Disclosed is a processor for predicting perceptual differences between colors recalled from memory and directly viewed colors in a tested video. The processor includes a memory effects processor structured to generate compensation factors for distortions of color due to memory effects and apply the compensation factors to data from the reference video or data from the tested video. The compensation factors may include factors for changes in saturation over time, changes in hue angle, changes in uncertainty, and a categorization factor that reflects a trend in shifts and towards cardinal color centroids over time in memory.

Videos are often changed from an original video stream to a modified one. The impetus to change is often related to the bandwidth of the target medium over which the modified video stream will be transmitted, but there are a variety of reasons to modify videos. Other reasons for processing video include editing, compression and decompression, reformatting, video insertion and overlay, minimization of transmission errors, and modifying color for different displays, for example.
Some systems for comparing two videos to one another include two inputs, one of a video being tested and one as a reference video. One such system is the PQA product line such as the PQA 500/600, or PQASW available from Tektronix of Beaverton, Oreg. The two videos are directly compared and various measurements are generated describing the original, modified, or the comparison between them. Other systems for comparing two videos include showing an original video first, then quickly showing the modified video, or vice-versa. Not only is such a system time consuming, such comparisons are not as accurate as those simultaneously made due to unaccounted human color memory distortions and fading of color memory inherent in human viewers. Successive viewing is the dominant, and may be only, feasible way to compare video as completely as possible for the most repeatable and reliable video quality assessment by humans.
The effects of color bias when evaluating images recalled from memory occur in several scenarios. For example, video data compression and decompression (codec) technology is inherently lossy, with errors introduced. The best technology introduces error with minimum perceptual impact. However, even a very good codec technology that produces good looking video can produce ugly artifacts if certain video content is used and/or the bit rate selected is set too low. Color artifacts are among the artifacts that can be created. The industry standard best method of evaluating subjective quality is ITU-R BT.500, which describes many methods of using people to view and rate the video, and then getting statistics to indicate the best among those evaluated. Generally short video clips of 8 to 12 seconds are used and rated successively. The shortest time between clips is generally about a couple of seconds, so that the shortest time between corresponding frames is about 10 seconds, while the longest time between corresponding frames could be minutes. Though ITU-R BT.500 is followed by many engineering organizations, in many cases it is too expensive and/or time consuming. In these cases, individual evaluators may simply look at one clip, then the other. In all of these cases, memory of color is used in the evaluation, with delay between corresponding frames ranging from a few seconds to many seconds to minutes to indefinite (i.e. no reference used, simply using memory of how similar objects look from previous experience).
Another scenario regarding color analysis from recalled colors involves video conversion between resolutions and frame rates. For example, many converters have been sold specifically for evaluating and/or optimizing conversion from HD to SD and from SD to HD. The digital representation of color is different in HD than historic SD, though the US standard for digital television transmission (ATIS) allows for both old and new methods (SMPTE-M vs. 709 colorimetry) for SD resolution. In various audits of broadcast signals, it was common to find incorrect colorimetry being broadcast due to conversion, or simply due to not setting the proper flags for colorimetry in the corresponding data field. While the resulting color error is often subtle, it can be quite obvious in some cases. Again, the evaluation methods are as in the codec evaluation case, though in practice successive viewing, once each, is often used, especially if it is cumbersome to switch between video standards being displayed.
In a scenario involving editing, when putting together film or video clips from a particular outdoor scene that was shot over a time period spanning several hours, the lighting changes due to change in position of the sun, clouds, etc. For the scene to look coherent, color editing is generally required. In some cases, due to time constraints or due to controls available within given color editing tools, it is not practical or feasible to completely color correct one clip to match another. However, if these two clips are shown with a 3rd clip in between, the resulting delay between the first 2 clips reduces most people's ability to notice a color difference. Being able to predict how many seconds are required (which depends on the type of clip) in between the two clips for matching perceived (memory and direct) colors would save valuable time. Otherwise, educated guesses along with trial and error are used.
Unfortunately, because of the human color memory distortions and fading inherent in human viewers, accurate prediction of color differences is difficult or impossible between a present video being compared to one recalled from memory, even if the recall period is relatively short.
Embodiments of the invention address this and other limitations of the prior art.

Method of predicting perceptual differences between memory and directly viewed colors in video


Provided herein is an apparatus of manufacturing a molding material for use in a method of manufacturing a molding material that can prevent a crack from occurring in the molding material. A cylindrical die (3) is slid downward along an upper hollow compression mold (4) and a lower hollow compression mold (2) with a molding material (35) held between the upper hollow compression mold (4) and the lower hollow compression mold (2). After that, the upper hollow compression mold (4) is moved upward to relatively move the upper hollow compression mold (4) and the lower hollow compression mold (2) away from each other. After a slurry diffusion member (7) is removed, the molding material (35) is taken out.

JP2009-154338A (Patent Document 1), JP2009-250364A (Patent Document 2), and JP2011-152729A (Patent Document 3) disclose a method of manufacturing a resin rotator, in which a reinforcement fiber substrate (molding material) is formed on the outer peripheral portion of a bushing using slurry obtained by mixing reinforcement fibers formed of short fibers and a dispersion medium such as water. In the methods described in the documents mentioned above, the slurry is poured into a cylindrical die that houses a metal bushing, water is removed from the slurry through a bottom member that has a filtration function such that reinforcement fibers will not leak out but be aggregated around the bushing to form an aggregate, and then the aggregate is compressed to form a reinforcement fiber substrate (molding material). A mold device provided with a molding die including at least a cylindrical die having an opening portion opened in an upward direction, and a lower compression mold and an upper compression mold, both of which are disposed inside the cylindrical die during molding, is used to compress the aggregate.

Method and apparatus of manufacturing molding material, and method of manufacturing resin gear


A mobile station for communicating with a plurality of base stations, including: a field strength detecting circuit that detects a wave strength received from the base stations and outputs a received wave strength; and a base station switching control circuit that makes a comparison between the received wave strength and a first field strength threshold level, wherein, when the received wave strength is higher than the first field strength threshold level, data communication with one of the base stations which is in a connected state is performed, and when the received wave strength is lower than the first field strength threshold level, a search for base stations is performed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile station, a radio communication system, a base station switching control method, a program, and a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recent developments of communication of multimedia information involve expansion of communication capacities in digital mobile communication. This increases loads placed on the CPUs of mobile stations and creates a demand for further improvements in reliability of communication channel qualities.
International application published under the PCT WO99/34627 (Date of publication: Jul. 8, 1999) discloses a technique which restricts handover and changes handover threshold according to handover history and communication quality. This technique improves the quality of communication by lowering the frequency of unnecessary handovers. This technique also improves the quality of communication by enhancing the detection accuracy of base station switching timing.
Japanese patent laid-open publication JP 2001-078242 A (Date of publication: Mar. 23, 2001) also discloses a technique for improving the quality of communication, in which the quality of communication through communication channels is monitored and a switch of base stations is facilitated when the signal from the connected base station deteriorates. This technique is also capable of improving the quality of communication by enhancing the detection accuracy of base station switching timing.
Japanese patent laid-open publication JP 2002-010313 A (Date of publication: Jan. 11, 2002) concentrates on the fact that fading variations become more intense depending on the movement speed and also increases the possibility of selecting a most suitable base station by adopting a longer measuring time and a larger internal threshold when the movement speed is at high levels. A technique is also disclosed which adopts a shorter measuring time and a smaller internal threshold when the movement speed is at low levels. This technique searches for candidate base stations to which a switch is to be made.
Japanese patent laid-open publication JP 2002-204181 (Date of publication: Jul. 19, 2002) discloses a technique that considers the positional relation between a mobile station and a base station communicating with each other. When a mobile station and a base station are positioned close enough to perform stable communication, unnecessary operations of detecting multipaths from other base stations are prevented to reduce dissipated power consumption. This technique realizes reduction of power consumption which is a problem to be solved when using RAKE receivers.
However, there exist no techniques invented with a view to enhancing the reliability of communication channels by reducing packet loss caused during switching of base stations and by reducing burdens on the CPUs of mobile stations by controlling the switching of base stations.

Mobile station, radio communication system, base station switching control method, program, and recording medium


Transfer ribonucleic acid (tRNA) synthetase inhibitors, salts, and pharmaceutically acceptable compositions thereof of the general formula: ##STR1##. wherein Ar is aryl and heteroaryl; L is --C(O)N(Q)CH.sub.2 --, or --CR.sup.10 R.sup.11 OCR.sup.12 R.sup.13 --; Q is hydrido, --(CH.sub.2).sub.m CO.sub.2 H and --(CH.sub.2).sub.m CO.sub.2 CH.sub.3, m is 1, 2, 3, and 4; R.sup.1, R.sup.2, R.sup.9, R.sup.10, R.sup.11, R.sup.12 and R.sup.13 are hydrido or lower alkyl; wherein Het is a heterocyclic moiety, the inhibitors are suitable for use as antimicrobial agents.

