Methods for automated segmentation system for retinal blood vessels from optical coherence tomography angiography images include a preprocessing stage, an initial segmentation stage, and a refining stage. Application of machine-learning techniques to segmented images allow for automated diagnosis of retinovascular diseases, such as diabetic retinopathy.

The retinal vasculature is an essential structure in the retina and has a high impact on the quality of human vision. Changes in blood vessels in the retina have close relationships with many systemic, metabolic, and hematologic diseases. The morphology of the retinal vasculature can be used to identify and classify the severity of some diseases. Its status is an essential diagnostic aid in ophthalmology. In addition, it allows patients to be treated in the early stages of a disease and before advanced and irreversible pathology has developed. Therefore, the segmentation and analysis of the retinal vasculature's features can assist the ophthalmologists in detecting these changes.
Blood vessel segmentation involves partitioning a digital image into blood vessel segments and background segments, and yields information about the location of blood vessels and variations in vessel diameter. However, the precise segmentation of the retinal blood vessels is considered a challenging task. This is because of the nature of the background, variety of vessel sizes, low contrast of images, and potential presence of pathologies, such as hemorrhages and microaneurysms. Most common segmentation techniques produce broken or disconnected segments. The segmentation of the retinal blood vessels from color and gray fundus images is not efficient, because of the low resolution of the extracted images. Furthermore, the fundus images do not provide detailed information about the blood vessels in different retinal layers and suffer from the lack of depth information. Threshold-based segmentation techniques produce significant errors with respect to similarities in gray levels between the blood vessels and the background. Region growing segmentation techniques are sensitive to the location of the seed point. Observation and manual measurement of blood vessel changes are very complex tasks that require highly trained persons. Therefore, a need exists for automatic systems to segment and diagnose the changes in the retinal blood vessels.
Retinal blood vessels can be extracted from several retinal imaging modalities to estimate the status of the retinal vascular network. These imaging modalities include color fundus imaging, fluorescein angiography (FA), and optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). OCTA uses laser light reflectance of the surface of moving red blood cells to depict blood vessels through different segmented regions of the eye. An OCTA scan of a patient's retina comprises multiple individual A-scans, which are compiled into a B-scan providing cross-sectional structural information. The technique uses multiple B-scans taken over a period of time to detect variations in the intensity and/or phase features of the OCT signal resulting from the movement of blood. OCTA can detect erythrocyte movement that allows direct visualization of blood vessels in vivo without the use of exogenous dyes. It is a non-invasive modality that demonstrates neovascularization and capillary abnormalities, which are critical in the detection and management of some diseases, such as diabetic retinopathy (DR).

Segmentation of retinal blood vessels in optical coherence tomography angiography images

University of Louisville Research Foundation, Inc.


A floating overturn prevention device includes a flat-top base and a pillar coupled to a bottom surface of the flat-top base and extending therefrom. The flat-top base is a floating body for floating desired equipment on the water. The pillar further includes a weight member fixed on the bottom end of the pillar to maintain balance and keep the center of gravity of the floating overturn prevention device under the water. The floating overturn prevention device filter includes a balancing member coupled to the bottom end of the pillar. The balancing member includes a plurality of balancing plates vertical to the water level when the floating overturn prevention device balances on the water level. Therefore, the balancing plates can generate a reaction force to keep the floating overturn prevention device stable.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a floating overturn prevention device and, in particular, to a floating overturn prevention device that can freely move and stably float on the water level for supporting a flat panel display.
2. Related Art
To float a dense object or an object that is not waterproof, a floating body is often used to support such an object.
If one wants to watch programs played by a flat panel display, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) in a swimming pool, the LCD has to be placed on the ground or on a platform by the pool. In this case, the distance and angle for the user to watch the LCD are restricted.
Using a floating body with a flat-top base to support the LCD on water is likely to be unstable. Waves may topple the floating body, and thus the LCD, into the water.
To make the floating body stable on the water, a conventional solution is to attach an anchor with a chain to the bottom of the flat-top base, and fix the anchor at the bottom of the water. Thus, the floating body is kept at a fixed distance from the bottom of the water, thereby making the floating body stable. However, it is very inconvenient to fix the anchor at the bottom of the water each time the floating body is installed or uninstalled. Besides, even though the floating body is stabilized because of the fixed distance to the bottom of water, the floating body can hardly move around. The viewing distance and angle are still restricted for a user who wants to swim around in the pool.


An information processing method includes establishing, in response to a distance between a first electronic device and a second electronic device being less than a distance value, a communication connection between a first communication assembly of the first electronic device and a second communication assembly of the second electronic device; obtaining, by the first electronic device, information of the second electronic device through the first communication assembly and the second communication assembly; and connecting the first electronic device to a network based on the information.

As the Internet becomes more and more popular, costs for accessing Internet are getting lower, and more electronic devices are able to access Internet. How to use the data flow of one electronic device to realize a mobile network accessible by multiple electronic devices, such as using data flow of a mobile phone to realize a mobile network accessible by the mobile phone and a laptop device, has become a technical problem that needs to be addressed.

Method and electronic device for information processing


A power transmitter may send a digital ping to a receiver. The power transmitter may transfer power to the receiver. The power transmitter may receive a report from the receiver which may comprise a received power value. The power transmitter may determine a transmitted power parameter value, which may be based on a threshold value subtracted from a transmitter power and based on transmitter losses subtracted from the transmitter power. The power transmitter may determine that the received power value is less than the determined transmitted power parameter value and may send an analog ping to the receiver in response to a determination that the received power value is less than the determined transmitted power parameter value. The power transmitter may measure a decay pattern of the analog ping. The power transmitter may determine that the receiver comprises a friendly foreign object. The power transmitter may update the threshold value.

Wireless power transfer systems, and in particular inductive wireless power systems, transfer power from a transmitting coil in a transmitter to a receiving coil in a receiver. The power is transferred via an alternating magnetic field induced by the transmitting coil.
In an ideal system, all the energy emitted by the transmitter in the form of a magnetic field is captured by the receiving coil and no energy is lost to other objects. However, in real life scenarios, the magnetic field created by the transmitting coil may also interact with other objects in addition to the receiving coil. These other objects may be referred to as 'foreign objects'. The foreign objects may be common everyday objects such as metal coins, paper clips, metallic foils, or any other ferromagnetic material. The foreign objects may be magnetically active components that are part of a device either of a transmitter (e.g., PCB etc.) or of a receiver (e.g., PCB, battery, etc.). Foreign objects in the presence of a magnetic field may overheat and may cause fire or burns.
Standard inductive power systems (e.g., power systems based on the Wireless Power consortium (WPC) Qi standard or other standards) may use methods to detect the presence of a foreign object and limit charging in a case that a foreign object is detected.
A common method for detecting the presence of a foreign object is to use a closed loop reporting. In closed loop reporting the receiver informs the transmitter regarding the amount of power the receiver actually receives. The receiver may also take into account its internal losses on its electric and magnetic circuits. The transmitter calculates its own power consumption and losses. A substantial gap between the receiver's received power and the transmitter's transmitted power may indicate a presence of a foreign object that interacts with the magnetic field. In this case, the transmitter may cease operation.
In a version of the Qi standard, a method of using a Q factor calculation may be used. The Q factor represents a ratio between stored energy in the resonance circuit to energy wasted on a cycle. The Q factor may be reported by a receiver to a transmitter. The transmitter knows its own Q factor and may then sense the system over all Q factors from which it can derive the Q factor attributed to the receiver. If the derived value is lower than the one reported by the receiver, a foreign object is most likely interacting with the magnetic field.
For a receiver embedded in a larger host device, such as a mobile handset, the body of the host device itself may act as a foreign object. In such a case, the foreign object may be referred to as a 'friendly foreign object' (FFO) or 'friendly metal', since it is inherently part of the receiver.
In current standards, the receiver is allowed to report a lower Q factor that takes into account the effects of a friendly foreign object and may report additional estimated receiver losses estimating the loss on the friendly foreign object.
However, these methods do not take into account the variance in the amount of energy absorbed by a friendly foreign object. This variance may be extremely large depending on the exact placement of the receiver coil on the transmitter coil. Larger lateral offsets may cause stronger interaction of the magnetic field with the friendly foreign object while larger vertical gaps may decrease it. In addition, the exact absorbed energy may also be dependent on the oscillation frequency of the magnetic field.
The above described phenomena is a limiting factor for the operational range of many inductive power systems. A phone placed on a charging area (e.g., a charging pad) with a large offset (for example >12 mm) may likely have a strong interaction between the friendly foreign object and the transmitter field. For example, in a system operating at 10 W output power, a friendly foreign object may be absorbing >1 W of power during operation when it is placed with a large offset of 12 mm. The same handset placed at full alignment may only have ˜200 mW of power absorbed by the friendly foreign object.
Existing foreign object detection methods may limit the range since foreign object detection may be activated for large offsets, or it may work with large detection thresholds that may not allow proper detection of a real foreign object when a phone is aligned.
Thus, there is a need for improved foreign object and friendly metal detection.

