A method of monitoring an engine coolant system includes modeling the total energy stored within an engine coolant. If an actual temperature of the engine coolant is below a minimum target temperature, the modeled total energy stored within the energy coolant is compared to a maximum stored energy limit to determine if sufficient energy exists within the engine coolant to heat the engine coolant to a temperature equal to or greater than the minimum target temperature. The engine coolant system fails the diagnostic check when the modeled total energy stored within the energy coolant is greater than the maximum stored energy limit, and the minimum target temperature has not been reached.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) mandates that vehicles powered by an internal combustion engine must include onboard diagnostic systems to monitor the operation of the engine and other components and/or systems related to the operation of the engine to ensure ongoing vehicle compliance with air quality standards.
One of the systems related to the operation of the engine that must be monitored is the engine coolant system. The engine operates most efficiently and produces the least amount of air pollutants when operating above a minimum target temperature. If the vehicle fails to reach the minimum target temperature, then one or more components of the engine coolant system may be malfunctioning or otherwise not operating at an optimum level. Accordingly, CARB mandates that the operation and/or performance of the engine coolant system must be monitored to verify continued proper operation.
In hybrid vehicles, the engine may not operate for a sufficient continuous time to complete a diagnostic check of the engine coolant system. For example, the engine may not operate during auto-stop events and/or engine Deceleration Fuel Cut Off (DFCO) event. Accordingly, the engine must be maintained in an engine running mode during the time required to complete the engine coolant system diagnostic check, thereby inhibiting hybrid vehicles from operating in an engine off mode, such as during an auto-stop event and/or a DFCO event, which reduces the fuel efficiency of the hybrid vehicle.

Method of monitoring an engine coolant system of a vehicle


Medical devices, systems, and methods reduce the distance between two locations in tissue in a minimally invasive manner, often for treatment of congestive heart failure. In one embodiment, an anchor of an implant system may, when the implant system is fully deployed, reside within the right ventricle in engagement with the ventricular septum. A tension member may extend from that anchor through the septum and an exterior wall of the left ventricle to a second anchor disposed along an epicardial surface of the heart. Deployment of the anchor within the right ventricle may be performed by inserting a guidewire through the septal wall into the right ventricle. The anchor may be inserted into the right ventricle over the guidewire and through a lumen of a delivery catheter. Delivering the anchor over the guidewire may provide improved control in the delivery and placement of the anchor within the right ventricle.

The present invention is related to improved medical devices, systems, and methods, with many embodiments being particularly useful for reducing the distance between two points in tissue in a minimally or less invasive manner. Specific reference is made to the treatment of a failing heart, particularly the alleviation of congestive heart failure and other progressive heart diseases. The provided devices, systems, and methods will often be used so as to resize or alter the geometry of a ventricle in a failing heart, such as by reducing its radius of curvature through the process of excluding a portion of the circumference from contact with blood, and thereby reduce wall stress on the heart and improve the heart's pumping performance. Although specific reference is made to the treatment of congestive heart failure, embodiments of the present invention can also be used in other applications in which tissue geometry is altered.
Exemplary embodiments described herein provide implants and methods for alleviating congestive heart failure and other progressive diseases of the heart. Congestive heart failure may, for example, be treated using one or more implants which are selectively positioned relative to a first wall of the heart (typically an interventricular septum), and another wall of the heart so as to exclude scar tissue and limit a cross sectional area, or distance across a ventricle. Functional deterioration of the heart tissues may be inhibited by decreasing a size of the heart chamber and/or approximating tissues so that stress on the tissues is limited. Implant locations and overall chamber remodeling achieved by placement of a series of implants may be determined so as to provide a beneficial volumetric decrease and chamber shape.
Congestive heart failure (sometimes referred to as "CHF" or "heart failure") is a condition in which the heart does not pump enough blood to the body's other organs. Congestive heart failure may in some cases result from narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle, high blood pressure, heart valve dysfunction due to degenerative processes or other causes, cardiomyopathy (a primary disease of the heart muscle itself), congenital heart defects, infections of the heart tissues, and the like. However, in many cases congestive heart failure may be triggered by a heart attack or myocardial infarction. Heart attacks can cause scar tissue that interferes with the heart muscle's healthy function, and that scar tissue can progressively replace more and more of the contractile heart tissue. More specifically, the presence of the scar may lead to a compensatory neuro-hormonal response by the remaining, non-infarcted myocardium leading to progressive dysfunction and worsening failure.
People with heart failure may have difficulty exerting themselves, often becoming short of breath, tired, and the like. As blood flow out of the heart decreases, pressure within the heart increases. Not only does overall body fluid volume increase, but higher intracardiac pressure inhibits blood return to the heart through the vascular system. The increased overall volume and higher intracardiac pressures result in congestion in the tissues. Edema or swelling may occur in the legs and ankles, as well as other parts of the body. Fluid may also collect in the lungs, interfering with breathing (especially when lying down). Congestive heart failure may also be associated with a decrease in the ability of the kidneys to remove sodium and water, and the fluid buildup may be sufficient to cause substantial weight gain. With progression of the disease, this destructive sequence of events can cause the progressive deterioration and eventual failure of the remaining functional heart muscle.
Treatments for congestive heart failure may involve rest, dietary changes, and modified daily activities. Various drugs may also be used to alleviate detrimental effects of congestive heart failure, such as by dilating expanding blood vessels, improving and/or increasing pumping of the remaining healthy heart tissue, increasing the elimination of waste fluids, and the like.
Surgical interventions have also been applied for treatment of congestive heart failure. If the heart failure is related to an abnormal heart valve, the valve may be surgically replaced or repaired. Techniques also exist for exclusion of the scar and volume reduction of the ventricle. These techniques may involve (for example) surgical left ventricular reconstruction, ventricular restoration, the Dor procedure, and the like. If the heart becomes sufficiently damaged, even more drastic surgery may be considered. For example, a heart transplant may be the most viable option for some patients. These surgical therapies can be at least partially effective, but typically involve substantial patient risk. While people with mild or moderate congestive heart failure may benefit from these known techniques to alleviate the symptoms and/or slow the progression of the disease, less traumatic, and therefore, less risky therapies which significantly improve the heart function and extend life of congestive heart failure patients has remained a goal.
It has been proposed that an insert or implant be used to reduce ventricular volume of patients with congestive heart failure. With congestive heart failure, the left ventricle often dilates or increases in size. This can result in a significant increase in wall tension and stress. With disease progression, the volume within the left ventricle gradually increases and blood flow gradually decreases, with scar tissue often taking up a greater and greater portion of the ventricle wall. By implanting a device which brings opposed walls of the ventricle into contact with one another, a portion of the ventricle may be excluded or closed off. By reducing the overall size of the ventricle, particularly by reducing the portion of the functioning ventricle chamber defined by scar tissue, the heart function may be significantly increased and the effects of disease progression at least temporarily reversed, halted, and/or slowed.
An exemplary method and implant for closing off a lower portion of a heart ventricle is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,776,754, the full disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. A variety of alternative implant structures and methods have also been proposed for treatment of the heart. U.S. Pat. No. 6,059,715 is directed to a heart wall tension reduction apparatus. U.S. Pat. No. 6,162,168 also describes a heart wall tension reduction apparatus, while U.S. Pat. No. 6,125,852 describes minimally-invasive devices and methods for treatment of congestive heart failure, at least some of which involve reshaping an outer wall of the patient's heart so as to reduce the transverse dimension of the left ventricle. U.S. Pat. No. 6,616,684 describes endovascular splinting devices and methods, while U.S. Pat. No. 6,808,488 describes external stress reduction devices and methods that may create a heart wall shape change. US Patent Publication No. U.S.2009/0093670 describes structures and methods for treating dysfunctional cardiac tissue, while US Patent Publication No. U.S.2010/0016655 describes cardiac anchor structures, methods, and systems for treatment of congestive heart failure and Other Conditions. The full disclosures of all of these references are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
While the proposed implants, systems, and methods may help surgically remedy the size of the ventricle as a treatment of congestive heart failure and appear to offer benefits for many patients, still further advances would be desirable. In general, it would be desirable to provide improved devices, systems, and methods for treatment of congestive heart failure. It would be particularly desirable if such devices and techniques could provide increased control over any movement of the components of the implant system during deployment in a beating heart, and/or could decrease the trauma imposed on collateral tissues when gaining access to the target tissues for treatment, when positioning implants and other therapeutic devices for use, and when treating the target tissue. It would be also be beneficial to enhance the accuracy of ventricular reconstruction while simplifying the overall procedure, ideally while decreasing the sensitivity of the therapy on unusual surgical skills. It would be advantageous if these improvements could be provided without overly complicating the structures of implants or implant deployment systems, and while significantly enhancing the benefits provided by the implanted devices.

