Embodiments of the invention reduce the throat height of a single pole type head with high accuracy. In one embodiment, a head with an electro lapping guide for controlling a write head's throat height during air bearing surface processing is made. Air bearing surface processing is performed using the electro lapping guide. For a read head, processing is performed using the read head itself or an electro lapping guide for the read head so that both the throat height of write head and the element height of read head are controlled.

The present invention relates to a magnetic head which is used for writing to, and reading from, a magnetic recording medium, and a method of manufacturing the same.
In a hard disk drive, data on a recording medium is read or written by a magnetic head. In order to increase the magnetic disk's recording capacity per unit area, a higher areal density is needed. However, the existing longitudinal recording method has a problem that as the recorded bit length decreases, it becomes difficult to increase the areal density due to thermal fluctuation in medium magnetization. A solution to this problem is a perpendicular recording method whereby magnetization signals are recorded in a direction perpendicular to the medium. In the perpendicular recording method, the following types of read head may be used: a GMR head (Giant magnetoresistive head), TMR head (Tunneling giant magnetoresistive head) which provides higher reproduction output, and a CPP (Current perpendicular to the plane) type GMR head in which current flows perpendicularly to the film surface.
In the perpendicular recording method, in order to increase the areal density, the track density and the linear density must be improved as well. In order to improve the linear density, the write head's field gradient must be improved. One method of improving the field gradient is to use a double-layered recording medium having a soft under layer as the lower layer and use, as a write head, a single pole type head which has a main pole and a return pole. However, in order to achieve a high areal density of 200 Gb/in2, the field intensity of the write head must be improved.
Methods of increasing the field intensity include: (1) increasing the cross-sectional area of the air bearing surface of the main pole; and (2) reducing the throat height. The cross-sectional area of the main pole is the product of the track width and the main pole height. The track width must be decreased in order to achieve a high areal density. As for the main pole height, a problem inherent in perpendicular recording might arise that if there is a skew angle in the head, data is written with a side face of the main pole. For this reason, the height is limited to the same level as the track width. On the other hand, there is no limitation to decreasing the throat height. However, because the throat height depends on alignment accuracy on a wafer and air bearing surface processing accuracy, it is difficult not only to reduce the throat height but also to achieve a high accuracy. The throat height which is now needed is approximately 300 nm or less and a processing accuracy of ±50 nm is needed.
The air bearing surface of a head is processed using an ELG (Electro Lapping Guide) element as a processing detection pattern. For example, JP-A No. 67408/2000 discloses a method which uses two ELGs.

Magnetic head with electro lapping guide


An apparatus is disclosed for routing cables and wires. A first elongate section has an upper end and a lower end, and a second elongate section has a first end and a second end. A single hinge connects the lower end to the first end, and the single hinge allows the second elongate section to pivot between a first position to a second position. The first position has the second elongate section longitudinally aligned with the first elongate section, and the second position has the second elongate section substantially perpendicular to the first elongate section. The apparatus also has means for pivoting the second elongate section from the first position to the second position.

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document and its figures contain material subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, but the copyright owner otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to hand tools and, more particularly, to implements for pulling wires and cables.
2. Description of the Related Art
Implements have been used to install electrical wires and cables. These implements help route the wires and cables within conduits, walls, cavities, ceilings, and other spaces between structures. These implements utilize chains, ropes, and even an electrician""s xe2x80x9csnakexe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cfish tapexe2x80x9d to route the wires and cables.
Although these implements have long been used, these prior art implements have a common problem. These implements require two people to route the wire and cable. One person must work the implement at one location, while another person retrieves the implement, or wire, from a second location. Because two people are required, each installation incurs double the labor costs. Each two-person installation also delays another customer""s servicexe2x80x94the second technician is prevented from servicing another customer. There is, accordingly, a need for an implement that allows a single technician to install and route cables and wires.
The aforementioned problems, and other problems, are reduced by an apparatus and method for routing cables and wires. This invention is an apparatus that allows a single technician to install wires and cables. The need for a second technician is greatly reduced. The technician lowers this invention into the space where the cables and/or wires are to be installed. The apparatus has features that easily and quickly allow the single technician to retrieve the apparatus at another location from within the space. Once the apparatus is retrieved, the cables and wires attach to the apparatus, and the apparatus is then used to pull the cables and wires along and through the space. Because this invention allows a single technician to install cables and wires, this invention reduces installation labor costs. Because the need for a two-person installation is greatly reduced, this invention also allows more customers to be serviced in a day, thus improving customer satisfaction.
One embodiment of this invention describes an apparatus for routing cables and wires. This apparatus comprises a first elongate section, a second elongate section, and a single hinge connecting the first elongate section to the second elongate section. The first elongate section has an upper end and a lower end, with the first elongate section defining a first longitudinal axis extending from the upper end to the lower end. The second elongate section has a first end and a second end, and the second elongate section defines a second longitudinal axis extending from the first end to the second end. The single hinge connects the lower end to the first end, and the single hinge allows the second elongate section to pivot between a first position to a second position. The first position has the second elongate section substantially longitudinally aligned with the first elongate section, and the second position has the second elongate section substantially perpendicular to the first elongate section. The apparatus also includes means for pivoting the second elongate section from the first position to the second position. The apparatus inserts into a space between existing structures and, when positioned at a desired location, the second elongate section is pivoted to the second position, wherein the second elongated section thus allows a user to locate the apparatus.
Another embodiment of this invention describes a method for routing cables and wires between structures. An apparatus is inserted into a space between existing structures, with the apparatus comprising a first elongate section, a second elongate section, and a single hinge. The first elongate section has an upper end and a lower end, with the first elongate section defining a first longitudinal axis extending from the upper end to the lower end. The second elongate section has a first end and a second end, with the second elongate section defining a second longitudinal axis extending from the first end to the second end. The single hinge connects the lower end to the first end. The method pivots the second elongate section from a first position to a second position. The first position has the second elongate section substantially longitudinally aligned with the first elongate section, and the second position has the second elongate section substantially perpendicular to the first elongate section.

Apparatus and method for routing cables and wires

Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation


Provided is a communication system using various types of random beamforming technologies. Each of terminals that belong to a user group may generate a decoding matrix, based on interference caused by a neighboring base station of a serving base station. Each of the terminals may transmit, to the serving base station or the neighboring base station, information associated with a signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR) or throughput based on the decoding matrix. The serving base station may select, from the terminals, at least one target terminal to communicate with the serving base station.

1. Field
The following description relates to a technology that may more effectively control or align interference in a communication system having a plurality of base stations.
2. Description of the Related Art
The rapid development of communication systems having a plurality of base stations includes modifying and enhancing data transmission rates and communication reliability. The base stations may include a cellular base station, a femto base station, a fixed base station, a mobile base station, and the like, and may denote a transmitter to transmit data.
The base stations may communicate with a user group that includes a single corresponding user or a plurality of users using the same radio resource, for example, a frequency, a time, a code resource, and the like. In such a case, interference may occur in the user group. Due to the interference, a throughput may decrease. For example, in a communication system having base stations 1, 2, and 3 and corresponding user groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively, the user group 2 may be subject to interference caused by signals from the base stations 1 and 3.
Accordingly, research is being conducted regarding interference control technologies and interference alignment technologies which may enhance the usage efficiency of radio resources, and may also reduce the decrease in a throughput caused by the interference. Since the interference control technologies or the interference alignment technologies may increase the overhead in a communication system, methods of optimizing the interference control technologies and/or the interference alignment technologies may be needed.

Communication system and method of performing interference control using random beamforming technique


An interior permanent magnet machine is described. The machine includes a rotor rotatable about a central machine axis. The rotor includes a plurality of permanent magnet openings and a plurality of permanent magnets disposed therein. The permanent magnet openings are separated by rotor webs configured to facilitate reducing leakage flux through the rotor webs. The machine also includes a stator disposed coaxially with the rotor and separated from the rotor by a circumferential air gap. The stator includes a plurality of stator teeth that define a plurality of stator slots therebetween. The stator teeth include a stator tooth tip configured to facilitate reducing cogging torque and torque ripple.

