A method and device evaluate simultaneously, with the same equipment, physical parameters such as the absolute permeability and the porosity of fragments taken from a fragmented natural or artificial porous medium. The porosity of the fragments is measured by means of helium pressure tests according to a protocol known in the art. The chamber (1) containing the fragments is communicated with a tank (11) whose volume is also known and containing helium at a known pressure. At pressure balance, the value of the solid volume can be deduced. The rock envelope volume and the fragments mass are also measured. Combining these measurements allows to determine the porosity of the samples and the density of the rock. Their permeability is then measured by immersing them in a viscous fluid and by communicating the chamber with viscous fluid at a determined pressure contained in a vessel (9) so as to compress the gas trapped in the pores of the rock, according to two different protocols. The values of the physical parameters are determined by modelling the evolution of the pressure or of the volume in the chamber and by means of an iterative adjustment.

Work has already been done to try to evaluate petrophysical properties from cuttings. The acoustic properties as regards S and P waves (shear and compressional waves) have been measured for example. Various parameters have also been studied, such as the hardness and the deformation of the rock fragments, or their porosity and permeability.
According to a first known method intended for permeability measurement, the rock fragment is first coated with resin. A thin slice is cut out of the coated rock and placed in a measuring cell. It comprises means for injecting a fluid under pressure at a controlled flow rate and means for measuring the pressure drop created by the sample. Since the resin is impermeable, the absolute permeability is deduced from Darcy's equation by taking account of the real surface area occupied by the rock fragments.
This method is for example described by:                Santarelli F. J., et al.; <<Formation evaluation from logging on cuttings >>, SPERE, June 1998, or        Marsala A. F., et al.; <<Transient Method Implemented under Unsteady State Conditions for Low and Very Low Permeability Measurements on Cuttings >>, SPE/ISRM No.47202, Trondheim, 8–10 Jul. 1998.
This type of measurement can only be obtained in the laboratory after long fragment conditioning operations.
Another well-known method is based on an NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) measurement which is directly carried out on the cuttings after prior washing followed by brine saturation. This type of measurement gives a porosity value that can be directly used. The permeability K is determined by means of correlations of the same nature as those used within the context of the NMR logging.
An illustration of this method can be found in the following document:                Nigh E., et al. ; P-K™ : Wellsite Determination of Porosity and Permeability Using Drilling Cuttings, CWLS Journal, Vol.13, No.1, Dec. 1984.
European patent application EP-1,167,948 describes a system for evaluating physical parameters such as the absolute permeability of porous rocks from a zone of an underground reservoir, from rock fragments taken in this zone, such as rock fragments carried along by the drilling mud. After immersing the fragments in a viscous fluid contained in a chamber, a fluid whose pressure increases with time, up to a predetermined pressure threshold, is injected so as to compress the gas trapped in the pores of the rock. This injection stage is followed by a relaxation stage where injection is stopped. The pressure variation during these two successive stages is recorded. The evolution of the pressure during the injection process having been modelled from initial values selected for the physical parameters of the fragments, the computer adjusts them iteratively so as to obtain the best possible match between the modelled pressure curve and the pressure curve really measured.

Method and device for evaluating physical parameters of an underground deposit from rock cuttings sampled therein


An electronic cigarette for preventing mutual rotation of an atomizing assembly and a battery assembly is provided. The battery assembly and the atomizing assembly of the electronic cigarette are connected by magnetic attraction. The atomizer connecting end is provided with a retaining member with a corner angle; the battery connecting end is provided with an accommodating cavity which allows the atomizer connecting end to be inserted therein; and the accommodating cavity is provided with a guiding retaining groove allowing the retaining member to be inserted therein. When the battery assembly and the atomizing assembly are connected by magnetic attraction, the mutual rotation can be interfered and restrained as the connection section has the corner angles, and the atomizing assembly and the battery assembly can not rotate with respect to one another.

As the improvement of health consciousness, more and more people are aware of the perniciousness of smoking, thus, an electronic cigarette, which is healthier than the cigarette, is welcomed.
A conventional electronic cigarette includes a battery assembly and an atomizing assembly. When a user smokes the electronic cigarette, the internal pressure of the electronic cigarette is changed, and an airflow sensor inside the battery assembly senses the pressure change and sends a signal to a controller inside the electronic cigarette, then according to the signal, the controller controls a heating wire inside the atomizing assembly to atomize a cigarette liquid stored in a liquid storage cotton to generate smoke. In this way, the user has completed a smoking process.
Functional components in the electronic cigarette are powered by a battery in the battery assembly. The battery assembly and the atomizing assembly are separately formed and then connected. A connecting portion of the battery assembly for connecting the atomizing assembly is provided with an electrode connecting end, and the electrode connecting end is connected to each functional component by an electronic wire to provide electric energy, thus in this way, a power supply circuit is formed. The battery assembly and the atomizing assembly can rotate with respect to each other by any angle, in the rotating process, the electrode is apt to drive the electronic wires, thus the electronic wires may knot to cause short circuit or open circuit, and the electronic cigarette can not work normally. In addition, the battery assembly and the atomizing assembly can rotate with respect to each other by any angle, thus, in the long-term use, due to the mutual rotation, the battery assembly and the atomizing assembly may be worn, which may generate a large gap between them, and in this case, the connection therebetween is not reliable and the battery assembly and the atomizing assembly are apt to be disengaged from one another. When smoking, the user worries about that the battery assembly may fall off from the atomizing assembly, thus generally grips at the connecting portion of the battery assembly and the atomizing assembly, which not only causes a poor user experience, but also may burn fingers of the user when touching the atomizer for a long time.

HUISHOU KIMREE TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. SHENZHEN BRANCH


A transport container serves to contain relays arranged in bar-shaped magazines, whereby the magazines respectively comprise a continuous hollow space with end openings for inserting the relays. The transport container is fashioned as a cartridge with a basically cuboidal shape, open toward the upper side, whose interior space corresponds to the length and width of a magazine and whose height corresponds to a predetermined number of magazines stacked one on top of the other.

It is customary to pack relays in more or less prism-shaped bar magazines, whereby the walls of the respective magazine are matched roughly to the outer contour of the relay. The hollow bar magazines include openings only on the front sides, for the insertion of the relays. After filling the magazine with the predetermined number of relays, the openings are usually sealed with an adhesive strip or the like. Moreover, for transport, it is customary to pack a larger number of these magazines in cartons. The cartons are then sealed with adhesive strips and the like. Upon receipt, the cartons are then opened for further processing. The magazines are removed individually, are opened at their front sides and are individually placed in automatic placement machines, and the relays are then pushed out of the magazines with corresponding apparatuses before being placed on circuit boards or installed in other devices.


A system and method for determining brain hematoma including a handheld device for emitting and detecting radiation with a removable light guide assembly. A method for determining a brain hematoma condition that includes determining optical density of various regions of the brain using near infrared spectroscopy.

One of the most important principles for the initial resuscitation of a head trauma patient is to promptly identify and surgically evacuate traumatic intracranial hematomas. Hematoma is a condition by which blood accumulates outside blood vessel generally as a result of a hemorrhage or trauma. Unilateral hematoma exists when blood accumulation takes place in one side of the head. Bilateral hematoma exists when blood accumulation exists in both sides of the head.
Time is crucial as the expanding mass lesion can cause death from brainstem compression or cause global ischemic injury. At least one study has shown that a delay of more than 4 hours between injury and the evacuation of a subdural hematoma increased mortality and worsened outcome in survivors.
CT scanning is one means for identifying and localizing localization traumatic intracranial hematomas. Achieving evacuation of intracranial hematomas in 4 hours generally requires an organized system of regional trauma centers, where a patient is initially taken to a nearby trauma center capable of complete treatment of their injury. For those patients with neurological injuries, a CT scan, followed by surgery if necessary, is obtained immediately after the patient is hemodynamically stabilized. However, in emergencies involving trauma to the head in rural areas of the US, in underdeveloped areas of the world and, critically, in the battlefield, timely identification of patients that require surgery can be more difficult.
Moreover, comprehensive trauma centers with 24 hr/day CT scanning are not always immediately available. The primary method for identification of patients with hematomas in these settings is the neurological exam. However, the neurological examination is a poor substitute for CT scan because no single physical sign reliably indicates the presence of a hematoma. Focal neurological findings are found in only a fraction of patients with surgical hematomas. Coma has been reported to occur without the occurrence of a surgical hematoma in 56% of patients with severe head injury. Although patients with intracranial hematomas have increased intracranial pressure (ICP), papilledema is uncommon after head injury, occurring in only 3.5% in one study. A unilateral dilated pupil is commonly identified as one lateralizing sign when it occurs in a patient with a hematoma, but the presence of such a finding does not clearly identify the presence of a surgical hematoma since it is also found in a significant number of patients with diffuse brain injuries.
There is a need, therefore, for a non-invasive system that is capable of detecting intracranial hematoma in-situ following a traumatic brain injury. Such a system is needed that will allow the maximum possible comfort to patient and ease of use for the operator, while maximizing hematoma detection rate and minimizing false alarm rate. Even if the type of hematomas cannot be determined with certainty, the presence of any type of hematoma is the only information required in the field to triage a patient immediately to a hospital with neurosurgical diagnostic and operative capabilities.
It is known that an accumulation of extravascular blood absorbs more near infrared (NIR) light than the intravascular blood. This is attributable to a greater concentration of hemoglobin in the extravascular blood than in blood contained within vessels. Extravascular blood may also have a higher degree of oxygenation than intravascular blood. At certain wavelengths, blood with a higher degree of oxygenation absorbs a different quantity of NIR than blood with a lower degree of oxygenation. U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,053 entitled Detection of Brain Hematoma, which is hereby incorporated by reference as if set forth in its entirety herein, describes systems and methods for detection of brain hematoma based upon concentrations of blood in tissue.

