This invention is based upon the unexpected finding that a hydrocarbon traction resin can be dispersed into the oil used in making an oil extended emulsion and solution rubbers to attain improved performance characteristics. For instance, this technique allows for the hydrocarbon traction resin to be incorporated into the rubber at a higher level than would ordinarily be possible using conventional mixing techniques. In tire tread compounds this provides improved wet traction characteristics without compromising cured stiffness (dry traction) and ultimate properties (chip/chunk resistance). This technique can be used to incorporate a resin into virtually any synthetic rubber that can benefit from being oil extended. It is of particular value in making resin modified solution styrene-butadiene rubber (SSBR), emulsion styrene-butadiene rubber (ESBR), high cis-1.4-polybutadiene rubber, and synthetic polyisoprene rubber which are formulated for use in tire tread compounds.

In 1949, Emert S. Pfau, Gilbert H Swart, and Kermit V. Weinstock discovered that high molecular weight rubbers which were too tough to process using ordinary mixing techniques could be "oil extended" to make them capable of being processed without excessive deterioration during mastication procedures. Oil extension accordingly made it possible to use synthetic rubbers having higher molecular weights than could be previously processed in manufacturing rubber products, such as tires, hoses, power transmission belts, conveyor belts, and the like. The ability to use of such high molecular weight rubbers in manufacturing such products resulted in improved product performance characteristics, such as reduced hysteresis, and in reduced production costs. In 1950, Pfau et al filed a United States Patent Application covering their invention which ultimately issued as U.S. Pat. No. 2,964,083, on Dec. 13, 1960. Since that time oil extension has been widely used to make high molecular weight synthetic rubbers capable of being processed.
Oil extended rubber is generally defined as a synthetic rubber or elastomer into which 25% to 50% of a petroleum oil emulsion has been incorporated to decrease cost and to increase low-temperature flexibility and resilience. Synthetic rubber made by emulsion polymerization or solution polymerization can be oil extended to attain desired benefits. For example, extending oil can be added to the cement of a synthetic rubber made by solution polymerization before it is recovered from the solvent in which it was synthesized. Upon subsequent removal of the solvent the extending oil will remain in the synthetic rubber to provide it with the benefits of being oil extended. By the same token, synthetic rubber made by emulsion polymerization can be oil extended by mixing an emulsion of the extender oil into the latex of the emulsion rubber before it is coagulated. Again, the extender oil remains in the rubber phase making the synthetic rubber more capable of being processed using conventional equipment and techniques.
High molecular weight uncured synthetic rubbers have characteristics that make them highly desirable for utilization in manufacturing a variety of rubber products, such as tires, power transmission belts, hoses, windshield wiper blades, sole soles, and the like. To make such high molecular weight rubbers easier to process or capable of being processed at all in commercial equipment the high molecular weight rubber is frequently oil extended. As was previously noted, oil extended rubber are not a susceptible to degradation during mixing procedures which also provides them with better characteristics in final product applications. In any case, oil extension is conventionally used in making synthetic rubbers for a wide variety of applications to make them more readily capable of being processed (mixed into other rubbers and rubber compounding materials) and to attain an array of beneficial properties that could not otherwise be attained.
Since the 1960s, a wide variety of synthetic rubbers have been oil extended to improve their ability to be processed and to improve their ultimate performance in rubber products, such as tires, power transmission belts, conveyor belts, tracks, air springs, asphalt modification polymers, adhesives, shoe soles, windshield wiper blades, bowling balls, golf balls, energy absorbing foot pads, and the like. Oil extension has been applied to a wide variety of synthetic rubbers and is of particular benefit in high molecular weight rubbers (rubbery having a high Mooney viscosity). For instance, some representative examples of synthetic rubbers that have been oil extended include high cis-1.4-polybutadiene rubber, emulsion styrene-butadiene rubber, solution styrene-butadiene rubber, synthetic polyisoprene rubber, styrene-isoprene-butadiene rubber, and nitrile rubber. Petroleum based oils have traditionally been used in preparing the oil extended rubber. These petroleum based oils include aromatic oils, naphthenic oils, paraffinic oils, and mixtures thereof. These petroleum based extending oils are classified under ASTM Designation D2226 as being highly aromatic, aromatic, naphthenic, or paraffinic according to the following table:
ASTM TypeAsphaltenesPolar CompoundsSaturated Hydrocarbons101≤0.75%≤25%≤20%102≤0.5%≤12%20.1% to 35%103≤0.3% ≤6%35.1% to 65%104≤0.1% ≤1%≥65%
It has recently been reported in United States Patent Publication 2017/0058112 A1 that the use of a triglyceride oil, such as, soybean oil, in the extension of high molecular weight solution styrene-butadiene rubber unexpectedly reduces the Mooney viscosity of such rubbers to a greater extent than does the use of petroleum based extending oils. This results in significantly lower viscosity for such uncured solution styrene/butadiene rubber (SSBR) and thereby enables processing of even higher molecular weight (even higher Mooney viscosity) SSBR. It is considered that such obtained lower viscosity for the uncured SSBR is both significantly advantageous and appeared to be essential to enable suitable processing for the SSBR at both the rubber manufacturing facility and at a rubber composition preparation facility, such as a tire manufacturing plant. Accordingly, it was reported that utilization of soybean oil in place of petroleum oil in oil extending high molecular weight solution styrene-butadiene rubber results in better processing and promotes better physical properties in the rubber product ultimately being manufactured. In any case, triglyceride oils can be used in oil extending high molecular weight solution styrene-butadiene rubber for use in a wide array of products, such as tires, power transmission belts, conveyor belts, tracks, air springs, asphalt modification polymers, adhesives, shoe soles, windshield wiper blades, bowling balls, golf balls, energy absorbing foot pads, vibration dampening pads, seals, gaskets, and the like. Such oil extended solution styrene-butadiene rubbers are of particular importance in making rubber formulations for tire tread and tire sidewall applications.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,044,188 discloses the use of vegetable oils having an iodine value of not less than 135, such as linseed oil, tung oil, safflower oil, and terpenes (α-pinene, 3-pinene, limonene, and turpentine oil) in the oil extension of certain modified natural rubber lattices. The use of these vegetable oils in place of petroleum based oils is touted in this patent as being beneficial for environmental reasons and because they are renewable resources.
Historically, vegetable oils, such as soybean oil and corn oil have been used for mixing with various rubber compositions by free oil addition to the rubber composition rather than oil extension of the elastomer at its point of manufacture. For instance, the utilization of soybean oil in rubber formulations is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,919,553, 8,100,157, and 8,022,136.


An apparatus having a memory circuit and a manager is disclosed. The memory circuit generally has (i) one or more Flash memories and (ii) a memory space that spans a plurality of memory addresses. The manager may be configured to (i) receive data items in a random order from one or more applications, (ii) write the data items in an active one of a plurality of regions in a memory circuit and (iii) mark the memory addresses in the active region that store the data items as used. Each data item generally has a respective host address. The applications may be executed in one or more computers. The memory addresses in the active region may be accessed in a sequential order while writing the data items to minimize a write amplification. The random order is generally preserved between the data items while writing in the active region.

Conventional NAND Flash memories move data in the background to write over an entire span uniformly. The background data movement is called wear leveling. A process performing the background data movement is often referred to as a garbage collection process. Since Flash memories only write in increments of a page (i.e., 4 kilobytes (KB), 8 KB or 16 KB) and erase data in terms of blocks (i.e., 64 KB up to 512 KB), the background data movement prolongs a useful life and performance of the device. A ratio of a number of writes that happen within the Flash memories per each write received from the user is called a write amplification. Higher numbers for the write amplification results in shorter life spans of the FLASH memories and lower sustained performances.
It would be desirable to implement reduced write amplification in a Flash memory.

Reducing write amplification in a flash memory

Avago Technologies General IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


An apparatus for sensing fetal oxygen levels of a fetus in an uterus. The apparatus includes a tube, a balloon, and as optical sensor. The tube includes an inflation lumen. The inflation lumen has a distal end. The balloon is coupled to the distal end of the inflation lumen. The balloon includes a first membrane. The optical sensor unit is disposed on the first membrane.