Aminoacyl tRNA synthetases (aaRS) are a family of essential enzymes that are found in virtually every biological cell and are responsible for maintaining the fidelity of protein synthesis. They specifically catalyze the aminoacylation of tRNA in a two step reaction: EQU amino acid (AA)+ATP=>AA-AMP+PPi AA-AMP+tRNA=>tRNA-AA+AMP
The enzyme binds adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and its specific amino acid to catalyze formation of an aminoacyl adenylate complex (AA-AMP) with concomitant release of pyrophosphate (PPi). In the second step, the amino acid is transferred to the 2' or 3' terminus of the tRNA yielding "charged" tRNA and adenosine monophosphate (AMP). The charged tRNA delivers the amino acid to the nascent polypeptide chain on the ribosome.
There are at least twenty essential enzymes in this family for each organism. Inhibition of any of the essential tRNA synthetases disrupts protein translation, ultimately resulting in growth inhibition. Pseudomonic acid A, an antibacterial agent currently used in human therapy, provides clear evidence of the utility of tRNA synthetase inhibitors as useful pharmaceuticals. Pseudomonic acid A binds to one particular tRNA synthetase, isoleucyl tRNA synthetase, and inhibits isoleucyl adenylate formation in several Gram positive bacterial pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus, resulting in the inhibition of protein synthesis, followed by growth inhibition. Novel synthetic compounds that target tRNA synthetases offer clear advantages as useful therapeutic agents to curb the threat of drug resistance. Drug resistance allows a pathogen to circumvent the biochemical disruption caused by an antimicrobial agent. This resistance can be a result of a mutation that has been selected for and maintained. Pathogens in the environment have had repeated exposure to current therapeutics. This exposure has led to the selection of variant antimicrobial strains resistant to these drugs.
Novel synthetic antimicrobial agents, therefore, would be expected to be useful to treat drug resistant pathogens, since the pathogen has never been exposed to the novel antimicrobial agent. The development of compounds or combinations of compounds targeting more than one tRNA synthetase is also advantageous. Accordingly, inhibition of more than one enzyme should reduce the incidence of resistance since multiple mutations in a pathogen would be required and are statistically rare.


The invention is a device for determining the thickness of radar absorption material coatings. The device comprises a radiating element assembly 22 for transmitting RF energy to and recovering reflected RF energy from the coating. A source of frequency modulated RF signal, including an FM ramp generator assembly 11, buffer amplifier assembly 13 and Gunn oscillator 16, is provided. A ferrite circulator 20 is adapted to direct the source of modulated RF signal to the radiating element assembly 22 and the reflected RF energy to a detector assembly. The detector assembly includes a Schottky detector 24, a video amplifier assembly 40, a converter/driver assembly 42, and a digital display 44, and is adapted to sense the reflected RF energy from the coating and provide a visual display in the form of a voltage inversely proportional to the amount of the reflected RF energy. A portable power supply 10 is coupled to the detector assembly and the source of modulated RF signal to provide appropriate electrical power thereto.

The reduction in the radar signature of an aircraft has obvious military advantages. This can generally be accomplished in two ways. The first is active electronic countermeasures which jam, disrupt, or otherwise confuse the reflected signal. The second method is to use passive techniques which basically divide into two categories: (1) the shape of the aircraft and (2) the use of radar absorption material coatings, and those coatings in combination with substrate structures which also absorb the incoming radar signal and reflect back only a small portion of that signal.
With any radar absorption material (hereafter called RAM), the amount of absorption is proportional to the thickness of the coating. Thus, once the required degree of absorption is established, it is only necessary to ensure that the proper coating thickness has been applied to the aircraft. Therefore, any device that is to be used to test for the thickness of the coating should be small, compact, and hand holdable so that an individual can easily move it across the skin of the aircraft. Because most aircraft have complex contours, the testing device should also have a relatively small sensing head so as to be capable of following these contours. Since it is quite likely that the testing device will be used in the "field", it is also important that the device be portable and, wherever possible, "off-the-shelf" parts should be used to shorten repair times.
Measuring coating thickness is very important, especially when the coating is applied over a metal substrate, for most metals have little, if any, absorptive capability. Sometimes the coating is applied over substrates that are at least partially absorptive themselves. Thus, it is also important that the device be capable of measuring the total absorption level (coating and substrate) as well as the coating thickness alone.
One of the primary devices used to measure a non-conductive coating on a metal substrate is the well-known eddy current measuring device. The theory behind this device is well known and its details need not be discussed herein. In operation, the strength of the eddy current field stimulated in the metallic substrate decreases as the spacing between the probe and metal surface increases. Thus, a measurement of a non-conductive coating on a metal substrate can easily be obtained. But, such a device is limited to use with metal substrates and non-conductive coatings. Also, it would not be effective in measuring the aborption characteristics of a RAM coating applied over a substrate which also absorbs radar energy.
Various ultrasonic techniques are available to measure the thickness of coatings, but such devices require a coupling agent, usually water, which makes their use in the field, i.e., portability, limited. In addition, they can not measure the radar absorption characteristics of a combination coating and radar absorbing substrate.
Other apparatus of interest can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,988,582, "Blown Film Thickness Gauge" by R. W. Harman. Harman discloses an apparatus for measuring the thickness of plastic film as it is produced by a blown film-making machine. A radiation source and detector are placed on one side of the plastic film while a metal member is placed on the opposite side. The detector receives fluorescent X-rays from the metal member produced by a source of protons. The intensity of the scattered source of protons vary as a function of film thickness and with the intensity of the fluorescent X-rays. It is obvious that such an apparatus is unusable to measure the RAM coating thickness or the effectiveness of a RAM coating and substrate.
Another device of interest is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,042,723, "Method for Monitoring the Properties of Plastic Coatings on Optical Fibers" by H. M. Presby. The uniformity and concentricity of plastic coatings on an optical fiber are monitored by comparing the backscattered light patterns generated by two mutually perpendicular light beams incident upon the coated fiber. Unfortunately, this apparatus can only detect the thickness of optically clear material. It would have no application in determining the thickness of RAM coatings or the effectiveness of RAM coatings and substrate combinations.
Listed below are patents uncovered in a search of the prior art. They mainly deal with the measurement of the thickness of coatings by means of X-ray, gamma, or beta radiation, which generally depend upon monitoring backscatter to determine the thickness. None is felt to be relevant.
______________________________________ Pat. No. Title and Inventor ______________________________________ 3,076,894 Gamma Ray Thickness Gauges by J. L. Putman, et al. 3,115,577 Measuring Table for use in Coating Thickness Measuring by B. B. Joffe, et al. 3,497,691 Dual Mode Fluorescence and Backscatter Coating Thickness Measuring Gauge by Y. M. Chen 3,854,042 Device for Measuring the Thickness of Layers with a Radionuclide Irradiating the Layer by A. Ott 4,047,029 Self-Compensating X-ray or X-ray Thickness Gauge by J. J. Allport ______________________________________
Therefore, it is a primary object of the subject invention to provide a device to measure the thickness of a RAM coating.
It is a further object of the subject invention to provide a RAM coating thickness testing device that is portable and can be easily used to check the thickness of a coating on an aircraft surface.
A still further object of the subject invention is to provide a RAM coating thickness testing device that primarily makes use of standard parts.
Another object of the subject invention is to provide a RAM coating thickness testing device that can measure the effectiveness of both the coating and substrate upon which the coating is applied.

Radar absorption material thickness testing device


A solvent that reversibly converts from a hydrophobic liquid form to hydrophilic liquid form upon contact with water and a selected trigger, e.g., contact with CO2, is described. The hydrophilic liquid form is readily converted back to the hydrophobic liquid form and water. The hydrophobic liquid is an amidine or amine. The hydrophilic liquid form comprises an amidinium salt or an ammonium salt.

Conventional solvents have fixed physical properties which can lead to significant limitations in their use as media for reactions and separations. Many chemical production processes involve multiple reactions and separation steps, and often the type of solvent that is optimum for any one step is different from that which is optimum for the next step. Thus it is common for the solvent to be removed after each step and a new solvent added in preparation for the next step. This removal and replacement greatly adds to the economic cost and environmental impact of the overall process. Therefore, there exists a need for a solvent that can change its physical properties.
Solvents are commonly used to dissolve material in manufacturing, cleaning, dyeing, extracting, and other processes. In order for a solvent to dissolve a material quickly, selectively, and in sufficient quantity, it is usually necessary for the solvent to have particular physical properties. Examples of such properties include hydrophobicity, hydrophilicity, dielectric constant, polarizability, acidity, basicity, viscosity, volatility, hydrogen-bond donating ability, hydrogen-bond accepting ability, and polarity. At some point in such a process after the dissolution, separation of the material from the solvent may be desired. Such a separation can be expensive to achieve, especially if the solvent is removed by distillation, which requires the use of a volatile solvent, which can lead to significant vapor emission losses and resulting environmental damage e.g., through smog formation. Furthermore, distillation requires a large input of energy. It would therefore be desirable to find a non-distillative route for the removal of solvents from products. This is particularly difficult if the solvent and the product are both very low in polarity.
US Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0058549 discloses a solvent that reversibly converts from a nonionic liquid mixture to an ionic liquid upon contact with a selected trigger, such as CO2. The nonionic liquid mixture includes an amidine or guanidine or both, and water, alcohol or a combination thereof. However, that document does not provide certain advantages of the present invention as described below.