Detection of foreign object and friendly metal


Methods for determining solutions to a problem experienced by a data processing system user. A query is received from the user, which includes a problem description of the problem experienced by the user with respect to the data processing system. One or more keywords are extracted from the received problem description. An index of problems and associated solutions is searched using the extracted keywords. The index of problems and associated solutions is created by analyzing a document collection describing problems and associated solutions with a text analytics application. One or more documents are returned that contains words or phrases that are similar to the keywords used for searching the index of problems and associated solutions. The documents relevant for the problem and associated solutions are presented to the user.

The various embodiments of the present invention relate to data processing systems, and more specifically, to problem solving in data processing systems. Historical data can often contain useful information and it is possible learn much from history and from other individuals' past experiences. In particular in the area of data processing, it is relatively common that several users experience the same or similar problems with respect to various issues. However, when trying to solve the problem, it is not very common, for various reasons, to examine historical data. Often users do not even know where to look or how to access historical data for problem solving purposes. As a result, they end up "reinventing the wheel", and wasting time whenever they try to solve a problem that is similar to a problem that has previously occurred and that might already have been solved by somebody else.
If a user searches for a solution to a problem using a search engine on the Internet, the user typically needs to go through a long list of websites that the search engine returns, and search among the websites in this list for a possible solution to her problem. Many of the search results may not even provide a solution to the problem.
In addition, companies and various organizations end up spending significant amounts of human resources on problem solving tasks, as people tend to have a high likelihood of forgetting the details about the prior problem, or there being different personnel involved in the different situations. Such situations could be avoided or at least reduced if problems that have already occurred could be solved more efficiently, and likely result in significant cost savings for companies and other organizations. Thus, there is a need for a quick way to capture historical problems and solutions and propose possible solutions.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Solving problems in data processing systems based on text analysis of historical data

International Business Machines Corporation


The invention pertains to a peroxide/nitrile dual cure fluoroelastomer composition able to provide for cured parts having improved thermal and water vapour resistance, to a method of curing the same and to cured articles obtained therefrom.

Fluoroelastomers, and more specifically perfluoroelastomers, have long been used in a variety of applications that require excellent resistance to high temperature and chemical attack.
To enable crosslinking of these fluoroelastomers, it has been long known to incorporate in the fluoroelastomer polymer chain a small percentage of monomers including nitrile groups. The reactivity of such nitrile groups in the presence of a variety of curing agents, including notably aromatic tetra-amines, di(amino(thio)phenols), and organo-tin compounds, including tetraalkyl and tetraaryl compounds, is such to provide crosslinking point of supposedly triazine-type or similar structure. The crosslinking chemistry of such nitrile groups possesses high thermal stability—higher than the stability of bridging/crosslinking groups provided by alternative crosslinking chemistry.
For this reason, nitrile-cure site containing fluoroelastomers have been long recognized for their thermal stability; within this area, dual cure approaches have been already pursued in the past for further improving e.g. curing rate.
Notably, U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,993 5 Sep. 1995 discloses nitrile-containing perfluoroelastomers which are cured by a combination of a peroxide, a co-agent, which can be a diene or a triene, and a catalyst causing crosslinks to form using nitrile groups, for achieving faster cure rate, while maintaining good thermal properties in vulcanizates. According to this document, two distinct (chemical) cure processes are believed to take place, one caused by the peroxide and the polyunsaturated co-agent, and the other caused by a catalysed reaction of nitrile groups.
US 2015073111 (E.I. DUPONT DE NEMOURS) 12 Mar. 2015 is directed to certain VDF-based fluoroelastomers comprising secondary cyano-groups, which can be cured using, as curatives, diaminobisphenol AF, ammonia generators such as urea, and free radical systems such as the combination of an organic peroxide with a multifunctional coagent such as triallylisocyanurate.
EP 0606883 A (NIPPON MEKTRON) 20 Jul. 1994 pertains to a composition including a nitrile-containing fluoroelastomer and a bisaminophenol derivative curing agent.
EP 0661304 A (SOLVAY SPECIALTY POLYMERS ITALY SPA) 5 Jul. 1995 is directed to iodine-containing fluoroelastomers comprising recurring units derived from a bis-olefin, which are notably cured via peroxidic route using a combination of a peroxide and curing co-agents, among which triallylisocyanurate is specifically mentioned as preferred, and used in all exemplified embodiments.
In this area, there remains a continuous quest for curable fluoroelastomer compositions able to deliver upon curing even improved thermal and steam resistance.


Disclosed herein are methods and devices for generating novel diffusion ellipsoid maps from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) scan data. One example method includes: (i) generating, from DTI scan data, for each voxel in a plurality of voxels in one or more slabs of a target tissue, a respective diffusion tensor; (ii) generating, for each voxel, eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the respective diffusion tensor and a respective set of diffusion parameters; (iii) partitioning the voxels into two groups, wherein voxels, whose respective set of diffusion parameters is such that each element in the set is smaller than a corresponding element in a set of thresholds, are substantially all in a first group of the two groups; and (iv) providing a graphical representation of a diffusion ellipsoid map of at least one of the one or more slabs, wherein ellipsoids, associated with voxels in the first group, are displayed differently to the other ellipsoids. The utility of the disclosed methods and devices in breast cancer detection is demonstrated.

Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) is a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique for mapping the diffusion of molecules, such as water, within biological tissue. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is subfield of DWI, which has been used extensively to map white matter tractography in the brain.
DTI scan data is sometimes presented as a diffusion ellipsoid map. Each ellipsoid is associated with a respective voxel in a slice of the imaged tissue, and is accordingly centered about map coordinates corresponding to the centerpoint of the respective voxel in the slice (such that all the ellipsoids, which are three-dimensional, are centered about respective map coordinates on a single flat plane—the map plane). The dimensions and orientation of each ellipsoid are determined by the diffusion tensor associated with the respective voxel (see, for example, Basser et al., Biophysical Journal, 66, p. 259, 1994). More specifically, the length and orientation of each of the three principal axes of an ellipsoid are determined by a respective eigenvalue-eigenvector pair of the associated diffusion tensor. The eigenvalues λ2, and λ3 (usually defined such that λ1≥λ2≥λ3) equal the diffusion coefficients along three orthogonal directions defined by the corresponding eigenvectors v1, v2, and v3, respectively.
Typically, in DTI brain imaging, each ellipsoid is colored according to the direction (i.e. v1) in which the respective largest principal axis (having a length λ1 or a length proportional to λ1, including, but not limited to, √{square root over (λ1)}) thereof points, as well as including light and shade effects to better visually impart the three-dimensional shape thereof. For example, if the largest principal axis is closest to the x-axis, y-axis, or z-axis (of a laboratory, Cartesian frame of reference), the ellipsoid is colored in either blue, red, or green, respectively. In some ellipsoid maps, the ellipsoids may be colored as a combination of blue, red, and green, weighted according to the proximity of the largest principal axis to each of the respective axes of the laboratory frame.
The past decade has seen the application of DWI, including DTI, to cancer detection in the breast. Water diffusion in mammary ducts and lobules in the breast is anisotropic, being fast along the length of a duct/lobule and restricted in directions perpendicular to the length of the duct/lobule. Without being bound to any theory or mechanism, the presence of cancer cells in a region of the breast is believed to bring about the blockage/partial blockage and physical deformation of mammary ducts/lobules and the surroundings thereof in the region, with a resultant reduction in the diffusion rate, and the anisotropy of the diffusion, through the mammary ducts/lobules. Accordingly, low λ1 values have been found to be indicative of breast cancer. Alternatively, or in addition, the absolute maximal anisotropy index, defined as λ1-λ3, assumes low values in the presence of breast cancer. See E. Eyal et al., Invest. Radiol. 2012 47(5):284-91; N. Nissan et al., J. Vis. Exp. (94), e52048, 2014; E. Furman-Haran et al., J. Magn. Reson. Imaging, 2016, doi: 10.1002/jmri.25292 [Epub ahead of print]; E. Furman-Haran et al., Europ. J Radiol. 81, S 45-47, 2012; and M. Shapiro Feinberg et al., Europ. J Radiol. S 151-152, 2012. The contents of all the above-cited publications is incorporated herein by reference.
Diffusion ellipsoid maps of the breast were presented in J. R. Teurel et al., J. Magn. Reson. Imaging, 2016 May; 43(5):1111-21, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference, and in Furman-Haran et al., 2016, ibid. In the former publication, the diffusion ellipsoids were all colored in the same color. In the latter publication, the diffusion ellipsoids were colored according to the orientation of the respective largest principal axis, as elaborated on above for brain imaging.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,526,698 to Degani, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference, discloses a method, apparatus and computer product for imaging a human breast to map the breast ductal tree. First, a breast is diffusion tensor imaged with high spatial resolution. Then the breast ductal tree is tracked using a protocol for: breast based on echo-planar imaging (EPI) diffusion designed for optimizing diffusion weightings (b values), number of non-collinear directions for tensor calculations, diffusion, echo and repetition times, spatial resolution, signal to noise, scanning time, and a sequence for fat suppression. The diffusion tensor is calculated by a non-linear best fit algorithm and then diagonalized (e.g. using principal component analysis) to obtain three eigenvectors and their corresponding eigenvalues. A vector field map is obtained for tracking of breast ducts of the ductal trees along the direction of the 1st eigenvector v1 and the ductal tree is displayed on a voxel by voxel basis in parametric images using color coding and vector pointing.


