Disclosed is a medium for the detection and/or identification of a Candida yeast, the medium comprising: a chromogen; carbohydrate in the range 1-5 gms/liter; and an alcohol; the medium being such that growth of the Candida yeast under appropriate conditions results in hydrolysis of the chromogen to generate a chromophore of a derived color which is a different color from that generated by hydrolysis of the chromogen in a standard medium.

The detection and identification of micro-organisms is very important in several fields, such as diagnosis of infectious disease, tracing sources of outbreaks of disease or contamination, detecting and tracing the spread of antibiotic resistance etc.
Many methods of detecting and identifying micro-organisms have been derived in recent years, employing sophisticated techniques, such as PCR and the like. These are frequently rapid and extremely sensitive. However, there is still a need for more traditional methods involving the culturing of organisms on media (especially solid media). These traditional methods have the great advantage that they result in isolation of organisms of interest in viable form, which can then be sub-cultured into other media and/or further analysed.
It is well-known to include in such media compounds which may allow or promote the growth of certain micro-organisms whilst preventing or inhibiting the growth of other micro-organisms. Such media are said to be "selective". For example, certain antibiotics may be incorporated into media to allow the growth of micro-organisms which are sufficiently resistant to the antibiotic(s) employed.
It is also well known to include in media (which may or may not be selective) substances which allow different (possibly closely-related) micro-organisms to be distinguished. Such media may be described as "differential media".
One such differential medium is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,799 (Rambach). The medium disclosed in that document comprises: at least one chromogen which is a substrate for an enzyme of the particular micro-organism to be identified, together with a carbohydrate at high concentration (10-30 gms/liter). The medium is such that, in the presence of the micro-organism of interest, the chromogen is hydrolysed to release a chromophore with a "derived colour" which is different to the basic colour of the chromophore in a "standard" medium. (A "standard" medium is defined in that document as being "any ordinary identification medium in which the carbohydrate has a simple function of a carbon source, at very low or even zero concentrations".)
Thus, the teaching of U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,799 is that it is an essential feature of the invention described therein that the medium contains a high concentration (i.e. 10-30 gms/liter) of carbohydrate. A medium in accordance with U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,799 is commercially available from Becton Dickinson, USA and is known as CHROMagar™ Candida.
The medium disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,799 is useful in discriminating between different yeasts of the genus Candida. In particular, there is a clinical significance attached to the ability of distinguishing between Candida albicans and other species of Candida. C. albicans is a frequent human pathogen, but other Candida species may also be present. Also, different Candida species have different susceptibilities to antifungal therapy, so it is important to determine if an organism of the genus Candida is C. albicans or some other Candia species.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,415 (Orenga) also discloses an identification medium, specifically a medium for the selective detection of C. albicans. The medium disclosed therein comprises a chromogenic or fluorogenic substrate capable of being hydrolysed by a hexosaminidase enzyme "associated" with C. albicans, and at least one hexosamine-containing "activator" compound (different to the substrate) present at about 1 gm/liter. A medium in accordance with U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,415 is commercially available (from bioMérieux, France) and is known as Candida ID. Hydrolysis of the chromogen in the medium does not give rise to a derived colour (that is, the chromophore has the same colour in the Candida ID medium as it does in a standard medium).
Willinger et al (2001 J. Clin. Microbiol. 39, 3793-3795) conducted a trial to compare the performance of CHROMagar™ Candida and Candida ID, using nearly 600 clinical specimens. On CHROMagar™ Candida plates, colonies of C. albicans were green, whilst other colonies of other Candida species were pink, violet or white. On Candida ID plates, C. albicans colonies appeared blue, whilst other Candida species were pink or white.
Willinger et al found that, for about 50% of specimens, identification of C. albicans was more rapid on Candida ID plates than on CHROMagar™ Candida plates, the blue colour on Candida ID plates typically appearing after 24 hours' incubation at 35° C., whilst the green colour of C. albicans colonies on CHROMagar™ Candida plates often was not apparent until incubation for about 48 hours. This was expected, in that the Candida ID medium contains a hexosanine activator which, it is presumed, accelerates induction of the hexosaminidase enzyme which acts on the chromogen, whilst CHROMagar™ Candida medium does not contain any such activator. However, they also found that "Candida ID is not as good as CHROMagar™ Candida in detecting polyfungal specimens".
In addition, CHROMagar™ Candida is superior to Candida ID in terms of its ability to allow different Candida species to be distinguished. Candida ID medium is very effective at distinguising between C. albicans and other species of Candida but cannot, for example, allow for efficient differentiation between C. tropicalis and other non-albicans species. CHROMagar™ Candida, in contrast, allows for the identification of a number of Candida species, including C. tropicalis, since various species give different "derived" colour changes on the medium. Candida ID medium does not give a "derived" colour chromophore which is different to that obtained with a basic medium.
The present invention is concerned with media for micro-organisms, especially differential media and, in particular, a medium which allows for discrimination between different species of Candida.
The content of all publications mentioned in this specification is specifically incorporated herein by reference.


Provided is an apparatus, method, system and computer program product directed to a self-organizing network related power capacity status reporting. A threshold value is set and provided for distribution to communication terminals, wherein the threshold value is related to a relative value concerning the availability of remaining power at a communication terminal. Provision of the threshold to the communication terminals is commanded, and a power report from the communication terminals is also commanded, if the relative value concerning the availability of remaining power at a communication terminal is above the threshold value. Eventually, a measurement report of those communication terminals is commanded, which have reported a relative value concerning the availability of remaining power above the threshold value, wherein this commanding includes an instruction to conduct and report measurements related to the self organization of a communication network in which a communication terminal is connected.

Related background art to this technical field can e.g. be found in the technical specification TR 36.902 current version: 1.2.0) of the 3GPP.
The following meanings for the abbreviations used in this specification apply:
3GPP: 3rd Generation Partnership Project
DRX: Discontinuous Reception
eNB: evolved Node B (eNodeB)
GPS: Global Positioning System
GSM: Global System for Mobile Communication
LTE: Long-Term Evolution
OAM: Operation and Maintenance
RRC: Radio Resource Control
SON: Self-Organizing Networks
UE: User Equipment
UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
WiMAX: Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
WLAN: Wireless Local Area Network
In current network operation and management evolution, there is a trend to simplify manual tasks by auto-configuration and auto-optimization solutions due to its high potential to save operational expenditures.
In parallel thereto, in standardization self-organizing networks (SON) are seen as one of the most promising future areas for similar reasons.
The main drivers for SON are:                The number and structure of network parameters have become large and configuration complex due to parameter dependencies;        The quick evolution of wireless networks has led to parallel and heterogeneous operation of infrastructures of the second and third generation of wireless communication networks; and        The rapidly expanding number of base stations with new deployment strategies (uncoordinated, heterogeneous) needs to be configured and managed economically.
In summary, SON aims to configure and optimize the network automatically, so that the interaction of humans can be reduced and the capacity of the network can be increased.
A promising candidate for maximizing the total performance of networks by applying SON as part of the 3GPP LTE technology is a more efficient operation and maintenance. That is, by simplifying operational tasks through automated mechanisms such as self-configuration and self-optimization, the costs of installation and management can be reduced, thus leading to an improved OAM.

Self-organizing network related power capacity status reporting


The present invention relates to a method for adjusting the strength of turn-based game automatically. The method provides a search algorithm for inquiry and giving decision results. The decision results can be used for filtering and giving filtered results. Then a probability distribution result can be provided to control the virtual node inside the computer host. Furthermore, the game result can be used for adjusting the performance of the virtual node in the game. Thereby, the client node can evaluate its performance in the game conveniently.

In recent years, as mobile devices are developed prosperously, online mobile games become more popular. By matching players to enter the two- or multi-player battle mode, players can enjoy the fun of battles with other people. Due to serious competition in work, modern people endure huge pressure. Thereby, leisure activities are indispensable. Some people use drawing, ceramic art, or reading as leisure activities; some take part in sports or fishing. Various leisure games are provided to consumers for playing. Nonetheless, if the online player at certain times are too few, players will find no player to battle with. Accordingly, to make players enjoy the fun of battle anytime, game developers integrate artificial intelligence in games. Then computers can emulate the behaviors of real players to battle with players.
New participants of a game will create a virtual figure in the opposite team for adapting to the online game. As the game evolves, it will be difficult for new participants to adapt to the current the strength of game once they are used to the virtual figures only. Then the new participants have nothing to do but losing interest on the game and aborting the game, resulting in difficulty on maintaining the game. In addition, due to lack of ability on the game, new participants or junior participants with low records may affect the performance of the team. They have to endure complaints from other participants. Consequently, new participant will dislike the game.
From the viewpoint of game-system operators in cost return and increasing revenue, it is preferred that players can long-term play online games continuously. Thereby, game-system operators try to enhance players' willingness in playing their games by improving game system or adding new plots, scenes, maps, or roles.
In addition, online games include battle games, for example, massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG), fighting games, and online racing games. Multiple players can compete in the games concurrently. Alternatively, two single players can compete as well. Presently, among this type of battle games, the most popular one is the first person shooting (FPS) games.
Online games provide a game lobby on the user interface so that users can create battle rooms for different team to attract teammates.
Unfortunately, the improvement of game system or the addition of game plots increases the development loads. The improvement effect is also limited, making the incentive of players to play the game repeatedly insufficient. Thereby, given the condition of new users joining the game continuously, how virtual objects can help new users to adapt to the game environment becomes the major challenge faced by game-system operators.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a method for adjusting the strength of turn-based game automatically. The method performs simulation and decision according to the execution level of a user in the game environment.