Over-the-wire cardiac implant delivery system for treatment of CHF and other conditions


A large area lighting system, adapted for high mast highway or stadium lighting, for example, includes one or more elongated frames supporting plural light fixtures and elongated light baffles comprising respective sets of spaced apart slats. The respective sets of slats are supported on elongated rods connected to light fixture frame members and the slats are separated by spacers sleeved over the rods. The slats may be oriented at various angles by manual or motor driven adjustment to control the light projection from the lighting system. The slats may also be non-reflective or provided with a mirrored finish to effect control of light projection and/or diffusion.

The present invention relates to the general field of lighting systems, and in particular, to large area lighting systems.
Large area lighting systems provide various levels of illumination for a variety of applications while minimizing ground level obstructions. Large area lighting systems are often used to illuminate large areas such as highways and stadiums. In densely populated areas, such large area lighting systems tend to "spill" light into nearby residential areas and thus create a nuisance for the residents. Light spillage also contributes to other problems, such as increased light pollution and sky glow. As a result, many jurisdictions have enacted laws preventing the installation of large area lighting systems in close proximity to residential areas.
There have been several unsuccessful attempts by those skilled in the art to address the light spillage issues referenced above. For example, prior art efforts have addressed light spillage problems by placing shields directly on individual lighting fixtures, see for example FIG. 1. These shields, later described in detail herein, partially restrict light from being transmitted in a particular direction, but do not efficiently or effectively eliminate the majority of unwanted light spillage. Thus, the light cut-off from such lighting fixtures is insufficient and fails to prevent light spillage from infiltrating, for example, any adjacent residential areas. Prior art shields also fail to address the issue of controlling light spillage from a combination of fixtures and thus are an inadequate solution to the problem. Moreover, prior art light shields have significant wind resistance or wind loading problems. In fact, because many prior art shields or baffles may act like a "sail" over the light pole, they create hazardous and unsafe conditions, often compromising the structural integrity of large area lighting poles and ultimately jeopardizing the safety of any potential bystanders. The effective projected area (EPA) of the structure, which generally describes the area of a given lighting unit affected by the wind, is typically and undesirably high in prior art shielded large area lighting systems. Thus, existing systems require stronger and more expensive light poles and structures to withstand the high wind loading.
Others have addressed the light spillage problem by placing shields inside the lighting fixtures. For example, some prior art luminaires are fitted with internal shields which supposedly control the emission of light only at certain specified angles. Although internal shields generally assist in directing light in a particular direction and help reduce some glare, internal shields fail to control light spillage adequately, and are not adjustable to control the amount of spillage. Internally shielded fixtures have large cut-offs and thus complicate the photometrics used in designing lighting systems. Moreover, fixtures outfitted with internal shields generally increase the expense of lighting fixtures. These fixtures often times deteriorate the light quality provided at the subject location and ultimately focus the light as a spotlight rather than an area light. Light fixtures with internal cut-off shields thus defeat the purpose of large area lighting systems.
Others in the art have fitted various types of external shields onto lighting fixtures. Although some external shields appear to provide adequate cut-off levels, they are often bulky and need to be excessively large to provide acceptable cut-off levels. Thus, prior art externally shielded lighting systems may have high EPA levels and project light similar to that found in spotlights. Thus, fitting lighting fixtures with such external shields reduces the effective and desired lighting area dramatically.
Accordingly, there is a continuing need for an effective and efficient lighting system to provide sufficient light to large areas, such as highways, while eliminating light spillage into adjacent areas, such as residential neighborhoods. What is also needed is a large area lighting system which reduces light pollution and sky glow. What is further needed is a system of maintaining area lighting capabilities at a subject site while achieving very low cut-off. What is still further needed is a system to provide effective light shielding to a plurality of light fixtures while maintaining a reduced EPA level.


The present application provides a method of randomly accessing a compressed structure in memory without the need for retrieving and decompressing the entire compressed structure.

There is a fundamental problem in the design of computing systems, namely that of minimizing the time cost of memory accesses.
This is a fundamental limitation on the design of computer systems as no matter what memory technology is used to support computation and no matter what technology is used to connect that memory to the processor, there is a maximum limitation on how much information can be transferred between processor and memory in a given time, this is the available memory bandwidth and the limitation of computer power by available memory bandwidth is often referred to as the "memory-wall".
The present application seeks to increase the effective memory bandwidth and thus minimize the limitation of the "memory-wall" through the use of data compression.
It is known to employ data compression to reduce the effects of the "memory wall". However, a problem for programmers using compressed memory sub-systems is that data has to be decompressed before it can be operated upon as shown in the system of FIG. 1. This usually involves reading the compressed data from one part of memory 10 into the register files of the processor 16, decompressing it using program code retrieved from program memory 18 and storing the decompressed data in another uncompressed portion of memory 12.
However this solution has the disadvantage that additional memory bandwidth is required to read compressed data, store it in uncompressed form, and read it back into the processor to be operated upon. Additional memory capacity is also required to hold the uncompressed data and the decompression process will increase pressure on the processors register-files. Clearly this is a sub-optimal solution which it is suggested explains why such compressed memory sub-systems have remained an academic curiosity rather than entering the mainstream microprocessor industry.
EP-0240032-A2 discloses a vector processor comprises a memory for storing and retrieving vector data. The vector processor comprises a plurality of vector registers each capable of reading or writing plural (m) vector elements in parallel, at least one mask vector register capable of m mask bits in parallel, transfer portion connected to the memory, the plurality of vector registers and the mask vector register and responsive to an instruction for transferring vector elements from regularly spaced address locations within the memory to selected storage locations of a selected vector register corresponding to valid mask bits. Whilst this approach is useful, it is limited in that the storage/retrieval of vector data is limited to an entire register.
Register-blocking is a useful technique for accelerating matrix algebra (particularly Finite-Element), however it has the disadvantage in that for many matrices (ex. As used in search engines such as GOOGLE®) zero fill has to be added decreasing effective FLOPS (Floating Point Operations Per Second), and increasing memory bandwidth requirements, both of which are commodities which are in short supply in modern computing systems. In fact the growing gap between processing capabilities and memory bandwidth which are increasing at highly disparate rates of 50% and 7% per annum respectively is referred to, as mentioned above, as the "Memory Wall". There have been many claims of "breaking" the memory wall and they usually consist of using a cache to reduce the probability of having to go off-chip, and/or using multi-threading so that the latency and penalties associated with going off-chip can be mitigated.
These approaches merely hide the problem of limited external memory bandwidth rather than solving it and generally rely on the data-set exhibiting sufficient data locality, and/or the program exhibiting sufficient Thread-Level Parallelism (TLP) in order to be effective at all, and this may not be true of all problems, and is certainly not always known a priori. In fact many of the larger and more interesting problems exhibit neither sufficient data-locality, nor sufficient TLP and the throughput of the whole system degenerates to the point where it is limited by external memory bandwidth, and the extra hardware which has been added on-chip is of no use. For this reason it is not uncommon to see large engineering applications pulling down processor performance to 1% or less of the manufacturers quoted peak performance specification.


A side-locking sliding rail assembly for a drawer consisting of a fixed rail, a movable rail, an intermediate rail, a sliding device, a locating member, a hook block, an actuation member, at least one first compression spring, a second compression spring and an auto-opening mechanism carrier plate. The drawer can be temporarily secured in a position, subject to engagement of a pawl of a locating rod of the locating member with one of a series of sloping teeth along the auto-opening mechanism carrier plate, if the drawer is not accurately fully closed. Thereafter, the user can apply a pressure to push the drawer backward to the fully closed position avoiding rebound toward the open position. The arrangement of a second compression spring prevents tilting of the locating member, so that the locating rod will not be permitted to move forward when in the guide-in channel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to side-locking sliding rail assembly technology and more particularly, a side-locking sliding rail assembly having an auto-opening mechanism, which enables the drawer to be temporarily secured in position subject to engagement of a pawl of a locating member with one of a series of sloping teeth if the drawer is not accurately closed, and thus, the user can gently apply a pressure to push the drawer back to the close position avoiding rebound of the auto-opening mechanism carrier plate.
2. Description of the Related Art
When closing a drawer that is carried on two sliding rail assemblies having an auto-opening function, if the drawer is not completely closed, the drawer will be pushed open. Taiwan Utility M396049 discloses a hidden sliding rail assembly having an auto-opening and auto-closing buffering mechanism. According to this design, if the drawer is not completely closed, the locating rod of the swing member will not be positioned in the retaining groove in the auto-opening control member, and the drawer will be pushed open by the spring member. Further, Taiwan Utility M394046 discloses an auto-opening mechanism for sliding rail assembly. According to this design, if the drawer is not completely closed, the locating axle of the rocker arm will not be positioned in the retaining hole of the retaining channel of the sliding device, and the drawer will be pushed open by the spring member.
Further, Taiwan Patent 201531265 discloses a sliding rail design for drawer, entitled "side-locking sliding rail assembly". According to this design, the guide-in channel of the auto-opening mechanism carrier plate is a curved channel having a plurality of curved sub channels therein and a plurality of grooves spaced between the front inlet and the rear outlet for receiving the locating rod of the locating member to temporarily secure the auto-opening mechanism carrier plate in place. However, this design still has the following minor drawbacks.
After a long use, the locating rod of the locating member can be damaged easily due to a large gap between each two adjacent grooves in the guide-in channel of the auto-opening mechanism carrier plate, such as when the locating rod of the locating member is forced into one of the grooves, and this problem will be more serious if the drawer at the movable rail carries a heavy load, shortening the lifespan.
When the auto-opening mechanism carrier plate slides backward to the end as the user closes the drawer, the locating rod of the locating member can fall downwards and shift its position due to a large dimensional tolerance of the pivot pin of the locating member or insufficient damping oil, causing the locating rod of the locating member to move backward in the original path (the guide-in channel) and leading to an auto-opening functional failure.
During backward movement of the intermediate rail, the rear end of the intermediate rail can strike against the front side of the hook block if the pushing force applied by the user is excessively large, causing the hook block to deflect or to tilt, leading to hook block damage.