The subject matter described herein relates generally to electric machines, and more specifically, to methods, systems, and apparatus for reducing cogging torque in an electric machine.
Electric machines, including electric generators and electric motors, are used in countless varieties and applications worldwide. Typically, the rotational force and torque generated within an electric motor is delivered to an application by a rotor shaft. The torque generated is a product of current applied to the motor and an electromagnetic field maintained in the motor. This delivered torque varies as a function of time and position of the rotor. Magnets on the rotor generate a rotor magnetic field and current on a stator winding generates a stator magnetic field. When the rotor generated magnetic field approaches the stator generated magnetic field, the torque is positive, and when the rotor magnetic field leaves the stator magnetic field the torque is negative. The torque produced is therefore non-uniform and known to those in the art as torque ripple. A second component of non-uniform torque is known as cogging torque. Cogging torque is present because the rotor magnets prefer to line up with the stator teeth. In some applications, the ripple and/or cogging torque produces objectionable vibration at the motor shaft resulting in end product noise. Furthermore, ripple and/or cogging torque may produce undesirable stator torsional and/or radial forces
One example of such an application occurs when a motor drives an end product, for example, a fan. Cogging torque produces vibrations which are transmitted to machine components such as the motor and fan mounting. These vibrations produce undesirable noise as the cogging frequencies couple with 'application' resonances. In addition to acoustic noise, continued exposure over time to such vibrations may loosen motor and fan assemblies, and ultimately may cause a motor failure. Isolation and damping systems, for example, an isolated rotor, may be employed to minimize the effects of the vibrational energy induced into the motor and fan system.
Furthermore, in applications that include a rotor that includes permanent magnets, such as a brushless direct current (BLDC) motor or a brushless alternating current (BLAC) motor, a resultant noise due to inherent cogging torque is caused by rotor permanent magnets moving past stator teeth. Cogging torque may be reduced by including a skewed magnetic field. However, it is currently difficult to apply a skewed magnetic field in a motor that includes an interior permanent magnet rotor. Adding sub-slots to the stator teeth will reduce the composite peak-to-peak cogging torque, but adds higher frequency components that can excite system resonances in some applications. Cogging torque at frequencies other than the fundamental frequency may also cause motor vibration and generate noise in an end product. Furthermore, cogging torque may be reduced by using a resilient rotor construction. However, a resilient rotor significantly increases a cost of the motor, while adding a potential failure mechanism to the motor. In addition, there may also be undesirable interactions between the magnetic field generated by the stator windings and the back EMF of the PM motor that may create torque pulsations (i.e. torque ripple) rich with harmonic content.
Moreover, efficiency of BLDC and BLAC motors with permanent magnets embedded in the rotor (e.g., an interior permanent magnet rotor) is typically limited due to leakage flux of individual permanent magnets through the rotor core.

Methods, systems, and apparatus for reducing cogging torque in an electric machine


An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code. The at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to detect a first user input corresponding to a first command, begin a first process corresponding to a second command in response to said first user input, detect a second user input corresponding to the second command and complete said first process in response to said second user input.

Examples of this invention relate to the selection of commands on an apparatus by a user.
Computing devices include input mechanisms which allow users to issue various commands to the device. Such mechanisms may include keypads, computer mice and touch-screen displays, amongst many others. Commands may include instructions to open applications, select menu options, position a cursor, select text, etc. When a user issues a command to open an application, an operating system within the device begins loading that application into memory. Once loaded, the user can use that application.

Apparatus and a method for predicting commands


A method for en-route flight path optimization is disclosed. A plurality of alternate flight paths between an origin and a destination of the aircraft in flight is determined based on real-time weather data, air traffic conflict data, and air space constraint data. Further, flight time savings and fuel savings for each of the plurality of alternate flight paths with respect to an actual path is computed. Furthermore, an optimal flight path from the plurality of alternate flight paths is determined based on the computed flight time savings, fuel savings, and a priority for the flight time savings and the fuel savings.

A flight plan is a document filled by a pilot, a flight dispatcher, an air traffic controller, or any other aviation authority prior to departure of an aircraft. The flight plan may include information, such as departure date, tissue, and an origin and a destination airport. In addition, the flight plan may include aircraft identification number and aircraft type, an estimated time to complete an aircraft journey, a path to be followed by the aircraft, a listing of alternate airports for use in the event of bad weather, pilot's name, and number of people on board. Further, the flight plan may include weather forecast information, 3 dimensional or 4 dimensional trajectory data, and cost index based on fuel savings and flight time savings.
Typically, flight planning is performed couple of hours before take-off. Flight planning includes identifying the most optimized route prior to take-off. As a result, the weather forecast information used in the flight planning may be outdated during flying. Moreover, due to weather changes, the chosen route may be sub-optimal. Further, in an event of bad weather, the aircraft may end up consuming more fuel than what was predicted before take-off of the aircraft, which may lead to a shortage of fuel to complete the intended aircraft journey. Furthermore, the aircraft may end-up taking more time than the estimated time to complete the aircraft journey.


An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus includes: an ultrasound probe including a plurality of ultrasound transducers; a device for determining optimum sound speed values at a lattice point set in a shallower region than a region of interest (ROI) and in the ROI on the basis of an ultrasound detection signal outputted by the ultrasound probe; a device for arithmetically operating a received wave received from the ROI on the basis of the optimum sound speed value; a device for setting an assumed sound speed in the region of interest, obtaining a received wave received from each lattice point on the basis of the assumed sound speed and the optimum sound speed value at the lattice point, and synthesizing received waves at lattice points to obtain a resultant received wave; and a device for determining a local sound speed value in the ROI on the basis of the received wave and the resultant received wave.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and an ultrasound diagnostic method, and more particularly to an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and an ultrasound diagnostic method for taking an ultrasound image of a subject using ultrasound and displaying the ultrasound image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, attempts have been made to measure a sound speed value in a part (a region to be diagnosed) in a subject (hereinafter referred to as a local sound speed value) using ultrasound. For example, proposed methods include a method of arranging two transducers for transmitting and receiving to face each other and obtaining a sound speed value in a subject based on a distance between the transducers and a propagation time of ultrasound, and a method of using two pairs of transducers arranged at a predetermined interval as the transducers for transmitting and receiving respectively and obtaining a propagation speed based on a propagation time of ultrasound between the transducers, wave transmitting angles and wave receiving angles, and the interval between the transducers of each pair.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-95946 discloses a measurement method of a local sound speed value described below. In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-95946, a wave transmitting transducer transmits ultrasound into a subject while changing an emission angle, a wave receiving transducer receives the ultrasound while changing an incident angle, and times elapsing between transmitting and receiving of the ultrasound are all stored in a memory. Then, assumed sound speed distribution is set, and a time elapsing between transmitting and receiving of the ultrasound for each emission angle and each incident angle is calculated on the basis of the sound speed distribution. Then, the assumed sound speed distribution is corrected so as to minimize a difference between a calculated value and an actual measured value of the time, and a sound speed value in the subject is obtained from sound speed distribution obtained finally.

Ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and ultrasound diagnostic method


The process for encasing an electrically conductive region in an electronic component in an insulating layer comprises the steps of depositing a polymer layer by electrochemical polymerization of phenol-, thiophenol- and analine-containing monomers and their combinations from an electrolytic solution on the electrically conductive region and subsequently cross-linking the polymer layer to form a chemically inert insulating layer. The process provides a uniformly adhering thin insulating layer. A field effect transistor so encased is suitable for use as a physical and/or chemical sensor.

Our invention relates to a process for encasing and/or insulating the electrically conducting regions of an electronic component, e.g. a Field effect transistor or diode.
The encasing of the electrically conductive regions of an electronic component is necessary so that the electronic component is protected from corrosion during operation. For example in a chemically sensitive Field effect transistor it is important so that it remains operational in an electrolytic solution. That the encasing material has a low permeability for water or electrolyte, good adherence properties and good mechanical properties are requirements for the encasing or insulating material.
The encasing of the chemically sensitive Field effect transistor is described in the Literature in "Solid State Chemical Sensors", by Jiri Janata and Robert J. Huber, Academic Press, Inc., New York(1985), pp. 153-157. Silicone rubber and Epoxy resin can be used as encasing materials. This encasing occurs manually, which is especially difficult in the gating region, which must be free of insulating material. To eliminate this difficulty, one must modify the still not hardened encased material, especially the rheological properties.

Process for encasing an electronic component


An improved MPEG-4 to H.264 transcoding algorithm is provided, exploiting residual, coding mode and motion vector information from the MPEG-4 stream. The use of the relative sum of absolute residuals (RSAR) to classify macroblocks (MB) leads to small sets of coding modes (CM) to test, and significantly reduces the computational complexity. In addition, RSAR is used to conditionally refine motion vectors (MV); only those MVs most likely to lead to quality improvements are refined. The average RSAR statistics are obtained from the transcoding of the previous Inter frame to provide adaptive thresholds for coding mode selection as well as conditional MV refinement. A corresponding video transcoder system is also provided.

