The present invention relates to a gelatin or pectin based antimicrobial surface coating material. In the present invention, boron compounds are mixed with gelatin or pectin and a surface coating material in the form of a film is obtained. The said coating material can be used in all packaging industry requiring hygiene particularly in food industry. The invention enables packages to be antifungal, anticandidal and antibacterial.

The primary purpose in food packaging is to protect the food from factors such as oxygen, light, microbial contamination, chemical and physical degradation until the food reaches the consumer. The food package serves as a barrier between the food and the outer environment. The food package also plays an important role in ensuring food quality and safety, extending shelf life, minimizing waste of food, and reducing the preservatives added to the food [1].
The most important chemical and biochemical reactions causing quality losses or food safety problems are the enzymatic and non-enzymatic browning reactions, oil hydrolysis, oil oxidation, protein denaturation, hydrolysis of oligo and polysaccharides, and denaturation of several pigments. In addition to the chemical reactions; microbial degradation caused by bacteria, yeasts and fungi is another important factor impacting food quality and safety.
While food degradation can occur during production phase it may also occur during transportation and storage. This causes quality losses and food safety problems. While shelf life of the food is related to all of the phases in the food production, packaging phase is among the most important ones of these phases. When shelf lives of the food products are being determined, first of all microbial reliability and then chemical and sensory quality factors are evaluated. Some products may get affected by external factors although they are packaged. Shelf lives of the products may be increased by keeping some of the parameters in the external environment under control [1, 2].
Glass, paper, cardboard, wood, aluminum, can, plastic and plastic based packaging materials can be given as examples of conventional food packaging methods. Plastics are the most preferred type of packaging due to various advantages thereof. Plastics are widely preferred for use as packaging materials due to their properties of being inexpensive and lightweight, easy to process, transparent and ability to be produced in different colors, ability to be very rigid or flexible depending on purpose of use, being resistant against low or high temperatures, having gas permeability of various levels, being resistant against oils and solvents, being inert in general. In addition to these advantages, the fact that the plastics remain undegraded in nature for many years is the most important disadvantage [3].
Parallel to the innovations in food production technology, food packaging technology also exhibits continuous development. Biodegradable packaging, active packaging, smart packaging and packaging systems produced with nanotechnology are among the most important innovative packaging systems. One of the most important reasons of developing this type of packaging systems is to minimize waste of food when supplying food to the human population which is increasing day by day by delaying food degradation [1].
Antimicrobial active packaging process is one of the new technologies, and it enables to integrate one or more antimicrobial compounds to the packaging material and to protect the food from spoilage by release of the said compound(s) from the packaging material to the surface of the food product throughout the shelf life. The package releasing an antimicrobial agent is a packaging system which inactivates the microorganisms causing food spoilage, prevents spoilage and extends shelf life of the food products. Packages having antimicrobial activity reduce the growth rate of microorganisms or the number of viable cells thereby extending the lag period [4]. Different organic and inorganic antimicrobial agents are used in the packaging material. The antimicrobial agents that will be used in a food package should be safe and comply with the food or packaging regulations.
Biopolymer based new packaging systems have been required to be developed in order to solve the environmental solid waste problems originating from use of petrochemical plastic packages. Urbanization, downsizing food portions, increase in consumption of readymade food and the fact that packaging materials degrade in nature after a certain period of time have enabled to decrease environmental problems originating from package garbage. Biodegradable polymer is viewed as a promising technology since it is environmentally friendly, decomposes in nature and is renewable [2, 5].
Active packaging systems are obtained by contributing different functional features to the package besides its barrier function by adding various active components to the packaging materials or by using functional polymers. For active packaging, active content is added into the coating material in order to meet desired migration or stability properties. In the controlled release systems, the active content is added into the polymeric matrix so that it can migrate and exhibit its antioxidant, antimicrobial or nutraceutical properties [2, 5].
Antimicrobial packaging is a type of active packaging. While antimicrobial active agents can be added directly to the packaging material in order to reduce the microbial load in the food and the contamination that might be caused by food pathogens, the food packaging can also be completely made of an antimicrobial polymer. Active antimicrobial packaging systems enable antimicrobial activity by reducing the growth rate and the number of microorganisms as well as by extending the lag phase [6, 7].
Gelatin is an additive used for improving textural and rheological properties of various food products in food industry. It is generally used for gelling, condensation, film forming, water binding, thickening, texturizing and stabilizing. In frozen food products, gelatin prevents crystallization of water and sugar thereby preventing degradation in the structures and textures of these food products. The gelatin used in ice creams prevents separation of the water phase by its water binding feature, and furthermore increases concentration of the product and is used for controlling foam formation during the production. Gelatin is also used as a coating material because of its gelling and film forming properties. Gelatin is further used as a wall material in microencapsulation applications and aroma encapsulation is an example of this. In the recent years, gelatin is also used in food coating applications as a carrier.
Pectin is widely used in fruit juices, jams, jellies, marmalades, fruit candies and milk products due to its gelling, thickening, emulgator and stabilizer properties in food products. Pectin is also used in some drug compositions used against diarrhea in drug industry.
Among the studies available in the literature, Muriel-Galet et al. developed an antimicrobial EVOH (ethylene vinyl alcohol) film by using oregano essential oil and citral, and coated this film over a corona treated PP (polypropylene) film surface [8]. A bag is produced from the material that is developed and it is used for packaging of a ready-to-eat salad mixture. It was determined that particularly in the beginning, bacteria, yeast and fungus load in the products decreased during the shelf life and that the shelf life was extended.
Cerisuelo et al. similarly developed a PP/EVOH/PP packaging material using carvacrol as an antimicrobial agent and used this active film as the upper film for the salmon fish placed in plastic cans, and stated that carvacrol extends shelf life of the fish [9]. Carvacrol is used as an additive in edible films due to its antimicrobial property and enables to extend shelf life of various meat products such as chicken, ham and sausage [10, 11]. Since thymol also has a high antimicrobial property like carvacrol, it can be used as active substance in plastic films and edible films [12]. Suppakul et al. compiled information regarding effects of basil volatile oil on microorganisms and potential opportunities of its use as a food additive and for antimicrobial packaging [13]. Suppakul et al. integrated linalool and methylchavicol, which are basil oil components, into LDPE and used it for cheese [14]. They disclosed that the films they have developed have a high antimicrobial activity and do not change sensory properties of the cheese.
In addition; antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica, Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus is obtained by adding papaya puree and cinnamaldehyde to the pectin film material [15]. Moreover, antibacterial activity has been achieved against E. Coli and L. monocytogenes by adding silver nanoparticles and nanoclay [16]; against E. coli and S. Aureus monocytogenes by adding oregano and lavender essential oil [17]; and against E. coli, L. monocytogenes by adding zinc oxide nanoparticles [18].
There are studies in the literature on the antimicrobial properties of boron compounds. Bailey et al. (1980) proved, with the experiments they conducted, that boric acid has antibacterial activity on enteric bacteria. Antibacterial agents containing boron were tried on gram negative (G (−)) bacteria and were observed to be effective [19]. Another study showed that boric esters have a broad spectrum antibacterial activity [20].
Reynold et al. (2007) showed that lipophilic 2,4-diamino-6-methylpyrimidine antifolate compound, which comprises two different borons, has a moderate level antibacterial activity against the bacteria Mycobacterium avium and Lactobacillus casei [21].
A study by Qin et al. showed that 0.1% potassium tetraborate is the minimum concentration to inhibit micelle growth of Penicillium expansium [22].
Qin et al. (2010), in their other studies, have shown that 1% potassium tetraborate can control growth of Botrytis cinerea which leads to gray mold disease [23].
Chinese patent document no. CN104559075 discloses a packaging material which is made of a high-temperature-resistant fresh-keeping boron-containing polyester film.
Canadian patent document no. CA2735531 discloses organoboron compounds used in food packaging.

