includes product information printed thereon for identifying the at least one product for display on the shelf, and first and second space indicators for indicating a position, corresponding to a portion of the length of the shelf, at which the at least one product is to be placed. The label is constructed and arranged to have a predetermined length that is coextensive with the portion of the length of the area of the shelf on which the at least one product is to be placed. The first and second space indicators define the predetermined length. The first space indicator indicates where the portion of the length of the area of the shelf begins and the second space indicator indicates where the portion of the length of the area of the shelf ends.

In the past price display systems consisted of a paper price label affixed to items of merchandise sold in grocery stores so that customers could easily determine the price of each item. At the check-out stand the price of each item was manually entered by clerk into a conventional register. Also, with this completely manual system keeping track of stock and planning of a store's layout was very costly in terms of personnel, resources and money. Since the development of point-of-sale ("POS") checkout terminals, optical scanners, and computers, the price label has almost universally been eliminated and replaced by a product code, termed a Universal Product Code ("UPC"), or a Stock Keeping Unit ("SKU"). These UPC or SKU codes are easily read by an infra-red scanner and a computer of which prompted the development of computerized systems that could handle and manipulate the product data. However, the codes are not easily read by customers, proposing the need to display product information such as price on the product itself or on an adjacent shelf.
Several systems have been developed coordinating the UPC and SKU codes with the price labels in an attempt to fully integrate a computer controlled system providing product information integrity in the areas of space management, audit capabilities and price changes, while still giving customers the product information suited to their shopping needs i.e. price, savings, and sales. Unfortunately, many of these systems are incompatible with existing systems, expensive, and all fail to fully integrate an effective control system providing space management, audit capabilities and rapid price changes while maintaining product information integrity.
In attempting to solve the product information integrity problems associated with the sole use of paper price labels, various electronic displays, employing liquid crystal displays ("LCD") and light emitting diodes ("LED"), located at the shelf have conventionally been used to display price information. When a price change is desired, the new price can be updated in a computer database, linked to the checkout terminals, and then sent to the electronic display. These electronic displays at least have the advantage of updating price information at the shelf, however without two-way communication, between the electronic display and the computer managing the price information database, price integrity at the shelf cannot be assured. Also, prior art systems cannot specifically identify the unique location of each product in the store.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,002,886, issued to Sundelin, generally describes a system using electronic display modules located at the shelf linked with a central computer, of which also supplies information to the POS terminals. Sundelin's display system has several disadvantages. First, the modules are hard wired, making alterations to shelf and product location difficult and expensive. Second, the modules are wired in parallel making wiring layout for the store virtually unmanageable. Third, communication with the modules is only one-way, generally limiting the systems capability to provide price integrity at the shelf edge.
To overcome the disadvantages of hard wiring, other commercial display systems utilized infra-red or radio broadcast (RF) communications, however both infra-red and RF exhibit certain problems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,821,291, issued to Stevens describes a system using an RF broadcast system to provide two-way communication with the individual display modules. This system overcomes the hardwiring problems, however several other problem arise that affect both the information integrity and the cost of the system. For example, this RF broadcast system is not interference resistant creating problems with the integrity of the price display information even though the display modules may communicate with the main computer.
Steven's display modules are individually battery powered, creating on-going problems with the replacement of those batteries and limits the ability of the system to rapidly determine whether a module is functioning or not. The RF circuitry contained within the display modules greatly increases the cost of implementing such a system of 10,000 or more display modules. Also, this system maintains problems with the speed at which to update pricing information at the display module because a central computer has to access each module individually by a long polling process. Further, this system can not fully integrate a computer controlled system providing space management, audit capabilities and price changes while maintaining product information integrity.
A number of factors have made retail store management more difficult in recent times, including narrowing profit, increasing expenses, increasing labor costs, unavailability of desired education and skill levels in employees, and the proliferation of retail brands and products within brands. Due to these and other factors, those managing retail stores, particularly grocery stores, have given much attention in recent years both to reducing the cost of fulfilling existing store practices, and to developing new store practices.
One known store practice is the "price audit". In the simplest case, a store that practices manual price auditing will have a list of expected prices, and on a particular day a store employee will be given a portion of the list. The employee is instructed to locate each item from the list in its actual store location, where the price will be checked. In a store where prices are marked on the goods, the marked prices are compared with the price on the list. In a store where prices are posted or displayed nearby to the goods, the posted or displayed price is compared with the list price. Despite the great labor cost involved, management at most large grocery chains will choose to perform manual price auditing on a more or less continuous basis. The management goal is typically that every price will have been audited at least as often as, say, once per quarter.
For many reasons, manual price auditing is less than perfect. It sometimes happens that a product is displayed in multiple store locations, for example, yet the person performing the audit will not necessarily know to continue searching after one occurrence of an item has been found. Thus, second or third locations of an item will miss having the price audited. Also, on a given day the employee performing price auditing will have a list of items to check, and the sequence of items on the list will typically not match the physical arrangement of items on display, so that each item on the list requires a search for the physical item in the store.
Another known store practice is the establishment of plan-o-grams. In a store that has established plan-o-grams, every section of shelving is memorialized, typically in list form, regarding placement of each item of merchandise. Theoretically, nothing is left to chance in a store that has established plan-o-grams; there is a place for everything and everything is in its place. As a practical matter, it is a ponderous task to establish plan-o-grams for a chain of retail stores. Each new product announcement by a manufacturer represents the prospect of having to update or change the plan-o-grams, as does the discontinuance of a product. At the level of an individual store, it is very easy for the physical store layout to deviate from the arrangement set forth in the plan-o-grams, whether due to inadvertence or otherwise.
Furthermore, while most stocking is performed by store employees, some lines of goods are traditionally stocked by representatives of the manufacturers, who have a natural incentive to stock goods in such a way as to promote sales of the goods of their employers. One variable that stores attempt to control is the number of "facings" of each product. A particular manufacturer would prefer, of course, that its products each enjoy a large number of facings, and that the products of its competitors have very few facings. Another variable is the shelf location. Every manufacturer would prefer that its goods be at eye level, yet not all the store shelves are at eye level. Yet another variable to be controlled is the adjacency of particular pairs of products or of product categories.
While the particular locations, facings, and adjacent goods within a store are all important, it is of even greater importance that store management be capable of ensuring that the store at least contains the goods that are desired to be present in the store. To that end, management will often maintain a "shelf set", a list of items that are expected or desired to be found in each store. While a manual audit could be performed to confirm that each item on the shelf set list is in a store, it is desirable that store management be able to identify exceptions in a routine, non-labor-intensive, automated way.
In addition to the identities of items of merchandise, the shelf set may also include information as to the desired number of facings for each item. It is very labor-intensive to confirm manually that for each item in a store, the actual number of facings matches the desired number. Thus, prior artisans have focused on the provision of an automated or nearly automated way to determine the extent to which actual facings correspond to desired facings.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,467, issued to Failing et al. discusses an attempt to provide space management and auditing capabilities coordinated with a computer controlled electronic display system. The system utilizes rails mounted on the shelf edge that provide display module location within a 4 foot space. Communication between the rails and a central computer could be accomplished by RF, infra-red or hard wire. The space management system of Failing et al. includes electronic price display labels mounted on rails along the edges of shelves in a store. A store computer in the store communicates with the labels by an synchronous serial data link. The communications link between the computer and the labels permits the computer to address each label by a logical address and to determine the physical location of each label to within a resolution of typically four feet.
The system provides price audit lists that permit economical use of the time of store personnel during the audit. The lists are generated in such a way that the items on a particular list are physically contiguous; thus once the correct general area has been located by the auditor little additional time need be spent locating the individual items. The store personnel are able to predetermine the criteria according to which audit lists are prepared, and can adjust the criteria over time.
In this system adjacency audit lists may also be prepared. In each entry of such a list, the entry will communicate that it is desired for two particular items to be adjacent in store shelf display. The auditor is expected to locate the two items and to confirm that they are physically adjacent.
In each of these audit processes, the auditor reports the exceptions that were found; theoretically there would never be exceptions and in actuality it is hoped there are very few exceptions. In the space management system according to this system the auditor is able to provide the exceptions by a streamlined data input procedure; if performed at a keyboard, the number of required keystrokes is kept to a minimum.
In this space management system the tedious task of auditing product facings is made easier, and the danger that exceptions might be overlooked is lessened. In performing an audit of product facings, the user is able to use the display hardware, i.e. the electronic price label, including the pushbutton on each label, as a data collection system for product facing information. This eliminates the multiplicity of manual writing, copying, and keying steps in prior art ways of auditing product facings. The space management system of Failing et al., however, fails in several ways. The adjacency lists generated by the system merely shows that two products are simply adjacent thus problems with shelf location are inherent. Merely knowing the adjacent products does not eliminate the risk that competitors will move in to the space of other competitors. This form of auditing is still very tedious and time consuming, thus costly. The plan-o-gram auditing that is discussed does not change the method of auditing and planning of a store because the plan-o-gram method discussed is merely a list of adjacent products of which maintains problems with the ability to update and maintain a store plan and product information integrity is at risk. The resolution of this system is four feet obviating an inherent error in space management. Also, the modules that are employed must have complicated user functionality via push buttons which raise the cost of the system employing large numbers of complex modules, each of which must be individually and tediously visited by store personnel. The Failing et al. system therefore can not set forth a fully integrated computer controlled system providing space management, audit capabilities and rapid price displays while maintaining product information integrity.