A method of configuring an electron gun for generating and injecting an electron beam into a linac accelerating waveguide operating in magnetic fringe fields of an MRI scanner in the absence of a magnetic shield is provided using an appropriately programmed computer to determining an anode drift tube diameter at an injection point of a linac according to a magnetic field value from an MRI scanner and to a predetermined current density, where the magnetic field has an isocenter, determining a transverse diameter of a Type M cathode in an electron gun, according to the anode drift tube diameter and the current density, and minimizing an emittance value in an electron beam of the electron gun at an entry point of the anode drift tube by optimizing the distance between the cathode and the anode, where the electron beam is along an axis of symmetry of the magnetic field.

The ideal image guidance strategy in radiation therapy is to have real-time volumetric and position information of the tumor and surrounding healthy tissue during the treatment itself. One compelling approach is to use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which is a non-invasive technique that not only allows real time volumetric imaging but also provides exquisite soft tissue contrast to differentiate cancerous from healthy tissue. To date two base MRI-linac configurations were proposed, i.e. the in-line and the perpendicular configurations, which are defined by the relative orientation of the medical linac with respect to the main magnetic field of the MRI scanner. Regardless the configuration the relative position between the linac and the MRI isocenter is fixed with the linac pointing at it. This fact limits the use of the medical linac to gating or dynamic multileaf collimator (DMLC), or a combination of these two radiation treatment modalities.
What is needed is an electron gun having a geometry capable to robustly function in the presence of high strength external magnetic field for axisymmetric configurations. What is further needed is an electron gun having a geometry where an MRI-linac can operate without the need to isolate the linac using a magnetic shield, where such a configuration would not only leave the magnet homogeneity unchanged but also provide the linac the flexibility to move along the magnet axis of symmetry if the source to target distance needs to be adjusted.

Method and system for operating electron guns in magnetic fields

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


An ink cartridge contains an ink absorbent in an ink chamber, to absorb and hold ink by a capillary force. The ink absorbent has a cutout in its lower portion, to form a compartment without the ink absorbent. An ink detection zone is defined in the compartment, for an ink run-out sensor to detect the ink in the ink chamber. As the ink is consumed and the liquid surface of the ink goes down, an interface between the ink absorbent and the compartment enhances the resistance to the ink flowing from the ink absorbent toward the ink detection zone, so the ink is hindered from flowing into the ink detection zone, and the ink run-out sensor exactly detects that the liquid surface of the ink goes below the ink detection zone.

An ink-jet recording apparatus has been known, which has a recording head for discharging ink as droplets onto a recording paper to print an image. The ink-jet recording apparatus is provided with at least an ink tank containing ink, to supply the ink from the ink tank to the recording head. In a serial ink-jet recording apparatus, a recording head is mounted to a carriage that moves back and forth in a main scanning direction, a widthwise direction of a recording paper. Each time the carriage makes one lap, the recording head records a line of image, and the recording paper is fed in a sub scanning direction orthogonal to the main scanning direction by an amount corresponding to the image line. Thus, an image frame is recorded line after line.
Because the ink is a consumable material, the ink tank is often formed as a cartridge that is removably attached to the ink-jet recording apparatus, so as to make it easy to supplement the ink-jet recording apparatus with the ink. Such a cartridge type ink tank, hereinafter called the ink cartridge, is attached to the carriage in association with the recording head.
In order to notify the user of necessity to replace the ink cartridge, the ink-jet recording apparatus is provided with an ink sensor for detecting the residual amount of ink in the ink tank. For example, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 7-117238, a photo sensor is used as the ink sensor, which consists of a light emitter emitting a light beam and a light receiver receiving a reflected light beam from the ink tank, to detect the residual amount of ink optically. The photo sensor is mounted to the carriage, with the light emitter and the light receiver placed in face to an ink detection zone that is located near a bottom of an ink chamber of the ink cartridge.
As the residual amount of ink in the ink chamber decreases, the liquid surface of the ink goes down toward the bottom of the ink chamber. Accordingly, when the liquid surface of the ink goes below the ink detection zone, the photo sensor detects that the ink does not exist in the ink detection zone, which is judged as an ink end of the ink cartridge.
However, as the ink cartridge moves back and forth together with the carriage, the ink waves in the ink chamber. Even while the liquid surface of the ink is lower than the detection zone when the ink cartridge stands still, the ink can flow into the ink detection zone, raising the level of the liquid surface of the ink up into the ink detection zone. Then, the ink sensor wrongly detects that the ink exits in the ink detection zone. The same detection error can occur in an ink cartridge that is unloaded before the ink is used up, and is reloaded, because such an ink cartridge can be shaken while it is carried about.


The present invention relates to composite membranes and membranes which are formed from modified poly(phenylene oxide) polymers having improved film forming properties and separation characteristics. The present invention further relates to poly(phenylene oxide) polymer and modified poly(phenylene oxide) polymer, having improved membrane forming characteristics and processes for producing the same.

Various permeable or semipermeable membranes are known to be used in a variety of fluid separations. These membranes can offer, inter alia, significant cost savings over other fluid separation means, such as adsorption and distillation means. The effectiveness of the membranes in fluid separation, however, is highly dependent on the permeability and selectivity of the membranes. As the increased permeability requirement in the recent years has resulted in the movement of membrane art in the direction of reducing the thickness of membranes, the strength and film forming characteristics of membrane materials have also become increasingly important. The strength and film forming characteristics play an important role in producing very thin membranes.
At the present time, fluid separation membranes are known to be made from a wide variety of polymeric materials. Of these polymeric materials, poly(phenylene oxide) polymer or chemically modified poly(phenylene oxide) polymer, such as sulfonated poly(phenylene oxide), is most attractive as a membrane forming material because of the good combination of permeation and separation characteristics of these materials and because of the ready availability of poly(phenylene oxide) polymer. Indeed, such desirability of poly(phenylene oxide) based polymer materials has led to the development of a variety of poly(phenylene oxide) polymer based membranes.
Chemical Abstract No. 236575Y, volume 112, "Hollow Poly(phenylene oxide) Fibers and Process for Manufacturing Them" by M. Pechocova et al, Czech. CS 263,672, shows an asymmetric membrane, i.e., hollow fibers, useful for reverse osmosis, micro- and ultra-filtration, dialysis and other separation processes. The asymmetric membrane is prepared by spinning a solution containing poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) polymer or sulfonated poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) polymer having a molecular weight equal to or greater than 74,000 through a spinneret with ring-shaped holes.
J. Smid et al. in the Journal of Membrane Science, Vol 64, p. 121-129, 1991, "The Formation of Asymmetric Hollow Fiber Membranes for Gas Separation, Using PPE of Different Intrinsic Viscosities" disclose asymmetric hollow fiber membranes prepared by using a range of intrinsic viscosities of poly (2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide). The use of high intrinsic viscosity poly (2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) polymer is indicated to be helpful in preparing asymmetric membranes, i.e., hollow fibers, with improved properties.
U.S Pat. No. 3,259,592 discloses resins and membranes made from sulfonated poly(phenylene oxide) polymer. The sulfonated poly(phenylene oxide) polymers disclosed are produced by a sulfonation process that is substantially heterogeneous in nature. The sulfonated polymer precipitates instantaneously on the addition of the sulfonating agent, HClSO.sub.3, to the solution containing precursor poly(phenylene oxide) polymer in a halogenated solvent, and the sulfonation is completed by the further addition of the sulfonating agent to the slurry of the partially sulfonated product.
Preparation of sulfonated poly(phenylene oxide) membranes for reverse osmosis applications is described in Research and Development Progress Report No. 697, Contract No. 14-30-2627 to the U.S. Dept. of Interior, entitled "Development of Poly(phenylene oxide) Membranes" by Chludzinski et al., 1971. Commercial poly(phenylene oxide) polymer that had an intrinsic viscosity of about 0.45 dl/g was utilized to prepare sulfonated polymeric membrane forming materials.
The commercial application of modified poly(phenylene oxide) based membranes, however, is frequently hindered by their limited separation characteristics and/or strength in fluid separations, more particularly in gas separation applications. Often, the membranes produced are fragile, brittle and prone to defects. Commercial membranes normally could not be produced with consistent properties.
Therefore, there is a genuine need and desire in the art for modified poly(phenylene oxide) polymer based membranes having enhanced selectivity, permeability and strength, which are capable of being used in commercial fluid separation operations, more particularly in commercial gas separation operations. Moreover, it is desirable to determine better ways to produce modified poly(phenylene oxide) polymer based membrane materials having the desired consistent properties, i.e., permeability, selectivity, strength and film forming characteristics.

Modified poly(phenylene oxide) based membranes for enhanced fluid separation


A method of fabricating a semiconductor IC is disclosed. The method includes receiving a device. The device includes a semiconductor substrate, a plurality of fins and trenches between fins in the semiconductor substrate. The method also includes filling the trenches with a dielectric material to form shallow trench isolations (STI), applying a low-thermal-budget annealing to the dielectric material, and applying a wet-treatment to the dielectric material.

