A combustion air system particularly useful for Kraft process recovery boilers or soda process recovery boilers has a level of liquor air ports located above the black liquor guns, and multiple levels of tertiary air formed by substantially vertically aligned tertiary air ports located above the black liquor guns. The liquor air ports and the tertiary air ports are on the same opposing walls of the furnace and are substantially vertically aligned with air ports in the same wall at different levels. The liquor air ports are located just above the black liquor guns, within a range of about ½ foot to about four feet. The tertiary air ports are laterally offset with respect to the tertiary air ports on the opposing wall of the furnace. The first tertiary air level is located a vertical distance in the range of about four feet to twelve feet above the elevation of liquor air ports, and the second and any additional tertiary air levels are located and spaced from an adjacent tertiary air level at regular spaced vertical intervals in the range of about four feet to eight feet. The vertically aligned and laterally offset tertiary air ports form a combustion air pattern of vertical sheets which travel across the width of the furnace to the opposing wall to carry smaller liquor particles to the walls of the furnace and reduce carryover and improve combustion efficiency.

Industry demand for higher black liquor processing capacity in Kraft recovery boilers has caused a significant increase in furnace shaft velocity and particle carryover. Demand for higher energy efficiency in recovery boilers has also increased black liquor solids content delivered to the boiler, causing smaller mass-median droplet size from black liquor spray nozzles and a further increase in carryover. Higher carryover results in an increase in fouling and plugging of convection pass surfaces.
For a general discussion of chemical and heat recovery in the pulp and paper industry, and the particular aspects of the alkaline pulping and chemical recovery process, reference is made to Steam/its Generation and Use, 41st Ed., Kitto and Stultz, Eds., Copyright© 2005, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, Chapter 28, the text of which is hereby incorporated by reference as though fully set forth herein. FIG. 1 is sectional side view of a known design of a Kraft recovery boiler manufactured by The Babcock & Wilcox Company, generally designated 1. The two main functions of a Kraft process recovery boiler, soda process recovery boiler, or simply, "recovery boiler", are to burn the organic portion of black liquor (a by-product of chemical pulping) to release energy for generating steam and to reduce the oxidized inorganic portion of black liquor in a pile, or bed, supported by the furnace floor. The molten inorganic chemicals in the bed, known as smelt, are discharged to a tank of water where they are dissolved and recovered as green liquor.
The recovery boiler 1 illustrated in FIG. 1 comprises a furnace 10 which is typically rectangular in cross-section, having enclosure walls 12 formed of water or steam-cooled tubes. The black liquor is fed into a lower portion of the furnace 10 through one or more black liquor BL spray nozzles 14 (also referred to as "black liquor guns", "liquor guns", or simply BL nozzles 14) which spray the black liquor into the furnace 10 through openings in the enclosure walls 12. The furnace 10 is generally rectangular in cross-section, and has a front wall 16, a rear wall 18 and two side walls 20. The front of the recovery boiler 1 is defined as the left hand side of FIG. 1, the rear of the recovery boiler 1 is defined as the right hand side of FIG. 1, and the width of the recovery boiler 1 is perpendicular to the plane of the paper on which FIG. 1 is drawn. The left hand side wall LHSW of the boiler 1 is defined as that side wall 20 on the left as one faces the front of the recovery boiler 1, and the right hand side wall RHSW is defined as that side wall 20 on the right.
With a conventional air system, combustion air is introduced into the recovery boiler 1 furnace 10 via air ports at staged elevations above a floor 22 of the furnace 10. These elevations are—primary air 24, secondary air 26, and tertiary air 28, as shown in FIG. 1. Typically, one fourth to one half of the air enters at the primary air PA level 24 near the furnace floor 22. The balance of the air for combustion is staged at the secondary air SA 26 and tertiary air TA 28 levels. The last stage or elevation of air, the tertiary air TA 28, is typically introduced at an elevation seven to fourteen feet above the black liquor nozzles 14. Good penetration and mixing of the tertiary air TA is needed to complete combustion of the black liquor and combustible gases (CO, H2, and H2S) within the furnace 10. The gases generated by combustion rise out of the furnace 10 and flow across convection heat transfer surfaces. Superheater surface 30 is arranged at the entrance to the convection pass, followed by steam generating (boiler bank) surface 32 and finally economizer surface 34. The water-cooled furnace enclosure walls 12 and the volume of the furnace 10 provide the necessary surface and retention time to cool the gas to temperatures where sootblowers can effectively remove the chemical ash from the convection surfaces. A furnace arch or nose 36 shields the superheater surface 30 from the radiant heat of the furnace 10 and uniformly distributes the gas flow entering the superheater surface 30.
The BL nozzles 14 produce a spray with a distribution in droplet size and a mass median droplet size of about 2-4 mm. Large particles (e.g. >3 mm) from the BL nozzles have downward trajectories because they are mostly influenced by their initial momentum and by gravity. The smallest particles of black liquor (<1 mm) are mostly influenced by aerodynamic drag forces and are lifted upward with the gas flow. These particles are known as carryover. Carryover particles are deposited on convection pass surfaces, which cause fouling and plugging of those surfaces and is detrimental to boiler heat transfer performance and continuous operation of the boiler. An air system design influences the quantity of particle carryover in two ways: 1) the magnitude and distribution of vertical velocity that provides lift for small particles, and 2) horizontal gas currents that push small particles towards the furnace walls, where they are deposited and removed from the gas.
Conventional air systems with the described three levels of combustion air typically have just one level of tertiary air above the black liquor nozzles 14, the principal function of which is to provide air to complete combustion of combustible gases and particles which ascend in the furnace. Formetti et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,763 discloses a black liquor recovery boiler furnace having quaternary air injection ports located in the furnace walls in the vicinity of, or at approximately the same elevation as, the black liquor injection guns. Blackwell et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,700, discloses a method of introducing air into a recovery boiler furnace which introduces air via sets of small and large jets on opposite walls, the small jets opposing large jets, and which is referred to in the patent as partial interlacing. The concept of vertically aligned air ports was originated by E. Uppstu et al. 1995, and is exclusively applied to secondary air systems in United States Patent Application Publication US 2004/0149185, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,742,463.

Recovery boiler combustion air system with intermediate air ports vertically aligned with multiple levels of tertiary air ports

Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group, Inc.


A recurrent neural network (RNN) is trained to identify split positions in long content, wherein each split position is a position at which the theme of the long content changes. Each sentence in the long content is converted to a vector that corresponds to the meaning of the sentence. The sentence vectors are used as inputs to the RNN. The high-probability split points determined by the RNN may be combined with contextual cues to determine the actual split point to use. The split points are used to generate thematic segments of the long content. The multiple thematic segments may be presented to a user along with a topic label for each thematic segment. Each topic label may be generated based on the words contained in the corresponding thematic segment.

Long content (e.g., text, audio, or video content) may be tedious to consume by users. Long content may be split into portions of predetermined size. For example, text may be paginated every 60 lines or an audio or video file may be segmented into five-minute portions.
A long short-term memory (LSTM) is a recurrent neural network that can learn from experience. A LSTM comprises a set of LSTM cells. Each LSTM cell provides an output based on an input and one or more internal states. Compared with other recurrent neural networks, LSTMs tend to be better at remembering values for long or short periods of time because of the specific gating mechanism used by LSTMs. As a result, stored values within the LSTM cells do not inherently degrade over time. LSTMs find application in, among other things, natural-language text compression, handwriting recognition, and automatic speech recognition.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Thematic segmentation of long content using deep learning and contextual cues


In an optical recording system employing a laser for writing digital data onto a storage medium, an apparatus and method for calibrating a laser to a power level which minimizes write errors. A calibration profile is generated by writing test data patterns onto the storage medium by using a number of different predetermined laser power levels. The test data patterns are then read back. The number of write errors is determined for each of the different laser power levels by comparing the written data patterns to the read back data patterns. The calibration profile denotes the number of write errors as a function of laser power levels. Next, an optimum laser power is determined corresponding to an average of an upper and a lower knee of the calibration profile. The laser is calibrated to this optimum power level.