Electronic product information display system


A web printing press is provided including a printing unit for printing a web, a delivery for printed products formed from the web, the web and printed products defining a printed product stream, a first sensor sensing a first characteristic of the web or printed products, a controller connected to the first sensor, and an indicator indicating in real-time a print defect in the printed product stream as a function of the first sensor. A method is also provided.

The present invention relates generally to printing presses and more particularly to automatically controlled printing presses.
In a printing press, for example, an offset web printing press, the web is typically run through a printing section, a dryer and a folder. Multiple characteristics of the web may change throughout the printing and finishing process. These characteristics include registration, such as lateral, circumferential and print-to-cut registration, and print quality, including color density, dot gain, and contrast. Other characteristics may include skew and wetness or dryness of the printed ink.
In automatically controlled printing presses, for example, Omnicon™ controls and Omni Makeready™ available for the Goss Sunday® and Goss M-600™, learning algorithms automatically adjust based on data from previous jobs and closed loop control allows full integration with the press controls to reduce response time and waste. The controller for the printing press is automatic and adjusts for a variety of characteristics without operator input.


A backlight module and a wire positioning/holding device for the frame structure thereof are disclosed. The backlight module mainly includes a frame and a light source module. The light source module is disposed on the lateral side or on the bottom of the frame. The wire holding device mainly includes a main body and a winding pillar. A first guide slot is disposed on the main body, and the first guide slot has an inlet end and an outlet end. The winding pillar extends from the main body and is situated at one side of the first guide slot. The winding pillar and the main body together form a wire holding portion. The wire holding portion is disposed corresponding to the outlet end of the first guide slot to receive the wires of the light source module coming out of the outlet end.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a backlight module and a wire positioning/holding device for the frame structure, and more particularly to a backlight module used in a liquid crystal display (LCD) device and a wire holding device for the frame structure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Backlight modules are used extensively in liquid crystal display (LCD) devices, computers keyboards, cell phone buttons, billboards and other devices requiring light sources to provide the necessary flat light sources for these devices. Especially, the recent market demand for LCD devices has increased considerably. In order to match functional and exterior requirements of the LCD devices, the backlight module design for LCD devices has gradually become multidimensional.
Generally speaking, light source modules within the backlight module are mainly divided into light emitting diode (LED) light sources and fluorescent lamp light sources. FIG. 1a shows a schematic view of a side type backlight module using LEDs as the light source. As shown in FIG. 1a, the LED light sources 20 are disposed on the lower lateral side of the frame 10 of the backlight module, and a reflector 30 and a back plate 50 are disposed under. A flexible circuit board 21 for signal and electric energy connection and transmission paths is commonly disposed. The flexible circuit board 21 sticks out of the backlight module from between the frame 10 and the back plate 50, therefore there are less issues of fastening and arrangement.
For the fluorescent lamp light sources, flexible circuit boards generally cannot be used as the signal and power supply connection paths, consequently wires are usually used as signal and power supply transmission interface. In addition, since some LED light sources has certain size and design requirements, it is necessary to replace the flexible circuit boards with the wires as the signal and power supply transmission paths. Due to the wires are susceptible to deformation causing troubles to assemble the backlight module and the panel, the wires constantly have to be hold securely. FIG. 1b shows a conventional method of securing the wires. As shown in
FIG. 1b, a wire holding element 80 having a trough 81 is generally attached to a base 70 by fastening or attachment to hold firmly the wires 23 within the trough 81. Although this method can hold firmly the wires effectively, the cost for new components and assembly time are increased.

Backlight module and a wire positioning device thereof


An air-conditioning apparatus includes a plurality of indoor units each individually conditioning air in an air-conditioning target space, a storage unit storing detection values of a plurality of suction temperature sensors in time series, a timer measuring, for each of the plurality of indoor units, a preset temperature arrival period it takes for a suction temperature to reach a preset temperature for the air-conditioning target space after start of a thermo-on state or a thermo-off state, a calculation unit calculating, for each of the plurality of indoor units, a temperature change slope representing a change in the suction temperature for the preset temperature arrival period, and a determination unit comparing the temperature change slope of each of the plurality of indoor units with a determination threshold to determine, as an abnormal indoor unit, the indoor unit having the temperature change slope greater than the determination threshold.

A typical air-conditioning apparatus individually controls a plurality of indoor units such that the indoor units each individually perform air-conditioning. In a cooling mode and a heating mode, whether to start a thermo-on state or a thermo-off state is determined for each of the indoor units on the basis of the difference between a suction temperature of the indoor unit and a preset temperature. In an operation mode that is automatically switched between the cooling mode and the heating mode, the air-conditioning apparatus also individually controls the indoor units such that the operation mode of each indoor unit is individually switched from, for example, the cooling mode to the heating mode.
