There is disclosed a femtosecond laser apparatus including a first laser material comprising Ng, Np and Nm axes spatially perpendicular to each other; a second laser material comprising Np axis, Nm axis and Ng axis; and a first laser diode and second laser diodes, wherein the traveling direction of laser beams generated from the first and second laser materials is substantially parallel to Ng axis of the first laser material and the polarizing direction of laser beams generated from the first and second laser materials is substantially parallel to Np axis of the first laser material, and the traveling direction of laser beams generated from the first and second laser materials is substantially parallel to Np axis of the second material and the polarizing direction of laser beams generated from the first and second laser materials is substantially parallel to Nm axis of the second laser material.

A femtosecond laser light source generates an ultrashort pulse having a high peak power and has a high average output of generated pulses. Examples of such a femtosecond laser light source include a femtosecond (fs) laser pulse. The femtosecond laser light sources have been broadly applied not only to basic science fields including ultrahigh speed aspectrochemistry, high energy physics, XUV-wave generation and the like but also to a variety of fields including microprecision laser processing, micro-surgery.
Generally, the femtosecond laser pulse has good properties. Examples of the good properties include a short pulse time width, a high peaking power and a broad spectrum bandwidth.
Such the femtosecond laser pulse may be applied to micro or nano processing of electronic components and optical components requiring ultraprecision. Examples of such electronic and optical components include a solar cell, an optical memory, a semiconductor and a flat panel display. Accordingly, demands on femtosecond pulse laser system for industry have been increasing.
To meet such demands on the femtosecond pulse laser system, conditions for applying the femtosecond laser pulse to the ultra precision laser processing will be described.
First of all, a laser pulse time width is much shorter than an electronphonon relaxation time of an object not to transmit a thermal energy generated in processing to a portion near a portion that will be processed (non-thermal processing).
That is called as cold ablation.
For example, the electronphonon relaxation time of aluminum is 4.27 picosecond (hereinafter, ps) and that of iron is 3.5 ps and that of copper is 57.5 ps.
Specifically, when femtosecond laser processing aluminum, laser pulse are applied to aluminum in a pulse time width that is a picoseconds or less for cold ablation.
Accordingly, the femtosecond laser is proper to the ultraprecision laser processing of cold ablation.
A femtosecond laser pulse in a femtosecond range can minimize thermal diffusion in a processing region and not cause the damage generated by latent heat. Accordingly, the femtosecond laser can process quite a hard material and have a short pulse time width as well as high pulse energy, with a high peak power, only to be advantageous to a nonlinear optical effect, namely, multi-photon absorption. Accordingly, the femtosecond laser can perform various nanometer scaled ultra precision processing of various materials. Examples of such various materials include glass, polymer and even transparent materials.
Second, processing object materials have an ablation threshold values that are approximately several J/cm2 or more. Considering the size of the laser beam concentrated on a processing area for ablation processing, a pulse energy of approximately 10 μJ is required.
In some cases of material processing application can require hundreds of μJ pulse energy.
An exemplary one of lasers having those good properties may be titanium sapphire laser (Ti: sapphire laser).
Until now, a commercially useful Ti sapphire laser may provide approximately several to hundreds of femtosecond pulse time width, several mJ or several J pulse energy.
However, in a conventional femtosecond laser apparatus, a high-priced high output pulse green laser such as Nd:TVO4 laser has to be used as a pumping laser source and it is difficult to gain dozens of kHz or more pulse repetition rate.
Also, the Ti sapphire laser has a large scale system and a high price and also it is difficult to maintain a pulse power stably and it is not easy to use the Ti sapphire laser in a production worksite.
Meanwhile, a diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) laser uses a micro-sized light source as a pump beam source. Examples of such a micro-sized light source include a laser diode. As a femtosecond laser is configurated by using a solid laser material, an optical pumping structure can be simple and the size of a laser head can be small. Also, a laser diode at a wavelength commercially used in various fields has a relatively low price in comparison to the power thereof and the price of the femtosecond laser can be reduced, such that an effect of cost reduction can be gained.
In addition, the solid laser has a short optical pumping distance and it can perform stable laser operation, such that it can be advantageously applied to a laser for industrial usage.
Recently, with development of semiconductor and electronic technologies, a laser diode array, a laser diode bar and the like have been developed that are able to perform high power, with small sizes and high efficiency, and development of solid laser systems using diode pumping have been growing rapidly.
To realize the femtosecond laser system that is able to optically pump, using a laser diode, it is necessary to select a laser material meeting predetermined conditions and to design and fabricate an optical pumping module for performing the optical pumping.
Crystals doped with rare-earth ions that can perform diode pumping at 808 nm and 980 nm, respectively, may be usually used as the laser material for diode pumping. Examples of such crystals doped with rare-earth ion may include Neodymium (Nd) and Ytterbium (Yb).
In an early stage of a high power laser developing step, a laser crystal doped with Neodymium is preferred because of a 4-level structure and various absorption lines. In recent, a laser crystal doped with Ytterbium has been used a lot because of excellent thermal and optical properties.
There are additional necessary conditions required to apply the femtosecond laser light source to industrial settings including the ultraprecision laser processing.
For example, if a pulse repetition rate of a laser is low, it takes much time to perform laser processing and productivity of the industrial settings might deteriorate.
However, it is preferred to heighten the pulse repetition rate of the laser but it is restricted to height the pulse repetition rate.
If the pulse repetition rate is too high to receive the next laser pulse before plasma generated by the femtosecond laser pulse disappears, the next laser pulse can be ill-affected by the plasma remaining near a target. For example, a beam traveling direction of the next laser pulse might be changed or the pulse time width thereof might be changed.
That phenomenon is called as 'plasma shielding'.
To restrain the plasma shielding, the next laser pulse has to be applied after a relaxation time of the former plasma.
In other words, a time interval between one laser pulse and the next laser pulse has to be longer than the plasma relaxation time. The plasma relaxation time may be different for each of processing object materials. However, the repetition rate of the plasma relaxation time is approximately 1 MHz based on the laser pulse repetition rate.
Accordingly, to maintain the high productivity in industrial settings, a femtosecond laser having a pulse repetition rate at hundreds of kHz is required.
In addition, to mount a laser light source to a laser processing system and to operate the laser processing system, the femtosecond laser is required to have a compact size and a low price and a high operation stability that makes a laser operational state not changed for a substantially long time.
When a femtosecond pulse is generated in mode locking in a femtosecond oscillator initially, a pulse energy of the femtosecond pulse is lowered by a nanojoule (nJ) and it is not appropriate to apply such the femtosecond pulse to a laser processing.
To enhance the femtosecond pulse energy, Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) is used.
For example, a pulse stretcher is used in stretching a pulse generated from a femtosecond oscillator longitudinally and timely and the pulse is applied to an amplifier to amplify the pulse energy.
Hence, the amplified pulse passes a pulse compressor to restitute a time width of the pulse to an initial femtosecond range.
At this time, the pulses generated from the oscillator are employed as seeding pulses applied to the amplifier.
Pulses are timely and longitudinally stretched by a difference of passages according to wavelengths generated in the pulse stretcher, which can be called as 'chirping' and technology for amplifying the pulse energy is called as 'chirp pulse amplification technology'.
When using such chirp pulse amplification technology, a peaking power of the pulse amplified in a resonance cavity of the pulse amplifier kept low and non-linear distortion generated in spatial or temporal distribution of the laser pulses can be retrained. Moreover, a physical damage applied to optical components composing the system can be prevented.
Specifically, the pulse amplifier can be operated to prevent the damage to the system generated by the high energy laser pulse and to enhance the pulse energy.
Recently, the high pulse energy has been gained from MOPA system combined with Maser Oscillator (MO) and Power Amplifier (PA) and a huge step has made in development of femtosecond laser systems having a high peaking power and a high average power accordingly. The master oscillator directly pumps a diode light source based on the chirp pulse amplification technology and the power amplifier directly pumps the diode light source.
However, the laser material doped with Ytterbium has a 2-level energy structure or a 3-level energy structure and it has a disadvantage that lights emitted at an optical pumping wavelength of 981 nm is absorbed by the laser material again.
To solve the disadvantage, the light generated from a high brightness laser diode having a high power is focused on the laser crystal with a micro-spot size.
In this process, pump beams failed to be converted into laser beams are transmitted adjacent to the spot of the laser crystal in a thermal energy type and to a mount where the laser crystal is mounted.
When the thermal energy is collected largely, amplified laser beams are crushed and the quality of beams might deteriorate. Also, an average power of lasers and pulse energy might be restricted.
After that, the thermal energy focused on the laser crystal is higher than a damage threshold, the laser crystal might have physical damage, for example, crack or break only to stop laser oscillation problematically.
Meanwhile, conventional studies on generation or amplification of femtosecond pulses by using a plurality of Yb:KYW or Yb:KGW laser crystals will be described as follows.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,508,847 B2 discloses a new concept of increasing the frequency of passages of laser beams via gain material in a resonance cavity by pumping two anisotropic materials including Yb:KGW.
However, in the application, the length of the resonance cavity is increased to reduce an instable phenomenon of a pulse power called as "Triggered mode". It is proposed that a pumping structure of two gain materials using one of various types of long resonance cavities. However, that application fails to experimental embodiments and results.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 6,760,356 B2 discloses a method of amplifying a femtosecond pulse by using two anisotropic laser crystals of Yb:YAG.
However, those two prior patent applications disclose only the power amplification by using only two laser materials and fail to disclose thermal, optical and other various characteristics that have to be put into consideration of an optical axis of a laser material in the other femtosecond laser systems. In other words, the two patent applications disclose only an effect of the output power enhanced by increasing the numbers of the laser materials, with no comments on the axis of the laser material.
Meanwhile, U.S. Pat. No. 6,891,876 B2 discloses a study on absorbing depolarized pump beams by selecting an axis of an Yb:KYW laser material and controlling a polarization rate of lights pumping a laser material.
The application focuses on light pumping of an anisotropic material. Even in case of using a first depolarized pump beam, an axis of an anisotropic gain material and a wavelength of a pumping laser are selected to optically pump the laser material efficiently.
The application discloses that even in case the wavelength of a second pump beam is instable, an axis of the laser material is selected to optically pump the laser material efficiently.
The proposed method uses an absorption spectrum that is differentiated according to an axis direction of the laser material and properly determines a direction of the laser material based on the different absorption spectrums to properly mix two axes of one laser material. When the intensity of the pump beam is controlled according to the polarization direction, similar absorption cross-sections are shown in broad wavelength region.
However, in this instance, there is an advantage of providing a light pumping unit less sensitive to instability of polarization or wavelength of the pump beam. However, to have similar absorption cross-sections in broad wavelength regions, an absorption cross-section of the laser material has to perform light pumping in a wavelength region having a small absorption cross-section of the laser material.
Moreover, the output has to be dispersed to two polarized lights from one laser light source. Because of that, pumping efficiency could deteriorate badly and the pump beams absorbed after failed to be converted into laser wavelengths are focused on the laser material by the terminal energy, such that the quality of the laser beam may deteriorate and the power of the laser beam may be restricted disadvantageously.
The Yb:KYW or Yb:KGW laser crystal has a good heat conduction quality and it has an advantage of generating a high average power femtosecond laser. However, the conductivity of the anisotropy laser material such as Yb:KYW or Yb:KGW is differentiated according to the axis direction. If the average power of the laser is high, astigmatism of a thermal lens might be generated by a thermal effect and the shape of the laser beam is distorted to deteriorate the quality of the laser beam.
In addition, while generating or amplifying the femtosecond pulse by using the plurality of the laser crystals, the pump beam generated from the laser diode is incident on and absorbed to one of the laser crystals and the other pump beams not absorbed to the laser crystal are irradiated to optical components or optical mounts. Accordingly, the alignment of the pump beams and laser beams might deteriorate.