Method for adjusting the strength of turn-based game automatically

National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University


A memory access control apparatus according to the present invention which controls an IC memory of which is under the control of a BIOS in the same manner as in a normal disk unit. External file units including the IC memory, a floppy disk unit, a hard disk unit, and the like are assigned a series of drive numbers. Registers store parameters for using the IC memory as an external file, and an access address and a transfer length of the IC memory are expressed in a sector form. The BIOS receives the access address and the parameters, translates the address into a byte form address, and transfers data to a corresponding area.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a memory access control apparatus suitable for a personal computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional computer system having a relatively small capacity such as a personal computer, when a large-capacity file is to be accessed at high speed, a hard disk unit is generally used. However, when a hard disk unit is used in a portable personal computer driven by a battery, the following problems are posed:
(i) Since a motor must be constantly rotated in the hard disk unit, a current consumption is large, and the service life of the battery is short.
(ii) In order to eliminate the problem of item (i), the motor may be automatically stopped when the hard disk is not used and be restarted when it is used. In this case, however, an access time is prolonged, or the service life of the hard disk is shortened because the frequency of vertical movement of the head is increased.
(iii) The portable personal computer is more likely subjected to the influence of vibrations or a shock and the hard disk is more likely to crash.
For these reasons, an architecture called a RAM disk or a virtual disk (to be simply referred to as a RAM disk hereinafter) has been developed. In this system, a data access is made by using a physical memory address space as a disk unit. This system allows processing at a speed higher than in a floppy disk unit or a hard disk unit by utilizing the characteristics of an IC memory. FIG. 1 shows the principle of a RAM disk system from the viewpoint of software. Application program 1 transfers control to the MS-DOS 3 through a DOS interface program such as the MS-DOS (disk operation system) interface program available from Microsoft Corporation. If a control command from application program 1 is supplied to floppy disk drive (FDD) 7 or hard disk drive (HDD) 9, MS-DOS 3 transfers control to ROM-BIOS (basic input/output system) 5 by executing interrupt instruction INT 13H (e.g., a software interrupt in a 16-bit microprocessor 8086 system available from Intel Corporation) of the ROM-BIOS interface program. ROM-BIOS 5 performs input/output control with respect to FDD 7 or HDD 9. When a RAM disk in main memory 13 is to be accessed, DOS 3 transfers control to RAM disk driver 11. RAM disk driver 11 accesses main memory 13.
However, according to the conventional system shown in FIG. 1, since RAM disk driver 11 is incorporated in MS-DOS 3 as an optional driver, the following drawbacks are posed:
(i) It is compatible with a normal disk unit through a DOS interface, but not compatible through ROM-BIOS 5. For this reason, some programs cannot access the RAM disk in the same manner as in a normal disk unit.
(ii) Since a memory access means is incorporated in the system as an optional driver of the MS-DOS, the RAM disk area is initialized when the DOS is started.
In addition, if a personal computer is equipped with only a single floppy disk, a DOS disk must be inserted into a floppy disk drive every time the DOS is started, or control is transferred from the application program to DOS.


A plasma display device including a chassis base, a plasma display panel coupled with a panel mounting surface of the chassis base, and reinforcing members that are integrally formed with the chassis base so as to project from a surface of the chassis base. The reinforcing members may be composed of bracket members, and the reinforcing members may project toward an opposite side of the panel mounting surface of the chassis base.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display device having a chassis base that may cost less to manufacture and is more reliable.
2. Discussion of the Background
Generally, a plasma display device displays images by discharging gas in a plasma display panel (PDP) to generate plasma.
The plasma display device typically includes the PDP, a chassis base for mounting the PDP, PDP circuit boards mounted on a circuit mounting surface of the chassis base, a front cabinet in front of the PDP, and a back cover behind and enclosing the chassis base.
With this structure, the chassis base may be made of aluminum, which has high thermal conductivity, to dissipate heat generated from the PDP to the outside of the display device.
Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, brackets 104 may be separately mounted on the chassis base 102 in order to reinforce the chassis base.
In FIG. 6, reference numeral 102′ denotes a circuit mounting surface of the chassis base 102. Additionally, in FIG. 7, reference numeral 106 denotes a joining point where the bracket 104 may be joined to the chassis base 102. In this case, generally, the brackets may be joined to the chassis base 102 by a sheet metal joining method, such as a TOX® method.
However, separately providing brackets to reinforce the chassis base may increase the number of manufacturing processes, thereby resulting in lower productivity and increased manufacturing costs. Further, the joining strength between the brackets and the chassis base may not be uniform, which may result in less reliable joining strength.


Methods and systems for identifying configuration parameters for a network device are provided. The method includes generating a stream of traffic data, where the traffic data has a known characteristic. Then, applying the stream of traffic data to the network device, where the network device has a specific type, and the network device generates an output based on the traffic data. The method then includes monitoring performance of the network device while the traffic data is processed by the network device, and the monitoring is configured to generate monitoring data for the traffic data applied to the network device having the specific type. Also, the method includes analyzing the output from the network device, where the analyzing is performed to identify how the traffic data was handled by the network device, and the analyzing is configured to generate performance metrics. The method further includes saving the monitoring data and the performance metrics to a knowledge database. The knowledge database is capable of being accessed to enable configuration of other network devices based in part on the monitoring data and performance metrics.

In today's highly networked world, it is important for computer and network professionals to have basic knowledge of both network hardware, software and their associated configuration options. In order to increase networking efficiencies, bandwidth and functionality, many companies have been busy designing, testing and deploying network devices. Such devices include, but are not limited to, routers, network hubs, switches, repeaters, network interface cards, and other related networking infrastructure. As the proliferation of such networking devices continues to grow and new devices are constantly being released, more and more functionality tends to be added to the different devices to deal with various enhancements.
Unfortunately, the addition of enhancements also means that network professionals must learn what the enhancements are for and how to set the parameters that best enable the particular enhancements. Many times, the introduction of certain enhancements, although well intended, to handle a particular issue, can cause conflicts with existing settings. To complicate this further, network professionals are required to understand how certain enhancements are or are not set in particular network devices. Even when network devices are purchased from the same manufacturer, the settings and parameters can cause conflicts in one device and no conflicts in other devices.
Consequently, as more and more devices are introduced into the market, network professionals are strained to quickly learn the intricacies of the new settings, features and learn how certain settings may impact operation, quality of service (QoS), and other aspects.
In an effort to deal with the ever increasing pressures of learning new network devices, manufacturers of these devices provide detailed manuals. These detailed manuals, however, are so complex, voluminous and not always accurate or detailed that network professionals often times have to take courses to simply learn how to configure the device into their network or networks. Of course this assumes that the network professional has an understanding of the technology being addressed, else training on the technology is also necessary. As this process is time consuming, many network professionals who are pressured with time constraints do not take these courses and simply attempt to install the device using basic knowledge or experience. Although this is a fair solution for network professionals having sufficient experience with network equipment, network topologies and design, protocols, QoS rules, and settings, a larger number of network professionals do not have the skills needed to properly set up a system by purely establishing "best guess" settings and quick skimming of voluminous manuals provided by the device manufacturers.
In many cases, a company that is implementing a given network device cannot risk configuring a network device that will provide inadequate QoS or associated settings. For instance, if an incorrect setting is established for QoS, a network may fail to provide sufficient bandwidth for voice data or certain mission critical data transfers. If voice data is not provided with sufficient priority or bandwidth, for example, the company may be detrimentally impacted as their voice calls will experience disruptions that can make conversations unintelligible.
Thus, for companies that must have a proven solution in place before it is launched live, network professionals are forced to set up a test network to verify proper operations prior to deploying it live. The test network, often referred to as a test lab, requires the network professional to purchase several network devices (including the device under test (DUT)), test equipment, interconnect several computers and then run network traffic tests to attempt a simulation of the DUT in the target setting for which the DUT is intended. The building of this test network is a very manually intensive process that requires significant expenditures in test equipment for the simulation of test traffic, response times, latencies, QoS parameters, and changes in the simulations to test impacts in minor or major changes in network traffic. There is also the associated cost involved with training on the use of the test equipment and proper analysis of the test equipment results.
Although the test network results are obtained and can be used in the ultimate configuration of a live network device, the time expenditure, test equipment costs, and laborious network professional time to obtain these results can be so high that many firms simply cannot afford to take on the manual process. As a result, many network professionals tend to avoid upgrading to new network devices or simply use best guesses to set up new network devices. Of course, when devices are set up without the knowledge of what may happen under certain network traffic, the network professionals are taking the risk of having the network devices operate at less than optimal settings or at settings that can degrade the service needed in certain latency or mission critical application environments.