Today, optical-based data storage systems are commercially competitive due to their high storage density, relatively low cost, and random access capability. Moreover, magneto-optical data storage systems offer the added flexibility of allowing an optical medium to be erased and new data written in place of the erased section. This feature grants a user the capability to reuse an optical medium many times over by erasing old data and substituting new data in place thereof.
Basically, magneto-optical recording operates in the following manner. Data is stored as a series of binary bits (i.e., 1's and 0's). A laser beam is focused onto an optical medium, usually by means of a lens assembly. Initially, the optical medium is perpendicularly magnetized. To write a "1", the laser beam is pulsed at a high power for a short duration. This raises the temperature of the optical medium to such a degree that an externally applied magnetic field reverses the direction of magnetization in the heated region. When the medium returns to its lower ambient temperature, the "domain" retains its reverse magnetization.
Data is read from the optical medium by sensing the polarization of the linearly polarized light reflected from a perpendicularly magnetized medium. Hence, the magnetization transitions of the domains stored on the media can be read by determining the direction of the plane of polarization of the reflected light. The same laser beam used to write the data can also be used to generate the reflected light, provided that its power is kept relatively low to minimize any increase in the temperature to the disk.
The domains are "erased" by using the laser to perform the same thermal process used to write the data, except that an oppositely directed external magnetic field is applied. Thereby, the domains revert back to their original magnetization.
As described above, magneto-optical write operations are temperature dependent. In the prior art, the laser beam was kept at a constant power corresponding to an optimum temperature for writing data onto the medium. However, one drawback with the prior art method is that typically, magneto-optical recording devices are operated subject to a wide temperature range. For instance, the device might be operated under very cold conditions (e.g., outdoors, in front of an air conditioner vent, etc.) or very hot conditions (e.g., in direct sunlight, surrounded by equipment which are hot, etc.). Indeed, the temperature of the magneto-optical recording device can vary substantially between when it is first initialized and after it has operated over a length of time.
Consequently, under low temperature conditions, the laser beam's fixed power might be insufficient to properly heat the medium. As a result, the data might not get written onto the medium. Or, if the data does get written, it might be hard to detect when an attempt is subsequently made to read the data. In other words, the data is written so weakly that a read operation might miss part of the data. Conversely, under high temperature conditions, the laser beam's fixed power might be excessive. In extreme circumstances, this might cause permanent damage to the media. Another problem is that excessive power produces larger heated areas. As the areas increase in size, they start to interfere with one another. Consequently, these data bits become hard to detect because of the interference. This problem can be eliminated by writing the data bits a certain distance apart to eliminate the interference between two adjacent bits. However, this implementation is highly disadvantageous because less data is stored within a given area. In other words, the capacity of the device is reduced.
One prior art method for addressing this temperature problem was to implement a probe to measure the temperature of the magneto-optical recording device. Based on its measured temperature, the laser beam's power is adjusted accordingly (i.e., increased power for cooler temperatures and decreased power for higher temperatures). However, this method does not solve all the problems. First, the probe only senses the ambient temperature of the magneto-optical recording device rather than the actual temperature of the active layer of the optical medium. If the temperature of the optical medium is significantly different from that of the magneto-optical recording device (e.g., insertion of a cold optical disk into a magneto-optical disk drive that has been running a long time), the result could be an incorrect laser power being applied. Second, the media sensitivity typically varies from one medium to the next. This is due to imperfect manufacturing processes which lead to large tolerances. For example, one particular optical disk can have a significantly higher/lower sensitivity than another optical disk, even though they were both manufactured in the same lot. Consequently, different optical disks might require different amounts of laser power for optimum writing performance. Requiring tighter sensitivity tolerances would prohibitively increase the costs of the optical disks.
Therefore, what is needed is a simple, efficient, and accurate method/apparatus which adjusts the power of the laser beam for optimum performance, depending on that particular medium and its temperature. It is also desirable to provide such a solution without the need for additional hardware elements (other than those already available in the magneto-optical recording system).

Method and apparatus for calibrating laser write power by averaging upper and lower knees of a calibration profile


Low viscosity ternary mixtures of benzoxazine, epoxy and phenolic resins have been developed. The blends render homogeneous and void free cured specimen with a wide range of properties. Melt viscosity values as low as 0.3 Pa.s at 100.degree. C. can be achieved. The phenolic resin acts as a cure accelerator to the system, besides its typical function as a hardener of epoxy resin. Glass transition temperatures Tg as high as 170.degree. C. can also be obtained.

Epoxy resins with various hardeners have been used extensively in the electronics industry both as adhesives and as a matrix in various substrates. Mixtures of epoxy resins and benzoxazines have been taught as potentially useful in the electronics industry as the epoxy resins can reduce the melt viscosity of benzoxazines allowing for the use of higher filler loading while maintaining a processable viscosity. However the epoxy resin undesirably increase the temperature at which the benzoxazine polymerizes.

Ternary systems of benzoxazine, epoxy, and phenolic resins


First and second composite members each containing first discontinuous fibers of fiber length La, are placed such that end surfaces thereof face each other at an interval of first length L1. Ends of the first and second composite members are melted over a second length L2 from the end surfaces. A connecting member containing second discontinuous fibers of fiber length Lb, is melted and placed to bridge a space between the ends, to form a stack. The stack is pressed, whereby the melted connecting member and the melted end portions flow into the space between the end surfaces to form a mixture portion. The mixture portion is cooled and solidified to produce a fiber-reinforced resin bonded body. The first length L1 is equal to or more than ½ of the fiber length Lb, and the second length L2 is equal to or more than the fiber length La.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for producing a fiber-reinforced resin bonded body, for bonding composite members each containing a thermoplastic resin and discontinuous fibers to obtain a fiber-reinforced resin bonded body.
Description of the Related Art
Studies have been made on fiber-reinforced resins usable in car body components and the like for the purpose of weight reduction, strength increase, etc. Among the fiber-reinforced resins, particularly fiber-reinforced thermoplastic resins (FRTPs) have attracted much attention. The FRTP contains as a base material a thermoplastic resin, which can be more easily shaped in a shorter time than thermosetting resins. In a composite member composed of the FRTP, the thermoplastic resin used as the base material can be melted by heating. Therefore, separately produced composite members composed of the FRTP can be easily weld-bonded to each other. Consequently, a fiber-reinforced resin bonded body can be produced by bonding a plurality of the composite members to each other, and thus even a large car body component can be easily produced at low cost.
In this case, substantially uniformly distributing reinforcing fibers intertwined with each other in a connection between the composite members in the weld bonding process is considered as one way to improve the bonding strength of the composite members and thus the mechanical properties of the fiber-reinforced resin bonded body.
For example, a method for weld-bonding such composite members is proposed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-090986. In this weld bonding method, connection ends of a first composite member and a second composite member are overlapped with each other, and contact surfaces of the composite members are bonded to each other, so that a connection is formed to produce a fiber-reinforced resin bonded body. Specifically, first, connection surfaces at the connection ends of the composite members are heated to melt the thermoplastic resin, whereby the reinforcing fiber is partially exposed on the connection surfaces. Then, the connection ends are overlapped with each other in such a manner that the connection surfaces are brought into contact with each other, and the composite members are press-formed and weld-bonded. As a result, the reinforcing fibers are intertwined with each other and substantially uniformly distributed in the connection between the overlapped connection ends in the produced fiber-reinforced resin bonded body.

Method for producing fiber-reinforced resin bonded body


Delay elements and delay lines having glitchless operation are disclosed. By way of example, apparatus for delaying an input signal comprises a reference current generator for generating a constant current, wherein the constant current is insensitive to a variation of a power supply voltage, at least one variable bias voltage generator coupled to the reference current generator for generating a set of bias voltages based on the constant current generated by the reference current generator and a digitally programmable delay control input, and at least one delay element coupled to the at least one variable bias voltage generator for delaying the input signal by a constant delay which is determined by the set of bias voltages generated by the at least one variable bias voltage generator.

As the operation speed of computer systems continues to increase, the need exists to delay either clock or data signals to optimize the critical timing within the computer system due to the timing requirements of system components. Also as the clock rate in the system increases, the timing between the computer elements and within the computer chips becomes critical.
However, a delay line used in these systems should have "noise free" operation, which can be affected by two key characteristics: (1) delay programming; and (2) power supply noise in delay generation. The conventional method of using logic gates as delay elements and using multiplexers to switch between these elements suffers from glitch and delay variation due to power supply noise.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional way of building a programmable delay line using a multiplexer. As shown in delay line architecture 100, an input signal A is passed through serial delay elements 102-1, 102-2, and 102-3. The original input signal and the outputs of the three delay elements serve as inputs to multiplexer 104. Signal S is used to select which one of the original signal and the outputs of the three delay elements serves as output signal Z.
However, since multiplexers are not normally glitch free when they selectively switch from one input to the other, the output of the delay scheme will have a glitch added to the output signal.
The constant unit delay is an important consideration particularly when deskewing data, since any variation in delay decreases overall performance. Conventional delay circuits with logic gate unit delays are typically varied by power supply noise.
FIG. 2 shows a conventional delay element using an inverter structure. That is, the delay element in FIG. 2 can serve as one or more of the delay elements (102-1, 102-2, 102-3) in architecture 100 of FIG. 1. As is well known in signal processing art, complementary field effect transistors (FETs) T1 and T2 serve as a first inverting stage, and complementary FETs T3 and T4 serve as a second inverting stage. Also, as per convention, a FET with a circle on the gate terminal is known to be a positive-type FET or pFET, while a FET without a circle on the gate terminal is a negative-type FET or nFET. Also, typical conventions regarding source and drain terminals are employed here.
Typically, the time it takes for input signal A to propagate through the two inverting stages and appear as output signal Z is considered the delay attributable to the delay element.
The following U.S. patents illustrate limitations of conventional "noise free" operation in programmable delay lines: U.S. Pat. No. 6,421,784; U.S. Pat. No. 6,285,229; U.S. Pat. No. 6,546,530; U.S. Pat. No. 6,708,238; U.S. Pat. No. 5,374,860; U.S. Pat. No. 5,670,904; U.S. Pat. No. 6,611,936; U.S. Pat. No. 6,255,879; U.S. Pat. No. 6,014,050; U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,786 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,400,735.
Nonetheless, a need exists for a delay element for computer systems that has glitchless operation, which overcomes the above and other drawbacks, as well as improving over conventional glitchless delay line approaches.