Gelatin or pectin based antimicrobial surface coating material


The reception quality of the radio signal is detected in a wakeup period. The detected reception quality is compared with the first threshold. If the detected reception quality is equal to or higher than the first threshold, the duration of a wakeup period as a next reception target is set to the first time. If the detected reception quality is less than the first threshold, the duration of the wakeup period as the next reception target is set to the second time longer than the first time.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile communication terminal apparatus used in a cellular radio communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, cellular radio communication systems have become popularized. In a cellular radio communication system, a plurality of base stations are distributed in a service area, and radio zones called cells are formed by these base stations. In each of these cells, radio connection is established between the base station and each mobile communication terminal apparatus. In this type of system, when a mobile communication terminal apparatus is powered on, synchronization is established between the mobile communication terminal apparatus and the nearest base station. After the establishment of synchronization, the apparatus transitions to a standby state.
In a standby state, the mobile communication terminal apparatus performs intermittent reception operation. In the intermittent reception operation, a wakeup period and sleep period are alternately set in a predetermined standby cycle so as to reduce the power consumption of the mobile communication terminal apparatus. The standby cycle is defined by the system.
In a wakeup period, the mobile communication terminal apparatus sequentially performs operation for wakeup, reception timing identification operation, and paging reception operation. According to W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) (IMT-2000: 3GPP standards), for example, operation for wakeup, reception timing identification operation, and reception operation for a paging indicator channel (PICH) are sequentially performed.
Of these operations, in reception timing identification operation, first of all, the time average of the reception levels of radio signals arrived from a base station during synchronization establishment (to be referred to as an active base station hereinafter) is detected in a preset reception level measurement interval. The time average of reception levels is detected to suppress the influences of interference and noise. A path as a reception target is then selected on the basis of the detected time average of reception levels, and reception timing identification is performed for the selected path. In PICH reception operation, PICH reception is performed in accordance with the identified reception timing. When an incoming message addressed to the home terminal is detected, reception operation for termination control is performed in succession. If no incoming message addressed to the home terminal is detected, the apparatus performs operation for transition to a sleep period.
Mobile communication terminal apparatuses have recently been required to have longer continuous standby times. For this reason, various schemes of further reducing power consumption in intermittent reception operation have been proposed.
In the first scheme, for example, only when the reception level of a radio signal from an active base station is less than a threshold, a base station for which synchronization should be established is switched from the active base station to a neighboring base station. This switching processing is generally called reselection.
After the above PICH reception, the mobile communication terminal apparatus compares the detected value of the reception level of a radio signal from the active base station with a threshold. If the detected value is equal to or more than the threshold, the apparatus directly transitions to a sleep period. In contrast to this, if the detected value is less than the threshold, the apparatus searches for a neighboring base station without transitioning to a sleep period. The apparatus then compares the detected value of the reception level of a radio signal from the neighboring base station detected by this search with the detected value of the reception level of the radio signal from the above active base station. If a neighboring base station is found, which is higher in the detected value of reception level than the active base station by a predetermined level or more, reselection is executed. If no neighboring base station is found, which satisfies the above condition, the apparatus transitions to a sleep period.
According to the second scheme, a radio telephone apparatus is designed to measure the reception levels of radio waves from a base station in communication and other base stations for zone transition determination. In this scheme, the apparatus obtains the differences between the reception level of a radio wave from a base station in communication and the reception level of a radio wave from each of other base stations. As this difference increases, the frequency of measurement of the reception levels of radio waves from neighboring base stations is decreased. As the difference decreases, the frequency of measurement of the reception levels of radio waves from neighboring base stations is increased. This scheme is disclosed in, for example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2001-285911.
The use of these schemes will omit the operation of measuring the reception levels of radio signals from neighboring base-stations or reduce the frequency of measurement while the reception levels of radio signals from an active base station are high. This makes it possible to reduce the power consumption of the terminal apparatus in a standby state as compared with a case wherein the reception levels of radio signals from neighboring base stations are always measured regardless of the reception levels of radio signals from an active base station.
In each of the first and second schemes, however, the reception level measurement interval is always fixed in both cases wherein the reception levels of radio signals from an active base station are to be measured and the reception levels of radio signals from neighboring base stations are to be measured. For this reason, every time a reception level is measured, a predetermined amount of power is consumed.
In order to reduce the power consumption due to this reception level measurement, the reception level measurement interval may be shortened. If, however, the reception level measurement time is simply shortened, the interference and noise suppression effects become insufficient. In addition, a trouble occurs in reception timing identification, and the PICH reception performance deteriorates. Furthermore, the measurement precision on the reception levels of radio signals from an active base station and neighboring base stations deteriorates, and variations in measured values increase. For this reason, even reselection that need not be done as long as measurement is executed with high precision is done. As a consequence, the wakeup period increases, resulting in an increase in power consumption.

Mobile communication terminal apparatus which performs intermittent reception


The present invention provides a pretreatment method to reduce saturated fatty acids of fatty acids used as feedstock when preparing ester polyols. The range of feedstock includes non-fractionated to fully fractionated feedstock. Performing some fractionation by distillation of the fatty acids derived from feedstock eliminates the need to fractionate the various ozone esters from each other before esterification. Further, the approach of the present invention is more economical and efficient than the conventional method of fractionation by crystallization.