Switchable hydrophilicity solvents and methods of use thereof


An apparatus for deployment of a hemostatic clip comprises a handle assembly, a shaft connected to a distal portion thereof and a clip assembly releasably coupled to a distal portion of the shaft. The clip assembly includes clip arms and a capsule cooperating with the clip arms to provide a first user feedback indicating a decision configuration of the clip assembly. In addition, the apparatus includes a control wire including a ball connector, the control wire extending from the handle assembly and coupled to the clip assembly by the ball connector to maintain the clip assembly coupled to the shaft, wherein the ball connector is detachable from the clip assembly to provide a second user feedback indicating separation of the clip assembly from the shaft.

Endoscopic procedures to treat abnormal pathologies of the gastro-intestinal ("GI") canal system, of the biliary tree, of the vascular system and of various other body lumens are becoming increasingly common. The endoscope is basically a hollow tube that is placed at a desired location within the body to facilitate access to the relevant body ducts and lumens, etc. The endoscope itself cannot carry out many of the required procedures. To that end, the endoscope is fitted with a lumen, or internal channel, which permits the user to insert various medical devices therethrough to the location that requires treatment. Once the distal end of the inserted device has reached the tissue to be treated, it can be manipulated using controls which remain outside the body.
An hemostatic clipping tool is one of the devices which may be inserted through an endoscope so that treatment may be carried out. Hemostatic clips are deployed from the clipping tool and are used to stop internal bleeding by clamping together the edges of a wound. The clipping tool complete with clips attached to its distal end is inserted through the endoscope to the location of the bleeding. A clip is then remotely manipulated into position over the site of bleeding, clamped over the wound and detached from the tool. After a number of clips sufficient to stop the bleeding has been deployed, the tool is withdrawn from the patient's body through the endoscope. The size and shape of the clips and of the clipping tool are limited by the inner diameter of the endoscope's lumen, thus placing constraints on the design of the clip positioning and release mechanisms.
One challenge facing the endoscope operator is to properly position the hemostatic clips over the wound, so that closing the clips over the tissue will be effective in stopping the bleeding. If a clip is deployed improperly, additional clips may be required to stop the bleeding extending the time required for and the complexity of the procedure and leaving additional medical devices within the patient. It is also important for the device operator to be certain of the status of the clip during the deployment operation. For example, before withdrawing the tool from the endoscope, the operator should have positive indication that a clip has fully deployed, and has been released from the tool. At the same time the design of the tool should ensure that clips are fully released after they have been closed over the tissue.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Through the scope tension member release clip


A docking and active damping device for space structures is provided, in a docking portion of one space structure to be docked, with a positioning device in which an output rotor can be moved and rotated within a two-dimensional plane by a composite rotation of one or more eccentric rotors capable of being independently driven and controlled by a direct drive motor and the output rotor, and a docking member having a docking ring and a latch mechanism are supported on the output rotor of the positioning device. A probe having a capture device capable of being protruded and driven in an axial direction by a linear motion is provided inwardly of the docking member, and the probe provides a 4-freedom movement according to a position of the passive side to capture and dock a drogue. The docking ring is supported through a strain sensor, a vibration of the passive side structure is detected, and the docking member is moved in a direction of suppressing the vibration to promptly suppress the vibration caused by disturbances from the inside and outside of the space structures.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a docking and active damping device for space structures such as space stations, and more particularly to a docking and active damping device for space structures provided in a docking portion of space structures which can dock space structures with each other or space structure elements used to assemble space structures, and which can suppress vibrations of space structures in the docked state.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Docking devices for spacecraft heretofore known roughly include a cone and ring system, a probe and drogue system, a guide vane system and the like.
In any of these systems of the conventional docking device, adjustment of a deviation in axis thereof has been made in a manner such that a plurality of inclined pitch arms arranged peripherally in an equally spaced relation are actuated by a hydraulic cylinder, an electric cylinder or a spring. However, the range of such adjustment is small. For example, in the conventional systems, an adjustable range of pitching and rolling angle is only 10.degree. or so. Therefore, in the conventional systems, a fine control of attitude of a spacecraft itself is required for both passive and active spacecraft. After docking, both spacecraft move as one spacecraft, and the attitude control system cannot control to each other.
The present space facility is of a single capsule system and a solar battery paddle is small-scaled. Therefore, a large space structure which is assembled in space and of which internal and external vibrations have to be suppressed has not yet been realized. The technology for assembling large-scaled space structures in space and the active damping technology are in the field not yet developed and have not been put to practical use.
However, when the construction of large-scaled space structures such as practical space stations is initiated in the future, the active damping technology for vibration suppression of the space structures as well as the soft docking technology in space become an important problem. The reason why is that the space structures are in the state subjected to vibrations resulting from thermal strains, or a very small amount of internal and external disturbances such as shocks generated when space shuttles or the like are docked, and when the space structures are vibrated, experiments or manufacture under a low gravitational state performed therein or an astronomical observation in a fixed attitude are adversely affected by the vibrations. As the scale of the space structures become larger, the greater is the influence. It is necessary to suppress the vibrations of the space structures in order to perform the aforesaid experiments or the like in a satisfactory manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,898 is a prior art on which the invention of this application is based.

Docking and active damping device for space structures

National Aerospace Laboratory of Science & Technology Agency


A first guide member includes a concave-shaped guide surface. A recording medium such as a sheet fed by register rollers takes a curved position while being fed in a sheet feeding direction such that the leading edge of the sheet slides on the guide surface. A space is defined between the sheet and the guide surface due to the stiffness of the sheet. Thus, the sheet smoothly curves. When a speed of conveying the sheet by the register rollers is faster than a speed of conveying the sheet by a conveying belt, slack in the sheet is allowed in the space defined between the sheet and the guide surface. Therefore, the sheet can be stably conveyed without applying excessive load to the sheet or a sheet conveying device.

Known electrophotographic image forming apparatuses include a so-called "direct tandem printer", which is a type of tandem printer that does not employ an intermediate belt transfer system. The direct tandem printer generally includes four photosensitive drums, one for each color, yellow, magenta, cyan and black, a conveying belt for transferring a recording medium, such as a sheet, and four transfer rollers disposed so as to face respective photosensitive drums with the conveying belt between the photosensitive drums and the transfer rollers. A sheet is supplied from, for example, a sheet supply cassette. The sheet is fed onto the conveying belt after the skew of the sheet is corrected by register rollers. While the sheet is fed by the conveying belt between the photosensitive drums and the transfer rollers, toner images formed on each of the photosensitive drums are sequentially transferred onto the sheet.
When the speed of the register rollers conveying a sheet is the same as the speed of the conveying belt conveying a sheet, there likely will be no problems in conveying the sheet. However, it is practically impossible to keep both speeds exactly the same, for example, due to the dimensional tolerances, such as the outside diameters of the register rollers and conveying belt drive rollers. When the speed of the conveying belt conveying the sheet is greater than the speed of the register rollers conveying the sheet, the sheet experiences a tension when contacting both the conveying belt and the register rollers. In this case, the sheet might be pulled with excessive force toward an upstream side in a sheet feeding direction, or the trailing edge of the sheet may be moved or vibrated when the sheet passes through the register rollers and the tension between the conveying belt and register rollers is released. Such vibration in the sheet causes color registration problems. To solve the color registration problems, the speed of the register rollers conveying a sheet is set greater than the speed of the conveying belt conveying a sheet as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-194530.
When the speed of the register rollers conveying a sheet is set greater than the speed of the conveying belt conveying a sheet as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-194530, the sheet experiences slack between the conveying belt and the register rollers. If a sheet fed by the register rollers is conveyed to the conveying belt in a substantially flat position, the sheet does not readily experience slack especially when the sheet is stiff. In this case, the sheet may be pushed or slid over the conveying belt toward a downstream side in the sheet feeding direction by the register rollers.
To make the sheet readily experience slack, it would be helpful if that the sheet were curved while being conveyed between the conveying belt and the register rollers so as to allow the slack in the sheet. However, structures of a first guide member for curving the sheet fed by the register rollers while allowing slack in the sheet do not exist. Therefore, the sheet may not be curved smoothly or readily experience slack due to the stiffness of the sheet. Consequently, improper sheet feeding can occur which can result in damage to the sheet.

Recording medium conveying device, image forming apparatus and cartridge


Disclosed herein is a middle- or large-sized battery pack having two or more hexahedral battery modules, each including a plurality of chargeable and dischargeable plate-shaped battery cells or unit modules (unit cells), mounted in a pack case, wherein the battery pack is used as a power source for driving a vehicle, has a battery capacity of 5 KWh or more, and removes heat generated during the charge and discharge of the unit cells using an air cooling method, the unit cells of each of the battery modules are vertically stacked such that the number of the unit cells corresponds to a height of a battery pack installation space defined in the vehicle while neighboring unit cells are spaced apart from each other such that a coolant channel is defined between the respective unit cells, the pack case is formed in a shape corresponding to the battery pack installation space in the vehicle, the hexahedral battery modules being arranged in an inner space of the pack case, and a coolant for removing heat from the unit cells is introduced through at least one side of the pack case, passes through the battery modules horizontally, and is discharged through the other side of the pack case.