System and method for network device configuration


A hypersonic harmonic exciter system to enable hypersonic speed, including a hypersonic harmonic exciter body having a plurality angled sides forming exciter body hollow structure with an access aperture, vibration inducing wave apparatus configured to produce and project vibration harmonic waves that converge on a convergence harmonic point forward of the hypersonic harmonic exciter body, the vibration inducing wave apparatus having vibration apparatus hollow structure with a series of exterior concentrically positioned vibration inducing bands, the vibration inducing wave apparatus inserted in the exciter body hollow structure, and harmonic sound projecting apparatus configured to produce and project harmonic sound waves that converge on the convergence harmonic point forward of the hypersonic harmonic exciter body, the harmonic sound projecting apparatus having sound apparatus hollow structure with a series of exterior concentrically positioned sound emitter bands, the harmonic sound projecting apparatus inserted in the vibration apparatus hollow structure.

The current state of the art in hypersonic spacecraft travel is limited by three important challenges of what materials to use, the actual design of the aircraft, the proper propulsion power plant, and how to overcome air resistance. As an aircraft moves through the air, the air molecules near the aircraft are disturbed and move around the aircraft. Exactly how the air reacts to the aircraft depends upon the ratio of the speed of the aircraft to the speed of sound through the air, speed ratio MACH.
For aircraft speeds that are much greater than the speed of sound, the aircraft is to be hypersonic. Hypersonic flight has come to mean vehicles that undergo sustained travel, generally at speeds faster than Mach 5, which is five times faster than the speed of sound, (3,806 mph or 6,126 km/h), in the atmosphere. At hypersonic speeds, increased friction and air resistance need to be overcome by deploying new solutions.
Therefore, it is readily apparent that there is a need for a hypersonic harmonic vehicle exciter and methods of use thereof that functions to enable a combination of features that is designed to address at least some aspects of the problems discussed above. Moreover, providing a hypersonic harmonic vehicle exciter to achieve speeds faster than Mach 5 by overcoming increased friction and air resistance.

Hypersonic harmonic vehicle exciter and methods of use thereof


Another exemplary embodiment relates to a sash assembly. The sash assembly includes an outer sash having at least one groove, an inner sash having at least one groove, and a removable binder extending along a perimeter of a surface of the outer sash and inner sash. The binder is configured to engage the outer sash and the inner sash and to mechanically couple the outer sash and the inner sash together. The binder includes a plurality of protrusions. Each protrusion is configured to mate with one of the groove in the inner sash and the groove in the outer sash. Each protrusion includes a plurality of flexible barbs that are compressed when the protrusion mates with one of the grooves. The flexible barbs provide a force on interior edges of the groove to couple the inner sash and outer sash together. The binder is configured for removal for service of the sash assembly.

The present invention relates generally to the field of window construction. Some window designs include an outer sash that houses the glass of the window and an inner sash that couples to the outer sash to enclose the glass and provide decorative features. When the window is installed in a building, the outer sash faces the exterior of the building while the inner sash faces the interior of the building. The inner and outer sashes are conventionally adhered together using glue or other adhesive material. Such adhesion makes servicing of the window difficult. For example, removal of the glass for repair or replacement can be quite difficult because the inner and outer sashes are permanently glued together. Removal of the glue or separation of the inner and outer sashes can cause damage to the window.


Method and apparatus are provided for seamless integration of multiple video projectors. In addition to edge blending, projection artifacts in dark or black image regions caused by residual grays from non-perfect projector black levels are reduced. Overlapped and non-overlapped areas of the image are defined and then the minimum black level of the video signal in non-overlapped areas is boosted without affecting the bright portion of the video signal in order to create uniform black level. The bright portion of the image is then smoothed in the overlapped area with seamless edge blending techniques. The resultant projected image may be passed through a neutral density filter to lower the base black level of the now uniform overlap and non-overlap black regions. The image may also pass through a physical mask which is hard edged or graded and aligned to less than the overall overlap region and that when used, smooths the edge of transition between the non-overlapped and overlapped regions.

Arrayed display systems are increasingly being used to provide composite images that are larger, brighter, and have higher resolution than, e.g., a single image displayed on a desktop monitor or a television. In arrayed display systems, multiple images are typically placed adjacently to one another horizontally or vertically to form a single composite image. The images are typically generated by a computer, specialty cameras, or specially prepared media, which may include a movie film divided into multiple portions and stored in multiple specially formatted DVDs, laser disks or multi-channel video servers. When using an arrayed display system, it is highly desirable to minimize appearance of segregation between the image segments that are arrayed to form the composite image.
The arrayed display systems include projector-based display systems made up of multiple projectors to provide a projected composite image. The projector-based arrayed display systems often utilize edge blending technology in order to create a single seamless composite image. In edge blending technology, to make a seamless composite image from multiple projectors, a portion of the image from each projector is typically overlapped with a portion of the image from an adjacent projector and a smoothing correction or ramping factor on each side of the overlapped region is used to blend the brightness of the overlapping images together so that they appear uniform and seamless.
Examples of edge blending technology are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,073 entitled xe2x80x9cSeamless Video Display,xe2x80x9d U.S. Pat. No. 5,136,390 entitled xe2x80x9cAdjustable Multiple Image Display Smoothing Method and Apparatus,xe2x80x9d and U.S. Pat. No. 6,115,022 entitled xe2x80x9cMethod and Apparatus for Adjusting Multiple Projected Raster Images,xe2x80x9d all of which are fully incorporated by reference herein.
These patents disclose, but are not limited to, methods for defining the raster and overall projection regions as well as a method for defining the edges of the overlapped region for edge blending purposes. They further describe detailed methods for ramping and adjusting the bright overlapping portions of the images in order to create apparently seamless images. By defining the overlapped regions in these patents, non-overlapped regions are also defined by default.
The projector technologies have progressed from systems that were based on cathode ray tube (CRT) projectors to various formats of display engines (projectors) that include Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), Image Light Amplification (ILA-Hughes/JVC), Liquid Crystal on Silicon (Lcos/Various), Digital Light Processing or Digital Micro Mirrors (DLPxe2x80x94Texas Instruments) projectors and others. The display engines that are not based on the CRT technology are sometimes referred to as non-CRT projectors or non-CRT display engines.
These non-CRT projectors typically create a projected image by applying a constant light source to a medium with variable reflectivity or translucence. The use of variable reflectivity (or variable translucence) is different from the method used in the CRT technology, which uses an electron beam to excite phosphor in order to create a variable luminance using the cathode ray tube.
Since the CRT provides a variable luminance based on the strength of the electron beam, the luminance of the CRT can be turned all the way down to where the CRT has zero photonic output. A perfect non-CRT projector with a constant light source may also be able to tune the light or photonic output to zero. However, in practice, currently available non-CRT projectors typically provide a residual amount of light and generate residual brightness even when the desired image is fully black. The residual light that is inherent to typical non-CRT projectors can be referred to as an r factor or residual factor, which is a measure of photonic leakage per unit area of the projected image.
The value of the residual factor in the overlapped region between two adjacent images in a projector array is approximately equal to the sum of the values of the residual factors of the two adjacent images or Ra+Rb, where Ra is the residual factor of the first adjacent image and Rb is the residual factor of the second adjacent image. In another example where the projectors are adjacent in two directionsxe2x80x94side by side as well as over and under, and assuming that the residual factors of the projectors are Ra, Rb, Rc and Rd, respectively, the residual factor in the region where all four images overlap is approximately equal to the sum of the residual factors, i.e., Ra+Rb+Rc+Rd. Thus, a relatively bright seam or a region may appear in the overlapped areas of a projection array when the composite image is displaying a dark scene.
Thus, edge blending technology typically does not work well with non-CRT projectors that cannot be tuned to create zero photonic output when the image is to be at a very dark gray level, or fully black. Therefore, when using non-CRT projectors, use of edge blending technology has a limitation, and a method of making the minimum black level across the composite image uniform may be needed especially when the video signal going to the projector is already at a minimum, but the projector is still leaking photons. In this case, the difference in residual brightness between non-overlapped and overlapped regions cannot be resolved through further attenuation of the signal in the overlap.
Therefore, it is desirable to develop a method of reducing the non-uniformity in the overlapped regions caused by the residual photonic leakage which complements edge blending technology in order to generate an apparently seamless composite image when, for example, non-CRT projectors are used.
In an embodiment according to the present invention, a method of generating an apparently seamless composite image from a plurality of video signals is provided. The video signals correspond to discrete images, and at least one of the discrete images has an overlap with at least one other of the discrete images. The video signals are edge blended to reduce the appearance of a seam in the overlap between the corresponding discrete images. Then, the video signals are adjusted to raise minimum black levels of non-overlapped regions of the corresponding discrete images, without affecting the rest of the video signals, to match the minimum black level of the overlap.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a method of smoothing the brightness and minimum black level of two adjoining overlapping video images is provided. The video images are produced from two discrete video signals. The signals comprise a plurality of detail elements, each detail element having a brightness component. A predetermined set of smoothing factors is applied to the brightness components of the detail elements of the two video signals, each smoothing factor being associated with a the detail element to which it is applied. The images, as modified by the smoothing factors, are projected onto a display. Individual smoothing factors are modified independently of one another in response to the appearance of the projected display. A representation of the smoothing factor modifications is stored. The smoothing factors are used to adjust the brightness components of the detail elements in an overlapped region to lower a maximum bright level of the overlapped region to match maximum bright levels of non-overlapped regions, and to adjust the brightness components of the detail elements in the non-overlapped regions to raise minimum black levels to match the minimum black level of the overlapped region.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention, a system for adjusting video signals representing an array of raster images to compensate for projection defects is provided. The system includes a plurality of projectors, which are used to display the array of raster images to form a composite projected image. The system also includes an array of smoothing factors, each smoothing factor being associated with a portion of the composite projected image. Further, the system includes means for applying smoothing factors to the video signals to remove the projection defects resulting from display of the array of raster images. The projection defects comprise differences in maximum bright levels and minimum black levels between overlapped and non-overlapped regions of the composite projected image.
In an alternate embodiment of the present invention, a method of generating an apparently seamless composite image from a plurality of video signals is provided. The video signals correspond to discrete images, and at least one of the discrete images has an overlap with at least one other of the discrete images. Portions of the video signals corresponding to non-overlapped regions are adjusted to raise the brightness of the non-overlapped regions to match the brightness of the overlap.