Side-locking sliding rail assembly having an auto-opening mechanism


At a distal end side of an insertion portion of an endoscope, an image pickup portion for capturing an image and a bending portion capable of being bent are provided, and a bending instruction operation portion executes a bending instruction operation for the bending portion. According to the bending instruction operation by the bending instruction operation portion, the bending control portion executes the controlling bending of the bending portion. As a bending control mode for executing the operation of the bending control by the bending control portion, a first bending control mode for bending control corresponding to a first image captured by the image pickup portion and a second bending control mode for bending control displaying the distal end side of the insertion portion are provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bending control device for controlling bending of a bending portion provided at an insertion portion of an endoscope inserted into a body cavity.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, an endoscope has been widely employed in the medical field and others. At an insertion portion of the endoscope, a bending portion is provided in the vicinity of the base end of the distal end of the insertion portion so as to facilitate smooth insertion even into a bent body cavity. And when a direction to bend the bending portion is to be operated, an operator performs bending-operation of a bending operation knob provided at an operation portion or the like or a joystick or the like in case of an electrically bending endoscope disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-245246.
In a conventional example, when the bending portion is to be bent, it is carried out according to an observation result of an endoscopic image captured by an image pickup device or the like provided at the distal end portion of the insertion portion. That is, the direction to bend the bending portion is determined depending on the direction where an image portion showing a lumen portion such as a digestive duct exists in the endoscopic image.
The image pickup device is mounted at the distal end portion in a predetermined direction, and when the endoscopic image captured by the image pickup device is to be displayed on display means such as a monitor, the up direction of the endoscopic image matches the up direction in the vertical and horizontal directions of the bending portion.
Therefore, the direction to bend the bending portion is determined by checking in which direction in the up, down, right and left directions an image portion where a lumen portion is displayed dark is located in the endoscopic image.
On the other hand, in order to insert the insertion portion of the endoscope more smoothly, an insertion shape of the insertion portion inserted into the body cavity may be displayed.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-79087, for example, discloses an endoscope system showing an endoscopic image and the insertion shape.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-79087 discloses the endoscopic image and the image of the insertion shape, but in this conventional example, the bending operation is made on the basis of an endoscopic image when bending the bending portion, and the image of the insertion shape is used only as its supplementary image.
In the meantime, when the direction of a lumen is not known in the endoscopic image, it would be very convenient if bending operation and controlling bending of the bending portion according to the bending operation can be made on the basis of the image of the insertion portion or other displayed images, which facilitates insertion work and the like.


A water-absorbent structure comprises an assembly of thermoplastic synthetic fibers, cellulose-based fibers, super-absorbent polymer and water-pervious sheets wrapping these components together. The assembly is a honeycomb construction having a plurality of through-holes and normally in a compressed state. Upon water permeation into the water-absorbent structure, the super-absorbent polymer is swollen and softened and the assembly is swollen so that the through-holes restore the initial state before the assembly has been compressed.

The present invention relates to a water-absorbent structure for various articles requiring a water-absorbing property such as a disposable diaper, a sanitary napkin and disposable wipes and also to a process for making the same.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,500,315 discloses a disposable superthin water-absorbent article. This article comprises a first layer, a second layer and an intermediate layer disposed between these first and second layers. The first layer comprises, in turn, a synthetic fibrous web and a plurality of super-absorbent polymer particles distributed in this web. The second layer is a wad formed by intertwined cellulose fibers or the like contributing to a liquid diffusibility. The intermediate layer also is formed by intertwined cellulose fibers or the like partially contacting with the polymer particles of the first layer. This article is compressed in its thickness direction so as to have a thickness less than half of the thickness before compressed and restores a thickness corresponding to at least 75% of its initial thickness before compressed as the article absorbs liquid such as bodily discharges.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 1990-74254A discloses an absorbent pad used in the absorbent article. This absorbent pad comprises a mixture of heat-weldable crimped fibers, fluff pulp and water-absorbent polymer particles. The crimped fibers are heat-welded together to form three-dimensional web formation presenting a mat-like appearance. The absorbent pad is obtained by compressing the fluff pulp and polymer particles in a wetted state together with the crimped fibers and then drying the assembly. The absorbent pad is free from a state of compression as the fluff pulp and the polymer particles absorb water sufficiently to become soft and thereupon the absorbent pad restores its initial mat-like state. After restoration of the initial mat-like state, the crimped fibers become easily deformable and, in consequence, the absorbent pad acquires a compressive elasticity.
In both the article disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,500,315 and the absorbent pad disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication, the polymer particles are filled and held in interstices of the fibers. If it is desired to avoid falling off of the polymer particles from the absorbent article or pad, the fiber interstices must be as narrow as possible. As a result, the fiber interstices are choked up as the polymer particles absorb water and swell and a breathability of the absorbent article or pad may be remarkably deteriorated.

Water-absorbent structure and process for making the same


A system and method for providing a search result based on a personal network are disclosed. The search result providing system may include a search term reception unit, a personal network extraction unit, and a search result providing unit which may receive a search term from a user. The personal network extraction unit may extract at least one of a personal network associated with the search term, and a personal network associated with the user. The search result providing unit may provide documents associated with the personal networks as a search result of the search term. A search result optimized for the user may be provided to the user by searching for information corresponding to the search term from communities joined by another user having similar interests to that of the user, or communities joined by the user, based on personal networks of the user.

1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a system and method for providing a search result based on a personal network, and to a system and method that may search for information corresponding to a search term from neighbors having similar interests to that of a user, communities joined by the neighbors, or communities joined by the user, thereby providing the user with a search result optimized for the user.
2. Discussion of the Background
A conventional system for providing a search result typically extracts and provides a general search result based on a general user profile, and arranges and displays the extracted search result. Accordingly, when a user desires to search for information specific to the user, the information that the user wants may be difficult to search for. In order to obtain and exchange specific information, users tend to form personal networks and to join a community actively sharing information among members.
However, in some cases, the user may experience difficulty in finding a community to join, where the information desired by the user may be exchanged. Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method that may recommend a community that the user desires, and may display information optimized for a user, from a search result depending on a preference of the user.

System and method for providing search result based on personal network


A metal-carbon composite supported catalyst for hydrogen production using co-evaporation and a method of preparing the same, wherein the catalyst is configured such that a metal-carbon composite having a core-shell structure resulting from co-evaporation is supported on the surface of an oxide-based support coated with carbon, thereby maintaining superior durability without agglomeration even in a catalytic reaction at a high temperature. Because part or all of the surface of metal is covered with the carbon shell, even when the catalyst is applied under severe reaction conditions including high temperatures, long periods of time, acidic or alkaline states, etc., the metal particles do not agglomerate or are not detached, and do not corrode, thus exhibiting high performance and high durability. Therefore, inactivation of the catalyst or the generation of side reactions can be prevented, so that the catalyst can be efficiently utilized in hydrogen production.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a metal-carbon composite supported catalyst for hydrogen production using co-evaporation and a method of preparing the same, and, more particularly, to a method of preparing a metal-carbon composite supported catalyst for hydrogen production and a metal-carbon composite supported catalyst prepared thereby, wherein the catalyst is configured such that a metal-carbon composite having a core-shell structure resulting from co-evaporation is supported on the surface of an oxide-based support coated with carbon, thereby maintaining superior durability without agglomeration even in a catalytic reaction at a high temperature.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the increasing demand for hydrogen as clean energy these days, a catalyst for hydrogen production, which is regarded as very important in terms of commercializing hydrogen as an energy source, is receiving great attention.
A catalyst is a material which controls the reaction rate and plays an important role in chemical processes, including hydrogen production, etc. Among catalyst materials for use in most chemical processes including hydrogen production, etc., noble metal catalysts such as platinum, gold, palladium, rhodium, etc. exhibit superior performance compared to other metal catalysts, but they are very expensive, which is undesirable. Also, the use of noble metal catalysts is limited because they are easily inactivated during the catalytic reaction. Such noble metal catalysts are mostly provided in the form of a heterogeneous catalyst using a support in order to increase the reactive surface area thereof, but may easily agglomerate during the reaction or may be frequently lost due to corrosion or the like during the reaction. Accordingly, thorough research into overcoming such problems is ongoing.
Korean Patent No. 10-0980590 discloses a nickel catalyst supported on a porous yttria stabilized zirconia support, a method of preparing the same and a method of producing hydrogen via autothermal reforming of ethanol using the catalyst. This patent, in which nickel is supported on a zirconia support prepared by hydrothermal polymerization following hydration and condensation using a sol-gel process, is different from the present invention which provides a metal-carbon composite supported catalyst for hydrogen production with high performance and high durability using a simple process such as co-evaporation.
Also, Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2011-0139994 discloses a technique for preparing a lithium manganese oxide-carbon nano composite via mixing of ionic solutions. In order to synthesize the composite as in the above patent, multiple steps, including solution reaction, crystal growth, treatment with a strong acid or strong base to remove a template component, heat treatment for alloying, etc., should be performed, which is undesirable.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Metal-carbon composite supported catalyst for hydrogen production using co-evaporation and method of preparing the same