Ester polyols are very useful for the production of polyurethane-based coatings and foams, as well as, polyester applications. The present invention provides a process using renewable resources, such as, oils and fats, fatty acids, and fatty acid alkyl esters derived from plants and animals to produce polyurethane foams and lubricants. Some chemicals derived from vegetable oils and animal fats are oleochemicals, which can have structures similar to petrochemicals, which are chemicals derived from petroleum. As the price of crude oil increases, an increase in demand from oleochemicals is expected.
Plant oils and animal fats are primarily composed of triglycerides that can be readily hydrolyzed to their component fatty acids and glycerin. Fatty acids obtained from either source are typically composed of mixtures of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids and fatty acids obtained from plant oils are usually richer in unsaturated fatty acids. Saturated fatty acids typically have higher melting points and much lower solubilities in a variety of solvents and other components than unsaturated fatty acids and partial removal of saturated fatty acids is practiced in certain applications. As described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,813,113 and related patents, fatty acids may be subjected to oxidative ozonolysis which involves an initial reaction with ozone to form intermediate ozonides followed by the oxidation of such intermediates with oxygen and a catalyst. This process generates mixtures of monoacids and diacids which are commonly called ozone acids. The oxidative ozonolysis process cleaves all double bonds in unsaturated fatty acids and introduces carboxylic acid functionality at all original double-bonded carbon atoms present in unsaturated fatty acids. Based on U.S. Pat. No. 2,813,113, the ozonolysis stage must be performed at relatively low temperatures and the viscosity of the intermediate ozonides is advantageously kept below minimum values at low temperatures. Typically a solvent is used in the oxidative ozonolysis process to help reduce reaction mixture viscosities. Since the viscosities of unsaturated fatty acids can be less than the viscosity of the corresponding saturated fatty acid, partial removal of saturated fatty acids can result in further reduction of reaction viscosity. Also, partial removal of saturated fatty acids, which do not undergo reaction with ozone or oxygen, before oxidative ozonolysis can increase the efficiency of mixing and reaction of unsaturated fatty acids with gaseous ozone and oxygen during the two-stage oxidative ozonolysis process. Removal of non-reactive saturated fatty acids prior to oxidative ozonolysis also can reduce the reactor size required to produce a certain amount of cleaved product. Thus, there is a rationale for partial removal of saturated fatty acids from unsaturated fatty acid feedstocks before undergoing oxidative ozonolysis.
A common industrial method to purify fatty acids involves fractional crystallization of saturated fatty acids from unsaturated fatty acids at relatively low temperatures either without or with the aid of solvents. This approach is based on the fact that saturated fatty acids typically have higher melting points and lower solubilities in other components than unsaturated fatty acids. When solvents are not used, mixtures of fatty acids are first heated so that the sample is fully liquid and these samples are then slowly cooled to temperatures of about 35° F. which results in partial crystallization of saturated fatty acids while the unsaturated fatty acids mainly remain in the liquid state. The solidified saturated fatty acids are then typically removed by filtration involving application of pressure to squeeze the liquid from the solid mass. Disadvantages of this approach are that the lower temperature must be reached slowly to obtain effective selective fractionation and this process results in only partial fractionation of saturated fatty acids from unsaturated fatty acids. Fractional crystallization has also been performed by initially dissolving fatty acid mixtures in solvents such as methanol or acetone and decreasing the temperature to −15° C. when methanol is used and −50° C. when acetone is used. A disadvantage of this approach is that these flammable solvents must be recovered and recycled to enhance the economics of this process. Tallow, a common source of fatty acids, consists of about 47 percent of the mono-unsaturated fatty acid oleic acid. When solvent-based crystallization techniques are applied to tallow, the product recovered from solvent contains 70-80 percent oleic acid.
The conventional method of fractionation of fatty acids by crystallization is shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 also shows the oxidative ozonolysis of the fractionated fatty acids to form a mixture of ozone acids that are then converted to product ester polyols. Another reason to remove saturated fatty acids from mixtures of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids is the enhanced performance of ester polyols containing reduced quantities of saturated fatty acids.

Method for the production of polyols and uses thereof


The image forming apparatus comprises: a liquid droplet discharge head which has a plurality of first nozzles that discharge liquid droplets onto a recording medium to perform an image recording, and has a plurality of second nozzles that discharge liquid droplets under previously established prescribed discharge conditions; a discharge determinnation device which determines a liquid droplet discharge status of the plurality of second nozzles; and a restoration control device which controls a timing at which a restoring process is carried out with respect to the plurality of first nozzles according to a determination result obtained by the discharge determination device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and a nozzle restoring method, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus which records images by discharging droplets of ink or the like onto a recording medium, and a nozzle restoring method for same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, one known example of an image forming apparatus is an inkjet recording apparatus (inkjet printer) that has an inkjet head (ink ejection head) with an alignment of multiple nozzles and that forms an image on a recording medium by ejecting ink from the nozzles while moving the inkjet head and the recording medium relative to each other.
Various methods are known in conventional practice as ink ejection methods for such an inkjet recording apparatus. Known examples include a piezoelectric system wherein a vibration plate that constitutes part of a pressure chamber (ink chamber) is deformed by the deformation of a piezoelectric element (piezoelectric ceramics), the capacity of the pressure chamber is changed, ink is led into the pressure chamber from an ink supply channel during this increase in pressure chamber capacity, and the ink in the pressure chamber is ejected as droplets during the decrease in pressure chamber capacity. Further, known examples also include a thermal inkjet system wherein ink is heated to create air bubbles for ejecting the ink by the expansion energy when the air bubbles grow.
In an image forming apparatus having an ink discharge head such as an inkjet recording apparatus, ink is supplied to an ink discharge head via an ink supply channel from an ink tank which stores ink, and this ink is discharged by one of the various discharge methods described above. However, it is necessary that ink is discharged stably in such a manner that factors such as the ink discharge volume, the discharge velocity, the discharge direction, and the three-dimensional shape of the discharged ink, conform to uniform values at all times.
However, during printing, the nozzles of the ink discharge head are filled with ink at all times, in order that printing can be performed as soon as a printing instruction is issued. Therefore, the ink in the nozzles is exposed to the air, and the ink in nozzles which do not perform discharge for a long period of time dries, the viscosity of the ink increases, and nozzle blockages may occur. Increased viscosity at the ink meniscus in a nozzle can cause ink discharge failures. Furthermore, foreign matter, such as dust or air bubbles introduced into the ink supply channels may accumulate, thus blocking the ink supply and giving rise to discharge errors.
Therefore, various means have been devised in the related art in order to eliminate ink discharge errors and discharge failures of this kind. For instance, ink of increased viscosity at the meniscus region of a nozzle which may cause an ink discharge failure is subjected to a restoring process, such a purging (dummy discharge or preliminary discharge), or suction, whereby the ink of increased viscosity is expelled forcibly to the outside of the machine, at periodic intervals.
One known example discloses a system for an inkjet head having a plurality of printing nozzles connected directly to a common ink chamber and arranged in accordance with the pixel density, a discharge energy application device being provided inside each printing nozzle. Dummy nozzles, which are connected to the common ink chamber, have a smaller flow resistance than the printing nozzles, and do not contribute to printing, are provided with respect to the printing nozzles, in such a manner that dust, air bubbles, or the like, inside the inkjet head can be expelled effectively (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 6-270400).
Furthermore, an example is known in which a plurality of ink discharge ports of different diameters for discharging different quantities of ink are arranged in a discharge surface, and stable ink discharge is achieved by imparting an optimal shape to the liquid-attracting portion of the ink discharge surface in accordance with the amount of ink discharged from the respective ink discharge ports (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 8-39805).
Moreover, an example is known in which a plurality of discharge ports for discharging ink include large-diameter discharge ports and small-diameter discharge ports, the number of small-diameter discharge ports being greater than the number of large-diameter discharge ports. Ink flow channels connected to the large-diameter discharge ports and ink flow channels connected to the small-diameter discharge ports are arranged in a mixed fashion in line with ink supply ports, and a group of a plurality of small-diameter discharge ports is disposed between respective large-diameter discharge ports. In this way, it is possible to carry out a uniform restoring process of the large-diameter discharge ports and the small-diameter discharge ports (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-127383).
Furthermore, an example is known in which the ambient temperature and humidity of a recording head is determined, and preliminary discharge, which is a discharge that does not contribute to recording, is performed on the basis of preliminary discharge drive conditions established in accordance with the determination results (see, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-190528). In this way, stable discharge can be achieved, even in an environment subject to variations in temperature and humidity.
However, in the related art, purging (preliminary discharge) for restoring nozzles which have produced a discharge error as described above is carried out on the basis of a timer or the number of droplet ejection operations performed, but since there is variation in the timing at which a discharge failure occurs, due to the environment (temperature and humidity) in the vicinity of the nozzles, the viscosity of the ink, and the like, then the timing for implementing purging is set so as to include a certain safety margin. Therefore, purging is carried out when the ink has not yet actually increased in viscosity and when purging is not actually necessary, and this means that the frequency of the restoring process is high and ink is consumed wastefully.
In Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 6-270400, the flow channel resistance of the dummy nozzles which expel dust, air bubbles, and the like, is less than the flow channel resistance of the printing nozzles. Therefore, during suction, a greater amount of ink is expelled from the dummy nozzles, and the printing nozzles may not be restored satisfactorily, in addition to which, a large amount of ink is consumed wastefully.
Moreover, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 8-39805, nozzles of different diameters are arranged in order to maintain recording density, and they are not used to control restoring processes. Therefore, the frequency of restoring processes remains high and ink is consumed wastefully.
In Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-127383, by forming a plurality of small-diameter discharge ports between respective large-diameter discharge ports, a restoring process is carried out uniformly with respect to the small-diameter discharge ports as well as the large-diameter discharge ports. However, similarly to Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 8-39805, frequency of restoring processes remains high and ink is consumed wastefully.
Furthermore, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-190528, the time until a preliminary discharge (purging) operation is previously specified and there may be cases where preliminary discharge is carried out when it is not actually necessary, thus causing wasteful consumption of ink. In Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-190528, the temperature and humidity of the recording head are determined, and the timing of preliminary discharge is established in accordance with these determination results. However, there also exist other environmental factors, such as the wind force that acts on the meniscus surface when the recording head is moved back and forth over the recording medium, the heat radiated from the recording medium, and the like, and hence the timing of preliminary discharge cannot be specified on the basis of the ambient temperature and humidity of the recording head alone.