Method and apparatus for seamless integration of multiple video projectors


A person-transfer device comprises:

The present invention relates to the technical field of devices designed for enabling a person whose physical capacities are deficient, whether temporarily or permanently, to be transferred between two positions that are relatively close to each other.
For people suffering from a physical handicap, moving from one position to another constitutes a real difficulty. This applies in particular for moving from a prone position to a sitting position, or vice versa, or for passing from a position of sitting in a chair to a position of sitting in a wheelchair, for example. Furthermore, such a person cannot perform such a transfer on their own and must call on help.
In the state of the art, various devices have been proposed, in generally electrically driven devices, that are adapted to handling handicapped people. Those devices are generally bulky, expensive, and require an electrical power supply.
There is therefore a need for a device that is simple and adapted to enable a person to transfer from one position to another, such transfer being provided in a manner that is safe without necessarily requiring help from another person.
There is also a need for a simple device designed to transfer a person who possesses good physical capacities in the upper limbs.
The object of the invention is thus to satisfy this need by proposing a device which is simple, compact, and designed for transferring a person from one position to another in complete safety and without necessarily requiring outside help.
To achieve this object, the device of the invention for transferring a person comprises:
a stand defining a support polygon;
a pole rising vertically from the stand;
a rest assembly for the lower limbs of a person, the rest assembly being pivotally mounted on the pole; and
a person transfer system adapted to move within the support polygon between an initial position and a final position, which positions are angularly offset relative to each other, the transfer system being mounted on the pole, being provided with a suspension assembly for the upper limbs that is pivotally mounted on the pole to pivot about an axis that is inclined relative to the vertical and that is designed to be placed at a high level so as to turn under the effect of the weight of the suspended person to a low level, thereby enabling the person to be transferred.

Abstract: A person-transfer device comprises:

Abstract: a stand defining a support polygon;


A method, system, and article for automated processing of a data stream are provided. Stream processing is applied to a hierarchical self describing data stream. As the data stream is processed, some elements therein are associated with a selected path expression. The selected path expressions are ordered based upon the hierarchy, and a tree structure is created that corresponds to the hierarchy. Each leaf node of the tree is associated with a logical operator or an expression to be applied to data processed from the data stream to the leaf node.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to processing a data stream in a computer system environment. More specifically, the invention relates to a hierarchical self describing data stream and efficiently evaluating the data.
2. Background of the Invention
In a data streaming environment, massive amounts of data are constantly written to the storage subsystem. Data must be periodically processed for evaluation or stored in a data storage medium and later removed from the data storage subsystem to free up space for new data. It is known in the art that all of the data in the streams cannot be permanently stored in the storage subsystem due to capacity issues, and as such, a protocol must be employed to delete data from the storage subsystem.
Distributed computer systems designed to handle large-scale data stream processing are evolving. With respect to streaming of data, or storage of large quantities of data in general, there are concerns with how to address capacity issues. In other words, data that is written to storage is generally maintained, and the data at some point is removed to make room for new data. Accordingly, there is a need for an efficient evaluation of data within the data stream in a single pass, as all of the data may not be retained in the storage to support processing the data multiple times.

Method and apparatus for automated processing of a data stream

International Business Machines Corporation


A steam purity monitor (10) detects the presence of sodium hydroxide and sodium chloride in a steam turbine (12). In the steam purity monitor (10), a control unit (18) is connected to a sensor unit (14) in the steam turbine (12) which has a conductance sensor (30), pressure sensor (34) and temperature sensor (32) to measure conductance, pressure and temperature in the steam turbine (12). A heating coil (40) is further provided to vary the temperature of the sensor unit (14). If conductance is detected by the conductance sensor (30), then the temperature is obtained from the temperature sensor (32) and compared by the control unit (18) to a saturation temperature calculated based on pressure readings from the pressure (34). If the temperature exceeds the saturation temperature by a predetermined amount, the control unit (18) indicates the presence of sodium hydroxide on a display unit (29). However, if the temperature does not exceed the saturation temperature by the predetermined amount, then either sodium hydroxide or sodium chloride could be present. In this case, the steam purity monitor (10) is heated by the heating coil (40) to a predetermined superheat level at which only sodium hydroxide would exist in a liquid solution. After heating, if conductance is no longer detected by the conductance sensor (30), sodium chloride is indicated. If conductance continues to be detected after heating, then sodium hydroxide is indicated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a steam purity monitor which detects the presence of sodium hydroxide and sodium chloride in a steam turbine and, more particularly, to a device which monitors conductivity, temperature, and pressure in a steam turbine and uses a computer to indicate the presence of sodium hydroxide or sodium chloride based on the conductivity, temperature and pressure in the steam turbine.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a steam turbine, it is essential for the steam therein to remain free of chemical contaminants which cause corrosion. Sodium hydroxide and sodium chloride are two such contaminants which can cause serious damage. The presence of these substances in a steam turbine, even in very small amounts, can result in corrosion and related effects, including pitting corrosion, corrosion fatigue and stress corrosion. Particularly, sodium chloride affects the blades in the turbine and sodium hydroxide affects the rotor body of the turbine, which is made from a different alloy.
Conventionally, potential contaminants are monitored by sampling the feedwater and steam of the power cycle. When the monitors suggest that sodium chloride or sodium hydroxide is in the steam delivered to the turbine, the choice is to shut the turbine down, improve the purification of the feedwater used to make the steam, or to risk corrosion damage to the turbine. Current monitors are not accurate enough to reliably indicate whether corrosive solutions are forming on the turbine. Therefore, there is considerable likelihood that a turbine will be operated with corrosive solutions present on it or that a turbine will be shut down when no corrosive solutions are actually present on it. Either of these errors is costly. The first represents corrosion damage to equipment with possible safety hazards. The second represents unnecessary economic penalty of lost generation. For these reasons, it is highly desirably to detect the presence of sodium hydroxide with certainty and differentiate it from sodium chloride. With this information, the operator can decide whether to continue to operate the turbine or to shut it down.
In addition, corrosion damage from sodium hydroxide is faster and more widespread in the turbine than corrosion damage from salts. If sodium hydroxide is present in the steam going to the turbine, acid could be added to neutralize it. Conventional monitors are inadequately reliable to determine how much acid to add. For this reason it is desirable to detect the neutralization of sodium hydroxide present in the turbine.
Although previous attempts have been made to detect contaminants in a general sense, no previous device or method is known by which sodium hydroxide is specifically detected quickly and accurately. A method for preventing corrosion in a steam turbine is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,386,498, but this method is primarily directed to detection of conductivity in the turbine to generally indicate the presence of contaminants such as sodium chloride. The method is incapable of individually differentiating between different contaminants such as sodium hydroxide and sodium chloride. Such a differentiation is very important because only the detection of sodium hydroxide merits the extreme measure of adding acid to the turbine or taking the turbine off line and opening to clean it.