An air-conditioning apparatus known in the art is configured such that a plurality of indoor units conditioning air in the same indoor space are simultaneously switched between the thermo-on state and the thermo-off state (refer to, for example, Patent Literature 1). In the air-conditioning apparatus disclosed in Patent Literature 1, the indoor units are controlled based on a common representative temperature-related value rather than suction temperatures of the indoor units, thereby collectively switching the indoor units between the thermo-on state and the thermo-off state.

Air-conditioning apparatus and method of determining operation condition


A spin transistor includes a source electrode, a drain electrode, and a gate electrode on a semiconductor substrate. At least one of the source electrode and the drain electrode includes a semiconductor region and a magnetic layer. The semiconductor region is formed in the semiconductor substrate. The magnetic layer is formed on the semiconductor region, and contains a crystalline Heusler alloy containing at least one of cobalt (Co) and iron (Fe). The semiconductor region and the magnetic layer contain the same impurity element.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the electrode structure of a spin transistor and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a magnetic memory (to be also referred to as an MRAM (Magnetic Random Access Memory) hereinafter) using an MTJ element having a magnetic tunnel junction (to be also referred to as an MTJ (Magnetic Tunnel Junction) hereinafter) made of a stacked structure including a ferromagnetic material layer/insulator layer (tunnel barrier)/ferromagnetic material layer as a memory element has been proposed. In this MRAM, the resistance of the stacked structure is changed by magnetization direction in one ferromagnetic material layer (a reference layer or fixed layer), and controlling spins in the other ferromagnetic material layer (a recording layer or free layer), thereby storing a high-resistance state or low-resistance state by making it correspond to data "0" or "1". For example, the resistance is low when the spins in the reference layer and recording layer are parallel, and high when the spins in these layers are antiparallel. The magnetoresistance ratio (MR ratio) of this MTJ element has recently reached 500%, although it was a few 10% at room temperature a few years ago. This expands the possibilities of MTJ elements, enabling a variety of spin devices as well as the MRAM to be obtained. As an example, a spin MOS field-effect transistor (to be referred to as a spin MOSFET hereinafter) has been proposed (see, e.g., S. Sugahara and M. Tanaka, Appl. Phys. Lett. 84 (2004) 2307). This spin MOSFET uses a ferromagnetic material in the source and drain electrode portions of a normal MOSFET. This employs the degree of freedom of spins of carriers in the device operation. By using this function, the MTJ element is expected to be applied to a reconfigurable circuit such as an FPGA.
As described above, the MR ratio of the MTJ has increased. However, to control a spin-polarized electric current by the gate voltage in the spin MOSFET, it is important to inject an electric current (to be also referred to as a highly spin-polarized electric current hereinafter) having a highly spin-polarized electron ratio from a magnetic layer in a source portion into a channel. Also, in the spin MOSFET and MTJ, the magnetoresistive effect (MR) controlled by the relative magnetization directions in two magnetic layers sandwiching a non-magnetic layer is the basic operation principle of the device.
According to the basic principle of the spin MOSFET, it is essential to achieve an appropriate interface resistance between a semiconductor substrate and magnetic layer. As a method of controlling the interface resistance, a method of inserting a tunnel barrier layer has been disclosed. On the other hand, a method of forming a heavily doped impurity region in a semiconductor substrate by ion implantation has been used as a method of achieving a low resistance. To improve the performance of the spin MOSFET, it is necessary to suppress the interface resistance to typically about 10 Ωμm2. Also, when performing spin-torque transfer (STT) in a write method using spin transfer in the spin MOSFET and MTJ, no spin reversal occurs unless an electric current having a very high current density is supplied to an element. When an electric current having a high current density is supplied to a magnetoresistive effect element having a tunnel barrier layer, element destruction occurs because a high electric field is applied to the tunnel barrier. Accordingly, a structure that causes spin reversal by an electric current having a low current density is required for STT. This also makes it essential to decrease the interface resistance.
As the electrode structure of the spin MOSFET, (1) a Schottky barrier type electrode structure and (2) a tunnel barrier type electrode structure have been proposed. As electrode structure (1), a low Schottky barrier of MnAs/Si has been reported (see, e.g., K. Sugiura et al., APL 89 (2006) 072110).
As explained above, in the magnetoresistive effect element, magnetic memory, and spin MOSFET, it is essential not only to generate and inject a highly spin-polarized electric current but also to control the interface resistance in order to improve the performance. In the interface of a metal layer/Si, the resistance increases because a Schottky barrier is formed. Also, even in a metal layer/tunnel barrier/Si, the resistance increases because a depletion layer behaved as Schottky-like component is formed in the tunnel barrier/Si by the influence of Fermi level pinning. Conventionally, these Schottky components are effectively reduced by forming a heavily doped impurity region in a semiconductor substrate by ion implantation. On the other hand, a simpler process is necessary for applications. Therefore, demands have arisen for a technique that decreases the resistance by new impurity engineering in the interface between a magnetic material and Si.
One promising solution for improving the performance of the spin MOSFET is an electrode structure obtained by combining a Heusler alloy and crystalline tunnel barrier. However, a general conventional method is to form a Heusler alloy by sputtering by using a sputtering target having a matched composition ratio. When directly depositing a film on an Si substrate, therefore, impurity diffusion from the Si substrate has an influence on the crystallinity. In addition, annealing is performed to improve the crystallinity after the Heusler alloy has grown. Since this mixes Si and the magnetic material around the interface, the magnetic properties degrade.