The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced exponential growth. Technological advances in IC materials and design have produced generations of ICs where each generation has smaller and more complex circuits than the previous generation. In the course of IC evolution, functional density (i.e., the number of interconnected devices per chip area) has generally increased while geometry size (i.e., the smallest component (or line) that can be created using a fabrication process) has decreased.
This scaling down process generally provides benefits by increasing production efficiency and lowering associated costs. Such scaling down has also increased the complexity of IC processing and manufacturing. For these advances to be realized, similar developments in IC processing and manufacturing are needed. For example when geometry sizes of ICs are getting smaller and smaller, a thermal budget of processes in IC fabrication presents new challenges. As an example, when a high temperature process is used in the formation of dielectric isolation region, deformations of existing fine features may occur. It is desired to have improvements in this area.

Method of semiconductor integrated circuit fabrication

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A vehicle stop maintaining system comprises an automatic transmission, an automatic stop-restart mechanism for automatically stopping and restarting an engine, a foot brake mechanism for braking vehicle wheels through hydraulic brake mechanisms, a brake force control mechanism having a pressurizer that increases hydraulic brake pressure applied to the hydraulic brake mechanisms, and for braking the wheels by controlling the pressurizer independently from brake pedal depression, a controller configured to maintain a vehicle stopped state by operating the automatic stop-restart mechanism to stop the engine and operating the brake force control mechanism to keep initial hydraulic brake pressure according to the brake pedal depression, and a drive force state determining module for determining a drive force stabilized timing. The controller operates the automatic stop-restart mechanism to restart the engine and operates the brake force control mechanism to release the initial hydraulic brake pressure when accelerator pedal depression is detected.

The present invention relates to a stop maintaining system of a vehicle, particularly to a stop maintaining system of a vehicle which is capable of reducing generation of creep groan.
As conventional brake devices of vehicles, foot brake devices which brake vehicle wheels by applying hydraulic brake pressure to hydraulic brake mechanisms according to a depression of a brake pedal, brake force control devices which include a pressurizer for increasing hydraulic brake pressure applied to hydraulic brake mechanisms, and brake vehicle wheels by controlling the pressurizer independently from the depression of a brake pedal, and electric parking brake devices which brake vehicle wheels by operating electric brake mechanisms which are driven by electric actuators independently from the depression of a brake pedal, are known.
Further, arts for reducing, when a vehicle is detected to be in a stopped state, a burden on a vehicle driver which accompanies the depression of a brake pedal by operating an electric parking brake device which is represented by an Anti-lock Brake System (ABS) or a Dynamic Stability Control (DSC) system, are proposed.
JP4961857B discloses an automatic brake force control device of a vehicle. While an auto hold control for maintaining a stopped state of a vehicle by maintaining hydraulic brake pressure due to the depression of a brake pedal by a vehicle driver is performed, if an auto hold control release condition (e.g., an accelerator pedal is depressed) is satisfied, the automatic brake force control device sharply reduces the hydraulic brake pressure at a first gradient and then at a timing when a brake force corresponding to the hydraulic brake pressure matches a drive force of an engine, gently reduces the hydraulic brake pressure at a second gradient which is gentler than the first gradient.
Thus, a shock which occurs immediately after starting the vehicle is reduced while lowering a burden on the driver.
Meanwhile, in order to improve fuel consumption and emission performance, vehicles including an engine automatic stop-restart mechanism are known.
In such a vehicle including the engine automatic stop-restart mechanism, when a stopped state of the vehicle is detected due to a traffic light etc. during traveling, the engine is stopped by cutting fuel supply to the engine, and then when depression of an accelerator pedal is detected, the fuel supply to the engine is started to restart the engine.
In vehicles mounted with an automatic transmission including a torque converter, when shifting from a stopped state where a brake pedal is depressed to starting by loosening the depression of the brake pedal, a stick-slip phenomenon occurs between friction surfaces of a brake pad and a rotor disk within a given hydraulic brake pressure range, thus, an abnormal sound (creep groan) occurs.
The creep groan is considered to occur in the following manner. In a vehicle start, energy is accumulated once the hydraulic brake pressure is maintained until around when the brake force corresponding to the hydraulic brake pressure matches the drive force of the engine, while causing an elastic deformation in a friction member of the brake pad.
This accumulated energy is released at once after the brake force corresponding to the hydraulic brake pressure matches the drive force of the engine, and converted into a periodic force variation, i.e., repetition of a static-frictional engagement and a dynamic-frictional engagement. This vibration force causes resonance around the brake and suspension.
The automatic brake force control device of JP4961857B controls a latter part of a release characteristic of the hydraulic brake pressure to be the second gradient which is gentler than the first gradient which is the release rate for an early part of the release. Thus, a jump start of the vehicle is prevented and a starting performance is improved.
However, with the art of JP4961857B, since the second gradient which is the release rate for the latter part is gentler than the first gradient which is the release rate for the early part, a period of time for which the hydraulic brake pressure remains within a stick-slip occurable range within which the repetition of the static-frictional engagement and the dynamic-frictional engagement may occur becomes long and the creep groan may occur for a while.
Although it may be considered to increase the release rate of the hydraulic brake pressure in order to shorten the time for the hydraulic brake pressure to pass the stick-slip occurable range, there is a concern of degradation of the starting performance of the vehicle. Especially with the vehicle equipped with the engine automatic stop-restart mechanism, since a hydraulic brake pressure release condition is the same as an engine restart condition and the hydraulic brake pressure is released at the same time as when the engine restarts, if the release rate of the hydraulic brake pressure is simply increased, the vehicle wheels begin to be driven (the vehicle starts traveling) even though the drive force of the engine is not stabilized, and the engine may stall (cause a misfire).


An IR detector for use in an array of detectors is provided with better thermal resolution resulting in increased range and increased contrast for a standard 30 frame per second frame rate includes a support structure for the detector made from thermoelectric material supports which transports heat away from the detecting material during each readout cycle just after the instantaneous reading has been made. By removing heat thermoelectrically from the detector, detector sensitivity is improved, higher frame rates are achievable and an improved fill factor is the result of being able to more closely pack the detector elements.

In focal plane arrays, current microbolometer uncooled technology is based on micro-machined structures that support a thermally sensitive material which involves a change in resistance in material based on incoming infrared radiation. When an array of such detectors is utilized, each of the individual detector elements is thermally isolated from its base or substrate through the utilization of relatively thin conductors, two per detector, which go from contact pads on the detector and snake about to contact pads on the substrate. The purpose of this type of mounting system is to provide a low thermal conductivity mounting device. The reason for the low thermal conductivity is to increase sensitivity. This means that all of the incident energy is converted to a signal and is not leaked out by virtue of heat exiting through the mounting apparatus.
During the detector readout procedure a current probes the resistive element and the change in resistance over an initialized value is read out. However, passing electricity or current pulse through the detector to be able to readout the change in resistance heats the detector.
Note that the voltage corresponding to the incident IR radiation is read out during the current pulse. After the readout, the current is removed and the temperature increase dissipates back to an equilibrium temperature. As will be appreciated, one must let the detector cool down between cycles which means to promote rapid cooling one needs a good thermal conductor for the mounting device for the detector. By rapidly cooling one could achieve a high frame rate.
However, using a high thermal conductivity mounting device severely reduces sensitivity. There is therefore a need for some type of mounting device that will not affect good sensitivity, yet permit high frame rate readouts.
The high frame rate is a requirement for heat seeking missiles in which there are high dynamics in the scene. In order to be able to track rapidly moving images one needs a frame rate in excess of 200 frames per second. However, because of the need for low thermal coefficient mounting devices for sensitivity, the cool down of the detector after a readout pulse is much too slow for such an application.
Moreover, other circuit elements in the IR detection system throw off heat and it is for this reason that it is desirable to thermally isolate the detector from its substrate as much as possible. This as well as sensitivity is the reason for the utilization of the thin electrical conductors which do not result in a significant amount of heat being transmitted from the substrate to the detector or vice versa.
There is however a further problem with the thin serpentine electrical conductors. The use of these thin electrical conductors in a looped or serpentine structure in which the detector in essence sits unanchored to the substrate but for the conductors takes a considerable amount of real estate. This in turn deleteriously affects the fill factor of an array of such a detectors such that the area for the detectors may be as low as 60% of the overall area. Detectors spaced apart in this position lower the overall resolution of the array, it is therefore important to be able to have a detector mounting system that thermally isolates the detector from the substrate while at the same time occupying virtually no additional space in the lateral direction.
One U.S. Patent which attempts to provide for a small pixel high fill factor uncooled focal point array is that which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,030. In this patent a thermal isolation structure is utilized to mount the detectors to a substrate. The thermal isolation structure is coupled to and spaced from the sensor which involves connection to the optically absorptive material structure. In this patent it is said that the thermal isolation structure facilitates very high fill factors even when the pixel size is shrunk below the base line 50-micron size.
In essence what this patent shows is a serpentine structure underneath the photodetector which provides the same type of thermal isolation as the serpentine conductors discussed above which are to either side of the detector. However, the thermal isolation structure while addressing fill factor fails to address the requirements of high frame rates or sensitivity.
It will be appreciated that the ideal thermal detector would have a 100% conversion of thermal energy to an observable resistance or capacitance change or the generation of a voltage potential. In order to do so it is important that the detector be thermally isolated so that all the received thermal energy is converted. It is also desirable to have the detector quickly return to an equilibrium temperature after the termination of the readout pulse. These two requirements are in opposition.
Note that for microbolometers the conversion efficiency is only in the 2 to 4% range, making thermal isolation extremely important.
To achieve increased sensitivity, low thermal conductivity supports are used to hold the detecting material. How low this can go is a problem if one wants high frame rates. In operation, after a period of integration the resistance change is determined by applying a bias voltage and measuring the resulting current or by applying a pulse of current and detecting voltage. This adds heat to the detector that must be dissipated within a short period of time for a high frame rate. For TV video frame rates at 60 Hertz, (e.g., 30 frames per second) this means that the device must settle in 16 milliseconds, e.g., the device must have a time constant of about 5 milliseconds. This requirement places a lower limit on the thermal conductivity of the support structure, and thus negatively impacts sensitivity.

BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc.


An apparatus for the closed-loop and open-loop control of filament heating for a lamp, in particular for a fluorescent lamp, has a control loop into which a first filament (W1), an operational-parameter detection element (E), a heating controller (H) and a first actuating element (S1) are connected. The heating poser of the first filament (W1) is detected by means of the operational-parameter detection element (E) and, on the basis of this, a manipulated variable (SG) is determined, by means of which this first filament (W1) is subjected to closed-loop control. Furthermore, at least one second filament (W2 to Wn), which is not connected in the control loop, is controlled on the basis of the determined manipulated variable (SG).

It is necessary to use filament heating systems for lamps, in particular fluorescent lamps. In the case of known filament heating systems, it is conventional for them not to be subjected to closed-loop control. In particular in the case of dimmable fluorescent lamps, there is a reduction in the discharge current in an operation in which the light from the lamps is reduced by means of a dimmer. This results in the heating of the filaments likewise being reduced, and it therefore being necessary to carry out additional heating externally. In the case of the known filament heating systems, it is therefore necessary for dedicated ballasts to have been developed, depending on the number of lamps to be operated, since the additional heating was dependent on the number of lamps.

Method and apparatus for the closed loop and open loop control of filament heating for lamps

Patent-Treuhand-Gesellschaft fur Elektrisch Gluhlampen mbH


A device for differential-mode processing of an incident voltage relative to a reference voltage includes a differential circuit including a voltage/current conversion block having a differential input, designed to receive the incident voltage at a first input and the reference voltage at a second input. A current amplification block includes a gain module and a current subtraction module. A current/voltage conversion block includes an operational amplifier with differential transimpedance supplied with a common-mode voltage, receiving the two currents output from the amplification block at its input, and delivering two calibrated opposing voltages at its output that are centered around the common-mode voltage.

The invention may be applied advantageously, but is not limited to, the reading of an optical signal, in particular in optical disk reader systems. In these systems, the processing circuit is situated between a photodetector and an analog-digital converter to adapt the signal coming from the photodetector to the input range of the analog-digital converter. The amplitude of the incident voltage can vary depending on the quantity of light emitted by the reader system laser and received by the processing circuit. This quantity of light can vary because of defects in optical disks and voltage offsets generated by the various components of the circuit.
An approach developed by the Applicant in the Patent FR-2 820 307 proposes an asymmetric processing circuit. This processing circuit, with 'single-end' architecture, notably has a variable-gain converter followed by a current/voltage converter. But, at the output of the current/current converter, the current level can be very high and incompatible with the input range of the voltage/current converter. This circuit therefore includes two compensation circuits as an approach to this problem. However, such an approach turns out to be relatively complex to implement. Moreover, such a processing circuit is a source of harmonic distortion. In addition, it has a relatively low noise-rejection ratio and the structure has a stability problem at very high frequency.

Method for differential-mode processing of an incident voltage relative to a reference voltage and corresponding device


A ring binder mechanism for retaining loose leaf pages. The mechanism includes an elongate plate, hinge plates supported by the plate for pivoting motion relative to the plate, and ring members mounted on the hinge plates which are moveable between a closed position and an open position. A control structure controllably pivots the hinge plates to thereby move the ring members between the closed and open positions. The control structure includes a single actuator at one end of the mechanism, a travel bar movable relative to the elongate plate, and two connecting links operatively connecting the travel bar to the hinge plates. The control structure is configured to selectively place the mechanism in a locked position wherein the ring members are securely closed.

This invention relates to binders for holding loose leaf pages, and in particular to an improved mechanism for opening and closing binders.
A ring binder retains loose leaf pages, such as hole-punched papers, in a file or notebook. It features ring members for retaining the papers which may be selectively opened to add or remove papers, or closed to retain papers while allowing them to be moved along the ring members. Levers are typically provided on both ends of the binder for moving the ring members between the open and closed positions.
One drawback to ring binders of the prior art is that when ring members are being closed, they snap shut with a strong magnitude of force which can cause injury. When ring members are fully closed, that strong clamping force is necessary to securely lock the binder and prevent its unintentional opening. Unfortunately, that magnitude of force is also applied to the ring members while they are being opened or closed, causing difficulty in opening and closing the ring members, as well as the hazardous snapping action. Further, the clamping force within each ring is not uniform with the clamping force in other rings, causing uneven movement and potentially resulting in gaps on closed rings.
Among the several objects and features of the present invention may be noted the provision of a ring binder mechanism which inhibits injury to operators; the provision of such a mechanism which is easily opened or closed; the provision of such a mechanism which provides uniform clamping force in each ring; and the provision of such a mechanism which may be securely locked.
Generally, a ring binder mechanism according to the present invention retains loose leaf pages. The mechanism comprises a generally rigid, elongate plate having a longitudinal axis and hinge plates supported by the plate for pivoting motion relative to the elongate plate. Rings hold the loose leaf pages, the rings including ring members mounted on the hinge plates and moveable by the hinge plates between a closed position wherein the ring members of each ring form a substantially continuous, closed loop for allowing loose leaf pages retained by the rings to be moved along the ring from one ring member to the other, and an open position wherein the ring members of each ring form a discontinuous, open loop for adding or removing loose leaf pages from the rings. A control structure is supported by the elongate plate for movement relative to the elongate plate for controllably pivoting the hinge plates to thereby move the ring members between the closed and open positions. The control structure comprises a travel bar movable in translation relative to the elongate plate and a connecting link pivotally connecting the travel bar to the hinge plates for moving the hinge plates between the closed and open positions.
In another aspect, a ring binder mechanism according to the present invention comprises a generally rigid, elongate plate having a longitudinal axis and two ends. Hinge plates are supported by the elongate plate for pivoting motion relative to the elongate plate. Rings hold the loose leaf pages, the rings including ring members mounted on the hinge plates and moveable by the hinge plates between a closed position wherein the ring members of each ring form a substantially continuous, closed loop for allowing loose leaf pages retained by the rings to be moved along the ring from one ring member to the other, and an open position wherein the ring members of each ring form a discontinuous, open loop for adding or removing loose leaf pages from the rings. A control structure is supported by the elongate plate for movement relative to the elongate plate. The control structure comprises a pivotally movable actuator located generally at one end of the elongate plate and pivotally mounted thereto, the other end being free of any actuator. The control structure engages the hinge plates at least at two spaced apart locations for controllably pivoting the hinge plates to thereby move the ring members between the closed and open positions.
In yet a further aspect, a method according to the present invention opens or closes a ring binder mechanism having ring members for retaining loose leaf pages and an elongate support plate. The method comprises the steps of mounting the ring members on pivotable hinge plates such that pivoting of the hinge plates moves the ring members between open and closed positions. The hinge plates are operatively connected with a travel bar that is moveable in translation generally lengthwise of the elongate plate, including placing at least one pivotally movable connecting link between the hinge plates and the travel bar such that force is transmitted from the bar to the hinge plates to produce pivotal motion of the hinge plates. Force is applied to the actuating bar to move the bar and thereby open or close the ring members.
Other objects and features of the present invention will be in part apparent and in part pointed out hereinafter.