A rubber composition for use in tires including from 60 to 120 parts by weight of a silica having a CTAB specific surface area of from 70 to 175 m2/g and from 3 to 25 parts by weight of an aromatic modified terpene resin excluding terpene phenol resins per 100 parts by weight of a diene rubber including from 30 to 80 weight % of a terminal-modified styrene-butadiene rubber and from 10 to 50 weight % of a butadiene rubber. An average glass transition temperature of the diene rubber is −55° C. or lower and an average glass transition temperature of a component formed from the diene rubber, the aromatic modified terpene resin, and an optional plasticizer is −45° C. or lower.

1. Technical Field
The present technology relates to a rubber composition for use in tires, and more particularly relates to a rubber composition for use in tires having grip performance on both icy and snowy road surfaces and wet road surfaces enhanced to or above conventional levels.
2. Related Art
Pneumatic tires for use on icy and snowy roads (studless tires) are designed to enhance grip performance by increasing adhesion force to icy and snowy road surfaces by maintaining hardness of a tread rubber while still remaining pliable, even at low temperatures. Additionally, in recent years, there has been a demand for studless tires having enhanced traveling performance on wet road surfaces that are not covered with ice and/or snow as well as travelling performance on icy and snowy road surfaces as described above. Conventionally, a styrene butadiene rubber having a high glass transition temperature (Tg) has been compounded in order to enhance the wet grip performance. However, when a styrene butadiene rubber having a high Tg is compounded, the Tg of the entire rubber composition increases, which leads the adhesion force to icy and snowy road surfaces being negatively affected due to an increase in a rubber hardness at low temperatures.
To resolve this problem, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-321093 proposes enhancing braking performance on wet road surfaces and on ice by compounding 100 parts by weight of a diene rubber including from 20 to 80 weight % of a natural rubber and/or an isoprene rubber and from 80 to 20 weight % of a butadiene rubber with a terpene resin having a glass transition temperature of −10° C. or lower. However, this rubber composition still has room for further improvement because it has not sufficiently satisfied the demands for higher levels of both travelling performance on icy and snowy road surfaces and travelling performance on wet road surfaces.


The methods of the invention determine the unit cell parameters of a crystalline solid form using diffraction data and applying an algorithm. Using the algorithm, the unit cell parameters may be determined, which may allow one to distinguish between different crystalline solid forms of a substance.

Diffraction is an experimental technique in which radiation with a narrow range of wavelengths is shone on a sample. The radiation interacts with the electrons and/or nuclei in the sample and is scattered elastically. Interference within the scattered radiation creates an observable pattern that is characteristic of the molecular-scale structure of the sample. To be effective, the radiation should have a wavelength that is similar to the atomic scale. For example, X-rays, high energy electrons, and thermal neutrons may be used. X-rays are readily produced using laboratory sources and are non-destructive at sufficiently low doses. Therefore, X-ray diffraction (XRD) is the most commonly used diffraction technique.
Single crystal diffraction is used to determine the molecular scale structure of a crystalline form of matter using a single crystal. Diffracted radiation is measured as a function of scattering angle and relative orientation of the crystal. Typically thousands of coherent peaks in the interference pattern are used to determine the size and shape of the crystal unit cell and the positions of each atom in the crystal. While very useful, the need for a large crystal with few defects limits the application of single crystal diffraction.
If only a powder sample (as opposed to a single crystal) is available, then powder diffraction may be used to obtain a sub-set of the information available using single crystal diffraction. For a sample composed of many tiny and randomly oriented particles, the resulting diffraction pattern has continuous rings instead of discrete points and the diffraction pattern is largely independent of the orientation of the sample. Due to overlap of the rings, typically dozens of coherent peaks in the interference pattern are measured as a function of scattering angle. If X-rays are used for the radiation and the sample is a powder, then the technique is called X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD). FIG. 1 provides a schematic view of XRPD. As noted above, alternate forms of radiation may also be used.
Although the invention set forth herein will be described primarily with respect to XRPD, it should be understood that other forms of powder diffraction, such as electron and neutron powder diffraction, can also be used.
The term "crystalline" as used herein includes polycrystalline, microcrystalline, nanocrystalline, and partially or wholly crystalline substances, as well as disordered crystalline substances. Crystalline solid forms can include, for example, cocrystals, solvates and hydrates. Crystalline solid forms can also include polymorphs, which are different crystalline solid forms having the same chemical composition. Crystalline solid forms can include crystalline forms of salts of compounds, for instance, salts of pharmaceutical compounds. In addition, as used herein reference to a crystalline solid form of "a compound" includes a crystalline solid form comprising a compound and optionally one or more additional compounds or components, i.e., a multi-component system. For instance, a crystalline solid form of a compound includes a cocrystal and includes a salt of a compound.
The result of XRPD is an XRPD pattern. For samples composed of crystalline powders, the XRPD pattern may be a combination of sharp peaks and broad features. Sharp peaks are due to ordered crystalline regions in the sample. The sharp peaks occur at particular scattering angles (2θ) relative to the transmitted X-ray beam. The broad features may be due to a variety of factors, such as disorder in the sample, defects in the crystal, and/or scattering by air.
The XRPD pattern is a measured intensity (I) as a function of scattering angle (2θ). The positions of the peaks in the pattern and the relative intensities of the peaks are characteristic of a well-prepared sample of a particular crystalline material. Therefore, an XRPD pattern identifies a particular material, just as a fingerprint identifies a particular person. For many purposes, the XRPD pattern can be used directly without additional analysis.
Powder diffraction data may also be used to determine the crystallographic unit cell of the crystalline structure. Many methods of powder diffraction indexing are known. XRPD indexing, and in fact indexing of all powder diffraction data, is the process of determining the size and shape of the crystallographic unit cell consistent with the peak positions in a given XRPD pattern. Indexing does not make use of the relative intensity information in the XRPD pattern. The goal of the indexing process is the determination of three unit cell lengths (a,b,c), three unit cell angles (α,β,γ), and three Miller index labels (h,k,l) for each peak. The lengths are typically reported in Angstrom units (Å), and the angles in degree units. The Miller index labels are unitless integers. Successful indexing indicates that the sample is composed of one crystalline phase and is therefore not a mixture of crystalline phases. The indexing solution also provides a concise means to convey the positions of allowed peaks in an XRPD pattern. Other exemplary methods of powder diffraction indexing include, by way of example, Dicvol and X-cell, both of which are known to those of skill in the art.
Crystallographic unit cells are not unique. For any crystalline material, there is an infinite set of unit cells that may be used to describe the crystal structure of the material. There is, however, a unique unit cell called the reduced basis that has a minimal volume (V) and whose parameters (a,b,c,α,β,γ) conform to a set of rules. The reduced basis provides a systematic means for categorizing and comparing crystal forms. Reduced bases conform to one of 44 tabulated "characters." Characters are a means of classification of reduced unit cells. Lattices belong to the same character if their reduced cells can be continuously deformed into one-another without changing the Bravais type and with continuous changes of the reduced lattice parameters. For each character there is a tabulated matrix transformation that generates a conventional unit cell from the reduced basis. The conventional cell parameters are most often reported as the outcome of XRPD indexing.
The invention makes use of an algorithm developed by the inventor, herein termed the "Triads Algorithm." By applying the Triads Algorithm to measured instrumental data, the benefits of the invention, as described below, may be achieved.
In the Triads Algorithm described below, the overall strategy is to identify a member of the infinite set of unit cells that describe the lattice, then use well-established methods to transform the cell to its reduced basis and finally to the conventional unit cell.
The Bragg Equation (1) relates the Bragg angle (θ) to the order of the reflection (n), the radiation wavelength (λ), and the distance between Miller planes (dhkl):nλ=2dhkl sin(θ)  (1)Rearranging equation (1) provides an equation for the scattering vector magnitude (κhkl):
                              κ          hkl                =                                            2                                                                                sin                                                                                (                θ                )                                      λ                    =                      n                          d              hkl                                                          (        2        )            Although the symbol k is often used for the magnitude of the scattering vector, here the symbol κ is used to avoid confusion with the Miller indices (h,k,l). The distance between Miller planes (dhkl) is a function of the Miller indices (h,k,l) and the crystallographic unit cell parameters (a,b,c,α,β,γ). This function is most conveniently expressed using matrix multiplication:
                                          (                          κ              hkl                        )                    2                =                              [                          h                                                                                k                                                                                l                        ]                    ·                      B                          _              _                                ·                      [                                                            h                                                                              k                                                                              l                                                      ]                                              (        3        )            where B is the Bragg matrix:
                              B                      _            _                          =                  [                                                                                (                                          a                      *                                        )                                    2                                                                                (                                          a                      *                                        )                                                                          (                                          b                      *                                        )                                                                          cos                                                              (                                              γ                        *                                            )                                                                                (                                          a                      *                                        )                                                                          (                                          c                      *                                        )                                                                          cos                                                              (                                              β                        *                                            )                                                                                (                                          a                      *                                        )                                                                          (                                          b                      *                                        )                                                                          cos                                                              (                                              γ                        *                                            )                                                                                (                                          b                      *                                        )                                    2                                                                                (                                          b                      *                                        )                                                                          (                                          c                      *                                        )                                                                          cos                                                              (                                              α                        *                                            )                                                                                (                                          a                      *                                        )                                                                          (                                          c                      *                                        )                                                                          cos                                                              (                                              β                        *                                            )                                                                                (                                          b                      *                                        )                                                                          (                                          c                      *                                        )                                                                          cos                                                              (                                              α                        *                                            )                                                                                (                                          c                      *                                        )                                    2                                                              ]                                    (        4        )            and (a*,b*,c*,α*,β*,γ*) are reciprocal cell parameters. Equations (3) and (4) constitute the quadratic form of the Bragg Equation. It gives the peak position for a given Miller index triplet (h,k,l) given a unit cell of specified reciprocal cell parameters.
Simplified versions of the quadratic form are available for symmetric crystal systems. These simplifications are special cases of the general triclinic case provided in equations (3) and (4). Since the triclinic case is general, it is used in the implementation of the Triads Algorithm described below. Higher symmetry unit cells are recognized during the course of the algorithm.
Friedel's Law states that peaks labeled with Miller indices (h,k,l) and (−h,−k,−l) are indistinguishable in the absence of absorption effects. Slight deviations from Friedel's Law are used in the context of single crystal diffraction to determine absolute configuration of chiral molecules, but this is not relevant to XRPD since the opposing pairs of peaks overlap each other in an XRPD pattern. Since Friedel pairs always overlap in XRPD patterns, it is convenient to choose a naming convention that eliminates this ambiguity. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, all Miller indices may be chosen such that the first non-zero index is positive. This embodiment is used in the examples below. In a further embodiment, all Miller indices may be chosen such that the first non-zero index is negative. In yet a further embodiment, a combination of positive and negative first non-zero Miller indices may be chosen.
Each of the infinite set of unit cells that describe a particular crystalline material yields reflections at the same set of peak positions (2θ) through the Bragg Equation. Larger unit cells will indicate additional peaks that are not indicated for a minimal volume unit cell, however. Since different unit cells have different unit cell parameters, the Miller indices labeling each peak are also different, but the set of distances between Miller planes is fixed. An example illustrating the equivalence of different unit cells is given in TABLE 1.
TABLE 1Exemplary comparison of Miller index labels for three different unitcells describing the same crystal with the same peak positions.Arbitrarily Specified Cella = 10.000 Å, b = 17.321 Å,Reduced BasisConventional Cellc = 26.458 Å, α = 10.89°a = b = c = 10.000 Å,a = b = c = 14.142 Å,Observed Peakβ = 55.46° γ = 54.74°α = β = γ = 60°α = β = γ = 90°Positions (2θ)(Triclinic)(Rhombohedral)(Face-Centered Cubic)10.827°(100), (123), (011), (012)(001), (010), (100), (111)(111)12.508°(112), (023), (111)(011), (101), (110)(002), (020), (200)17.724°(1-1-1), (223), (135),(01-1), (10-1), (1-10),(022), (202), (220)(134), (1-1-2), (001)(112), (121), (211)20.815°(212), (034), (1-2-3),(11-1), (1-11), (1-1-1),(113), (131), (311)(2, 3, 5), (101), (146),(021), (201), (210),(035), (124), (234),(012), (102), (120),(211), (122), (10-1)(122), (212), (221)21.752°(200), (246), (022), (024)(002), (020), (200), (222)(222)25.168°(224), (046), (222)(022), (202), (200)(004), (040), (400)For each of three different unit cells, Miller indices are given for each of the observed peaks. In TABLE 1 there are multiple Miller indices corresponding to each peak. This is a result of multiple lattice planes that diffract at the same Bragg angle and therefore overlap in the XRPD pattern. Such coincidence of reflections is common for symmetric unit cells such as the one used in TABLE 1. Each column in TABLE 1 is a different description of the same unit cell, but with different unit cell parameters and Miller index labels for the observed peaks. This demonstrates that there are multiple indexing solutions (column 1, for instance), any one of which may be reduced to the reduced basis (column 2) and then transformed to the conventional cell (column 3). This allows one to assign Miller indices in a convenient fashion, for example during the generation of trial solutions during the Triads Algorithm. Once the Algorithm generates a unit cell that is consistent with the observed peak list, then the cell can be reduced and transformed to the conventional cell.