Recently, a secondary battery, which can be charged and discharged, has been widely used as an energy source for wireless mobile devices. Also, the secondary battery has attracted considerable attention as a power source for electric vehicles (EV), hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (Plug-in HEV), which have been developed to solve problems, such as air pollution, caused by existing gasoline and diesel vehicles using fossil fuels.
Small-sized mobile devices use one or several battery cells for each device. On the other hand, middle- or large-sized devices, such as vehicles, use a middle- or large-sized battery module having a plurality of battery cells electrically connected to one another because high power and large capacity are necessary for the middle- or large-sized devices.
Preferably, the middle- or large-sized battery module is manufactured so as to have a small size and weight if possible. For this reason, a prismatic battery or a pouch-shaped battery, which can be stacked with high integration and has a small weight to capacity ratio, is usually used as a battery cell of the middle- or large-sized battery module. Especially, considerable interest is currently focused on the pouch-shaped battery, which uses an aluminum laminate sheet as a sheathing member, because the weight of the pouch-shaped battery is small, the manufacturing costs of the pouch-shaped battery are low, and it is easy to modify the shape of the pouch-shaped battery.
In order for the middle- or large-sized battery module to provide power and capacity required by a predetermined apparatus or device, it is necessary for the middle- or large-sized battery module to be constructed to have a structure in which a plurality of battery cells are electrically connected in series to one another, and the battery cells are stable against an external force.
Also, the battery cells constituting the middle- or large-sized battery module are secondary batteries which can be charged and discharged. Consequently, a large amount of heat is generated from the high-power, large-capacity secondary batteries during the charge and discharge of the batteries. If the heat, generated from the unit cells during the charge and discharge of the unit cells, is not effectively removed, the heat accumulates in the respective unit cells, with the result that the deterioration of the unit cells is accelerated. According to circumstances, the unit cells may catch fire or explode. For this reason, a cooling system is needed in a battery pack for vehicles, which is a high-power, large-capacity battery, to cool battery cells mounted in the battery pack.
An exemplary cooling system used in a battery pack for vehicles may be constructed to have an air cooling structure. Such an air cooling type cooling system is mainly used in a battery pack for hybrid electric vehicles, having a relatively small amount of heat generated therefrom and assisting driving power.
For a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, on the other hand, it is necessary for the vehicle to be driven only by power supplied from a battery pack. For this reason, significant electrical load is applied to the battery pack, with the result that a relatively large amount of heat is generated from the battery pack. Consequently, a water cooling type cooling system is mainly applied to the battery pack to protect the battery pack, which is poorly resistant to high temperature.
However, the water cooled type battery pack is considerably different from the air cooled type battery pack in various aspects, such as a battery connection method, a structure in which batteries are stacked in a battery module, a temperature detection method, a voltage measurement method, etc., with the result that it is necessary to additionally develop the battery connection method and the temperature/voltage measurement method.
Consequently, there is a high necessity for a middle- or large-sized battery pack having a novel air cooling structure that is applicable to a battery pack for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, having a large amount of heat generated therefrom, utilizing the air cooled type battery pack structure for hybrid electric vehicles.

Middle or large-sized battery pack of novel air cooling structure


An adjustable, lift-off hinge having a hinge assembly including a first hinge member and a second hinge member joined by a tension pin along a vertical rotational axis. Advantageously, the hinge has two identical hinge members enabling manufacturing with a single mold or tooling set. The present invention allows low friction, pivotal movement of the first hinge member relative to the second hinge member about the vertical rotational axis. The hinge also includes a vertical adjustment mechanism allowing for precise movement of the first hinge member relative to the second hinge member along the vertical axis and precise movement of the second hinge member relative to the first hinge member along the vertical axis.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to hinges for mounting a door to a frame. More particularly it relates to an adjustable, lift-off hinge which enables precise vertical positioning of the door relative to the frame and lift off removal of the door from the frame.
2. Description of Related Art
Vertically adjustable hinges for mounting a door onto a frame are generally known in the art. Some known adjustable hinges, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,381,580, 5,755,011, 5,713,105 allow vertical adjustment of the door relative to the mounting frame along the pivotal rotational axis of the door. However, the adjustable hinges disclosed in those patents are relatively complex from a manufacturing stand point. The disclosed hinges require the fabrication of two distinct hinge members. Moreover, the mechanism for vertically adjusting the disclosed hinges is limited to a single screw element. A single screw element limits either the placement of the hinge or the ability to adjust the hinge once installed. Also, only the hinge disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,381,580, allows the door to be easily removed from the frame. p Accordingly it would be advantageous to have an adjustable hinge more suitable for lower-cost manufacturing methods. It would also be advantageous to have an adjustable hinge which allows the door or other attached object to be easily removed from the frame. It would be further advantageous to have a more versatile adjustable hinge designed such that vertical adjustments can be made from more than one location on the hinge.
An improved vertically adjustable hinge incorporating the foregoing advantages would be a significant advance in the art.


A recommendation system for recommending a target feature value for a target feature for a target deployment is provided. The recommendation system, for each of a plurality of deployments, collects feature values for the features of that deployment. The recommendation system then generates a model for recommending a target feature value for the target feature based on the collected feature values of the features for the deployments. The recommendation system applies the model to the features of the target deployment to identify a target feature value for the target feature. The recommendation system then provides the identified target feature value as a recommendation for the target feature for the target deployment.

When software is to be deployed in a data center, the configuration of the deployment needs to be established. The configuration of the deployment includes the identification of the various deployed systems of the deployment such as the servers, the operating systems and other system software, the applications (e.g., appliances), the security systems, the storage systems, the networking systems, and so on. An operating system, for example, may be identified by name of the operating system, version number, patch level, and so on. Each of the deployed systems may have various sub-systems. For example, a security system may have a firewall appliance, an anti-virus appliance, an encryption appliance, and so on. The configuration of the deployment includes the identifications of such sub-subsystems, any sub-sub-systems, and so on. Each of these deployed systems and sub-systems may have various parameters or configuration settings which are also part of the configuration of the deployment. For example, an anti-virus appliance may have parameters that indicate which types of documents to scan and when to scan those types of documents. The types of documents may include emails, email attachments, web pages, newly created documents, and so on. The configuration settings may indicate to scan email attachments when they are received or when they are to be opened. The identifications of the systems of a deployment, the parameters of the systems and sub-systems, and other settings describing a current configuration of a system or sub-system are referred to as features of the deployment.
A large deployment can have hundreds and even thousands of features. When establishing the feature values for the features, it is important that they be established at optimal values to satisfy objectives for the deployment such a minimum response time, highly secure, and so on. The establishing of the feature values, however, can be a very complex and time-consuming process. For example, a certain firewall appliance may not work well with a certain patch level of a certain version of an operating system. So, an administrator of a deployment would want to ensure that the certain firewall appliance and the certain patch level are not part of the deployment either during initial configuration of the deployment or as part of an upgrade to the deployment. It can require a very high-level of skill to establish the optimal feature values for a deployment and to re-establish feature values when problems arise such as a system failure, software is infected with a virus, an intrusion is detected, and so on. Even when an administrator has such a high-level of skill, the administrator may not have all the information available to establish the optimal values. For example, the administrator may be unaware of a recent intrusion of a deployment of another organization. Even if the administrator did have all the information, the number of different combinations of feature values for the features can be astronomically high making the understanding the effects, which can be subtle, of each combination very difficult.

Automatic recommendations for deployments in a data center


A method for collecting data for a geographic database is disclosed. Speed and position data are collected using a plurality of mobile computing platforms moving in a geographic region. The speed and position data are analyzed to identify a location of a recurring delay point corresponding to a change in the speed. The geographic database is updated to indicate the location of the recurring delay point.

The present invention relates to collecting geographic data for a geographic database and more particularly, the present invention relates to a method and system for collecting recurring delay data for a geographic database using navigation systems.
Geographic databases have various uses. Geographic databases are used in in-vehicle navigation systems, personal computers, networked computing environments, and various other kinds of platforms, as well as on the Internet. Geographic databases are used with various kinds of applications to provide various navigation-related and map-related functions including map display, route calculation, route guidance, truck fleet deployment, traffic control, traffic monitoring, electronic yellow pages, roadside assistance, emergency services, and so on.
In order to provide these kinds of functions, a geographic database includes data that represent geographic features in a region. The geographic features that are represented in a geographic database may include roads, intersections, and so on. A geographic database includes information about the represented geographic features, such as the geographic coordinates of roads in a geographic region, speed limits along the road segments, locations of stop lights, turn restrictions at intersections of roads, address ranges, street names, and so on. A geographic database may also include information about points of interest in a region. Points of interest may include restaurants, hotels, airports, gas stations, stadiums, police stations, and so on.
Collecting information for a geographic database is a significant task. Not only is the initial collection of data a significant undertaking, but a geographic database needs to be updated on a regular basis. For example, new streets are constructed, street names change, traffic signals are installed, and turn restrictions are added to existing roads. Also, new levels of detail may be added about geographic features that are already represented in an existing geographic database. For example, an existing geographic database for roads may be enhanced with information about lane widths, shoulder sizes, traffic signs, lane barriers, address ranges, sidewalks, bicycles paths, etc. Thus, there exists a need to continue to collect information for a geographic database.
One type of information that is useful to include in a geographic database is information relating to delays on the roads. On certain roads, most drivers may experience similar delay points, that is, the drivers may have to stop or reduce the speed of their vehicles at certain points on the road. For example, drivers traveling along the road may have to stop at a traffic signal or railroad crossing or reduce their speed for a school zone. Prior methods have required field personnel from a geographic database developer to travel along each street in a geographic region, observe the traffic signs, railroad crossings or school zones, record their observations and then add the traffic sign, railroad crossing and/or school zone information to the geographic database. This process is relatively time-consuming and therefore relatively expensive.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to collect recurring delay information more efficiently.