System and method for detection of hematoma


A photosensor controller is described comprising sensor units 17-0 to 17-7, 18-0 to 18-7, 19-0 to 19-7 and a circuit 16 driving light emitting diodes by a method of time division. Each sensor unit comprises pairs of an LED and a photodiode. After the driving circuit 16 turn on the proceeding LED, if turns off the next LED for a period corresponding to the delay time constant of a detected signal from a photodiode which corresponds to "OFF", making a completely to "0" in this off period of turning off, even in case of waveform rounding. Following this, the next LED is turned on.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a controller for use with photosensors to pick up the states of control elements, such as the keys of a player piano.
2. Related art of the invention
In general, a player piano has photosensors corresponding to its own control elements such as keys, the photosensors being controlled by the method of sequentially scanning, to detect the states of the control elements.
FIG. 5 shows a circuit schematic of a sensor unit of a photosensor controller. The driving circuit which is not indicated in FIG. 5 controls the turning on or off of all of the light emitting diodes (LED). A photodiode (PD) 2-1 receives the luminescence of the LED 1-1. A shutter 3-1 provided for a key corresponding to a note C# interrupts the luminescence of the LED 1-1 when the key is stricken by an operator.
Events of the key corresponding to the note C# are detected by the LED 1-1, the PD 2-1 and the shutter 3-1. Similarly, events of the key corresponding to a note D are detected by the LED 1-2, the PD 2-2 and the shutter 3-2, and the events of the key corresponding to a note D# are detected by the LED 1-3, the PD 2-3 and the shutter 3-3. Thus, each of 12 groups of an LED, a PD and a shutter is provided for detecting an event in the key for an octave.
Each of the PDs is connected to a power supply Vcc and a node A. The node A is directly connected to a negative input terminal of an operational amplifier 4, and is also connected to the ground via a resistor RL. The threshold voltage Vth is supplied to a positive input terminal of the amplifier 4. The output of the amplifier 4 is directly connected to a node B, and is also connected to the power supply Vcc through a resistor R lest the output be unstable.
If the level of the node A is higher than that of the threshold voltage Vth, the level of the node B will be the high voltage state ("H"). As shown in FIG. 5, the sensor unit 5 includes LEDs 1-1 to 1-12, PDs 2-1 to 2-12, shutters 3-1 to 3-12, an operational amplifier 4 and resistors.
Referring to FIG. 6, a timing chart of the sensor unit 5 is shown. As indicated in this drawing, the driving circuit supplies a periodic pulse signal one by one to the LEDs. For example, the LED 1-2 turns on as soon as the LED 2-1 turns off. Thus, the events of the keys are sequentially scanned.
For the purpose of explanation, the key depressed shall correspond to the note D. In other words, the luminescence of the LED 1-2 shall be interrupted by the shutter 3-2. In this case, at the luminescence timing of LED 1-1 and 1-3, which correspond respectively to PD 2-1 and 2-3, PD 2-1 and 2-3 receive the light from the respective LED. However, because PD 2-2 does not receive light at the luminescence timing of LED 1-2, the voltage level of the node A becomes "0" (low state) at the portion corresponding to the luminescence timing of LED 1-2, as is shown in FIG. 5. Through a comparison of the level of the node A and the threshold voltage Vth by the operational amplifier 4, output signal B is obtained.
The output signal B is sampled by sampling pulses which are placed at center of the luminescence timings. Each of sampling pulses is short in comparison with the luminescence timing. Thus, an event in the key corresponding to the note D is detected by a comparison between the sampling results and the luminescence timing of the LEDs.
One problem associated with LED or PD, is that considerable variation in characteristics between devices exist. If, for example, variation in the luminescence energy between the LEDs exists, a difference is generated in the potential between the cathodes of the PDs. Moreover, this difference in potential is also generated by the light receiving characteristics of the PDs themselves.
By the time constant constituted from the load resistor RL and the junction capacitor of the PD itself, the rise and fall portions of the waveform at the node A, as indicated in FIG. 6, come to round. When rounding becomes severe, because, while the timing in comparison to the output at node A is delayed by delta t, the timing attains the voltage threshold value Vth. This characteristic of delay determines delay time constant. It is still possible to detect the events of keys by supplying the sampling pulse after the elapse of delta t.
However, if differences between output voltages at the PDs exist due to the aforementioned variation in the PDs, another problem referred to as "cross talk" arises. In other words, when continuous keys are in "OFF" state, for example when neighboring shutters such as shutters 3-2 and 3-3 dont't block the light of LEDs 1-2 and 1-3, a step differential is generated at the output level of node A (omitted from the figures), causing a mutually deterrent effect.
The delay delta t, cannot be ignored to the extent that the speed (frequency) of the scanning of the keys increases. In the worst case, before the elapse of the delay delta t, the next key is scanned, and thereby, the output B cannot follow the scanning speed and does not change. Therefore, in this case, it is impossible to detect key events.
One idea associated with the improvement of the delta t is that an LED of the high luminous efficacy type or a PD of the high speed response type is used to detect the event. However, problems associated with this idea include the fact that such an LED or a PD is very expensive and that, if a large current flows through such devices, the reliability and the endurance of the devices decrease.

Photosensor controller for musical instrument having a driving means for driving a subsequent pair of luminescing means and detecting means in sequence


In a machining device, a workpiece is laid on a working mechanism base and a lapping machine laid on the workpiece is operated to rotate. A lap liquid is supplied between the lapping machine and the workpiece. The lapping machine is provided with a plurality of holes as measurement windows. Above the workpiece, an interferometer is disposed on the opposite side of the lapping machine from the workpiece. The interferometer detects interference fringes on a machined surface of the workpiece through the measurement windows. Based on detection results, the rotation of the lapping machine and the position of the workpiece are controlled.

1. Field of The Invention
The present invention relates to a measurement device for optically measuring interference fringes of a workpiece, especially to a measurement device in which measuring can be performed during machining. The present invention can be preferably applied to measurements while an abrasive working is being performed in lapping, polishing, or another working method. The present invention also relates to a machining device provided with a measurement device.
2. Description of The Related Art
In order to precisely finish a gauge block or the like, machining such as lapping, polishing, or the like is performed using abrasive particles. A machine tool (lapping tool or the like) as a reference and a workpiece are pressed together, and moved relative to each other. Thereby, the workpiece and the working tool slide against each other. Abrasive particles are then introduced between the workpiece and the machine tool. Such systems employing abrasive particles include both liberated abrasive systems and fixed abrasive systems. In a liberated abrasive system, a liquid in which the abrasive particles is suspended is used, and the liquid is supplied between the machine tool and the workpiece. On the other hand, in the fixed abrasive system, the abrasive grains are embedded in a sliding surface of the machine tool. This method of machining is suitable for precisely finishing surfaces, and is commonly applied, for example, to the machining of gauge blocks or other precision components; the finishing of a lens, mirror, or other optical component; or the precise finishing of a semiconductor wafer or the like.
To measure the accuracy of surface or dimension of an abrasively machined workpiece, a measurement device is commonly used to optically detecting interference fringes. Well known examples of such measurement devices, include Fizeau, and Michelson interferometers or the like, and measurement is usually performed using an image of interference fringes generated in accordance with a profile or contour of the workpiece. However, when the workpiece is set on the abrasive machining device, the workpiece is covered with the working tool, and therefore, on-the-fly measurement cannot be performed during working. Accordingly, the workpiece is set on the measurement device and measuring is then performed after the workpiece is detached from the machining device and cleaned.
Generally in lapping or polishing, a micron, submicron, or even higher work accuracy is required. To obtain such a high accuracy, the workpiece is machined again after it has been cleaned and measured. This labor intensive process of working, cleaning, and measuring must be repeated until a required accuracy is obtained. Therefore, the labor cost of highly accurately machined components, especially of optical components or gauges is very high.
Today, there is a strong demand for high density semiconductor elements. To meet the demand, a method is studied in which an in-process semiconductor wafer is flattened through polishing with liberated abrasives and the wafer is patterned again. It has also been proposed that a displacement meter be incorporated in the machining device. In this method, while changes of surface roughness of a workpiece can be measured during machining. The accuracy of flatness or another profile cannot be measured.
As mentioned above, there has been heretofore known no device in which the profile accuracy of a machined surface can be measured on-the-fly during lapping or polishing. Especially, precise measuring cannot be performed through optical detection of interference fringes. Therefore, the profile must be measured by detaching the workpiece being worked from the machining device each time a measurement is necessary, which inhibits improvements to productivity or work accuracy.
In the above, a problem has been described in the example of abrasive working. However, the problem is not limited to abrasive machining. The interference fringes of the machined surface can also not be optically detected during other types of machining.