Methods for indexing solid forms of compounds


A method for applying defect correction and calibration to image data (100) in an imaging system using an area spatial light modulator (146), where a tone correction LUT (148′) is applied to the image data (100) to apply calibration correction before applying defect correction using a defect map (122) with an accompanying gain table (124). The tone correction LUT (148) is then applied to the image data in the image modulation assembly (140).

While two-dimensional area spatial light modulators such as transmissive and reflective LCDs offer significant promise for use as image forming devices in high-resolution printers, there are some inherent drawbacks to using these devices. Among these drawbacks is the necessity for employing some form of defect correction due to imperfect manufacturing processes. High-frequency defects occur, for example, as a result of surface brushing needed for providing an alignment bias to the liquid crystal structures. Low-frequency defects occur, for example, due to other irregularities across the surface of the area spatial light modulator.
One method of compensation for defects of this type uses a defect map along with an accompanying gain table. For example, commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/360,030, filed Feb. 7, 2003 entitled A METHOD FOR DETERMINING AN OPTIMUM GAIN RESPONSE IN A SPATIAL FREQUENCY RESPONSE CORRECTION FOR A PROJECTION SYSTEM, by Bernardi et al. discloses a method for obtaining a defect map and accompanying gain table that can be applied to a printing system. The defect map/gain table combination developed using this method can be used to effectively compensate for various types of both low- and high-frequency defects peculiar to an individual LCD or other area spatial light modulator, over the range of achievable light intensity levels.
One problem with existing defect correction techniques relates to a dependence on proper device calibration. Particularly in printing applications using an area spatial light modulator, frequent recalibration of the spatial light modulator is necessary, for example to accommodate changes in device performance or to compensate for batch-to-batch differences in the response of photosensitive media. However, changes in calibration can be accompanied by unwanted changes in defect compensation. Thus, while defect correction cannot be made completely independent of device calibration, it would be advantageous to make defect correction as independent of calibration as possible, so that calibration changes have negligible effect on device defect correction.
Some of the problems that complicate obtaining effective defect correction from one calibration to the next are due to inherent limitations of printing apparatus hardware. For example, the spatial light modulator, although itself capable of imaging at resolutions of 10-bits or higher, may be limited by its support components to image data having a bit depth, also termed a "bit space", of no more than 8-bits. Thus, imaging data and look-up tables (LUTs) may be constrained to 8-bit values. However, calibration algorithms can be more effective using a higher bit space, such as using 10-bit or 12-bit values. Because of inherent device limitations, values computed in a higher bit space often need to be subsequently translated to a lower bit space for support components of the spatial light modulator. As a result of this need to scale between higher and lower bit spaces, some image contouring and related effects can degrade imaging performance following calibration. Added defect correction can further degrade uniformity over some areas of the spatial light modulator, causing visible image aberrations due to over-correction of component defects. Over-correction of this type could cause streaking in a printed image, for example.
Thus, it can be seen that there is a need for an image processing path that minimizes potential negative effects of calibration on both low- and high-frequency defect correction and provides a high degree of imaging uniformity, making defect correction substantially independent of calibration.

Method for calibration independent defect correction in an imaging system


Embodiments of the invention include a system, method and computer program product for accessing a remote file system in which files in the remote file system are mapped to a local file system that is coupled to the remote file system by a network, wherein the mapped files meet a filtering criterion and are used in subsequent file operations at the local file system.