Method and system for obtaining recurring delay data using navigation systems


Multiple processor systems are configured to include at least two system or memory buses with at least two processors coupled to each of the system buses, and at least two I/O buses which are coupled to the system buses to provide multiple expansion slots hosting up to a corresponding number of I/O bus agents for the systems at the cost of a single system bus load for each I/O bus. Each of the system and I/O buses are independently arbitrated to define decoupled bus systems for the multiple processor systems of the present invention. Main memory for the systems is made up of at least two memory interleaves, each of which can be simultaneously accessed through the system buses. Each of the I/O buses are interfaced to the system buses by an I/O interface circuit which buffers data written to and read from the main memory or memory interleaves by I/O bus agents.

The present invention relates generally to computer systems and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus for structuring multiple processor computer systems to provide for the interconnection of multiple processors to multiple system buses and to multiple I/O subsystem buses. The I/O subsystem buses are interfaced to the system buses for buffering data to be written to or read from the memory by agents resident on the I/O subsystem buses, and all system buses and I/O subsystem buses are independently arbitrated to define a decoupled bus system for the multiple processor computer systems.
Computer systems have traditionally included a central processing unit or CPU, data storage devices including a main memory which is used by the CPU for performance of its operations and a system bus which interconnects the CPU to the main memory and any other data storage devices. In addition, I/O devices are connected to the system via the bus. The bus thus serves as a communications link among the various devices making up a system by carrying clock and other command signals and data signals among the devices.
As processors and memory devices evolve, computer systems are being operated at higher and higher speeds to transmit more and more data and command signals in less time over a system bus. To alleviate some of the communications burdens, computer systems which include multiple buses have been developed. For example, a high speed bus may be provided to interconnect a processor to associated high speed memory and a slower speed I/O bus to interconnect to slower input/output devices. Multiple bus computer systems can carry higher volumes of data and control signals; however, multiple bus computer systems create their own control challenges in terms of control of the multiple buses.
To attain still higher speeds, multiple processor systems have also been developed. Of course the number of control and data signals required for operation of multiple processor systems are greater than those required for single processor systems. It is apparent that the complexity of communications among units within a computer system is further increased by multiple processor systems. The complexity of communications within multiple processor systems is still further increased when such systems incorporate multiple buses.
While the use of conventional techniques, such as organizing and programming multiple processor systems to minimize interactions among the processors, can improve the operations of existing computer system architectures, there is a continuing need for new and improved computer system architectures to advance the art and to provide better operating computer systems. Such an improved system architecture would preferably be scalable to provide a wide variety of system configurations for a correspondingly wide variety of applications. In this way, a computer system could be configured for a given application and expanded and contracted in accordance with development of the application within limits of the preliminary configuration.

Architectures for computer systems having multiple processors, multiple system buses and multiple I/O buses interfaced via multiple ported interfaces


A straight cutting tip for a straight bore subcutaneous implantation instrument is provided. An incising shaft body defines an axial bore extending continuously throughout the incising shaft body's length. The axial bore is open on both distal and proximal ends of the incising shaft body and has a non-circular cross section of at least five millimeters. A beveled surface is transversely formed beginning on a top surface and ending on a bottom surface of the distal end of the incising shaft body. A straight and sharpened cutting edge with rounded ends on each side curves inwardly towards the proximal end of the incising shaft body. The cutting edge is defined only along a bottom distal edge of the beveled surface. An attachment point is formed on the proximal end of the incising shaft body.

A major part of health care assessment involves the review and analysis of physiological measurements collected and recorded by electronic data sensors. In addition to vital signs, physiological measures can include detailed measurements of organ functions, body fluid chemistry and rates, activity levels, and similar measures, both measured directly and derived.
The type and quality of physiological measures depends greatly on the type and location of the sensor employed. External sensors, such as thermometers, blood pressure cuffs, heart rate monitors, and the like, constitute the most common, and least invasive, form of sensors. However, these sensors are extremely limited in the kinds of information which they are able to collect and encumber the patient with wearing and maintaining an external sensor. On the other extreme, implantable in situ sensors provide the most accurate and continuous data stream through immediate proximity to organs and tissue of interest. However, implantable sensors are invasive and generally require surgery for implantation.
Recent advances in microchip technology have created a new generation of highly integrated, implantable sensors. For instance, PCT Application Nos. PCT/GB99/02389, to Habib et al., filed Jul. 22, 1998, pending, and PCT/GB99/02393, to Habib et al., filed Jul. 22, 1998, pending, respectively describe an implantable sensor chip and treatment regiment, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. The sensor chip is adapted to receive and rectify incoming electromagnetic signals and to transmit data relating to treatment parameters by wireless telemetry to a receiver external to a body. Similarly, the emerging Bluetooth wireless communication standard, described at http://www.bluetooth.com/developer/specification/specification.asp, proposes a low cost, small form factor solution to short range data communications, potentially suitable for use in implantable sensor technology.
Even though implantable sensor technology is trending towards smaller and more specialized microchip sensors, in humans, these sensors must still be implanted via surgical procedure. Minimally invasive implantation using large bore needles is impracticable because sensors, particularly when embodied using microchip technology, favor a prismatic shape with substantially rectangular cross sections. A large bore needle can cause a core of flesh or skin (or hide, when used in domesticated animals) to form in the pointed tip as the needle is inserted. Cylindrical needles also severely limit solid sensor sizes, shapes and dimensions to only those that can be inserted through a circular bore.
Although current surgical approaches attempt to minimize the size of incision and decree of invasion, implantation is, at best, costly, time-consuming, traumatic, requires multiple instruments and maneuvers, and potentially risky to the patient. Subcutaneous implantable sensors offer the best compromise between in situ sensors and external sensors and are potentially insertable with a simple injection. These sensors are typically implanted below the dermis in the layer of subcutaneous fat. The subcutaneous implantation of solid materials has been described in the prior art as follows.
An insertion and tunneling tool for a subcutaneous wire patch electrode is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,300,106, to Dahl et al., issued Apr. 5, 1994. The tunneling tool includes a stylet and a peel-away sheath. The tunneling tool is inserted into an incision and the stylet is withdrawn once the tunneling tool reaches a desired position. An electrode segment is inserted into the subcutaneous tunnel and the peel-away sheath is removed. Although providing a toot for subcutaneous implantation, the Dahl device requires an incision into the subcutaneous fat layer and forms an implantation site larger than the minimum sized required by the electrode segment. Further more, the cylindrical bore precludes the injection of non-conforming solid sensors or materials.
An implant system for animal identification that includes a device for implanting an identification pellet in a fat layer beneath the hide or skin of an animal is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,250, to Smith, issued Mar. 20, 1990. The device includes a curved needle-like tube that terminates at a tapered, sharpened point. An elongated, flexible plunger is slidably received within the needle-like tube. The pointed tip is inserted through the hide or skin and the plunger is actuated to drive the identification pellet from the tip into the fat layer. However, the Smith device uses an oversized open bore which can cause coring of the hide or flesh.
A trocar for inserting implants is described in PCT Application No. PCT/US99/08353, to Clarke et al., filed Oct. 29, 1999, pending. An implant retention trocar includes a cannula for puncturing the skin of an animal and an obturator for delivering the implant. A spring element received within the cannula prevents an implant from falling out during the implant process. The cannula has a distal tip design which causes a minimum of trauma and tearing of tissue during implant insertion. However, the distal tip design is specifically directed to cannulas having a substantially circular bore and thereby limits the size and shape of implant which can be inserted through the Clarke trocar.
An instrument for injecting implants through animal hide is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,304,119, to Balaban et al., issued Apr. 19, 1994. The instrument includes an injector having a tubular body divided into two adjacent segments with a hollow interior bore. A pair of laterally adjacent tines extend longitudinally from the first segment to the distal end of the tubular body. A plunger rod has an exterior diameter just slightly larger than the interior diameter of the tubular body. With the second segment inserted beneath the animal hide, the push rod is advanced longitudinally through the tubular body, thereby pushing the implant through the bore. As the implant and rod pass through the second segment, the tines are forced radially away from each other, thereby dilating or expanding the incision, and facilitating implant. The instrument is removed from the incision following implantation. Though avoiding the coring of animal hide or flesh, the instrument forms an implantation site larger than the minimum sized required by the implant and causes potentially damaging compaction of the implant against the laterally adjacent times during implant delivery.
Therefore, there is need for a non-surgical instrument and method for subcutaneous implantation of sensors and solid materials that preferably does not require an incision preparatory to instrument insertion.
There is a further need for a subcutaneous implantation instrument and method capable of implanting sensors and other solid materials that are not readily disposed to implantation through a substantially circular bore.
Moreover, there is a further need for a subcutaneous implantation instrument and method which is minimally invasive, preferably creating the smallest needed implantation site, and capable of implantation without exposing the implant to longitudinal stresses.