Femtosecond laser apparatus and femtosecond laser system including the same

Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute


A support for sensor elements, especially temperature, throughflow or chemical sensors, comprises a supporting element composed of a ceramic material and having at least one throughgoing opening, a thin ceramic foil arranged on the supporting element so as to cover the opening to support a sensor element in the region of the opening.

The present invention relates to a support for sensors, as well as a sensor provided with such a support.
Supports for sensors, especially temperature, throughflow or chemical sensors composed of a ceramic material are known. In the known support, the sensors are arranged on a ceramic plate. The ceramic plate is relatively thick and therefore has a relatively high thermal conductivity. Thereby the sensor can not react sufficiently fast to the temperature or throughflow quantity changes of a medium to be measured.

Support for sensors, and sensor provided therewith


Implants for the treatment of pelvic support conditions and methods of implementing the same. The implants comprise relatively soft, flexible bodies and relatively strong arms extending in predetermined orientations therefrom. Methods and devices for placing the implants minimize trauma to the pelvic floor and provide well-anchored support to pelvic organs without interfering with sexual or other bodily functions.

Pelvic floor disorders are a class of abnormalities that affect the pelvic region of millions of men and women. In women, for example, the pelvic region includes various anatomical structures such as the uterus, the rectum, the bladder, and the vagina. These anatomical structures are supported and held in place by a complex collection of tissues, such as muscles and ligaments. When these tissues are damaged, stretched, or otherwise weakened, the anatomical structures of the pelvic region shift and in some cases protrude into other anatomical structures. For example, when the tissues between the bladder and the vagina weaken, the bladder may shift and protrude into the vagina, causing a pelvic floor disorder known as cystocele. Other pelvic floor disorders include vaginal prolapse, vaginal hernia, rectocele, enterocele, uterocele, and/or urethrocele.
Pelvic floor disorders often cause or exacerbate urinary incontinence (UI). One type of UI, called stress urinary incontinence (SUI), effects primarily women and is often caused by two conditions—intrinsic sphincter deficiency (ISD) and hypermobility. These conditions may occur independently or in combination. In ISD, the urinary sphincter valve, located within the urethra, fails to close (or "coapt") properly, causing urine to leak out of the urethra during stressful activity. In hypermobility, the pelvic floor is distended, weakened, or damaged. When the afflicted woman sneezes, coughs, or otherwise strains the pelvic region, the bladderneck and proximal urethra rotate and descend. As a result, the urethra does not close with sufficient response time, and urine leaks through the urethra.
UI and pelvic floor disorders, which are usually accompanied by significant pain and discomfort, are often treated by implanting a supportive sling or mesh in or near the pelvic floor region to support the fallen or shifted anatomical structures or more generally, to strengthen the pelvic region by promoting tissue in-growth. Often, treatments of stress incontinence are made without treating the pelvic floor disorders at all, potentially leading to an early recurrence of the stress incontinence.
Existing systems, methods, and kits for treatment typically employ delivery devices to position a supportive surgical implant into a desired position in the pelvic region. However, some of these systems and methods require a medical operator to create multiple incisions and deliver the implant using complex procedures. Moreover, many existing surgical implants are not suitably sized or shaped to properly fit within a patient and treat pelvic floor disorders. Accordingly, medical operators and patients need improved systems, methods, and surgical kits for the treatment of pelvic floor disorders and/or urinary incontinence.

Implants and procedures for supporting anatomical structures for treating conditions such as pelvic organ prolapse


An automated rig apparatus for drilling or servicing a well is provided. The apparatus can include a motor vehicle having a frame, and a hinged derrick mast pivotally attached to the frame. The apparatus can further include a rack disposed in the mast and a carriage assembly with pinion motors configured to travel up and down the rack when the mast is raised to a vertical position. A tool carrier configured to receive a top drive unit or a power swivel unit can be attached to the carriage assembly. The apparatus can further include a movable platform and an operators cab configured to be moved to a desired position relative to the derrick mast when the mast is raised to a vertical position. The apparatus can further include a hydraulic drive assembly to operate the apparatus, and a mud pump and manifold for pumping drilling mud.

In drilling a well, a drill string is used. The drill string can comprise a drill bit attached to sections of drill pipe. As the well is drilled, additional sections of drill pipe are added to the drill string until the well is drilled deep enough to reach a formation where substances, such as water, oil or gas, can be produced from the well. Some wells require both a vertical section and a horizontal section. Sections of pipe are joined together using threaded connections on the pipe. The drill string is rotated to turn the drill bit in order to drill the well. When the drill string is removed from the wellbore, the sections of pipe can be removed from the drill string one or more sections at a time.
To drill or service wells, known designs use a drawworks with a transmission to operate the block mechanism to raise and lower the drill string into the hole. When raising a drill string, the drawworks is driven from an electric, hydraulic or mechanical means to wind a cable around a drum pulling the blocks and string towards the crown. When lowering a drill string, the combined weight of the string and block assembly causes the string to be lowered into the hole. This process of lowering the string into the hole can cause the string to become stuck on long horizontal well applications. This is time consuming, and can substantially increase the time required to service a horizontal well, thus requiring additional equipment the complete the service operation of that well.
It is, therefore, desirable to provide an automated service rig that overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art and decrease the time required to drill and/or service wells.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Automated drilling/service rig apparatus


A system or method to partition data in a memory based at least in part to a data type, and to refresh the memory based at least in part to the data type. The claimed subject matter relates to organizing data in a memory for a refresh operation.