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for sensing oxygen levels of a fetus.
During normal labor, the fetal head engages in the pelvis. Coincident with the mother pushing, uterine contractions, and dilatation of the cervix, the fetus is delivered.
In utero, the fetus receives its oxygen through the placenta. When the uterus contracts, the oxygen supply to the fetus is reduced until the uterus relaxes between contractions. In severe cases, this may result in fetal asphyxia, an impaired or absent exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide on a ventilatory basis in the fetus. In extreme cases, fetal asphyxia may be associated with fetal cerebral injury.
Under the current standard of care, it is common for the heart rate of the fetus to be monitored during labor. In many instances, this fetal heart rate monitoring is performed through the cervix or the abdominal/uterine wall of the mother. Currently, the change in the fetus's heart rate relative to the uterine contractions is used to try to identify fetuses at risk. This current standard of care has been essentially, unsuccessful. "Current methods of intrapartum surveillance have made little impact in fetal mortality and morbidity while leading to increased caesarean section rates." Peoples, D. M., "Cerebral Hemodynamics and Oxygenation in the Fetus. The Role of Intrapartum near-infrared spectroscopy," Clinics in Perinatalogy September 1997 Vol. 24(3), pp. v. & 547-65. As a result research has been directed to better determine fetal oxygen levels.
One example of a known apparatus and method for sensing fetal oxygen levels is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,980 to Levinson et al., and assigned to Nellcor Puritan Bennett Incorporated. This method and apparatus is an optical method, which uses two wavelengths of light to determine the level of oxygen in pulsatile blood. This method is incapable of measuring fetal oxygen levels in non-pulsatile, or venous, blood.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,980 also teaches that there are two known types of fetal sensors: presenting part sensors and beyond the presenting part sensors. "Presenting part" refers to the region of the cervical os. "Beyond the presenting part" falls with in the uterus and extends out to the cervical os. Beyond the presenting part sensors can typically use the uterine wall to bias the sensor against the fetus. Presenting part sensors, on the other hand, cannot rely on the bias of the uterine wall, and may require positive attachment. Both known types of sensors, beyond the presenting part and presenting part, are placed through the cervix and require direct contact with fetal tissue. Since the sensor for both types must be placed in contact with fetal tissue, it interferes and partially obstructs the birth canal. Direct contact and interference with the fetus increases the risk of incidental injury to the fetal tissue from instrumentation and sensors. Further the protective amniotic fetal membranes would have to be ruptured to use this device. Finally, both known types of sensors can only be used when the fetal tissue is at or near the cervix. Thus, using either sensor it is not possible to measure the fetal oxygen level prior to labor.
In addition to monitoring the fetus, during labor, a catheter, typically a Foley catheter, is sometimes inserted into the mother's bladder for the purposes of evacuating urine. A Foley catheter inflates a balloon through an inflation lumen. The urine drains through the drainage lumen. The inflated Foley balloon keeps the catheter from sliding out of the bladder. Foley catheters are incapable of measuring fetal oxygen levels or other parameters. Thus, using previously known methods, to simultaneously evacuate urine and monitor fetal oxygen levels required the use of at least two separate devices.

Apparatus and method for sensing oxygen levels in a fetus


A fiber optic communication system includes a device of switching and setting wavelength of optical signals used in communication by network-node equipments, which sets the mapping of the wavelength of the optical signal used in communication by the network node equipments, and the input/output ports of an array waveguide grating (AWG), so as to construct a predetermined logical network topology by a plurality of network node equipments which are connected via optical fibers to the array waveguide grating that outputs optical signals inputted to optical input ports, to predetermined optical output ports in accordance with the wavelength thereof. As well as enabling a simple construction, it is easy to realize flexible network design, construction, and operation, and different network groups can also be easily connected to each other. Moreover, a fiber optic communication system having robust security and which can be stably operated even at the time of failure is realized at low cost.

Conventionally, the amount of traffic traveling through fiber optic communication networks has been steadily changing and increasing explosively as is represented by data centers. Moreover, the number of network-node equipments accommodated on a fiber optic communication network and the types of data are becoming various, and it is becoming necessary to dynamically change the network topology, connection configuration, or even traffic capacity. For instance, in the current local public network described in "Proposal for local electronic government synergistic IDC operation for local electronic government implementation" (Chikafumi Shimura, Local management newsletter, vol. 34, June 2001, Nomura Research Institute), there has been a call for: interconnection of municipal networks having different network topologies; installation of additional network-nodes or network-node removal; network topology reconfiguration following organizational integration or organizational expansion; and dynamic implementation of wavelength path reconfiguration in order to bypass failures. Also, there has been a strong call for integration of networks having different network topologies while maintaining their securities, and for superposing and operating networks having different signal formats and operation policies simply and inexpensively. Accordingly a fiber optic communication system has been expected in which connections with any network-node can be selectively established and logical network topologies can be arbitrarily reconfigured, by changing the wavelength of optical signals used for the connection between network nodes, by a wavelength tunable light source unit and a wavelength tunable optical receiver unit installed on network-node equipments in a fiber optic communication network that is physically connected to a uniform-loss and cyclic-frequency (ULCF) arrayed wavelength grating (AWG) in a star-shape via an optical wave guide such as an optical fiber (see also: K. Kato et al, "32×32 full-mesh (1024 path) wavelength-routing WDM network based on uniform-loss cyclic-frequency arrayed-waveguide grating", Electronics Letters, vol. 36, 1294-1296, 2000).
On the other hand, in investigations so far, networks are being advanced in which the connection configuration of optical wave guided paths such as optical fibers, which are transmission paths, physically has a ring topology (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2001-285323, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 7-202845, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2001-184408).
For example, the network-node equipment disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication Hei 7-202845 is constructed as shown in FIG. 4-37. An optical splitter (4-1) is one which splits an input optical signal into two regardless of its wavelength. An optical signal having eight wavelengths which is transmitted through the optical fiber is input thereto, and signals are output to an optical filter 4-2, a fixed-wavelength receiver unit A (4-4), and a fixed-wavelength receiver unit B (4-11).
The optical filter 4-2 has a function of intercepting from among the optical signals of eight wavelengths outputted from the optical splitter 4-1, two wavelengths, λs (short wavelength) and λe (long wavelength) that the network terminal transmits and receives, and transmitting the other wavelengths.
An optical combiner 4-3 combines the optical signals of six wavelengths transmitted from the optical filter 4-2 and optical signals of two wavelengths (λs, λe) outputted from a wavelength tunable transponder unit A (4-7) and a wavelength tunable transponder unit B14, and transmits them to optical fibers (not shown). The optical signals transmitted are inputted to the optical splitter 1 of the neighboring network-node equipment via an optical fiber (not shown in the diagram).
The fixed-wavelength receiver unit A (4-4) comprises a fixed-wavelength optical filter and a photodetector, and has a function of receiving only the optical signal of wavelength λs from among the optical signals of two wavelengths (λs, λe) outputted from the optical splitter 4-1, and converting the signal into an electrical signal. Similarly, the fixed-wavelength receiver unit B (4-11) receives only the optical signal of wavelength λe, and converts it into an electrical signal.
Selectors A and B (4-5 and 4-12) respectively reference received destination information assigned to the received data, and output the received data to a data processing module if the received data is addressed to the own network-node equipment. Also, if the received data is not addressed to the own network-node equipment and is to be relayed, the received data is outputted to a predetermined dual port memory of memory units A and B according to the received destination information.
Memory units A and B (4-6 and 4-13) have two dual port memories for data that specifies the wavelength of launched optical signal for every wavelength of launched optical signal, and one dual port memory for the data that does not specify the wavelength of launched optical signal.
The wavelength tunable transponder units A and B (4-7 and 4-14) have a function to convert the transmitted data into an optical signal and transmit it with two respective wavelengths: wavelength λs and wavelength λe. The wavelength tunable transponder unit A (4-7) is paired with the fixed-wavelength receiver unit A, and the wavelength tunable transponder unit 4-14 is paired with the fixed-wavelength receiver unit B (4-11).
A data processing module 4-8 of the network-node equipment performs the requested process for the data transmitted from other network-node equipment while performing processes such as assigning received destination information for the data that is to be transmitted from the own network-node equipment to another network-node equipment, and outputs the data to the memory unit A (4-6) or the memory unit B (4-13).
An end of transmission detection unit 4-9 detects the transmission end of the data stored in each of the dual port memories of the memory unit A (4-6) and the memory unit B (4-13), and outputs a wavelength switch signal to a wavelength controlling unit 4-10. The wavelength controlling unit 4-10 controls the oscillating wavelengths used for the wavelength tunable transponder units A and B to be λs and λe, by regulating the injection current of a tunable laser diode (hereunder referred to as TLD), which is described later.
However, when designing a network or changing a network configuration, although there are methods for configuring a plurality of different virtual LANs (VLAN) as different respective logical network topologies in the reconfiguration of logical network topologies, in the installation of a new network-node equipment or removal of network-node equipment, and in the reconfiguration of a logical network topology in order to circumvent failure, there is complexity in each of the various kinds of settings, and a few months to six months is required for the construction. Also these operations have required a lot of work and there has been the problem of the risk of network collapse and so forth caused by human error. Moreover, although it has been possible, by using technology such as traffic engineering (TE) that is capable of selecting routes. according to the amount of traffic, to reconfigure the logical network-topology according to the load on the network, cases in which the amount of traffic exceeds expected traffic are conceivable, such as distributing live concert video images or providing information in a time of disaster, and the complexity of network setting operations and the problems in stable network operation still remain for the present technology. Moreover cases in which it has been necessary to review and reconfigure the physical network topology that have been determined according to the connection configuration of optical fibers have not been few.
Also, the same is true even with reconfiguration of logical network topology using wavelength path by wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology, and this operation also requires work, and dynamic and quick reconfiguration of a logical network topology has been comparatively difficult.
When automatizing in order to treat these problems, although a collective management method by central-management-equipment or a method of assigning a setting to each individual equipment are common, in the former method, since multiple control information is required to control the wavelength tunable light source and wavelength tunable filter that are provided for the network-node equipments, then when performing network topology reconfiguration, the number of network-node equipments and the load on the central-management-equipment increase, and fast topology reconfiguration has been made difficult. Moreover, in the latter method, since settings for the wavelength tunable light source and the wavelength tunable filter need to be assigned separately to different network-node equipments, the load on the network administrator has increased in initial network configuration or in network reconfiguration when changing the network topology.
Furthermore, in the network system described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No Hei 7-202845 mentioned above, in which a management method is explained, a network-node equipment autonomously performs controls related to search and determination of the wavelength of optical signals used for connection with other network-node equipments. However the two wavelengths to be used are not regulated to be just two successive adjacent wavelengths, and when the case of connections with many network-node equipments using more than two wavelengths is considered, there is concern of an increase in processing time required for the data processing module in the network-node equipment shown in FIG. 4-34.
However, in actual fiber optic communication systems, topology reconfiguration needs to be performed promptly according to changes in traffic pattern or efficient network usage, and in terms of stable network operation it is preferable not to require a long time from the start of the topology reconfiguration to its completion, and it has been desirable that high-speed topology reconfiguration be made possible.
In view of the problems mentioned above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a logical topology reconfigurable optical network system, a central-management-equipment, and a wavelength tunable light source unit thereof, and a network-node equipment into which is installed a wavelength tunable optical receiver unit and a computer program thereof, which are applicable to a geographically-distributed iDC (Internet Data Center) implemented for a local administrative network and to an IX (Internet exchange) network, and in which, installation and utilization of the logical topology reconfigurable optical network system, which is realized with a wavelength path routing function of an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) and wavelength tunable light sources mounted on network-node equipments that are physically connected to the AWG in a star shape via optical waveguides such as optical fibers, can be achieved.
Moreover it is an object to provide an actual fiber optic communication system in which clock time synchronization of all network-node equipments can be performed by a central-management-equipment, and wavelength information for forwarding data signals and wavelength information for receiving data signals required for logical network topology reconfiguration, are transmitted along with trigger time information for logical topology reconfiguration from the central-management-equipment to network-node equipments, and in which network-node equipments can autonomously change wavelengths of launched optical signals and receiving optical signals at high speed when the reconfiguring time of the logical network topology is reached.