International Business Machines Corporation


A one-time-programmable memory cell uses two complementary antifuses that are programmed in a complementary fashion such that only one of the two complementary antifuses is stressed by a programming voltage. The programming voltage stress one a particular one of the complementary antifuses indicates a logical state of the memory cell. For example, a logical high state may correspond to a first one of the complementary antifuses being stressed whereas a logical low state may correspond to the stressing of the remaining one of the complementary antifuses.

One-time programmable (OTP) memories having antifuse memory cells are programmed using voltage or current pulses. Each antifuse memory cell contains an insulator such as a gate oxide that is supplied in a high-impedance (non-conducting) state. Upon application of a programming pulse, the insulator breaks down such that it is irreversibly transformed into a low-impedance (conducting) state. As compared to other types of OTP memories such as the charge storage approach used in OTP flash, antifuses are more reliable in that charge leakage will occur over time in OTP flash. This charge leakage is exacerbated as circuit dimensions are made ever smaller with the advance of semiconductor manufacturing technology.
Although antifuse memories do not suffer from flash charge leakage, reliability problems exist with these memories as well. For example, as circuit dimensions continue to shrink, the insulator in the antifuse memory cells such as gate oxide has its thickness reduced correspondingly such that electrons may quantum mechanically tunnel through the insulating layer. Because electrons are tunneling rather than conducting through the insulating layer, "burning" the insulating layer so as to program antifuse memory cells becomes increasingly difficult. Thus, users of antifuse memory cells encounter increased difficulties with reliably breaking down the insulating layer to a predictable conductivity. Moreover, even un-programmed antifuse memory cells can conduct appreciable leakage currents such that leaky un-programmed antifuse cells are incorrectly detected as having been programmed to a conducting state.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for antifuse memory cells having improved reliability.


The present invention provides methods, apparatuses, and systems for delivering protected multi-media content to a receiving device. Protected multi-media content and key information are inserted in a same time slice burst. A receiving device receives the time slice burst with the content datagrams and the key information and decrypts the content datagrams with the key information. Key datagrams may be associated with a higher priority level than content datagrams. Consequently, a receiving device can process a key datagram in order to extract a key before routing associated content datagrams to a message stack. A key may be encrypted at one or two levels of encryption. Additionally, a new security plug-in software module may be deployed at a receiving device. The new security plug-in software module is configured as an installation package that is encrypted as a protected message and that is decrypted by the receiving device.

Video streaming, data streaming, and broadband digital broadcast programming are increasing in popularity in wireless network applications, e.g., Internet Protocol (IP) multicast services. To support these wireless applications, wireless broadcast systems transmit data content that support data services to many wireless terminals simultaneously. Digital media content or other data is broadcasted using various application protocols, transport protocols and network protocols. For example, a broadcast system provides IP data broadcast where audio-visual service is transmitted so that MPEG4-AVC video, MPEG4-AAC audio and auxiliary data components are packetized and encapsulated to RTP and/or ALC. The packets are subsequently formatted to UDP and IP and transmitted over MPE in MPEG2-TS (for example DVB-H). In a packet-switched domain, the concept of a multi-media session may require that one or more session components (audio, video and auxiliary data in above case) are logically bound together. The portions of the multi-media session are sent between a common start time and end time. However, with a broadcast environment all receivers that are able to receive the broadcast signal can receive the data carried by the broadcast signal. It is important that the content seller limits access to multi-media content so that only entitled receivers can present the multi-media content to users.
In order to enhance revenue collections, a user is often permitted to access premium multi-media services only if the user subscribes to the service or orders the service (e.g., pay per view). However, without effectively controlling access by the content seller, a user may access the content without paying for the content if the user bypasses the protection mechanism.
What are needed are apparatuses, methods, and systems that facilitate adequate control procedures that effectively limit access to multi-media content.

Software plug-in framework to modify decryption methods in terminals


According to one embodiment, a solid state imaging device includes a sensor substrate curved such that an upper face having a plurality of pixels formed is recessed and an imaging lens provided on the upper face side.

A solid state imaging device in which a microlens array is configured via air gaps of several tens of micrometers (μm) on a sensor substrate having a plurality of pixels formed on an upper face is required to have a high degree of parallelism between the sensor substrate and the microlens array.
Accordingly, in general, the microlens array is formed directly on the upper face of the sensor substrate. This maintains parallelism between the pixels and the micro lenses.
Meanwhile, in a solid state imaging device intended to detect a distance between the solid state imaging device and a subject, a microlens array is arranged apart from a sensor substrate with pixels formed. However, if there arise variations of about several tens of micrometers (μm) in a gap between the sensor substrate and the microlens array in a plane parallel to the upper face of the sensor substrate, a light axis of an imaging lens and the microlenses are shifted from each other, thereby resulting in degradation of image quality. In addition, lights having passed through adjacent microlenses and having been condensed enter into the pixels to cause light color mixture and reduce the accuracy of matching among images with parallaxes.
In addition, an imaging surface of an object on a plane perpendicular to the light axis is not necessarily a plane perpendicular to the light axis, but is a curved surface generally. This phenomenon is referred to as a field curvature aberration, the position of the image of a peripheral vision is shifted and an image quality of a peripheral vision is degraded.

Solid state imaging device, solid state imaging element, portable information terminal device and method for manufacturing the solid state imaging element


A cargo net assembly for a vehicle is described that includes a storage receptacle. The storage receptacle is mounted to the inside of the roof of the vehicle. Pivotable doors may be opened to allow the net to be lowered with a base plate into a use position. The base plate is held in place when deployed by right and left anchors. A latch assembly is provided to latch the doors in their closed position. The latch assembly is opened by a dual cable acting upon dual bell crank cams.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cargo net assembly for a vehicle that comprises a cargo net, affixation elements, and a storage compartment.
2. Background Art
Cargo nets are used to partition a cargo storage area from a passenger compartment of a vehicle. Cargo nets may be used to restrain cargo and can prevent cargo from shifting into the passenger compartment.
Prior art cargo nets, or load nets, are secured within a vehicle in a variety of ways. A simple cargo net may be secured to buttons on a vehicle body by loops or gussets attached to the cargo net. Another type of cargo net may be secured by a tube frame to a vehicle that may be anchored to the vehicle roof and floor behind a seat of the vehicle. This approach provides a rigid and durable cargo net, but requires substantial space within the vehicle and is difficult to store when not in use.
Another approach to providing a cargo net in a vehicle is to provide a cargo net that is mounted on a winding shaft that is tensioned by means of a spring motor. This type of safety net is mounted within a housing that may be assembled to a rear seat back rest. This approach may require the seats of the vehicle to be in a seating position. The winding shaft and spring motor combination is a relatively complex structure.
Another approach to providing a cargo net is to provide a motor driven cargo net that may be automatically moved between an operative and a non-operative position by a servo motor in response to a sensed increase in load level. The cargo net may be stored in a cassette or other storage housing that is mounted on the rear seat of the vehicle. This proposed solution is expensive and complex and requires space in the cargo area of the vehicle for the cargo net cassette. It also requires that the rear seat of the vehicle remain in its upright or seating position to be functional.
There is a need for a simple and cost-effective cargo net that may be conveniently stored in a vehicle and that requires minimal storage space. There is also a need for a cargo net storage mechanism that may be deployed with the seats of a vehicle in any possible position because the cargo net deployment function is independent of seat positioning.
The present invention addresses the above needs and overcomes problems associated with prior art cargo nets and cargo net storage devices.


The present invention relates to methods of determining cancer cell sensitivity to treatment by using antibodies that specifically bind to and detect the presence of a Bcl-2 heterodimer protein, or a caspase and an inhibitor of caspase-IAP heterodimer protein in the cell. The methods provide a predictive tool to identify patients likely to respond to drugs that perturb heterodimer binding and induce apoptosis in a cancer cell. The invention also provides a method of predicting therapeutic efficacy in a cancer patient.