Image forming apparatus and nozzle restoring method


In a data encoding apparatus, when a prefix length calculation and determination units determine that the code length of a variable length code constituted of continuous bits “0” is equal to or greater than the predetermined maximum prefix length max_prefix during Golomb-Rice encoding of encoding subject data having a fixed length of D bits, second encoding is performed in place of the Golomb-Rice encoding. The second encoding is performed by having a prefix generation unit generate a prefix constituted of continuous bits “0” corresponding to the max_prefix, and having a code generation unit attach the prefix to the upper order bits of the encoding subject data. Furthermore, when a control code such as a restart marker is to be attached, a marker generation unit generates, as the control code, a code constituted of continuous bits “0” by the number which is equal to or greater than the length of (max_prefix+2×D).

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a data encoding apparatus, a data encoding method, and a recording medium recorded with a program for encoding fixed length encoding subject data.
2. Description of Related Art
It is generally known that when encoded data are stored at a fixed length and an error occurs during transmission or the like, further data expansion may become impossible.
Hence, international standard encoding methods such as JPEG prescribe a technique of attaching restart markers to the encoded data at appropriate intervals such that even when an error occurs in a part of the data, expansion of the encoded data can be resumed from the position of the subsequent restart marker. An example of this technique is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication H9-247423.
By providing restart markers, not only is error resistance enhanced, but it also becomes possible to expand a desired part of the data alone at high speed, and also to expand the parts of the encoded data defined by the restart markers in parallel, leading to a reduction in the processing time.
Conventionally, Golomb-Rice encoding is employed in JPEG-LS and the like. When restart markers are embedded into Golomb-Rice encoded data, it is impossible to determine the presence of a restart marker simply by sequential reading, and therefore offset information indicating the positions of the restart markers must be provided separately. Information having a so-called chain structure, denoted by the byte count from a certain restart marker to the next restart marker or the like, may be used as the offset information. With this technique, even when the data of a certain bit position within the encoded data are rewritten, decoding can be resumed from the position of the subsequent restart marker.
However, with a technique such as that described above, in which restart markers are embedded in Golomb-Rice encoded data as a control code using offset information, the position of the restart marker may deviate from the position indicated by the offset information due to missing data, the attachment of error information, and so on at a point in the data, and hence the position of the restart marker cannot be specified even though the restart marker exists. As a result, it may become impossible to decode the information. Furthermore, since the offset information takes a chain structure, damage to the position information of a certain restart marker causes similar damage to the position information of the subsequent restart markers.
Therefore, the degree of error resistance of a conventional restart marker which can be applied to Golomb-Rice encoding and so on cannot be said to be sufficiently high. For this reason, it is desirable that a technique of attaching restart markers which have a higher degree of error resistance and are not dependent on offset information be developed.

Data encoding apparatus, data encoding method, and recording medium recorded with program


Techniques are disclosed for recording secure notes from the lock screen of a computing device. A note recording user interface may be accessed from the lock screen to allow a user to leave a note, such as a text, video, audio, or drawn note, or some combination thereof. The notes left using the note recording user interface may be saved such that only the intended recipient can access them, for example, after unlocking the computing device, thereby preventing others from seeing previously saved notes. The secure note system may include a retrieve notes function that allows users and/or recipients to retrieve the recorded notes directly from the lock screen of the computing device used to record them. The secure note system may also be configured to send notifications to inform the recipient when a secure note has been recorded (e.g., email or text message including copy of note).

Computing devices such as computers, laptops, tablets, eReaders, mobile phones, smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), video game consoles, and other such electronic devices generally have an operating system that manages the device's hardware resources and provides services or applications to an end user. The end user typically interacts with the services or applications using a user interface (UI). In most instances, the UI, and therefore the computing device, is configured to have a locked or logged-out state, where a lock/login screen is displayed until a passkey is provided (e.g., a password, pattern, or PIN). Only users that know the passkey can unlock the screen or login to access the system. The locked state may be entered into manually (e.g., by using a control-alt-delete keystroke or a lock button) or automatically (e.g., after a period of inactivity).

Secure note system for computing device lock screen


Provided is a catalyst for producing hydrogen, which catalyst has higher performance than conventional catalysts since, for example, it exhibits a certain high level of activity in an aqueous formic acid solution at high concentration even without addition of a solvent, amine and/or the like. The metal phosphine complex is a metal phosphine complex represented by General Formula (1): MHm(CO)Ln, wherein M represents an iridium, iron, rhodium or ruthenium atom; in cases where M is an iridium or rhodium atom, m=3 and n=2, and in cases where M is an iron or ruthenium atom, m=2 and n=3; and the number n of Ls each independently represent a tri-substituted phosphine represented by General Formula (2): PR1R2R3. The catalyst for producing hydrogen comprises the metal phosphine complex as a constituent component.