The demand for more powerful computers and communication products has resulted in faster processors that often consume increasing amounts of power. However, design engineers struggle with reducing power consumption, for example, to prolong battery life, particularly in mobile and communication systems.
Communication products and computers utilize memories to store a variety of different information. For example, some information is temporary in nature because once the particular application is completed the information is no longer needed, thus, it is designated as a working storage data type. In contrast, some information is needed indefinitely or for a long-term, such as, application programs and utilities, and is designated a long-term data type.
A Dynamic Random Access Memory, DRAM, is a typical memory to store the previously described information types. DRAMs contain a memory cell array having a plurality of individual memory cells; each memory cell is coupled to one of a plurality of sense amplifiers, bit lines, and word lines. The memory cell array is arranged as a matrix of rows and columns, and the matrix is further subdivided into a number of banks.
The DRAM memory cell consists of a single transistor and a single capacitor and is dynamic because charge stored on the capacitor decays because of a various leakage current paths to surrounding cells and to the substrate. Typically, a refresh operation is performed on the DRAM memory cell to ensure the validity of the data. For example, the refresh operation is initiated by a memory controller to read the data from the cell array via the sense amplifiers and subsequently rewriting the data back into the cell array. Thus, the refresh operation restores the capacitor""s charge to ensure the validity of the data.
Typically, Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memories (SDRAMs) can support a self-refresh, which is a refresh operation executed by the SDRAM rather than the memory controller. During the self-refresh, the SDRAM utilizes an internal oscillator to generate refresh cycles to maintain the data in the memory cells. Presently, a low-power SDRAM allows for a subset of the memory to be refreshed with a partial-array self-refresh feature. For example, the partial-array self-refresh (PASR) feature for a four bank SDRAM allows for one, two, or four banks to be refreshed.
Typically, self-refresh features are not fully utilized to ensure a reduction in system power consumption because the SDRAM refreshes all the data, regardless of the data type.

System and method for managing data in memory for reducing power consumption


A semiconductor device lead frame having enhanced mold locking features is provided. The lead frame has a flag with bendable edge features along the edge of the flag. Each edge feature is shaped to resist movement against encapsulating mold material in a plane of the edge feature. By bending a portion of the edge feature, improved mold locking of the flag is provided in multiple planes.

1. Field
This disclosure relates generally to lead frames for packaged electronic devices, and more specifically, to a lead frame with a flag having in-plane and out-of-plane encapsulant mold compound locking capability.
2. Related Art
Electronic devices such as integrated circuits and systems on a chip can be implemented in packaged electronic devices. The elements of a packaged electronic device generally include one or more metal lead frames, one or more integrated circuit die, bonding material to attach the integrated circuit die to a flag (or die pad) of the lead frame, bonding wires which electrically connect pads on the die to individual leads of the lead frame, and a hard plastic packaging material, or encapsulant, which covers the other components and forms the exterior of the packaged electronic device. The packaging material, or encapsulant, provides protection from hostile environments and can provide structural support for electrical interconnections from the die.
The lead frame is the central supporting structure of such a package. A portion of the lead frame is internal to the package and completely surrounded by the packaging material. Portions of the leads of the lead frame may extend externally from the package and can be used to connect the package externally. A quad flat no leads (QFN) package is an example of an integrated circuit package usable with surface mounted printed circuit boards. In this type of integrated circuit package, the leads do not extend externally from the package. Rather, lead contacts of the lead frame are exposed on the bottom surface of the package for connection to the outside complements. As such, the lead frame used in a QFN integrated circuit device is sometimes referred to as a leadless lead frame.
One potential drawback of some packaged devices is that certain environmental stresses can cause separation, or delamination, of portions of the lead frame (e.g., the flag) from the packaging material. For example, reflow soldering is a common process for attaching surface mounted components such as a QFN packaged electronic device to a circuit board. During reflow soldering, the packaged electronic device can be subjected to elevated temperatures (e.g., 260° C.). Stress in the package due to differences in thermal expansion and other material properties of the dissimilar materials used in packaging under heat can result in separation. Temperature stresses can also be caused by normal operational variations in temperature. For example, packaged semiconductor devices used in automotive applications often experience operating environment temperatures from about 50° C. to about −40° C.
Different encapsulant mold compounds exhibit better performance characteristics for various operating environments (e.g., glass-like compounds), but some of those compounds may also exhibit greater risk of separation from encapsulated lead frames and devices. Since separation of a lead frame from the packaging material during manufacture or under operating conditions can adversely affect operation of the packaged electronic device, it is desirable to provide a lead frame having features that enhance locking of the lead frame with the molding material.
The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates identical items unless otherwise noted. The figures are not necessarily drawn to scale.

Lead frame having a flag with in-plane and out-of-plane mold locking features


A method of detecting toner in the toner supplying unit of a developing unit wherein a toner supplying roller is caused to make a single turn, the duration of a signal indicating "no-existence of toner" issued during this single turn period is accumulated by timer function of a control unit. When a total sum of accumulated signal timer duration is longer than a first preset time, including a constant margin added to the difference between the time required for a single turn of the toner supplying roller and the time required for passing over the toner detecting surface by a cleaning means, the "no-existence of toner" condition is detected for the toner supplying unit. Additionally, the duration of a signal indicating "existence of toner" is accumulated by the timer function of the control unit, and when a total sum of accumulated signal duration longer than a second preset time is required for making a single turn by the toner supplying roller, the "existence of toner" condition is detected for the toner supplying unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates particularly to a method of detecting toner in a developing unit for developing a latent image formed on a photosensitive material of an electronic duplicator with the toner.
With progress of an information-oriented society, a variety of printers or copying machines are used widely, wherein a latent image formed on photosensitive material is developed by toner in the printer or duplicator employing the electrophotography system, the developed toner image is transcribed to a recording sheet and this transcribed toner image is fixed for the printing purpose.
This developing unit comprises a toner supplying unit for supplying toner, a stirring unit for obtaining a developer by mixing the toner and magnetic powder material called a carrier and a developing roller for supplying this developer to the photosensitive material to deposit the toner to a latent image.
The toner supplying unit is provided with a toner detector for detecting toner, while the stirring unit is provided with a concentration sensor for detecting toner concentration.
Since the toner is deposited to a latent image on the photosensitive material, the amount of toner at the stirring unit is reduced. When the concentration sensor detects a shortage of toner, the toner supply roller of the toner supplying unit rotates and the toner is supplied to the stirring unit.
Meanwhile, a toner is supplied from the toner cartridge in the toner supplying unit. When the toner in the toner cartridge is consumed completely, the toner detector detects such condition and indicates a need for replacement of the toner cartridge. However, in case the toner is adhered to the detecting surface of the toner detector, the toner detector judges that the toner cartridge is filled with the toner and therefore if the toner is actually in the shortage condition, the toner cartridge is erroneously judged to be filled with the toner.
In view of avoiding such erroneous detection, the detecting surface of the toner detector is usually cleaned by a cleaning means which rotates with rotation of the toner supply roller.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an example of developing unit. The photosensitive drum 1 is rotated in the direction of arrow mark A by a motor M.sub.1 and a latent image, for example, of letters is formed on the surface of photosensitive drum 1 by irradiating the surface of photosensitive drum 1 uniformly charged by a precharger 2 with the modulated laser beam 3. This latent image is developed by the developer supplied by the developing roller 7 of the developing unit 4.
The developing unit 4 is formed by the toner supplying unit, stirring unit and developing roller unit and is housed in the housing case 9.
The toner supplying unit comprises a toner cartridge 19, a toner hopper 18 for temporarily holding toner, a toner supplying roller 13 formed by sponge roller to push out the toner from a hole 12, an agitator 14 for stirring the toner, a toner detector 16 providing the detecting surface 15 to detect the toner and a cleaning means 17 for cleaning the detecting surface 15.
The stirring unit comprises a couple of stirring rollers 10, 11 for stirring the toner and the carrier and a concentration sensor 8 for detecting toner concentration.
The developing roller unit comprises a magnet roller 5 for attracting the carrier and a non-magnetic sleeve 6 for supplying such attracted carrier and toner to the surface of photosensitive drum 1.
As shown by the arrow mark B, the non-magnetic sleeve 6 of the developing roller 7 rotates in the inverse direction to a magnet roller 5 and the toner attracted by the carrier which is also attracted by the non-magnetic sleeve 6 is adhered to a latent image on the photosensitive drum 1 by the field formed by the magnet roller 5 and thereafter developing is carried out.
When a recording sheet 21 carried by a couple of feed rollers 20, 22 and a sheet guide 23 comes into contact with the surface of photosensitive drum 1, a developed toner image is transcribed to the recording sheet 21 charged by a charging unit for transcription (not illustrated).
The stirring rollers 10, 11 are respectively rotated in the directions indicated by the arrow marks C and D by the motor M.sub.2 in order to stir the carrier and toner. Accordingly, the toner is adhered to the surface of carrier. The toner concentration may be measured by a concentration sensor (permeability sensor) 8 to measure the toner concentration utilizing the property that when a larger amount of toner is adhered to the carrier surface, the flux density passing through the carrier particles is as much reduced. When the toner concentration becomes lower than a constant value, a signal is input to a control unit (not illustrated) and the motor M.sub.3 starts to rotate. Thereby, the toner supplying roller 13 and agitator 14 rotate and the toner in the toner hopper 18 is supplied to the stirring unit from a hole 12 provided at the internal wall of the case 9 by means of the sponge roller of toner supplying roller 13.
In this case, a cleaning means 17 provided to the toner supplying roller 13 rotates simultaneously to conduct the cleaning for the toner adhered to the detecting surface 15 of the toner detector 16. The detecting surface 15 projects within the hopper 18 and toner may be detected depending on the fact that toner is adhered to the surface of detecting surface 15 or not.
The toner is replenished to the toner hopper 18 from the toner cartridge 19, but when the toner in the toner cartridge 19 is used up and toner in the supply of toner hopper 18 becomes low, the toner around the detecting surface 15 is removed and after the surface of the detecting surface is cleaned, the toner is no longer adhered. Accordingly, the toner detector 16 sends the signal indicating "no-toner" condition to the controller to indicate replacement of toner cartridge 19 by a display, for example.
FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an example of a cleaning means. The detecting surface 15 of toner detector 16 is projected within the toner hopper 18. If the toner is continuously adhered to the surface, the toner is judged to be existing even after the toner in the toner hopper 18 becomes low, and replacement of toner cartridge 19 cannot be indicated. Therefore, in case a cleaning means 17 formed, for example, by the narrow rectangular type silicon rubber is attached to the shaft of toner supplying roller 13, when the toner supplying roller 13 rotates, the end part of the cleaning means 17 wipes the detecting surface 15 for the cleaning purpose.
The toner supplying roller 13 does not rotate continuously so long as the quantity of toner in the stirring unit is not too low and usually it makes only a single or half turn. In case the cleaning means 17 is in contact with the detecting surface 15 of toner detector 16, the toner detector 16 recognizes "existence of toner" and thereby if the toner does not remain in the toner hopper 18, judgement of "existence of toner" will be made erroneously.
In view of avoiding such erroneous determination, it is essential to detect the position where the cleaning means 17 is not in contact with the detecting surface 15 and to collect detected result of toner detector 16 in this case. Therefore, it is required to provide a position detecting means such as a photoencoder to the shaft of toner supplying roller 13 or to the shaft of motor M.sub.3 and the control unit calculates the position where the cleaning means 17 is not in contact with the detecting surface 15 based on the position information detected by such position detecting means. Namely, it is recommended that the toner detection is preferably carried out while the cleaning means 17 is obviously not in the contact with the detecting surface 15.
As a result, a structure of the control unit is complicated and a problem rises here that the developing unit 4 becomes expensive since hardware such as a photoencoder is provided. Therefore, it has long been expected to propose a simplified method which further determine accurately existence of the toner.
Some references of the method in this technical viewpoint have been proposed. The Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 58-130366 [Application Date: Feb. 29, 1982, by S. Suda, Canon Inc.] proposes a structure under the condition that an output of a toner sensor does not change even when the stirring is conducted in the vicinity of the sensor of the toner hopper or when the sensor detecting surface is cleaned. This reference is different from the present invention. Moreover, it is also explained that the cleaning member stops on the sensor detecting surface, but an output of the toner sensor in this case is not explained.
The Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 58-70254 [Application Date: Oct. 23, 1981, by H. Takeda, M. Ishida, Canon Inc.] proposes a method wherein existence of toner is detected simply by duration time of toner sensor output. This reference is different in structure from the present invention which refers to duration time of toner sensor output within the toner supply time by the toner supplying roller. Therefore, when the toner removing member on the detecting surface stops on the sensor detecting surface, existence of toner is recognized without relation to existence of toner.
The Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 57-196274 [Application date: May 28, 1981, by M. Shibusawa, Ricoh] discloses a method where the detecting surface of a toner sensor is cleaned by a movable member once or more for every one cycle of developing (single page printing), cleaning is carried out between development in every page and position control is carried out so that the cleaning member is set to a determined position during the period other than the cleaning period. This reference is different from the present invention in purpose and structure.