The use of predictive and prognostic biomarkers paired with targeted cancer therapies may hold the key to reducing drug development time, improving drug efficacy, and guiding clinical decision making. While there are advances in cancer treatment, chemotherapy remains largely inefficient and ineffective. One reason for the generally poor performance of chemotherapy is that the selected treatment is often not closely matched to the individual patient's disease. A personalized medicine approach that couples precision diagnostics with therapeutics, especially targeted therapeutics, is considered a highly promising method for enhancement of the effectiveness of current and future drugs. Biomarkers can facilitate the development and use of such targeted therapeutics as well as standard of care therapies.
To date there are only a handful of biomarkers that have added value to clinical oncology practice. In part this is because perceived markers often are correlative but not causal to drug mechanism. Even when the "biomarker" biology does line up with the pharmacology of the companion therapy there is still significant challenge to predicting how a drug will work in a patient. Beyond this, the path to clinical development requires the participation of physician-scientists who see the value of the test and believe it can bring benefit to their patients.
Chemotherapy used in the treatment of cancers can induce apoptosis of the tumor cells. Apoptosis is a process of programmed cell death mediated by a number of signaling pathways that converge at the mitochondria and is effected by caspases, a group of cytosolic proteins. These proteins are activated through a series of biochemical events and the terminal caspase activating event can be blocked by proteins called the inhibitors of apoptosis (IAPs) which can prevent apoptosis and block drug response in cancer patients. Inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs) suppresse apoptosis through binding and inhibiting active caspases-3, -7 and -9 via its baculoviral IAP repeat (BIR) domains. Caspase inhibition by IAPs can be negatively regulated by a mitochondrial protein second mitochondrial-derived activator of caspase (SMAC). SMAC physically interacts with multiple IAPs and relieves their inhibitory effect on caspases-3, -7 and -9. A new class of treatment that mimics the function of the protein SMAC, perturbs the IAP function and activates the otherwise blocked caspase, thereby allowing apopotosis to be induced in a cell.
Further, apoptosis can be regulated by the Bcl-2 proteins, a group of mitochondrial proteins. The response to the Bcl-2 family members in a cell is in part regulated by dimerization domains within this family. More specifically, pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 proteins form heterodimers with their cognate regulating Bcl-2 proteins (i.e., the BH3-only Bcl-2 proteins), thereby executing cell death or survival signals. For example, the ability of Bcl-2 to inhibit apoptosis is blocked by the formation of a heterodimer with Bax (Yang and Korsmeyer, 1996).
Essentially all effective cancer drugs induce apoptosis in target cancer cells. However, different cancer cells respond to an apoptosis-inducing drug in different manners. This can be due to the presence of different heterodimers between the caspases and the IAPs or the Bcl-2 heterodimers with their cognates. Determining the presence of these heterodimers in a cancer patient can then help in assessing that patient's responsiveness to an apoptosis-inducing cancer drug.

Method for predicting cancer sensitivity


A reflective optical element includes a reflector configured to reflect light, a first connection part connected with the reflector, first and second transmission parts connected with of the first connection part, first and second vibrator parts connected with respective base ends of the first and second transmission parts, first and second driver parts connected with respective head ends of the first and second vibrator parts, a base, and a second connection part connecting the first and second vibrator parts vibratably with the base.

PTL 1 discloses a conventional reflective optical element configured to reciprocally move a position irradiated with laser light. The reflective optical element includes a reflector to reflect laser light, a connection part connected with the reflector, two vibrator bodies having arm shapes extending in directions which intersect a rotation axis of the reflector, and driver bodies to vibrate the vibrator bodies, respectively. The connection part per se twists and causes the reflector to rotationally swing. The vibrator bodies cause the connection part to reciprocally twist. Each of driver bodies includes, e.g. a piezoelectric element that vibrates respective one of the vibrator bodies.

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


Properties of a semiconductor device are improved. A semiconductor device is configured so as to have a protective film provided over an interconnection and having an opening, and a plating film provided in the opening. A slit is provided in a side face of the opening, and the plating film is also disposed in the slit. Thus, the slit is provided in the side face of the opening, and the plating film is also grown in the slit. This results in a long penetration path of a plating solution during subsequent formation of the plating film. Hence, a corroded portion is less likely to be formed in the interconnection (pad region). Even if the corroded portion is formed, a portion of the slit is corroded prior to the interconnection (pad region) at a sacrifice, making it possible to suppress expansion of the corroded portion into the interconnection (pad region).

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the semiconductor device. For example, the invention can be preferably applied to a semiconductor device having a plating film on a pad region.
A semiconductor device including a semiconductor element such as MOSFET and an interconnection is formed by stacking an insulating film such as a silicon oxide film or a silicon nitride film, a semiconductor film, and a conductive film on a semiconductor substrate. Such a semiconductor element is electrically coupled to a pad region via the interconnection. The pad region is coupled to an external terminal via wire bonding, clip bonding, or the like.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-338516 discloses a semiconductor device in which an under-bump metal film is provided on an aluminum electrode. The under-bump metal film has a first plating film and a second plating film provided on the first plating film. The first and second plating films are provided in an opening of an organic insulating film such that the first plating film has a thickness larger than the organic insulating film, and the periphery of the first plating film overlaps on the organic insulating film.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2011-204886 discloses a technique of coupling an electrode pad to a lead frame by a copper clip via a solder material.

Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing semiconductor device


A soft X-ray detector includes a surface electrode layer, a photoelectric conversion layer, and a semiconductor detector having an electrode connected to the photoelectric conversion layer, for detecting an electric charge produced In the photoelectric conversion layer. The photoelectric conversion layer and the surface electrode layer have thicknesses satisfying conditions EQU dA.gtoreq.0.183.lambda./KA EQU dB.ltoreq.0.183.lambda./KB. where dA is a thickness of the photoelectric conversion layer, dB is a thickness of the surface electrode layer, KA is an extinction coefficient of radiation of a wavelength .lambda. in a substance constituting the photoelectric conversion layer, and KB is an extinction coefficient of radiation of the wavelength .lambda.in a substance constituting the surface electrode layer. Thus, the soft X-ray detector has a high sensitivity to soft X rays and a lower sensitivity to visible light, so that only soft X rays can be selectively detected. Further, the detector has two kinds of pixels, with one kind sensitive to soft X-rays and the other kind sensitive to visible light. In addition, the detector includes a plurality of pixels, to which the surface electrode layer is divided to correspond so that it has a plurality of regions to obtain a desired wavelength.

1. Field of tile Invention
This invention relates to a soft X-ray detector used as an image sensor for X-ray telescopes, soft X-ray microscopes, soft X-ray examining devices, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
Soft X-ray detectors are known as microchannel plates (MCP), scintillation counters, imaging plates, semiconductor detectors, and soft X-ray solid-state image sensors such as charge-coupled devices (CCD).
FIGS. 1 and 2 are schematic views of a structure of the MCP. As evident from FIG. 1, an MCP 1 is composed of a bundle of numerous microchannels 2. Each of the microchannels 2 is made of a tiny glass pipe whose inner wall is formed as the combination of a resistor and a secondary electron emitter, and constitutes an independent secondary electron multiplier tube. Secondary electrons are emitted from the inner wall by radiation, such as soft X rays, or electrons incident on the microchannel 2. They are then accelerated by an electric field due to a high voltage applied to both ends of the microchannel 2, and travel through the microchannel while impinging on the inner wall in succession. In this process, the number of electrons is multiplied. The electrons are received on a fluorescent surface and then detected by the solid-state Image sensor such as the CCD.
The MCP is easy of use, because it has no sensitivity to visible light and brings about a desired spectral sensitivity by properly choosing a photoelectric converting surface. The MCP, however, is high In cost and needs a high voltage, with the result that its structure is complicated. Further, the thickness of the microchannel 2 is 12 .mu.m at a minimum, so that a spatial resolution is restricted in its improvement, with no less than about 30 .mu.m at present.
The imaging plate is a detector utilizing a photostimulated luminescence. Here, the photostimulated luminescence indicates that a substance first excited, for example, by soft X rays, is then Irradiated with Infrared light and emits light again. In the imaging plate, the substances exhibiting the photostimulated luminescence are distributed over the plate, and soft X rays, after exposure, can be read out by the two-dimensional scan of laser light. The resolving power depends on the diameter of a laser spot on reading out. Thus, although the spatial resolution is favorable, a readout mechanism is required. Consequently, there are defects that the structure is complicated and real time for signal detection is insufficient.
FIG. 3 shows the structure of a conventional CCD solid-state Image sensor used In the detection of soft X rays. In this figure, reference numeral 10 represents a photodiode in which an n.sup.- -type region 12 is provided on the surface of a p-type substrate; 13 a transfer gate provided in a region adjacent to the diode 10; 14 an aluminum tight shield provided in the upper region of the transfer gate 13; and 15 Incident radiation. The incident radiation 15 entering the solid-state image sensor reaches the photodiode 10, where it is converted photoelectrically and a resultant electric signal is transferred through the transfer gate 13. The aluminum light shield 14 is constructed so as to prevent a noise from entering the transfer gate 13. The conventional solid-state Image sensor, which is thus provided with the aluminum light shield 14, is complicated in surface structure and, as shown in FIG. 3, has needed a protective film 16 with a thickness of 3 to 5 .mu.m in order to maintain such a structure. Since the protective film 16 absorbs the most of soft X rays from the incident radiation, a very small amount of the soft X rays will reach the photodiode 10. For this reason, in the case where soft X rays are detected, the surface of the CCD is coated with a fluorescent film, such as Gd.sub.2 0.sub.2 S : Tb, so that the soft X rays are converted through the fluorescent film into visible light, which is then converted photoelectrically (for instance, Springer-Verlag, X-ray Microscope II, p. 127, 1987). This image sensor, however, is smaller in quantum efficiency than unity, low In conversion efficiency, and poor in sensitivity.
With devices using such a solid-state image sensor for detecting soft X rays, light of wavelengths except for the soft X ray region is emitted from a laser plasma radiation source or a radiation source of successive wavelengths such as spectral radiation (SR). As a consequence, for example, visible light is incident on the solid-state image sensor in combination with soft X rays, and forms the noise with respect to the soft X rays. Thus, as In soft X-ray microscopes for instance, when only soft X rays of short wavelengths are detected to derive an image for observation of high resolution, it is necessary to remove light other than the soft X rays incident on the solid-state image sensor by means of, for example, a spectroscope, in order to prevent the combination of the image with the visible light. With such a manner, however, the device is oversized and complicated, and hence loses the merit that the solid-state image sensor is used as the soft X-ray detector.
The above prior art can bring about only an image corresponding to light of a particular wavelength band predetermined In the design stage. This makes it disadvantageous to compare the image of soft X rays with that of visible light, for instance. In such a case, the MCP and the CCD can be switched for use. This, however, causes problems that the mechanism is complicated and at the same time, imaging becomes impossible.
Further, in order to obtain the image of light of a desired wavelength from white light, such as spectral radiation, it is necessary to monochromatize the light through a diffraction grating or a zone plate. In this case, there is the disadvantage that one optical element must be added. Moreover, an Imaging element, such as an objective lens using a multilayer film, although capable of making use of its wavelength choosing property, must be limited to the range of the designed particular wavelengths. Additionally, the multilayer film itself is high in cost.