In recent years, formic acid, similarly to methanol and organic hydrides, is being studied all over the world as a promising hydrogen-storing material, because of its ability to produce hydrogen at room temperature. Formic acid fuel cells (for example, see Patent Document 1) have already been begun to be supplied to the market.
For production of hydrogen from formic acid in production of fuel cells and the like, there is a method using a microorganism that generates hydrogen using formic acid as the energy source (biocatalyst) (Patent Document 2). However, methods using chemical catalysts, which are excellent in heat resistance, acid resistance and the like compared to biocatalysts, are being extensively developed at home and abroad. Representative examples of the methods using chemical catalysts include the high-temperature pyrolysis method (Non-patent Document 1), solid catalyst method (Non-patent Document 2) and metal complex catalyst method (Patent Documents 3 to 5, Non-patent Documents 3 to 7).
On the other hand, as iridium hydride complexes represented by the general formula IrH3(CO)L2, compounds having PPh3, PCy3, PEt3, PPh2(4-MePh) and/or PEt2Ph [wherein Ph is an abbreviation for a phenyl group, Cy is an abbreviation for a cyclohexyl group, Et is an abbreviation for an ethyl group, and Me is an abbreviation for a methyl group; the same applies hereinafter] as a ligand Ls are known (according to search with Scifinder). Further, as iridium complexes represented by the general formula Ir(acac)L2 [wherein acac is an abbreviation for acetylacetonato; the same applies hereinafter], compounds having PPh3, PMePh2, PMe3 and/or PPh2Py [wherein Py is an abbreviation of a pyridyl group; the same applies hereinafter] as a ligand L(s) are known, and, as iridium hydride complexes represented by the general formula IrH3L3, compounds having PPh3, PMe2Ph, PPh(4-MePh) and/or PMePh2 as a ligand Ls are known.
For example, in relation to such compounds, Patent Document 6 describes a method wherein, by contacting IrHxHal3-xPn2 or IrHxHal3-x(CO)Pn2 (wherein x represents 0 to 3, Pn represents tertiary phosphine or arsine, and Hal represents Cl, Br or I) with a mixture of formic acid and another fatty acid or fatty acid ester, formic acid in the mixture is selectively decomposed. The general description in its specification describes that the above complex is preferably IrH3P(PAr3)3 (wherein Ar represents a phenyl group or a substituted phenyl group) (see lines 59-60 in column 1, and claim 5), and IrH3(PPh3)3 is used in Examples (see Examples 5, 6, 8 and 9).
However, Patent Document 6 only describes that formic acid at a low concentration can be decomposed in a mixture in which a fatty acid or fatty acid ester coexists (which can also be said to be a formic acid solution containing a fatty acid or fatty acid ester as a solvent). The specification describes that the concentration of formic acid in the above mixture is, for example, 1 to 50% (see the 3rd line from the bottom to the final line in column 1, and claim 7), but the concentration was about 3 to 10% in Examples wherein IrH3(PPh3)3 was used (see Examples 5, 6, 8 and 9). Moreover, neither Example in which a complex having a "substituted phenyl group" was used as a complex represented by IrH3P(PAr3)3 nor Example in which a complex represented by IrH3(CO)Pn2 was used is disclosed at all.
Further, Patent Document 7 describes a method for producing a formic acid or formic acid ester, wherein, in the presence of a catalyst containing a hydride complex of a group VIII transition metal and an aliphatic tertiary amine, a compound represented by the general formula ROH (wherein R represents hydrogen or a hydrocarbon group) (that is, water or an alcohol) is reacted with carbon dioxide and hydrogen. It is described that specific examples of the hydride complex of a group VII transition metal include (PPh3)4RuH2, (PPh3)4IrH3 and (PPh3)3(CO)RhH (see the upper right column in page 2). Further, in Examples, modes wherein a predetermined hydride complex is fed together with methanol, ethanol or water, and carbon dioxide and hydrogen are injected, to produce methyl formate, ethyl formate or formic acid, respectively, are described.
However, although the method described in Patent Document 7 is a method wherein the predetermined complex is used with hydrogen and the like fed separately to produce formic acid or the like (in this process, "hydrogenation of carbon dioxide" occurs), there is neither description nor suggestion on a method wherein hydrogen is obtained from another compound using the above complex and the obtained hydrogen is used to hydrogenate an unsaturated compound (compound having a carbon-carbon unsaturated bond and/or the like). Moreover, Patent Document 7 does not specifically disclose the hydride complex of a group VII transition metal other than those using triphenylphosphine as a ligand. That is, those using phosphine having a substituent other than a phenyl group as a ligand is not specifically disclosed. Moreover, in the hydrogenation reaction described in Patent Document 7, combined use of an aliphatic tertiary amine is described as an essential requirement.
Non-patent Document 8 describes a method wherein formic acid (and, preferably, a formic acid salt) is used in the presence of a transition metal complex to hydrogenate (reduce) olefin and acetylene. It is described that specific examples of the transition metal complex used for hydrogenation of olefin (1-octene) include (Ph3P)2Ir(CO)Br, (Ph3P)3Ir(CO)H, (Ph3P)2IrH2Cl and (Ph3P)2Ir(CO)2H (Table I).
However, Non-patent Document 8 does not specifically disclose a transition metal (e.g., iridium) complex represented by the general formula MHm(CO)Ln other than those using triphenylphosphine as a ligand. That is, those using phosphine having a substituent other than a phenyl group as a ligand is not specifically disclosed. Moreover, for unsaturated compounds having a carbon-carbon triple bond such as 3-hexyne and phenylacetylene, the document does not specifically disclose a mode other than one using (Ph3P)3RhCl as a transition metal complex. Further, in cases where the reaction is carried out at a temperature of about 60° C., especially in cases where only formic acid is used and no formic acid salt is used in combination, the yield of the hydrogenated product tends to be low.

Metal complex compound, hydrogen production catalyst and hydrogenation reaction catalyst each comprising the metal complex compound, and hydrogen production method and hydrogenation method each using the catalyst

National University Corporation Okayama University


An RF terminating resistor with a flange body, a planar layer structure, an upper face of a substrate, a resistance layer, an input conductor track, and an earth connection conductor track. The input conductor track electrically connected to opposite ends of the resistance layer. The substrate having a contact face, facing away from the layer structure. The flange body being bent around in a direction parallel to a first edge facing the earth conductor track, and a predetermined section bent around in a direction at right angles to this edge. The bent-around section extending in a space between a first plane, defined by the contact face, and a second plane, defined by the upper face, with the substrate abutting on the bent-around section connecting the contact face to the upper face and facing the earth connection conductor track on the upper face.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an RF terminating resistor with a flange body and a planar layered structure arranged thereon, which comprises, on an upper face of a substrate, a resistor layer for converting RF energy into heat, an input conductor track for supplying RF energy and an earth connection conductor track for electrical connection to an earth contact on the flange body, wherein the input conductor track is electrically connected to a first end of the resistor layer, the earth connection conductor track is electrically connected to a second end of the resistor layer opposing the first end and the substrate lies on the flange body with a contact face which faces away from the layered structure.
2. Description of Related Art
Broadband RF terminating resistors of flanged construction serve to conduct away large power losses. It is known to mount a resistor structure on a substrate and to arrange said substrate on a flange body which represents an earth contact. In order to create an electrical connection from the resistor structure to the earth contact of the flange body, it is necessary to build up an edge peripheral contact round the substrate or a substrate through contact to the earth connection. However, both are complex and costly.