Method of toner detection for replenishment in a developer


Disclosed are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable media for providing real-time media streams. A cloud-based communication platform receives an incoming communication request to establish a communication session and executes a set of communication instructions associated with the incoming communication request. The set communication instructions includes a command to execute a real-time media stream in relation to the communication session. The command includes data designating a network destination to receive the real-time media stream. The cloud-based communication platform initiates the communication session between client devices and initiates the real-time media stream to the network destination. The real-time media stream concurrently transmitting at least a portion of the media transmitted between the client devices to the network destination.

Communications have transformed rapidly in the past 10 years as traditional phone lines are replaced by Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), instant messaging, video, etc. This transition to providing communications using the Internet has allowed Software as a Service (Sass) providers to provide communication services for their clients. Providing communication as a service frees customers from having to purchase and manage the hardware needed to provide communications. While beneficial to customers, utilizing communication as a service also comes with some drawbacks as each customer has unique communication needs. For example, some customers may wish to provide transcription services or translation services for their voice communications, while other customers may not need these features. Currently, customers of communication SaaS providers are limited to the products provided by the SaaS provider. For example, the SaaS provider may have a limited set of available features from which their customers may choose. If a customer wants additional functionality that is not provided by the SaaS provider, the customer has no options but to wait until the SaaS provider makes new features available. This limits the customer's ability to implement the functionality they desire. Accordingly, improvements are needed.


An intervertebral connection system wherein the bone anchor has a helical configuration.

Single level spine fusion procedure typically entails removing the intervertebral disk (not shown) and inserting an interbody device into the disk space.
Current spine fusion procedures rely heavily on the use of posterior fixation to achieve the stability and rigidity necessary to obtain successful clinical results. However, implantation of posterior instrumentation necessarily involves removing important musculoskeletal elements.
Because of these concerns, anterior fixation systems have also been developed which require removal of much less musculoskeletal mass. However, because anterior fixation, especially in the abdominal or thoracic area, lies in close proximity to vital internal organs such as the aorta, these fixation systems must also possess a low profile.
In general, conventional intervertebral connection systems can be characterized by ligament components which are either a) relatively rigid, or b) not shaped for cooperative connection to bone fasteners, or by bone fasteners which are shouldered to seat upon the vertebral surface. When the ligament is relatively rigid, it must essentially fully lie upon the anterior surfaces of the adjacent vertebrae, thereby limiting design options. Systems having relatively rigid ligaments typically have transverse holes near their end portions for accepting bone fasteners. In systems in which the ligament is not shaped for cooperative attachment to the bone fastener, attachment is typically made by either suturing or by passing a screw through the ligament. When the bone fastener is seated upon the vertebral surface, a portion of the bone fastener protrudes from the surface and the tension of the ligament can not be further adjusted.
US Patent Application No. 2002/0143329 ("Serhan") discloses a system in which a ligament has conformable portions and end portions shaped to cooperatively connect to shoulderless bone fasteners. The shoulderless feature of the bone fastener allows the bone fastener to be fully driven into the vertebral surface, thereby eliminating any problematic protrusion while also providing a means to adjust the tension of the ligament after the bone fasteners have been located. The conformable portions of the ligament allow the ligament to conform to the recess produced by a fully driven bone fastener without generating undue stress, thereby accommodating the surgeon's desire to fully drive the bone fastener within the recess. The cooperative shape of the ligament end portions allows for non-destructive attachment of the ligament to the bone fasteners without the use of sutures, thereby minimizing unwanted connection-related stresses and undesirable generation of foreign particles within the patient.
However, in many embodiments disclosed in Serhan, the bone fasteners are fixed to the bone by impaction. These impaction forces may compromise the integrity of the bone fastener component.
Moreover, the system disclosed in Serhan requires that the surgeon insert the system under tension and set or hold the tension while deploying the anchoring system. This makes the implantation procedures very arduous, and, due to high impaction forces, may not be suitable for use in certain areas of the spine.

Intervertebral ligament having a helical bone fastener


This disclosure relates to software patterns, and more particularly, to the tracking of software pattern metrics. A system or method may query a software environment to determine the type of use of, and identify, at least one software pattern. The system or method may also collect at least one software pattern metric, and determine the impact of the at least one software pattern within an environment. The system or method may also store software pattern information and recall software pattern information.

The use of software patterns ("patterns") may improve the software development process. A pattern may be a proven, best practice solution to a known problem within a given context. For example, a pattern may be a general, reusable, customizable design solution to a software design problem that may take the form of a description, template, model, code sample, or other mechanism that facilitates a design solution. Different types of patterns exist. For example, an idiom pattern may include sections of software code, a design pattern may include various software classes, and an architectural pattern may provide an architectural level solution. Some patterns are well known in the art; for example, the Model-View-Controller pattern is a well known architectural pattern. In many cases, a pattern can describe relationships and interactions between classes and/or objects without specifying a final solution. Indeed, a pattern, when instantiated, may benefit a code developer by facilitating a design solution, but the pattern may also lend itself to customization so that the code developer can tailor the pattern to his or her specific application.
The application of patterns within a software project has been, primarily, a manual process. Patterns may be distributed to team members who are interested in using the pattern. The impetus to evaluate and/or apply the pattern then falls on the team and/or team members. Some patterns may be more useful than others within a particular context, and the manual evaluation of patterns can be burdensome on individuals or teams that may wish to implement a pattern.
As with any asset, the maintenance, documentation, creation, and management of patterns consumes money and resources. Since patterns are reusable assets, opportunities to improve efficiency of the maintenance and use of patterns exist. However, identification and tracking of those opportunities is often difficult. A developer or organization that utilizes patterns will likely want to minimize the cost associated with pattern maintenance. The collection, maintenance, and evaluation of pattern metrics may allow an individual or organization to efficiently manage pattern assets.