A tuned wave phased array includes a plurality of spaced transmitter elements, a signal generator that produces an activation signal for activating the transmitter elements to transmit a guided wave in an associated medium and a delay circuit for sequentially delaying the activation of at least one of the transmitter elements for creating constructive interference of a selected mode of the wave propagating in the medium, thereby boosting the selected mode of the wave.

This invention relates generally to a tuned wave phased array, and more particularly to a system for tuning transmitted and received guided waves to prefer selected propagation wave modes.
Guided waves, such as Lamb waves, are typically used to carry out ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of thin-wall structures such as pipes, shells, membranes, and plates. Guided waves are preferred because they can travel long distances, thereby making it possible to inspect wide areas with fewer measurements. Guided waves are generally analyzed by the well-known Rayleigh-Lamb wave dispersion relationship, expressed in terms of the thickness of the material and certain material constants, such as the modulus of elasticity, Poisson""s ratio, or wave velocities. In determining dispersion equations, a set of curves can be obtained which relates phase velocities and frequencies. Such a set of curves is shown in FIG. 1, which is a graph of the multiple dispersion curves corresponding to propagation modes for waves in an aluminum plate of a thickness 2h.
Guided waves are both multi-modal and dispersive in nature. They are dispersive, meaning that waves oscillating in different frequencies travel at different speeds. In other words, phase velocity is not a constant value but a function of frequency. This means that the wave motion depends on the characteristics of the excitation signal. As a result, a broadband signal such as a spike pulse traveling in a dispersive medium may significantly change its shape as it propagates in the medium. On the other hand, the shape of an extremely narrowband signal, such as a tone burst signal, is preserved as it propagates in the medium.
Since broadband pulses are often too complicated and difficult to analyze, a more conventional approach is to use narrowband signals whose carrier frequency is swept over the width of the frequency band of interest. The advantage to this approach is that the signal retains its shape as it propagaltes in the medium. It is thus easier to analyze data and visualize the propagating and reflecting waves directly in the time domain.
In addition to dispersion, the other characteristic that distinguishes guided waves from bulk ultrasonic waves is their multi-modality. For a given thickness and frequency, there may exist many different propagation modes which are basically grouped into two different fundamental families: symmetric (S) and anti-symmetric (A) mode, such as those shown in FIG. 1. The Rayleigh-Lamb relationship yields infinitely many harmonic solutions for each mode. But, for NDE, it is desirable to differentiate one particular mode of propagation from the other modes, resulting in fewer peaks in the waveforms acquired.
Each dispersion curve corresponds to a particular mode of propagation and, for any given frequency, there exists at least, two modes of propagation. These signals in their untuned state are generally too complicated to analyze and therefore it is necessary to distinguish a particular mode of interest from the other co-existing modes. Two systems for generating guided waves in a selected mode are angle wedge tuners and array transducers. These systems are described separately below.
The most common system for generating guided waves is an angle wedge tuner or oblique angle insonification system. In general, a variable or fixed angle wedge transducer is used for controlling the incident angle of the applied signal. The wedge may be placed directly on the specimen, or alternatively, the insonification and detection and be made without direct contact using immersion and air-coupled transducers.
The basic principle for wedge tuning is Snell""s law:                                           sin                                      xe2x80x83                                                  θ              w                                =                                    c              w                                      c              p                                      ,                            (        1        )
where xcex8w is the angle of incidence for tuning a selected mode propagating at the phase velocity cp and cw is the longitudinal wave velocity in the wedge which typically is 2,720 m/s. Accordingly, once the carrier frequency of the tone burst signal, the thickness of the medium under test and the longitudinal wave velocity in the wedge are known, the graph of FIG. 1 may be used to determine the required phase velocity to tune the signal to the selected mode.
Problems associated with the angle wedge transducer include the difficulty of accurately setting the angle of incidence, since the variable wedge is manipulated manually. Accordingly, the sensitivity due to misalignment is uncertain and error levels may vary for different modes and frequencies. Another drawback results from the numerous interfaces that the signal must traverse in the wedge assembly. Typically, a variable angle wedge transducer includes two parts, a main wedge and block rotating around the wedge. Since the transducer is mounted on the block, three interfaces exist in the transducer-wedge assembly: one between the transducer and the rotating block; one between the rotating block and the main wedge; and one between the wedge and the medium under test. These interfaces can introduce reflections, resulting in unwanted peaks in the transmitted signal. This problem is greater for smaller angles of incidence, where small multiple reflections may occur. Another limitation of the wedge tuning technique is that Snell""s Law becomes invalid in cases where cp is less than cw. Consequently, angle wedge transducers cannot tune modes whose phase velocity falls below that of the longitudinal waves in the wedge. For example, the A0 mode in the low frequency range cannot be tuned using angle wedge tuner, because cp is less than 2,720 m/s as shown in FIG. 1. Yet another disadvantage in the angle wedge transducer comes from the fact that the wedge works as a delay block as a whole, requiring additional travel time that must be taken into account in the analysis of the received signal. Furthermore, the signal may be attenuated significantly before impinging the medium under test.
Another commonly used method for nondestructive evaluation involves the use of array transducers for single mode excitation of Lamb waves. One type of array transducer is a comb transducer. Another type of array transducer is an interdigital transducer. These devices are able to tune a desired mode by matching the transducer element spacing with a frequency of the excitation signal. Both of these array transducers are linear arrays having elements that are placed at a certain distance apart. A gated sinusoidal signal excites all the elements at the same time. By adjusting the distance between the elements, it is possible to generate guided waves of wavelength equal to the distance between the elements.
Although array transducers can be more effective than the angle wedge transducer, there are disadvantages to using array transducers. The most critical problem is that the wave inherently propagates bidirectionally. This is because all of the transducer elements are simultaneously activated by the same signal, resulting in a symmetric excitation pattern. As a consequence, waves emanate from both sides of the transducer elements. Another disadvantage is that the transducer arrays cannot be effectively used as receivers because they are not able to accommodate the time delays introduced during reception.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a tuned wave phased array for non-destructive evaluation of materials.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a tuned wave phased array that dynamically tunes a transmitted guided wave to prefer a selected wave mode.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a tuned wave phased array that suppresses undesired wave modes of the guided wave.
It is yet a further object of the invention to provide such a tuned wave phased array that can unidirectionally transmit the selected mode of the guided wave.
The invention results from the realization that a truly effective nondestructive evaluation system and method can be obtained by utilizing a plurality of individually controlled transceiver elements for transmitting a wave and for constructively interfering with the transmitted wave for dynamically tuning the wave to prefer a selected wave mode while suppressing undesired wave modes, and for receiving and processing the tuned wave.
This invention features a tuned wave phased array including a plurality of spaced transmitter elements, a signal generator that produces an activation signal for activating the transmitter elements to transmit a guided wave in an associated medium and a delay circuit for sequentially delaying the activation of at least one of the transmitter elements for creating constructive interference of a selected mode of the wave propagating in the medium, thereby boosting the selected mode of the wave.
In a preferred embodiment, the delay circuit may delay the activation signal an amount which corresponds to a distance between each of the transmitter elements. The tuned wave phased array may include first and second transmitter elements separated by a distance d, the first transmitter element being directly activated by the activation signal and the second transmitter element being activated by the activation signal after it has been delayed an amount xcex94xcfx84 by the delay circuit. The delay xcex94xcfx84 may be determined from the equation             Δ                    xe2x80x83                  τ        =          d              c        p              ,
where cp is the phase velocity of the transmitted wave.
This invention also features a method of generating a tuned single mode guided wave including transmitting a first wave into a medium and transmitting a second wave into the medium, the second wave being delayed from the first wave by a delay xcex94xcfx84 to constructively interfere the first and second waves to boost a selected propagation mode of the guided wave.
In a preferred embodiment, the amount of the delay xcex94xcfx84 may be a function of the phase velocity of the first and second waves in the medium.
This invention also features a tuned wave phased array receiver including a plurality of spaced receiver elements for sensing a substantially single mode guided wave in a medium and a delay circuit for sequentially delaying the substantially single mode guided wave received by at least one of the receiver elements to compensate for the spacing between the receiver elements.
In a preferred embodiment, the delay circuit may delay the received guided wave an amount which corresponds to a distance between each of the receiver elements. The tuned wave phased array receiver may further including a summer and first and second receiver elements separated by a distance d, the first receiver element receiving the guided wave earlier in time than the second receiver element, the first receiver element outputting its received guided wave to the delay circuit for delaying the received guided wave by an amount of time xcex94xcfx84, the delay circuit then outputting the delayed guided wave to the summer. The second receiver element may output its received guided wave to the summer, wherein the summer outputs the sum of the delayed guided wave received by the first receiver element and the guided wave received by the second receiver element. The delay xcex94xcfx84 may be determined from the equation:             Δ                    xe2x80x83                  τ        =          d              c        p              ,
where cp is the phase velocity of the guided wave.
This invention also features a method of processing a substantially single mode guided wave in a medium, the method including sequentially sensing, at different points in time, the substantially single mode guided wave to produce a plurality of received substantially single mode guided waves being delayed in time with respect to each other, and sequentially delaying the plurality of sequentially sensed substantially single mode guided waves to align the sequentially sensed substantially single mode guided wave in time.
In a preferred embodiment, the method may further include summing the plurality of aligned substantially single mode guided waves.
This invention also features a tuned wave phased array including a plurality of spaced transmitter elements and a signal generator that produces a plurality of activation signals for activating the transmitter elements to transmit a guided wave in an associated medium. The plurality of activation signals are generated at different points in time for creating constructive interference of a selected mode of the wave propagating in the medium, thereby boosting the selected mode of the wave.