Straight cutting tip for a straight bore subcutaneous implantation instrument


A heatsink-less electronic unit includes a metal coreless electronic substrate, a heatsink-less microcomputer and various semiconductor relays. The heatsink-less microcomputer and the various semiconductor relays are mounted on the metal coreless electronic substrate. The heatsink-less microcomputer is arranged on the metal coreless electronic substrate. Among the various semiconductor relays, the one which may reach the highest temperature is separated at a longest distance from a location where the heatsink-less microcomputer is arranged, and the various semiconductor relays are arranged separately from one another.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an electronic unit which is mounted on a vehicle such as a car and which can be achieved without using any heatsink.
2. Background Art
<Background-Art Measure Against Heat Radiation>
Recently, an electronic unit mounted on a vehicle is requested to be miniaturized due to the limitation of an installation space. In some cases, a plurality of heating components such as semiconductor relays mounted in the electronic unit may thermally interfere with one another and reach very high temperature locally. In order to prevent any electronic component or any electronic substrate from exceeding its upper limit of allowable temperature on this occasion, a heatsink, a metal core substrate, or the like has been used to radiate heat (see JP-A-2011-14574).
<Problem of Background-Art Measure Against Heat Radiation>
As described above, heat radiation performed by use of a heat radiating component such as a heatsink or a metal core substrate is effective as a measure against heat radiation. However, a space for installing the heat radiating component is required. This is against the miniaturization trend. In addition, it is necessary to spend cost for the heat radiating component. The increase of the cost becomes an issue.
The present invention has been accomplished in consideration of the aforementioned circumstances. An object of the invention is to provide a heatsink-less electronic unit in which a measure against thermal interference has been taken into consideration in such a manner that only the layout of heating components is devised without using any heat radiating component such as any heatsink or any metal core substrate to thereby prevent any electronic component or any electronic substrate from exceeding its upper limit of allowable temperature so that deterioration of the electronic component or output stop caused by self-protective shutdown due to overtemperature can be prevented.


Systems and methods are disclosed for image classification by receiving an overcomplete set of spatial regions, jointly optimizing the classifier and the pooling region for each pooled feature; and performing incremental feature selection and retraining using a grafting process to efficiently train the classifier.

The present invention relates to image processing techniques.
State-of-the-art category-level image classification algorithms usually adopt a local patch based, multiple-layer pipeline to find good image features. Many methods start from local image patches using either normalized raw pixel values or hand-crafted descriptors such as SIFT or HOG, and encode them into an overcomplete representation using various algorithms such as K-means or sparse coding. After coding, global image representations are formed by spatially pooling the coded local descriptors. Such global representations are then fed into non-linear classifiers or linear classifiers, with the latter being more popular recently due to their computation efficiency. Methods following such a pipeline have achieved competitive performance on several challenging classification tasks, such as Caltech-101 and Pascal VOC.
During the last decade, much emphasis has been directed at the coding step. Dictionary learning algorithms have been discussed to find a set of basis that reconstructs local image patches or descriptors well, and several encoding methods have been proposed to map the original data to a high-dimensional space that emphasizes certain properties, such as sparsity or locality. The relationship between dictionary learning and encoding have been used to provide simple yet effective approaches that achieve competitive results. The neuroscience justification of coding comes from simple neurons in the human visual cortex, which have been believed to produce sparse and overcomplete activations.
Similarly, the idea of spatial pooling dates back to Hubel's seminal paper about complex cells in the mammalian visual cortex, which identifies mid-level image features that are invariant to small spatial shifting. The spatial invariance property also reflects the concept of locally orderless images, which suggests that low-level features are grouped spatially to provide information about the overall semantics. Most recent research on spatial pooling aims to find a good pooling operator, which could be seen as a function that produces informative statistics based on local features in a specific spatial area. For example, average and max pooling strategies have been found in various algorithms respectively, and systematic comparisons between such pooling strategies have been used to pool over multiple features in the context of deep learning.
Relatively little effort has been put into better designs or learning of better spatial regions for pooling, although it has been discussed in the context of learning local descriptors. A predominant approach to define the spatial regions for pooling, which we will also call the receptive fields (borrowing the terminology from neuroscience) for the pooled features, comes from the idea of spatial pyramids, where regular grids of increasing granularity are used to pool local features. The spatial pyramids provide a reasonable cover over the image space with scale information, and most existing classification methods either use them directly, or use slightly modified/simplified versions.

Receptive field learning for pooled image features


A driving circuit having a power factor correction (PFC) function includes a power converter, a harmonic wave generator, a voltage divider, and a modify element. The power converter receives AC power to convert to DC power. The harmonic wave generator generates a harmonic wave from the DC power. The voltage level of the harmonic wave is decreased by the voltage divider to generate a comparing signal. The modify element compares the comparing signal and a feedback current signal of the LED to regulate the DC power accordingly for power-supplying the LED stably. Therefore the power factor (PF) of the driving circuit is enhanced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a driving circuit, and more particularly but not by any way of limitation, to a driving circuit having a passive-type power factor correction (PFC) function, utilized in illuminating element, especially in LED (light emitting diode).
2. Related Art
The power factor of an AC electric power system is defined as the ratio of the real power flowing to the load to the apparent power and is a dimensionless number between 0 and 1 (frequently expressed as a percentage, e.g. 0.5 pf=50% pf). Real power is the capacity of the circuit for performing work in a particular time. Apparent power is the product of the current and voltage of the circuit. Due to energy stored in the load and returned to the source, or due to a non-linear load that distorts the wave shape of the current drawn from the source, the apparent power will be greater than the real power.
Through the environment/economization policies driven by the governments around the world, LED is well-developed and applied to two major applications including display and illumination functions. Due to plenty of nonstop technology advancements, the conventional single-color LED is gradually unable to satisfy human's visual needs. Consequently, advanced LED products such as bicolor LED and full-color LED are developed afterwards.
With the push toward more efficient energy usage, lower carbon footprints and resource sustainability gaining momentum throughout the world, virtually every aspect of energy generation and consumption is coming under intense scrutiny for improvement Much of the media buzz has centered upon such "big picture" sweeping changes as smart power grids, wind and solar power, carbon sequestration, etc. Reducing energy consumption and increasing energy efficiency are among the European Union's main goals. At the end of 2008, the European Parliament and European Council wrote into EU law three ambitious targets for 2020: cutting greenhouse gases by 20% (30% if international agreement is reached), supplying 20% of energy from renewable sources, and reducing energy consumption by 20% through energy efficiency. Therefore, how to enhance the power factor (PF) of LED is an important issue.

Driving circuit having a power factor correction (PFC) function


The invention is directed to increasing the time resolution capabilities of a photon counting imaging device. This is achieved by a photon-counting imaging device for single x-ray counting, including: a layer of photosensitive material; an N×M array of photodetector diodes arranged in the layer of the photosensitive material; an N×M array of readout unit cells including an high gain, low noise amplifying elements, one readout unit cell for each photodetector diode; the readout unit cells being controlled by a data processing elements; each readout unit cell comprising an internal data processing elements allowing to assign an output signal representing an amplifyied signal of the electron hole pairs generated by an incident photon or a predetermined number of incident photons in the respective photodetector diode to a preselectable region of interest; and the assignment of the output signal is accompanied by a time stamp generated by a clock means.