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation


There is disclosed a circuit for monitoring the security of a processor, wherein the circuit is configured to access a memory configured to store execution context data of a software program executed by the processor; to determine one or more signatures from said execution context data; and to compare said signatures with predefined signatures to monitor the security of the processor (110). Developments describe that context data can comprise control flow data, that a signature can comprise a hash value or a similarity signature, or that the integrity of signatures can be verified for example by using a secret key (e.g. obtained by random, or by using a physically unclonable function). Further developments describe various controls or retroactions on the processor, as well as various countermeasures if cyber attacks are determined.

Embedded systems face ever increasing risks of cyber attacks attempting to gain control of host devices. A diversity of existing approaches is described to safeguard embedded systems.
Antivirus software protects the system only partially. Such systems rely on the assumption that some signature of malware code can be found to identify its presence. Corresponding ad-hoc solutions can be performed too late, for example after the system has been corrupted, as malware code can sometimes only be identified as a result of a successful attack. Moreover, antivirus programs are usually demanding in terms of memory and CPU resources. Such protections and their updates are hardly deployable on embedded systems.
Another known approach consists in protecting the inner mechanisms of the potentially vulnerable programs. Such solutions can be performed in software or in a combination of software and hardware. Hardware implementations require modifications of the processor architecture. Software implementations generally involve the operating system, for example by protecting a limited number of sensitive data as a return address of a sub-routine. For example, a "canary" (i.e. a random value) is added just before returning an address into the stack, in order to detect overflows. If the canary is overwritten, a security exception is raised. Such a counter-measure slows down the performance, as additional verifications are computed in software. It also consumes more memory as canaries need to be stored. Finally, some attacks can manage to bypass the countermeasure by guessing or disclosing the canary value, or even by using a "write-what-where" corruption, which allows modifying the return address without modifying the canary.
Another existing approach, named "pointer checking", consists in checking for pointer overflows. A pointer is associated with meta-information. Said meta-information typically contains a start address and the size of the allowed memory area for a given pointer. During each pointer use, the pointer value is checked against the meta-information to detect overflows. The implementation can be performed in software or in a combination of software and hardware solutions. In all cases, the memory and speed overhead can be significant. Extensions to the memory are sometimes proposed. To obtain an effective protection, the architecture of the processor has to be modified accordingly.
Another existing approach named "dynamic information flow tracking" (acronym DIFT) aims to identify and to track the unsafe (or tainted) data. Unsafe or tainted data generally comes from program interfaces (e.g. network, user inputs). Propagation of tainted data in the memory and CPU can be tracked by the system. If security critical parameters such as the program counter or the current instruction become tainted, the DIFT system considers the program to be compromised and an alarm is raised. The main drawback of this approach is the difficulty to create efficient propagation rules with a good compromise on performance (in particular with respect to management of false-positives and fault-negatives). Currently, DIFT solutions present different compromises. Some present a very partial protection with little overhead. Some others offer an efficient protection but with a more significant overhead and can require complex modifications of the hardware architecture.
Another existing approach named "Address Space Layout Randomization" (acronym ASLR) consists in randomizing the memory space, in order to make it more difficult to accurately corrupt or disclose sensitive data, their positions being unknown. This technique generally helps making attacks less practical but usually does not allow detecting them once done.
Another existing approach named "Control Flow Integrity" (acronym CFI) consists in detecting the modification of the flow control. As a prerequisite, a software application which has to be secured must be analyzed beforehand, to identify all possible instructions' flows. During the execution of the software application, the instruction flow is then checked in real-time. As a drawback, the performance can be decreased significantly.
The patent literature discloses several approaches. For example, US patent referenced U.S. Pat. No. 5,771,348 entitled "Method and arrangement for enhancing the security of critical data against manipulation" discloses a method to handle the security of critical register data, by manipulating pointers, code words and validity checks of codewords. This approach presents limitations.
There is consequently a need for methods and systems of securing embedded systems providing improved resistance to cyber attacks thus enhanced security.


Systems, methods, and software applications for managing slide presentation content are described in the present disclosure. According to one embodiment, among many, a computer readable medium is configured to store instructions that are executable by a processing device. The computer readable medium comprises logic adapted to enable a user to enter one or more search terms via a graphical user interface, the one or more search terms being used to initiate a text search of individual slides disassembled from one or more slide presentations and stored in an external database. Additional logic is adapted to display results of the text search on the graphical user interface, which displays a visual representation of a plurality of the individual slides resulting from the text search. The computer readable medium also includes logic adapted to enable a user to select one or more of the individual slides displayed on the graphical user interface.

Presentation software, such as PowerPoint® from Microsoft Corporation, is used for inserting text and graphics onto individual slides to create slide presentations. Presentation software can be run on a regular desktop or laptop computer, making the creation of slide presentations convenient and simple. Once prepared, a slide presentation can be displayed for an audience using a video projector, for example, and is shown to the audience one slide at a time, sometimes using transitional effects between slides. The nomenclature for the term "slide" is carried over from previous technologies for creating presentations that project images through 35 mm slides positioned within a slide projector.
Slide presentations are typically used for visually communicating information during a speech or presentation. Slide presentations can be used for purposes relating to business, education, entertainment, etc. Some benefits of utilizing slide presentations include helping the speaker follow an outline of a speech and also providing visual information that can help the audience follow the main points of the speech.
Typically, in order to create a slide presentation, a user might need to access a file system associated with the business with which the user is employed, download presentations that may have been saved on the file system, search for relevant content on the Internet or other networks, etc. After gathering information from various sources, the user may realize that the content might not be useful for the user's particular purpose. Although some information downloaded from an organization's network might be useful for one purpose, such as for a presentation to an audience of sales directors in the United States, the same information might not be so useful for other purposes, such as for a presentation to an audience of engineers in Asia.

Managing the content of shared slide presentations


An apparatus for manufacturing moldings by which clear colors and patterns can be brought out without a remarkable lowering of strength. Immediately before delivery to a metal mold, outer resin material positioned on the main cylinder inner wall side is put in the molten state, and inner resin material positioned on the main screw side is controlled to be from the softening temperature to the melting temperature both inclusive to be extrusion-molded as they are. The inner wall of the main cylinder is expanded where the outer resin material is received to help the outer resin material be thrown in smoothly.