Current mobile terminals support different video standards, such as H.263, MPEG-4, both of which are described in standards document ISO/IEC 14496-2, "Information technology—Coding of audio-visual Objects—Part 2: Visual," second edition, December 2001, and H.264/AVC which is described in standards document ISO/IEC 14496-10 AVC and ITU-T rec. H.264, "Advanced video coding for generic audiovisual services," March 2005. The MPEG-4 visual simple profile (VSP) is widely used in today's multimedia services, including mobile videoconferencing, multimedia message services (MMS), and streaming within the scope of 3GPP/3GPP2 services, variously described in: 3GPP TS 26.234 v10.1.0, "Packet-switched Streaming Service (PSS), Protocols and codecs (Release 10)," June 2011; 3GPP TS 26.140 v10.0.0, "Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), Media formats and codecs (Release 10)," March 2011; 3GPP2 C.S0045-A, "Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) Media Format and Codecs for cdma2000 Spread Spectrum Systems," version 1.0, March 200; and 3GPP2 C.S0046-0, "3G Multimedia Streaming Services," version 1.0, February 2006. The relatively recent H.264/AVC standard provides significant improvements in compression efficiency, and is gradually replacing earlier standards, thereby making the need for transcoding from MPEG-4 to H.264 inevitable.
MPEG-4 to H.264 transcoding may be performed using the cascade approach, which consists of fully decoding the MPEG-4 bitstream into the pixel domain and then re-encoding it according to H.264 specifications. Though excellent quality is achieved using this approach, it is however computationally highly complex because it requires a complete H.264 encoding of the video frames, ignoring valuable information available from the MPEG-4 stream. As a result, other approaches and algorithms have been proposed to reduce the transcoding computational complexity. The following references give examples of other approaches:                B. Shen, "From 8-Tap DCT to 4-Tap Integer-Transform for MPEG-4 to H.264/AVC Transcoding,"IEEE International Conference on Image Processing, Vol. 1, pp. 115-118, October 2004;        Y. K. Lee, S. S. Lee and Y. L. Lee, "MPEG-4 to H.264 Transcoding using Macroblock Statistics," IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo, pp. 57-60, July 2006;        S. E. Kim, J. K. Han and J. G. Kim, "Efficient Motion Estimation Algorithm for MPEG-4 to H.264 Transcoder," IEEE International Conference on Image Processing, Vol. 3, pp. 659-702, September 2005;        T. D. Nguyen, G. S. Lee, J. Y. Chang and H. J. Cho, "Efficient MPEG-4 to H.264/AVC Transcoding with Spatial Downscaling," ETRI, Vol. 29, pp. 826-828, December 2007;        Y. Liang, X. Wei, I. Ahmad and V. Swaminahan, "MPEG-4 to H.264/AVC Transcoding," The International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference, pp. 689-693, August 2007.
To speed up the encoding process, such methods extract information during the decoding stage (motion vectors, block modes, residual information, transform data) and use it to skip or simplify certain re-encoding steps. In the paper by Y. K. Lee, S. S. Lee and Y. L. Lee, "MPEG-4 to H.264 Transcoding using Macroblock Statistics," IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo, pp. 57-60, July 2006, the authors exploit the frequency distribution of the H.264 block modes for a given MPEG-4 block mode in order to derive an MPEG-4 to H.264 block mode conversion table. Motion vectors (MVs) from MPEG-4 are then reused after a refinement process. However, the authors do not provide much detail on this process, and the simulation results are not extensive.
In the paper by Y. Liang, X. Wei, I. Ahmad and V. Swaminahan, "MPEG-4 to H.264/AVC Transcoding," The International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference, pp. 689-693, August 2007, an arbitrary mapping between MPEG-4 and H.264 candidate block modes is presented for both Intra and Inter blocks, without much justification. Depending on the corresponding H.264 mode to test, MPEG-4 MVs are either reused directly or serve as the starting points for a new motion estimation (ME). The authors obtain good speedups, a factor of 3.2 on average, but the quality loss is usually high often as high as 2 dB for Quarter Common Intermediate Format (QCIF) videos of 176×144 pixel frame size at low bit rates which may be unacceptable in several applications.
However, in spite of existing methods for improving video transcoding, the industry demands for speedy processing still require a further development of yet further improved methods and systems for video transcoding, which would have improved characteristics over the prior art.

Method and system for efficient video transcoding using coding modes, motion vectors and residual information


A method for the production neutral triblock all-conjugated copolymers by palladium-catalyzed chain-growth polymerization, and methods to convert these copolymers into all-conjugated triblock polyelectrolytes with well-controlled molecular weight and polydispersity. A device is provided which incorporates such all-conjugated triblock polyelectrolytes as an electron injection layer.

The application of fluorene-based conjugated polyelectrolytes (CPEs) as electron injection layer for the fabrication of multilayer polymer light emitting diodes (PLEDs) has attracted much attention.1 As the interface between the emissive layer and cathode, the electron injection/transport ability would be influenced by the nanostructures of CPE films. However, since the most reported fluorene-based CPEs are either oligomers or polymers with alternative/random struclures,2 the morphology of CPEs can not be effectively controlled by common thermal-annealing or solution processing procedures.
To get well-organized film morphologies, a plausible method is to utilize copolymers containing immiscible multi-blocks which could potentially form ordered arrays in tens of nanometers.3. However, the synthesis of all-conjugated block copolyfluorenes is of great challenge, since the conventional aromatic coupling polycondensation procedure can not give well-defined molecular weight and low PDIs. The recent developed quasi-"living" Kumada reaction of Grignard-type monomers made it possible to synthesize polythiophenes,4 polyphenylenes5 polypyrroles6 and their block copolymers7 with controlled molecular weight and low PDI, however, this method was limited for synthesizing polyfluorene derivatives because of the unexpected chain transfer reaction.6b 8
Recently, Yokozawa et al. reported an alternative quasi-"living" polymerization via Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction, which could achieve polyfluorenes with well-defined molecular weight and polydispersity (PDI) via chain-growth procedure.9 The polymerization was performed with the initiation of 7-bromo-9,9-dialkyl-9H-fluoren-2-yl-boric acid ester (MA or MB) by ′Bu3PPd(Ph)Br as arylpalladium(II) halide catalyst. Since the intermediate Pd(O) species could be intramolecularly transferred to the C—Br end group, the polymerization was supposed to proceed in a chain-growth procedure. In considering that the "living" end group could remain active before quenched, the polymer intermediate could act as "macro-initiator" to allow the formation of another block with the successive addition of monomers.10

All-conjugated triblock polyelectrolytes electron injection layer

The Regents of the University of California


A bumper crossbeam for a motor vehicle includes an outer section configured as a roll-formed hollow profile which is closed at least in some areas. At least one inner section, configured as a separate component, is arranged in the outer section and connected to the outer section. The inner section has at least one wall extending from a front section zone of the outer section to a rear section zone of the outer section.

The present invention relates to a bumper crossbeam as component of a bumper of a motor vehicle.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
Motor vehicles have bumpers which are arranged in the front and rear zones of the vehicle. Load-Bearing component is a crossbeam which is connected on both its end zones via crash boxes with the side rails of the vehicle. Plastic casings can be provided to cover the crossbeam to the outside and are intended i.a. to match the optics of the vehicle design. The bumper transfers the impact energy generated at crashes at slight speed via the crossbeam to the crash boxes which convert the kinetic energy into plastic deformation so as to dampen the impact and to reduce stress on the remaining vehicle structure and vehicle occupants. For ecological and economic reasons, use of material and production costs for the crossbeam should be kept to a minimum while still affording good crash characteristics.
To date, it has been proposed to establish individual section zones of the crossbeam of varying material thicknesses and strength to meet requirements at hand. This requires various rolling and winding processes of the starting material and complex combination of joining and shaping working operations. In particular, when methods are involved which include different joining processes for producing varying material thicknesses in the run-up to the shaping operation, problems have been encountered in connection with dimensional precision of the end product. While roll-forming has been considered an efficient manufacturing process to attain high shaping speeds, small number of operating cycles, and high dimensional precision, roll-forming suffers shortcomings relating to a small material thickness throughout which can be adjusted only by doubling the material.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to address prior art shortcomings and to provide an improved bumper crossbeam which is easy to manufacture and lightweight while still maintaining strength and being reliable in operation.