Based on a candidate set of translations produced by a neural network based machine learning model, a mapping data structure such as a statistical phrase table is generated. The mapping data structure is analyzed to obtain a quality metric of the neural network based model. One or more operations are initiated based on the quality metric.

Many business organizations today have to manage assets, customers and employees distributed across several different countries or regions which are linguistically distinct from one another. As such, accurate and efficient translation of various types of text documents (and/or speech) between the languages used in the countries or regions may become important factors contributing to the success of the organizations. A large web-based retailer may, for example, sell products in dozens of countries, and the efficient translation of product descriptions, reviews and the like may be required to enhance international sales. Translations may also be required at high volumes for governmental and other non-business entities, such as multi-national political groups like the European Union or the United Nations, scientific/technical journals, and the like. Tourists and other international travelers may also require quick and accurate translations. Automating text/voice translation, if translations of a sufficiently high quality can be obtained using automation, may often represent the most cost-effective approach.
A number of different approaches may be taken towards automated translation, including rule-based techniques, example-based techniques, statistical machine translation (SMT), and more recently, neural network based machine translation (NMT). In SMT, translations are usually generated using statistical models whose parameters are derived from existing translated data sets. A given model may comprise, for example, mappings between words or phrases of a source language and words or phrases of the target language (the language into which source language text is to be translated), together with various parameters and/or other metadata regarding the mappings. After such a model has been trained, it is utilized by a decoding algorithm to perform translations in production environments. In NMT, words, phrases or sentences in a source language are typically mapped to high-dimensional vectors within a model using layers of interconnected artificial neurons, and then corresponding words, phrases or sentences in a target language are generated from those vectors.
Although NMT has been shown to be superior to other approaches in terms of translation quality in various scenarios, as with all automated translation techniques it has its flaws. One of the potential problems with NMT is that it is more opaque than alternative approaches—that is, it may not be very clear how exactly translations are generated, and it may therefore be harder to correct translation errors. Evaluating and analyzing the capabilities of a trained NMT system at a suitably granular level to enable appropriate proactive responses to be taken with respect to potential translation problems remains a non-trivial technical challenge.
While embodiments are described herein by way of example for several embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that embodiments are not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit embodiments to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word "may" is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words "include," "including," and "includes" mean including, but not limited to. When used in the claims, the term "or" is used as an inclusive or and not as an exclusive or. For example, the phrase "at least one of x, y, or z" means any one of x, y, and z, as well as any combination thereof.

Artificial intelligence system using phrase tables to evaluate and improve neural network based machine translation


The present invention provides an ironing board assembly which includes an ironing board and a sliding rail assembly for attachment with a partition in a closet system. The sliding rail assembly includes at least one fixed member slidingly and pivotally engaged to at least one sliding arm. At least a portion of an ironing board is pivotally engaged to a sliding arm.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed toward an ironing board and, in particular, to a stowable ironing board that may be installed on a partition via a sliding, pivoting rail assembly.
2. Description of the Related Art
Closet or cabinet installed ironing boards are well known apparatuses. They efficiently utilize space within residential homes, and commercial spaces such as hotel rooms. These residential homes and commercial spaces maximize the space available in a room by providing additional shelving, drawers, and closet space within a closet system.
Further space-saving within a room is achieved by providing a space within the closet system for storage of an ironing board. An ironing board generally has two positions—an upright, stowed position, into which the ironing board is collapsed for storage in the closet system space, and an unstowed position, into which the ironing board is extended for ironing garments.
Although further room space-saving is realized by stowing an ironing board within the closet system itself, this necessarily reduces the amount of space available within the closet system. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,062,871, the entire contents of which being incorporated herein by reference, while the closet system is designed to stow an ironing board, the ironing board is stored with the ironing surface parallel to the front of the closet system. Storing the ironing board in this position requires that the shelving be reduced in size in order to accommodate the dimensions of the ironing board, thus reducing the shelf storage space.
Other closet mounted ironing boards, although stored upright with the ironing surface perpendicular to the front of the closet system (i.e. with the ironing surface parallel with and adjacent to a partition), restrict the placement of the ironing board in its unstowed position. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,253,472, the entire contents of which being incorporated herein by reference, the ironing board in its unstowed position must be placed such that the ironing surface is perpendicular to the front of the closet system, because the arm is fixed to a vertical surface of the closet system. This restriction is undesirable for several reasons. For instance, there may not be sufficient space available in the room to extend the ironing board perpendicular to the front of the closet system. Also, it is oftentimes desirable to adjust the placement of an ironing board if the lighting available in the room is poor or if the room lighting is blocked by someone using the ironing board.
Thus, a need exists for an ironing board assembly that is attached to a partition by a sliding rail assembly and which pivots once the ironing board assembly is removed from the interior of the closet system.


A system, method and computer program product, the method includes: locating within a media stream video of interest that starts at a random access point and ends at a packet associated with timing information that corresponds to a decoding time stamp of the random access point; modifying the video of interest to provide modified video of interest; wherein the modifying comprises modifying timing information associated with a beginning of the random access point to reflect a difference between the decoding time stamp and a transmission duration of the modified video of interest to a user; receiving a request, from the user, to perform a channel change and start receiving a channel that comprises the modified video of interest; and transmitting to the user the modified video of interest.