An electronic device includes a first camera, a second camera, a display, a memory, and a processor. The processor collects a first image obtained by the first camera with respect to an external object and a second image obtained by the second camera with respect to the external object, generates a third image with respect to the external object using a first area of the first image and a second area of the second image, which corresponds to the first area, identifies an input associated with the third image displayed through the display, and displays an image generated using at least one of the first image, the second image, or depth information in response to the input. The generating operation of the third image includes generating the depth information with respect to the third image.

Electronic devices like a smartphone, a tablet PC, etc., include a camera module. The camera module collects image data using a lens, an image sensor, and the like. The collected image data are stored in a memory inside the electronic device or displayed through a display.
In recent years, electronic devices equipped with a multi-camera, such as a dual-camera, have been introduced. The dual-camera collects the image data respectively through two camera modules placed at a certain distance from each other. The camera modules collect the image data for the same subject at different angles and different settings. The electronic device equipped with the dual-camera combines images captured from different angles to generate an image having characteristics (e.g., a high resolution, wide viewing angle, or three-dimensional photograph) different from those of an image generated by a single-camera.

Electronic device capable of controlling image display effect, and method for displaying image


This application is concerned with immunogenic polypeptides of pestiviruses, specifically Classical Swine Fever Virus (CVFV), specifically the nonstructural protein p10, more specifically T-cell epitopes from this protein and nucleic acid molecules encoding these polypeptides, and vaccines and diagnostics with these polypeptides or nucleic acid molecules.

The genus pestivirus belongs to the family of Flaviviridae and consists of Classical Swine Fever Virus (or hog cholera virus), which is the causative agent of classical swine fever bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) infectious to cattle and border disease virus (BDV) infectious to sheep.
Pestiviruses are small enveloped RNA viruses having a diameter of 40-60 nm. The virions consist of a nuclear capsid enveloped by a lipid layer embedded with glycoproteins. The genome of pestiviruses consists of a single stranded RNA of approximately 12.5 kB. It contains a single open reading frame (ORF) which is flanked by parts that are not translated. The 3' end is not polyadenylated.
Viral proteins are formed by co- and posttranslational processing of a hypothetic polyprotein, while the structural proteins are coded in the 5' end of the genome. In contrast to other flaviviridae the pestiviruses have a sequence coding for a non-structural p23 protein at the 5' end. This N-terminal protease (Npro) is spliced from the next protein by an autoproteolytical process. In the 3' direction the sequence coding for a p14 nuclear capsid and a signal sequence, which is responsible for the translocation of the subsequent sequences for glycoprotein E0, E1 and E2 in the lumen of the endoplasmatic reticulum (ER), are following. The splicing of the single glycoproteins probably is caused by cellular signalases in the ER. The glycoproteins can form complex structures in infected cells by dimensioning through S-S-bridges. The function of these complex structures is not yet known.
Next to the sequences for the structural proteins the sequences for the non-structural proteins p125, p10, p30 and p133 are found in the polyprotein. Analogous to posttranslational processes in cytopathogenic Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus (BVDV, another pestivirus) anp 80 protein can be detected after processing the p125 protein (Desport, M. and Brownlie J., Arch. Virol. Suppl. 3, 261-265, 1991). The p133 non-structural protein, which is processed into p58 and p75 proteins, contains sequence motifs which resemble RNA polymerase sequences. The amino acid sequences of the non-structural CSFV proteins are considered to be approximately: 3-1142 (p125), 1143-1206 (p10) shown in SEQ ID NO: 1 and 2 herein. The putative N-terminus of p80 is amino acid no. 460 (SEQ ID NO: 1 and 2). The start of p30 is also shown in SEQ ID NO. 1 and 2, i.e. amino acid number 1207. The complete sequence of p30 for CSFV Alfort shown in Meyers et al. (Virology 171, 555-567, 1989; FIG. 4 amino acids 2337-2683). The DNA sequences encoding these proteins are also shown in SEQ ID NO. 1 herein and in Meyers et al. (supra).
On infection with CSFV acute, peracute, chronic or clinical invisible symptoms can occur. The severity of the disease is dependent on the infectious load on one hand, and on the other hand the age of the animal, the immune competence and total constitution of the animal form important factors.
In the peracute illness, which results in the death of the animal after three to five days after infection with a highly virulent strain (e.g. the CSFV-Brescia strain), only a fever is observable. In the acute disease state, next to a high temperature, leucopenia, conjunctivitis and loss appetite are observable. In the final stage of the disease central nervous system disturbances occur. Further characteristics are an atrophy of the thymus, cyanosis of the skin and cutaneous haemorrhages, partially caused by a thrombocytopenia. Mortality of the disease in the acute phase is 30-100%.
The chronic disease form is found after infection with mesogenic virus strains. This form is most dangerous when piglets are infected in utero by diaplacental infection. After birth these piglets only survive for 6-8 weeks during which time they form a source of infection.
Pigs that survive a postnatal infection, gain lifetime immunity, which probably results from an induction of the humoral immune response. Neutralising antibodies are found after two to three weeks after infection.
Several vaccines have been developed for this economically important disease. Vaccines with inactivated virus give only shortlasting protection and are not used anymore (Biront, P. and Leunen, J., in: Liess, B. (ed.): Classical swine fever and related viral infections. Martinus Nijhoff Publ., Boston pp. 181-200, 1988). Better protection has been established with attenuated viruses obtained by serial passaging in rabbits (C-strains) or in cell cultures (e.g. Thiverval-strain) (Launais, M. et al., Rev. Med. Vet., 123, 1537-1554, 1972; Shimizu Y., Jap. J. Trop. Agr. Res. Sci., 13, 167-170, 1980).
However, a disadvantage of these vaccines is that they do not discern between vaccinated animals and animals infected with a field virus. In the European Community, therefore, use of these vaccines is forbidden presently and control of classical swine fever is established by isolation and slaughtering of infected swine.
In recent years some results have been obtained with live vaccines based on recombinant viruses (van Zijl, M. et al., J. Virol. 65, 2761-2765, 1991; Rumenapf. T. et al., J. Virol. 65, 589-597, 1991; Hulst, M. M. et al., J. Virol. 67, 5435-5442, 1993). These vaccines have all been based on the expression of structural glycoproteins in recombinant vector viruses.

Immunogenic composition against Classical Swine Fever Virus (CSFV)