RF terminating resistor of flanged construction

Rosenberger Hochfrequenztechnik GmbH & Co., KG


A method for detecting a toner concentration of a liquid developer including toner particles and carrier liquid is disclosed. The carrier liquid is separated from the liquid developer and a developer electrical conductivity and a carrier liquid electrical conductivity are detected. The toner concentration is detected based on a difference of the developer electrical conductivity and a carrier liquid electrical conductivity.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to toner concentration control technique for use in electrophotographic equipment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Detection of toner concentration using the electric conductivity of liquid developer has been proposed in in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 3-295453. The electric conductivity is measured using alternating current because measurement using direct current causes movement of ion carriers and polarization which causes voltage drops around the electrodes. The measurement frequency is determined depending on the frequency response of the object. In the case of liquid developer, a frequency of 1 kHz may be preferably used.
However, the number of ionic contaminants or the like increases due to deterioration of liquid developer. Such ionic contaminants become a factor that substantially influences the measurement, resulting in a lower degree of measurement accuracy.

Toner concentration detecting method and system


An electrical connector strip is adapted for structural applications in theater, television and entertainment industries. The connector strip includes a rigid tubular enclosure defining a hollow continuous internal wireway receiving electrical wiring within an inside diameter of the enclosure, and having a substantially uniform outside diameter between opposite ends of the enclosure. At least one outlet pocket is formed in a side wall of the enclosure. A connector adapter plate is located in the outlet pocket, and extends within the inside diameter of the enclosure. At least one output connector is carried by the connector adapter plate, and resides within the inside diameter of the enclosure with external access provided through the outlet pocket.

The present disclosure relates broadly and generally to an electrical connector strip (or "pipe") adapted for structural applications, particularly in theater, television and entertainment industries.
In the theater, television and entertainment industries it is common to hang or support portable lighting fixtures (luminaires) above and around the stage. The standard method used for overhead lighting is simply to hang or support the luminaires from a horizontal pipe using a special pipe or C-Clamp. The standard pipe used for stage lighting applications in North America is known as Schedule 40 (and Schedule 80) pipe. This pipe is rated for structural applications, and is generally used exclusively for lighting applications. The pipe is available in both Schedule 40 (standard wall) and Schedule 80 (extra heavy wall), from a wide number of plumbing and steel suppliers in the USA and Canada. It is usually supplied in 20 or 22′ lengths. This pipe is easily cut and threaded on-site if required to accommodate a wide range of standard plumbing fittings (couples, T's L's and end caps.)
For general theater, television and entertainment lighting applications, 1.5 inch Schedule 40 steel pipe is used almost exclusively. Schedule 80 pipe is often used where additional strength is required. The outside diameter of both 1.5″ SC 40 and SC 80 pipes is 1.90 inches. This pipe is most often used in the construction of overhead lighting grids and is also used as the 'fly pipe' in most counterweight or winch type of systems. This pipe is also used in the construction of vertical lighting booms, lighting towers and lighting ladders.
The standard lighting pipe clamp (C-Clamp) that is used to hang most lighting fixtures is ideally sized and suited for 1.5 inch, SC 40 or 80 pipes. The typical force required to tighten the clamp (by hand) cannot damage the pipe. Some other standard lighting accessories also use the same C-Clamp, including the side arm and the scenery bumper. Although both 1.25″ and 2.0″ pipe will work with most American and British C-Clamps, only 1.50″ pipe (with a 1.90 inch outside diameter) is recommended for professional lighting applications (no exceptions). For most lighting applications, steel 1.5″ SC 40 pipe is supported on not less than 9-10 foot mounting centers. Due to a thicker wall, SC 80 pipe is stronger, heavier and more expensive than SC 40 (standard) pipe.
Typically steel pipe should be specified as being 'rust free' and with a 'clear lacquer protective finish'. It should also be specified that the pipe must be straight and true. This pipe can also be painted (after a complete cleaning and priming).
Although steel SC 40 and SC 80 pipe is used for most lighting applications, this pipe is also available in aluminum with the exact same inside and outside dimensions. Aluminum pipe is more expensive than steel and is usually used only for lightweight or touring applications (such as portable lighting trusses, booms or towers) Aluminum pipe may also be more easily damaged than steel pipe, particularly by an over tightened pipe clamp. Aluminum lighting pipes should not be painted as the paint tends to chip and flake off after prolonged use. The natural aluminum finish is 'self-protecting' and provides some reflective 'glitter', suitable for many entertainment lighting applications. Aluminum SC 40 pipe is often used as the luminaire mounting pipe in the manufacture of aluminum lighting trusses.
SC 40 and SC 80 pipe is often used for structural applications and can easily be welded. In addition to the standard 'threaded' plumbing fittings that are available, a number of different companies also make non threaded accessories (flanges, fittings, hangers and connectors) for many different pipe diameters. (KEE-KLAMP Company, USA, is one example). Structural applications particularly where life safety is concerned should be approved or certified by a registered structural engineer.
Connector Strips have been traditionally constructed of fabricated sheet metal or of aluminum extrusions comprising an enclosure body and enclosure cover. This two-part construction facilitated wire splicing of the internal power connections of the external power cords or flush outlets. As data usage became more prevalent in the entertainment industry, connector strips have added data outlets along with the power outlets. These data outlets have traditionally been located in separate compartments to comply with electrical codes for separation of different classes/voltages of wiring.
In the greatest majority of the previous connector strip designs, an assembly was made of the connector strip body with lid and one or two structural pipe(s), typically one pipe below the connector strip, and sometimes one above and below the connector strip. The purpose of the connector strip is to distribute electrical power and the purpose of the pipe(s) is to support lighting fixtures as well as other items such as scenery, curtains, speakers, and etc . . . The entire connector strip assembly is joined together with brackets and suspended with a variety of methods from the building structure. Often pipes are used without the connector strips to provide additional unpowered locations for curtains, scenery, lighting fixtures and accessories and to reduce the total installed cost. In exemplary embodiments, the invention of the present disclosure (referred to herein as "Power Data Pipe" or "PDP") does away with the need for a separate connector strip and simply uses the pipe body as the electrical enclosure to contain all of the electrical power and data circuits. The PDP does not require permanent wiring to the building. PDP pipe sections that are utilized for curtain and scenery pipes will distribute electrical power and data over the entire pipe when needed by simply plugging in the PDP to a flexible power drop.
The PDP does away with the need for the traditional Connector Strip enclosure by enclosing all of the wiring in the suspended pipe itself. Previously the power and the data wiring have been run in separate compartments. However, there is an exception to this separation rule in the UL 1573 Stage Studio standard in UL 1573 28 Separation of Circuits 28.1 "Conductors of two circuits involving different voltages, such as between a limited-voltage/current circuit and a line voltage circuit, shall be separated from each other by a barrier or segregated as specified in 28.2 unless the conductors of both circuits are insulated for the maximum voltage of either circuit." Using this section of the standard, if the lower voltage (data in this case) wiring is provided with the same voltage insulation as the highest voltage wiring required in the enclosure, and the data is related to the power circuits, then both may co-exist in the same enclosure. The PDP utilizes this format of using the same high voltage insulation for both power and data wiring, with the Data wiring controlling the devices attached to the power wiring, to run both the power and data wiring in the same enclosure. The requirement for separation of Data wiring from the power wiring is overcome by utilizing Data wires with the same voltage insulation as the requirement for the power wiring.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Electrical connector strip adapted for structural applications


Systems and methods for encoding a video stream based upon identified regions of interest (ROI's) are disclosed herein. Standard video encoding schemes require a significant amount of unnecessary data in order to designate macroblocks to be skipped for a particular video frame of a video stream. Rather than encoding such skip or no skip information for each macroblock (or sequence of macroblocks) for each frame, embodiments disclosed herein can encode the video stream based upon an identified ROI that represents an area of macroblocks that change and/or do not remain static from one frame to the next. Designating active areas in terms of the ROI can yield more efficient encoding.