System and method of identifying and tracking software pattern metrics

International Business Machines Corporation


Apparatus for providing optical radiation (10) comprising a pump array (8) for providing pump radiation (7), a first pump combiner (1), and a waveguide (3), wherein the pump radiation (7) from the pump array (8) is coupled into the waveguide (3) via the first pump combiner (1), and wherein the waveguide (3) comprises a pump guide (4) for guiding the pump radiation (7), and a gain medium (5) which emits the optical radiation (10) when it is pumped by the pump radiation (7).

Pulsed neodymium yttrium aluminium garnet (NdYAG) lasers are widely used in industrial processes such as welding, cutting and marking. Care has to be taken in these processes to ensure that the plasmas generated by the laser does not interfere with the incoming laser pulses. The relatively low pulse repetition rates (6 kHz) at high peak powers that are achievable in a NdYAG laser have led to their wide application in laser machining.
Fibre lasers are increasingly being used for materials processing applications such as welding, cutting and marking. Their advantages include high efficiency, robustness and high beam quality. Examples include femtosecond lasers for multiphoton processing such as the imaging of biological tissues, Q-switched lasers for machining applications, and high-power continuous-wave lasers. Their disadvantage is their relatively low energy storage capacity as compared to NdYAG lasers. For this reason, the pulse repetition frequency at high peak powers is relatively high (20 kHz) as compared to NdYAG lasers.
In many applications, fibre lasers need to compete with the more mature diode pumped solid state lasers. In order to do so, much greater optical powers need to be achieved, with high reliability and lower cost.
An aim of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for providing optical radiation that reduces the above aforementioned problems.


A look-up table circuit according to an embodiment includes: a variable resistance circuit including variable resistance devices and selecting a variable resistance device from the variable resistance devices based on an input signal; a reference circuit having a resistance value between the largest resistance value and the smallest resistance value of the variable resistance circuit; a first n-channel MOSFET including a source connected to a terminal of the variable resistance circuit and a gate connected to a drain; a second n-channel MOSFET including a source connected to a terminal of the reference circuit and a gate connected to the gate of the first n-channel MOSFET; a first current supply circuit to supply a current to the variable resistance circuit; a second current supply circuit to supply a current to the reference circuit; and a comparator comparing voltages at a first input terminal and a second input terminal.

As the miniaturization technique has advanced in recent years, circuits have become more complicated, and the costs related to the development of semiconductor chips have become higher.
In a reconfigurable logic circuit, circuit logics can be changed after manufacture of the hardware; accordingly, by reconfiguring logic circuits, defects can be corrected and functions can be added.
As reconfigurable logic circuits based on today's semiconductor techniques, there are integrated circuits called field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). An FPGA stores information in internal SRAMs (Static Random Access Memories), and according to the contents stored in the memories, the FPGA can control the logics and connections in the reconfigurable logic circuit. Since logics can be changed through software, circuit corrections can be made after manufacture of the hardware. Such FPGAs are rapidly spreading as the means to produce ever more complicated integrated circuits in a short time and at low costs.
The logic section of each FPGA is formed by circuits called look-up table circuits. A look-up table circuit stores logics in a memory, and according to the contents stored in the memory, the look-up table circuit performs outputting. A logic circuit including such look-up table circuits is a reconfigurable logic circuit that can support any logics, however, since it includes a large number of devices, it is difficult to achieve high integration.
Where look-up table circuits are manufactured by a semiconductor CMOS technique, SRAMs are used as the memories to store information. Therefore, the number of devices becomes large. Since a multiplexer used in each look-up table circuit also requires a large number of devices, the circuit size of each look-up table circuit becomes very large.
If look-up table circuits with small circuit areas are used, a highly-integrated FPGA can be realized. As the look-up table circuits with small circuit areas, look-up table circuits using spin MOSFETs have been suggested. With the use of look-up table circuits using spin MOSFETs, a highly-integrated FPGA can be realized. A spin MOSFET has a structure that combines a ferromagnetic material and a semiconductor, and accordingly, a memory function and a logic function can be embodied by one device. That is why the spin MOSFETs have attracted attention in recent years.
A look-up table circuit using spin MOSFETs reads the resistance values of the spin MOSFETs, and determines an output in accordance with the resistance values. To read a resistance value, the look-up table circuit reads the voltage applied to the spin MOSFET, compares the voltage with the resistance value of a reference resistance, and determines the magnitude of the resistance value. The look-up table circuit uses a comparator as the circuit to determine the magnitude of the resistance value; however, since the operation speed of a comparator is low, the circuit has a problem in that its operation speed is also low accordingly. The operation time of a look-up table circuit can be regarded as the period of time elapsing from a change in input to a change in output. If the operating time of each look-up table circuit is long, the operation time of the entire FPGA is long; therefore, there is a demand for high-speed look-up table circuits. Particularly, in a case where multi-input signals for image processing or the like are dealt with, high-speed operations of the logic unit including look-up table circuits greatly contributes to an increase in processing speed.

Look-up table circuits and field programmable gate array


A method and system for virtual percutaneous valve implantation is disclosed. A patient-specific anatomical model of a heart valve is estimated based on 3D cardiac medical image data and an implant model representing a valve implant is virtually deployed into the patient-specific anatomical model of the heart valve. A library of implant models, each modeling geometrical properties of a corresponding valve implant, is maintained. The implant models maintained in the library are virtually deployed into the patient specific anatomical model of the heart valve to select an implant type and size and deployment location and orientation for percutaneous valve implantation.

The present invention relates to percutaneous valve implantation, and more particularly, to virtual percutaneous valve implantation using medical images.
Valvular heart disease (VHD) is a cardiac disorder that affects a large number of patients and often requires elaborate diagnostic procedures, intervention, and long-term management. Traditionally, heart valve replacement has been performed surgically on an open heart, with associated risks including, high mortality, incidence of neurological damage, stroke, and repeated valve replacement. However, minimally invasive procedures for the valve replacement are less traumatic and reduce the risks associated with valve replacement. Percutaneous valve implantation offers a less invasive alternative to open heart surgery for patients in need of heart valve replacement, in which a prosthetic implant is delivered through a catheter. Examples of percutaneous valve implantation include percutaneous aortal valve implantation (PAVI) and percutaneous pulmonary valve implantation (PPVI).
In percutaneous valve implantation, prosthetic implants are delivered through catheters using transvenous, transarterial, or transapical techniques, while clinicians do not have a direct view of and access to the affected valve and surrounding anatomies. Accordingly, critical decisions, such as type of procedure, implant type and size, deployment location and timing, and treatment assessment, are typically based on imaging techniques. A misplaced implant can block the coronary ostia and induce a life threatening ischemic condition. Suboptimal deployment location can result in poor hemodynamic performance with severe paravalvular leakages and/or high gradients and suboptimal effective orifice. Incorrect implant sizing may require a re-operation and may damage the vessel tissue and cause catastrophic events, such as arterial dissection or rupture. Accordingly, improved techniques for percutaneous valve implantation planning, procedure guidance, and outcome assessment are desirable.

Method and system for virtual percutaneous valve implantation


Disclosed are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for placing a user account in escrow to remove it from an administered account. An employee and/or an employer can select to remove a user account from an administered account associated with the employer. To ensure that the each party, the employer and employee, has an opportunity to retain their content stored in the removed user account, the user account can be placed into escrow, requiring login credentials of both the user and the administrator (employer) to access the user account. The user account can therefore not be accessed unless both the employer and employee each login to the account at the same time. By placing the user account in escrow, both parties can be assured that they can access the content items in the user account, and that the other party cannot access the content without their knowledge.

Cloud storage accounts allow users to store their content items in an online user account that can be accessed from any computing device with a network connection. Users can thus upload content items such as pictures, songs, documents, etc. from a computing device to their online user account and later access the content items from different computing devices.
In addition to personal use, online user accounts can also be useful in a business setting. For example, numerous user accounts can be grouped together into a single administered account. Each of the grouped user accounts can be accessed by an employee associated with the user account as well as an administrator associated with the employer. The employer and employee can thus each access the user account to share content items with each other.
While sharing content item between and an employer and employees can be easy using an administered account, problems can arise when a user account must be removed from the administered account. For example, the user account must be assigned to either the employee or the employer, thus restricting one or the parties from accessing the content in the user account. As a result, each party must trust the other party to review the content items in the storage account and return any content items that should remain with the other party. For example, if the user account is assigned to the employee, the employer must trust the employee to return any content items stored in the user account that should remain with the employer. Likewise, if the user account is assigned to the employer, the employee must trust the employer to return any content items that are personal content items of the employee. Accordingly, an improved system is needed.