Bumper crossbeam as component of a bumper of a motor vehicle


Techniques for detecting moving video objects in a compressed digital bitstream (111) and for tools for editing compressed video are disclosed. Video objects (117) are detected and indexed by analyzing a compressed bitstream to locate scene cuts (112), estimating operating parameters for a camera which initially viewed the video (114), and detecting one or more moving video objects represented in the compressed bitstream by applying global motion compensation which account for the estimated operating parameters. Tools are provided for permitting dissolve, masking, freeze frame, slow and variable speed playback, and strobe motion special effects to compressed video. The tools may be implemented in a system for editing (130) compressed video information over a distributed network.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to techniques for editing and parsing compressed digital information, and more specifically, to editing and parsing visual information in the compressed domain.
II. Description of the Related Art
With the increasing use of local area, wide area and global networks to spread information, digital video has become an essential component of many new media applications. The inclusion of video in an application often gives the application not only increased functional utility, but also an aesthetic appeal that cannot be obtained by text or audio information alone. However, while digital video greatly increases our ability to share information, it demands special technical support in processing, communication, and storage.
In order to reduce bandwidth requirements to manageable levels, video information is generally transmitted between systems in the digital environment the form of compressed bitstreams that are in a standard format, e.g., Motion JPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, H.261 or H.263. In these compressed formats, the Discrete Cosine Transform (xe2x80x9cDCTxe2x80x9d) is utilized in order to transform Nxc3x97N blocks of pixel data, where n typically is set to eight, into the DCT domain where quantization is more readily performed. Run-length encoding and entropy coding (i.e., Huffman coding or arithmetic coding) are applied to the quantized bitstream to produce a compressed bitstream which has a significantly reduced bit rate than the original uncompressed source signal. The process is assisted by additional side information, in the form of motion vectors, which are used to construct frame or field-based predictions from neighboring frames or fields by taking into account the inter-frame or inter-field motion that is typically present.
In order to be usable by a receiving system, such coded bitstreams must be both parsed and decoded. For example, in the case of an MPEG-2 encoded bitstream, the bitstream must be parsed into slices and macroblocks before the information contained in the bitstream is usable by an MPEG-2 decoder. Parsed bitstream information may be used directly by an MPEG-2 decoder to reconstruct the original visual information, or may be subjected to further processing.
In the case of compressed digital video, further processing of video information can occur either in the normal, uncompressed domain or in the compressed domain. Indeed, there have been numerous attempts by others in the field to realize useful techniques for indexing and manipulating digital video information in both the uncompressed and compressed domains.
For example, in the article by S. W. Smoliar et al., xe2x80x9cContent-Based Video Indexing and Retrieval,xe2x80x9d IEEE Multimedia, summer 1994, pp. 62-72, a color histogram comparison technique is proposed to detect scene cuts in the spatial (uncompressed) domain. In the article by B. Shahraray, xe2x80x9cScene Change Detection and Content-Based Sampling of Video Sequences,xe2x80x9d SPIE Conf. Digital Image Compression: Algorithms and Technologies 1995, Vol. 2419, a block-based match and motion estimation algorithm is presented.
For compressed video information, the article by F. Arman et al., xe2x80x9cImage Processing on Compressed Data for Large Video Databases,xe2x80x9d Proceedings of ACM Multimedia ""93, June 1993, pp. 267-272, proposes a technique for detecting scene cuts in JPEG compressed images by comparing the DCT coefficients of selected blocks from each frame. Likewise, the article by J. Meng et al., xe2x80x9cScene Change Detection in a MPEG Compressed Video Sequence,xe2x80x9d ISandT/SPIE Symposium Proceedings, Vol. 2419, February 1995, San Jose, Calif., provides a methodology for the detection of direct scene cuts based on the distribution of motion vectors, and a technique for the location of transitional scene cuts based on DCT DC coefficients. Algorithms disclosed in the article by M. M. Yeung, et al. xe2x80x9cVideo Browsing using Clustering and Scene Transitions on Compressed Sequences,xe2x80x9d ISandT/SPIE Symposium Proceedings, February 1995, San Jose, Calif. Vol. 2417, pp. 399-413, enable the browsing of video shots after scene cuts are located. However, the Smoliar et al., Shahraray, and Arman et al. references are limited to scene change detection, and the Meng et al. and Yeung et al. references do not provide any functions for editing compressed video.
Others in the field have attempted to address problems associated with camera operation and moving objects in a video sequence. For example, in the spatial domain, H. S. Sawhney, et al., xe2x80x9cModel-Based 2D and 3D Dominant Motion Estimation for Mosaicking and Video Representation,xe2x80x9d Proc. Fifth Int""l conf. Computer Vision, Los Alamitos, Calif., 1995, pp. 583-390, proposes to find parameters of an affine matrix and to construct a mosaic image from a sequence of video images. In similar vain, the work by A. Nagasaka et al., xe2x80x9cAutomatic Video Indexing and Full-Video Search for Object Appearances,xe2x80x9d in E. Knuth and L. M. Wegner, editors, Video Database Systems, II, Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., North-Holland, 1992, pp. 113-127, proposes searching for object appearances and using them in a video indexing technique.
In the compressed domain, the detection of certain camera operations, e.g., zoom and pan, based on motion vectors have been proposed in both A. Akutsu et al., xe2x80x9cVideo Indexing Using Motion Vectors,xe2x80x9d SPIE Visual Communications and Image Processing 1992, Vol. 1818, pp. 1522-1530, and Y. T. Tse et al., xe2x80x9cGlobal Zoom/Pan Estimation and Compensation For Video Compressionxe2x80x9d Proceedings of ICASSP 1991, pp.2725-2728. In these proposed techniques, simple three parameter models are employed which require two assumptions, i.e., that camera panning is slow and focal length is long. However, such restrictions make the algorithms not suitable for general video processing.
There have also been attempts to develop techniques aimed specifically at digital video indexing. For example, in the aforementioned Smoliar et al. article, the authors propose using finite state models in order to parse and retrieve specific domain video, such as news video. Likewise, in A. Hampapur, et al., xe2x80x9cFeature Based Digital Video Indexing,xe2x80x9d IFIP2.6 Visual Database Systems, III, Switzerland, March, 95, a feature based video indexing scheme using low level machine derivable indices to map into the set of application specific video indices is presented.
One attempt to enable users to manilupate image and video information was proposed by J. Swartz, et al., xe2x80x9cA Resolution Independent Video Language,xe2x80x9d Proceedings of ACM Multimedia ""95, pp. 179-188, as a resolution independent video language (Rivl). However, although Rivl uses group of pictures (GOPs) level direct copying whenever possible for xe2x80x9ccut and pastexe2x80x9d operations on MPEG video, it does not use operations in the compressed domain at frame and macroblock levels for special effects editing. Instead, most video effects in Rivl are done by decoding each frame into the pixel domain and then applying image library routines.
The techniques proposed by Swartz et al. and others which rely on performing some or all video data manipulation functions in the uncompressed domain do not provide a useful, truly comprehensive technique for indexing and manipulating digital video. As explained in S.-F. Chang, xe2x80x9cCompressed-Domain Techniques for Image/Video Indexing and Manipulation,xe2x80x9d IEEE Intern. Conf. on Image Processing, ICIP 95, Special Session on Digital Image/Video Libraries and Video-on-demand, October 1995, Washington, D.C., the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein, the compressed-domain approach offers several powerful benefits.
First, implementation of the same manipulation algorithms in the compressed domain is much cheaper than that in the uncompressed domain because the data rate is highly reduced in the compressed domain (e.g., a typical 20:1 to 50:1 compression ratio for MPEG). Second, given most existing images and videos stored in the compressed form, specific manipulation algorithms can be applied to the compressed streams without full decoding of the compressed images/videos. In addition, because that full decoding and re-encoding of video are not necessary, manipulating video in the compressed domain avoids the extra quality degradation inherent in the reencoding process. Thus, as further explained in the article by the present inventors, J. Meng and S.-F. Chang, xe2x80x9cTools for Compressed-Domain Video Indexing and Editing,xe2x80x9d SPIE Conference on Storage and Retrieval for Image and Video Database, Vol. 2670, San Jose, Calif., February 1996, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference: herein, for MPEG compressed video editing, speed performance can be improved by more than 60 times and the video quality can be improved by about 3-4 dB if a compressed-domain approach is used rather than a traditional decode-edit-reencode approach.
A truly comprehensive technique for indexing and manipulating digital video must meet two requirements. First, the technique must provide for key content browsing and searching, in order to permit users to efficiently browse through or search for key content of the video without full decoding and viewing the entire video stream. In this connection, xe2x80x9ckey contentxe2x80x9d refers to key frames in video sequences, prominent video objects and their associated visual features (motion, shape, color, and trajectory), or special reconstructed video models for representing video content in a video scene. Second, the technique must allow for video editing directly in the compressed domain to allow users to manipulate an specific object of interest in the video stream without having to fully decode the video. For example, the technique should permit a user to cut and paste any arbitrary segment from an existing video stream to produce a new video stream which conforms to the valid compression format.
Unfortunately, none of the prior art techniques available at present are able to meet these requirements. Thus, the prior art techniques fail to permit users who want to manipulate compressed digital video information with the necessary tools to extract a rich set of visual features associated with visual scenes and individual objects directly from compressed video so as not only to enable content based query searches, but also to allow for integration with domain knowledge for derivation of higher-level semantics.
An object of the present invention is to provide comprehensive techniques for indexing and manipulating digital video in the compressed domain.
Another object of the present invention is to provide techniques for key content browsing and searching of compressed digital video without decoding and viewing the entire video stream.
A further object of the present invention is to provide techniques which allow for video editing directly in the compressed domain
A still further object of the present invention is to provide tools that permit users who want to manipulate compressed digital video information to extract a rich set of visual features associated with visual scenes and individual objects directly from compressed video.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide an architecture which permits users to manipulate compressed video information over a distributed network, such as the Internet.
In order to meet these and other objects which will become apparent with reference to further disclosure set forth below, the present invention provides a method for detecting moving video objects in a compressed digital bitstream which represents a sequence of fields or frames of video information for one or more previously captured scenes of video. The described method advantageously provides for analyzing a compressed bistream to locate scene cuts so that at least one sequence of fields or frames of video information which represents a single video scene is determined. The method also provides for estimating one or more operating parameters of a camera which initially captured the video scene,by analyzing a portion of the compressed bitstream which corresponds to the video scene, and for detecting one or more moving video objects represented in the compressed bitstream by applying global motion compensation with the estimated camera operating parameters.
In a preferred process, the compressed bitstream is a bitstream compressed in accordance with the MPEG-1, MPEG-2, H261, or H263 video standard. In this preferred embodiment, analyzing can beneficially be accomplished by parsing the compressed bitstream into blocks of video information and associated motion vector information for each field or frame of video information which comprises the determined sequence of fields or frames of video information representative of said single scene, performing inverse motion compensation on each of the parsed blocks of video information to derive discrete cosign transform coefficients for each of the parsed blocks of video information, counting the motion vector information associated with each of the parsed blocks of video information, and determining from the counted motion vector information and discrete cosign transform coefficient information whether one of the scene cuts has occurred.
In an alternative embodiment, analyzing is performed by parsing the compressed bitstream into blocks of video information and associated motion vector information for each field or frame of video information which comprises the determined sequence of fields or frames of video information representative of the scene, and estimating is executed by approximating any zoom and any pan of the camera by determining a multi-parameter transform model applied to the parsed motion vector information. In an especially preferred process, the frame difference due to camera pan and zoom motion may be modeled by a six-parameter affine transform which represents the global motion information representative of the zoom and pan of the camera.
The detecting step advantageously provides for computing local object motion for one or more moving video objects based on the global motion information and on one or more motion vectors which correspond to the one or more moving video objects. In addition, thresholding and morphological operations are preferably applied to the determined local object motion values to eliminate any erroneously sensed moving objects. Further, border points of the detected moving objects are determined to generate a bounding box for the detected moving object.
The present invention also provides for an apparatus for detecting moving video objects in a compressed digital bitstream which represents a sequence of fields or frames of video information for one or more previously captured scenes of video. Usefully, the apparatus includes means for analyzing the compressed bistream to locate scene cuts therein and to determine at least one sequence of fields or frames of video information which represents a single video scene, means for estimating one or more operating parameters for a camera which initially viewed the video scene by analyzing a portion of the compressed bitstream which corresponds to the video scene, and means for detecting one or more moving video objects represented in the compressed bitstream by applying global motion compensation to the estimated operating parameters.
A different aspect of the present invention provides techniques for dissolving an incoming scene of video information which comprises a sequence of fields or frame of compressed video information to an outgoing scene of video information which comprises a sequence of fields or frame of compressed video information. This technique advantageously provides for applying DCT domain motion compensation to obtain DCT coefficients for all blocks of video information which make up a last frame of the outgoing video scene and the first frame of the incoming video scene, and for creating a frame in the dissolve region frame from the DCT coefficients of the last outgoing frame and the first incoming frame.
In an especially preferred arrangement, an initial value for a weighting function is selected prior to the creation of a first frame in the dissolve region and is used in the creation of the first frame in the dissolve region. The weighting value is then incremented, and a second dissolve frame from the DCT coefficients is generated.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, a technique for masking a compressed frame of digital video information is provided. The technique first determines whether the frame to be masked is intra-coded, predictive-coded or bi-directionally predictive-coded. If the frame is intra-coded, the technique provides for extracting DCT coefficients for all blocks within the frame, examining a blockn to determine where in the frame the block is located, setting DCT coefficients for the block to zero if the block is outside the mask region, and applying a DCT cropping algorithm to the DCT coefficients if the block is on the boundary of the mask region.
If the frame is predictive-coded or bi-directionally predictive-coded, the technique provides for examining motion vectors associated with blockn to determine whether they point to blocks outside or on the mask region, and reencoding the block if a motion vector points to blocks outside the boundary, or on, the mask region.
In still another aspect of the present invention, a technique for generating a frozen frame of video information from a sequence of frames of compressed video information is provided. The technique attractively provides for selecting a frame of compressed video information to be frozen, determining whether the frame to be frozen is intra-coded, predictive-coded or bi-directionally predictive-coded, and if the frame is not intra-coded, converting it to become intra-coded, creating duplicate predictive-coded frames, and arranging the intra-coded frame and the duplicate predictive-coded frames into a sequence of compressed frames of video information.
In yet a further aspect of the present invention, a system for editing compressed video information over a distributed network is provided. The system includes a client computer, a network link for permitting said client computer to search for and locate compressed video information on said distributed network, and tools for editing a compressed bitstream of video information over the distributed network.