Embodiments of the invention relate generally to computer file systems, and more particularly to accessing files in another computer system based on content filtering.
Computers are commonly interconnected in a network for user communications, exchanging data, or retrieving data as in a client-server configuration. In a networked computing environment, a user may need to access data files stored on another computer that is connected to the user's computer by a network in an operation called file sharing. The files may be in a shared file system operating at the remote computer. There are various commonly used file systems such as Distributed File System (DFS) and Global Storage Architecture (GSA). In order to access the shared files, the user often initiates a process referred to as drive mapping which associates the remote file structure with an unused local drive designation at the user's local computer. The user and applications running on local computer can then perform file operations on the mapped remote files as if the files reside in a data storage drive at the local computer.
In Windows™ operating systems that commonly operate on personal computers, a user may initiate the drive mapping using system options such as "Map Network Drive", a command "net use", or the like. (Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.) In Unix® type operating systems, a drive mapping may be set up with the command "mount" or the like. (UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries.) File operations on the mapped drive, however, can be slow, especially when network bandwidth is limited and the shared file system contains a large number of folders and files. For example, a file search (e.g. Google desktop search) must iterate all the files and essentially read all the data from the files in the mapped drive that are sent to the client machine through the network. The file search operation is then performed on the returned files in the local disk to find the files that match the search expression.

Remote file sharing based on content filtering


Disclosed are various embodiments for generating a location-based ranking for a set of measurements. A geographic rank application receives a request from a client to generate a geographic ranking for a specific task measurement associated with the execution of a task. The geographic rank application develops a list of clients located within the specified geographic area that have a task measurement associated with the execution of the specified task. Upon developing the list, the geographic rank application gathers the corresponding task measurements to generate the ranking and returns the ranking the requesting client.

Users of client devices execute a plurality of tasks such as, for instance, read electronic books, play electronic games, communicate through electronic mail, listen to electronic music files and/or other tasks. These tasks typically record a variety of measurements associated with the execution of the task such as, for instance, a high score for an electronic game. Users may sometimes want to get a ranking of the high score with respect to a specified geographic area.


A low profile conformal high gain multi-beam aircraft antenna includes antenna elements supported by a ground plane to create the low profile conformal high gain multi-beam aircraft antenna. Some of the antenna elements include a feeding waveguide flared in at least one of an h-plane and a v-plane. The antenna elements cooperate to create a gain pattern near a plane of the antenna.

Field
Aspects of the present disclosure relate to air-to-ground communication systems, and more particularly to an air-to-ground communications system adapted for use with an airborne mobile platform that provides an ultra-low profile conformal aircraft antenna.
Background
Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, and so on. Such networks, which are usually multiple access networks, support communications for multiple users by sharing the available network resources. Such networks are terrestrial-based networks, however, in recent years, publicly accessible networks are being made available for passengers on commercial air transportation, e.g., airplanes and other aircraft.
Such services are known as air-to-ground (ATG) communication services, and may provide such services as broadband data, voice communication, and entertainment such as streaming movies or music. Although ATG services and networks are similar to currently deployed terrestrial cellular and other wireless networks, there are aspects of ATG networks that differ from these networks.
As aircraft fly across a geographic region, each aircraft is serviced by a particular base transceiver station (BTS) until signal quality, signal strength, or available bandwidth from that BTS is insufficient, at which time service is transferred to another BTS. Such a transfer can be referred to a "handoff," similar to handoffs that occur in terrestrial cellular networks for cellular devices (handsets, PDAs, etc.) when such devices are mobile.
Aircraft may use a single transceiver having an antenna mounted on the undercarriage of the aircraft to communicate with the BTS. However, BTS antenna patterns are usually designed to service terrestrial customers, and the beam patterns at a given BTS are usually not arranged to service ATG communications traffic.
Current generation satellite communications systems offering broadband internet service to commercial jetliners specify sophisticated high gain agile beam antennas to initiate and maintain the communications link to the satellites. These antennas are large, complex, and expensive, and involve large surface areas and volumes on the aircraft fuselage, adding to installation costs.
Capacity for these systems is limited. Launching new satellites to accommodate capacity growth can be prohibitively expensive. Generally, these costs are passed on to the consumer in the form of high service fees. The present disclosure describes aspects of a low cost aircraft antenna solution that supports an air to ground communications system. The system offers broadband internet service that is similar to or exceeds that of the more expensive satellite based systems, but at a fraction of the cost of current antenna technologies servicing these sat-com based systems.
Merely replicating terrestrial cellular beam patterns or satellite antenna beam patterns around the aircraft in an omnidirectional pattern, however, would provide insufficient signal strength and capacity to service the thousands of aircraft and potentially hundreds of thousands of users in such an ATG system. Replicating the terrestrial beam patterns would also create interference patterns that could be deleterious to communications links in ATG systems as well as other aircraft communications systems.
As aircraft travel through a particular BTS service area, or are handed off to another BTS service area, the aircraft antenna may also need to change beam patterns or beam directions. The change provides continuous service during aircraft flight, which may not have been needed or have as stringent tracking accuracy as with satellite communications links. Federal Communication Commission (FCC) rules may also prohibit certain portions of the flight from providing communications services. FCC rules may prevent transmissions in specific terrestrial directions that may not have been at issue when the transmissions were directed to higher elevations.
Further, adding additional externally mounted items to an aircraft fuselage affects aircraft flight characteristics, which makes implementation of external aircraft antennas difficult for ATG systems.

Ultra low profile conformal antenna system


A device for processing electronic payments for the purchase of goods or services is provided. The device includes one or more computer processors in communication with non-transitory computer readable data storage and a display. The data storage includes instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the device to execute a transaction process including receiving purchase data representing one or more goods or services to be purchased, receiving user input to effect a payment transaction, determining a total transaction amount from the purchase data, reading payment credentials from a purchaser's payment device, sending a payment request, receiving data representing a received one time password (OTP), sending the received OTP to the third party authorization server for authentication against a OTP sent by the third party authorization server to a mobile device, and receiving data representing successful authentication from the third party authorization server.

The present disclosure relates to processing of electronic payments on a mobile computer device.
Traditional brick-and-mortar stores typically have a fixed layout which forces a procedural sales experience, whereby:
(a) customers enter from the storefront;
(b) pick up items they would like to purchase;
(c) approach the designated check-out area where their items would be entered into a point of sales (POS) system including, for example, a cash register;
(d) pays the cashier by cash and receives change (if any); and
(e) retrieves item(s) and leaves the store via the exit usually placed close to the check-out area.
The fixed layout creates problems with user experience because customers can feel like they are being treated like cattle, being herded around in a defined path to ensure maximum opportunity to purchase items. In addition, it is often the case that the cashiers' desks become bottlenecks where customers are forced to queue, further devaluing the shopping experience for the customer.
The phrase "cash is king" is one typically used in business for highlighting the importance of cash flow. In practice however, cash transactions may often result in a number of issues. For hassle-free cash transactions, merchants have to ensure that they have sufficient cash in a variety of denominations throughout the store's operational hours. For businesses (especially those with high volume or high cash value transactions), this would require a designated secure storage area to securely store the cash e.g. a secure safe. In that regard, good security protocols need to be implemented and observed to mitigate the risk of theft or robbery. Another issue with cash is the cost associated with ensuring proper cash handling including training. Employees may be required to manually tally the cash in till at the end of each shift (possibly multiple times over for increased accuracy) and the cash needs to be securely transferred to a safe or bank. There is also a chance that employees may mishandle or misplace cash.
The issues with cash transactions resulted in a wave of new retail payment systems being introduced to the market. To remain competitive, especially with the rise of online shopping, retailers are constantly under pressure to update their systems to incorporate these new systems resulting in increased costs to both acquire and maintain them. Additionally, with technology constantly improving at a rapid speed, these systems are often phased out and replaced with newer technology. Due to these high costs, retailers are often limited to operating only a small number of systems which may result in longer waiting times for customers. This may ultimately deter customers from returning to the store if they have to wait for an extended period of time to complete a purchase.
Current POS systems are often older systems that have been modified to work in combination with various newer systems. For example,
(a) a non-computerized cash register which does not include database of inventory;
(b) a variety of payment systems (magnetic strip credit card reader, EMV chip reader, NFC-enabled reader, and debit card machine);
(c) a separate computer system or a manual method for maintaining the inventory in the store; and
(d) an employee management system e.g. for registering employee's time clocking activities and maintaining and creating rosters.
Stores may have implemented these systems separately and incrementally. This may be due to a gradual expansion of the store or the high costs associated with these systems resulting in a slow uptake of new systems. In that regard, these systems may not be unified and as such, do not share data with each other. As a result, the system may be haphazard and inefficient requiring the data to be entered into multiple systems resulting in an increase in employee costs.
Operating a multitude of separate systems results in a large footprint on the cashier's desk. This is a waste of precious retail space which could be valuable to a retailer. Additionally, these systems are cumbersome to move around therefore are positioned in a designated area. This renders the retail space rigid and inflexible.
It is generally desirable to overcome or ameliorate one or more of the above described difficulties, or to at least provide a useful alternative.