On-the-fly optical interference measurement device, machining device provided with the measurement device, and machine tool suited to on-the-fly optical measurement


A centrifugal clutch, and a method of producing same, include driving inner runner on whose circumference a plurality of resilient clutch elements are arranged to move radially outwards with increasing speed and, at clutch speed, to bear against an inner surface of a drum-shaped outer runner for driving the outer runner. In order to assure low-wear operation even at high clutch speeds, the clutch elements are constructed integral with a rotating ring and form, together with the ring, an intermediate runner. Segments of the elements extend from the ring in the axial direction of the clutch.

The invention relates to a centrifugal clutch and method of producing same, and, more particularly, to a clutch with a driving inner runner carrying on its circumference a plurality of resilient clutch elements made in one piece with a rotating ring which moves radially outwards with increasing speed and, at clutch speed, bear against the inner surface of a drum-shaped outer ring.
A centrifugal clutch is disclosed in German Utility Model 1,883,236. In this known centrifugal clutch, the radial forces acting on the clutch elements consist exclusively of centrifugal forces. The process of engaging and disengaging the clutch lasts a relatively long time, especially at high clutch speeds of over approximately 20,000 revolutions per minute, that is to say, far above the maximum speeds of normal reciprocating internal combustion engines. This results in high wear in the friction surfaces. A further result is that the speeds for the full engagement and disengagement of the clutch cannot be fixed sufficiently accurately.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,117,918 discloses the use of a roller member running up onto an inclined face for supporting the centrifugal forces of the clutch elements. The motion of the clutch elements necessary for this arrangement, however, in the peripheral direction requires a disadvantageous sliding application of springs, which results in an unsatisfactory accuracy for the radial restoring forces acting on the clutch elements. Moreover, although it was known to load the roller members by use of tension springs supported at the clutch elements, substantial additional expenses are undesirably incurred by the need to use two tension springs per clutch element and a bearing cage.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 3,008,313 discloses a clutch, with particular application for injection pumps, in which the assistance of rolling members supported at inclined faces is enlisted to enable a sight angular adjustment between an input shaft and an output shaft depending upon the speed, although no clutching process takes place.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,140,210 discloses an arrangement whose purpose is to reduce friction between clutch elements and a runner, but does so by inclining the entire clutch element. This construction involves additional and thus undesirable expenses for constructing recesses in the inner runner.
It is an object of the invention to construct a centrifugal clutch of the aforementioned type which, especially when it is used at high speeds such as occur, for example, in connection with the operation of turbines driven by exhaust gas, assure low-wear operation and fixing of the speeds of engagement and disengagement of the clutch in a narrow tolerance band.
This objection has been achieved in a centrifugal clutch according to the present invention by providing a ring which forms, with the clutch elements, an intermediate runner. The ring is fastened to the inner runner in such a way that upon fixing in the radial direction a relative motion in the peripheral direction is possible by a slight amount. Rolling members, such as rollers and balls, are supported on flat or curved inclined faces of the inner runner which rise counter to the direction of the rotation of the inner runner and are arranged between the clutch elements and the inner runners.
The centrifugal clutch construction according to the invention greatly increases the radial forces acting on each clutch element at the start of clutching so that the frictional forces which commence at the instant and act upon the clutch elements cause displacement of the clutch elements in the peripheral direction. This displacement is enabled by the separation of the inner runners and the intermediate runners and by the specified type of fastening of the ring to the inner runner. The rolling members are caused to run up onto the inclined faces. This support offered to the centrifugal forces of the clutch elements by the radial forces exerted by the rolling members shortens the clutching process up to complete, non-slip clutching, whereby the clutch speed can also be more accurately fixed.
The present invention employs simple yet reliable fastening of the ring to a radial surface of the inner runner which forms a shoulder. Resilient connections of the clutch elements to the ring in such a way to permit tilting of the clutch elements about these connections in accordance with the present invention permit a stiff configuration of each clutch element, thus enabling a simultaneous application of the entire outer surface of each clutch element to the outer runner. Weakening of the necking material in the connection between each clutch element and ring allows the spring characteristics to be varied during production and thus accurately adjusted to specific requirements.
The present invention also provides a centrifugal clutch on which the rolling members are loaded in a direction on which the inclined faces are caused to rise by a spring supported on radial faces of the inner runner. This arrangement guarantees application of the rolling members both to the clutch elements and also to the inclined surfaces without play and with a cage being necessary for the rolling members.
According to yet another feature of the present invention, an oil-peeling nose formed by the end face of each clutch element is curved forward in its radially outward region peels off any oil film present on the inner surface of the runner when the nose approaches the outer runner, whereby the friction coefficient and hence the clutching forces between outer and intermediate runner are increased.
The present invention further provides that in the region of each clutch element, rearward and with respect to the direction of rotation of the inner runners, the outer surface of the clutch element is reduced radially inward and forms and acute angle with respect to the peripheral directions. Thus, when the speed of the outer runner is higher by comparison between the inner and the outer runner, an oil wedge is formed between the clutch elements and the outer runner and reduces the friction between these parts and thus delays braking of the outer runner.
The method for producing the centrifugal clutch in accordance with the present invention involves constructing an annular body as an intermediate runner, and machining the outer surfaces of the clutch elements and/or the inner surface of the outer runner to size at clutch engagement speed. This guarantees accurate maintenance of the radial dimensions of the clutch elements and the outer runner which appear with the clutch speed and are extremely important for the clutching and declutching process, even if, due to differences in manufacture and irregularities in the material, slight differences should result in the masses and spring characteristics of the individual clutch elements. Moreover, it is possible by virtue of the present invention to machine the intermediate runner which is separate from the inner runner.

Centrifugal clutch and method of producing same


One or more security groups associated with a cloud provider are determined. One or more network polices associated with a container-orchestrator system are determined. One or more network security policies are generated based on the one or more determined security groups associated with the cloud provider and the one or more determined network policies associated with the container. The one or more network security policies are distributed to one or more VM instances of a cloud network. The one or more VM instances are configured to enforce network security based on the one or more network security policies.

Software applications/services are evolving on multiple axes: from on-prem to public cloud, from monoliths to distribute microservices, from bare metal to VMs to containers, from manually managed to automated to dynamically orchestrated. In this evolving ecosystem there are often multiple options and implementations for network security. For example, a public cloud provider might provide network security for VMs implemented within the cloud providers SDN using security groups as the primary controlling resource type, and an orchestrator container platform might provide network security for containers implemented within the orchestrator's container networking solution using container network policy as the primary controlling resource type.
In homogeneous application deployments, for example, consisting only of VMs in a single cloud provider, or only containers within a single container orchestrator, it is relatively easy for a user/operations engineer to manage and enforce appropriate fine grained network security. If the user/operations engineer is responsible for applications running separately across multiple environments then fine grained enforcement is still achievable but requires the user/operations engineer to understand multiple different security paradigms and APIs of the different environments. If an application is distributed across multiple environments or multiple applications (or microservices) that need to communicate are distributed across multiple environments, then managing network security becomes extremely challenging and in some cases requires significant security or operational compromises to be made.


A service platform obtains order data of an order placed by a target user through a user interface and history data of the target user associated with one or more user interface operations for placing the order, where the history data includes page code of one or more pages of the user interface associated with the one or more user interface operations. The service platform generates, based on the history data and the order data, usage data of the target user. The service platform determines a digital digest of the usage data. The service platform sends the digital digest to a blockchain network associated with a blockchain, where the digital digest is verified by a blockchain node of the blockchain network, and where the digital digest is stored on the blockchain in response to a determination that the digital digest passes a verification.

With development and popularization of Internet technologies, more users choose to shop online. Unlike traditional real world shopping, users can complete shopping, booking, stock trading, and document application through the Internet, which greatly improves convenience for the users. With deepening of online services, information security and information protection became the most important issues. While ensuring user information security, it is also necessary to ensure that no loss will be caused on a server by a violation operation of a user, so as to promote continuous development of online services. In this process, it may be necessary to backtrack pages browsed by the user or operations performed by the user. For example, in an after-sales scenario, it may be necessary to backtrack an operation process of buying a product by a user or a payment process, to analyze whether it was the user or the merchant that has a problem and provide a result. However, content that needs to be backtracked is usually collected and stored by the server. The unilateral storage of evidence has a problem of low credibility. Therefore, an effective solution is urgently needed to solve this problem.

Blockchain-based data processing systems, methods, and apparatuses

Alipay (Hangzhou) Information Technology Co., Ltd.