Methods and architecture for indexing and editing compressed video over the world wide web

The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York


In a process for the production of urea, substantially pure ammonia and carbon dioxide are reacted in a reaction space (1) from which comes out a reaction mixture subjected to stripping (2) to obtain a partially purified mixture sent to a urea recovery section (3, 4, 7, 8). From the recovery section (3, 4, 7, 8) it is obtained a dilute carbamate solution, which is subjected to stripping (9) with recycling of vapors to the reaction space (1) after condensation (6). This process achieves high conversion yield with reduced energy consumption and low implementation costs.

In its general aspect the present invention relates to a process for urea production.
The present invention relates specifically to a process for urea production of the type comprising the steps of:
performing a reaction between ammonia and carbon dioxide in a reaction space to obtain a reaction mixture comprising urea, carbamate and free ammonia in aqueous solution;
subjecting said mixture to a treatment of partial decomposition of the carbamate and partial separation of said free ammonia in aqueous solution to obtain a first flow comprising ammonia and carbon dioxide in vapor phase and a flow comprising urea and residual carbamate in aqueous solution;
subjecting said first flow comprising ammonia and carbon dioxide in vapor phase to at least partial condensation to obtain a first portion of carbamate in aqueous solution;
recycling said first portion of carbamate to said reaction space;
feeding said flow comprising urea and residual carbamate in aqueous solution to a urea recovery section;
separating in said recovery section said residual carbamate from the urea to obtain a second portion of carbamate in aqueous solution.
The present invention also relates to a plant for carrying out the above mentioned process and to a method for modernizing an existing urea plant to obtain a plant according to the present invention.
As known, in the field of urea production the need is ever more growing of plants having greater capacity and operating flexibility on the one hand, on the other hand, requiring ever smaller investment and operating costs, in particular in energy terms.
To this end, there have been proposed and implemented in the art a series of urea production processes essentially based on the performance of a conversion reaction in a reaction space fed with ammonia (NH3)and carbon dioxide (CO2) and to which are recycled the unreacted substances contained in the urea solution leaving the reaction space, in particular ammonia, carbon dioxide and carbamate in aqueous solution.
A process of this type is shown in FIG. 1, and comprises downstream to a reaction space, a carbamate decomposition unit and a urea recovery section for separating from the urea solution the unreacted substances to be recycled.
If, on the one hand, this recycle allows almost complete recovery of valuable substances such as ammonia and carbon dioxide, on the other hand it also involves the sending to the reactor of large quantities of water (H2O) which are detrimental to the overall yield of conversion of the carbon dioxide to urea, with the yield being generally between 59% and 63%.
The technical problem underlying the present invention is accordingly to conceive and make available a process for urea production achieving high conversion yield which would be technically simple to implement and would involve low investment and operating costs.
In accordance with the present invention, this problem is solved by a process of the above mentioned type which is characterized in that it comprises the additional steps of:
subjecting at least part of said second portion of carbamate in aqueous solution obtained in said recovery section to a treatment of partial decomposition to obtain a second flow comprising ammonia and carbon dioxide in vapor phase and a flow comprising residual carbamate in aqueous solution;
subjecting said second flow comprising ammonia and carbon dioxide in vapor phase to at least partial condensation to obtain a third portion of carbamate in aqueous solution;
recycling said third portion of carbamate to said reaction space.
According to this invention, at least part of the carbamate in aqueous solution leaving the urea recovery section is advantageously subjected to a treatment of partial decomposition separating unreacted ammonia and carbon dioxide from a solution rich in water comprising residual carbamate.
So doing, the unreacted substances which are recycled to the reaction space have a very low water content, and thus it is possible to substantially limit the water fed to the reaction space, permitting a high conversion yield.
In order to obtain a high degree of decomposition of said at least part of the second portion of carbamate in aqueous solution, the same is preferably subjected to a decomposition treatment at a pressure substantially corresponding to the pressure in the reaction space.
To improve and assist the condensation and separation steps of the unreacted substances in the urea recovery section, the flow comprising residual carbamate in aqueous solution resulting from the treatment of partial decomposition of the second portion of carbamate is advantageously fed to said urea recovery section.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, the process comprises the steps of:
feeding the reaction mixture comprising urea, carbamate and free ammonia in aqueous solution to a decomposition unit;
feeding said at least part of the second portion of carbamate in aqueous solution to said decomposition unit,
wherein the treatment of partial decomposition of the reaction mixture and of the second portion of carbamate is carried out advantageously in the same decomposition unit to obtain said first and second flow comprising ammonia and carbon dioxide in vapor phase and a flow comprising urea and residual carbamate in aqueous solution.
In accordance with this embodiment, the implementation of the urea production process is technically very simple, since no relevant additional equipment is required compared to the prior art processes, and it involves low investment costs.
Particularly satisfactory results have been obtained by subjecting at least 50% and preferably at least 65% of said second portion of carbamate in aqueous solution to the treatment of partial decomposition.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the technical problem set forth above is solved by a plant designed to implement the above mentioned urea production process comprising:
a urea synthesis reactor;
a first stripping unit for subjecting a reaction mixture leaving said reactor to a treatment of partial decomposition of the carbamate and partial separation of the free ammonia in aqueous solution present in said mixture;
means for condensing at least partially the vapors leaving said first stripping unit and of recycling a first portion of carbamate in aqueous solution to said reactor;
a recovery section of a flow comprising urea and residual carbamate in aqueous solution leaving said first stripping unit for separating the urea produced in the reactor from a second portion of carbamate in aqueous solution;
which plant is characterized in that it comprises:
a second stripping unit for subjecting at least part of said second portion of carbamate in aqueous solution to a treatment of partial decomposition;
means for condensing at least partially the vapors leaving said second stripping unit and of recycling a third portion of carbamate in aqueous solution to said reactor.
In accordance with a still further embodiment of the invention, the plant for urea production comprises:
a urea synthesis reactor;
a stripping unit for subjecting a reaction mixture leaving said first reactor to a treatment of partial decomposition of the carbamate and partial separation of the free ammonia in aqueous solution present in said mixture;
means for condensing at least partially the vapors leaving said stripping unit and of recycling a first portion of carbamate in aqueous solution to said first reactor;
a recovery section of a flow comprising urea and residual carbamate in aqueous solution leaving said stripping unit for separating the urea produced in the reactor from a second portion of carbamate in aqueous solution;
which plant is characterized in that it comprises:
means for feeding at least part of said second portion of carbamate in aqueous solution to the stripping unit.
In accordance with the present invention the plants delegated to carry out the urea production process may be provided either new or by modifying pre-existing plants so as to obtain a production capacity expansion and at the same time improved performance from the energy consumption viewpoint.
According to another aspect, the present invention accordingly makes available a method for modernizing a urea production plant of the type comprising:
a urea synthesis reactor;
a first stripping unit for subjecting a reaction mixture leaving said reactor to a treatment of partial decomposition of the carbamate and partial separation of the free ammonia in aqueous solution present in said mixture;
means for condensing at least partially the vapors leaving said first stripping unit and of recycling a first portion of carbamate in aqueous solution to said reactor;
a recovery section of a flow comprising urea and residual carbamate in aqueous solution leaving said first stripping unit for separating the urea produced in the reactor from a second portion of carbamate in aqueous solution;
which method is characterized in that it comprises the steps of:
providing a second stripping unit for subjecting at least part of said second portion of carbamate in aqueous solution to a treatment of partial decomposition;
providing means for condensing at least partially the vapors leaving said second stripping unit and of recycling a third portion of carbamate in aqueous solution to said reactor.
In an alternative embodiment, the modernization method of the present invention comprises the steps of
providing a second stripping unit for subjecting at least part of said second portion of carbamate in aqueous solution to a treatment of partial decomposition;
providing means for feeding the vapors leaving said second stripping unit to said means for condensing the vapors leaving said first stripping unit.
According to a further embodiment, the modernization method of the present invention comprises the step of:
providing means for feeding at least part of said second portion of carbamate in aqueous solution to the stripping unit.
Further characteristics and advantages of the present invention are set forth in the detailed description of some preferred embodiments thereof given below by way of non-limiting example with reference to the annexed drawings.