In one embodiment, a supervisory service for one or more networks receives telemetry data samples from a plurality of networking devices in the one or more networks. The service trains a failure prediction model to predict failures in the one or more networks, using a training dataset comprising the received telemetry data samples. The service assesses performance of the failure prediction model. The service trains, based on the assessed performance of the failure prediction model, a machine learning-based classification model to determine whether a networking device should send a particular telemetry data sample to the service. The service sends the machine learning-based classifier to one or more of the plurality of networking devices, to control which telemetry data samples the one or more networking devices send to the supervisory service.

Software-defined wide area networks (SD-WANs) represent the application of software-defined networking (SDN) principles to WAN connections, such as connections to cellular networks, the Internet, and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) networks. The power of SD-WAN is the ability to provide consistent service level agreement (SLA) for important application traffic transparently across various underlying tunnels of varying transport quality and allow for seamless tunnel selection based on tunnel performance characteristics that can match application SLAs.
Failure detection in a network has traditionally been reactive, meaning that the failure must first be detected before rerouting the traffic along a secondary (backup) path. In general, failure detection leverages either explicit signaling from the lower network layers or using a keep-alive mechanism that sends probes at some interval T that must be acknowledged by a receiver (e.g., a tunnel tail-end router). Typically, SD-WAN implementations leverage the keep-alive mechanisms of Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD), to detect tunnel failures and to initiate rerouting the traffic onto a backup (secondary) tunnel, if such a tunnel exits. While this approach is somewhat effective at mitigating tunnel failures in an SD-WAN, reactive failure detection is also predicated on a failure first occurring. This means that traffic will be affected by the failure, until the traffic is moved to another tunnel.
With the recent evolution of machine learning, predictive failure detection in an SD-WAN now becomes possible through the use of machine learning techniques. However, using machine learning to predict failures is contingent on the proper collection of high-frequency telemetry data for purposes of model training. Unfortunately, the volume of telemetry data needed for model training can be quite burdensome on the network infrastructure, both from a traffic standpoint and from a device resource standpoint.

Machine learning driven data collection of high-frequency network telemetry for failure prediction


While performing data transfer for reading data from a source disk or disks and writing the read data to disks of a disk array, data reading is repeated until accumulated read data can be split into several sub-data with a data size of each sub-data not smaller than a write maximum. Then, these sub-data are written into the disks of the disk array. In this way, the invention can take full advantage of each writing control to write as much data as possible, and the number of writing controls can be reduced to reduce the demands on the computer system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and related apparatus for data migration of a disk array, and more particularly, to a method and related apparatus capable of reducing a number of writing controls to improve the efficiency of data migration/transfer of a disk array.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A computer system allows a user to manage, process and access a large quantity of information, data and media, and thereby is an important element of modern society. The information industry develops improvements to computer systems, such that the systems are capable of accessing more data at higher speed and with higher precision.
With the falling costs and increasing capacities of hard disks, many computer systems include a disk array by using different data configurations. For instance, a redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) system has different data configurations, such as RAID 0 to RAID 5. For the data configurations RAID 0 and RAID 2 to RAID 5, when performing a writing control to write data into the disk array, the data is striped into a plurality of sub-data (i.e. data stripes) in a stripe manner, and then each sub-data is respectively written to the disks of the disk array. Similarly, while reading data from the disk array, each sub-data is simultaneously read from the different disks of the disk array and combined to obtain the original data again. Whether reading or writing data, disks of the disk array are parallel-working at the same time and thereby provide a higher efficiency of data access.
However, the cost of disk arrays is pretty high; therefore, most computer systems only have one hard disk when leaving the factory. If the user has different requirements, other disks can be added in the computer system so as to improve the efficiency of the disk array. In other situations, there may already have a disk array in the user's computer system. But the user wants to add more disks into the disk array, such that the original small disk array (with a small number of disks) is upgraded to a disk array with a large number of disks. In either situation, if the disk array is upgraded, the user might perform data migration to read data from the original disk array and then re-store data to the upgraded disk array according to the new data configuration.
Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a flowchart of data migration according to the prior art. Suppose that there is only a hard disk A in a computer system. However, the user adds a hard disk B in the computer system to integrate the hard disk A and the hard disk B into a disk array, such as a RAID 0 disk array. Therefore, the user performs data migration to read data from the hard disk A (regarded as a source disk) and then store the read data into disks of the disk array according to the data configuration of the disk array. As known in the art, when the computer system accesses the hard disks, the hard disk controller of the chipset or the disk array controller sends a reading or writing command conforming to advanced technology attachment (ATA) to each disk to perform a reading or writing control. These reading or writing commands will inform the hard disk how many bytes of data are to be accessed and where the data are located in the memory space. Generally, while performing a reading or writing command, the data size of the required read or written data has a maximum. For instance, the maximum data size for a reading command in an ATA specification is 128K bytes, i.e. reading 128K bytes from an assigned region. In the same way, the maximum of data size for a writing command in the ATA specification is also 128K bytes, i.e. writing 128K bytes into an assigned region. In other words, the maximum of a single reading/writing command is 128K bytes. FIG. 1 is a procedure of sending reading or writing commands to each disk when performing data transfer according to the prior art.
As shown in FIG. 1, when performing data transfer, the prior art computer system sends a reading command 102 to disk A, such that 128K-byte data is read from disk A. As mentioned above, the disk array integrated by the hard disk A and B is a disk array allowing parallel access. Therefore, data is stripes into two parts and then respectively stored in the hard disks A and B. According to the command 102, the read data with data size of 128K bytes is striped into two parts with data size of 64K bytes. At the same time, commands 104A and 104B are respectively sent to the hard disks A and B to write or store these two parts into the hard disks A and B.
After completing commands 104A and 104B, the command 106 is sent to the hard disk A to read another 128K-byte data from the hard disk A. Then the two 64K-byte parts are respectively written into the hard disks A and B based on the commands 108A and 108B. The control command sequence "reading 128K, writing 64K-64K, reading 128K, writing 64K-64K" is repeated so that the prior art can sequentially transfer the remaining data to complete data migration.
However, there are some drawbacks in the prior art. As mentioned above, the maximum data size accessible by each reading or writing command is 128K bytes. In the prior art, commands 102 and 106 access 128K-byte data from the hard disk A to instruct the hard disk A to read the maximum of data size in a single control command. However, after getting 128K-bytes of data, according to the configuration of the disk array, the prior art uses two 64K-byte writing commands to respectively write two 64K-byte parts into the hard disks A and B. In fact, the maximum data size for a single writing command is 128K bytes. That is, the prior art cannot make full use of the maximum data size for a single writing command.
Generally, when a file (such as 1024K-byte file) is written into the hard disk, if each writing command could write as much data as possible, the number of writing controls can be reduced to completely write the file into the hard disk. On the contrary, if each writing command writes less data, the number of writing controls is increased to completely write the same file into the hard disk. When the computer system sends commands to the hard disk, it requires a large amount of system resources. As for the data migration shown in FIG. 1, the number of writing controls is large because each writing command writes data less than 128K bytes and thereby requires more of the system's resources. This leads to poor efficiency of data migration.

Method and related apparatus for data migration of disk array


A system, method and technique are provided for managing distribution of digital images and other media. A host computer may store a library of media files, including digital images, such as those captured by a digital camera of a user. One or more applications may run on the host computer, or on an Internet service that communicates with the host computer, in order to enable management, sharing and distribution of images stored on the host computer. A remote device may be operated by the user or guest to cause remotely viewed images that reside on the host computer to be transferred to a print service or other third-party service with a corresponding network location.

There are an increasingly large number of devices that have network connectivity. Over the years, network connectivity has been extended to appliances such as refrigerators, home entertainment centers, and interactive box sets for use with television sets, digital cameras, and cell phones. With the evolution of these devices, there has been developments in home networks. For example, WIFI technology enables users to interconnect various network enabled devices wirelessly to form their own local area network. Various services and applications currently exist with the goal of establishing data connectivity between different network locations. The growth of the Internet and other types of networks has contributed to the numerous networking applications that currently exist.
There is also an interest in extending network connectivity to devices that can roam. These devices include cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and stations that can be assembled on vehicles or airplanes. While wireless networks for such roaming devices exist, these networks tend to have limited bandwidth, and can be expensive. In addition, it is difficult for operators of such devices to interact with networks, given that these devices often have poor user-interface features, and limited processing/memory resources for tasks that are often desired from them.
Currently, there are various interoperability issues when different types of network enabled devices are coupled. Often, the different devices operate on incompatible platforms or operating systems. This can cause problems in how these devices share data with one another. Furthermore, connected devices may use different data types (.WAV versus MPEG) and/or data formats that hinder the user's ability to share data amongst devices. As an example, the size of the screen display on a cell phone is typically too small to render images from a digital camera, even if the cell phone is camera-enabled. Often, the result is that when users want to share data amongst connected devices, that user must perform numerous manual steps, such as manually converting data formats.
Digital photography in particular has become more popular because the number of devices that provide image capturing functionality has increased dramatically. As digital photographs have become more commonplace, the desire of users to share such photographs has also dramatically increased. Now, users can almost instantly share digital images by sending them as attachments to emails or as Multimedia Message Service (MMS) images. However, digital images occupy considerable memory, so not all devices can handle images readily, at least with high resolution. Furthermore, the transmission of large image files is burdensome. Lastly, printing digital images remains costly. Many services exist for which users can transmit digital images (through email) for high-quality printing. These services allow the picture taker to invite others to see and order prints by first storing and making the digital images available on an intermediate server. Invitees can peruse the picture taker's folder and order their own pictures through the same print service.