World Wide Stationery Manufacturing Company, Limited


In a departure standby state in which a transmission is shifted to a drive stage and a mechanical clutch is disengaged, if a vehicle speed is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, the transmission is shifted to the neutral, and then the mechanical clutch is engaged. Then, it is determined whether the transmission is being rotated in reverse or not based on a rotational fluctuation on the driving side or the driven side in the process for engaging the mechanical clutch. When an accelerator pedal is pressed down at an angle greater than or equal to a predetermined angle, or when a gear shift instruction is input from the shift lever, if the transmission is being rotated in reverse the transmission is inhibited from being shifted to the drive stage, while if the transmission is not being rotated in reverse the transmission is shifted to the drive stage according to the pressed down state of the accelerator pedal, or a gear shift in instruction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for controlling an automatic transmission including a mechanical clutch and a mechanical transmission and, in particular, to a technique for protecting a mechanical clutch when a vehicle moves backward in a so-called hill start.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, automatic transmissions have been proposed (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-165294), that are configured to electronically control a mechanical clutch and a mechanical transmission (this type of transmissions will be hereunder referred to as "mechanical automatic transmissions"), thereby automatically changing gear to a drive stage according to traveling conditions. In a mechanical automatic transmission, since there is no fluid clutch (torque converter) in the driving force transmission system from the engine to the driving wheels, the driving force transmission efficiency is high, so that it is possible to improve fuel consumption. Furthermore, since there is no slipping sensation, which is peculiar to a fluid clutch, it is also possible to improve the drivability.
Incidentally, when starting on an uphill, when the brake is released from a departure standby state in which the transmission is shifted to the forward stage and the mechanical clutch is disengaged, there is a possibility that the vehicle moves backward due to gravity. At this tine, if the accelerator pedal is pressed down to start moving without noticing the vehicle moving backwards, since the input shaft of the transmission is reversed, the mechanical clutch is engaged in a state in which the relative rotational speed is high. Thus, there is concern that the mechanical clutch might be damaged. Conversely, on a downhill, when the brake is released from a departure standby state, there is a possibility that the vehicle is moved forward due to gravity. At this time, if the accelerator pedal is pressed down to start moving from a state in which the vehicle speed is high, the mechanical clutch is engaged in a state in which the rotation speed of the input shaft of the transmission is higher than the engine rotation speed. Therefore, there is concern not only that the mechanical clutch might be damaged, but that the engine be over-revolved.
In order to prevent such an undesirable situation from occurring, conventional techniques have prevented damage to the mechanical clutch by shifting the transmission to the neutral at the point in time when the vehicle speed reaches a predetermined value while in a departure standby state. Then, when the accelerator pedal or shift lever is operated after the transmission is shifted to the neutral, the transmission shifts automatically to the drive stage according to the operation, and starts driving straight away.
However, since the gearshift is performed according to the operation of the accelerator pedal or the shift lever, when the vehicle moves backward on an uphill, the mechanical clutch is sometimes engaged as before in a state in which the relative rotational speed is high. Therefore, there is concern that the mechanical clutch gets damage. There is also concern that such an undesirable situation may similarly occur, when an attempt is made to start the vehicle in reverse on a downhill.
Furthermore, a typical rotational speed sensor detects rotational speed by detecting the teeth of a gear using an electromagnetic pick up or a Hall element. In this case, since the rotational speed sensor detects only the teeth of the gear, it can only measure the absolute value of the rotational speed regardless of the direction of rotation. As a result, in the case where an occurrence of a reverse rotation of the transmission is to be determined using the rotational speed sensor, two rotational speed sensors must be installed for the same gear with their positional phases shifted, and the existence of a reverse rotation must be determined from the phase difference of their output signals. However, this method requires space to install the two rotational speed sensors, and installation accuracy, and also requires an electric circuit for exclusive use to perform signal processing with high accuracy. Hence, there is a problem of cost, and furthermore the burden on the control software is large.

Apparatus for and method of controlling automatic transmission


A panning head for a photographic tripod or the like has a base and a panning body rotatable about a pan axis. A pivot shaft on the base extends into a cavity in the panning body, and a transverse forked retaining wedge captures the shaft to keep the base and panning body together, and includes an exteriorly accessible screw setting for adjusting the degree of friction between the two and consequently the effort required to turn the panning body on the base.

Previous panheads have lacked an easy adjustment by which the resistance to movement of the panning swivel could be easily adjusted without disassembling the panhead, so as to eliminate loose play between the stationary base of the panhead and the panning body which is swiveled to the base for horizontal rotation. Japanese Patent Office Bulletin No. 19433.1985 is exemplary of this shortcoming in the prior art. In order to obtain a suitable resistance to panning movement in this previous panhead, very precise manufacturing tolerances and assembly was required which in turn lowered manufacturing productivity while increasing the ultimate cost of the device.
In still another prior art panhead disclosed in Japanese Patent Office Bulletin No. 133294,1985, the movable panning support is held to the stationary base of the panhead by means of a nut which can be tightened or loosened to adjust the resistance to panning movement. However, the nut is enclosed in the base of the unit and covered by a bottom plate which has to be removed before access to this nut can be gained. The result is considerable inconvenience in making such adjustment once the unit has been assembled. Any final adjustments require disassembly and therefore reduced factory productivity.
In such prior art units, as the panning resistance of the panhead is not readily adjusted, the swivel assembly became either too tight or excessively loose and in order to avoid this outcome precise manufacturing tolerances were required at substantial cost in productivity and labor expense. Even where a tightening function was provided in the prior art units, access was restricted. A continuing need therefore exists for a readily accessible and easy to make adjustment by which the tightness or resistance to movement of the panning, movable support element of the panhead can be effected relative to the stationary base of the unit. Such adjustment should not complicate the construction or assembly of the panhead nor significantly increase its cost.


A multiple virtual space control in a multiple virtual storage system having an address translation table used to translate a logical address to a real address, a control register for holding a start address of the address translation table or a space identifier (hereinafter represented by address translation table start address) and an address translation buffer containing a pair of logical address and real address and an address translation table start address for translating a logical address to a real address, in order to update the content of the control register to switch the virtual space. A group identifier comprising a plurality of bits for identifying an area common to a group of virtual spaces is added to an entry of the address translation table, an entry of the address translation buffer and the control register. When a logical address is to be translated to a real address, if there is an entry having a logical address and an address translation table start address equal to the memory request logical address and the address translation table start address of the control register, or an entry having a logical address and a group identifier equal to the memory request logical address and the group identifier of the control register, in the address translation buffer, the real address of the entry is rendered valid and used for memory access.

The present invention relates to method and apparatus for translating an address of a computer system which adopts a virtual memory scheme, and more particularly to method and apparatus for controlling multiple virtual spaces suitable for address translation where there is a common area among a portion of the virtual address space in a multiple virtual storage system.
In the computer system of the virtual memory scheme, a memory address is given by an address on a virtual space (that is, a logical address). Accordingly, when a main storage is to be accessed, it is necessary to translate the logical address to an address on the main storage (that is, a real address). The address translation is carried out by looking up an address translation table (usually comprising a segment table and page tables) provided in the main storage. Pairs of logical addresses and real addresses obtained by the address translation are usually registered or stored in an address translation buffer or translation lookaside buffer (TLB), and for the logical address requested for the memory access, the corresponding real address is looked up from the TLB so that the address translation is carried out at a high speed.
On the other hand, in a multi-process multiple virtual storage system, a virtual space is allotted for each job and an address translation table is provided for each virtual space. Switching of virtual spaces due to switching of jobs is carried out under control of an operating system (OS) of a computer system, such as Hitachi VOS3, by rewriting a start address of the address translation table or rewriting a content of an address control register (ATOR) which holds a space identifier. In this case, in addition to the logical address (LA) and the real address (RA), the content (ATO) of the address control register are held in the TLB. When the object real address is to be looked up from the TLB, the coincidence of the corresponding virtual spaces as well as the coincidence of the logical addresses is checked.
In such a multiple virtual storage system, a common area to respective virtual spaces is indicated by adding a common segment bit (C bit) in the TLB. When the C bit is "1" (indicating the presence of the common area), the start address of the address translation table or the space identifier held in the TLB is ignored, and if the logical address from the memory address register and the logical address of the TLB are equal, the corresponding real address is considered valid and the accessing to the main storage is carried out thereby. In the multiple virtual computer system, a computer identifier (CN bit) is set to an area common to the virtual computers, and a pair consisting of a logical address and a real address registered in the TLB is rendered valid by a logical product (AND) condition of the C bit and the CN bit.
This type of virtual space control system is shown in JP-A-60-68443 filed by the assignee of the present application and published on Apr. 19, 1985.
The prior art described above is effective in enhancing a hit rate of the address translation buffer when the common area which is common to all virtual spaces is used, but it does not give consideration to a case where there is a common area among a portion of virtual spaces. When the common area is set for the portion of virtual spaces, the hit rate of the address translation buffer decreases and the number of times of rewriting of the buffer increases. Data in the common area can be readily read from or updated by any virtual space so that security for the data and programs of the respective virtual spaces is not sufficiently assured. Accordingly, the prior art system is hardly applicable to an area which is to be shared by only specified spaces.

Method and apparatus for generating a real address multiple virtual address spaces of a storage


A power envelope controller configured for use with an amplification stage and method are disclosed. The power envelope controller includes voltage feedback input circuitry configured to receive a voltage feedback signal representing an internal voltage drop across the amplification stage and current feedback input circuitry configured to receive a current feedback signal representing an output current of the amplification stage. An analog multiplier is configured to generate an internal power dissipation signal representing the internal power dissipation of the amplification stage based on the voltage and current feedback signals. A comparator circuit is configured to compare the internal power dissipation signal to a power threshold and generate a power control error signal when the internal power dissipation of the amplification stage exceeds the threshold.