This invention relates to a resin molding device and a resin molding method, and particularly to the molding technology for presenting a clear pattern in plastics containing a pigment and also preventing a remarkable lowering of strength.
1. Prior Art
The technology of manufacturing a molding presenting colors and patterns by mixing a pigment in resin has been known for long. Typical of the above is the technology of mixing powder (wood flour) of natural wood in resin to manufacture a molding, the so-called wood plastic, and various technology has been proposed heretofore. Among them, the technology of xe2x80x9ccellulosic granular powder, a wood-like molding and a wood-like productxe2x80x9d disclosed in PCT JP94/00351 (International Laid-Open No.: WO94/20280) will now be described in brief.
The pulverized powder obtained by grinding cellulose material as raw material is ground to obtain granular powder increased in bulk specific gravity, a surface grain which has a diameter smaller than that of the granular powder and is harder than the powder is fixed to the outer peripheral surface of the granular powder to obtain a fixed grain, resin and a pigment are mixed with the fixed grain and molten, and after that, or simultaneously with melting, the mixture is formed into a desired shape by extrusion molding or injection molding. According to this technology, it is possible to provide a method of manufacturing a wood-like product and a wood-like product which has a pattern very close to the grain of natural wood and also has feeling such as the touch or the like close to the natural wood.
The technique about the device for extrusion molding is disclosed in prior art such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,966,857, U.S. Pat. No. 3,388,196 and JP-A-62198435.
2. Disadvantage of the Prior Art
It is, however, true that not only in the above technology, giving of coloring to a resin molding is hard to be incompatible with keeping the strength of the resin molding. That is, it is preferable to incompletely mix resin in order to give coloring to the resin molding, but if done so, the strength of the molding is lowered. On the contrary, if mixing is performed completely, the strength of the molding can be increased, but the coloring fades.
A problem to be solved by the invention is to provide the technology by which giving of coloring to a resin molding is made compatible with preventing a remarkable lowering of strength of the resin molding.
It is an object of the invention to provide a method of manufacturing a molding by which clear colors and patterns can be presented without a remarkable lowering of strength.
It is another object of the invention to provide a mixing device for extrusion molding by which clear colors and patterns can be presented without a remarkable lowering of strength.
Further in detail, listed are the respective objects of the invention.
One object of the invention is to provide a manufacturing method by which clear colors and patterns can be presented without a remarkable lowering of strength and to provide a method of manufacturing a molding having the woody feel.
Another object of the invention is to provide a manufacturing method y which a molding having a clear pattern can be manufactured.
Another object of the invention is to provide a mixing device for extrusion molding by which energy required for manufacture can be held down, and by which a molding having a clear pattern can be manufactured.
Another object of the invention is to provide a mixing device for extrusion molding by which the existing equipment can be utilized to the maximum.
The present invention is intended for accomplishing the described objects.
In one embodiment, the invention is a molding manufacturing method using a mixing device 10 for extrusion molding comprising a main cylinder 11 positioned on this side of a metal mold for shaping a molding and a main screw 12 rotated in the main cylinder 11 for mixing resin material 20 and delivering the same to the metal mold, wherein immediately before delivery to the metal mold, an outer resin material 21 positioned on the inner wall side of the main cylinder 11 is put in the molten state, and an inner resin material 22 positioned on the main screw 12 side is controlled to be from the softening temperature to the melting temperature both inclusive. Moreover, cellulose material is mixed with the outer resin material 21. Furthermore, cellulose material mixed with the outer resin material 21 is fixed grains formed by fixing a surface grain which has a diameter smaller than that of the pulverized powder obtained by pulverizing the cellulose material and is harder than the powder to the outer peripheral surface of the pulverized powder.
The xe2x80x9cmainxe2x80x9dof the xe2x80x9cmain cylinder 11xe2x80x9d means any one of cylinders in multilayer molding, for example, and the only one cylinder in monolayer molding. The xe2x80x9cmain xe2x80x9d of the xe2x80x9cmain screw 12xe2x80x9d means a screw incorporated in the main cylinder, and in the case of using plural screws in the main cylinder, it means all of the screws.
As concrete means for xe2x80x9cimmediately before delivery to the metal mold, putting an outer resin material 21 positioned on the inner wall side or the main cylinder 11 in the molten state, and controlling an inner resin material 22 positioned on the main screw 12 side to be from the softening temperature to the melting temperature both inclusivexe2x80x9d, cited are means for controlling the temperature of a heater for heating the main cylinder and the main screw, means for making the particle size of resin material positioned on the main cylinder inner wall side smaller than that of resin material positioned on the main screw side, and the like.
Here, xe2x80x9cresin materialxe2x80x9d means material used at the time of making a resin molding such as polyvinyl chloride which is thermoplastic resin or the like. Though only the resin as base material will be resin material, if wood flour (cellulose material) is contained in resin, it becomes resin material used in the so-called wood plastic molding.
As for the resin material used in wood plastic molding, it is frequent to use the material obtained by mixing wood flour with resin and pelletizing the same in addition Lo the powdered material obtained by mixing wood flour with powder resin. Further, frequently in order to produce a pattern of the grain of wood, xe2x80x9cresin materialxe2x80x9d is added to wood flour and resin to obtain a mixture of a pigment. In that case, sometimes one kind of a pigment will be sufficient, and sometimes plural kinds of pigments are used. In the case of using plural kinds of pigments, xe2x80x9cresin materialxe2x80x9d can be made by preparing plural kinds of pellets with different pigments and mixing the same.
The cellulose material used in manufacturing fixed grains is ordinarily natural wood, or sawdust, but rice straw and bagasse may be used.
As a method of forming fixed grains by xe2x80x9cfixing surface grains which have a diameter smaller than that of the granular powder and are harder than the powder to the surface of pulverized powderxe2x80x9d, cited are grinding using a ball mill, long-time high-speed mixing using a mixer, and so on. By these methods, fuzz of fibers of the cellulose material is decreased. Processing for removing fuzz of fibers of the cellulose material may be performed separately from fixing of surface grains.
The xe2x80x9csurface grainsxe2x80x9dare metal, metal compounds such as titanium oxide, ferrite, aluminum, nickel, silver, calcium carbonate and the like, and nonmetal such as ceramic or the like.
The percentage of fixed grains mixed with resin to the whole is usually set not more than 30 wt %. The reason is that sometimes the fluidity at the time of melting the material to be molded becomes worse to interfere with molding.
The material formed by mixing fixed grains with resin which is resin material may be pulverulent or be previously molded to be pelletized. In order to bring out a pattern of the grain of wood, sometimes one kind of a pigment will be sufficient, but frequently plural kinds of pigments are used. In order to use plural kinds of pigments, plural kinds of pellets having different pigments in xe2x80x9cmaterial formed by mixing resin and a pigment with fixed grainsxe2x80x9d are prepared and mixed to form xe2x80x9cresin materialxe2x80x9d.
As wood flour in resin material is fixed grains, it is possible to manufacture a wood-like product which has patterns very close to the grain of natural wood on the surface and also has a feeling such as the touch or the like very close to that of natural wood.
Immediately before delivery to the metal mold, outer resin material 21 of the resin material 20 is to be put in the molten state, so that while being clamped between the inner wall of the main cylinder 11 and an inner resin material 22, it is rubbed by the inner wall of the main cylinder 11 to be mixed. Soon at the time of delivery from the forward end of the main screw 12 to the metal mold, the material is clamped between the inner wall of the main cylinder 11 and the forward end part of the main screw 12 to be delivered.
On the other hand, the inner resin material 22 is controlled to be from the softening temperature to the melting temperature both inclusive, so that it is delivered in the state of being little mixed to the metal mold.
Since the outer resin material 21 of the resin material 20 is mixed, the strength will not be lowered remarkably unlike the case in which every resin for forming a molding is mixed merely incompletely.
Moreover, as cellulose material is contained in the outer resin material 21, a molding has the wood feeling brought out on the surface thereof.
Furthermore, since pulverization and fixing of surface grains are performed for cellulose material mixed with resin material, fuzz of the cellulose material can be decreased so as to manufacture a molding heightened in a wood feeling.
In another embodiment, the invention defines a method of manufacturing a molding as described above, wherein the outer resin material 21 is made different from the inner resin material 22 in color.
As means for varying the color of resin material, means for varying the kind of a pigment to be mixed with the resin material is general.
If plural kinds of pigments different in color are mixed with the outer resin material 21 turned to be molten, sometimes it is possible to bring out a delicate tone of color. Mixing to such a degree not to lower the strength of a molding causes the case where as plural kinds of pigments are made monochromatic, sometimes mixing is not completely performed.
According to this embodiment, the outer resin material 21 is not completely mixed with the inner resin material 22 not molten. Accordingly, it is possible to manufacture a molding which will not turn to a color intermediate between the outer resin material 21 and the inner resin material 22.
In another embodiment, the invention defines a method of manufacturing a molding as described above, wherein cellulose material is mixed with the inner resin material 22.
As the cellulose material is contained not only in the outer resin material 21 but in the inner resin material 22, it is possible to provide a molding having a wood feeling all over the molding.
In another embodiment, the invention defines a method of manufacturing a molding as described above, wherein the cellulose material mixed with the inner resin material 22 is formed by fixing surface grains which have a diameter smaller than that of pulverized powder obtained by pulverizing the cellulose material and are harder than that to the outer peripheral surface of the pulverized powder.
In another embodiment, the invention defines a method of manufacturing a molding as described above, wherein the cellulose material mixed with the inner resin material 22 is formed by fixing surf ace grains which have a diameter smaller than that of pulverized powder obtained by pulverizing the cellulose material and are harder than that to the outer peripheral surface of the pulverized powder.
As pulverization and fixing of surface grains are performed for the cellulose material mixed with the inner resin material 22, fuzz of the cellulose material can be decreased so as to provide a molding heightened in a wood feeling of the whole molding.
In another embodiment, a mixing device 10 for extrusion molding comprising a main cylinder 11 positioned on this side of a metal mold for forming a molding, and a main screw 12 rotated in the main cylinder 11 for mixing resin material 20 and delivering the same to the metal mold, immediately before delivery to the metal mold, the outer resin material 21 positioned on the inner wall side of the main cylinder 11 is put in the molten state, and the inner resin material 22 positioned on the main screw 12 side is formed in such a manner as to be controlled from the softening temperature to the melting temperature both inclusive. Moreover, the device includes a sub-throw-in machine for throwing the outer resin material 21 in the mixing device for extrusion molding, and the sub-throw-in machine is provided separately from the main throw-in machine (e.g. main hopper 13) for throwing in the inner resin material 22 and comprises an outer resin material holding part (e.g. sub-hopper 14) for holding the outer resin material 21 and a sub-throw-in hole for delivering the outer resin material 21 to the main cylinder 11, the sub-throw-in hole being communicated with a receiving hole positioned between the metal mold in the main cylinder 11 and the main throw-in machine 13. Furthermore, the receiving hole of the main cylinder 11 (e.g. formed by removing a receiving hole forming member 11A) is formed in such a manner as to expand the receiving hole 11A on the rotating direction side of the main screw 12 in the cylinder inner wall.
The xe2x80x9cmain throw-in machinexe2x80x9d is generally called xe2x80x9chopperxe2x80x9d.
The sub-cylinder of the xe2x80x9csub-throw-in machinexe2x80x9dmay be a hopper, but as defined in the claim 13, it may be provided with a screw.
The receiving hole 11A is expanded by providing a notch part 11F by chamfering using an inversed spot facing tool.
Since the outer resin material 21 of the resin material 20 is put in the molten state immediately before delivery to the medal mold, mixing is performed by rubbing of the inner wall of the main cylinder 11. Soon at the time of delivering the material from the forward end of the main screw 12 to the metal mold, the material is clamped between the inner wall of the main cylinder 11 and the forward end part of the main screw 12 to be delivered.
On the other hand, as the inner resin material 22 is controlled to be from the softening temperature to the melting temperature both inclusive, it is delivered in the state of being little mixed to the metal mold.
As the outer resin material 21 of the resin material 20 is mixed, the strength will not be remarkably lowered unlike the case of quite incomplete mixing.
Moreover, as the sub-throw-in machine is provided separately from the main throw-in machine (e.g. main hopper 13) for throwing in the inner resin material 22, it is easy to put the outer resin material 21 in the molten state and control the inner resin material 22 to be from the softening temperature to the melting temperature both inclusive.
Furthermore, as the rotating direction side of the main screw 12 in the receiving hole 11A is expanded, the outer resin material 21 can be smoothly thrown in.
In another embodiment, the invention defines a mixing device for manufacturing a molding as claimed in claim 20, 14 and wherein the receiving hole 11A is a vent hole 11B previously provided in the mixing device 10 for extrusion molding.
Here, the xe2x80x9cvent hole 11Bxe2x80x9dis an air vent hole provided for removing gas contained in resin material or generated from resin material. As air is let escape from the vent hole 11B according to the kind of resin material and the property of a molding in some case, if there are provided plural vent holes 11B, one can be used as a feed port for the outer resin material 21 and the other can be used as an air vent hole.
Since the ordinary mixing device for extrusion molding is provided with a vent hole, it can be applied, so that the existing equipment can be utilized.
In another embodiment, the invention defines a mixing device for manufacturing a molding as described above, wherein the sub-throw-in machine 15 is provided with a sub-screw 17 rotated in the sub-cylinder 16 for mixing and delivering the outer resin material 21 held in the sub-cylinder 16.
On this side of a metal mold in the main cylinder 11, the outer resin material 21 to be put in the molten state is molten and mixed and then fed into the main cylinder 11 by the sub-cylinder 16 and the sub-screw 17.
In another embodiment, the invention defines the mixing device for manufacturing a molding as described above, wherein there are provided plural (e.g. five) receiving holes of the main cylinder 11 in the direction of extrusion.
As there are provided plural receiving holes 11 of the main cylinder 11 in the direction of extrusion, it is possible to select and use the receiving holes appropriate for a molding according to various conditions such as desired colors and patterns, the kind of resin and the like. Further, the receiving hole can be used as a vent hole.
In another embodiment, the invention defines the mixing device for manufacturing a molding as described above, wherein the area in the main screw 12 that corresponds to the receiving hole is formed in such a manner that the diameter of the main screw 12 is smaller than that of the other area.
The area in the main screw 12 that corresponds to the receiving hole is formed in such a manner that the diameter of the main screw 12 is smaller than that of the other area, whereby the outer resin material 21 can be smoothly thrown in from the receiving hole.