The invention relates to a photon-counting imaging device for single x-ray counting. Further, the invention relates to a photon-counting imaging device with a fast region of interest data evaluation.
X-ray diffraction patterns are useful in the analysis of molecular structures, such as protein and virus molecules, and require photon counting imaging devices. Especially, protein and virus crystallography imposes stringent requirements on x-ray detectors, particularly where the x-ray source is high flux synchrotron radiation that enables an experiment to be done rapidly. Furthermore, an important and developing field is time-resolved diffraction experiments using synchrotron radiation, such as crystallography and/or powder diffraction analysis. Monitoring a time-dependent reaction in a sample, i.e. a crystal or a powder, can elucidate the time-dependent crystal/molecular changes that occur in a chemical reaction as well. High time resolution speed is often critical in such monitoring.
In the literature, a high speed crystallography detector is disclosed by the U.S. Pat. No. 5,629,524 and a solid-state image sensor with focal-plane digital photon-counting pixel array is disclosed by the U.S. Pat. No. 5,665,959. The latter patent describes and illustrates a focal-plane array comprising an array of N×N photodetector diodes connected to a digital photon-counting means for ultrlow level image light detection and digital image pixel readout means for each pixel comprising separate CMOS buffer amplifiers that exhibit the following characteristics: low power (<1 μW per pixel average), high photoelectron charge to voltage conversion gain (≈1 mV/e−), low noise (<1 e−), small cell pitch (<30 μm), easy scalability (to 10 μm), self biasing capability, sufficient gain uniformity (˜10%) for multiple event discrimination, and bias current programmability. Any incident photon during the sampling period generates a photoelectron at the output of the detector diode connected to the input of the amplifier. That photoelectron changes the potential of the buffer amplifier's input capacitance. This change in potential causes the high-gain buffer amplifier to present a sufficiently large voltage change at the output of the amplifier to be above the system noise level.
The drawback of this disclosure remains substantially in the design of this photon counting device that is dedicated to detect with brilliant sensitivity a single photon having its energy in the range of the visible light (several eV). This device can therefore be used for infra-red binoculars or for space-based telescopes and spectrometers. The electronic circuitry is therefore that sensitive that an incident photon is amplified in order to saturate the buffer of the amplifier. An additional incident photon occurring in the same photodetector diode within the same sampling period as the first incident photon therefore can not be detected unless the buffer is reset. This photon detecting device is therefore completely useless for the above-mentioned purposes of x-ray photon detection.
Nevertheless, the general design of the semiconductor chip is preferably a hybrid using a separate semiconductor material for two chips selected to be optimum for the photovoltaic type of detector diodes in one and the buffer amplifier and multiplexing circuit in the other chip bump bonded to the first to make connections between the output interface of the detector diodes on one chip and the input interface of the buffer amplifier on the other chip with the photodetector diodes buffer amplifier in one semiconductor chip and the multiplexing means and digital counters on the second semiconductor chip bump bonded to the first. As disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,629,524 a suitable material for the electrical bump connection is Indium. But even this device for x-ray photon detection can not be used in high dynamic investigation since the electronic circuitry is limited due to the switching dead time that is required to integrate the charge of the photo electrons subsequently to a chain of capacitors (referred to as a M-bit shift register) which have to be read out afterwards serially due to its chain-like arrangement. It could be easily understood that the performance of this circuitry is limited to its switching intervals for charging and scanning the capacitors.
Another prior art document worth to be mentioned is the U.S. Pat. No. 5,812,191 disclosing a semiconductor high-energy radiation imaging device having an array of pixel cells including a semiconductor detector substrate and a semiconductor readout substrate. The semiconductor detector substrate includes an array of pixel detector cells, each of which directly generates charge in response to incident high-energy radiation. The semiconductor readout substrate includes an array of individually addressable pixel circuits, each of which is connected to a corresponding pixel detector cell to form a pixel cell. Each pixel circuit includes charge accumulation circuitry for accumulating charge directly resulting from high-energy radiation incident on a corresponding pixel detector cell, readout circuitry for reading the accumulated charge, and reset circuitry for resetting the charge accumulation circuitry. Unfortunately, the accumulated charge is stored as analog data using a circuitry having two transistors, one transistor acting as the charge store while the other acts as a readout switch responsive to an enable signal. This design restricts the circuitry to allow individual addressing each pixel but only discharge the accumulated analog charge to an output line when activated by its respective enable signal. This circuitry does not enable any further manipulation of the pixel detector cells.
Another imaging device for imaging radiation according to the international patent application WO 98/16853 includes an image cell array. The image cell array includes an array of detectors cells which generates charge in response to instant radiation and an array of image cell circuits. Each image cell circuit is associated with a respective detector cell. The image cell circuit includes counting circuitry for counting plural radiation hits incident on an associated detector cell. Preferably, the image cell circuit includes threshold circuitry connected to receive signals generated in the associated detector cell and having values dependent on the incident radiation energy. The counting circuitry is then connected to the threshold circuitry for counting only radiation hits within a predetermined energy range or ranges. The electronic readout circuitry is designed to comprise a loadable shift register storing the data serially in a row that means the input data is the data from the previous pixel and the output delivers the actual data to the next pixel. The main drawback of this arrangement consists in the susceptibility to a failure of a complete row of the detector array if only one the readout circuitry in a row fails.
Furthermore, using x-ray diffraction for the analysis of the crystallographic structure of a sample a fast and reliable measurement procedure requires a comparably large detector array for covering a sufficient large spatial area. It is apparent from the required electronic equipment that an increasing number of detector arrays is followed by an increasing number of electronic equipment and/or a prolongated evaluation procedure.
Resuming the prior art documents it will be apparent that none of the documents disclose a photon counting imaging device that allow high readout performance und superior reliability of operation.
Therefore, it is the aim of the invention to increase the performance and the reliability of a complete photon-counting imaging device.


Provided is a glass film ribbon manufacturing device (1), including: a transverse conveyance unit (4), which is configured to convey a glass film ribbon (G) in a transverse direction; and a cleaving unit (5), which is arranged on a conveyance path of the transverse conveyance unit (4), and is configured to cleave the glass film ribbon (G) along a preset cleaving line extending in a longitudinal direction, the transverse conveyance unit (4) including a wrinkle-smoothing unit (14) configured to smooth a wrinkle generated in the glass film ribbon (G) before the glass film ribbon (G) is cleaved by the cleaving unit (5).

As is well known, thinning of glass sheets to be used in flat panel displays (FPD) such as a liquid crystal display, a plasma display, and an OLED display, glass sheets to be used in OLED illumination, glass sheets to be used for manufacturing a tempered glass that is a component of a touch panel, and the like, and glass sheets to be used in panels of solar cells, and the like has been promoted in the current circumstances.
In order to address such current circumstances, in recent years, those glass sheets have been developed so as to be used as glass films having a thickness of 300 μm or less or 200 μm or less. To manufacture this type of glass films, as examples, a down-draw method typified by an overflow down-draw method, a slot down-draw method, and a re-draw method, and a float method have been used.
Those methods involve forming a glass film ribbon by a forming unit through use of a molten glass as a material, drawing the glass film ribbon from the forming unit, and then removing an unnecessary portion of the glass film ribbon by cleaving while conveying the glass film ribbon in a transverse direction by a transverse conveyance unit, to thereby form a glass roll. Specifically, the glass film ribbon is cleaved along a preset cleaving line extending in a longitudinal direction in such a manner that each unnecessary portion including a thick selvage portion both end portions in a width direction of the glass film ribbon that is being conveyed in the transverse direction by the transverse conveyance unit is removed by cleaving with a cleaving unit from the glass film ribbon, and then, one or a plurality of glass film ribbons serving as effective portions are taken up into one or a plurality of glass rolls (see Patent Literature 1 regarding the down-draw method).
Further, in addition to the foregoing, in the case where the glass film ribbon is taken up into a glass roll without removing the unnecessary portion including the selvage portion by cleaving, or in the case where the glass film ribbon is taken up into a glass roll after the unnecessary portion including the selvage portion is removed by cleaving, the glass film ribbon may be conveyed in the transverse direction by the transverse conveyance unit while being taken out from one glass roll and taken up into the other glass roll in a roll-to-roll process.
Also in this type of roll-to-roll process, the glass film ribbon is cleaved along the preset cleaving line extending in the longitudinal direction in such a manner that an unnecessary portion in each of both end portions in the width direction of the glass film ribbon is removed by cleaving with the cleaving unit while the glass film ribbon is being conveyed in the transverse direction by the transverse conveyance unit, and then one or a plurality of glass film ribbons serving as effective portions are taken up into one or a plurality of glass rolls.

Glass film ribbon manufacturing method and glass film ribbon manufacturing device


Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for processing an image, a device for processing an image, an electronic device and a medium. The method includes the followings. A target image is captured. Capturing ambient information when the target image is captured is detected. A material required is acquired. A default display effect of the material is adjusted according to the capturing ambient information, to obtain a target display effect matching with the capturing ambient information. The material having the target display effect is merged with the target image, to obtain a merged image.

With popularity of electronic devices, users are increasingly favored of capturing images and recording lives using a capturing capability of the electronic devices. In addition, in order to make the images captured more interesting, various applications for prettifying the images or adding a specific effect to the images are developed.
The user may select his/her favorite material according to his/her own demands from all materials carried in the application to process the image and to make the image livelier and more interesting.

Method for processing image, device for processing image, electronic device and medium

BEIJING KINGSOFT INTERNET SECURITY SOFTWARE CO., LTD.


A jet engine suspension includes a master component for attachment, fixed to an aircraft pylon. In the event of breakage of the master component and in the situation where the fixing screws are no longer able to transmit force, a peg is provided which resists transmitted loads such that the master component collapses until an upper shoulder rests on the pylon and supports the master component. The peg is free of dynamic stress in normal service and there is absolutely no risk of it cracking in fatigue.