Processing electronic payments on a mobile computer device


Polycarbonates are prepared by inducing the melt polycondensation of an aromatic dihydroxy compound and a diester carbonate in the presence of alkali metal compounds and/or alkaline earth metal compound droxy and adding to the polycarbonate which is the reaction product thereof: a sulfonic acid compound having the formula ##STR1## in an amount to 0.05-10 ppm, based on the polycarbonate, and also an epoxy compound in an amount of 1-2000 ppm, based on the polycarbonate.

Polycarbonates have excellent mechanical properties such as impact resistance, as well as excellent heat resistance, transparency and other properties. They are widely used in applications such as various types of mechanical components, optical disks, and automotive parts.
Polycarbonates such as these have hitherto been prepared by a method involving the direct reaction of an aromatic dihydroxy compound such as bispherol A with phosgene (interfacial process) or a method involving the transesterification of an aromatic dihydroxy compound and a diester carbonate (melt process).
Of these two methods, the melt process has the advantage of being able to prepare polycarbonates more inexpensively than the interfacial process. Moreover, because it does not use toxic substances such as phosgene, it is also desirable from the standpoint of environmental health.
In polycarbonate production methods by prior-art melt processes, alkali metal compounds, alkaline earth metal compounds or the like are generally used as the catalyst in an amount of 10.sup.-3 to 10.sup.-6 mole per mole of the aromatic dihydroxy compound.
However, polycarbonates obtained using an amount of catalyst such as this have a poor residence stability. That is, when the polycarbonate is melt-molded, some of it will at times undergo thermal decomposition, a decline in molecular weight, discoloration, and a decrease in transparency.
For example, Japanese Published Examined Patent Application [Kokoku] No. 54-44,303 (1979) discloses a method for obtaining polycarbonates that prevents a decline in the molecular weight at the time of molding. This method involves carrying out a polycondensation reaction using an amount of 3.7.times.10.sup.-6 mole of the sodium salt of bisphenol A as the catalyst per mole of the bisphenol A serving as the reactive monomer, and adding methyl benzenesulfonate to the polycarbonate thus obtained. However, the polycarbonate obtained by the method cited in this Kokoku has a poor initial color tone, readily undergoes yellowing at the time of melt molding, and tends to have an inferior heat resistance. Moreover, the water resistance is not enhanced, hydrolysis readily arises, and there is a tendency for the transparency to decrease.
Hence, the appearance of a method for preparing polycarbonates that is able to stably prepare polycarbonates having excellent residence stability such as hue stability and heat stability at the time of melt molding, as well as excellent water resistance and transparency, has been awaited.
The inventors conducted research on such polycarbonate production methods, as a result of which they found that by making alkali metal compounds and/or alkaline earth metal compounds present in a specific amount within the polycondensation reaction system and by adding a specific sulfonic acid compound to the polycarbonate obtained, polycarbonates can be prepared which have excellent residence stability such as hue stability and heat stability at the time of melt molding, and in particular excellent water resistance and transparency.


A relaxation oscillator is provided. A first current source provides a first current. A second current source provides a second current. A resistive element is coupled between the first current source and a ground. A capacitive element is coupled between the second current source and the ground. A comparator has a non-inverting input terminal, an inverting input terminal and an output terminal for outputting a compare result. A clock generator provides a clock signal according to the compare result. A switching unit alternately couples the non-inverting input terminal and the inverting input terminal of the comparator to the resistive element and the capacitive element according to the clock signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an oscillator, and more particularly to a relaxation oscillator.
2. Description of the Related Art
On-chip oscillators are in high demand as an external crystal replacement by low-cost and single-chip systems. The frequency stability of an oscillator against variations in temperature and supply voltage is a critical specification for an on-chip oscillator. Working with wide range of supply voltages is also preferred, to gain the most operating time when powered by a battery.
In general, a wide supply range oscillator with typical frequency stability can better accommodate temperature changes. Furthermore, relaxation oscillators with voltage averaging feedback (VAF) or an offset cancellation technique have good temperature stability, wherein the relaxation oscillators only work with a limited supply range. Moreover, an oscillator with a frequency tracking loop provides a stable output clock under wide supply voltage and temperature variations, but it requires a bandgap circuit with high precision, which increases the cost.
Therefore, a relaxation oscillator with adaptive supply voltage generation is desired to achieve the best frequency stability and fixed output frequency under a wide supply variation.


A system for music education includes a storage device being configured to store a set of record data; a recording device being configured to record a musical exercise; a processor being connected to the storage device and the recording device, and configured to determine the start and the end of the musical exercise by the detected volume of the musical exercise, to convert the recording of the musical exercise to a set of user data, to retrieve the set of record data and to map the set of user data to the set of record data, to analyze differences between the two based on the mapping and to calculate a series of values and to calculate a score as the sum of the series of values multiplied by a series of coefficients respectively; and an electronic display being connected to the processor. A method for music education is also provided.

One of the most important trainings in music education is to improve musicianship of students. Musicianship includes the capabilities of singing and playing music instrument with correct frequencies and timing, counting beat correctly and finding characters of music by hearing. These are also one of the major subjects in music examinations provided by international music institutes, such as Associate Board of Royal School Music (ABRSM) in UK, Royal Conservatory of Music Examinations (RCM) in Canada, Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB) in Australia and etc.
Previously, all these trainings can only be provided by teachers within a room. While there are some other materials, e.g. recorded waves in CD or online to train students in finding characters of music by hearing, there is no way for students to learn singing, playing a music instrument, and counting beats without the teacher as the performance must be judged by the teacher and the teacher will give feedback after listening to the student's performance. Even though students can record the performance and send the recording to the teacher though a network, it still requires a teacher to judge.
On the other hand, in any teaching with a teacher, the teacher can only tell what the good points and bad points about a student's performance are by mouth. The teacher can record the performance and replay it. However, it is very inconvenient for the teacher to record the performance every time. Even when there is a recording, the student needs to imagine which part of the performance is good or bad based on teacher's words, without any visual aids to help.
In addition, since the performance of the students can vary in many directions, the teacher cannot record the performance in a scientific way. In other words, the teacher can only mark some major errors but it is difficult for the teacher to have a whole picture on the progress of the students' performance.


A method for cleaning up vehicle driving data includes receiving vehicle driving data of a vehicle within a predetermined time period, the vehicle driving data comprising vehicle mileage data and vehicle status data; determining a first mileage of the vehicle within the predetermined time period based on the vehicle mileage data; determining a second mileage of the vehicle within the predetermined time period based on the vehicle status data; and judging whether the first mileage is abnormal data based on the second mileage.

With the advancement of science and technology, social development has entered the era of big data. Vehicles generate a large amount of data during their entire life cycle, and these data are of great value to the development of the vehicle industry and the progress of the entire society. As data contributors, users and their vehicles should be given corresponding recognition and rewards. In this way, users who are recognized and rewarded will actively invest in data contributions, thereby forming a positive and virtuous data ecological cycle. However, once a reward mechanism for users who contributes data is established, there is a possibility that someone will try to defraud rewards by tampering with the data, which will destroy the ecological cycle of data.

Method, apparatus and device for cleaning up vehicle driving data and storage medium thereof


A method includes processing reference data and positioning signals to determine a first position of a rover station for a first instance in time. A first pseudo-range measurement of a frequency and a first carrier phase measurement of the frequency are calculated. The method also includes detecting an inability to receive the reference data and generating virtual reference data based on the reference data, the position of the rover station, the first pseudo-range measurement, and the first carrier phase measurement. A second pseudo-range measurement of the frequency and a second carrier phase measurement of the frequency are calculated. The method further includes processing the virtual reference data, the positioning signals, the second pseudo-range measurement and the second carrier phase measurement, based on the detected inability to receive the reference data, to determine a second position of the rover station for a second instance in time.

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are used for positioning, navigation and timing. Some examples of Global Navigation Satellite Systems include Global Positioning System (GPS), Global Navigation System (GLONASS), Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), Galileo Satellite Navigation System (Galileo), Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), and Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS).
A GNSS receiver tracks signals from satellites of one, several or all of these systems, gets pseudo-range and carrier phase measurements which can be used for positioning. Such measurements are often deteriorated by errors such as ionospheric effects, tropospheric delay, multipath errors, satellite orbit and clock errors, among others. Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) positioning is sometimes used to improve GNSS receiver accuracy by using reference data communicated to a receiver by a reference station.

Method, apparatus and mobile device for extending real-time kinematic positioning during reference data outage