Systems, methods and a graphical user interface are provided for enhancing a computing navigation device route directions view. A system is disclosed including a computing navigation device configured to identify a route for travel. The route includes one or more geographic locations along the route. The computing navigation device is further configured to receive media from a media service via a computer network, wherein each media includes associated geographic information indicating that the media relates to the one or more geographic locations. The computing navigation device is further configured to display the media in a route directions view of a graphical user interface.

Computerized geographic information systems have been developed that are able to provide a user with a suggested route from a starting point to a destination. The route may be displayed as textual or map-based directions. One drawback with such systems is that many people have difficulty understanding the textual directions or reading the maps, and may thus become lost or disoriented during travel, even when referring to the computer generated textual or map-based directions.

Computing navigation device with enhanced route directions view


An insulated container utilizing Stirling cooler technology. The insulated container and the Stirling cooler include a portable power source, such as a battery, a fuel cell, or a solar panel. The Stirling cooler may provide cooling to the inside of the insulated container, for example by a heat sink and a fan, direct connection to a liner in the insulated container, or a thermosyphon or heat pipe connected to the heat acceptor for the Stirling cooler and routed through the insulated container. Controls may be provided that regulate the cycling of the Stirling cooler so that the internal temperature of the insulated container may be controlled. An embodiment includes both a freezer portion and a refrigeration portion.

The present invention generally relates to insulated containers, and more specifically relates to insulated containers having refrigeration units.
Insulated containers, also called xe2x80x9ccoolers,xe2x80x9d are prevalent in contemporary life. The insulated containers are often used for picnics or for outdoor activities such as camping or sporting events. In addition, insulated containers are becoming more prevalent in the medical industry, where they are used to move transplant organs and other articles that need to remain cold during transport. Also, the need to transport commercial goods such as perishable food, drink, medicine, and environmental samples is becoming more important.
One downside to current insulated containers is that the length of time that an insulated container can keep something cold is limited. For example, if ice is used in the insulated container, the ice will often melt because the cooler cannot maintain the colder interior temperatures needed to prevent melting of the ice. Frozen ice packs do not last much longer. Traditional vapor cycle systems, while efficient, are quite large and heavy. Most of these systems require a 110-volt outlet to operate. A few 12 volt or 24 volt systems are available today; however, these systems are also large and heavy. The vapor cycle 12 and 24-volt systems also may have problems with vibrations during transportation. In addition, there exists absorption and adsorption refrigerators, but these fail if enough vibrations exist and improper orientation may also cause the units to fail. Like the vapor cycle refrigerators, these cooler systems are heavy, and must use ammonia in order to freeze.
Another downside to insulated containers is that they often cannot be maintained at freezing temperatures for very long. To solve this problem, many companies often use dry ice to keep the contents of an insulated container cold. However, even dry ice has time limitations, and its use and handling is difficult.
One solution that has recently been used for providing insulated containers that can maintain cold temperatures for long periods of time is to provide refrigeration units as components of the insulated containers. Such refrigeration units typically must be plugged into an AC outlet or a car cigarette lighter to provide cooling. While such a cooling unit works well for cooling items in the insulated container, an AC outlet or similar power supply is not always readily available.
The present invention provides an insulated container utilizing Stirling cooler technology. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the insulated container and the Stirling cooler include a self-contained, portable power source associated with them. For example, the portable power source may be a battery, a fuel cell, a flexible solar panel, a Stirling generator, or a combustion engine generator.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the Stirling cooler may provide cooling to the insulated container in a number of different ways. As one example, a heat sink may be attached to a cold portion (i.e., heat acceptor portion) of the Stirling cooler and a fan may blow through the heat sink and into the insulated interior portion of the cooler, thus providing refrigeration. In another example, a heat pipe or a thermosyphon may be attached to the heat acceptor portion of the Stirling cooler and the working fluid of the thermosyphon (e.g., water) may be circulated from the heat acceptor of the Stirling cooler into the insulated container. In one embodiment, the heat pipe or thermosyphon is arranged as a series of coils on the inside of the compartment to be cooled, and the Stirling cooler is located on the outside of that compartment. In another embodiment, the heat pipe or the thermosyphon extends around a lower portion of the cooler, and includes a metal liner adjacent thereto. Alternatively, the heat pipe or thermosyphon may be arranged around a top portion of the cooler, with a metal liner adjacent thereto. The heat pipe may also be attached to a metal plate that is externally attached to the inner liner of a cooler then foamed into place. This method provides an insulated container having an interior that is easy to clean.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, if the heat sink and fan are used, the insulated container provides refrigeration only. However, if the heat pipe or thermosyphon is used, the cycling of the Stirling cooler may be increased so that the same insulated container may also be used simultaneously as a freezer. Controls may be provided that regulate the cycling of the Stirling cooler so that the internal temperature of the insulated container may be controlled. If desired, the cycling of the Stirling cooler may be changed so that the heat acceptor regulates temperature sufficiently to permit an insulated container having a heat pipe or a thermosyphon to be used alternatively as a refrigerator or a freezer.
In accordance with still another aspect of the present invention, an insulated container using the heat pipe or thermosyphon to provide a freezer portion may additionally include a separate chamber within the insulated container that provides refrigeration. In accordance with one aspect of this embodiment of the present invention, a small adjustable or fixed opening is provided between the freezer portion and the refrigerator portion. Cold air flows from the freezer portion into the refrigerator portion, providing sufficient cooling to provide refrigeration. Alternatively, instead of a small hole, insulation between the two compartments may be sufficiently thin such that thermal transfer is provided between the two containers. Still another compartment may be provided that is insulated from the freezer and/or refrigerator compartments and that is not refrigerated or cooled at all. Yet another insulated container may utilize heat from the hot portion (heat rejecter side) of the Stirling cooler for warming or heating a compartment.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a heat sink is provided on the hot portion (heat rejecter side) of the Stirling cooler. This heat sink and the hot portion of the Stirling cooler may be mounted on the outside of the insulated container. If mounted inside, they are mounted in a separate compartment from the cooled compartment or compartments. A fan is provided for conducting heat away from the heat sink attached to the heat rejecter of the Stirling cooler. If mounted inside a compartment, a hole may be provided in the side of the cooler for permitting the hot air to flow out of the cooler.
The Stirling cooler of the present invention provides a portable refrigeration or freezing unit that requires very little energy input. The unit may provide heating, ambient, refrigeration, or freezing, or any combination thereof, each with a specific compartment. In addition, because the invention uses Stirling technology, the refrigeration unit is nonpolluting, quiet, lightweight, and efficient.