Conventional video encoding utilizes a number of techniques to reduce the size of a compressed video stream. Reducing the size of this data can allow the data to be transferred over a network more efficiently and decoded and/or decompressed at the destination. In certain domains such as video conferencing or remote desktop applications, a common scenario arises in which many macroblocks of the video do not change often from one frame of a video stream to the next frame. In those cases, data from an early video frame macroblock can be used to render an associated macroblock of a later frame of the video stream as long as the data in the macroblock does not substantially change from one frame to the next.
As a result of this technique, virtually all video encoding schemes provide a mechanism to flag a macroblock to be skipped. That is, if a macroblock is flagged to be skipped in a given frame, it is understood that the image within that area (the macroblock) of the video can be simply copied from the previous frame. Therefore, such data in subsequent frames need not be encoded and need not be transferred over a network in order to be rendered correctly at the destination.
Many encoding standards include a single bit field in a header associated with each macroblock to indicate whether the macroblock is to be skipped or not. If the field is set, then no video data for that macroblock is encoded and the decoder simply uses the data from a previous frame of the video. Thus, in cases where a macroblock does not change from one frame of a video stream to the next, the entire macroblock can effectively be represented by a single bit of data.
Other modern video encoding standards include in a macroblock header a number of skipped blocks. For applications that include a large number of consecutive skipped macroblocks, these encoding standards can represent the entire macroblock with approximately 0.1 bits by simply encoding in the header that the macroblock is to be skipped as are the next 10 macroblocks. Such techniques have enabled very sophisticated video applications to be utilized over conventional communications networks such as the Internet. However, conventional techniques still encode a significant amount of information to represent these skipped blocks.

Skipped macroblock video encoding enhancements


A method for controlling power in a battery-powered electronic apparatus is disclosed. The electronic apparatus includes a battery, a detection unit and a power consumption estimation unit. The battery supplies electric power to each device within the electronic apparatus. The detection unit periodically detects total power consumption of the electronic apparatus and device information representing an operating state of each device within the electronic apparatus. The power consumption estimation unit estimates power consumption of the each device based on the detected total power consumption and the detected device information of each device.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to power control in general, and in particular to a method for controlling power consumption in a battery-powered electronic device.
2. Description of Related Art
As more and more battery-powered electronic devices appear in the market each year, users also expect those electronic devices to be capable of being continuously powered by batteries for a longer time. Thus, many methods of lengthening the battery usage time for battery-powered electronic devices have been implemented. Most of those methods are accomplished by taking advantage of various power saving functions.
For example, one prior art relies on the determination of whether or not processing can be performed based on the remaining battery capacity and the power consumption. If the processing cannot be performed, a function having the lowest priority is selected as an alternative target function from the functions registered in a limited operation information, and a function using the same constitutional requirements as those of the alternative target function but requiring less power than that of the alternative target function is selected as an alternative function to replace the alternative target function registered in the limited operation information. The priority of the alternative function is also changed to a high value. Another prior art relies on a profile for each application such that power is supplied only to an apparatus according to a user's usage situation.

Method and apparatus for controlling power in a battery-powered electronic device


In some implementations, a system administrator can specify a maximum amount of power for a data center or a rack of servers. If the data center or rack consumes more than a threshold amount of power, the data center or rack can be put into power capping mode. Once in power capping mode, servers in the data center or rack can be power capped. The amount of power at which a server is capped can be dynamically determined based on the amount of discretionary power available to distribute among the power capped servers in the rack or data center and the amount of power that the server consumes relative to other servers in the data center or rack. Once power consumption in the data center or rack falls below a threshold level, power capping for the data center or rack can be disabled.

Data centers are often composed of multiple racks of servers. The server racks are configured with power supply units that can safely supply up to a maximum amount of power to the servers in the rack. If one of the power supply units fail, the maximum amount of power that can be safely supplied by the power supply units may decrease. If the servers draw more than the maximum amount of power that can be safely supplied by the working power supply units, the working power supply units may fail and/or the servers in the rack may be damaged.

Dynamic power capping of a subset of servers when a power consumption threshold is reached and allotting an amount of discretionary power to the servers that have power capping enabled


Antenna devices are provided comprising antenna structures encapsulated or molded into plastic covers of computing devices to enable wireless communication. For example, one or more antenna structures can be encasulated within, or molded into, a plastic display cover of a portable laptop computer. Embedded antenna designs can include various antenna types that are built using one or more wires or thin metallic strips encapsulated into plastic device covers. Insert/injection molding methods can be used to encapsulate antenna structures in plastic device covers during fabrication of the plastic device covers.

To provide wireless connectivity and communication between devices in wireless networks/systems (e.g., wireless PAN (personal area network), a wireless LAN (local area network), a wireless WAN (wide area network), a cellular network, etc.), it is necessary to equip such devices with antennas. For example, a WLAN may operate under the known "Bluetooth" standard to provide wireless network connectivity between devices such as a portable laptop computers, servers, printers, keyboards, modems, etc., wherein the devices include antennas to send and receive data via radio frequency (RF) communications.
With portable laptop computers, an antenna may be located either external to the device or integrated within the device. For example, FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating various embodiments for providing external antennas for a laptop computer. As depicted in FIG. 1, an antenna (10) can be located at the top of a display unit (13) of a laptop computer (14). Alternatively, an antenna (11) can be located on a PC card (12). The laptop computer (14) can provide optimum wireless connection performance when the antenna (10) is mounted on the top of the display due to the very good RF (radio frequency) clearance. There are disadvantages, however, associated with laptop designs with external antennas including, for example, high manufacture costs, possible reduction of the strength of the antenna (e.g., for a PC card antenna (12)), susceptibility of damage, and the effects on the appearance of the laptop due to the antenna.
Other conventional laptop antenna designs include embedded designs wherein one or more antennas are disposed within a laptop. For example, FIG. 2 illustrates conventional antenna implementations, wherein one or more antennas (20, 21, 22) (e.g., whip-like or slot embedded antenna) are formed in a display unit (23) of a laptop computer (24). In one conventional embodiment, two antennas are typically used (although applications implementing one antenna are possible) (e.g., two antennas (20, 21) can be placed on the left and right edges of the display), to reduce the blockage caused by the display in some directions and provide space diversity to the wireless communication system. In another conventional configuration, one antenna (20 or 21) is disposed on one side of the display and a second antenna (22) is disposed in an upper portion of the display. This antenna configuration may also provide antenna polarization diversity depending on the antenna design used.
Although embedded antenna designs can overcome some of the above-mentioned disadvantages associated with external antenna designs (e.g., less susceptible to damage), embedded antenna designs typically do not perform as well as external antennas. Another disadvantage associated with embedded antenna designs is that the size of the laptop must be increased to accommodate antenna placement, especially when two or more antennas are used (as shown in FIG. 2).

Antennas encapsulated within plastic display covers of computing devices


A method determines a number of unique values in a sample of a list of values and estimates a number of the unique values for an unsampled portion of the list of values. The method estimates a number of the unique values in the list by adding the number of unique values in the sample to the number of the unique values in the unsampled portion.