This application discloses an apparatus and method for generating and radiating energy at specific radio frequency wavelengths known to adversely affect the nervous systems of small insects such as flies, gnats, cockroaches, termites and the like wherein each is affected by a different frequency or range of frequencies; the apparatus containing a power supply, a voltage selector circuit for generating sequences of specific voltages, a modulator circuit to amplitude modulate each specific voltage about its center level, a multiple frequency generator to convert each modulated voltage into a modulated frequency of both fundamental and harmonic content, a radio frequency transmitter circuit, and a random interval timer circuit to energize and de-energize the radio frequency transmitter circuit in such a manner as to prevent the pest from acquiring an immunity to the radiated energy. There is further disclosed a method of forming patterns of radiated energy wherein said multiple frequency generator, said modulator circuit, said voltage selector circuit, said radio frequency transmitter circuit and said random interval timer circuit are operably connected in such a manner as to produce bursts of radio frequency energy at slightly varying fixed frequencies having both fundamental and harmonic content and wherein such bursts are continuously varied in both their interval and duration.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device for the control and elimination of small insects such as house flies, gnats, cockroaches and the like and more particularly to a device which interferes with the central nervous system of such pests by generating and radiating bursts of radio frequency energy at specific frequencies which are known to disturb or incapacitate each insect.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is well known in prior art, numerous methods of controlling and eliminating insects, rodents and other pests have been developed. These devices fall generally into the categories of chemical agents, mechanical traps and electronic devices. In general, the electronic devices have tended to utilize either vibratory, sonic or ultrasonic means to disturb the pest. The inventor knows of no prior art which employs radio frequency energy as a means to control and eliminate small insect pests. Experiments conducted in Italy by Dr Sordello Attiij, in the United States by Georges Lakhovsky and in Germany have conclusively proven that radio waves can be made to affect the central nervous system of living things. Mechanical and chemical devices are not addressed in this application as prior art since their methods of pest control and elimination are radically different from the present invention and suffer from severe deficiencies in terms of their complexity or potential adverse impact upon the environment. Several Prior Art electronic devices fall into the audible category of insect control apparatus wherein the frequency or frequencies generated are in the range of 0.01 hz to 120 hz. Typically, these devices are designed to radiate a frequency into the ground to cause a disturbing effect on burrowing rodents such as mice or gophers. One such device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,215,429 by Riach whereby vibrations are imparted at irregular intervals into the earth. Such a device is ineffective against insects as the energy emitted must be impinged upon the pest in order for it to be affected. A second type of device employs higher frequencies often in the ultrasonic range of 10 khz to 50 khz to repel everything from rats to mosquitoes. One such device disclosed by White in U.S. Pat. No. 3,891,962 makes use of an ultrasonic transducer which generates multiple frequency outputs with both fundamental and harmonic components. The signals generated by this device are impinged upon the tympanic membrane of the insect with the object being to cause the insect to leave the immediate area. Numerous other Prior Art devices such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,872,472 by Moschgat, 4,178,578 by Hall and 3,328,908 by Moe disclose similar methods for pest control employing radiated ultrasonic energy to affect essentially the hearing of the pest.

Selective radio frequency pest control apparatus


Disclosed herein is a plasma addressed display device which can adaptively control a voltage to be applied to each discharge channel, thereby suppressing an excess applied voltage. The plasma addressed display device includes a flat panel as a display. The flat panel has a laminated structure consisting of a plasma cell having a plurality of rows of discharge channels and a display cell having a plurality of columns of signal electrodes. A drive circuit sequentially supplies an applied voltage to a cathode in each discharge channel to generate a plasma discharge, thereby performing line-sequential scanning. A signal circuit supplies an image signal to each signal electrode in synchronism with the line-sequential scanning. A constant-current circuit operates so that a constant discharge current flows after the generation of the plasma discharge in each discharge channel. A detecting circuit samples a discharge voltage during flowing of the constant discharge current in each discharge channel. A control circuit adaptively controls the applied voltage to be supplied to each discharge channel according to the sampled discharge voltage.

The present invention relates to a plasma addressed display device, and more particularly to a technique for adaptively controlling a voltage to be applied to each discharge channel by line-sequential scanning.
A plasma addressed flat panel employing a plasma cell for addressing of a display cell is known from Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 4-265931, for example. As shown in FIG. 6, such a flat panel 0 is composed of a display cell 1, a plasma cell 2, and a common intermediate substrate 3 interposed between the display cell 1 and the plasma cell 2. The intermediate substrate 3 is formed from a very thin glass plate or the like, which is called a microsheet. The plasma cell 2 is configured by a lower substrate 4 bonded to the intermediate substrate 3 with a gap defined therebetween. The gap is filled with an ionizable gas. A plurality of parallel stripes of discharge electrodes 5 are formed on the inside surface of the lower substrate 4. The discharge electrodes 5 may be printed and baked on the flat substrate 4 by screen printing or the like. A plurality of barrier ribs 6 are formed on the inside surface of the lower substrate 4 in such a manner that each barrier rib 6 partitions any adjacent pairs of the discharge electrodes 5, thereby dividing the gap filled with the ionizable gas into a plurality of discharge channels 7. The barrier ribs 6 may also be printed and baked by screen printing or the like. The top of each barrier rib 6 is in contact with the lower surface of the intermediate substrate 3. Each pair of discharge electrodes 5 function as an anode A and a cathode K, between which a plasma discharge is generated. The intermediate substrate 3 and the lower substrate 4 are bonded to each other through a glass frit 8 or the like.
On the other hand, the display cell 1 is configured by a transparent upper substrate 9. The upper substrate 9 is bonded to the upper surface of the intermediate substrate 3 through a sealing member 10 or the like, so that a given gap is defined between the upper substrate 9 and the intermediate substrate 3. This gap is filled with an electro-optic substance such as a liquid crystal 11. A plurality of parallel stripes of signal electrodes 12 are formed on the inside surface of the upper substrate 9. The signal electrodes 12 perpendicularly intersect the discharge electrodes 5, so that a plurality of pixels forming a matrix are defined at the intersections between the signal electrodes 12 and the discharge channels 7.
In the plasma addressed flat panel 0 having such a configuration, the rows of discharge channels 7 in which the plasma discharge is generated are line-sequentially switched to be scanned, and in synchronism with this line-sequential scanning an image signal is applied to each signal electrode 12 of the display cell 1, thereby displaying an image. When the plasma discharge is generated in each discharge channel 7, the interior of each discharge channel 7 uniformly becomes an anode potential to thereby select pixels row by row. That is, each discharge channel functions as a sampling switch. When an image signal is applied to each pixel in an on-state of the plasma sampling switch, sampling is performed to allow on/off control of each pixel. Even after the plasma sampling switch goes off, the image signal is held in each pixel as it stands.
FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a general configuration of a plasma addressed display device employing the flat panel 0 shown in FIG. 6 as a display. The display cell 1 and the plasma cell 2 are laminated together to form an effective screen 20. A signal circuit 21 is connected to the signal electrodes 12 of the display cell 1 to supply an image signal to each signal electrode 12. The anodes A of the plasma cell 2 are commonly connected to a grounding terminal of a main power supply 22. A negative terminal voltage of the main power supply 22 is represented by -Vk. The cathodes K are connected to a drive circuit 23. The drive circuit 23 is configured by a plurality of switching elements such as transistors. When the switching elements sequentially go on/off, the plasma discharge in each discharge channel is moved from an upper portion to a lower portion of the screen 20. A discharge current flows from the anode A to the cathode K in each discharge channel, and then passes through the corresponding switching element to a constant-current circuit 24. The constant-current circuit 24 controls a cathode potential Vo to limit the discharge current to a constant value. The constant-current circuit 24 is supplied with a voltage Va from an auxiliary power supply 25.
FIG. 8 is a circuit diagram showing an illustrative configuration of the constant-current circuit 24 shown in FIG. 7. The constant-current circuit 24 shown in FIG. 8 is a current mirror circuit composed mainly of a pair of transistors Tr0 and Tr1. The cathode potential Vo is controlled so that the same current as the current determined by the voltage Va of the auxiliary power supply and a resistance R flows into the transistor Tr0. A diode Di serves as a bypass for supplying a constant current to the transistor Tr0 during a period when the switching elements are off (i.e., during a nondischarge period). In the case of this constant-current circuit, the current flows from the diode Di to the transistor Tr0 during the nondischarge period, so that the cathode potential Vo becomes -Vk+Va.
The operation of the constant-current circuit shown in FIG. 8 will now be described in brief with reference to FIG. 9. At a discharge timing when each switching element of the drive circuit goes on, the above-mentioned potential -Vk+Va is initially applied to the cathode. This applied voltage is the same to all the discharge channels. When the discharge starts, the discharge current flows into the transistor Tr0, and the cathode potential Vo changes according to the magnitude of the flowing discharge current. An amount of change in the cathode potential Vo varies with time and variations in characteristics between the discharge channels.
As mentioned above, the conventional plasma addressed display device employs an active load such as the constant-current circuit as means for limiting the discharge current. In this case, when the discharge starts, the potential during the nondischarge period is initially applied between the anode and the cathode. This applied voltage is fixed to the constant value -Vk+Va by the main power supply and the auxiliary power supply. This applied voltage must be preliminarily set to a large value in consideration of variations in discharge characteristics between the discharge channels and aged changes in the discharge characteristics. As a result, until the discharge current reaches a constant value by the operation of the constant-current circuit, an excess voltage higher than a voltage required by the discharge channel is applied between the anode and the cathode. Accordingly, a local arc discharge is generated to damage the electrodes and resultantly shorten the life of the flat panel.

