A recording apparatus for recording digital data comprised of a plurality of recording blocks on a recording medium includes a grouping circuit which makes a group of the digital data according to a predetermined time-based interval, A sequence number generator divides the group into "N" sequences. "N" is an integer. A data block generator divides the input data in each sequence into a plurality of data blocks. A sequence number generator generates a sequence number for each data blocks associated with each recording blocks, An ID block generator generates an ID information of each data block based on the sequence number. A recording block generator generates the recording block based on the ID information and the data block.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital signal recording apparatus and, more particularity, to a digital signal recording apparatus for recording digital audio and video signals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Consumer-use digital video Cassette Recorders (VCR) for recording audio and video signals as digital signals are now commercially available. The consumer-use digital Video Cassette Recorder (VCR) market, however, has been constrained by the various methods applying video compression (band width compression) technologies to the video signal that have been proposed as a means for reducing cassette size.
In FIG. 5A, an example of the on-tape positioning of the video signals and audio signals recorded by a digital VCR is shown. The audio and video signals for one frame are recorded to ten tracks Tr0 to Tr9 on tape. It is to be noted that the audio and video signals are recorded to specific and different segments Sa and Sv of each track.
As shown in FIG. 5B, each track Tr further comprises a plurality of recording blocks Br (FIG. 6) in the audio and video signal segments Sa and Sv. Each audio signal segment Sa is comprised of a predetermined number of audio data recording blocks Ba and parity recording blocks Bp. Similarly, each video segment Sa is comprised of a predetermined number of video data recording blocks Bv and parity recording blocks Bp.
The audio data recording block Ba, the video data recording block by, and the parity recording block Bp has principally the same construction of the recording block Br, as best shown in FIG. 6. The audio or video signals are divided into a plurality of small data blocks Db which is recorded in one recording block Br. Each data block Db is complemented by a synchronization signal Ds for bit synchronization, ID information indicating the location of the recording data block in the frame, and parity data Dp for error correction. In parity recording blocks Bp, only parity data is recorded in its data Db instead of video or audio signal data.
When the data blocks Db in the recording blocks Br are subsequently reproduced, those complementing information makes it possible to reproduce the original video signal and/or audio signal from the recorded data block Db in the recording blocks Br.
Because distortion caused by video compression processing increases when video compression and expansion are repeated, it is preferable when copying between VCR units to copy the data in the video compressed state. This means that it is preferable to copy the data as in the form of recorded data block Db in the recording block Br units.
It is not guaranteed, however, that all recorded data in recording blocks in each frame can be reproduced because of variable speed reproduction, transmission errors, and other factors relating to VCR operation. When the recorded data blocks in any recording block units for one frame cannot be reproduced, the recording block unit(s) from other frame(s) are substituted for the recording block units whose recorded data block could not be reproduced, so that the unreproducible recorded data block(s) are reproduced by simulation.
When substitution by recording block unit is used in this way, however, recording block units from plural frames will be mixed into one frame (in the ten tracks shown in FIG. 5) on the copy tape. The audio signal, however, cannot be reproduced if the time-base relationship of the sequential recording block units is not maintained. Only the information for adjacent frames can be obtained with the ID information associated with each recording block units in this conventional digital VCR, however, and it is not possible to differentiate plural frames. In addition, frame information is lost during reproduction because of the substitution of ID information during recording when copying. It is therefore difficult to determine the time-base relationship of each recording block.
As a result, it is difficult to reproduce the audio signal when variable speed reproduction of recorded data blocks or error correction is applied to the recording block units in the conventional digital VCR.

Digital signal recording apparatus for recording digital data comprising a plurality of recording blocks

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A digital video stream of color images intended to be displayed on a matrix screen is formed of macropixels having at least four subpixels each. During processing, the color components of each image are transformed into an RGB format based on a polygonal representation of the color components and designed for the display of images using at least four colors by activating the four subpixels. The color components of the image are adapted in the course of the transformation.