System and method for managing distribution of media files


A vehicle control apparatus is capable of switching between an automatic driving control mode and a manual driving mode. The apparatus includes a driver state monitor and a vehicle controller. The driver state monitor monitors a gaze of a driver and a state of the driver. The vehicle controller controls steering and a drive system in the automatic driving control mode. In a case that the driver state monitor detects that the driver gazes at a device that is operated by the driver as a second task when the vehicle controller requests to the driver for a takeover from the automatic driving control mode to the manual driving mode, the vehicle controller stops a function of the device.

The technology relates to a vehicle control apparatus capable of switching between automatic driving and manual driving of a vehicle.
In recent years, various techniques for realizing driving assist and automatic driving of a vehicle have been developed. In the driving assist of a vehicle, steering operation and/or acceleration/deceleration of the vehicle is supported while a driver holds the steering wheel. In the automatic driving of a vehicle, operations related to the driving of the vehicle are performed by recognizing traffic conditions only in a specific place even when the driver does not hold the steering wheel.
The automatic driving of the vehicle includes: a case where, even in the limited specific place, the driver responds to an emergency when a system becomes difficult to operate; a case where the system responds even in an emergency; a case where the system performs the operations related to the driving of the vehicle without limitation of the place; and the like.
Some vehicles capable of such driving assist and automatic driving are equipped with, for example, a condition measuring device that analyzes a face and a body with a camera and estimates a state of a target person as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2017-217472.
Also, for example, as disclosed in JP-A No. 2019-10929, there is known a driving assist device that, in order to make a driver effectively recognize a takeover from automatic driving to manual driving in advance, a system of a vehicle guides the driver to hold a steering wheel when the takeover to the manual driving is requested.


An electrical system may include a track assembly, a support assembly, a sensor, and at least one electronic control unit. The track assembly may include a bus bar. The support assembly may include a contact configured to engage the bus bar. The support assembly may be removably and adjustably connected to the track assembly. The at least one electronic control unit may be operatively connected to the bus bar and the sensor. The at least one electronic control unit may be configured to determine whether the support assembly and the track assembly are properly connected to one another.

This background description is set forth below for the purpose of providing context only. Therefore, any aspect of this background description, to the extent that it does not otherwise qualify as prior art, is neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the instant disclosure.
Some electrical systems may be difficult to operate, inefficient, may not allow a support assembly to be removed from a track assembly, and/or may have a limited number of available positions at which a support assembly may be disposed on a track assembly.
There is a desire for solutions/options that minimize or eliminate one or more challenges or shortcomings of electrical systems for vehicles. The foregoing discussion is intended only to illustrate examples of the present field and is not a disavowal of scope.

Electrical system with track assembly and support assembly


Rubber-containing graft copolymer particles having excellent powder properties are prepared by mixing, with 100 parts by weight (as solid content) of a slurry of a rubber-containing graft copolymer (A), 0.1 to 10 parts by weight (as solid content) of a rigid non-elastic polymer (B) having a glass transition temperature of 40.degree. C. or higher and a weight-average molecular weight of 10,000 to 500,000 in a substantially slurry state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for producing rubber-containing graft copolymer particles having excellent powder properties and which can be used for improving the impact resistance of rigid resins, such as polyvinyl chlorides, polystyrenes, polymethyl methacrylates, and acrylonitrile-styrene copolymers, and other resins known as "engineering plastics", such as polycarbonates, PET, PBT, and polyacetals.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known to blend a rubber-containing graft copolymer with rigid resins, such as polyvinyl chlorides, polystyrenes, polymethyl methacrylates, and acrylonitrile-styrene copolymers, and other resins called "engineering plastics", such as polycarbonates, PET, PBT, and polyacetals to improve the impact resistance of these resins. The rubber-containing graft copolymer is obtained, usually as particles or powders, generally by subjecting a latex prepared by emulsion polymerization to coagulation with an acid, a salt, or the like and then dehydrating and drying the coagulated particles.
However, the particles are likely to give rise to such problems that the particles will cause blocking during the storage thereof and that transportation lines of the particles will be clogged with the particles due to their poor fluidity. Further, when the rubber content in the rubber-containing graft copolymer is increased to sufficiently improve the impact resistance of the resin with which the graft copolymer is blended, the problems mentioned above will inconveniently become more serious.
Accordingly, with the recent trend toward automation in measuring the amounts of powders and of the oversizing of transportation lines, improvements in the powder properties such as blocking resistance and powder fluidity of the graft copolymers are urgently required.
Reflecting this situation, various processes have been investigated to improve the powder properties of rubber-containing graft copolymer particles. For instance, there are known a process in which finely powdered silica, sodium carbonate, calcium carbonate, titanium dioxide, or one of various metallic soaps is added to the powder particles of a rubber-containing graft copolymer, and a process as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 64-26644 in which a lubricant is added to such particles or powders.
These processes, however, are accompanied by serious problems in that the improvement in the powder properties is insufficient, or that while a satisfactory improvement in the powder properties is observed, the effect of the rubber-containing graft copolymer on the improvement of the impact resistance is decreased, and the processability, transparency, and thermal stability of powder blends or final products thereof become poor.
Alternatively, a process has been disclosed in Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 58-48584 (and corresponding British Patent No. 2,044,779) in which a graft copolymer having a low rubber content used for improving the powder properties is mixed with another graft copolymer having a high rubber content in a slurry state.
According to this process, however, the effect of the polymer mixture on the improvement of powder properties remains insufficient, although the physical properties of the graft copolymer having a high rubber content will not be adversely affected by the mixing, since the graft copolymer used for improving the powder properties contains a rubber component.
Further, the Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 58-48584 (and corresponding British Patent No. 2,044,779) have disclosed, in their Comparative Example 3, a specific example where a polyvinyl chloride resin is blended with a modifier for improving an impact resistance (hereinafter referred to as impact modifier) prepared by mixing, in a slurry state, with a rubber-containing graft copolymer, a rigid non-elastic, two-stages polymer which contains no rubber component and is prepared by polymerizing a mixture of styrene and methyl methacrylate at a first stage and polymerizing methyl methacrylate at a second stage. However, the specific example shows that when such a two-stages polymer is mixed in a slurry state with a rubber-containing graft copolymer to form a modified rubber-containing graft polymer, many fish eyes are unfavorably produced when the modified graft polymer is blended with a polyvinyl chloride resin, and the level of impact resistance of the polyvinyl chloride resin to be expected will be lowered, indicating that the effect of the mixed rubber-containing graft copolymers on the improvement of the impact resistance of a resin to which the graft copolymers are blended is insufficient.
In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 58-1742 (and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,463,131) have disclosed that a rigid non-elastic polymer in a slurry state is mixed with a rubber-containing graft copolymer. The publications also have specifically disclosed the use of a copolymer having a molecular weight of 1,000,000 and comprised of methyl methacrylate component and ethyl acrylate component at a weight ratio of from 99:1 to 80:20. As long as such a copolymer is used, however, sometimes problems arise, similar to those described in Comparative Example 3 of the Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 58-48584 mentioned above, that when the modified rubber-containing graft copolymer is blended with a polyvinyl chloride resin, fish eyes are unfavorably produced and that the impact resistance is lowered.
Further, Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 61-57341 (and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,097,553) have disclosed that a rigid non-elastic polymer is mixed with an acrylic rubber-containing graft copolymer in a slurry state to form a modified acrylic rubber-containing graft copolymer. As in the process mentioned above, however, this process will have defects such as fish eyes being produced when the modified graft copolymer is blended with a polyvinyl chloride resin, and the impact resistance being lowered.
As described above, it is a current situation that a process has not been found whereby the powder properties can be sufficiently improved without producing fish eyes and without impairing the impact strength, transparency, processability or thermal stability when a rubber-containing graft copolymer is blended as an impact modifier with a resin to which the graft copolymer is intended to blend.