The positioning device for bone drilling comprises a base, and the base has an outer wall, a positioning block, a guiding recess and an inner wall. The positioning block is formed on the outer wall of the base. The guiding recess is formed longitudinally through the base. The inner wall surrounds the guiding recess and the inner wall is a concave camber. The doctor can use the positioning block to fix the positioning device on a guide mold. A relative position between the positioning device and the guide mold can be relatively fixed. Prior to or during the drilling, the doctor can replace the positioning device with another positioning device with a more suitable diameter, oblique angle and oblique direction so that the positioning device for bone drilling can drill a hole at an accurate position, at an accurate oblique angle and in an accurate oblique direction as desired.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a positioning device for bone drilling, and more particularly to a positioning device for bone drilling or implantation.
2. Description of Related Art
In a conventional surgery method, a doctor plans the position and path of inversion according to an X-ray image or a computerized tomography of a patient's bone, as well as relying on the doctor's anatomy knowledge and clinical surgery experience. As accuracy, safety and reliability of a surgery rely crucially on the clinical experience of the doctor, a less experienced doctor may not be able to fully control the quality of surgery. Selection of position and angle of a bone screw implant is crucial so as to avoid hurting a nerve and a vein of a patient during a surgery, otherwise the patient may suffer from sequelae such as hemiplegia.
For a dentist, when a patient's tooth is broken or missing, a normal treatment is to replace the tooth with a denture. A common method of a denture implant is fixed tooth implant. The fixed tooth implant is drilling a hole at an appropriate position where a tooth is missing on a gum bone in a patient's mouth, and then an artificial tooth root is implanted in the hole. The hole is sutured after implantation of the artificial tooth root. When the artificial tooth root grows fully integrated with the gum bone, a holder having a screw is mounted on the artificial tooth root. The denture is mounted around the holder and fully sustained on the gum bone by the holder and the artificial tooth root, so the denture can bear a bite force between the upper and down rows of teeth of the patient to restore a biting function of the patient's teeth.
Furthermore, depth, angle, position and size of the hole on the gum bone of the patient influence afterwards the depth and position of the implantation of the artificial tooth root on the gum bone of the patient, and even influence the biting between the denture and the patient's original teeth. In addition, a dentist must first drill a small hole on the gum bone of the patient, and then gradually enlarge the hole to prevent the gum bone of the patient from collapsing during drilling due to osteoporosis.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,322,821, which is incorporated herein as a reference, discloses a conventional positioning device for bone drilling and has a magnetic rod. An outer side of the magnetic rod attracts multiple semicircular guiding panels into stack by a magnetic force. A radius of curvature of each semicircular guiding panel gradually increases from the innermost guiding panel attached on the magnetic rod to the outermost guiding panel.
A dentist can simulate an angle and a diameter of the hole drilled on the position of the missing tooth on the gum bone of the patient by the conventional positioning devices based on a model of a gum of the patient, and accordingly make a guide mold mounted around the position of the missing tooth on the gum bone of the patient. The guide mold has a notch corresponding to the missing tooth in position to accommodate the conventional positioning devices. Drilling the hole on the gum bone of the patient includes the following steps.
First, the magnetic rod is removed, and then the dentist drills the hole with a drill having a rod diameter that equals the radius of curvature of the innermost guiding panel to drill downward on the position of the missing tooth on the gum bone of the patient through a preset angle of the innermost guiding panel.
Second, the innermost guiding panel is removed, and then the dentist drills the hole with a drill having a rod diameter that equals the radius of curvature of the next guiding panel to drill downward and enlarge the hole on the position of the missing tooth on the gum bone of the patient.
The dentist removes the guiding panels in sequence and uses the drills having different rod diameters to gradually enlarge the hole on the gum bone of the patient as desired.
However, the conventional positioning devices are simply placed in the notch of the guide mold without any design or mechanism to be fixed on the guide mold, so relative displacement between the conventional positioning devices and the guide mold frequently occurs. Consequently, the dentist cannot drill the hole at the accurate position, at the accurate oblique angle, and in the accurate direction as preset. In another aspect, the conventional positioning devices can be fixed by a fixing hole drilled on the magnetic rod and the guiding panels with a fixing part protruding into the fixing hole to fix a relative position between the magnetic rod and the guiding panels. However, when drilling a hole on a gum bone, sizes of the magnetic rod and the guiding panels are almost as large as a tooth, and the magnetic rod and the guiding panels thus have to be compactly designed. If the conventional positioning devices further include the fixing hole and the fixing part protruding in the fixing hole, a manufacture of the conventional positioning devices becomes highly complicated. Therefore, the conventional positioning devices still have to be improved.


Techniques for detecting anomalies in streaming graph data are described. For example, an embedding technique of generating a multi-dimensional vector of summations of each weighted edge found in both a random source bounding proper subset and a random destination bounding proper subset associated with a dimension of the epoch graph is detailed. Anomaly detection is performed on the generated multi-dimensional vectors.

Time-evolving graphs—a graph where both vertices and edges come and go over time—are artifacts generated in many real-world contexts. Examples include pickup and drop-off data collected by ride-hailing services, network communication logs (e.g., IP address A sends p packets to IP address B), instant-messaging logs, and email logs. In many contexts, this data is collected in near real-time.


A method and device for predicting colour component and a computer storage medium are provided. The method includes: acquiring at least one threshold value according to first colour component reconstructed values of all samples of a current coding block; performing grouping according to comparison results between a first colour component neighboring reference values of current coding block and the at least one threshold value to obtain at least two groups of first colour component neighboring reference values and second colour component neighboring reference values; establishing at least two computing models; selecting, according to comparison results between the first colour component reconstructed values and at least one threshold value, a computing model corresponding to each sample in current coding block from at least two computing models; and acquiring, according to the computing model corresponding to each sample, second colour component prediction values of all samples in the current coding block.

With the increase for requirements of people on video display quality, novel video application forms such as high-definition and ultra-high-definition videos have emerged. Under the condition where the high-definition and high-quality video appreciation applications become more and more extensive, increasingly higher requirements are also imposed on video compression technologies. H.265/High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is the latest international video coding standard at present. Compared with the compression performance of a previous-generation video coding standard H.264/Advanced Video Coding (AVC), the compression performance of H.265/HEVC is improved by about 50% but still cannot meet a rapid development requirement of video applications, particularly of novel video applications such as ultra-high-definition and Virtual Reality (VR) videos.
The video coding experts group of the International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) and the motion picture experts group of the International Standardization Organization (ISO)/International Electrotechnical Communication (IEC) set up the Joint Video Exploration Team (WET) in 2015 to start formulating a next-generation video coding standard. A Joint Exploration Test Model (JEM) is a universal reference software platform, and verification of different coding tools is implemented based on this platform. The JVET formally named the next-generation video coding standard after Versatile Video Coding (VVC) in April, 2018, and a corresponding test model is a View Transformation Model (VTM). A prediction method based on a linear model has been integrated in the reference software JEM and VTM, and a predicted value for a chroma component may be obtained from a luma component through a linear model.

Method and devices for video predicting a first color component from a second component

GUANGDONG OPPO MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP., LTD.


An illuminating device comprises a transparent substrate, an area light emitting device and at least one contact terminal for supplying electric power to the area light emitting device. The area light emitting device comprises a first electrode, a thin film layer having an emission layer and a second electrode formed over the transparent substrate, for emitting light that is transmitted through the transparent substrate. Further, a plurality of light scattering members are provided with the transparent substrate, in a manner such that the density of the scattering members increases commensurate with the distance from said contact terminal.

The present invention relates to a lighting device and a display device incorporating the same.
Display devices that include light emitting devices and a transparent electrode, such as organic electroluminescence devices, generally use indium tin oxide (ITO) or zinc oxide (ZnO) for the transparent electrode.
However, because the above described transparent electrodes do not have sufficiently high conductivity, the resistivity at an area near a contact terminal and that at an area far from the contact terminal is significantly different to result in a varied electric current. The unevenness in the luminance of the light emission between areas is thereby caused since the luminance depends on the amount of electric current supplied from the electrodes.
Therefore, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication 2002-156633 provided a liquid crystal display device provided with an auxiliary electrode on the transparent electrode for a method of controlling the unevenness in the luminance.
However, since the liquid crystal display device used a non-transparent material for the auxiliary electrode, the auxiliary electrode needed to be disposed in regions conforming to the pixels of the liquid crystal. Such a limitation hindered the sufficient elimination of the unevenness in the luminance. Further, a precise technique was necessary to accurately arrange the auxiliary electrode to conform to the pixels. The difficulty in the process caused decrease of the yield.

Lighting device and display device incorporating the same


According to one embodiment, video image and voice signals are transmitted to a plurality of electronic devices each having at least one of a video image display function and a voice reproducing function. Information indicating the fact that at least one of a video image and a voice has been set in a mute state is acquired from each of the electronic devices. Based on the information, a processing operation is applied to the video image and voice signals supplied to each of the electronic devices.