Conventionally, images delivered by a video processor are processed by a display processing unit (DPU), then transmitted to a means of controlling the columns of the screen incorporated into a means of electronically controlling the display (DDE, for display driver electronics).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,930,691 in the name of STMicroelectronics Inc. describes a transformation of color components of a digital image from a standard RGB format to another RGB format based on a polygonal representation.
This transformation allows an image to be displayed using six colors: yellow, red, green, blue, cyan and magenta. This six-color image display is carried out on a suitable screen. However, the quality of the displayed image is not straightforwardly reproducible from one screen to another.
Furthermore, the display of an image on a matrix screen formed of macropixels having at least four subpixels each and with an independent signal for each subpixel, according to the same mode of control as a matrix screen formed of macropixels having three subpixels each with the colors red, green and blue, in particular with three independent signals, would generate proportionally increased power dissipation, proportionally increased bandwidth and proportionally increased electromagnetic interference.
This would become unacceptable for screens of large size or High Definition (HD) format screens, for example of 1920×1080 macropixels, or even for the small screens of portable systems for which the power dissipation constraints are compounded.

Method for processing a digital video stream and corresponding device


A compliant electronics assembly mount frame and package are provided. The compliant frame may include a number of spring features configured to flexibly maintain and/or orient an attached PCBA inside a thermal conduction package. These spring features disposed in the compliant frame may be shaped, sized, and even tuned, to bias heat generating components attached to the PCBA evenly against a thermally controlled surface of the thermal package. The frame may be made or stamped from metal, such as sheet metal, and may be formed to include one or more integral spring features.

Most electronic devices generate heat while in use. This heat is typically generated by the flow of electric current through one or more resistive elements and/or components in the electronic device. When the heat generated by these elements and/or components is not efficiently removed, the temperatures of an electronic device can exceed a normal operating range. Operating electronics at temperatures outside of the normal operating range, even periodically, can cause premature failures and result in shorter component life spans.
The efficient thermal management of electronic components and devices generally requires one or more active and/or passive cooling elements. For example, typical microprocessors may generate heat that can be removed or dissipated via an attached heat sink and/or some other cooling element/system, such as a fan, directed cooled air, fluid cooling, etc. In this example, the heat generated may be routed to, and/or dissipated, into an environment immediately surrounding the microprocessors.
However, the options for removing heat from an electronic device within a sealed environment (e.g., hermetic package, pseudo-hermetic package, sealed enclosure, etc.) may be limited to those approaches employing costly, sizable, and/or complex cooling systems.
In addition, modern electronic component assemblies, such as printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs), may include multiple heat generating elements (e.g., microprocessors, chips, etc.) and/or thermal interfaces on a printed circuit board (PCB), or other circuit substrate. Manufacturing these assemblies generally requires a physical attachment of electronic components via some form of soldering and/or adhesion. As the solder joints in an assembly set (e.g., from a fluid form to solid form) the dimensional tolerances between assemblies may differ significantly and/or stack up on a particular assembly. Dealing with these tolerance issues in a conventional manner generally involves time consuming assembly, costly manufacturing techniques, or an overly-stressed number of components on an assembly (e.g., PCBA) to ensure intimate contact with cooling surfaces in a package.

Thermal spring frame and shield for sealed processing systems


In one embodiment of the disclosure, it is proposed a photolithography device for generating structure on a photoresist substrate, the photolithography device comprising a light illumination unit and a photomask. The photomask is remarkable in that it comprises at least one layer of dielectric material and a medium having a refractive index lower than that of said dielectric material, wherein a surface of said at least one layer of dielectric material has at least one abrupt change of level forming a step, and wherein at least a base and lateral part of said surface, with respect to said step and a propagation direction of an electromagnetic wave from said light illumination unit, is in contact with said medium.