Process for producing rubber-containing graft copolymer particles


A gear head for a manually guided power implement is provided. Part of the tool shaft, which receives a rotatable cutting tool, is embodied as a cylindrical splined shaft having grooves for the positive transmission of torque to the cutting tool. An abutment plate is disposed on the tool shaft and has an abutment surface that extends essentially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the tool shaft. A centering cylinder extends through a circular central opening of the cutting tool and has inwardly directed longitudinal ribs that engage in the grooves of these splined shaft. A free end of the centering cylinder is provided with a beveled portion that extends from an outer contour of the cylinder to into the grooves.

The present invention relates to a gear head of a manually guided power implement.
Such gear heads, especially of a brush cutter or the like, are provided with a tool shaft which is driven by a motor and by means of which a rotatable cutting tool, such as a saw blade, a mowing tool, a filament drum, or the like is driven. Part of the drive shaft is embodied as a cylindrically splined shaft having essentially coaxial grooves. Provided in this region are a pressure plate and an abutment plate having an abutment surface that is disposed essentially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the tool shaft, whereby the cutting tool is held between the abutment plate and the pressure plate at right angles to the axis of rotation. The abutment plate, the pressure plate, or even both components have a central opening that surrounds the tool shaft and on the inner side of which ribs are provided that are in engagement with the grooves. This provides a positive connection between the tool shaft and the abutment plate and/or the pressure plate in the direction of rotation. The cutting tool itself is clamped in a flush manner between the abutment plate and the pressure plate, whereby the transfer of torque is effected by frictional engagement.
Due to the high operating speed, it is necessary to provide a precise centering of the cutting tool in order to avoid an out of balance situation. For this purpose, the cutting tool has a circular central opening, the diameter of which is greater than that of the splined shaft. The abutment plate is provided with a central, cylindrical centering shoulder that engages in the circular opening of the cutting tool and ensures the ability of the tool to run true. Unfortunately, in practice mounting of the cutting tool is cumbersome and time consuming. The centering collar has a very low height that corresponds approximately to the thickness of the cutting tool. As a result, a cutting tool that has been correctly placed upon the abutment plate and the centering collar thereof can slide out of this position when the pressure plate is tightened, which makes the placement or exchange of the cutting tool unnecessarily difficult. If the cutting tool is clamped in a non-centered position, the resulting eccentricity effects an occasionally considerable vibration, which can mechanically greatly stress in particular the gear head. A recentering of the cutting tool is complicated, since the implement must be shut down and the clamping mechanism must again be released.
The aforementioned drawbacks are aggravated by a protective disk that is arranged between the cutting tool and the abutment surface of the abutment plate. The protective disk is held on the abutment plate together with the cutting tool, and is centered by the centering collar. A sliding of the cutting tool also permits a sliding or tilting of the protective disk, which increases the out of balance situation.
It is therefore an object for the present invention to improve a gear head of the aforementioned general type in such a way that a reliable centered mounting of a cutting tool is simplified.


The disclosed image processing system detects the position and speed of a vehicle with high accuracy by accurately measuring the orientation of a rotatable surveillance camera 3 by means of image processing. This system allows mode setting to be switched between an automatic monitoring mode and a manual operation mode. When the mode is switched from the manual operation mode to the automatic monitoring mode, an image processing apparatus 7 recognizes on a screen a plurality of reference points 11 whose locations on a road are given, calculates orientation parameters of the surveillance camera 3 based on the positions of the reference points on the screen, and detects the position and speed of the vehicle based on photographed images of the vehicle using the orientation parameters, thereby detecting phenomena such as traffic congestion and accidents.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing system that allows automatic monitoring of objects using a rotatable surveillance camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
Stationary automatic surveillance cameras are installed on roads for measuring traffic congestion and the like on the roads, in which image data of the camera are processed to automatically detect phenomena such as traffic congestion.
Meanwhile, there are also movable-type rotational surveillance cameras installed on roads to take pictures at any desired magnification and field of view by manual remote operation.
The automatic surveillance cameras mentioned first are aimed at detecting abnormalities on the roads with high accuracy, and for image processing reasons, their field of view and magnification cannot be changed.
The rotational surveillance cameras mentioned second allow free control of the field of view and magnification and can photograph any object on the road or in the vicinity of the road. However, since they are intended only for viewing pictures, they themselves do not have image processing functions.
In addition, it has been impossible for one surveillance camera to serve as both the automatic surveillance camera and rotational surveillance camera, and therefore they need to be installed separately.
One possible reason for the difficulty to make one surveillance camera serve as both types of cameras is the failure to accurately reproduce the orientation of a surveillance camera when the camera is used again as the automatic surveillance camera after use thereof as the rotational surveillance camera. When the surveillance camera is used as the automatic surveillance camera, since the camera is overlooking the road for a long distance, even a minor difference in orientation leads to a great degradation in the accuracy for detecting physical quantities such as vehicle speed, adversely affecting the detection of phenomena. Reproducing the orientation of the surveillance camera with high accuracy is therefore desired.
Providing a turntable with a mechanism for automatically controlling the position and angle may be one possible idea for accurately setting the orientation of the surveillance camera. However, this complicates the structure of the turntable and increases the cost, reducing the practicality.

Image processing system using rotatable surveillance camera


A method, performed in a positioning node of a wireless communication system, for positioning reporting in the wireless communication system comprises providing (210) of first positioning data of a first format in three dimensions. The first format represents a polygon with corner points. The corner points have coordinates in three dimensions. The first positioning data is transformed (220) into second positioning data of a second format. The second format represents the first positioning data as a representation of an elliptic cylinder that is centered around a center point and has an elliptic base in a base plane. The second positioning data is reported (230) over an interface of the wireless communication system.

Positioning possibilities within wireless communication networks play an important role in modern communication systems and will probably be even more exploited in future development. Many different kinds of information available in different nodes can be utilized for positioning purposes. In order to be able to perform position determinations, positioning information has to be communicated between different nodes in a communication system. The reporting procedures and formats for positioning information therefore also play an important role in the communication systems. In that respect, one also has to consider the compatibility with e.g. different standards for reporting.
A basic positioning method in most cellular communication systems is based on identification of a cell ID. A certain cell is associated with a certain area and if a mobile terminal is connected to the cell it can be assumed that the mobile terminal is situated within the associated area, or at least close to the associated area.
This concept has fairly recently been further developed into a method referred to as Adaptive Enhanced Cell-ID (AECID) fingerprinting. By associating high-precision position measurements with tags typically comprising different kinds of connection information as well as auxiliary quantized measurements, clusters of measurements having the same or similar tags will be gathered in certain limited areas. Such information can then be used in analogy with the cell-ID positioning to obtain a position estimation from such type of information that is comprised in the tags, without need of any high-precision positioning techniques. In other words, fingerprinting positioning uses detailed geographical maps of radio properties of the cellular system, to position the terminal. This fingerprinting technology is already today provided as a part of a serving mobile location center (SMLC) node functionality for Global System for Mobile communications (GSM). The fingerprinting functionality is also being migrated to LTE, where the positioning node typically is denoted the enhanced SMLC (eSMLC). This AECID fingerprinting is e.g. described in the published international patent application WO 2008/118052 A1 or in the article "Adaptive Enhanced Cell-ID Fingerprinting Localization by Clustering of Precise Position Measurements" by T. Wigren in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Vol. 56, No. 5, September 2007, pp. 3199-3209. A further use of Round Trip Time (RTT) measurements is described in "RTT Positioning in WCDMA" by T. Wigren and J. Wennervirta in Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Communications, ICWMC 2009, Cannes/La Bocca, France, pp. 303-308, Aug. 23-29, 2009.
The result of the clustering of measurements in AECID is an area definition. The most convenient representation of such an area is a polygon, due to the fact that the shape of the area may vary very much. The polygon is adapted to enclose a predetermined fraction of the clustered measurement results within an as small area as possible. Such areas are also easily reported over e.g. Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) and Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks by standard formats.
In most areas covered by cellular communication systems, the lateral position is the most important parameter. However, in e.g. urban areas or mountain areas, also the altitude parameter may be of importance. The AECID approach can be augmented to also handle the altitude parameter. To that end, one approach has been used based on that a plane polygon is adapted to the lateral parameters and a height for each polygon corner has been established based on the clustered position measurements in the vicinity of each polygon corner. The result is a polygon in three dimensions.
One problem with such a representation of positioning data is that there are today no standardized formats for reporting of three-dimensional polygons. In the published International patent application WO2008/054271, a two-dimensional polygon reporting format was utilized in a non-standardized manner to report three-dimensional polygon data. This approach operates well in most cases but is, as mentioned, not standard compatible. In the published International patent application WO2010/069614, the three-dimensional polygon was approximated by a point with an uncertainty ellipsoid. That approach operates very well in many situations, e.g. for most smaller cells.
However, the approaches disclosed in prior art are not perfect in all respects, and in particular since the LTE development and further future developments will change the availability of as well as the request for accurate positioning, there is a general need for improving the positioning report alternatives.

Method and devices for positioning information reporting