Buffer Delay Reduction
Channel Change may take several seconds. One of the biggest factors is the time between the transmission of a video random access point and its decoding time, referred also as the buffer delay. Advanced encoders use such buffering to simplify their rate control and to allow maintaining quality when the content becomes harder to encode—they send the larger pictures over more time rather than using higher BR taking advantage of the time covered by the already buffered data. This problem is taken to the extreme with new coding specifications allowing encoders to generate decoding delay of up to 10 seconds.
FIG. 1 illustrates portion 10 of video. It includes video frames 10, 20, 30 and 40 that are delimited by boundaries 12, 22, 32 and 42, packets 10(1)-10(j) of frame 10, packets 20(1)-20(k) of frame 20, packets 30(1)-30(l) of frame 30, packet 40(1) of frame 40, and a decoding time stamp 50 that "falls" on packet 30(l).
Boundary 12 is the start of a random access point (also referred to as rap point). Packet 10(1) has is associated with the following timing information: program time stamp (PCR)=0, decoding time stamp (DTS)=1200 mS (mili-second) and presentation time stamp (PTS)=1290 mS. Packet 10(j) includes PCR=100 mS, packet 20(2) includes PCR=200 mS, packet 30(2) includes PCR=700 mS.
Packet 30(l) has a PCR of about 1200 mS and hence DTS of frame 10 "falls" on it. In this example the buffer delay equals 1200 mS-1200 mS will pass between the reception of packet 10(1) and its decoding. It is noted that the DTS of frame 10 can fall on other packets and not necessarily on the last packet of frame 30.
There is a growing need to reduce the delay introduced by the buffer delay.
Bit Rate Allocation
In IPTV environments, most of the broadcast streams are multicast in order to save bandwidth on the backbone. This way all users (viewers) that want to watch the same program join the same multicast stream.
A problem occurs when the operator wants to provide a Fast Channel Change (FCC) feature to the users. If the users simply join a multicast stream they would begin receiving the stream at random points and not at random access points (such as I pictures in MPEG-2 and other standards). In this case these users would not experience a fast tune-in into the program. In order to overcome this, the operator buffers a part of the stream and when the user wants to change the viewed channel, the system streams—in unicast—data beginning with the last I picture. The unicast stream is transmitted at a high bit-rate. This continues until the point where the data to be unicast catches up with the data which is multicast. At this point, the user is instructed to leave the unicast stream and join the multicast stream. Transmitting unicast streams is therefore mandatory to enable FCC. However, unicast streams require additional bandwidth on the backbone. When many streams are transmitted there may not be enough bandwidth to serve all the different viewers. It is noted that there may also be a bandwidth shortage on a network elements such as a DSL line that is connected to a user premises.
One way of overcoming the problem is by allocating fixed bandwidth to the different multicast and unicast streams. Assuming that the multicast bandwidth or their maximum bandwidth is known, the system allocates the remaining bandwidth to a fixed number of unicast streams N. This means that only N viewers can receive a FCC service at any given time. Also, allocating a fixed bandwidth per unicast stream determines the period it will take until the unicast stream catches up with the multicast stream.


Water heater relief valves intended to safeguard against overpressure and overtemperature emergencies are frequently rendered inoperative by corrosion or calcification. These problems are ameliorated by enclosing all or part of the valve mechanism in a sealed chamber containing a corrosion inhibiting medium, which may be an oil.

A tank-type liquid heater (e.g., a residential water heater) is conventionally equipped with a relief valve assembly that protects against excessive pressure and excessive temperature. Wetted portions of these relief valves are subject to corrosion and calcification, either of which can render the valve inoperative and unable to prevent a tank from bursting or exploding and sometimes starting a fire. Such fires and explosions cause several hundred million dollars of structural damage and dozens of deaths and injuries each year in the United States and worldwide.
Overpressure protection is commonly supplied by means of a poppet valve in which a coil spring acts on an axially translatable shaft to bias a moveable member (e.g., a valve disk) against a seat. The poppet coil spring strength and the disk size are commonly selected so that the valve opens and vents water when pressure in the tank exceeds 150 psi, which is below a burst pressure of the tank. This valve is subject to corrosion and calcification because one side of the disk is exposed to the inside of the tank during normal operation and both the other side of the disk and the poppet spring are exposed to water when the valve relieves overpressure, is manually opened for test purposes, or is improperly installed to provide upwardly directed outflow.
Attempts to deal with the deleterious effects of corrosion and calcification have commonly resulted in a requirement for regular (generally annual) manual test operation of an overpressure valve and scheduled (e.g., triennial) replacement of that valve. Both of these safety practices are commonly ignored by the consumer, resulting in catastrophic property damages and injuries.
If the heater does not have a functioning inlet check valve a runaway heater element may cause dangerous excess temperature not accompanied by excess pressure. Overtemperature protection is commonly supplied independently of overpressure protection by means of a wax motor temperature sensor/actuator comprising a protruding plunger or stroke rod portion that pushes against the wetted side of the poppet valve disk when the wax is heated and expands. The temperature sensor/actuator is wetted by the water in the tank and is subject to corrosion, calcification and mineral deposits.

Temperature and pressure relief valve with oil-immersed mechanism


Disclosed is a beam overlap verification system and method for phased array ultrasonic inspection. A scan plan for the ultrasonic inspection defines a suitable probe, wedge and calibration block having machined defects for the geometry to be inspected, and makes a beam definition which defines a set of ultrasonic beams emitted by the phased array. An intersection amplitude unit records the response amplitudes from each defect at predetermined intersection points of adjacent beam pairs as the probe and wedge are manually scanned across the calibration block. An overlap verification module determines the −6 dB overlap of all adjacent beam pairs which are relevant to the geometry to be inspected, and verifies that the beam overlap conforms to the required coverage according to the ASME or other relevant codes. In this way, coverage is experimentally verified during calibration prior to inspection of a known geometry, such as a weld.

Phased array ultrasonic testing (PAUT) is an advanced method of ultrasonic testing that has applications in industrial non-destructive testing (NDT). Common applications are to find flaws in manufactured materials such as welds.
Single-element (non-phased array) probes, known technically as monolithic probes, emit a beam in a fixed direction. To test a large volume of material, a conventional probe must be physically moved or turned to sweep the ultrasonic beam through the area of interest.
In contrast, the beam from a PAUT probe can be moved electronically, without moving the probe, and can be swept through a wide volume of material at high speed. The beam is controllable because a PAUT probe is made up of multiple small elements, each of which can be pulsed individually at a computer-calculated timing, forming incidence angles. The term phased refers to the timing, and the term array refers to the multiple elements. The element that contributes to a beam formation is defined as the aperture of the beam; the aperture can include a portion or all of the elements of the PAUT probe.
During typical inspections of welds, multiple ultrasound beams are generated from a single or multiple apertures at various incidence angles. These generate an image showing reflections (or diffractions) of the ultrasonic waves that are associated to defects within the scanned area in the test object. For weld inspection, the area of interest, or the scanned area, is usually the weld and its surrounding area. For cases where the aperture is fixed and only the angles are changed, the images are called a sectorial scan or S-scan. For cases where the angle is fixed and only the aperture is moved, the images are called a linear scan or E-scan.
One of the requirements for having appropriate coverage of the weld area in a PAUT inspection is that there should be sufficient overlap between adjacent ultrasound beams which are generated by the PAUT probe at various incidence angles. According to an international code "2010 ASME Boiler & Pressure Vessel Code", 2010 Edition, Article #4, Mandatory Appendices V—Nondestructive Examination, paragraph V-471.1, (hereinafter referred to as "the code") there is a required minimum overlap between adjacent beams in order for the PAUT inspection to have valid coverage.
As described in co-pending patent application Ser. No. 14/621,906, generation of the multiple ultrasound beams may be designed according to a scan plan which defines the combination of:                a. instrumentation configuration including the probe, wedge, and acquisition unit;        b. acoustic settings, including the aperture size and position, the focalization setting, the beam angles and the gating parameters;        c. guidelines for mechanical scanning of the probe, including probe to weld distance and maximum scan speed.
Application Ser. No. 14/621,906 states that the scan plan must define a beam configuration that always meets or exceeds the overlap requirement within a relevant depth range. However, there is no mention of any method to validate experimentally that the overlap requirement is met by all adjacent beams. There is therefore no way to verify that the requirements of the code for beam overlap are actually being met during any given inspection.

Ultrasonic inspection configuration with beam overlap verification


Structures for a microstrip transmission line and methods of forming a microstrip transmission line. The microstrip transmission line includes a signal line, a shield, and multiple wiring structures connected to the signal line. Each wiring structure extends from a portion of the signal line toward the shield, and each wiring structure includes a metal feature that is positioned adjacent to the shield.

The present invention relates to semiconductor device and integrated circuit fabrication and, in particular, to structures for a microstrip transmission line and methods of forming a microstrip transmission line.
A microstrip is probably the most commonly-used planar structure for transmission lines used as delay lines, phase shifters, microwave filters, and quarter-wavelength based devices like Branch-Line couplers, Wilkinson power dividers, and Rat-Race hybrids. Slow-wave designs may be implemented to shorten the physical length of a microstrip transmission line. In a conventional slow-wave design, the microstrip transmission line may include narrow inductive sections that alternate with wider capacitive sections to define a periodic narrow-wide line structure. A consequence of the periodic narrow-wide line structure may be a simultaneous increase in the line equivalent inductance and capacitance, which may lead to a significant reduction of the propagation velocity, also known as the slow-wave effect.
Improved structures for a microstrip transmission line and methods of forming a microstrip transmission line are needed.