Process and plant for the production of urea with high conversion yield and low energy consumption


A safeguard device is provided with a high frequency sensor which triggers an alarm device after receiving high frequency energy. To prevent the alarm device being rendered ineffective by high frequency shielding of the safeguard device, a metal sensor is provided in addition which activates the alarm device regardless of the presence of high frequency energy when it is attempted to shield the safeguard device.

The invention is concerned with a safeguard device having a selective high frequency sensor that triggers an alarm device after receiving high frequency energy.
Safeguard devices of this type containing a sensor reacting to a high frequency field are quite generally known. If this safeguard device comes within a high frequency field, an alarm device is triggered. Safeguard devices of this type are used in department stores to secure high-priced goods from theft. However, it is possible with safeguard devices of this type to prevent the alarm device being triggered by high-frequency-effective shielding. It is sufficient here to pack the safeguard device in aluminum foil or a metal-lined carrier bag or a metal container, for example.


A modulated carrier is received on a node (10) and then the I- and the Q-channels extracted with a local carrier clock (16) that is free-running relative to the modulated carrier. The I- and the Q-channels are then input to a digital signal processor (26) wherein a composite phase signal is generated representing the phase difference between the modulated carrier and the local carrier clock (16). The composite phase is output from a look-up table in an EPROM (30) and then the free-running phase the local carrier clock (16) and the modulated carrier is discriminated from the composite phase. The free-running phase is then subtracted from the composite phase to yield the phase modulation on the carrier.

Carrier demodulation typically requires a local oscillator that is locked to the frequency of the carrier signal over which data is transmitted. Using the local oscillator as a reference, the data is then demodulated from the carrier frequency. In typical systems, such as phase modulated systems, this is accomplished by comparing the phase of the local oscillator to the phase of the carrier and generating a phase error signal. This phase error signal is then fed back to the local oscillator to provide a correction therefore. Once the phase error between the received carrier and the local oscillator is corrected for, the phase modulation on the carrier can be received.
In one type of conventional phase modulation system, a QPSK system, the phase is modulated onto the carrier on I- and Q-channels. The modulated carrier is then downconverted to a zero frequency and the I- and the Q-channels separated. The I- and Q-channels are then passed through a standard demodulation circuit to generate a phase error voltage. This phase error voltage is filtered and fed back to the local oscillator to provide the feedback leg of a phase lock loop. Once phase lock is attained, the phase modulation can be recovered by conventional methods. However, prior to obtaining lock, the phase relationship is a combination of the free-running phase difference between the transmitted carrier and the local oscillator and the phase modulation on the carrier. Discrimination between these two components of phase is difficult in that some phase reference must initially be found by which to compare the unlocked phase difference and, therefore, some type of phase lock system is required.
One disadvantage with conventional demodulators is their lack of versatility and the complexity thereof. For systems that require a very narrow bandwidth and may therefore have significant intersymbol interference and jitter, conventional phase demodulators may not be sufficient. This requires a custom demodulator that must be altered each time the parameters or specifications for a given demodulation scheme change. Another disadvantage to conventional demodulators is that they do not lend themselves to realization with a digital signal processor wherein the information contained in the received carrier would be converted into a digital value with this digital value processed through the digital signal processor in accordance with a given algorithm. The present demodulation systems are primarily realized with analog circuits.
Another disadvantage of conventional systems is that they must obtain carrier lock and bit lock before data recovery can begin. Therefore, initial data is lost and output of data cannot begin until lock is achieved. For security reasons, some communication systems allow carrier transmission for only a short time during which lock must be achieved. As the lock time for these systems increases, the amount of data that can be transmitted decreases.

Carrier and data recovery and demodulation system


A chair includes a leg 1, a seat 5 including a pressure receiving surface PS, a backrest 6, and a support mechanism SM. The seat 5 can move in the front-rear or left-right direction along a predetermined trajectory and to downwardly incline a tip side of the seat 5 in a movement direction in accordance with a movement of the seat 5 from a predetermined reference position (S). The support mechanism SM includes a return-force generation unit configured to generate, in accordance with an amount of movement, a return force in a direction in which the seat 5 moved from the reference position (S) in the front-rear or left-right direction is returned to the reference position (S), and movably supports the backrest 6 in the left-right direction together with a movement of the seat 5 in the left-right direction.

Conventionally, it has been proposed a large number of chairs, especially office revolving chairs, with an aim for a seated person to maintain a comfortable sitting posture for a long time in an office, at home or the like.
Among these office revolving chairs, it has been provided a chair to provide suitable support corresponding to a body movement of a seated person, with an aim to provide a stability in use even in a subsequent posture after a posture of the seated person is changed to move a center of gravity (Patent Document 1).
The chair includes a leg erected on a floor surface, a seat arranged above the leg, and a support mechanism interposed between the leg and the seat, in which the support mechanism is arranged below the seat, is configured to movably support the seat at least at two locations in a front-rear direction and two locations in a left-right direction along a predetermined trajectory, includes a seat inclining function of downwardly inclining a tip side of the seat in a movement direction of the seat as the seat moves from a predetermined reference position, and further includes a return-force generation mechanism for generating, in accordance with an amount of movement, a return force in a direction in which the seat moved from the reference position in the front-rear or left-right direction is returned to the reference position.
According to such a chair, it is possible to exhibit an effect in which the seated person can perceive a comfortable sitting feeling even if sitting for a long time, and can stably obtain a high work efficiency.


A silver halide photographic material which comprises a support having thereon at least one of silver halide emulsion layer and other hydrophilic colloid layer where at least one of said silver halide emulsion layer and other hydrophilic colloid layer contains a hydrazine derivative represented by formula (I), and also having thereon, as a constitutional layer, at least one electroconductive layer having a surface resistivity of 1.times.10.sup.12 .OMEGA. or less in an atmosphere of 25.degree. C. and 25% RH; ##STR1## wherein R.sub.1 represents an aliphatic group or an aromatic group; R.sub.2 represents a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group, an aryl group, an alkoxy group, an aryloxy group, an amino group, a carbamoyl group or an oxycarbonyl group; G.sub.1 represents a carbonyl group, a sulfonyl group, a sulfoxy group, ##STR2## or an iminomethylene group; A.sub.1 and A.sub.2 are both hydrogen atoms, or one of them represents a hydrogen atom and the other represents a substituted or unsubstituted alkylsulfonyl group, a substituted or unsubstituted arylsulfonyl group, or a substituted or unsubstituted acyl group. The material can be processed with a stable developer under a bright room condition to give a high contrast image. The material processed has negligible pinholes.