Spin transistor and method of manufacturing the same


The present invention provides a liquid crystal cell manufacturing device and a method thereof. The liquid crystal cell manufacturing device includes a pre-alignment vacuum chamber, a vacuum lamination chamber and a sealant curing chamber. The pre-alignment vacuum chamber includes a comb-type transferring system for aligning a first substrate with a second substrate and sending them into the vacuum lamination chamber. The vacuum lamination chamber uses a lamination device to laminate the first substrate and the second substrate into a substrate assembly under a nearly vacuum status, and then uses a transferring device to send the substrate assembly to the sealant curing chamber. The sealant curing chamber uses at least one UV spot light source to move above the substrate assembly and irradiate a surface of the substrate assembly to cure at least one sealant in the substrate assembly, and thereby complete manufacture of liquid crystal cells of liquid crystal panels.

In the present manufacture process of One Drop Filling (ODF) for liquid crystal panel, related apparatuses includes a sealant dispensing apparatus, a liquid crystal filling apparatus, a vacuum lamination apparatus and a sealant curing apparatus. After processes of sealant dispensing and liquid crystal filling, a thin-film-transistor (TFT) substrate and a color filter (CF) substrate will be processed with a vacuum lamination process, and then sealant for sealing the liquid crystal will be cured after the vacuum lamination process, so as to finish a cell manufacturing process for liquid crystal cells.
The present processes of vacuum lamination and sealant curing for liquid crystal panel relate to a vacuum lamination apparatus, a sealant curing apparatus and robot arms for transferring substrates in the manufacturing processes. The thin-film-transistor substrate and the color filter substrate will be sent to the vacuum lamination apparatus by the robot arms, and then with operations of alignment and air pumping, wherein both of them then will be laminated to form a substrate assembly in vacuum status. The time that a present vacuum lamination apparatus costs on performing vacuum lamination is about 100 seconds. Since the time that the vacuum lamination apparatus costs on feeding in the substrates is about 30 seconds. Besides, air pumping from normal-pressure status to vacuum status of 0.2 Pa usually needs 35 to 45 seconds, thus it can be seen from this that the process of vacuum lamination mainly take time on actions of substrate moving in and air pumping.
After finishing the process of vacuum lamination, the substrate assembly then returns to a normal-pressure status and is transferred to the sealant curing apparatus by the robot arms. Generally speaking, the transferring time is 1 to 2 minutes. Sealant in the substrate assembly needs to finish curing in a certain time after returning to the normal-pressure status (normally 5 to 10 minutes), otherwise, the sealant which is not fully cured will be impacted by external air pressure to thus cause liquid crystal to leak out. Meanwhile, the sealant which is not fully cured also easily leads to alignment deviation of both of the substrates and affects the quality of manufacturing. Hence, time management for transferring into the sealant curing apparatus and processing sealant curing is strictly demanded.
Furthermore, with the increase of size of liquid crystal panel, the sealant curing apparatus is using ultraviolet lamps having larger power to ensure irradiation area and uniformity of ultraviolet light, and also the number of lamps is increased. Because the lamps are high-priced and require a large amount of electricity and cooling devices; and simultaneously still need to be used with masks to ensure safety of products, so that equipment cost for conventional sealant curing apparatus is quite considerable.
Hence, it is necessary to provide a liquid crystal cell manufacturing device and a method thereof to overcome the problems existing in the conventional technology.