Microstrip line structures having multiple wiring layers and including plural wiring structures extending from one wiring layer to a shield on a different wiring layer


A system includes a learning filter for deidentified healthcare data. The system provides self-improving data filtering of data for the detection of disorders for engaging patients in observational research to gather additional data. A processor performs operations including obtaining patient information about a patient and current order data. The current order data indicates an order for a laboratory test for the patient and obtaining, from a database, historical data indicating a previous laboratory test for the patient and a result of the previous laboratory test. The operations further include determining that the patient is a subject of interest for a disorder by applying the filter to historical data to produce filtered data and comparing the filtered data to a profile associated with the disorder. Additional laboratory tests can be performed, after which a hash-to-patient identifier (PID) mapping database and the filter can be updated.

Observational research can include determining whether a patient is a subject of interest for a particular disorder. However, some such disorders of interest are difficult to diagnose, which can prevent a patient that is a subject of interest from being discovered. Moreover, medical data for such patients is typically stored in a highly secure and complex fashion, which may include deidentifying the data and relying on hash tables, encryption and other data security techniques that restrict use to parties authorized through appropriate digital credentials to identify data and match the data with the patient.

Learning filter for the detection of indicators in healthcare data

Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings


This invention is directed to provision of a technique for dynamically performing a priority band establishment that can achieve the suppression of interference between adjacent cells. This invention is characterized in that: a base-point resource block, which serves as a base point in establishing a priority resource block to be used, on a priority basis, by a terminal for which the quality of a communication path does not meet a predetermined quality, is so decided as to be different from the base-point resource block of an adjacent communication area; and the priority resource block is established, based on a communication load, in a predetermined order with the decided base-point resource block used as the base point.

In cellular environments, such as LTE (Long Term Evolution) standardized in the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), it is assumed that a plurality of base stations are disposed, where each base station communicates with terminals within its communication area. The communication area is generally referred to as a cell, which may be divided into a plurality of sub-regions by imparting directivity to an antenna of the base station. The sub-region will be referred to as a sector cell herein. In the following description, the term cell refers to a sector cell.
Generally, in LTE, the same wireless bandwidth is used among cells. Therefore, when performing transmission using the same wireless resource as that for an adjacent cell, a cell will experience strong interference from the adjacent cell (which will be referred to as inter-cell interference hereinbelow) regardless of whether the link is an uplink or downlink.
For example, in an uplink, a terminal located in the proximity of the base station having even a modest transmission power still has communication path quality that is not degraded much because of a large difference between a desired signal received by the base station and a level of interference by the adjacent cell. On the other hand, a terminal located in the proximity of the border of a cell poses a problem that it has significantly degraded communication path quality especially when a terminal in an adjacent cell located in the proximity of the border of the cell performs transmission using the same wireless resource at the same time, because of a smaller difference between a desired signal and a level of interference by the adjacent cell.
The same applies to a downlink, wherein when the transmission power is constant among cells, for example, a terminal located in the proximity of the border of a cell similarly poses a problem that communication path quality is significantly degraded because of a smaller difference between a desired signal to be received by the terminal and a level of interference by the adjacent cell.
Thus, the inter-cell interference issue is experienced regardless of whether the link is an uplink or a downlink. Moreover, since wireless communications also encounter shadowing, which is a variation of the intensity of radio waves, by blocking or reflection of radio waves by buildings, etc., cells that do not geographically lie next to a current cell may become an "adjacent" cell in terms of inter-cell interference.
FIG. 1 is an exemplary overview of a wireless communications system. A base station BS1 manages three cells C11, C12, C13, and base stations BS2-BS4 each likewise manage a plurality of cells. Communication is established between terminals located in the cells. In the illustrated example, a terminal UE1 is contained in a cell C11, and a terminal UE2 is contained in a cell C32. FIG. 2 shows the cell C11 in FIG. 1 and the actual shape of its adjacent cells C12, C13, C23, C32, C33, C42, taking account of the directivity of an antenna. Ovals indicate coverage of radio waves according to the directivity of antennas C12_1, C13_1, C23_1, C32_1, C33_1, C42_1. An overlapping area of ovals contains a cell border, and hatched hexagons represent actual cells.
A promising technique for solving the inter-cell interference issue is application of ICIC (Inter-cell Interference Coordination) in LTE (see NPL 1, for example). NPL 1 provides a statement that an object of ICIC is to control interference between adjacent cells, and information, such as resource usage or traffic load, from other cells should be taken into account.
Moreover, one method for implementing ICIC is an FFR (Frequency Fractional Reuse) technique (see NPL 2, for example). A fundamental operation of FFR will now be described.
First, a priority bandwidth is set in each cell so that it is different from those of adjacent cells. Next, a terminal reports its communication path quality information to a base station. The base station uses the communication path quality information to determine whether the terminal is less affected by inter-cell interference (which will be referred to as a center terminal) or more affected by inter-cell interference (which will be referred to as an edge terminal). In a case that the terminal is determined as an edge terminal, the base station limits an available bandwidth that can be allocated to the terminal to the priority bandwidth of the own cell. A bandwidth available to a center terminal is not limited. A scheduler allocates a wireless resource depending upon communication path quality from the bandwidth available to each terminal.
FIG. 18 shows an exemplary available bandwidth within each cell when such an FFR technique is applied to a case shown in FIG. 2. It is assumed that the bandwidth is managed by a PRB (Physical Resource Block) number, and a priority bandwidth for each cell is statically set beforehand. The available bandwidth is divided into three sub-groups, PRB1-3, PRB4-6, and PRB7-9, and in an area A0 for a center terminal, all bandwidths PRB1-9 are available. In other areas for edge terminals, any one of the three PRB sub-groups is set as the priority bandwidth.
For example, in an area All for an edge terminal in the cell C11 in FIG. 2, PRB1-3 are used as the priority bandwidth. By setting the priority bandwidth so as not to overlap between adjacent cells as in FIG. 18, interference between adjacent cells can be suppressed. Since communication path quality for an edge terminal using a priority bandwidth is improved, improvement of throughput for the edge terminal can be expected.
On the other hand, it is possible to dynamically set the priority bandwidth. In this case, it is necessary to notify the priority bandwidth among base stations. As a method of notifying the priority bandwidth among base stations, LOAD INFORMATION is specified (see NPL 3, for example). The uplink can be notified through HII (High Interference Indication) and the downlink can be notified through RNTP (Relative Narrowband Tx Power). The information notified through HII or RNTP can be created for each PRB number, the PRB being a smallest bandwidth unit for allocation to a user channel. For example, HII of a PRB to be defined as the priority bandwidth is set to one. NPL 3 provides a statement that "'one' indicates high interference sensitivity," so that a PRB number for a terminal susceptible to inter-cell interference is thus notified. Likewise, RNTP of a PRB to be defined as the priority bandwidth is set to one. NPL 3 provides a statement that "'one' indicates no promise on the Tx power is given," so that a PRB number is thus notified without a promise to allow for interference to an adjacent cell.

Setting apparatus, communication system, base station, and program


Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a processing system including a processor and a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations including receiving immersive media content; creating foreground information for rendering foreground video content of the immersive media content; receiving a first point-of-view (PoV) of a first viewer operating a first display device; generating a background video content from the immersive media content; sending the foreground information to the first display device; and sending a first portion of the background video content to the first display device, wherein the first portion is based on the first PoV. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Spherical videos, also known as 360-degree videos, provide viewers with a panoramic view that allows the viewer to freely control their viewing directions during video playback. Spherical videos are recorded by omnidirectional cameras or camera array systems (e.g., FACEBOOK® Surround 360) facing outward from a particular point of view (PoV). These multiple cameras simultaneously record all 360 degrees of a scene that can be "wrapped" onto a 3D sphere via video stitching. Spherical videos can be either monoscopic (direct one image for both eyes) or stereoscopic (direct each eye with different images for a 3D effect). Unlike 360-degree videos, which do not have depth information, volumetric videos capture the full 3D space, and allow a viewer not only control her viewing direction, but also can relocate their PoV, which is commonly known as having six degrees of freedom (6DoF). Volumetric videos can be created by 3D modeling or various volumetric capturing techniques, e.g. using multiple red-green-blue-depth (RGB-D) cameras (e.g., offered by Microsoft Kinect, Intel RealSense) and various LIDAR scanners, which convert real world into 3D data. This 3D data then can be used to reproduce high-quality images about the real world and allows viewer to explore spatialized content from any viewpoint. Collectively, spherical video content and volumetric video content are also known as immersive media content. Social entertainment of such immersive media content brings more engagement and enjoyment, but with more challenges because there are multiple users interacting with the content, the environment and each other. Especially for off-site or asynchronous companions, digital avatars need to be driven by user activities, e.g., gesture, voice, and gaze, and synchronized within the same media, so that individual users can share their experience in an immersive fashion.

System and method for social immersive content rendering