This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art, which may be related to various aspects of the present invention that are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
The photolithography technique/process is a manufacturing technique that enables to transfer a geometric pattern from a photomask to a photoresist substrate (usually a light sensitive polymer substrate), when the photomask is illuminated by a light illumination unit (i.e. when the photomask is exposed to light illumination unit). Such technique/process is widely used in the semiconductor industry especially for the fabrication of integrated circuits.
In order to design more complex and smaller integrated circuits (as they are dedicated to be used in more and more compact electronic device such as tablet, mobile phone, and so on), a natural trend in the semiconductor industry is to improve the photolithography technique/process in order to be able to transfer a geometric pattern at very small scale (i.e. even at Nano metric scale).
Resolution of the photolithography process, i.e. the smallest feature of the geometric pattern that can be created on a photoresist substrate, is determined by the resolving capability of the photoresist and by the optical resolution of the imaging system. The latter is determined by the wavelength of the imaging light (λ) and the numerical aperture (NA) of the projection lens. For a refractive or reflective type optical projection unit, it typically does not exceed one wavelength of the incident light in the host medium. The resolution can be improved by decreasing the wavelength or increasing the numerical aperture. The latter is possible for contact printing (with a mask put in direct contact with the photoresist substrate), however, it leads to mask degradation and thus should preferably be avoided. Aiming at increasing the resolution, several techniques have been proposed.
For example, in the book entitled "Advances in Micro/Nano Electromechanical Systems and Fabrication Technologies", the chapter 8, entitled "Nanolithography", written by Gunasekaran Venugopal and Sang-Jae Kim, describes and compares several techniques for manufacturing integrated circuit comprising nano-geometric patterns. The document US 2016/0147138 depicts a particular photomask used in a particular lithography technique (the EUVL (which stands for Extreme Ultraviolet Litography)). Another technique for manufacturing integrated circuit comprising nano-geometric patterns is described in the article entitled "Nanoscale materials patterning and engineering by atomic force microscopy nanolithography" by X. N. Xie, H. J. Chung, C. H. Sow, and A. T. S. Wee.
In order to design more complex nano-geometric patterns on a photoresist substrate, a technique described in the document US2016/0259253 is proposed based on near-field focusing due to the surface plasmon phenomenon. This technique enables a super resolution order of a fraction of the incident wavelength. However, this technique relies on the use of a multi-layer metal-dielectric mask, whose fabrication cost and complexity may not be acceptable for some applications.
Another technique named the nanosphere photolithography (NSP) technique (introduced in the article entitled "A deep sub-wavelength process for the formation of highly uniform arrays of nanoholes and nanopillars" by W. Wu et al., published in Nanotechnology 18, 2007) provides a cost-effective solution for fabrication of nanostructures with feature dimensions below 100 nm. This technique exploits nanojet beams produced by dielectric spheres (as detailed in the article entitled "Photonic nanojets" by A. Heifetz et al. The use of a monolayer of nano- (or micro-) spheres deposited on top of an optically sensitive material (i.e. photoresist) enables one to achieve a highly selective exposure of the photoresist layer. When exposure under UV light, the hot spot size produced by nanojet microspheres is about a half wavelength in the photoresist material. In such a way, microstructures with features size order of 100 nm can be fabricated. Hence, nanosphere lithography (NSL) is an economical technique for generating single-layer hexagonally close packed or similar patterns of nanoscale features (see for example the article entitled "Fabrication of nanopillars by nanosphere lithography" by Cheung et al. in Nanotechnology 2006). Another example of application of nanosphere lithography is depicted in FIG. 2 of the article entitled "Photon nanojet lens: design, fabrication and characterization" by Chen Xu et al., published in Nanotechnology 27 (2016).
Even if the nanosphere photolithography (NSP) technique is effective in terms of cost and throughput capacity, it may suffer from the following drawbacks:                it has a poor reproducibility caused by certain difficulties with a precise positioning of microspheres,        Fabrication tolerance caused by the imperfection of the microsphere shape, size, and positioning,        Limited diversity of microstructure shapes that can be fabricated (for the moment, it is limited to simple geometries, like circular nanoholes, nanorings, and nanopillars).
Hence, there is a need to provide an alternative technique to the nanosphere photolithography technique that may overcome some of these limitations.