Source measure units (SMU) are used to make precision measurements in many fields, including the testing of semiconductor products. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,039,934 describes one such device and range-changing in such a device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,144,154, both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. Source measure units force either a voltage or a current and then respectively measure a resulting current or voltage. SMUs may operate in source or sink mode. Internal power dissipation is equal to the output current multiplied by the difference in the internal voltage supply and the output voltage. Because sinkmode current is returned to the opposite voltage supply rail internally, the internal power dissipation in sinkmode is twice the maximum internal power dissipation in sourcemode. For this reason, output stage amplifiers and cooling are commonly designed for the worst-case (sinkmode) power dissipation. This usually results in over-designed cooling for the majority of users since sinkmode is typically used less often than sourcemode. Sometimes thermal monitoring is performed in the background, which is slow to respond and not necessarily robust. It is desirable to provide improved techniques for monitoring the safe operating areas of an SMU in both source and sinkmode operation.


Roughly described, a first radio is configured to operate according to a first protocol and configured to use a coexistence signaling scheme with a second radio configured to operate according to a second protocol, wherein the coexistence signaling scheme is configured to allow a radio configured to operate according to the second protocol to be co-located and non-interfering with a radio configured to operate according to a protocol different to the first protocol, and wherein the first radio comprises behavioral logic for generating messages for the second radio in accordance with the coexistence signaling scheme to cause the second radio to adopt behavior suitable for coexistence with the first radio.

This invention relates to communication in environments where interference from signals relating to one communication protocol can hinder the reception of signals relating to another communication protocol.
One example of such an environment is when transceivers for two protocols that occupy the same or adjacent frequency bands are located close to each other or even in the same device: for instance a handheld communication device. As an example, a transceiver for IEEE 802.11a/j wireless LAN (local area network) signals could be located near to or in the same device as a transceiver for Ultra-Wideband (UWB) signals. Some combinations of IEEE 802.11a/j and Ultra-Wideband channels, even those that only partially overlap in frequency bandwidth, resulting in mutual interference between the two protocols. Because of this mutual interference it is desirable to adopt a coexistence scheme that enhances the ability of a receiver for one of those protocols to operate in the presence of interference from signals of the other protocol.
The IEEE 802.11 standard is defined in the following documents, among others: IEEE Computer Society, IEEE Standard for Information technology—Telecommunications and information exchange between systems—Local and metropolitan area networks—Specific requirements, Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications, IEEE Std 802.11™ 2007 (Jun. 12, 2007); IEEE Computer Society, Supplement to IEEE Standard for Information technology—Telecommunications and information exchange between systems—Local and metropolitan area networks—Specific requirements—Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) specifications—High-speed Physical Layer in the 5 GHz Band, IEEE Std 802.11a-1999(R2003) (Jun. 12, 2003); and IEEE Computer Society, IEEE Standard for Information technology—Telecommunications and information—exchange between systems—Local and metropolitan area networks—Specific requirements—Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) specifications—Amendment 4: Further Higher Data Rate Extension in the 2.4 GHz Band, IEEE Std 802.11g™-2003 (Jun. 27, 2003). All these documents are incorporated herein by reference. As used herein, an IEEE 802.11 radio, transceiver or protocol is a radio, transceiver or protocol that conforms in relevant respects to the 2007 standard above, whether or not it also conforms to either 2003 standard above or any other version of the IEEE 802.11 standard.
There are many known coexistence schemes that allow Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11 to coexist. These include the 2-wire and 3-wire de-facto industry standard coexistence signaling systems, described by documents. The 3-wire standard is shown in PCT applications WO/2006/090242 and WO/2006/090254. However, these coexistence schemes were designed to operate with Bluetooth and cannot simply be used with a UWB radio to allow UWB and IEEE 802.11 to coexist as the nature of UWB transmission and reception is different to that of Bluetooth. Therefore, there is a need for a method of allowing a UWB radio to be used with existing Bluetooth coexistence enabled IEEE 802.11 hardware.
The Bluetooth standard is defined in Bluetooth SIG, Specification of the Bluetooth System, v2.1+EDR (Jul. 26, 2007), incorporated herein by reference. As used herein, a Bluetooth radio, transaction, slot or protocol is a radio, transaction, slot or protocol which conforms in relevant respects to this specification, whether or not it also conforms to other versions of such specification.
An IEEE 802.11 radio operates on a frequency-static channel that can be on one of 14 channels within the range 2400-2480 MHz for IEEE 802.11b/g (same as Bluetooth) or on one of many channels within the range 4900-5850 MHz for IEEE 802.11a/j. The effect of the two radios on each other's operation will depend on the degree to which their channels are separated by frequency difference between their channels and the relative strength of each signal. The closer the channels are, the greater the interference and the stronger one signal is, the more the other signal will suffer from interference.
The UWB specification is defined by the WiMedia Alliance MultiBand OFDM Physical Later Specification or 'ECMA-368'. It is defined in ECMA International, High Rate Ultra Wideband PHY and MAC Standard, 3rd ed. (December 2008) and in ECMA International, High Rate Ultra Wideband PHY and MAC Standard, 2nd ed. (December 2007), both of which are incorporated by reference herein. As used herein, the term Ultra-wideband radio, transceiver, protocol, beacon, reservation, transmission, preamble or activity is any radio, transceiver, protocol, beacon, reservation, transmission, preamble or activity that conforms to the relevant aspects of the ECMA-368 specification, 2nd edition, whether or not it also conforms to the 3rd edition or any subsequent revision of that specification.
ECMA-368 defines 6 Band Groups within which the UWB radio can operate; Band Group 1 defines a frequency bandwidth of between 3168 MHz and 4752 MHz, Band Group 2 defines a bandwidth of between 4752 MHz and 6336 MHz, Band Group 3 defines a bandwidth of between 6336 MHz and 7920 MHz, Band Group 4 defines a bandwidth of between 7920 MHz and 9504 MHz, and Band Group 5 defines a bandwidth of between 9504 MHz and 10560 MHz. Band Group 6 operates between 7392 MHz and 8976 MHz, i.e. it overlaps Band Groups 3 and 4.
Current UWB devices are Band Group 1, but future UWB devices used as higher-speed radios for Bluetooth will use frequencies above 6 GHz, due to concerns from cellular phone companies that UWB would interfere with WiMAX or other cellular radios. The Bluetooth SIG are mandating operation above 6 GHz, but some devices may continue using Band Group 1 due to either performance or compatibility reasons.
Due to both regulatory constraints and those from other organisations (such as the WiMedia Alliance and the Bluetooth SIG), any particular selection of intercommunicating UWB radios are unlikely to have any choice regarding the Band Group that they respectively use. There will usually be a choice of Band Group for new connections, although it will often be limited. However, if there is a pre-existing beacon group then new devices will often adopt its channel (Band Group and hopping sequence) rather than selecting their own. They may, however, have an option to select the hopping sequence—where one of the options is to stay on a single band (at a lower power level) rather than spreading the signal across three bands. There are also hopping sequences that use any two of the three bands in a Band Group.
In the case of a UWB receiver using Band Group 1, as an example, a greater than +5 dBm IEEE 802.11b/g signal might prevent UWB reception, as might a greater than −12 dBm IEEE 802.11a signal. Assuming 20 dB antenna isolation between the UWB and IEEE 802.11 antennas and a 20 dBm IEEE 802.11 output power this would mean that an IEEE 802.11b/g transmitter would not cause interference problems for the UWB receiver unit but an IEEE 802.11a transmitter would block the UWB receiver from receiving. A Band Group 2 UWB radio would suffer even worse from IEEE 802.11a transmissions. On the other hand, a Band Group 5 radio would be unlikely to have any problems.
FIG. 1 shows a hardware arrangement according to the prior art which uses more than one radio protocol. The system comprises a transceiver 1 for sending and receiving signals according to a first radio protocol and transceiver 2 for sending and receiving signals according to a second radio protocol. The transceiver 1 and transceiver 2 are co-located in a device 100.
In FIG. 1, the first radio protocol is IEEE 802.11 and the second radio protocol is Bluetooth. In the Bluetooth protocol, the timings of transmission of signals by the transmitter 2 can be influenced and varied during operation.
Transceiver 1 and transceiver 2 are connected using a '2-wire' coexistence scheme. This consists of two single bit data means 3 and 4, which allow transceivers 1 and 2 to exchange data regarding their respective current transmission and reception activities. By enforcing a set of rules which dictate behavior of the respective radio transceivers based on the high or low assertions of the single bit data means, transmissions from one transceiver which conflict with the transmission or reception of the other transceiver can be avoided.
The '2-wire' coexistence scheme, as shown in FIG. 1, is the simplest common coexistence signaling scheme, and uses two wires most commonly called WLAN_Active and BT_Priority respectively:                BT_Priority (3) is asserted by the Bluetooth radio whenever it is receiving (or optionally when transmitting) a packet that it considers to be high priority. Anything other than bulk data is normally considered to be high priority; this includes device discovery, connection creation, link maintenance, and voice traffic.        WLAN_Active (4) is asserted by the IEEE 802.11 radio whenever it is receiving or transmitting. Some implementations assert this signal whenever the radio is not in power-save, but others only assert it during actual packet reception or transmission.
FIG. 2 shows a similar hardware arrangement to that shown in FIG. 1. However, in FIG. 2, transceiver 1 and transceiver 2 are connected using a '3-wire' coexistence scheme (or '4-wire' if BT_InBand is implemented). This consists of three single bit data signaling means 10, 11, and 12 (and 13 if you include the BT_InBand data signaling means), which allow transceivers 1 and 2 to exchange data regarding their respective next or current transmission and reception activities. As per the '2-wire' scheme, by enforcing a set of rules which dictate behavior of the respective radio transceivers based on transitions and levels of the data means, transmissions from one transceiver which conflict with the transmission or reception of the other transceiver can be avoided.
The '3-wire' coexistence scheme, as shown in FIG. 2, is the most common coexistence signaling scheme and comprises an IEEE 802.11 radio and a Bluetooth radio, and uses three wires, which will be called here BT_Active, BT_Status and WLAN_Active. These are occasionally supplemented by a fourth wire which will be called BT_InBand:                BT_Active (12) is asserted for Bluetooth transactions.        BT_Status (11) provides information about the priority and direction (transmit or receive) of the Bluetooth activity.        BT_InBand (13), if present, indicates whether the Bluetooth activity is on a frequency that overlaps the channel being used by the IEEE 802.11 radio.        WLAN_Active (10) is asserted by the IEEE 802.11 radio to prevent the Bluetooth radio from transmitting. Some implementations assert this continuously when the IEEE 802.11 radio is active, but others only drive it in response to BT_Active being asserted.UWB Transmit and Receive Activity
There are two main types of activity according to the UWB protocol that benefit from protection from interference from another transceiver using a different protocol:
Beacons—Every 65 ms there is a beacon that is composed of transmissions from all devices in the UWB network. These may vary in length from 0.2 ms to >20 ms depending on the number of devices in the network. If three successive beacons are not received by a particular device then the device will drop its connection, so it is very important that this does not occur.
Reservations—Each beacon reserves slots for particular devices to exchange data. If a device has only reserved a very few slots then it is important that the device gets to use those particular slots otherwise no data transfer will occur. This method is formally referred to as Distributed Reservation Protocol (DRP). Another method is known as Prioritized Contention Access (PCA). The PCA approach allows any device to content for access to the medium (in a similar manner to IEEE 802.11) whenever it has not been reserved, but this is less efficient (the radios have to remain active) and this mode is not used by systems such as Wireless USB.