Portable insulated container with refrigeration


A business intelligence system comprises a business intelligence interface system that enables users to interface with a business intelligence system and an electronic learning system that delivers electronic learning related to the business intelligence system. The business intelligence interface system enables one or more portions, such as folders of reports, individual reports, metadata or other business intelligence objects, or a report definition, of the business intelligence system for use by a user based on information related to whether the user has engaged in electronic learning associated with the one or more portions. A user may self-provision access by earning a privilege based on reviewing a lesson, passing a test, and/or other activities relative to the business intelligence object. Upon meeting electronic learning criteria, the electronic learning system updates privileges to enable access to the business intelligence object or class of objects.

The ability to act quickly and decisively in today's increasingly competitive marketplace is critical to the success of any organization. The volume of data that is available to organizations is rapidly increasing and frequently overwhelming. The availability of large volumes of data presents various challenges. One challenge is to avoid inundating an individual with unnecessary information. Another challenge is to ensure all relevant information is available in a timely manner.
One known approach to addressing these and other challenges is known as data warehousing. Data warehouses, relational databases, and data marts are becoming important elements of many information delivery systems because they provide a central location where a reconciled version of data extracted from a wide variety of operational systems may be stored. As used herein, a data warehouse should be understood to be an informational database that stores shareable data from one or more operational databases of record, such as one or more transaction-based database systems. A data warehouse typically allows users to tap into a business's vast store of operational data to track and respond to business trends that facilitate forecasting and planning efforts. A data mart may be considered to be a type of data warehouse that focuses on a particular business segment.
Decision support systems have been developed to efficiently retrieve selected information from data warehouses. One type of decision support system is known as an on-line analytical processing system ("OLAP"). In general, OLAP systems analyze the data from a number of different perspectives and support complex analyses against large input data sets.
Typically, business users rely on the above-noted OLAP systems to analyze large volumes of their business information in order to ascertain useful trends and productivity information. The OLAP systems are used to query databases containing the business information and to generate customizable reports which summarize this information.
OLAP systems can be complicated to use and operate. Electronic learning and training systems exist, but such systems are limited to static generic content. It enables a user to experience generic business intelligence training related to concepts and uses. Manual training techniques are also used, but with corporate turnover, the cost of training and retraining hundreds or thousands of users of a business intelligence system can be prohibitive.
Therefore, these and other drawbacks exist with respect to conventional methods of training users on the use of a business intelligence system.

Integration of e-learning with business intelligence system


Implementations of the present disclosure provide computer-implemented methods including retrieving a predefined configuration model from a plurality of predefined configuration models electronically stored in a configuration repository, the predefined configuration model providing predefined configuration data for a particular software application, comparing the predefined configuration data to existing configuration data of one or more target systems to generate a first delta, a first system landscape including the one or more target systems, determining one or more configuration actions based on the first delta, and executing the one or more configuration actions to update a configuration state of the one or more target systems from an initial configuration state.

Typically, software solutions that implement business processes are developed, tested, and released before becoming available for productive use. In order to support the above stages of the software lifecycle, a number of landscape segments may be implemented by a central configuration system. For example, the central configuration system may implement a development landscape segment, where a software solution may be implemented and adapted; a test and quality assurance landscape segment, where the testing of the software solution can take place; and a production landscape segment, on which the software solution can be deployed for productive use.

Central configuration and transport supporting software lifecycles


A device includes a proportional-to-absolute-temperature (PTAT) current source having a bandgap reference voltage node, and a negative temperature dynamic load having an input terminal electrically connected to the bandgap reference voltage node.

The semiconductor industry has experienced rapid growth due to improvements in the integration density of a variety of electronic components (e.g., transistors, diodes, resistors, capacitors, etc.). For the most part, this improvement in integration density has come from shrinking the semiconductor process node (e.g., shrinking the process node towards the sub-20 nm node).
Shrinking the semiconductor process node entails reductions in operating voltage and current consumption of electronic circuits developed in the semiconductor process node. For example, operating voltages have dropped from 5V to 3.3V, 2.5V, 1.8V, and even 0.9V. A wave of mobile device popularity has increased pressure in the industry to develop low power circuits that only drain minimal operating current from batteries that power the mobile devices. Lower operating current extends battery life of battery-operated mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablet computers, ultrabooks, and the like.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A method and apparatus for performing state transition of a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) which supports enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH) in the CELL_FACH state is disclosed. Uplink data is transmitted via an E-DCH after a state transition to the CELL_FACH state.

FIG. 1 shows radio resource control (RRC) service states 100 of a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) with an enhanced uplink (UL) in a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). The WTRU may operate in several states depending on user activity. The following states have been defined for UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) radio resource control (RRC) connected mode: IDLE 110, CELL_DCH 120, CELL_FACH 130, URA_PCH 140, and CELL_PCH 150. Other states that the WTRU may transition to include a general packet radio service (GPRS) packet transfer mode 160, or a global system for mobile communications (GSM) connected mode 170. RRC state transitions are controlled by the network using radio network controller (RNC) parameters. In general the WTRU does not decide to perform state transitions by itself.
Based on WTRU mobility and activity while in UTRA RRC connected mode (i.e., in the CELL_DCH, CELL_FACH, URA_PCH or CELL_PCH state), the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) may direct the WTRU to transition between the states CELL_PCH, URA_PCH, CELL_FACH, and CELL_DCH. Communication between the WTRU and the UTRAN, known as user plane communication, is only possible while in the CELL_FACH state or the CELL_DCH state.
In the CELL_DCH state, a dedicated physical channel is allocated to the WTRU in the UL and the downlink (DL). This corresponds to continuous transmission and continuous reception in the WTRU, which can be demanding on user power requirements. The WTRU is known on a cell level according to its current active set. An active set is a set of radio links simultaneously involved in a specific communication service between the WTRU and the UTRAN. The WTRU may use dedicated transport channels, shared transport channels, or a combination of these transport channels.
A WTRU is in the CELL_FACH state if it has been assigned to use the common channels (i.e., forward access channel (FACH), random access channel (RACH)). In the CELL_FACH state, no dedicated physical channel is allocated to the WTRU, which allows for better power consumption, at the expense of a lower UL and DL throughput. Downlink communication in the CELL_FACH state may be achieved through a shared transport channel (i.e., FACH) mapped to a shared common control physical channel (S-CCPCH). Downlink communication in the CELL_FACH state may also be achieved through a high speed downlink shared channel (HS-DSCH). The WTRU continuously monitors the FACH channel, carried over the S-CCPCH, or the HS-DSCH, in the DL. Uplink communication in the CELL_FACH state is achieved through a default common or shared transport channel (i.e., RACH) mapped to the RACH physical channel (PRACH), which the WTRU may use anytime according to the access procedure for that transport channel. The RACH channel is a contention based channel with a power ramp-up procedure to acquire the channel and to adjust transmit power. The position of the WTRU is known by the UTRAN on a cell level according to the cell where the WTRU last performed a cell update.
A characteristics of the CELL_FACH state includes being well-suited for applications requiring very low uplink throughput. Another characteristic of the CELL_FACH state includes being well-suited for signaling traffic, such as transmission of CELL UPDATE messages and URA UPDATE messages. Mobility in the CELL_FACH state is handled autonomously by the WTRU. The WTRU independently takes measurements and determines which cell to camp on. System information (SI), read from the broadcast channel (BCH), includes setup details for the uplink channel (RACH) and the downlink channels (FACH and HS-DSCH) to be used in the CELL_FACH state.
In the CELL_PCH state, no dedicated physical channel is allocated to the WTRU. The WTRU selects a paging channel (PCH), and uses discontinuous reception for monitoring the selected PCH via an associated page indicator channel (PICH). No UL activity is possible. The position of the WTRU is known by the UTRAN on a cell level according to the cell where the WTRU last performed a cell update in the CELL_FACH state.
In the URA_PCH state, no dedicated channel is allocated to the WTRU. The WTRU selects a PCH, and uses discontinuous reception for monitoring the selected PCH via an associated PICH. No UL activity is possible. The location of the WTRU is known on a UTRAN registration area (URA) level according to the URA assigned to the WTRU during the last URA update in the CELL_FACH state.
Recent 3GPP proposals have identified the possibility of using the enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH) in the CELL_FACH state, also referred to as Enhanced RACH or E-RACH. The E-DCH was introduced in Release 6 of the 3GPP specifications to increase uplink throughput. The enhanced uplink operates on a request/grant principle. WTRUs send an indication of the requested capacity they require, while the network responds with grants to the requests. The grants are generated by a Node-B scheduler. Also, hybrid automatic repeat requests (HARQ) are used for physical layer transmissions. Further, new UL and DL channels were introduced in Release 6 to support the E-D_CH. The new UL physical channels are the E-DCH dedicated physical control channel (E-DPCCH), which is used for control information, and the E-DCH dedicated physical data channel (E-DPDCH), which is used for user data. The new DL physical channels are the E-DCH absolute grant channel (E-AGCH) and E-DCH relative grant channel (E-RGCH), which are used for transmission of grants, and the E-DCH HARQ acknowledgement indicator channel (E-HICH), which is used for fast Layer 1 acknowledgement (ACK)/negative acknowledgement (NACK). The Node-B 220 may issue both absolute grants and relative grants. Grants are signaled in terms of a power ratio. Each WTRU maintains a serving grant, which it may convert to a payload size. For Release 6, WTRU mobility is handled by the network through soft handover and the concept of active sets.
In a pre-Release 8 high speed packet access (HSPA) system, the WTRU may be signaled to transition between different states. The transition between different states is defined, in pre-Release 8, for systems without E-RACH. However, with the introduction of the E-DCH in the CELL_FACH state and Idle mode, there are issues that occur when the WTRU is transitioning between states such as handling of available E-DCH resources, physical channel procedures, and allowing fast and smoother transitions between different states. Currently, for example, when the WTRU transitions from the CELL_DCH state to the CELL_FACH state, all the resources are released because the previous CELL_FACH state did not support E-DCH reception. However, this behavior may not be desirable when the WTRU moves from the CELL_DCH state to the CELL_FACH state where the cell supports E-DCH transmissions.
Accordingly, a method and apparatus for performing WTRU state transition with E-RACH in HSPA systems are desired.