Discharge voltage control for plasma addressed display device


An image processing apparatus for performing at least one of JPEG 2000 encoding and decoding processes, including: a JPEG 2000 hardware encoder-decoder including a memory that performs wavelet transform and inverse transform of image information up to a specific tile size using only hardware components; an acquirer for acquiring a tile size information of image data to be encoded or decoded; a determiner for determining whether the acquired tile size can be processed using only said JPEG 2000 hardware encoder-decoder or not; a selector for selecting one of a first and second process based on result of a decision by said determiner, the first process being wavelet transform and inverse transform process performed using only components constituting said JPEG 2000 hardware encoder-decoder and the second process being wavelet transform and inverse transform process performed using components other than components constituting said JPEG 2000 hardware encoder-decoder.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention directs to an image processing apparatus having a Codec (encoder/decoder) for JPEG 2000 file which performs encoding process and decoding process in JPEG 2000 format.
2. Description of the Related Art
Presently, a JPEG format has been generally used as an encoding format to compress a still image, which compresses an image data using a discrete cosine transform. However, in late years, for the purpose of providing improved compression performance and extended function, development and distribution of a JPEG 2000 format has been promoted, which compresses an image data using a wavelet transform.
Generally, in an image processing apparatus which can process JPEG 2000 file, a processor for JPEG 2000 file is constituted by a hardware device to satisfy request for high speed process of JPEG 2000 file. However, in this case, upper limit of tile size (for example, 128×128 pixels) which can be processed by said hardware device is determined inevitably based on capacity of memory for wavelet transform and inverse transform contained in said processor. Accordingly, since capacity over that of memory for wavelet transform and inverse transform is necessary for the tile size more than the upper limit, the wavelet transform and inverse transform process can not be performed using hardware components.
In case of employing a processor for JPEG 2000 file composed of hardware components, regardless of the above problem, in general, when JPEG 2000 file is generated by a terminal device such as personal computer and the like, tile size is often set large to reduce tile noise which is noticeable on boundary between adjacent tiles or in the vicinity of the boundary. Similarly, it is anticipated that when JPEG 2000 file is generated by an image processing apparatus, it is often required to set a tile size large to reduce tile size.
Conventionally, in case of employing a processor for JPEG 2000 file composed of hardware components, there was no other choice except for abandoning the process itself for JPEG 2000 file having tile size which cannot be processed using memory for wavelet transform and inverse transform. On the contrary, as a technique which can accomplish process for any tile size, it is known that all processes for JPEG 2000 file including wavelet transform and inverse transform are performed without using hardware components as disclosed in Japanese Patent laid-open publication 2002-247580.
However, when all processes for JPEG 2000 file are performed, a prolonged time is required for the processes using only software while being able to process any tile size without limitation.

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


An attack impact prediction system for providing network security for computer networks is disclosed. A computer network includes multiple attack impact prediction (AIP) agents. In response to a detection of an intrusion to a computer network, an AIP agent is notified of the intrusion. In turn, the AIP agent broadcasts the detected intrusion to other AIP agents within the computer network. An impact of the detected intrusion is then determined at each node by its respective AIP agent. In response to a determination that an impact of the detected intrusion on a node exceeds a predetermined severity threshold, then actions need to be taken by each respective AIP agent is ascertained. Finally, the ascertained actions are performed by one or more AIP agents at various points within the computer network.

The present invention was made under government contract MIDA904-99-G-0017 with the United States Defense Logistics Agency.
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to computer network security in general, and in particular to a method and system for providing security to computer networks. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method for predicting the impact of an attack on a computer network and taking protective actions to mitigate the impact.
2. Description of the Related Art
The number of attacks on computer networks has been on the rise in recent years. With a better understanding of the inner workings of computer networks, network intruders have become very skillful in taking advantages of the weaknesses of computer networks to obtain unauthorized accesses. Often, network intruders can easily overcome a password authentication mechanism designed to protect a computer network. Network intruders also use patterns of intrusion that are often difficult to trace and identify. They use several levels of indirection before breaking into target systems and rarely indulge in sudden bursts of suspicious or anomalous activity. After compromising an account on a target system, network intruders typically cover their tracks as not to arouse suspicion.
As the number of users within an entity grows, the risks from unauthorized intrusions into a computer network within the entity also increases. In order to maintain a reliable and secure computer network, exposure to potential network intrusions must be reduced as much as possible. Network intrusions can originate either from legitimate users within an entity attempting to access secure portions of the computer network or from illegitimate users outside the entity attempting to break into the computer network. Intrusions from any one of the above-mentioned two groups can compromise the security of the computer network.
One shortcoming of today's intrusion detection systems is that once an intrusion is detected, the response is usually "fixed." The conventional responses to detected network intrusions have been to contact a system administrator via electronic mail, telephone or pager, or simply log the detected intrusion into a log file for later analysis. These intrusion detection systems are inflexible and do not provide for a real-time response to a network intrusion of an organization's computer network. They also do not attempt to counter or fix the problems arising from the detected network intrusion. Further, they do not provide a flexible upgrade path to take advantage of new technologies, or to adopt to evolving needs of the computer user.
Consequently, it would be desirable to provide an improved method and system for providing network security for computer networks. The improved method and system should respond to computer network intrusions automatically. The improved method and system should provide a true real-time response to a detected network intrusion instead of simply a notification.


The disclosure is related to providing a machine to machine (M2M0 service. A user interface (UI) template associated with a M2M device may be retrieved when a message is received from the M2M device. Then, data collected from the M2M device may be combined with the retrieved UI template. The M2M service associated with the M2M device may be provided by embedding the combined data to application data for producing a M2M service user interface (UI) of the associated M2M service.

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication is a form of data communication that involves one or more entities (e.g., devices) that do not necessarily require human interaction or intervention in the process of communication. The M2M communication may also be referred to as a machine type communication (MTC) or a machine intelligence communication. The M2M communication may extend human-centered internet infrastructure to a human-to-machine domain and/or a machine-to-machine domain where information can be sensed and transmitted not by human beings but by machines. The M2M communication may be related to a ubiquitous technology.
The M2M communication may enable different types of services that are valuable to an end user. For example, M2M communication services may include smart metering, healthcare monitoring (e.g., patient monitoring), fleet management and tracking, remote security sensing, smart grid, telemetry, weather monitoring, home automation, and so forth.
M2M architecture may include a variety of elements such as M2M devices (e.g., a sensor, an actuator, etc.), M2M area network, M2M communication network (e.g., a core network), M2M gateway (i.e., a system connecting the M2M area network and the M2M communication network), and/or an M2M application service server. Herein, a plurality of M2M devices may be connected by the M2M area network (e.g., a capillary network). Typically, M2M applications may be configured or developed based on M2M platforms (e.g., an M2M application platform). The M2M platforms may be used to provide a variety of M2M application services based on the collected device data.
Such M2M application services may be provided through a M2M service UI displayed on a user terminal as a result of the execution of a M2M application. Such M2M application and the M2M service UI may be dedicatedly designed according to a specific M2M device. Data may be collected from the specific M2M device and application data may be generated based on the collected data. The M2M service UI dedicated to the specific M2M device may be produced based on the application data and displayed on a user terminal.


A magnet member excellent in both corrosion resistance and adhesion is provided. The magnet member 30 in accordance with the present invention is a magnet member comprising a magnet base body 32 including a rare-earth magnet and a plating film 34 containing Ni and covering the magnet base body 32, while the plating film 34 has a sulfur content lower in a marginal part 38 in a surface S of the magnet base body having an easy magnetization direction M of the magnet base body 32 as a perpendicular thereto than in a center part 36 of the surface S.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnet member.
2. Related Background Art
R-T-B-based rare-earth permanent magnets have currently been in use in various fields such as motors because of their high magnetic characteristics. However, the R-T-B-based rare-earth permanent magnets have relatively low corrosion resistance, since they contain as main ingredients a rare-earth element R and a transition metal element T such as iron which are easy to oxidize. When a magnet corrodes, its magnetic characteristics deteriorate and fluctuate. When an R-T-B-based rare-earth permanent magnet is secured to a metal component (yoke) of a motor through an adhesive, a corrosion product such as rust may occur in a contact part between the magnet and the metal component. The corrosion product lowers the adhesion force. For eliminating these problems, a method forming an Ni plating film or Ni alloy plating film as a protective film having excellent corrosion resistance on a surface of the R-T-B-based rare-earth permanent magnet has been employed widely.
When incorporating an R-T-B-based rare-earth permanent magnet equipped with an Ni plating film as a protective layer into a component, high adhesion is required through an adhesive between the Ni plating film and the component. However, the Ni plating film may fail to adhere fully to the component depending on the environment for use. For overcoming this problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-198414 proposes a method covering an R-T-B-based rare-earth permanent magnet with an Ni plating film and further forming a chromate coating film on the Ni plating film.


A method for receiving a sound generated from a moving subject and an electronic device implementing the same are provided. The method includes confirming a position of a subject so as to intensively receive a sound generated from the subject, photographing a moving image, selecting at least one subject among subjects included in the photographed moving image, obtaining movement information of the selected subject, and adjusting a major sound capture region based on the obtained movement information of the subject.