Liquid crystal cell manufacturing device and method thereof

Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.


A torque control system for a vehicle including an internal combustion engine, an electronic throttle coupled to the internal combustion engine, a powertrain controller controlling the electronic throttle, a first control loop operating in the powertrain controller including a feed forward function to control engine torque, a second control loop operating in the powertrain controller including a proportional function acting upon the torque variance in the internal combustion engine, a third control loop operating in the powertrain controller including an integral function acting upon the rpm variance in the internal combustion engine, and where the outputs of the first, second and third control loop are used to factor a desired mass airflow for the engine and the desired mass air flow is used to generate a position command for the electronic throttle.

The present invention relates to a vehicle control system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus to control the powertrain of a vehicle.
Presently, speed and torque (power) control for many different types of internal combustion engines (ICEs) is provided by throttle plate control. A throttle plate is a control device coupled with an intake manifold in an engine to control the air flow through an engine. An ICE may be characterized as an air pump such that at any RPM the mass flow rate of air into the ICE varies directly with throttle plate position. As a driver depresses an accelerator pedal in a vehicle, the throttle plate moves to allow more air flow into the ICE and thus more power. A controller regulates the fuel supplied to the ICE as a function of the air flow. Typically, the air/fuel mixture is controlled to stoichometry.
The present invention is a method and apparatus for controlling the torque of an internal combustion engine utilizing electronic throttle control (ETC). The present invention is designed to be integrated into a coordinated torque control system (CTC) to improve the modularity, robustness and performance of an engine control system.
The present invention includes a series of software control modules contained in an engine or powertrain controller, although other vehicle controllers are considered within the scope of the present invention. The software control modules directly or indirectly control the position of an electronic throttle to improve the torque control accuracy for transient and steady state conditions, reduce engine to engine variation influence on system performance, and reduce calibration time. The present invention is able to accurately estimate the engine state and torque under varying conditions.


The present disclosure discloses a method for processing an image and an apparatus thereof, applicable to an electronic device including an image acquisition unit corresponding to an image acquisition area, wherein the method includes: generating a first image and a second image according to an object to be acquired in the image acquisition area at a first instance of time, wherein both the first image and the second image are images corresponding to the object to be acquired, and the amount of data of the first image is larger than the amount of data of the second image; and storing the first image and the second image and setting the second image as an associated image of the first image, to thereby improve the convenience and efficiency of processing the generated image in the electronic device.

People may take images of their surrounding persons or objects using electronic devices at any time due to the development of the electronic devices. In order to make it possible to share in real-time their dynamic conditions with their friends, it has also become popular for people to upload their taken images onto the Internet.
However at present the electronic devices taking the images generate relatively large image files and thus fail to perform some convenient and rapid processes on the images and even a corresponding normal process on the images. For example, an image may be opened very slowly because the image is too large; and in another example, an image file may not be uploaded rapidly onto the Internet because the image file is too large, and the image file to be uploaded may even fail to be uploaded in the case where there is a poor network condition because the image file is too large, thus failing to satisfy a demand of a user for real-time uploading of his or her photo.

Method for processing image and apparatus thereof


A computer system comprising a computer, wherein the computer is configured to: generate feature data based on biometric information obtained from a user; generate error feature data indicating an error in the biometric information and stationary feature data indicating part other than the error in the biometric information, based on the feature data; generate a template based on the error feature data of the biometric information; generate first confidential information used for cryptographic process based on the stationary feature data of the biometric information, and generate first verification information based on the first confidential information.

The present application claims priority of Japanese Patent Application No. 2017-114026 filed on Jun. 9, 2017, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to a system configured to perform processes such as authentication, encryption, signature generation, and the like based on biometric information of a user.
Biometric authentication technology that authenticates a person based on biometric information such as fingerprints, veins, faces, and irises is widely used. In the conventional biometric authentication technology, the following processes are performed. First, in the user registration, a terminal registers feature data extracted from the biometric information of the user in a system as a template. In the user authentication, the terminal compares feature data extracted from the biometric information of the user again with the template, and if the degree of similarity is sufficiently high, or in other words, if the distance between the two pieces of feature data is sufficiently small, the terminal determines that the authentication was successfully completed, and if the degree of similarity of small, the terminal determines that the authentication has failed.
Generally, the biometric information cannot be replaced. Thus, a leak of such biometric information would cause a serious problem. In order to prevent this problem, the development of template protection biometric authentication technologies for authenticating biometric information confidentially is underway. Among such technologies, a technology called biometric encryption is drawing attention. In the biometric encryption, key data is generated from biometric information, and cryptographic authentication, encryption, decryption, and signature generation are performed.
In the biometric encryption, the terminal converts feature data X of biometric information and embeds a secret key in the data, thereby generating protected template T in the registration process of biometric information. Thereafter, the terminal restores the secret key K using feature data X′ of the newly obtained biometric information and the protected template T. In a case where the secret key is successfully restored, the terminal can perform cryptographic authentication, encryption, decryption, and electronic signature generation using the secret key K.
Due to security requirements, restoration or estimation of the feature data X using the protected template T in biometric cryptography needs to be made sufficiently difficult. On the other hand, if the feature data X′ is sufficiently similar to the feature data X, the restoration process of the secret key needs to be successfully performed.
For a specific method to realize the biometric cryptography, the method described in "Cryptographic Key Generation from Biometric Data Using Lattice Mapping" (Gang Zheng, et. al., In 18th International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR'06), 2006) (Document 1) is proposed. In Document 1, the feature data extracted from the biometric information is the n-dimension actual number vector X as in Formula (1), and each element is allowed to have an error up to ±δ. That is, as long as an error of the value is within the range of ±δ, the person from whom the data was extracted is accepted as the user him/herself. The secret key can be represented as an integer vector as in Formula (2). Each element s_i of the secret key is a q-bit integer. The subscript "i" is a value from 1 to n, and "q" is an appropriate integer. Thus, the element s_i is an integer equal to or greater than 0, but not exceeding 2q−1.
Formula 1X=(x_1, . . . , x_n)  (1)Formula 2S=(s_1, . . . , s_n)  (2)
The template T of the biometric information upon registration can be represented as a vector as in Formula (3), and the element t_i is calculated based on Formula (4). The subscript "i" is a value from 1 to n.
Formula 3T=(t_1, . . . , t_n)  (3)Formula 4t_i=x_i−δ−2δs_i  (4)
The feature data X′ of the newly obtained biometric information can be represented as a vector as in Formula (5).
Formula 5X′=(x′_1, . . . , x′_n)  (5)
When authenticating the secret key, the terminal performs calculation of Formula (7) using the stored template T and the feature data X′, thereby deriving the value of each element of the secret key S′ represented by Formula (6). This way, the secret key S′ is restored. The subscript "i" is a value from 1 to n. In addition, the symbol "" represents an operation to extract an integer part by truncating a decimal part of a value in parentheses.
                    Formula                                                  6                                                            S        =                  (                                                    s                ′                                          _                            1                        ,            …                                                              ,                                          s                ′                                          _n                                )                                    (        6        )                                Formula                                                  7                                                                                s            ′                              _                                                              i                =                              (                                                            x                  ′                                                _i                            -              t_i                        )                                2                        δ                                              (        7        )
In a case where Formula (8) is satisfied, the restored secret key S′ coincides with the secret key S, and the terminal determines that the secret key has been correctly restored and accepts the user subjected to the authentication of the secret key as the user him/herself registered in the system.
Formula 8|x′_i−x_i|<δ  (8)
Because it is not possible to uniquely obtain the feature data X and the secret key S using the template T used in Document 1, template protection having a certain degree of effects can be realized by using the method of Document 1.