1. Field of Invention
The subject of this invention is an aircraft jet engine suspension.
2. Summary of the Prior Art
One common type of suspension comprises a pair of devices for attachment to the front and rear of the jet engine, each device fixed to a pylon of the aircraft, and a pair of roughly longitudinal intermediate link rods one of whose function is to spread the loads through the two attachment devices appropriately so that the attachment device at the rear transmits to its pylon the transverse and vertical forces and the moment about the longitudinal axis in addition to the thrust of the engine, which is exerted first and foremost on the front suspension.
This attachment device at the rear is thus subjected to many static and dynamic loads which lead to a high risk of breakage. If breakage occurs therein, other damage may ensue.
Fatigue cracks may thus appear on the master component of the attachment device, which runs along the pylon and toward which the longitudinal link rods and the lower links carrying the jet engine converge. This master component is generally fixed to the pylon by four screws arranged in a rectangle. If the fatigue progresses to the extent of breaking through the master component or of isolating some of the screws, then the forces are transmitted only by the other screws, and this is obviously highly unfavorable. The idea of splitting the master component into two parts between which the screws are distributed such that a crack stops at the split has been known.
Although this arrangement does stop the master component from breaking, it entails joining together the two portions which are separated by the split using bolts which greatly increase the weight of the suspension. A suspension of this kind is described in French Patent 2 680 353, where the master component is not only split but duplicated so that each of its parts alone is able to withstand the loads and its weight is then even greater.
The risk of fatigue breakage relates to the actual fixing screws. Certain precautions need to be taken such as limiting the tightening force applied to them on mounting, in order to reduce this risk.
The object of the invention is to substitute, for screws rendered unserviceable, at least one peg passing at least partially through the master component of the attachment device and the pylon which takes over in transmitting loads. The peg is produced in such a way as not to experience significant dynamic loads beforehand, and this sets aside the risk of it having broken through fatigue.
The invention relates specifically to a jet engine suspension comprising a device for attachment to a fixed structure, comprising a master component fixed to the structure, wherein the master component and the fixed structure are connected by a vertical peg exhibiting a central shoulder placed on the master component, an upper shoulder above a portion of the fixed structure, and a lower shoulder between which and the central shoulder the main component is compressed.
Advantageously, the lower shoulder and the upper shoulder are formed by nuts engaged on threaded end portions of the peg, a device for preventing the nut of the upper shoulder from rotating being added.


A hydraulic hose impulse tester capable of simultaneously testing multiple samples of hydraulic hose in a stationary-impulse condition and in a flexing-impulse condition in the same test environment. The tester eliminates varying extraneous factors which can affect comparative test results by performing the static and dynamic tests simultaneously. Alternatively, all sample hoses can be tested in either a static or dynamic condition.

In the past it has been difficult to test hydraulic hose reliably because the test procedure calls for sample hydraulic hose to be tested with high pressure impulses both while it is sitting still and while it is flexing. Before the invention of my hydraulic hose flex-impulse tester, this required testing on separate test apparatus. The first apparatus was designed only for stationary-impulse testing. The second apparatus was designed only for flex-impulse testing. Each apparatus required its own hydraulic oil tank, oil heater, and oil pump. If each apparatus was located in a different environment or if each test was performed at a different time, the atmospheric conditions for each test, including ambient temperature, were different. These disparate testing environments have the potential to significantly affect the test results.
My invention solves the above problems by combining the stationary-impulse and flex-impulse testing apparatus into one simplified unit. Fewer manifolds, and only one oil tank, oil heater, and oil pump are required for both the stationary-impulse and flex-impulse test. Because both tests are performed simultaneously in the same test chamber, the atmospheric conditions for each test are identical. More accurate test results are produced.


The present invention includes biocompatible coatings and films for use on implantable medical devices and medical devices containing such coatings and films applied to a surface thereof, which coatings/films are present on the device in an amount effective to provide an inert surface to be in contact with body tissue of a mammal upon implantation of the device in the mammal, and contain a film-forming polyfluoro copolymer containing the polymerized residue of a moiety selected from the group consisting of vinylidenefluoride and tetrafluoroethylene copolymerized with a second moiety other than the first moiety, wherein the relative amounts of the polymerized residue of the first and second moieties are effective to provide the coating and films with properties effective for use in coating implantable med devices.

The invention relates to the use of polyfluoro copolymers as coatings for implantable surgical medical devices.
Implantable medical devices are used in various medical procedures. Such devices include, without limitation, stents, catheters, sutures, meshes, vascular grafts, shunts and filters for removing emboli.
Stents, which generally are open tubular structures, have become increasingly important in medical procedures to restore the function of body lumens. Stents now are commonly used in translumenial procedures such as angioplasty to restore adequate blood flow to the heart and other organs. However, deployment of stents may stimulate foreign body reactions thereto that result in thrombosis or restenosis.
To avoid these complications, a variety of stent coatings and compositions have been proposed to reduce the incidence of these complications. The coatings may be capable themselves of reducing the stimulus the stent provides to the injured lumen wall, thus reducing the tendency towards thrombosis or restenosis. Alternately, the coating may deliver a pharmaceutical/therapeutic agent or drug to the lumen that reduces smooth muscle tissue proliferation or restenosis. The reported mechanism for delivery of the agent has been via diffusion of the agent through either the bulk polymer, or through pores that are created in the polymer structure, or by erosion of a biodegradable coating.
Both bioabsorbable and biostable compositions have been reported as coatings for stents. They generally have been polymeric coatings that either encapsulate a pharmaceutical/therapeutic agent or drug, e.g. taxol, rapamycin, etc., or bind such an agent to the surface, e.g. heparin-coated stents. These coatings are applied to the stent in a number of ways, including, though not limited to, dip, spray, or spin coating processes.
One class of biostable materials that has been reported as coatings for stents is polyfluoro homopolymers. Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) homopolymers have been used as implants for many years. These homopolymers are not soluble in any solvent at reasonable temperatures and therefore are difficult to coat onto small medical devices while maintaining important features of the devices (e.g. slots in stents).
Stents with coatings made from polyvinylideneflouride homopolymers and containing pharmaceutical/therapeutic agents or drugs for release have been suggested. However, like most crystalline polyfluoro homopolymers, they are difficult to apply as high quality films onto surfaces without subjecting them to relatively high temperatures, e.g. greater than about 125-200xc2x0 C., that correspond to the melting temperature of the polymer.
It would be advantageous to develop coatings for implantable medical devices that will reduce thrombosis, restenosis, or other adverse reactions, that may include, but do not require, the use of pharmaceutical or therapeutic agents or drugs to achieve such affects, and that possess physical and mechanical properties effective for use in such devices, even when such coated devices are subjected to relatively low maximum temperatures.
The present invention includes biocompatible coatings and films for use on implantable medical devices and medical devices comprising such coatings and films applied to a surface thereof that is to be in contact with body tissue of a mammal. The biocompatible film provides an inert surface to be in contact with body tissue of a mammal upon implantation of the device in the mammal. The coating and film comprise a film-forming polyfluoro copolymer comprising the polymerized residue of a first moiety selected from the group consisting of vinylidenefluoride (VDF) and tetrafluoroethylene (TFE), and the polymerized residue of a second moiety other than said first moiety and which is copolymerized with said first moiety, thereby producing the polyflouro copolymer, said second moiety being capable of providing toughness or elastomeric properties to the polyfluoro copolymer, wherein the relative amounts of said polymerized residue of said first moiety and said polymerized residue of said second moiety are effective to provide the coating and film produced therefrom with properties effective for use in coating implantable medical devices.


A running fluid seal arrangement (10) includes a passage for receiving cable (12) with chambers (20,21 and 22). Water at a higher pressure than gas in main (11) is pumped via pump (26) into chamber (21) from a reservoir (27). A mixture of gas and water from the interface in the region of chamber (20) is passed to a sealed pressure vessel (28). Water therefrom can pass back to reservoir via float valve (29). Wiper seals (30,36 and 37) can also be provided.

The invention relates to a seal arrangement and method which provides a very low friction mechanism.
In pipe inspection techniques, for example, there is a need to insert long lengths of cable, hoses, umbilicals or the like into the pipe and arrange for these to be towed or otherwise transported through the pipeline. The term xe2x80x98cablexe2x80x99 hereinafter is intended to encompass all such elongate flexible members.
In the case of fluid carrying pipelines, such as natural gas pipelines, it is necessary to seal the cable at the entry point to prevent loss of fluid carried in the pipe, i.e. xe2x80x98livexe2x80x99 pipeline conditions.
In the past, poor sealing occurred due to debris on the cable. If a tighter seal was utilised, then the greater degree of friction occurred limiting the effectiveness of cable travel, which may be required to be several hundred meters in length through the pipeline.
The invention is concerned with overcoming such disadvantages to provide a running seal that is fluid tight.
According to the invention there is provided a seal arrangement for a cable including means for providing a first fluid at a first pressure to counter a second fluid at a second pressure in a duct receiving the cable to provide a low friction barrier seal as the cable moves or is utilised through the duct.
Further according to the invention there is provided a method of sealing a cable passing through an aperture in a duct the method comprising: applying and maintaining a first fluid pressure around the cable to counter a second fluid pressure present in the duct to provide a barrier seal.