Photolithography device for generating pattern on a photoresist substrate


An article fabricated from a resin (e.g. ABS, polycarbonates, polyethylenes, polyaryl ether, or polypropylene of platable grades) susceptible to softening when contacted with trichloroethylene or a mixture of trichloroethylene and methylene chloride is dipped into an alkaline detergent, rinsed, and immersed in an agitated bath (by volume, 90 parts of trichloroethylene, 9 to 10 parts of ethanol, and 0 to 1 part of methylene chloride--1 part of methylene chloride if the resin is polypropylene) to which copper or nickel has been added as a powder (50 to 150 microns, 200 to 250 grams per liter) whereupon the article is drained, dipped in an agitated bath of similar composition, and dried. Alternatively, the powder may be sprayed onto the article, after the article has been immersed in such a bath. Next, the article may be dipped in dilute nitric acid, rinsed and immersed in a non-catalytic bath for deposition of nickel.

This invention pertains to a process for plating a metal such as copper or nickel on an article fabricated from a platable resin, which may be any of a variety of resins including polypropylene as well as acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymers, polyaryl ethers, polycarbonates, polyethylene, and other resins in common engineering use.
Conventionally, an article molded of a platable grade of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer (ABS) or other resin is plated by one of various processes requiring the article to be cleaned, etched in a strong acid, and sensitized in an acidic solution of tin salts, palladium salts, or other compounds, which act as catalysts for subsequent deposition of a metal in a bath by immersion or by reduction of the metal from a complex. Commonly, the strong acid is chromic acid, either with or without sulfuric acid. Typical steps of such processes are given by H. M. Goldman, "Electroplating," Modern Plastics Encyclopedia 1979-1980, Volume 56, Number 10A, McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York, October 1979, at pages 436-437.
Other references of pertinent interest include: D. W. Himler and J. A. Alzapiedi, "Preparing Plastics for Plating," SPE Journal, Vol. 29, June 1973, at pages 57-60; E. J. Stefanides, "Electroplated ABS Parts," Design News, March 3, 1965; "Electroplating `the unplatables,`" Modern Plastics, November 1967, at pages 98-101; C. E. MacNeill and G. T. Chiurazzi, "Plated Plastic Parts," Materials in Design Engineering, November 1962, at pages 122-125; H. L. Pinkerton, "Preparing Nonconductors for Electroplating," Chapter 28 in F. A. Lowenheim, Editor, Modern Electroplating, 2nd Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, copyright 1963, at pages 604-617; and E. B. Saubestre, "Plating on Nonconductors," Chapter 28 in F. A. Lowenheim, Editor, Modern Electroplating, 3rd Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, copyright 1974, at pages 636-655.
Various chemical and mechanical processes for metallizing of plastics are considered in H. Narcus, Metallizing of Plastics, Reinhold Publishing Corporation, New York, copyright 1960. As considered by H. Narcus, op. cit., at pages 148-159, such processes include spraying of heated metal particles in compressed air.
It is known that trichloroethylene softens (swells) many resins although not polypropylene, but use of trichloroethylene in plating on resins has been restricted. A process wherein an article is immersed successively in a solution containing trichloroethylene, ethanol, and phosphorous sesquisulfide, and in a solution of copper pyrophosphate so as to produce what is described as "a red conductive copper-phosphorus-sulfur coating", before the article is electroplated initially with nickel and subsequently with chrome, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,650,708 to W. P. Gallagher. A process wherein an article is immersed in a bath containing trichloroethylene, white phosphorous, an anionic blend of alkaryl hydrotopes, and sodium dodecyl diphenyl ether disulfonate, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,647,512 to J. J. Grunwald et al.
However, there remains a need, to which this invention is directed, for a process which is simple, fast, inexpensive, and effective for plating on a variety of plastics, which does not require chromic acid either with or without sulfuric acid, and which does not require initial deposition of a metal by catalytic reaction.