In a database management system (DBMS), query estimators use variations of probabilistic counting to determine a query path. While these estimators take into account skewness and other lower order moments of the sampled data, they ignore other characteristics of data distribution and, as such, can produce inaccurate and inefficient query plans.

Estimating a number of unique values in a list

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


Provided is a table recognizing method, comprising: parsing and analyzing metadata information in an original fixed-layout document, and extracting basic elements on a page of the document; segmenting the basic elements, extracting segmented text lines on the page, and acquiring fragments; constructing an undirected graph with respect to each of the fragments; extracting an image on the page, detecting intersection points of horizontal lines and vertical lines, detecting an external bounding box of the intersection points, and taking whether the segmented text lines fall within the external bounding box as local relationship features; training a learning model according to the local relationship features, local features of the fragments, and neighborhood relationship features among the fragments, acquiring model parameters, and establishing a table recognizing model; and invoking the table recognizing model to perform table recognizing for the document, and acquiring a recognizing result.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of electronic document format conversion technologies, and in particular to a table recognizing method and a table recognizing system based on Probabilistic Graphical Models (PGM).
2. Description of the Prior Art
According to a generation process of typographic documents, a document is a set of data and structures, specifically comprising content data, a physical structure, and a logical structure. Document analysis refers to extraction of the physical structure of the document, whereas document understanding refers to construction of a mapping relationship between the physical structure and the logical structure. In practice, with respect to readability requirements of a mobile terminal, recovery of the physical and logical structures is significantly important. Table detection and recognizing on a document page is one of the critical issues in document understanding. The table, with an independent logical function, needs to be subject to physical segment and logical labeling. In a fixed-layout document, a table object may be constituted by numerous text elements (primitives) and operations, or may be integrally from one image graphic element.
Tables are an important part of a document. Therefore, it is especially important for analysis of a fixed-layout document as how to accurately recognize tables and contents in the tables. In the prior arts, some methods for recognizing and converting tables in the fixed-layout document are available. For example, the table in a PDF document is converted into an Excel table. To be specific, border coordinates of text blocks of the table in the PDF document are firstly recognized, row segment and column segment are performed for the table in the PDF document according to the border coordinates of the text blocks to acquire a plurality of segmented areas, a segmented area to which each of the text blocks belongs is determined, and the text blocks in the segmented areas are stored into the corresponding Excel table. In this way, the table with no border lines or incomplete border lines in the PDF document can be converted into an Excel table, without depending on the border lines of the table in the PDF document. This solution is defective in that detection of the border lines is a traditional rule-based table segmenting method, during recognizing of the border coordinates of the text blocks in the table, no other texts are allowed to be outside the table; otherwise, the texts outside the table may be mistakenly recognized as the text in the table. However, in a practical fixed-layout document, a larger number of logical blocks, for example, photograph, title and text body, may exist outside the table. Visually, most tables may not be obviously differentiated from the text body paragraphs, and the tables have diversified styles. As a result, a rule-based method may not recognize border lines of the table with other logical blocks. And thus the logical blocks of the table tend to be mistakenly recognized as a part within the table. Therefore, it is difficult to locate the practical table as an integrity, and the recognizing effect fails to satisfy actual requirements.

Table recognizing method and table recognizing system

Peking University Founder Group Co., Ltd.


A downhole tool can perform a series of operations with balls of the same size where movement caused by pressuring up on the first ball positions the next seat to accept another ball just like it. In a preferred embodiment a circulation sub is run in with a port closed and a first seat comprising of collets pushed together and preferably lined with a sleeve are in position to accept a first ball to perform a downhole operation and thereafter pass the ball and open the port. The act of opening the port gives support, by reducing their dimension, to the next assembly of collets also preferably lined with a sleeve so that they are energized to accept the same size ball. Pressuring up on the second ball can shift another sleeve to close the circulation port. The tool is modular and more than one module can be deployed in a given bottom hole assembly.

There are many operations downhole that require circulation or reverse circulation through a tool string. Almost as often the circulation valve needs to be operated between two positions so that, for example, it can be run in open to the desired location and then after the circulation is done, it can be closed again.
There are many types of circulation valves that are in use downhole. Some have an internal ported sleeve that is attached to a housing with a port through a j-slot mechanism. With this type of valve picking up and setting down weight gets the ports aligned or misaligned, as needed. These types of valves are less suitable for deviated wellbores where it is difficult to know if picking up and setting down has actually shifted the circulation valve or merely stretched the tubing string from a location near a wellbore deviation.
Other types of circulation valves involve the use of ever larger balls to move a circulation valve between its end positions. This design allows an initial smaller ball to land on a seat to pressure up to set another tool followed by a further pressure to move the valve to another position. In order to move the valve again to its initial position a bigger ball has to land on a bigger seat to, for example, shift a different sleeve. The initial ball is typically released as its seat shifts into a recess and opens up. Such seats can be made of collet segments that are held together in an initial position to allow pressure buildup on a seated ball and then the collet fingers in a groove can spread apart allowing the ball to go on through.
As an alternative, a different seat has been employed that simply enlarges as the ball is blown though it with pressure. It then stands ready to receive another ball that is larger for another operation.
A circulation valve with disappearing balls has been offered. The idea here is to use a seat that keeps its dimension so that it can accept a constant ball size. The idea is that the ball lands on the seat and permits whatever operation is needed and then just goes away from exposure to well conditions over time. The problem with this design is that the balls are rather soft and are prone to be eroded during delivery or even when on the ball seat itself and before the operation that depends on the ball sealing can be accomplished.
Other issues that have affected ball seats made of a series of collets is that the sealing happens on a series of abutting shoulders and in a downhole environment where debris can settle on the seating surface and reduce the chance for a good seal on the ball.
The present invention seeks to overcome some of these disadvantages. While the invention is presented in the context of a circulation valve it can be deployed in other applications downhole. These and other advantages of the present invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from a review of the preferred embodiment described below along with its associated drawings while recognizing that the claims define the full scope of the invention.


A dump cart comprises a bed, a bed adapter, a frame, and a lift adapter. The bed is configured to carry a load. The bed adapter is configured to receive a bottom wall of the bed and includes a left adapter rail and a right adapter rail. The frame includes a left frame rail pivotally coupled to the left adapter rail and a right frame rail pivotally coupled to the right adapter rail. These connections allow the bed to dump the load to the rear of the dump cart. The lift adapter assists in lifting an object and includes left and right cradle arms that are configured to couple to one or more features of the object and a stabilizer leg that is configured to contact the ground so as to support a portion of the weight of the object.

Embodiments of the current invention relate to dump carts that can perform multiple functions. Dump carts are often used in lawn and garden settings, on construction sites, or for recreational activities and are usually pulled by a lawn tractor, all-terrain vehicle, or other vehicle. Dump carts may be adapted to carry loads such as grass, leaves, dirt, gravel, or the like. Often, a dump cart can dump its load to the rear of the cart but not in any other direction. Occasionally, the vehicle pulling the dump cart, or another piece of equipment, may require repair or maintenance for which access to an under side of the vehicle is needed. For example, a blade of a lawn mower may need changing. Lifting and holding the mower in position to change the blade may be difficult without the assistance of a lift jack. Typically, the dump cart includes the basic components for lifting an object, but cannot directly do so.