1. Field
One embodiment of the invention relates to an audiovisual (AV) device that transmits or receives a signal such as a video image or audio, for example, to or from an externally connected electronic device. In addition, the present invention relates to an interface system for connecting the above-described AV device in plurality.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is well known, a digital visual interface (DVI) standard is prevalent as a standard for transmitting a digital video image signal. In recent years, a high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) standard has been employed as a digital signal transmission standard that is a further improvement of this DVI standard.
This HDMI standard, for example, includes a variety of stipulations that does not exit in the DVI standard such as the fact that a digital audio signal can be multiplexed and transmitted as audio in a blanking period of a digital video image signal, the fact that a digital video image signal is transmitted in an RGB signal format and can be transmitted in a format of a YCbCr signal or in a format of a YPbPr signal that is of higher quality than that of the YCbCr signal; and the fact that connection can be made via a USB (universal serial bus)-like small sized HDMI connector.
In addition, in the DVI standard or in the HDMI standard, in the case where one electronic device transmits a signal such as a video image or audio to the other electronic device, a transmitting electronic device acquires extended display identification data (EDID) from a receiving electronic device, thereby a signal can be output in a format that conforms to specification of receiving a display that the receiving electronic device has.
Further, in the DVI standard or in the HDMI standard, a plurality of signal output ports are installed on the transmitting electronic device, and the receiving electronic devices are connected to the signal output ports, thereby making it possible for the transmitting electronic devices to transmit an identical signal at the same time or a signal in another signal-converted format to a plurality of receiving electronic devices. In this manner, signal transmission can be achieved such that only a video image can be displayed by means of a receiving first electronic device, and then, only audio is reproduced by means of a second receiving electronic device.
For example, in the case where the HDMI standard has been employed, an optical disk reproducing apparatus that reproduces an optical disk such as a DVD (digital versatile disk) may operate as a transmitting electronic device while (i) and (i) a large screen high definition display and (ii) a 2-channel stereo speaker and an AV (audio video) amplifier, which may include a 5.1-channel audio reproducing function for example, operate as a plurality of receiving electronic devices. A video image with a high image quality is displayed by means of the television image receiver and audio with a high sound quality is reproduced by means of the AV amplifier.
In the meantime, it is necessary to synchronize the display video image by the television image receiver with audio reproduction by the AV amplifier. As a result, in the television image receiver and in the AV amplifier, times required for processing their video image signal and audio signal are recorded as the above-described EDID data.
Thus, an optical disk reproducing apparatus can acquire EDID data from the television image receiver and the AV amplifier, respectively, and can control the display video image and the reproduced audio in synchronism with each other by using the time required for video image signal processing of the television image receiver and the time required for audio signal processing of the AV amplifier.
However, in a current situation, for synchronization control, it is necessary for a user to input and set to which signal output port an electronic device is connected to an optical disk reproducing apparatus that is a transmitting electronic device, to which signal output port an electronic device is connected to display a video image, and to which signal output port an electronic device is connected to reproduce audio, and handling becomes complicated.
In Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2005-57714, there is disclosed a configuration such that at the time of connecting a plurality of receiver devices to a transmitter device and transmitting video image and audio data that conform to the HDMI standard, video image and audio data are transmitted to a receiver device capable of reproducing video image and audio based on the EDID data acquired from the receiver device; only video image data is transmitted to a receiver device capable of reproducing only video image; and only audio data is transmitted to a receiver device capable of reproducing only audio.
In addition, in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2006-19857, there is disclosed a configuration such that a tuner, an image recording/reproducing apparatus, a monitor can be connected to each other in longitudinal manner; a receiver requests specification for a desired video image signal to a video image signal transmitter; and, in the case where the image recording/reproducing apparatus enters a stop mode, a video image signal outputted from the tuner is directly transmitted to the monitor.
Further, in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2002-344898, IEEE1394 is disclosed as a standard for interconnecting AV devices, and a DVD player, a TV monitor, and an AV amplifier are connected to each other in accordance with the IEEE standard. In this document, there are described: means for obtaining processing delay information for video image display processing of the TV monitor; and means for an AV amplifier to acquire the information and to adjust audio delay.
Furthermore, in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2006-33436, an HDMI standard is disclosed as a standard for interconnecting AV devices; and between a video image monitor and an AV amplifier and between the AV amplifier and a DVD player are connected to each other in accordance with the HDMI standard. Moreover, there are described means for acquiring a delay time for monitor video image display processing and means for delaying an audio signal.

Audiovisual (AV) device and control method thereof


A building automation system (BAS) comprising a plurality of end devices, at least one communication network, and a server engine comprising a communication state manager for actively managing the state of various devices in building automation system and an associated reconnect manager to reestablish communication with off-line devices. The communication manager and the reconnect manager coordinate the interaction between the server engine and the devices in order to minimizing the load on the communication network, while also working to establish the working state of any of the end devices and to transition off-line to an on-line state.

Building automation systems (BAS) are used to coordinate, manage, and automate control of diverse environmental, physical, and electrical building subsystems, particularly HVAC and climate control but also including security, lighting, power, and the like. Typical existing BAS systems are hardwired or use a proprietary communication standard or protocol to link the various subsystems and provide system-wide user access, monitoring, and control.
A BAS can comprise a plurality of end devices, a communication network, a server engine, and a graphical user interface (GUI) or other means of providing control and reporting data to a user. The end devices are each typically associated with a room, a space, a system, or a subsystem for at least a portion of a building or a campus. The communication network may support a plurality of communication protocols and communicatively couples end devices to the server engine. Examples of the types of data that these systems collect about the space, building or system can include pressures, temperatures, humidity level, power/energy readings, and other run-time statistics.
Hardwiring and manual programming of BAS systems can create a robust fixed system customized for a particular installation. These systems, however, often require extensive customization for each building or site. Particular manual programming and other installation elements may not be applicable to other systems, contributing to the costliness and time-consuming installation associated with such systems.
Further, hardwired systems and those using proprietary communication standards and protocols are difficult or impossible to integrate with system components, devices, panels, and other elements from different vendors or generations. For example, a campus of buildings in which an upgraded BAS is being installed may have existing previous generation (legacy) systems and systems from more than one vendor. Installing a BAS and making it compatible with the existing systems in such a situation is time-consuming, requiring extensive manual service and programming to integrate the existing devices and implement the custom BAS.
With the introduction of BACnet™, an ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) and ANSI (American National Standards Institute) protocol standard, and LonTalk™, a protocol integration approach developed by Echelon, some uniformity of standards and communications has been achieved in the industry. BACnet™ was intended to standardize HVAC interoperability and serve as a solution to industry-wide issues. In use, however, BACnet™ exists in multiple versions and includes various non-standard feature functions available to vendors.
One aspect of many BACnet™ compatible devices is the passive handling of communicating their condition of operation or on-line/off-line status. For example a device may transition from being on-line to off-line without actively notifying any other devices or even a system controller of the change in the device's status. For these types of devices the only method of detecting off-line conditions is for the system controller or other management engine to actively query or poll each individual device for its current status.
Those skilled in the art of network traffic management will recognize that the frequent or periodic polling of a large number of individual devices may lead to network performance degradation. Additionally, in the area of BAS management some devices may be battery operated or capable of only a limited data communication rate or processing capacity. Because of these potential conditions the use of a polling or periodic "heartbeat" method of gathering the state of every device in a BAS system may not be effective or desirable. For these and other reasons, a need remains for an intelligent BAS having the capability of actively managing the state of BACnet™ compatible devices and other proprietary devices that do not broadcast their change in status.

Active device management for use in a building automation system


A particle detector for an electron microscope, a mass spectrometer or the like comprises a single flat plate electron multiplier such as a micro-channel plate or a micro-sphere plate followed by a scintillator. The use of the electron multiplier prior to the scintillator compensates for lack of efficiency in passing photons from the scintillator. The output voltage of the scintillator can be freely set.

Particle detectors are important in many applications including mass spectrometers, particle accelerators and electron microscopes. In all of these cases charged particles need to be detected. A detector is provided that transforms the energy, or the presence, of the particle into a form that can be amplified and the amplified form of the signal is then measured to infer the presence of the particle. In a mass spectrometer an ion beam is provided, the energy and current of which carries information about the material being analyzed. In an electron microscope a beam of electrons scans a sample. The beam interacts with the sample in different ways to produce signals that can be detected. In a transmission electron microscope this is achieved as follows, an electron beam passes straight through the sample and is partially absorbed by the sample. The part of the beam that is not absorbed is detected by a particle detector on the far side of the sample and contrasts between areas of different densities are shown. This requires a relatively high energy beam and has the disadvantage that it causes damage to the sample. A further disadvantage is that thin samples are required.
A second form of signal, used in a scanning electron microscope, comprises particles of the original beam that are reflected by the sample. These are known as backscattered electrons and tend to have energies similar to the primary beam, typically 50 eV and above. Backscattered electrons provide good material contrast information, allowing different materials to be distinguished.
A third form of signal, again taken advantage of in the scanning electron microscope, comprises secondary electrons. Secondary electrons are given off by the surface of the sample when struck by a primary electron, that is to say an electron of the original beam. Secondary electrons are of rather low energies, typically of 5 eV and below, certainly below 50 eV. Secondary electrons carry information about the topography of a surface.
There are three main types of particle detectors currently in use in the above-mentioned applications. One is known as a scintillator, the second is a solid state detector, sometimes known as a silicon detector, and the third is a plate. The plate comes in two forms, the first known as a micro-channel plate (MCP), and the second known as a micro-sphere plate (MSP). A scintillator comprises a glass, or other transparent substrate coated with phosphor, or such a transparent material impregnated with scintillating material. The scintillator gives off photons when struck by an electron or other charged particle. The photons pass through a light guide to a photomultiplier tube (PMT). The PMT generates an electronic current which is proportional to the number of photons that reach it and amplifies the electronic signal to generate an output signal strong enough to be passed to a visual display unit or memory or image processing device. Significant photon losses are encountered when transmitting photons from the scintillating body through the light guide to the photomultiplier.
A solid state detector generates electron hole pairs when struck by energetic electrons. These pairs are amplified by an electronic circuit to generate a signal strong enough to be passed to a visual display unit.
One of the problems with a scintillator is that a sufficiently large signal is produced from a single electron only if the electron has sufficient energy, typically 10 keV. Secondary electrons, which have nothing like this level of energy, must therefore be accelerated in order to be detected. Thus the front face of the scintillator is given a voltage level in the region of +10 kV. Because of this field strength it is necessary to position the detectors far from the sample in order to prevent beam aberrations or deflections. This in turn means that detection efficiency is reduced. The same applies to a solid state detector.
The photomultiplier tube, too, has to have a high electric field in order to operate, but at the same time the output signal should preferably be at ground potential so that it can easily be amplified and passed directly to the visual display unit. The only way to do this is to have the front plate of the photomultiplier tube at a strong negative voltage, for example -1.5 kV. The photons are of course immune to electric field so it does not matter that there is a strong negative electric field between the scintillator and the photomultiplier tube.
The MCP (or MSP) is a plate, typically in the region of half a millimeter in thickness and having microchannels extending through the plate. The radius of the microchannel in an MCP is typically 10 .mu.m and the channel is straight. In the MSP the microchannels twist their way between the two surfaces of the plate. A voltage of typically 1 kV is placed across the thickness of the plate. An electron from the sample impinges on the wall of the microchannel and causes more than one secondary electrons to emerge from the wall. These in turn collide with the wall at a further point and generate more secondary electrons. Provided that there is an appropriately sized field across the plate the result is a multiplication effect. A multiplication of one to ten thousand can typically be obtained from a single MCP plate. However to ensure a sufficient output signal it is generally necessary to stack two or three of these plates one above the other. Each plate in the stack must have a sufficient field strength to ensure that overall a multiplication in the range of a hundred thousand to ten million is achieved.
Again the problem arises that the output signal has to be at ground for the purposes of the visual display unit but the anode of the MCP (or MSP) is at 2 to 3 kV. The problem can be solved by using a capacitor as a buffer. However this works only for low currents because the MCP output is limited to around ten percent of its bias current. An alternative method of buffering is to convert the signal into photons and use a light guide. Either way the result is a device that is complex and is not compact. Compactness is very important as the detector has to fit inside the column of the electron microscope housing or between the exit of the beam from the column and the sample.
An advantage of the MCP (or MSP) based detector is that it is more sensitive to low energy electrons compared to either a scintillator or solid state detector. It therefore does not need to have a strong field at its input face and it can thus be sited much closer to the sample or to the beam path. This improves detection efficiency.