Plating on plastics by softening with trichloroethylene and methylene chloride bath


A circuit card assembly includes a circuit card, a plurality of components disposed on a first surface of the circuit card in a shadow arrangement, and a plurality of air-cooled heat sink structures disposed on each of the components. Each of the plurality of heat sink structures comprises a plurality of impedance zones arranged in series substantially perpendicular to the airflow path, where the plurality of impedance zones comprise a first impedance zone having a first air impedance, and a second impedance zone having a second air impedance less than the first air impedance. Further, the plurality of zones in the plurality of heat sink structures are aligned so that the first impedance zone in one of the plurality of heat sink structures does not overlap with the first impedance zone in another of the plurality of heat sink structures, relative to the airflow path.

In the field of electronics, including computing devices, the typical trend has been to reduce the size of components while providing the same or improved performance. This means, in most cases, an increase in device density. However, when device density is increased, this invariably least to a higher power density. In turn, higher power densities lead to increased heat dissipation and temperature control issues. In some cases, temperature control issues can be acute. For example, in computing devices with high power chipsets in a so-called "shadow" arrangement (where the components are arranged in series with respect to airflow), such issues can lead to overheating problems. Specifically, a first upstream component (with respect to airflow) may be properly cooled, but a subsequent downstream component (with respect to airflow) may not be properly cooled. The reason is because once air is heated by the first component, the air has limited capacity to absorb heat from the second component.
Traditionally, this problem has been addressed by the use of different upstream and downstream heat sinks to balance airflow impedance. In particular, an upstream heat sink with low airflow impedance is used in order to allow more air to reach the downstream heat sink. In this way, the air reaching the downstream heat sink may have an elevated temperature, but still have sufficient capacity to absorb additional heat. Additionally, the downstream heat sink can be configured with a higher airflow impedance to cause the air to linger longer and absorb more heat. However, such configurations are a compromise, resulting in increased cooling efficiency for the downstream component at the cost of cooling efficiency for the upstream component. Moreover, such configurations are unidirectional. As a result, computing devices implementing such a scheme have to be mated with a compatible ventilation system to ensure airflow in the correct direction.

Bidirectional and uniform cooling for multiple components in a computing device


A motor-vehicle latch mounted on a door has a front end pivoted about an upright axis, a rear end with a rearwardly directed end face, and an inside face immediately adjacent the rear end face, the door being movable relative to a frame member having a forwardly directed front face confronting the rear end face of the door in a fully closed position of the door. A holding element fixed to the front face of the frame member has a part projecting inward past the inside face of the door in the fully closed position of the door and having a support face facing forward toward the rear end face of the door. A retaining member, for example a bolt or wedge, is fixed in the holding element and a retaining element on the rear end face of the door is engageable with the retaining member to latch the door in the fully closed position. The part of the holding element projecting inward past the inside face of the door in the fully closed position thereof is formed with a forwardly directed bump lying inward of the inside face of the door in the fully closed position so that if the door is pushed back in a collision the inner face of the door will be prevented by the bump from sliding inward over the end of the holding element.

A motor-vehicle door has a front end pivoted about an upright axis, a rear end with a rearwardly directed end face, and an inside face immediately adjacent the rear end face. The door is pivotal about the axis relative to a frame member having a forwardly directed front face confronting the rear end face of the door in a fully closed position of the door. A holding element fixed to the front face of the frame member has a part projecting inward past the inside face of the door in the fully closed position of the door and having a support face facing forward toward the rear end face of the door. A retaining member, for example a bolt or wedge, is fixed in the holding element and a retaining element on the rear end face of the door is engageable with the retaining member to latch the door in the fully closed position.
As described in German patent document 3,240,532 the support surface of a housing-like holder extends laterally further into the interior of the vehicle seen from above as the inner surface of the door or the covering thereof. This structure is intended, when the door is pushed back in an accident, to prevent the inner face of the door from hooking on the holder. When, however, the force of the accident is extreme so that the door is driven back considerably, the inner face of the door can be driven in and hook on the holder.