Recently, the utilization of an electronic device provided with a camera has been gradually grown. With the advancement of the performance of the camera provided in the electronic device, the electronic device is capable of photographing a high-resolution moving image. In addition, the electronic device is capable of taking photographs focusing on a specific subject (e.g., a specific object) like a high-performance camera (e.g., a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera). Since a user focuses on a subject to be photographed, the electronic device is capable of photographing a scene desired by the user. The user may operate a control option of the camera so as to enlarge or reduce an image about the subject to be photographed.
When photographing a moving image, the electronic device may receive sound together with the image. In general, when photographing the moving image, the electronic device receives not only the sound generated from the subject but also surrounding sound and noise. For example, the electronic device also simultaneously receives the sound that the user does not want to receive.
An electronic device may set a certain portion of an entire photographing range as a major sound capture region (e.g., a region in which the electronic device is capable of receiving sound more intensively), and may intensively receive the sound generated from a certain region set as the major sound capture region as compared with other regions. The electronic device may intensively receive the sound generated from a specific region using a directional microphone. For example, the electronic device may be configured to intensively receive sound heard from the left side of the electronic device or to intensively receive sound heard from the right side of the electronic device. An electronic device according to the related art may be configured such that a user directly sets a specific direction, and the electronic device intensively receives sound (e.g., sound capture) generated from the specific direction. For example, the electronic device may be configured to more intensively receive sound generated from a specific direction with reference to the electronic device, for example, from the upper side, lower side, left side or right side of an angle of view (e.g., a photographing range).
The present disclosure proposes a method and an electronic device of recognizing a specific subject which is being photographed as a moving image, capturing movement information of the specific subject, and changing a major sound capture region based on the captured movement information to be capable of intensively receiving sound generated from the specific subject. The electronic device is capable of adjusting the major sound capture region depending on the position of the specific subject so as to minimize surrounding noise and to intensively receive the sound generated from the specific subject.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.

Method for receiving sound of subject and electronic device implementing the same


A hand-portable, modular and temperature programmable gas chromatography aratus having reduced power consumption requirements is disclosed. The gas chromatography module includes a ring oven for housing a gas chromatography capillary column and programmable means for controlling the temperature of said column within the ring. The gas chromatography capillary column includes a sampling end and an effluent end. The sampling end of the GC capillary column is in fluid communication with a sampling nozzle and a vacuum pulse generating means. The vacuum generating means generates a sample pulse and directs the sample pulse to the sampling end of the gas chromatography capillary column during sample injection mode. During standby mode only clean dry air is directed to the column. The module is also easily interfaced with secondary sample detection or analysis instruments so that additional identification dimensions can added.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gas chromatograph system of reduced size, weight and low power consumption for hand-held field applications. In particular, the present invention relates to a modular gas chromatography system which is capable of being interfaced with other portable analyzers.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been a long-standing need for gas chromatography (GC) systems which are relatively small but have the capabilities and performance of full-size equipment. A desirable system would allow all of the individual components to be quickly attached and detached so as to allow interchange of components for different analyses. One early attempt at an improved GC system can be found, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,403,545, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Over the years, several attempts have followed where size, weight, power consumption, heating/cooling, maintenance, speed and ease of use characteristics have been stressed. For example, in the commercial marketplace, there are a number of one or two-hand portable or larger GC systems. Each apparatus, however, has one or more undesirable features and/or cannot match the capabilities of most laboratory-sized systems that have a full range of state-of-the-art capabilities. Most commercially available field-portable GC devices are brief-case sized and hydrogen or helium is used as a carrier under isothermal GC conditions. One routine feature of full range systems is the ability to heat the GC in a systematic, controlled fashion while analyzing a sample. Hand-held GC systems, on the other hand, for example, lack temperature-programming capabilities for heating a sample. Thus, if the GC column had only a pre-set temperature and the compound of interest had a higher boiling point, then the compound would not elute from the column or it would creep along the column until it eventually eluted or decomposed. If a compound of interest has a higher boiling point than the GC column's pre-set temperature, the sample can be made to elute in a fairly straight-forward fashion by shortening the GC column, or increasing the flow rate of the gas through the column.
However, it is difficult and impractical to change the flow rate of the gas through the GC column in a linear fashion as is the case with temperature-programming. To elute various compounds with different boiling points at a pre-set GC column temperature, the flow rate of the gas through the GC column needs to be changed in an increasing fashion which means increasing the linear pressure difference across the GC column length. Increasing the pressure difference across the GC column in a linear fashion can be achieved in two ways: (1) increasing the pressure in the sampling end of the GC column or (2) decreasing the GC column length. The first approach is difficult and impractical for field-portable applications because the size of such apparatus would not fit within the palm of a hand. One pressure programmable assembly for GC columns requires a pressurized gas cylinder with a briefcase size pressure controlling unit. The second approach is completely impractical for portable GC's. In conclusion, it is undesirable to have a pressure-programmable GC column as well as a pre-set GC column temperature for field application purposes.
In view of the foregoing, improvements in hand-held GC systems have been desired. In addition to the lack of a temperature programming capability, it has been desired to provide GC systems which are smaller in size and have low power consumption needs.
The present invention addresses these needs.