In the field of printing and photomechanical processing, improvement of operation efficiency in the photomechanical processing step is desired in order to satisfactorily handle the diversity and complexity of prints.
In particular, the plate making step as well as the contact work step is required to be operated in a brighter room for the purpose of rationalization of the operation, economization of energy and improvement of the environment. Under such situation, the development of photographic materials and of exposing printers is advancing.
Photographic materials which can be processed in a bright room are specifically those which can be processed in a room having a lightness of from 100 to 300 luxes from the use of a fluorescent lamp with a reduced ultraviolet ray emission, or a light not having the wavelength of 400 nm or less as a safelight source.
As the light source for such bright room type silver halide photographic materials, there are mentioned, for example, a high pressure mercury lamp, a metal halide, a microwave discharge type mercury nonelectrode light source, a xenon lamp and a halogen lamp.
In order to obtain good character images, line images or dot images by contact exposure of such bright room type silver halide photographic material with a printer using the above-mentioned light which is rich in the wavelength component of from visible to ultraviolet ranges, the photographic material is required to have a high contrast photographic characteristic (especially having a gamma value of 10 or more), and various image-forming systems for such material have heretofore been provided.
As one method for obtaining such high contrast photographic characteristic by the use of a stable developer, it is known to use hydrazine derivatives, for example, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,224,401, 4,168,977, 4,166,742, 4,311,781, 4,272,606, 4,221,857 and 4,269,929. In accordance with such a method, a photographic characteristic of high contrast and high sensitivity can be obtained. In addition, since a sulfite of a high concentration is allowed to be added to the developer, the stability of the developer against aerial oxidation is noticeably improved as compared with a lith developer.
Hydrazine derivative-containing low sensitive bright room type photographic materials are described in, for example, JP-A-60-14038, JP-A-60-162246, JP-A-61-238049 and JP-A-63-208846 (the term "JP-A" as used herein refers to a "published unexamined Japanese patent application"), British Patent 2,202,341A, and Japanese Patent Application No. 62-218648.
However, when such high contrast photographic materials are subjected to contact work exposure with an exposure printer, the photographic material would be contacted with another or with some other substance of a different kind, or would be peeled off from another photographic material contacted or some other substance of a different kind, to cause surface friction therebetween, whereby an electrostatic charge would be accumulated on the surface of the materials. Because of the thus-charged electricity, dust would inevitably adhere to the surface of the photographic material being processed or the original film to cause pinholes in the material developed. Accordingly, extreme effort is needed for correcting the pinhole problem or in re-exposing the material. Such is a serious problem. In order to overcome such a problem, a technique of using a surfactant for improving the electrified characteristic of photographic materials has been proposed as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,982,652, 3,428,456, 3,457,076, 3,454,625, 3,552,972, 3,655,387, 2,992,108 and 3,206,312, JP-A-49-85826, JP-A-49-33630, JP-A-48-87826, JP-A-61-41143, JP-B-49-11567 and JP-B-49-11568 (the term "JP-B" as used herein refers to an "examined Japanese patent publication"), which, however, is still insufficient. Under the circumstances, therefore, development of photographic materials which hardly give pinholes is strongly desired in this technical field.


A load drive device capable of expanding a range of an output power by improving a linearity thereof when the output power varies. This device includes an output circuit (14) for supplying an electric power to an LED (10), a feedback circuit (28) for turning on or off the electric power supplied to the LED (10) according to a duty ratio of a burst signal to control the electric power and generating a control value for controlling the LED (10) based on an A/D-converted value obtained by detecting an output current (Iout) to the LED (10) to send out the control value to the output circuit when the supply of the electric power is in an on-state, a burst signal previous value correcting circuit (64) for correcting a presently generated control value (y) based on the A/D-converted value (V) and the previous control value (x) which are generated every cycle of the burst signal, and a duty ratio determination circuit (66) for allowing the burst signal previous value correcting circuit (64) to operate upon determining that the duty ratio of the burst signal goes above or below a reference value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a load drive device for driving constant load devices, such as LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes), electric lamps, motors or the like that have little or no abrupt load variations, particularly to a load drive device suitable for use in a power control circuit aimed at expanding a power control range.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-33090, a load drive device comprising a converter performing PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) control according to a power control signal input to thereby adjust powers of loads. As an example of such a load drive device, FIG. 8 shows a conventional example of a light-emitting element drive device whose load comprises a plurality of series-connected LEDs 10.
In FIG. 8, numerical symbol 12 denotes a DC power supply, and numerical symbol 14 denotes a converter circuit for boosting an input voltage Vin from the DC power supply 12 to a DC output voltage Vout. An output terminal of the converter circuit 14 is connected to a series circuit of the LEDs 10 and a shunt resistor 16 serving as a current detector. The converter circuit 14 is composed of a choke coil 20, a main switching element 22 such as a MOSFET or the like, a diode 24 and a capacitor 26. The converter circuit 14 allows the input voltage Vin to be applied to the choke coil 20 when the main switching element 22 is turned on, thereby allowing an electric energy to be stored in the choke coil 20. When the main switching element 22 has been turned off, the electric energy stored so far in the choke coil 20 and an electric energy from the DC power supply 12 are sent out to the capacitor 26 on an output side, through the diode 24, thus allowing the output voltage Vout higher than the input voltage Vin to be supplied to the LEDs 10.
Meanwhile, a feedback circuit 28 for performing constant current control of the LEDs 10, comprises: an error amplifier 32 for comparing a voltage of a current detection signal of the LEDs 10 detected through the shunt resistor 16 with a reference voltage from a reference voltage source 30 and performing error amplification; a phase compensation circuit 38 composed of a series circuit of a resistor 34 and a capacitor 36 that are connected between an output terminal of the error amplifier 32 and a ground line to prevent the oscillation of the error amplifier 32, and; an oscillation circuit 40 for generating a reference signal of a triangle waveform signal or a saw-tooth waveform signal; and a comparator 42 for supplying to a gate of the main switching element 22 the result of comparison of an error amplification signal from the error amplifier 32 with the reference signal from the oscillation circuit 40, as a pulse drive signal. Among these components, the oscillation circuit 40 and the comparator 42 make up a PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) circuit 44 for generating the pulse drive signal with a duty ratio corresponding to the voltage level of the error amplification signal.
Under a steady-state condition, a current flowing through the LEDs 10 is detected by means of the shunt resistor 16, and a current detected value from the shunt resistor 16 is then compared with the reference voltage by the error amplifier 32, thus performing error amplification by the error amplifier 32. The error amplification signal thus generated is allowed to pass through the phase compensation circuit 38, and the pulse drive signal is generated based on the error amplification signal passing through the phase compensation circuit 38 in the PWM circuit 44, thereby allowing the main switching element 22 to be driven by the pulse drive signal, thus controlling the current flowing through the LEDs 10 to an objective output (current) value.
Numerical symbol 46 denotes a burst signal generation circuit for generating a burst signal based on a dimming signal supplied from external, said burst signal having a square waveform with a frequency lower than that of the pulse drive signal. The duty ratio of the burst signal is determined in accordance with an analog voltage level of the dimming signal, and the higher the voltage level of the dimming signal is, the smaller the duty ratio of the burst signal generated. Further, the dimming signal is output from the burst signal generation circuit 46 as it is, when the pulse-width modulated dimming signal other than a DC voltage, is input.
The PWM circuit 44 is allowed to output the pulse drive signal only when the burst signal is active. In other words, the PWM circuit 44 is configured so as not to output the pulse drive signal when the burst signal is inactive. For example, outputting the pulse drive signal stops by dropping a voltage input to an inverting input terminal of the comparator 42 or by stopping operation of the PWM circuit 44. Further, a switch element 48 is connected between the output terminal of the error amplifier 32 and the phase compensation circuit 38. The switch element 48 is turned on while the burst signal is active, but turned off while the burst signal is inactive. In this case, when the switch element 48 is turned off, the charges stored in the capacitor 36 of the phase compensation circuit 38 are held therein, thereby retaining the previous value of the error amplification value (a control value) caused by the previous operation of the burst signal, thus expanding the dimming range of the LEDs 10.
Conventionally, as the burst signal for PWM dimming becomes active, the switch element 48 is turned on, thereby ceasing to hold the previous value held by the capacitor 36 of the phase compensation circuit 38, and a controlling value Co input to the comparator 42 starts with the previous value.
FIG. 9 is a timing chart showing a correlation between an output current Iout detected through the shunt resistor 16 and the controlling value Co input to the comparator 42. Here, there are shown waveforms of the output current lout and the controlling value Co in a case where the duty ratio of the burst signal is 40% (an upper row in FIG. 9), and in a case where the duty ratio of the burst signal is 5% (lower row in FIG. 9). As the duty ratio of the burst signal becomes small, a active period of the burst signal becomes short. Therefore, before the output current Iout reaches a objective value, the burst signal becomes inactive due to a delay of the phase compensation circuit 38 and delays of the choke coil 20 and the capacitor 26 that compose the converter circuit 14. In this way, the output current lout at that time becomes lower than that output under steady state condition, thereby degrading the linearity of variable output power when decreasing a luminance of the LEDs 10 through dimming control. Therefore, conventionally, a lower limit of the output power supplied to the LEDs 10 has to be so limited that, for example, the duty ratio of the burst signal should be at least 10%.