Method and apparatus for performing WTRU state transitions in HSPA


When allocating CCEs as a radio resource to a new radio terminal within a predetermined sector, the disclosed radio base station (1) acquires the new AL corresponding to the new radio terminal, and identifies CCEs that cannot be allocated (non-allocatable CCEs) determined in response to an AL that is larger than said new AL. Furthermore, when a new search space wherein the CCE is completely unused exists among new search spaces corresponding to the new radio terminal, and when a non-allocatable CCE is contained in said new search space wherein the CCE is completely unused, the radio base station (1) allocates said non-allocatable CCE to the new radio terminal.

In recent years, ongoing increase to capacity and speed is required in response to implementation of broadband to mobile communication services. In this regard, a 3rd-generation mobile communication system represented by W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) or the next-generation mobile communication system, which is an alternative to a 3.5th-generation mobile communication system, has been commercialized all over the world. Also in Japan, frequency allocating for a 3.9th-generation mobile communication system, which is positioned as a mobile communication system leading to a 4th-generation mobile communication system, has begun. In the 3.9th-generation mobile communication system, LTE (Long Term Evolution) is the most powerful candidate for a standard led to the 4th-generation mobile communication system.
In the LTE, OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Access) is adopted for downlink communication toward a radio terminal from a radio base station, and SC-FDMA (Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access) is adopted for uplink communication toward the radio base station from the radio terminal. In these multiplexing methods, user multiplexing is achieved by arranging a radio resource in the two-dimensions of frequency and time.
A frequency band, which is a downlink radio resource, is divided in units of a resource block (RB). The RB includes a control information channel (PDCCH: Physical Downlink Control CHannel), which is a time slot as a radio channel for downlink control information transmission, and a shared data channel (PDSCH: Physical Downlink Shared CHannel) which is a time slot as a radio channel for downlink user data transmission.
In the LTE, when a radio base station allocates CCE (Control Channel Element: a radio resource for a radio terminal) to each radio terminal, the radio base station sets an aggregation level (AL), which indicates the number of continuous CCEs to be ensured, with respect to the PDCCH for control information transmission. Thus, it is possible to perform allocating control corresponding to a radio state between the radio terminal and the radio base station.
In this case, in a CCE allocating position for transmitting control information toward the radio terminal, a certain level of allocating position is limited in advance as a search space for each radio terminal.
The search space is set to be different between radio terminals to the extent possible based on RNTI (Radio Network Temporary Id), which indicates unique information of a radio terminal, the number of subframes, and AL corresponding to the radio terminal (for example, see Non-Patent Documents 1 and 2).

Radio base station and communication control method


A bag opening and resealing device is formed of a longitudinally elongated body member having a longitudinally extending bag-receiving slot that extends from one end of the body, where the slot is flared to facilitate entry of a bag to be cut, and terminates inwardly of the opposite end of the body. Perpendicular to the slot, the body is provided with a guide slot which terminates inwardly of the opposite ends of the body and extends transversely through the body, and a knife holder is received slidably in the guide slot and mounts a knife blade in position to intercept the bag-receiving slot, wherein, with a bag contained in the bag-receiving slot, movement of the knife holder along its guide slot effects cutting of the bag. Further, with a bag received within the bag-receiving slot, the body may be rotated in order to wrap a portion of the bag tightly about the body member where it is secured in its tightly wrapped, sealed condition by an elastic band stretched over the roll and secured to opposite ends of the body member to prevent loosening or unwinding of the bag on the base member.

This invention relates primarily to a device arranged to facilitate the opening and reclosing of flexible bags, tubes and the like, and more particularly to a novel device that is configured to serve both functions while providing a simplified construction with a resulting simplified operation for reliability and ease of use.
The packaging of materials and products in flexible bags and tubes has long been considered a practical and efficient method of packaging. Everything from building materials to snacks come in bags nowadays, and yet the age old problem of opening the bags and temporarily resealing them between uses has only seemed to become worse over time particularly with the introduction of new packaging materials and methods. One of the most widely recognized truisms in the art is that the difficulty of opening and resealing a bag nowadays is directly proportional to how fragile the contents of the bag are.
Virtually everyone, for example, has experienced the oft times comical exercise of trying to open a bag of potato chips, and the near absolute mutilation of the bag and its contents that invariably results when those bags are opened by hand without a cutting tool of some sort. Moreover, it is widely recognized that the materials being used in bag construction have the additionally frustrating characteristic of a highly developed "memory" that virtually defies remaining in a rolled up condition between uses so that the contents are kept away from exposure to air. In short, a growing problem exists where, if one is able to successfully open a bag so that it remains in a condition in which it may be rolled up in order to reseal the contents between uses, it won't stay rolled up for very long.
Various devices have been provided heretofore in the art that attempt to address these problems, typical of which are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 596,150; 3,266,711; 3,629,905; 4,296,529; 4,360,970 and 5,007,171, the first four relating to bag closing devices, and the final two relating to bag opening devices. All of the bag closing devices however ignore the more reliable and secure method of sealing a bag by rolling its open end up, and instead provide constructions which attempt to maintain an airtight and secure seal by simply pinching or clamping the mouth of the bag closed. The opener devices that are known simply provide blade-holding devices through which the upper portion of a bag is drawn so as to cut its sealed top edge off.


An electrocardiogram (ECG) signal sensing module is provide. The ECG signal sensing module includes at least one touchpad button, for producing a press signal when being pressed; at least one sensing electrode, mounted on the at least one touchpad button and moving in unison with the at least one touchpad button, for measuring the voltage on the portion thereof touched by a user; an electrocardiogram signal processor, coupled to the at least one sensing electrode, for processing the voltage on the at least one sensing electrode and producing an ECG signal; and a transmission interface, coupled to the at least one touchpad button and the electrocardiogram signal processor, for outputting the press signal and the ECG signal to a computer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the measurement of an electrocardiogram (ECG) signal, and in particular relates to the integration of an ECG signal sensing apparatus and an electric device, such as a touchpad of a notebook.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cardiac health, in tradition, is usually examined by using a professional electrocardiogram (ECG) machine in a hospital or clinic. The professional ECG machine have several electrodes (usually 12), and each electrode has to be attached to the body by skilled medical person. Operating the ECG machine is a specialized job, and most people do not use it to examine cardiac health at home.
There is a portable handheld ECG machine which provides another way to obtain an ECG signal. Limited by its size, this kind of ECG machine usually has only two electrodes, and thus has poorer precision than the professional one. Since a portable ECG machine increases convenience for use, it has gradually become popular in household health care. However, those generally healthy people who are not elder and have no chronic disease, will not purposely buy or use the portable ECG machine and adapt it to care for their health.
Since computers have become a daily necessity, it will be beneficial for one's health, if physical condition can be monitored when using the computer.

Electrocardiogram signal sensing module, apparatus and computer to be integrated therewith


A touch panel includes a transparent substrate and a sensing pattern formed on the transparent substrate. The sensing pattern is in the form of a mesh structure. The mesh structure includes a plurality of conductive wires intersecting with each other to form a plurality of grids and a plurality of nodes connected between the grids. The grids are formed by the conductive wires intersecting with each other, and the nodes are formed at the intersection points of the conductive wires. The node has an annular shape with a center hole being defined in a center portion of the node. Due to the nodes having an annular shape, the surface resistance at the nodes is decreased and the signal attenuation is accordingly reduced. The conductive wires are connected firmly without the risk of breakage after the sensing pattern is formed.