Hand-held temperature programmable modular gas chromatograph

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army


This invention relates to the formation and use of a variable, multilayer system of discrete, discontinuous and nonsequential molecular sieves, comprising of agarose-acrylic gels of distinct composition. Each of the individual gel-layers of the system is designed according to partition and/or retardation coefficients for specific retention and therefore selective separation of selected molecules of different molecular sizes. The unique multilayer composite acrylic gel system of this invention makes it possible to separate micro- and macromolecules which differ in molecular weights by millions of daltons. So isolated any physically defined molecular groups are superiorly suitable for further chemical, physico-chemical or biological characterization.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to methods and a system for the separation and resolution of molecular components, including synthetic, organic or biologic particles, from a mixture of such components. More particularly, the invention pertains to a multilayer molecular filtration system comprised of discontinuous and nonsequential, gelous, semifluid or fluid, chromatographic or electrophoretic mediae placed on or inside or around different and presently known and used mechanical vectors, facilitating a movement of polar particles with various molecular characteristics and related methods thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
The use of sieving gels for the separation of organical and/or biological particles is well-known and used in the electrophoresis art from mid-fifties of this century. However, the presently known methods, based on sieving effects demonstrated throughout the years, have serious disadvantages. The most apparent is the inability to separate, satisfactorily, the high and very high molecular particles, e.g., molecular weights greater than 650,000 daltons.
The sieving gels which are most often used for analytical and scientific purposes include the following: cellulose acetate, starch gels, agar-gels, agarose-gels, gels of agarose derivatives, polyacrylamide gels, gradient polyacrylamide gels of different gradients (from 2% to 27% of PAA and 4% to 30% of PAA), pore gradient polyacrylamide gels, mixture of, or combinations of polyacrylamide gels and different derivatives of agarose, as well as any of the above gels with addition of protein-complexes-forming variants (SDS), urea, or emulators (TRITONS), or glass adhesives, etc.
All the above-mentioned gels and combinations thereof are known to be used only in continuous forms (e.g., nongradient mediae), or continuous gradients (e.g., gradient mediae). For example, the most often employed gelous mediae are the agarose-gels. Although gels of different concentrations of purified agarose are utilized for specific purposes (e.g., 1%, 11/2%, 2%, 21/2%, etc.), all are known as "continuous" gels. In comparison, the "gradient" gels comprise gels (usually polyacrylamidic) of increasing concentrations of acrylamide monomer, as shown by the formula where T equals the percent of monomers concentration: ##EQU1##
These gels are known to be used in different ranges of their gradients (for instance from 3-7%, or 2-5%, or 2-16%, or 2-27%), but these gradients are known to be always sequentially assorted (e.g., in 3-4-5-6-7%, or 2-3-4-5%, or in 2-3-4-5-6-12-13-14-15-16% fashion, etc.).
It is noted that the literature discloses only few devices of similar arrangement of two electrophoretic gels from which two gels designated (A,B) were called "discontinuous", and one designated (C) was described as a gel with a "stepped gradient ". However, none of the above arrangements suggest a variable multilayer system of distinct electrophoretic gels, forming specific molecular sieves characterized by retention gradients for elected groups of polar biomolecules.
The above designated devices (A, B and C) only comprise two (2) layers of gels wherein the first layer serves primarily as a mechanical, and not as an analytical means (e.g., delivery of the biological sample to an analytical gel (A), or to clean the analyzed biological sample from interfering components (B), or to unspecified improvement of desired analytical procedures (C)). In addition, certain ones, called "technical" gels are composed of components which are substantially smaller, than are the main, analytical gels (A, B, C).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,306,956 to De Castro describes the first of the two-layer systems designated (A). This patent is directed to the use of thymol blue, phenol red, o-cresol red, orange G, m-cresol purple and mixtures, as a tracking dye in an SDS-PAGE electrophoresis process. The patent describes system designated (A) as follows--"Often in discontinuous sodium-dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide electrophoretic gels (U.S. Pat. No. 3,384,564), two separately polymerized layers of polyacrylamide, designated as `a stacking gel` and `a separating gel`, are prepared."(Col. 1, lines 40-42). The large pore size of "the stacking gels" allows the biological sample to concentrate into narrow starting zone, necessary for good resolution in the following gel, with no change in characteristics, until it encounters a discontinuity in entering "the separating gel", either in the nature of the supporting medium, i.e., pore size, or in the buffer, e.g., pH. This change, based on entering into second gel, produces the separation of the different macromolecular species into discrete bands, but it does not relate to the present invention.
The second of the two-layer systems (B) was also called "discontinuous" by S. Moulin, J. C. Fruchart, P. Dewailly and G. Sezille--Electrophorese des lipoproteines serigues sur plaque de gel d'acrylamide-agarose, en gradient discontinu d'acrylamide. Clinca Chimica Acta, 91 (1979): 159-163. The authors used two different concentrations (2% and 3%) of acrylamide and a constant concentration of agarose (0.7%). The biological samples are placed in the first gel (2%) in order to retain macromolecular components (e.g., chylomicrons), which hinder a good electrophoretic separation of other lower molecular components of diagnostic interest. However, the entire analytical separation takes place on a homogeneous second gel (3%), without any further interference of the first layer which clearly serves only as a technical preserver of the unwanted material and therefore does not relate to the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,189,370 to Boschetti describes the third of these two-layer systems (designated (C)) which was referred to as a "stepped gradient". The patent is directed to a process for preparing gels stratified upon a film, comprising two steps: first, disposing upon said film gel, being formed from a first monomer concentration and disposing upon said first film a second gel, so as to form "a discontinuous gradient" between said first gel and second gel; these layers may be spaced from polyester film and the second layer may also be disposed on said first layer. The author failed to demonstrate how the separation of biomacromolecules is enhanced by said invented separation line (between layers). However, the so claimed, but not proven "separation" may be often artificial, or otherwise incorrect, or may be related to wrongly defined fractions, etc.
The ideas of Boschetti (1980) and de Castro (1981) are basically identical, although their inventions differ in concentrations of recommended gels for electrophoresis of serum lipoproteins and/or proteins--de Castro's so called "stacking gel" has lower T% than his "separating gradient gel" offered in a wide variety of gradually increasing compositions from 0.5% to 30% T; preferred range is from about 3-27% T. similarly, Boschetti's first gel has lower concentrations of said bi-functional allylic or acrylic compound e.g., about 7.5%, while the nongradient second gel has higher concentrations, e.g., about 10-17%, although concentrations of the monomers in the said gels differ not significantly, e.g., 2.5% and 2.0%, respectively.
However, none of the above-described methodical modifications of separating gels make possible to retain and so separate the analyzed biomolecules according to their specific retention gradients into their standard classes and subclasses. This is described in detail herein, under EXAMPLE 1 and graphically presented in FIG. II wherein a pattern obtained with de Castro's method (classified as GRAD) can be compared with the method of this inventor (classified as DISC).
U.S. Pat. No. 3,384,564 to L. Ornstein is directed to "a simultaneous separation and concentration of charged particles which may be either separately recovered or alternatively the resulting continuous thin zones of charged particles used thereafter as the starting zones with appropriate pH and/or pore size change for high resolution and further separation of the components in brief runs." (Column 1, lines 10-19) The patent states that "with a synthetic polymer like polyacrylamide, because the average pore size of a gel depends on the concentration of polymer (e.g., a 30% gel produces about a 20 .ANG. pore and 71/2% about 50), the pore size can be adjusted to the range of dimensions of the molecules t o be separated" and gives the dimensions in .ANG. and the free mobilities of a few plasma proteins at pH 8.6 (mobility unit=10.sup.-5 cm.sup.2 /volt-sec.). (Column 1, line 70 --column 7, line 5)
L. Ornstein stated his basic working idea as follows: "It would appear that a 71/2% aqueous polyacrylamide should exhibit extreme frictional resistance to the migration of fibrinogen, .beta..sub.1 lipoprotein (and perhaps the .alpha., macroglobulin and /gamma/globulin), and that the other proteins should be able to pass through, though with substantially more difficulty than in an aqueous system. Thus differences in molecular size as well as charge can be utilized in electrophoretic separation of various components in a gel or solution of linear polymer."
L. Ornstein's claims of an electrophoresis, using three layers, although in fact only two real layers are described by him--a large pore specimen layer (it is not presently considered as a separate layer), large pore gel spacer layer (later called "stacking gel") and a small pore gel layer for further separation (=on 7.5% PAAG) of analyzed particles in a vertical cylindrical container, equipped with buffer reservoirs and electrodes, fraction elutor and sample collector. Thus, Ornstein does not relate to the present invention.
Commercially, the combination of a "stacking and separating gel" has been utilized according to de Castro by Miles Laboratories, Elkhart, Ind., under the trademark "LipoPhor-Gels". They were primarily used for HDL-cholesterol assaying by D. Roche, V. Atger, N. T. Le Quang, A. Girard, and O. G. Edindjian in the work "Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis in Quantification of High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol", Clinical Chemistry, 31/11 (1985), 1893-1985. The authors found good correlations between total HDL-cholesterol analyses and corresponding ultracentrifugal values, but never attempted to achieve the separation of HD-lipoproteins according to their molecular sizes. Their work does not interfere with this invention.
More sophisticatedly were removed from the biologic mixture of serum lipoproteins the VLDL (and chylomicrons) by the accumulation at the 5 mm thick 2%, 5% PAAG boundary, while LDL just entered the 5% PAAG. The separation between the above lipoprotein groups of VLDL and LDL thus obtained "was variable, and not sufficiently clear for analytical purposes." "The effect of the 2% and 5% gel phases was therefore to retard the LDL and VLDL over some distance of the gel system without compressing these into a thin concentrated band at a gel boundary", according to the authors J. B. Ubbing, W. J. Serfontein and L. S. devilliers in an article "The Direct Quantification in Whole Serum of HDL Subfractions", Clinica Chimica Acta, 125 (1982), 165-175.
These authors achieved the above-described "stacking effect" of HDL for some kind of separation of the HDL into HDL.sub.2 and HDL.sub.3 subfractions, roughly corresponding to the ultra-centrifugally isolated HDL classes at the density 1.125 g/ml (HDL.sub.2) and 1.21 g/ml (HDL.sub.3), using an additional 3 mm thick polyacrylamide gel (PAAG), dimensions 160.times.120 mm, consisting of a 13% gel of classical composition at pH=8.9.

Discontinuous and nonsequential polymeric gel systems for separation of macromolecules


A sintered alumina-based ceramic has a relative density of equal to or higher than 95%, an average grain size in a range of 10-25 .mu.m and a fracture toughness Kc equal to or lower than 3.0 MPam.sup.1/2 Furthermore. In a machinability evaluation test using a surface grinder, the ceramic exhibits equal to or less than 310 W of increase in the load on a motor rotating a grinding wheel of the surface grinder. The machinability evaluation test is performed under the following condition.. (1) The dimension of a test piece of the sintered alumina-based ceramic is larger than 15 mm in width, larger than 30 mm in length and larger than 10 mm in height.. (2) The test piece is fixed on a table of said surface grinder and ground by the grinding wheel along a direction of its length.. (3) The grinding wheel has a dimension of 10 mm in width and 200 mm in outer diameter, and consists of synthetic (or artificial) diamond abrasive grains more than 80 wt % of which are in a grain size range of 74-88 .mu.m, and which are resin-bonded at 3.3 cts/cm.sup.3 of weight content per unit volume.. (4) The circumferrential speed of said grinding wheel is 2400 m/min, the table traversing speed is 60 mm/min, and the infeed per traverse is 3 mm.

In the field of semiconductor device production, such as of IC (integrated circuit) or LSI (Large Scale Integration), a ceramic holder has been used for holding and positioning a semiconductor wafer in a production apparatus. Since the wafer is treated at a high temperature in the apparatus, a sintered alumina-based ceramic has been used for the material of said holder.
In the process of wafer treatment, particularly in a diffusion process for developing complicated circuit patterns on the wafer, a very high accuracy of wafer positioning is required, so that the wafer holding surface of said holder should be precisely finished by polishing, grinding or other machining. However, the alumina-based ceramic as a conventional material for such holder is very dense and tough, so that the machining thereof is generally very difficult and causes an increase in the production cost. Such problem that the increase in the machining cost directly leads to a price-raise of the products frequently occurs not only for the wafer holder, but also for other alumina-based ceramic products, such as sliding parts.
In order to enhance the efficiency of the ceramic-machining, it seems effective to use a porous sintered alumina ceramic as the material for said parts instead of a dense alumina ceramic however, for ceramic parts such as the wafer holder used under a high vacuum atmosphere, the porous ceramic is not suitable since water or other molecules adsorbed in the open pores are discharged during the evacuation, thereby preventing the atmosphere from reaching to sufficient degree of vacuum.
The object of this invention is to offer a sintered alumina-based ceramic and a sintered alumina-based ceramic part which exhibit good machinability despite of having high density, thereby being suitable for a parts used under a high vacuum atmosphere, such as of semiconductor treatment.