Computer system, verification method of confidential information, and computer


A method is provided for coating a substrate with the aid of a magnetron cathode and two electrodes which are alternately impinged upon by a positive potential and a negative potential. Also disclosed is an assembly for coating a substrate, comprising a vacuum chamber, a magnetron cathode, two electrodes, and a voltage source. A negative potential is generated at a level that is no greater than the level of the cathode potential, thus preventing the electrode that is to be cleaned from being stripped to a greater extent than the same was coated in the previous half-wave. The magnetron cathode and the electrodes are connected to the voltage source via switching elements without being galvanically such that a negative and a positive voltage generated from the voltage source can be alternatively applied to the electrodes, the level of said voltage being no greater than the cathode voltage.

The invention relates to a method for coating a substrate by the use of redundant anode sputtering of a target on a cathode, designed as a magnetron. In this case the cathode is supplied with a negative cathode potential; and, besides the cathode, two electrodes are alternately supplied with a positive potential (anode potential) or with a negative potential.
The invention also relates to a device, which is intended for coating a substrate by the use of redundant anode sputtering and which comprises a vacuum chamber, a magnetron cathode, two electrodes and a voltage source.
Vacuum coating technology for optical applications requires transparent oxide layers. According to the current state of the art, these layers are produced, as a function of the material, with direct current methods or with alternating current methods.
To this end, magnetron cathodes—planar or cylindrical—are provided with material to be deposited and are operated in a pure argon atmosphere or in a reactive atmosphere in a cathode sputtering process (sputtering process).
The major problem with a sputtering process for oxides or nitrides lies in the fact that unfortunately not only the substrates but also all other surfaces in the coating zone are coated with material having poor conductivity. This coating also takes place on the anodes, which are used in the sputtering process. This coating of the anodes with a material having poor conductivity or with a non-conductive material impedes the current flow and in extreme cases may even totally suppress the flow of current.
Outside the vacuum this coating with a material having poor conductivity may be detected by an increase in the anode voltage. This additional voltage drop causes a loss of power and leads to instability in the coating process.
When higher requirements are imposed on the layer thickness uniformity of the substrate to be coated, it turns out that the anode, which is covered with material, results in a non-uniformity of the layer thickness. The reason for this non-uniformity of the layer thickness lies in the fact that the anode is not uniformly coated by the insulating material, so that the current flows preferably to certain zones of the anodes. This non-uniform current flow over the length of the anodes is reflected in the plasma distribution of the sputtering cathode; and then the plasma concentrates on the area that continues to be the best conductive.
In addition, this current distribution is not constant in terms of time, so that the distribution of the layer thickness changes over time.
In order to ensure a stable current distribution on the anodes, a wide variety of attempts have been made—for example, the EP 0 632 142, WO 92/09718—however, in the final end without any outstanding success.
One solution to these problems is the twin magnetron system, wherein the discharge is carried out with alternating current between two identical magnetrons. Both targets are operated alternatingly as an anode and as a cathode. In the cathode phase the surface is cleaned of the back coatings from the anode phase, so that the discharge always meets with an uncoated anode. In this way the problem of the coated anode is solved for this system. However, twin magnetrons that are operated in the alternating mode are associated with not only increased complexity but also with technological drawbacks.
If a magnetron is operated as an anode, the anode voltage is higher than in the case of an anode without a magnet system. The electrons of the discharge are impeded from penetrating into the target surface by the magnet system. This impedance by the magnetic field affects the current distribution in the discharge. The result is a stationary non-homogeneity in the discharge, which is called the "cross corner effect" in the scholarly literature.
It is true that the twin magnetron has significantly improved the temporal stability, but the local layer thickness uniformity has become worse in comparison to that in a single magnetron.
This drawback can be remedied with a RAS circuit, as described in the patent U.S. Pat. No. 6,183,605 B1. RAS stands for redundant anode sputtering—that is, cathode sputtering with an additional anode.
To this end, the circuit, depicted in FIG. 1 (state of the art) is used. In this case the magnetron is connected to the central tap, and the electrodes are connected to one of the external connectors respectively of the secondary coil of a transformer; and its primary coil is fed by the medium frequency generator Vmf.
The magnetron always remains negative; and the two electrodes alternate the polarity.
Whereas a first electrode acts as the "correct" anode in the discharge (that is, accepts a positive voltage in relation to the vacuum tank), the second electrode will have, according to the law of transformers, twice the voltage of the magnetron and, thus, be extremely negative. Thus, this second electrode draws positive ions from the magnetron discharge; and said positive ions lead to the ion bombardment of the second electrode. The result is that the electrode is ion-etched.
In the next half cycle the polarity of the electrodes is reversed so that at this stage the discharge is provided with a clean anode.
The problem here is that owing to the transformer that is used, the voltage at the negative electrode is permanently defined—that is, the value of twice the burning voltage of the magnetron.
Since the ion density in a magnetron discharge is very high, the electrode to be cleaned experiences an extensive stripping that is significantly greater than the coating in the preceding half cycle.
This stripping results not only in the abrasion of the electrodes but also in the contamination of the layers to be generated with the magnetron sputtering device.
It has been proposed to make the electrodes of the same material as the target of the magnetron. However, that leads to problems in the case of targets that have low conductivity or targets that are made of brittle materials that cannot be processed. Owing to these limitations RAS technology, which has been known for a long time, could not gain acceptance.
The solution of "hiding" the anode leads to an analogous situation. The basic idea of this method, which has been practiced for a long time, is to arrange the anodes behind apertures, so that the sputtered particles can reach the anode only after multiple surges. If the opening to the cathode is adequately small, the dwell time of the anodes can be significantly increased. Of course, the non-uniformity of the layer thickness has to be accepted, because for energy-related reasons the electron currents in the quasi-neutral plasma of the sputter discharge have to be concentrated into single paths, which in turn result in a degree of ionization that varies widely and, thus, in locally different coating rates. In the case of past requirements, which were lower, this was the way to coat on an industrial scale substrates with materials having poor conductivity. The major drawback is that the aforementioned electron paths are locally unstable, so that the layer thickness distribution on the substrates varies in an unpredictable way.
The classic arrangement for anodes is disclosed in the patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,046,659. In this case the anode carrying rod is located somewhat further away from the substrate than the target next to the cathode. This position is good from an electric viewpoint, because the charge carriers have to travel only a very short distance, but the anode surface is also directly opposite the substrate so that all of the particles starting from the anode land on the substrate. In addition, a sizeable portion of the scattering vapor travels from the magnetron cathode to this anode.