Conventionally, touch panel is mainly used in mobile phones, tablet PCs and some other electronic devices having small-size screens. In recent years, all-in-one PCs, notebook computers and some other electronic devices having large-size screens are also provided with the touch panel. With the increase of screen size, the amount of data to be processed during operation of the touch panel is correspondingly increased. As a result, large-size touch panels should satisfy higher requirements regarding the resistance of the sensing pattern formed on the touch panel, wherein the sensing pattern typically includes a plurality of electrodes and a plurality of lead lines connected with the electrodes. When the touch panel is larger than 14 inches, the existing transparent conductive materials for the electrodes such as ITO (indium tin oxide) are no longer suitable for the large-size touch panel since a resistance value of ITO is relatively large. Thus, the touch panel of new generation is proposed to adopt a mesh structure as the sensing pattern.
FIG. 1 schematically and partially shows the sensing pattern of a touch panel according to the related art. Referring to FIG. 1, taking the sensing pattern being formed in a single layer on the touch panel as an example, the sensing pattern 10 of the touch panel includes sensing electrodes 11, driving electrodes 12, and lead lines 13. The sensing electrodes 11 and the driving electrodes 12 are generally E-shaped and mutually inserted with each other to thereby form the sensing pattern 10. The sensing electrodes 11, the driving electrodes 12 and the lead lines 13 are each formed in a mesh structure 14. That is, the sensing electrodes 11, the driving electrodes 12 and the lead lines 13 are each in the form of mesh structure.
The touch panel has an active region R1 and a peripheral region R2 on at least one side of the active region R1, wherein the electrodes 11, 12 are located in the active region R1 and the lead lines 13 are located in the peripheral region R2. The electrodes 11, 12 serve to generate a signal when the touch panel is touched by a user, so that the touched coordinates can be recognized by a touch controller (not shown). The signal generated from the electrodes 11, 12 is transmitted to the touch controller through the lead lines 13. The lead lines 13 are electrically connected to the electrodes 11, 12 and serve to transmit the signal generated from the electrodes 11, 12 to the touch controller. As for each lead line 13, one end thereof may be connected to at least one of the electrodes 11, 12, and the other end thereof may be electrically connected to a flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) which may be thereafter electrically connected to the touch controller.
The mesh structure 14 includes a plurality of conductive wires 141 intersecting with each other to form a plurality of grids 142 and a plurality of nodes 143 connected between the grids 142. The grids 142 are formed by the conductive wires 141 intersecting with each other, and the nodes 143 are formed at the intersection points of the conductive wires 141. The shape of the grids 142 may be rhombus.
FIG. 2 is an enlarged schematic view showing a portion of the mesh structure 14 of the sensing pattern 10 of FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 2, since the node 143 is formed at the intersection point of two conductive wires 141, the surface resistance at the node 143 will be larger than the surface resistance of each conductive wire 141, leading to signal attenuation caused by the surface resistance being mainly generated at the nodes 143 as the signal is transmitted by the electrodes 11, 12 and the lead lines 13. The surface resistance at the nodes 143 is relatively large, thus affecting transmission of the signal. Also, the nodes 143 restrict the line width design of the mesh structure. The line width of the conductive wires 141 of the mesh structure cannot be designed too small.

INFOVISION OPTOELECTRONICS (KUNSHAN) CO., LTD.


A method of performing network handover between wireless local area network devices for a mobile device connected to a voice service via a secure data tunnel to a packet data gateway of a cellular network including determining that a quality of a connection to a current wireless local area network is below a threshold value; determining that a handover target network is available; establishing connectivity with the target handover network; suppressing a connection to a base station of the cellular network; sending a new network address of the mobile device to the packet gateway using a set of credentials relating to the secure data tunnel so as to change an endpoint of the secure data tunnel to the new network address.

Wireless Local Area Networks
Wireless local area networks (WLAN) provide wireless data connectivity to wireless client devices over a limited coverage range. Commonly known as WiFi™, the wireless networking protocol is defined by the IEEE 802.11 family of standards. The standards specify how frequencies, data rates, authentication, etc. to allow internetworking between devices from different manufacturers.
VoWiFi
A recent development is the ability for client devices to offer voice calling through the standard dialer application on mobile device. In contrast to Voice over IP (VoIP) services, the mobile device is contactable via the cellular number associated with the device via a cellular, and in particular Long Term Evolution (LTE) data network.
The VoWiFi application resides within the IMS platform and therefore can allow handover between the cellular network and VoWiFi supporting WiFi network estate. A typical handover scenario is when a user returns home and the mobile device which is connected to a macrocell of the LTE network hands over to the user's home network wireless network to maintain the same service. When the user leaves the range of their home network, then their mobile device will be configured to handover from the home WLAN to the macrocell eNodeB.
In the current implementations, only handovers from VoLTE to VoWiFi and VoWiFi to VoLTE are considered.
Although a WiFi network generated by a single Wireless Access Point may only extend for tens of meters due to transmission power constraints, it is known to configure several WAPs to have the same SSID and authentication settings to allow client devices to change physical location while still being connected to WiFi. A corporate network in a large office building is an example. Furthermore, public hotspot networks are also known whereby the access points are placed over a geographic area such as a city and configured to have the same SSID but no WLAN authentication. A centralized server carries out authentication at a higher network layer and client WiFi devices with a valid login are able to access the hotspot network wherever there is a hotspot device. An example of a hotspot network is the BT WiFi™ network. Especially in densely populated areas, the range of these hotspot WAPs may result in there being a contiguous range of WiFi connectivity such that the user can travel for a range beyond their home WiFi network and still be connected to the same WiFi hotspot network. However, for VoWiFi, the standard handover mechanisms require the VoWiFi service to handover to the VoLTE service before then handing over back to the newly connected WiFi network and VoWiFi service. This processing to switch between three different physical networks is costly in terms of time and processing power.
Similarly, if the user does not wish to use VoLTE or their device is not capable of supporting the LTE network, it is not possible to seamlessly switch between WAPs so that VoWiFi connectivity is maintained without a temporary break in service where calls and messages may be missed.

British Telecommunications Public Limited Company


A filter cartridge for operatively engaging a spool valve manifold having an ejection cam and an insertion cam. The filter cartridge includes a filter element and inlet/outlet portion in fluid communication with the filter element.

The present disclosure relates in general to a system operatively positioned in a fluid supply system comprising a manifold assembly and a replaceable fluid filter cartridge containing filter media, the manifold assembly having the capability for facilitating the removal of a first replaceable fluid filter cartridge and then having the capability for facilitating the installation of another replaceable fluid filter cartridge therein in a fluid supply system and, in particular, to a spool valve manifold assembly that facilitates the quick and easy removal and installation of the replaceable fluid filter cartridges from and into the manifold assembly.
Manifold assemblies having the capability for facilitating the removal of a first fluid filter cartridge and then having the capability for facilitating the installation of another replaceable fluid filter cartridge in a fluid supply system for industrial, commercial and consumer use are widely known throughout the industry. For example, most modern refrigerators, which provide drinking water and produce ice, and beverage dispensing machines, such as coffee makers and soda dispensers, use an internal fluid filtration system having replaceable fluid filter cartridges for filtering certain contaminates from the fluid, such as, water.
Given the use of relatively small amount of filter media contained within the compact replaceable fluid filter cartridges, frequent replacement of the replaceable fluid filter cartridges within the fluid filtration system is required. Therefore, these filtration systems are typically equipped with replacement filter cartridges that can be disengaged from a filtration system and replaced.
Unfortunately, such fluid filtration system may not always be placed in the most accessible location or at the most desirable orientation for a user to remove the old fluid filter cartridge and install a new one. Further compounding the problem of removing the old fluid filter cartridge from the fluid supply system is that the flow of fluid from the system must be shut off prior to removal of the replacement fluid filter cartridge.
An example of a prior art filter and valve apparatus providing for replacement of an encapsulated filter is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,579,455 to Muzik et al. Muzik discloses a gate-type valve, wherein a receptacle disk for receiving a filter is rotatably coupled to an upper plate having fluid supply inlet and outlet ports. The receptacle disk includes through passages for receiving inlet and outlet ports of the filter. When there is no filter inserted into these passages, the passages are not aligned with the fluid supply inlet and outlet ports of the upper plate. After insertion of the filter into the receptacle disk, the filter and the receptacle disk can be rotated around the longitudinal axis of the filter to align the inlet and outlet ports of the filter with the inlet and outlet ports of the fluid supply.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,530 to Breda and U.S. Pat. No. 6,457,698 to Wichmann disclose spool valves.
One disadvantage of the prior art is that the valves can become hard to operate due to the sealing O-rings taking a compression set over time. Because of this compression set, a high breaking force to initially move the valve is required.
Thus, there is a need for an inexpensive, reliable device that can provide for the quick and easy replacement of filter cartridges in a fluid filtration system. There is a further need for a device that can integrate the replacement of the filter cartridge with the opening and closing of the valve and that can be operated with a minimum of force.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.