Load drive device for expanding range of output power


A fifth wheel slide assembly secondary lock includes an elongated cam member supported by a spindle extending upward from a sliding pedestal. A pair of linkage bars are pivotally coupled by one end to opposing ends of the cam member, the other ends of the bars being coupled to wedges operable for selectively engaging slide rails mounted to a vehicle frame in order to maintain a longitudinal position of said pedestal. The pedestal includes at least one stop extending upward from the pedestal at a height that extends above an arc defined by the rotation of the cam.

1. Field
The present invention relates generally to fifth wheel adjusting slide assemblies, and in particular to fifth wheel adjusting slide assemblies with a secondary lock.
2. Description of Related Art
Many current fifth wheel adjusting slide assemblies use selection wedges that engage opposing, laterally spaced slide rails to hold the fifth wheel's longitudinal position relative to the slide rail. The wedges are typically held in place in the slide rail by spring force. If the spring becomes dislodged, or fails, the wedges could disengage from the slide rails, and the fifth wheel would slide freely within the slide assembly. If the fifth wheel was coupled to a trailer, the results would be dangerous and catastrophic.

Fifth wheel slide assembly secondary lock


One embodiment of the present invention provides a computing system. The computing system includes a processor and a computer-readable storage medium. The computer-readable storage medium stores instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform a method. The method comprises obtaining from a first data structure one or more pointers to corresponding elements in a second data structure. A respective vertex of a graph corresponds to an element in the first data structure and the graph supports multiple edge types between respective vertex pairs. The method further comprises obtaining from the second data structure a respective edge type associated with a respective vertex and a respective successor vertex of the edge type and enumerating a respective successor vertex of an edge type of a vertex from the second data structure based on a pointer in an element in the first data structure associated with the vertex.

Field
The present disclosure relates to data management. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a method and system for efficient representation of graphs with multiple edge types.
Related Art
The exponential growth of computing power has made it possible to extract information of interest, such as shopping preferences, social media activities, medical referrals, and e-mail traffic patterns, using efficient data processing. Such data processing requirements have brought with them an increasing demand for efficient computation. As a result, equipment vendors race to build larger and faster computing devices with versatile capabilities, such as graph processing, to calculate information of interest efficiently. However, the computing capability of a computing device cannot grow infinitely. It is limited by physical space, power consumption, and design complexity, to name a few factors. Furthermore, computing devices with higher capability are usually more complex and expensive. More importantly, because an overly large and complex computing device often does not provide economy of scale, simply increasing the capability of a computing device may prove economically unviable.
One way to meet this challenge is to increase the efficiency of graph representations associated with the information of interest. For example, real-world graphs can be large and thus data compression techniques are often used to reduce their memory requirements. A (unweighted) graph can be represented by a (binary) matrix, wherein a respective element of the matrix represents an edge between two vertices (or nodes) corresponding to the row and column numbers of the matrix. However, most real-world graphs are not fully connected. As a result, the number of edges is usually considerably smaller than the number of elements in a matrix. Hence, it is often useful to represent a graph as a sparse matrix that only stores the non-zero entries.
A widely used technique is the compressed sparse row (CSR) format, which uses two one-dimensional arrays to compactly represent the list of neighbors, called the adjacency list, for all vertices of the graph. The CSR format is originally used to represent sparse matrices. CSR encodes the graph in a row-major order, since the edges are stored in a typical array in sequential rows. In an alternative scheme, called compressed sparse column (CSC) format, the edges are stored in a column-major order compactly. CSC supports efficient enumeration of the set of incoming edges to the same vertex in a graph. On the other hand, CSR supports efficient enumeration of the set of outgoing edges originating from the same vertex in the graph.
While graph compression brings many desirable features to data analysis, some issues remain unsolved in efficient representation of graphs with multiple edge types.

Efficient representations of graphs with multiple edge types


A structure and method for fabricating a light emitting diode and a light detecting diode on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer is provided. Specifically, the structure and method involves forming a light emitting diode and light detecting diode on the SOI wafer's backside and utilizing a deep trench formed in the wafer as an alignment marker. The alignment marker can be detected by x-ray diffraction, reflectivity, or diffraction grating techniques. Moreover, the alignment marker can be utilized to pattern openings and perform ion implantation to create p-n junctions for the light emitting diode and light detecting diode. By utilizing the SOI wafer's backside, the structure and method increases the number of light emitting diodes and light detecting diodes that can be formed on a SOI wafer, enables an increase in overall device density for an integrated circuit, and reduces attenuation of light signals being emitted and detected by the diodes.

Integrated circuit inputs and outputs are provided through controlled collapse chip connections (C4s). As integrated circuits become smaller, increasing the number of C4s that can be placed on the integrated circuits is becoming a challenge. The challenge arises because the number of inputs and outputs (port density) desired for integrated circuits is increasing, but wafer surface area that is available for forming the inputs and outputs is decreasing. Increasing port density for integrated circuits can increase the functionality provided by the integrated circuits.
One way to increase port density and provide additional high speed capable inputs and outputs for an integrated circuit is by forming light detecting diodes (i.e., photo-diodes) and light emitting diodes on a wafer. Traditionally, light detecting diodes and light emitting diodes, both also referred to as optical ports, are formed on a front-side of the wafer. In addition, back-end-of-line (BEOL) processing is performed to create BEOL metal wiring and dielectric levels, and C4 pads on the front-side of the wafer. The BEOL metal wiring and dielectric levels, and C4 pads integrate the light detecting diodes and the light emitting diodes with other circuitry (i.e., other semiconductor devices) on the front-side of the wafer. Although a semiconductor structure having light detecting diodes and light emitting diodes on the front-side of the wafer may provide a performance benefit over C4 pads, generally such a semiconductor structure does not completely address the challenge of how to increase port density as technological advancements continue to result in a decrease of available wafer surface area.
Moreover, BEOL processing requires the BEOL metal wiring and dielectric levels to be formed on top of the light detecting diodes, light emitting diodes, and other semiconductor devices that may be formed on the front-side of the wafer. The BEOL dielectric isolates the BEOL metal wiring from certain areas of the wafer. However, the BEOL dielectric can cause a decrease in performance of the semiconductor devices formed on the wafer. Specifically, the BEOL dielectric can cause attenuation of light signals being emitted or detected by the diodes, and the more the BEOL metal wiring the greater the attenuation of the light signals. The attenuation of the light signals described above can decrease the performance of light detecting and light emitting diodes. Accordingly, the challenge of forming a semiconductor structure having a light detecting diode and a light emitting diode that increases port density for an integrated circuit, and reduces attenuation of light signals being emitted and detected by the diodes respectively, continues to persist. Reducing the attenuation can enhance the performance of the diodes and consequently integrated circuits that utilize the diodes.

Structure and method for forming a light detecting diode and a light emitting diode on a silicon-on-insulator wafer backside

International Business Machines Corporation


A solid oxide fuel cell electrolyte is fabricated by combining an yttria-stabilized zirconia powder with α-Al2O3 having a d50 particle size in a range of between about 10 nm and about 200 nm and Mn2O3 to form an electrolyte precursor composition, and then sintering the electrolyte precursor composition to thereby form the electrolyte. The α-Al2O3 and Mn2O3 can be present in the electrolyte precursor composition in an amount in a range of between about 0.25 mol % and about 5 mol %. The electrolyte can be a component of a solid oxide fuel cell of the invention.

A fuel cell is a device that generates electricity by a chemical reaction. Among various fuel cells, solid oxide fuel cells use a hard, ceramic compound metal (e.g., calcium or zirconium) oxide as an electrolyte. Typically, in solid oxide fuel cells, an oxygen gas, such as O2, is reduced to oxygen ions (O2−) at the cathode, and a fuel gas, such as H2 gas, is oxidized with the oxygen ions to form water at the anode. Fuel cells are generally designed as stacks, whereby subassemblies, each including a cathode, an anode and a solid electrolyte between the cathode and the anode, are assembled in series by locating an electrical interconnect between the cathode of one subassembly and the anode of another.
Zirconia stabilized by 8 mol % yttria (YSZ), such as, for example, from Tosoh (Tosoh USA, Grove City, Ohio), or from Unitec Ceramics (Stafford, United Kingdom), or from Daiichi Kigenso Kagaku Kogyo (Osaka, Japan) is commonly used as the electrolyte of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) as it has a high oxygen ion conductivity and is quite stable in both oxidant and fuel atmospheres. A preferred YSZ is TZ-8Y powder from Tosoh USA. However, its high sintering temperature (about 1377° C. for TZ-8Y) limits its application in some areas such as co-firing multiple layers in the cell level and/or multiple cells in the stack level.
Therefore, a new approach is needed to minimize or eliminate the above mentioned problems.

Co-doped YSZ electrolytes for solid oxide fuel cell stacks