Particle detection and particle detector devices


A lubricating oil comprises a major amount of a base oil and a minor amount of an additive package, and the additive package comprises at least one friction modifier of formula I:

1. Field
The present disclosure is directed to additive compositions and lubricants containing oxazoline derivatives. In particular, it is directed to additive compositions and lubricants containing hydrocarbyl oxazolines as friction modifiers for reducing thin film friction and/or boundary layer friction.
2. Description of the Related Technology
To ensure smooth operation of engines, engine oils play an important role in lubricating a variety of sliding parts in the engine, for example, piston rings/cylinder liners, bearings of crankshafts and connecting rods, valve mechanisms including cams and valve lifters, and the like. Engine oils may also play a role in cooling the inside of an engine and dispersing combustion products. Further possible functions of engine oils may include preventing or reducing rust and corrosion.
The principle consideration for engine oils is to prevent wear and seizure of parts in the engine. Lubricated engine parts are mostly in a state of fluid lubrication, but valve systems and top and bottom dead centers of pistons are likely to be in a state of boundary lubrication. The friction between these parts in the engine may cause significant energy losses and thereby reduce fuel efficiency. Many types of friction modifiers have been used in engine oils to decrease frictional energy losses.
Improved fuel efficiency may be achieved when friction between engine parts is reduced. Thin-film friction is the friction generated by a fluid, such as a lubricant, moving between two surfaces, when the distance between the two surfaces is very small. It is known that some additives normally present in engine oils form films of different thicknesses, which can have an effect on thin-film friction. Some additives, such as zinc dialkyl dithio phosphate (ZDDP) are known to increase thin-film friction. Though such additives may be required for other reasons such as to protect engine parts, the increase in thin-film friction caused by such additives can be detrimental.
Reducing boundary layer friction in engines may also enhance fuel efficiency. The motion of contacting surfaces in an engine may be retarded by boundary layer friction. Non-nitrogen-containing, nitrogen-containing, and molybdenum-containing friction modifiers are sometimes used to reduce boundary layer friction.
Rudnick, "Lubricant additives: chemistry and applications," 2nd ed., Page 17, CRC Press, 2009 discloses that copper salts of mono-oxazoline or bis-oxazoline have improved varnish control and oxidation inhibition capabilities in lubricants.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,162,224 discloses a lubricating composition containing a reaction product of boric acid, substituted phenol and bis-oxazoline or oxazoline, where the oxazoline has formula:
where R is a straight, ranched chain or cycloalkyl group containing from 4 to 30 carbon atoms. The compound is said to impart a desired degree of antiwear and/or antioxidant protection to the lubricant composition. The patent contemplates using the lubricant composition for a machine or an engine.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,618,436 discloses a multifunctional lubricant composition comprising an internal acid phosphate salt of a borated oxazoline, where the oxazoline has formula:
where R is selected from about C8 to about C30 hydrocarbyl or
such as an acyl sarcosine-derived substituent or mixture thereof, at least one of R1, R2, R3, R4 is hydroxyalkyl having from 1 to about 6 carbon atoms and the remaining of R1, R2, R3, R4 are independently selected from the group consisting of C1 to about C30 hydrocarbyl, C1 to about C6 hydroxyalkyl, hydrogen or
where R8 is hydrogen or C1 to about C6 hydrocarbyl, or
or mixtures thereof, R5 is about C30 hydrocarbyl, R6 is C1 to about C6 hydrocarbyl and R7 is C1 to about C3 hydrocarbylene. The lubricant composition may also contain other components, such as corrosion inhibitors, extreme pressure agents, viscosity index improvers, co-antioxidants, other antiwear agents and the like. The lubricant composition is said to be capable of reducing the friction of an engine operating with oil in its crankcase.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,097,389 discloses a lubricant composition containing a borated product of a compound of the formula:
as a detergent, with the alkenyl group containing 1 to 30 carbon atoms. Other additives that may be used in the lubricant composition include other detergents, viscosity improvement agents, extreme pressure additives, and oxidation stability additives.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,035,309 discloses a lubricant composition comprising a reaction product that predominantly comprises a compound of formula:
where R is the hydrocarbyl group of succinic anhydride, and each X may represent a —CH3OH group. The lubricant composition may be used in automotive crankcase, automatic transmission fluids, or in petroleum fuels such as gasoline. Additional additives such as a viscosity index improver, a pour point depressant, or a zinc dialkyldithiophosphate antiwear agent may also be included in the lubricant composition.
In recent years there has been a growing desire to employ lubricants that provide higher energy-efficiency, especially lubricants that reduce friction by employment of friction modifiers in the lubricants. The present disclosure provides an improved lubricant composition that may reduce one or both of thin film friction and boundary layer friction.

Abstract: where R is a linear or branched, saturated, unsaturated, or partially saturated hydrocarbyl having about 8 to about 22 carbon atoms or R is represented by:

Abstract: and R1 is a linear or branched, saturated, unsaturated, or partially saturated hydrocarbyl having about 8 to about 22 carbon atoms and R2 is hydrogen or a hydrocarbyl having about 1 to about 2 carbon atoms. Methods of using the lubricating oil to improve thin film and/or boundary layer friction in an engine are also disclosed.


The application relates to providing medical information in response to a query, in particular, although not exclusively, to a method of querying a medical database using voice recognition. According to an embodiment, there is provided a medical query answering apparatus that is configured to convert detected audio signals into a natural language data stream; determine from the natural language data stream whether a voice command for information relating to a medical device or a medicament has been issued by a user; in response to a positive determination, convert at least part of the natural language data stream into a query for querying a medical database; supply the query to the medical database and receive a response therefrom; and provide an audio output based at least in part on the response from the medical database.

A Patient Information Leaflet (PIL) or Package Insert is often provided with licensed medicines in order to inform medicine users of how to take the medicine, potential side effects of the medicine and interactions the medicine may have with other medication or pre-existing medical conditions, as well as provide any other information deemed useful for the user.


A CD-ROM disk drive receives commands from a host computer. In order to speed up the data accessing response time of the CD-ROM, a method is provided for rearranging the order in which the commands received from the host computer access data contained in sequentially enumerated blocks on the CD-ROM in the disk drive. According to the disclosed method, three queues are set up for holding the logical block addresses of blocks which are to be accessed by the received commands. An execution queue stores addresses of disk blocks to be accessed by a currently executed command. A wait queue stores addresses of disk blocks to be accessed by the next command after the commands accessing addresses of disk blocks stored in the execution queue. A free queue stores addresses of disk blocks to be accessed by the continuously transmitted commands. More time efficient accessing of data from the CD-ROM is accomplished by rearranging the execution queue such that the blocks stored in the wait queue are, one at a time, inserted into the execution queue in a sequential order. In this way, it is made possible for a large number of accessing operations of the drive to be performed at blocks on the CD-ROM which are in a sequential order.