Sintered ceramic mainly composed of alumina and a sintered ceramic part consisting of a sintered ceramic mainly composed of alumina


Disclosed are a control method of a clothes drier capable of preventing a laundry damage due to an over-drying and capable of decreasing a power dissipation, and an apparatus thereof. The control method of a clothes drier comprises the steps of: dividing a section that clothes dryness degree values varied as the clothes are dried are generated into a plurality of dryness degree detection sections; detecting the dryness degree values in the plurality of dryness degree detection sections according to a preset sampling rate or the number of samples; detecting a representative value of the detected dryness degree values; and drying the clothes with a preset heating value corresponding to the detected dryness degree representative value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a clothes dryer, and more particularly, to a control method of a clothes dryer and an apparatus thereof.
2. Description of the Conventional Art
Generally, a clothes dryer rotates clothes inside a drum by rotating the drum, and generates heat at a heater mounted therein. As a drying fan inside the clothes dryer is rotated, a low temperature-little moisture air passes through the heater thus to be converted into high temperature-little moisture air.
The clothes dryer heats clothes by introducing the high temperature-little moisture air into the drum. As the clothes are heated, vapor is generated and thereby the high temperature-little moisture air is converted into high temperature-much moisture air. The high temperature-much moisture air is condensed by an internal condenser thus to be converted into a low temperature-little moisture air with the moisture thereof removed. Then, the low temperature-little moisture air passes through the heater as the drying fan is rotated thereby to be converted into high temperature-little moisture air. That is, the clothes dryer dries clothes by repeatedly performing the process for heating clothes by introducing air into the drum. Also, the clothes dryer stops the operation of the heater when the clothes are completely dried, and drives only a motor thereby to cool the clothes so that a user can easily take out the clothes from the drum.
FIG. 1 is a view showing a sectional surface of a clothes dryer in accordance with the conventional art.
As shown, the clothes dryer comprises: a body 11; a drum 24 installed in the body 11 and accommodating clothes to be dried; a suction duct 14 formed at a rear surface of the drum 24 and supplying air into the drum 24; a suction fan 15 installed at the suction duct 14; and a motor 17 for driving the suction fan 15 and the drum 24. A door 21 for putting/taking laundry C in/out of the drum is installed at a front surface of the body 11, and an air passage 12 for introducing external air is formed at a rear surface of the body 11.
An air discharge passage 20 and an air discharge duct 18 for discharging air inside the drum 24 outwardly are formed at the front surface of the drum 24. The suction duct 14 for sucking air inside the body 11 and thereby supplying into the drum 24 is installed at a rear surface of the drum 24, and a suction passage 16 is formed at a lower portion of the suction duct 14. A heater 13 for heating air is installed at the suction passage of the suction duct 14. A plurality of lifts 23 for upwardly lifting the laundry C to be dried and dropping are formed in the drum 24.
Hereinafter, a front cover 22 positioned at the front surface of the drum 24 when the door 21 is closed will be explained with reference to FIG. 2.
FIG. 2 is a view showing a rear surface of the front cover of the clothes dryer.
As shown, an inlet port 25 for putting/taking the laundry C into/out of the drum is formed at the front surface of the drum 24, and the front cover 22 for covering the inlet port 25 is coupled thereto. A dryness degree sensor 19 for sensing a dryness degree of the laundry C inside the drum 24 is installed at a lower portion of the front cover 22.
Hereinafter, the dryness degree sensor 19 will be explained with reference to FIG. 3.
FIG. 3 is a view showing a dryness degree sensor of the clothes drier.
As shown, the dryness degree sensor 19 senses a dryness degree of the laundry C on the basis of a difference of current values varied according to a moisture contain degree of the laundry C at the time of contacting the laundry C. The dryness degree sensor 19 is composed of a pair of electrode sensors arranged in parallel with a certain interval. That is, as a moisture amount contained in the laundry is increased, a current value of the dryness degree sensor 19 is increased, and as a moisture amount contained in the laundry is decreased, a current value of the dryness degree sensor 19 is decreased. According to this, a dryness degree of the laundry can be sensed on the basis of the current value.
FIG. 4 is a view showing a dryness degree representative value calculated based on a signal of the dryness degree sensor of FIG. 2.
As shown, a dryness degree representative value is calculated on the basis of a signal value (dryness degree value) generated from the dryness degree sensor 19 as the laundry C to be dried is dried. On the basis of the calculated representative value, a heating value of the heater 13 and a driving of the drum 24 are controlled.
However, in a control method of the conventional clothes drier, a dryness degree representative value was calculated by equally applying the same sampling rate or the same number of samples even if a dryness graph showing a dryness degree of an initial period A that the laundry C contains much moisture and a dryness degree of a later period B that the laundry C relatively contains less moisture is non-linearly varied. Therefore, a dryness degree of the laundry C inside the drum 24 is not precisely reflected on the dryness degree representative value, thereby lowering a reliability of the dryness degree representative value.
Also, since a dryness degree of the laundry C is not precisely reflected on a dryness degree representative value, the laundry C is over-dried thus to have a damage or a deformation and a power consumption of the clothes drier is increased.
As aforementioned, in the conventional clothes drier, a dryness degree representative value is calculated by applying the same sampling rate or the same number of samples, and a heating value of the heater is controlled on the basis of the dryness degree representative value. According to this, the clothes are over-dried or an under-dry phenomenon that an operation for drying the clothes is stopped is frequently generated. Also, the heater is continuously operated even under a state that the clothes are completely dried, thereby consuming unnecessary much power.
Details of the conventional clothes drier are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,449,876 issued in Sep. 17, 2002.

Control method of clothes dryer and apparatus thereof


An axial-air-gap brushless vibration motor has an eccentric rotor R in which an axial-air-gap magnet and an arched weight are provided in a rotor yoke which is rotatably mounted on a shaft fixed to a yoke bracket. A stator base is attached to the yoke bracket which includes a magnetic portion receiving the magnetic field of the magnet and a nonmagnetic portion. One Hall sensor and a drive circuit member for receiving output of the Hall sensor are disposed so that they do not overlap on a radial plane, of the stator base which has single-phase air-core armature coils installed. A cover member is welded to the yoke bracket.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an axial-air-gap brushless vibration motor suitable for silent information means for mobile communication devices, in particular, to an axial-air-gap brushless vibration motor containing a drive circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Applicant has previously suggested a flat axial-air-gap brushless to vibration motor of a coreless and slotless type, this motor containing no drive circuit component (Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No. H4-137463 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-143767).
A cored motor of a non-circular configuration in which armature coils are wound on a plurality of equidistantly disposed protruding poles and a drive circuit component is disposed on a side of a stator is known as a brushless vibration motor equipped with a drive circuit (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-245103).
However, a width of such a motor is increased and the motor exhibits poor mounting efficiency in mounting by an SMD method on a printed wiring board. Moreover, because of the cored configuration, a thickness of the motor is unavoidably large and the motor has poor utility.
Accordingly, the Applicant has previously suggested a vibration motor, including cored and slotless-coreless types, in which some of a plurality of armature coils were removed to provide an empty space in which a drive circuit member was disposed (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-142427, FIGS. 8 through 11).

Axial-air-gap brushless vibration motor containing drive circuit


The invention relates to a particle with a core-shell structure, the core of which comprises at least one thermochromic semiconductor and the shell comprises at least two layers—an inner layer in contact with the core and comprising a mineral material or an organo-mineral hybrid material; and—an outer layer comprising a mineral material or an organo-mineral hybrid material, different from that of the inner layer. The invention also relates to a method for producing this particle, and the use thereof as a temperature indicator, in particular in a culinary article, such as a pan.

The use of semiconductor materials as temperature indicators is known on account of their ability to change color due to the effect of heat (thermochromism). In particular, there are known semiconductor materials whose properties allow for the possibility of a progressive and reversible change of color as the temperature rises following a sequence of white to yellow to orange to red and to black. These thermochromic semiconductor materials, possibly mixed with thermostable pigments, have the advantage of giving the coatings that contain them a reversible thermochromism with improved visibility and accuracy.
Among the thermochromic semiconductor materials, bismuth oxide has attractive properties in terms of thermochromism, since it is able to transition from a white-yellow coloring to a bright yellow coloring within a temperature range of between ambient temperature and 220° C., and this in a reversible way. In addition, it is known from patent EP 1405890 that bismuth oxide (Bi2O3) may be combined with a cobalt phosphate (a blue-colored thermostable pigment), with the pigments being bonded together by a potassium silicate. A coating containing this mixture is blue at ambient temperature and turns orange at 400° C.
However, these thermochromic semiconductors have a major drawback limiting their use, which is that they are not compatible with oils or lipids when used on a hot surface: they are referred to as liposensitive when hot. Indeed, semiconducting metal oxides are easily reduced with heat when in contact with oil or lipids, and the compounds formed after such a reduction reaction are no longer thermochromic. For example, Bi2O3 is reduced to metallic bismuth (Bi(m)), which is a black-colored compound, in the presence of hot edible oils (fatty acid triglycerides), which does not have any thermochromic properties.
In addition, certain thermochromic semiconductors lose their properties when they are combined with certain compounds. For example, under certain conditions bismuth oxide formulated in the presence of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) reacts with PTFE and leads to the formation of a white-colored bismuth oxyfluoride (BiOF) which has no thermochromic properties. This reaction may occur when hydrofluoric acid is released, even in a small amount, as a result of PTFE sintering, that is, during the heat treatment of PTFE.
For this reason, it has become necessary to offer solutions so that thermochromic semiconductors can be used under all conditions and to avoid the drawbacks described above.

Temperature indicator for culinary article