Embodiments for providing an elastic image are disclosed. In one embodiment, an ultrasound system comprises: an ultrasound data acquisition unit configured to transmit and receive ultrasound signals to and from a living body to output ultrasound data corresponding to a plurality of frames while applying compression to the living body; and a processing unit configured to extract frames from a (n−1)th frame to a (n−i)th frame on a basis of a nth frame, wherein n indicates an integer larger than one and i indicates a positive integer, detect an optimal frame for forming an elastic image among the extracted frames by using first displacement between the nth frame and each of the extracted frames based on the ultrasound data, calculate second displacement between the optimal frame and the nth frame based on the ultrasound data, and form the elastic image based on the second displacement.

Recently, an ultrasound system has been extensively used in the medical field due to its non-invasive and non-destructive nature. Modern high-performance ultrasound imaging systems and techniques are commonly used to produce two and three-dimensional ultrasound images of internal features of patients.
Generally, the ultrasound image is displayed in a Brightness mode (B-mode) by using reflectivity caused by an acoustic impedance difference between the tissues of a target object. However, if the reflectivity of the target object is hardly different from those of the neighboring tissues such as tumor, cancer or the like, then it is not easy to recognize the target object in the B-mode image. Further, an ultrasound elastic imaging technology has been developed to display an image of the target object by using mechanical characteristics of the target object. Such technology is very helpful for diagnosing lesions such as cancers. The tumor or cancer is relatively stiffer than the neighboring tissues. Thus, when pressure is uniformly applied, a variation of the tumor or cancer is typically smaller than those of the neighboring tissues.
The elasticity of a tissue is measured by using ultrasound data obtained before and after applying the pressure to the tissue. A compression plate mounted on an ultrasound probe may be used to apply the pressure to the tissue. A user may press the compression plate on the target object, thereby applying the pressure to the tissues of the target object. In such a case, strain data in the tissues may vary according to the pressure applied by the user. Thus, the video quality of an elastic image may be changed according to the pressure applied to the tissue.

Providing an elastic image in an ultrasound system


An improved pressure relief valve is disclosed which provides a simple inexpensive structure to exhaust a pressure filled bag, such as an airbag, in a controlled manner when the pressure in the bag exceeds a predetermined level.

1. Field of the Invention
In one aspect this invention relates to pressure vessel valves. In another aspect this invention relates to relief valves to restrict and control release of fluids from a container containing pressurized fluid.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Pressurized flexible containers are used in a number of applications such as automobile airbags, and gas or liquid filled bags in shock absorbing pads. Many times the flexible containers are initially sealed with the fluid under pressure or modest pressure but designed to have a release port which is activated when the vessel is stressed. The fluid in the vessel will exit in a controlled manner to provide a controlled cushioning action upon impact.
Many relief valve structures have been proposed. Generally the structures are either complex and expensive, or do not provide much control for the exhaust.


A microwave transceiver comprising a Gunn diode microwave radiation source, a Schottky-barrier diode mixer, a closed rectangular waveguide cavity, a coaxial-waveguide joint, and a monopole antenna providing a microwave radiation dispersion/collection pattern occupying a spatial region elevated from and extending radially outward and 360.degree. in azimuth with respect to said antenna, said spatial region having a substantially spatulate radial cross-section.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to motion detectors, and more particularly, to a microwave transceiver capable of detecting motion within a spatial region extending substantially radially outward and 360.degree. in azimuth with respect thereto.
2. Description of the Related Art
Area protection sensors and/or intrusion detection systems, such as those used in burglar alarms, typically include presence and/or motion detectors. Two general types of detectors are used: passive and active. An example of a passive detector is a passive infrared detector which detects the presence and/or motion of infrared radiation within a defined area to be protected.
An example of an active detector is a transceiver. The transceiver transmits and receives some form of radiation to detect the presence and/or motion of an object within the defined area to be protected. One example is an acoustic transceiver which transmits and receives acoustic radiation (e.g., ultrasonic, SONAR) to perform its detection function. Another example is a microwave transceiver which transmits and receives microwave radiation (typically frequencies greater than 1 Gigahertz) to perform its detection function.
In a microwave transceiver, the microwave radiation is typically coupled into free space and transmitted by way of a waveguide horn antenna. (See FIG. 1.) Such an antenna effectively radiates and collects the microwave radiation, however, its radiation dispersion and collection characteristics are not omni-directional. In fact, such an antenna exhibits a high degree of directivity, i.e., the edges of its radiation dispersion/collection characteristics extend outwardly at an acute mutual angle. Thus, such a waveguide antenna is limited to less than 180.degree. of coverage in the azimuth.
Although other types of antennas may be used to obtain an omni-directional radiation dispersion/collection pattern, typically they require additional external parts making them larger, more expensive and difficult to align/tune. For example, a reflector type of antenna may be used. But, such an antenna is typically significantly larger and does not provide uniform field strength within the radiated wave. As another example, a multiple element, or array, type of antenna may be used. However, such an antenna is significantly larger with tighter fabrication tolerances and requires a complex signal feeder.

Ceiling mount microwave transceiver with 360 degree radiation pattern


A method for manufacturing a compressor scroll that appropriately impinges cavitation bubbles on target regions of a scroll. The method includes the step of water jet peening by jetting cavitation bubbles generated underwater by a water jet at a first side of an end plate (13A) of the scroll (13), with a center (P1, P2, P3) of the cavitation bubbles being offset from a center (O) of the spiral shape of a wall portion (13B) on the end plate (13A) and the step portion (13Aa) and the stepped portion (13Ba) positioned at an outer peripheral portion of the cavitation bubbles (C).

Conventional scroll compressors include a fixed scroll with a spiral-shaped wall portion provided on a first side of an end plate and an orbiting scroll with a wall portion on a first side of an end plate with essentially the same spiral shape as that of the wall portion of the fixed scroll. The first sides of the end plates of the fixed scroll and the orbiting scroll are brought to face one another to assembly the wall portions together. In this mated state, the orbiting scroll orbits about the fixed scroll to gradually reduce the volume of the compression chamber formed between the wall portions and compress the fluid in the compression chamber.
An example of a conventional scroll for a compressor is described in the method of manufacturing a scroll compressor of Patent Document 1. In Patent Document 1, a fixed scroll and/or an orbiting scroll is rendered with a plurality of minute recesses on the side (wrap side) opposite the end plate (end cover) by being jetted with a fluid containing abrasive particles. This is to help with the retention of lubricating oil on the surface.
Additionally, for example, in the method of enhancing residual stress of a metallic material described in Patent Document 2, to prevent stress corrosion cracking at a weld portion of the metallic material and nearby, a fluid flow containing cavitation bubbles is impinged on the surface of the metallic material, the cavitation bubbles being generated by cavitation via water jet. The impact force generated by the collapse of the cavitation bubbles imparts compressive residual stress to the metallic material.

Method and device for manufacturing compressor scrolls, compressor scroll, and scroll compressor

MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES AUTOMOTIVE THERMAL SYSTEMS CO., LTD.