The present invention relates to a CD-ROM disk drive. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for executing a command in a CD-ROM disk drive wherein a command is executed after adjustment of the address which is to be accessed on the disk. The present application for a command executing method for CD-ROM disk drive is based upon Korean Patent Application No. 96-9575 which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.
A CD-ROM, like a music CD, is a disk having a diameter of 12 cm and a storage capacity of 680 MB and is read from using a laser. CD-ROM disk drives are classified according to the type of data transmission between the CD-ROM disk drive and its host computer. Thus, CD-ROM disk drives are largely classified as an AT-BUS type, a SCSI (small computers system interface) type, or an Enhanced IDE (enhanced-integrated development environment) type.
FIG. 1 schematically shows a structure of a CD-ROM disk drive. Referring to FIG. 1, the disk drive has a spindle motor 12 for rotating a disk 11 positioned on a turntable 10 and a pickup device 13 for reading information recorded on the disk 11. A CPU 14 controls the entire system. A servo signal processor (SSP) 15 drives the spindle motor 12 and receives the signal read by the pickup device 13 to transmit the received signal to the CPU 14.
However, in the conventional CD-ROM disk drive having such a structure, since the commands transmitted from a host computer are sequentially executed and there is no function of rearranging these commands in the CD-ROM disk drive, the speed required for performing some commands, such as track search or data access in a disk, becomes slow.

Command executing method for CD-ROM disk drive


A signal-processing unit according to the present invention comprises: an input line provided with a plurality of analog input signal lines; a multiplexer circuit transmitting the plurality of analog signals from this input line to one signal line in the subsequent stage in a desired sequence; an analog-digital conversion circuit that converts an analog signal into a digital signal and outputs it; and a cross talk compensation circuit that with respect to each of signals having been sequentially outputted from the analog-digital conversion circuit, a coefficient of an effect level between this signal and the other plural signals interfering with each other is calculated, and data obtained by multiplying the signals by these coefficients are added up.

Recently, a document reading device for use in scanners, multifunction copying machines or the like, has become remarkably faster in reading speed per line. In a signal-processing unit to be applied to this document-reading device, it is necessary to divide one line into a plurality of blocks to make a parallel processing, as well as to process at higher speed each of the blocks having been divided. Moreover, a circuit for processing analog data read out individually in each of the plurality of blocks needs to operate at higher speed as a matter of course. On the other hand, conforming to document-reading devices being downsized, a signal-processing unit also tends to be downsized by, e.g., being formed into one chip.
Basically, each block in a signal-processing unit is connected through a switched capacitor of which ON/OFF is controlled at drive clock. Fetching data from each block, and transferring data to the subsequent block are processed by adjustment of a timing of drive clock so as to prevent interference between signals processed by each block.
In the conventional signal-processing unit, however, a problem exists in that a state in which outputs of adjacent signals are affected each other depending on timing of switching of each circuit block occurs when the signal-processing unit is driven at high speed by a high-speed clock, or that layout and wiring run of each circuit become hard as circuits are downsized, resulting in the interference of wiring with each other. Thus, the interference between signal data with each other, so-called cross talk, occurs between each of the circuits. Therefore, a further problem exists in that data after having been fetched in the signal-processing unit are changed or deteriorated as compared with data before being fetched in the signal-processing unit, and that correlation between data before signal processing and data after signal processing cannot be obtained. Furthermore, as document reading devices are downsized and operated at high speed, there arise situations in which wiring between plural lines of signals to be parallel-processed comes to be proximate, thus the cross talk between wirings may occur in early stage of the signal-processing unit.
As measures against these situations, to solve the problems as mentioned above, it has been attempted that the circuit layout in an internal part of a signal-processing unit, or switching timing between blocks are optimized; or wiring in the document reading device is designed to prevent the lines from being proximate to each other to a minimum. In actual, however, there remains the cross talk that is not eliminated even by those measures. For example, in the case of reading documents with the use of such a signal-processing unit for processing read data of the document reading device, the so-called "ghost phenomenon" in which a certain part of output data is seen in the other part like a thin shadow occurs, resulting in deterioration of picture quality.
The invention was made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and has an object of providing a signal-processing unit making it possible to effectively process the cross talk between signal data that occurs when a plurality of signal lines are processed in parallel.


A transformer assembly is disclosed. An example circuit board assembly includes a circuit board. A drum core inductor is also included and has a drum core, a first winding, and first and second terminals extending from a first end of the drum core inductor. A wire of the first winding is wound around an axis of the drum core. The first winding has first and second ends coupled to the first and second terminals of the drum core inductor, respectively. A bobbin has first and second terminals extending from a first end of the bobbin. A wire of a second winding is wound around an axis of the bobbin. The second winding has first and second ends coupled to the first and second terminals of the bobbin, respectively. The first ends of the drum core inductor and the bobbin are attached to a circuit board such that the drum core inductor is positioned on the circuit board inside an opening of the bobbin defined along the axis of the bobbin. The drum core inductor and the bobbin are detached from one another.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The present invention is related to the construction of electronic circuits. Specifically, it is related to an assembly of electronic circuit components for low-cost power supplies.
2. Background
Electronic circuits typically require a source of relatively low dc voltage to operate. The voltage is usually less than 15 volts. Portable electronic devices usually contain a battery as the source of dc voltage. Devices that operate from a source of ac voltage, such as the voltage available from an ordinary household wall outlet, require an ac-dc power supply to convert the ac input voltage that may be between 100 and 240 volts to the lower dc voltage that the electronic circuits require.
Ac-dc power supplies typically rely on the magnetic coupling between one or more coils of wire to scale voltages and to provide safety isolation between the relatively high ac voltage at the input and the relatively low dc voltage at the output. Manufacturers provide components known as transformers and coupled inductors that provide the required magnetic coupling and other desired features for use in power supplies. Coils of wire and pieces of magnetic material are usually assembled with clamps or adhesives into a single component for this purpose.
Transformers and coupled inductors typically contribute significantly to the cost of a power supply. A low-cost transformer assembly is desirable to reduce the cost of electronic power supplies.


The present invention relates to a cleaning liquid for a water-based ink that contains a pigment and a water-insoluble polymer, said cleaning liquid containing (A) a surfactant, (B) a water-soluble organic solvent containing (b-1) diethylene glycol monoisopropyl ether, and water, in which the surfactant (A) contains at least one compound selected from the group consisting of (a-1) an acetylene glycol or an ethyleneoxide adduct of the acetylene glycol, and (a-2) a polyethylene glycol alkyl ether containing an alkyl group having not less than 8 carbon atoms or a polyethylene glycol aryl ether containing an aryl group having not less than 6 carbon atoms, and a content of the water-soluble organic solvent (B) in the cleaning liquid is from 5 to 30% by mass; and a method of cleaning a water-based ink using the cleaning liquid.

In ink-jet printing methods, droplets of ink are directly projected from very fine nozzles onto a printing medium using an ink-jet printer, and allowed to adhere to the printing medium to obtain printed materials on which characters or images are printed. In the sites actually using the ink-jet printer, if the nozzles of the ink-jet printer suffer from ejection defects, etc., an end face or an ink ejection port of the respective nozzles is wiped with a nonwoven fabric, etc., impregnated with a cleaning liquid to remove a surplus amount of the ink attached thereto. In addition, in the case of using different kinds of inks, it is necessary to clean up an ink path within the ink-jet printer using a cleaning liquid before or after changing the ink to be used from one to another. Furthermore, in the case where a print head of the ink-jet printer remains in a non-used condition for a long period of time, it is usual that after removing the ink from the print head, the cleaning liquid is filled in the print head, and the print head filled with the cleaning liquid is closed by capping for storage.
Also, in a gravure printing method, an ink is transferred to a printing medium using a gravure printing plate cylinder on which recessed cells for receiving) the ink are formed. The depth of each of the cells as well as the distance the respective cells (number of lines) fan be adequately determined to well control a quality of characters or images printed by the gravure printing method. In this case, if the gravure printing plate cylinder is stained or fouled by the ink, it is required that the cylinder is dismounted from the gravure printer and then cleaned with a brush, etc., while dissolving the ink deposited thereon using a cleaning liquid. In consequence, there have been conventionally proposed various cleaning liquids containing a surfactant.
For example, JP 9-31490A (Patent Literature 1) discloses an aqueous industrial degreasing detergent that is capable of satisfying required performance such as environmental characteristics, and contains a polyethylene glycol ether-type nonionic surfactant.
JP 2013-241552A (Patent Literature 2) discloses a cleaning and filling liquid for an ink-jet printing apparatus which is excellent in wettability and cleanability, etc., in which a surfactant used therein contains at least a fluorine-based surfactant and an acetylene glycol-based surfactant having an average molar number of addition of ethyleneoxide of 0 to 30.