Redundant anode sputtering method and assembly


The herein-proposed device includes a housing (1) provided with a hole (2) adapted to receive an arbor (3) carrying a cutting tool (4), a seal (8) mounted on the housing (1) in the zone of interaction between the cutting tool (4) and a workpiece (6) to be machined, pipings (16, 18) adapted for the supply and withdrawal of coolant, respectively, and a chip disposal opening (10). The device is provided with a safety valve (19) installed on the coolant supply piping (18). The housing (1) is provided with a seal (5) arranged in the zone of location of the arbor (3). The chip disposal opening (10) and a space (9) of the housing (1) are arranged on the opposite sides with respect to an end face (11) of the housing (1) in the zone of interaction between the cutting tool (4) and the workpiece (6) to be machined.

At the present time, the practice of deep-hole drilling with the use of twist drills is characterized by low cutting speeds and fast wear of the cutting tool. This is concerned with the fact that with greater drilling depths, difficulties are encountered in supplying coolant to the cutting lips of the twist drill.
Widely known in the present state of the art is a device for the supply of a lubricating-and-cooling agent (hereinafter referred to as "coolant" to the comprising a bath filled with coolant, wherein a workpiece to be machined is accommodated and secured so that the level of coolant is higher than the hole to be drilled (cf., a textbook "Unit-built Machine Tools" by G. I. Melamed et al., 1964, "Mashgiz" Publishers, Moscow, (in Russian).
With low drilling depths, coolant readily flows to the hole being machined, whereby the drill cutting lip are lubricated and cooled down. In deep-hole drilling, the drill operates virtually dry because a steam "cushion" produced at the drill point prevents coolant from getting to the cutting lips, and the twist drill, which operates as a "screw pump", tends to pump coolant out of the hole. The joint action of these factors results in the need to withdraw, at regular intervals, the drill from the hole being machined, thus reducing the machining efficiency.
Known presently is another device for the supply of coolant under pressure to the cutting tool in the machining zone, comprising a housing hermetically sealed by a cover having an opening provided with a seal and adapted to receive an arbor carrying the cutting tool (cf. "Proceedings of Higher Educational Institutes", "Machinostroyeniye" Publishers, Issue No. 12, 1969, Moscow, "Cutting Processes Under High Static Pressures of Coolant" by V. M. Yaroslavtsev, V. V. Sabel'nikov, pp. 172-176 (in Russian). The workpiece to be machined is arranged inside the housing. Coolant under the required pressure is fed by a pump into the housing. High pressure developed inside the housing enables the coolant to penetrate directly to the tool cutting lips, which considerably increases its endurance.
However, the arrangement of the workpiece to be machined inside the pressurized housing involves substantial time wasted on depressurization, removal and positioning of the workpiece to be machined, filling the housing with coolant and its pressurization, which significantly reduces the process efficiency, while the provision of a high-lift pump renders the construction more expensive and sophisticated.
Still another device for supplying a lubricating-and-cooling agent to the cutting tool is known to comprise a housing with an opening adapted to receive an arbor with the cutting tool, a seal mounted on the housing in the zone of interaction between the cutting tool and the workpiece being machined, pipes for the coolant to be fed to and discharged from the housing, and an opening for chip disposal communicating with the housing space (cf. German Patent No. 747,139). The housing is made in the form of a bell resting with its lower portion on the surface of the workpiece being machined.
Coolant is fed into the housing through a coolant supply pipe union turned into the housing. The chip disposal opening and the coolant drain-out opening are arranged above the supply pipe union. The position of the chip disposal opening determines the height of the coolant column. Static pressure produced by the coolant column causes the coolant to penetrate into the holes being machined, thus increasing the cutting tool endurance.
However, the latter device described hereinbefore fails to produce a sufficiently high coolant pressure due to the fact that the housing is not pressurized, and the amount of pressure is only determined by the height of the coolant column which, in turn, is restricted by the housing dimensions. This results in low drilling efficiency. Besides, the device mentioned above is only practicable for vertical drilling.

Device for supplying lubricating-and-cooling agent to cutting tools


A germicidal and fungicidal agent can solve the problems of conventional germicidal and fungicidal agents comprising quaternary ammonium salts or amphoteric surface active agents that fungicidal activity is insufficient and metals such as parts of medical instruments are corroded. Furthermore, it has higher germicidal and fungicidal activity against Gram-negative bacteria and filamentous fungi than benzalkonium chloride and excellent safety for human health. It is advantageously applied as a disinfectant for medical uses, a disinfectant for environment, a germicidal and fungicidal agent for fibers, a germicidal and fungicidal agent for cycling cooling water and the like. It has excellent resistance against discoloration, heat resistance, corrosion preventing property and compatibility with anionic surface active agents and can be used for providing all kinds of fibers with the germicidal and fungicidal activity to replace silicone type quaternary ammonium salts. The germicidal and fungicidal agent comprises quaternary ammonium salts having three alkyl or alkenyl groups connected to the nitrogen, an oxyalkylene group or its oligomer connected to the nitrogen and a counter ion which is an anion of a carboxylic acid, an ion of an alkyl ester of phosphoric acid or an ion of a polyoxyalkylenealkylether ester of phosphoric acid. A germicidal and fungicidal method utilizes the germicidal and fungicidal agent described above.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel germicidal and fungicidal agent. More particularly, it relates to a germicidal and fungicidal agent comprising a novel quaternary ammonium salt having sufficient germicidal and fungicidal activity to replace benzalkonium chloride and a germicidal and fungicidal method utilizing it.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Quaternary ammonium salts and amphoteric surface active agents, of which benzalkonium chloride and alkyldiaminoethylglycine hydrochloride are representative examples, have widely been used because they are relatively safe and have good germicidal activity.
However, these quaternary amine salts and amphoteric surface active agents have weak fungicidal activity and corrode metallic instruments and equipments. Moreover, when anionic surface active agents are present, they form insoluble complexes with the anionic surface active agents and the germicidal activity is decreased.
Application of benzalkonium chloride as a germicidal and fungicidal agent is naturally limited by these deficiencies. When dental devices are disinfected by using benzalkonium chloride, dicyclohexylamine nitrite or sodium nitrite is generally used together with benzalkonium chloride to prevent formation of rust on the devices used. However, sodium nitrite has a problem that it has carcinogenicity through the nirosation reaction and the use of this compound is not desirable. Dicyclohexylamine nitrite has not only the same problem of carcinogenicity as sodium nitrite but also another problem that insoluble precipitate is formed in the disinfectant solution because it has limited solubility in water.
Both of the germicidal and fungicidal activity and the rust preventing property are simultaneously required not only for the germicidal and fungicidal agents for medical uses but also for other germicidal and fungicidal agents which may be in contact with the human body, such as disinfectants for environments, germicidal and fungicidal agents for fibers and germicidal and fungicidal agents for cycling cooling water.
Cooling water used with cycling for cutting machines, air conditioners and the like is in conditions suited for propagation of germs and fungi. Corrosion preventing property is required for germicidal and fungicidal agents which are added to the cooling water for prevention of the propagation of such microorganisms. The germicidal and fungicidal agents of quaternary ammonium salt type are expected to become more widely utilized if they have sufficient corrosion preventing property because they exhibit little harmful effect for the human health.
Silicone type quaternary ammonium salts have been known as germicidal and fungicidal agents for fibers. This type of germicidal and fungicidal agents is generally applied for fiber treatment in combination with reactive silicone resins. Fiber products treated with the combined agents have problems, such as discoloration, decrease of fluorescent whiteness, decrease of water absorption, decomposition of the quaternary ammonium salt by heating, decrease of the germicidal activity by the decomposition, formation of rust in machines used for the treatment and the like other problems. It is inevitable that applications of the germicidal and fungicidal agents of this type are limited because of these problems.
Quaternary ammonium salts having the following formula have been proposed as the germicidal and fungicidal agents by the present inventors (Japanese Patent Publication Heisei 1-33589 and Heisei 3-35282): ##STR1## wherein R.sup.8 is an alkyl group or alkenyl group having 8 to 22 carbon atoms, R.sup.9 and Rio are an alkyl group having 1 to 5 carbon atoms, respectively, R' is an alkylene group having 2 to 4 carbon atoms, m is an integer of 1 or 2, n is an integer in the range from 1 to 5 and Y.sup.m- is an ion of an alkyl ester of phosphoric acid or an ion of a polyoxyethylenealkylether ester of phosphoric acid.
The germicidal and fungicidal agents proposed above have a problem that they do not have sufficient activity against Gram-negative bacteria even though they have sufficient activity against Gram-positive bacteria.

Germicidal and fungicidal agent and a germicidal and fungicidal method