Motor-vehicle door latch with collision protection


A sample (14) is illuminated by light from a laser source (16), which is reflected to it by a dichroic filter (18) and passed through a microscope objective (20). The microscope objective (20) focusses a two dimensional image of the illuminated area onto a detector (22). On the way to the detector (22), the light passes through an interference filter (26), which selects a desired line from the Raman spectrum scattered by the sample (14). The filter (26) can be tuned to any desired Raman line by rotating it through various angles of incidence (.THETA.), about an axis (28) perpendicular to the optical axis.

This invention relates to apparatus and methods in which the Raman effect is used to analyse a sample.
The Raman effect is a phenomenon in which a sample scatters incident light of a given frequency, into a frequency spectrum which has lines caused by interaction of the incident light with the molecules making up the sample. Different molecular species have different characteristic Raman spectra, and so the effect can be used to analyse the molecular species present.
Analysis methods and apparatus using the Raman effect are described in a paper `Raman Microprobe and Microscope with Laser Excitation`, M Delhaye and P Dhamelincourt Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, 3 (1975) 33-43. A sample is irradiated with monochromatic light from a laser, and the scattered light is passed through a monochromator in order to select a particular line of the resulting Raman spectrum. The paper describes both a microprobe, in which light from a single illuminated point or a line on the sample is passed through the monochromator, and a microscope in which an area is illuminated and an integral, two dimensional image of that area is passed through the monochromator. The microprobe has the disadvantage that in order to obtain a two dimensional image, it is necessary to scan a series of points or lines over the area of the sample, so that building up the required image is complex and may take a relatively long time. The microscope obviously does not suffer from this disadvantage,.but the optics of the monochromator require substantial modification in order to pass a two dimensional image.
Specifically, a conventional monochromator has an optical system which focuses an image of the illuminated point or line of the sample onto an entrance slit; and a further optical system which focuses an image of the entrance slit onto an exit slit. Between the entrance slit and the exit slit there is a dispersive device such as a diffraction grating (or commonly two or three such gratings in series). The dispersive device has the effect of splitting an incoming polychromatic light beam into a range of angles, depending on frequency. Because of the dispersion, the position of the exit slit relative to the diffraction grating selects the desired spectral line to be investigated. The monochromator can be tuned to different spectral lines by moving the exit slit, or more conveniently by an arrangement in which the diffraction grating is rotated relative to the exit slit. Because the frequencies of the spectrum are separated by a dispersive process, it is obvious that good frequency resolution requires narrow slits. Since the image of the sample is focused on the slits, this is the reason why this conventional monochromator arrangement cannot observe a two dimensional area of the sample. If a wider slit were used in order to pass a two dimensional image, it would pass a range of frequencies. Because any given spectral line has a finite width, the result is a blurred image of any given point on the sample, and if one attempts to form an image in two dimensions, the blurred image of one point in the sample will overlap with the blurred image of an adjacent point, resulting in a very confused image (poor spatial resolution in addition to degraded frequency resolution).
The modified optical system used in the above paper in order to provide an integral two dimensional image, forms an image of the sample on the diffraction grating of the monochromator, instead of on the entrance and exit slits. At the entrance and exit slits, there are formed images of the exit aperture of an optical microscope which views the area of the sample which is to be imaged. By these means (in theory) one can pass an integral two dimensional image of the area of the sample through a monochromator with arbitrarily narrow entrance and exit slits. However, the aperture size of the entrance slit governs the amount of light which is collected and focused onto the grating; while the aperture size of the exit slit governs the amount of light which is collected from the grating and focused to produce the resulting two dimensional image which is detected. In the result, therefore, if one makes the entrance and exit slits narrow, to improve the frequency resolution, then the intensity of the resulting image is extremely low and difficult to detect. This is exacerbated by the fact that the desired Raman spectra are already of very low intensities, and cannot be increased merely by increasing the incident illumination of the sample by the laser, since increased laser power is likely to destroy the sample. Accordingly, commercial Raman analysis devices have tended to be of the scanning microprobe type, rather than a Raman microscope in which an integral two dimensional image is formed.


The present invention refers to a pumping stage for turbomolecular pumps comprising a rotor disk (3), integral with a rotating shaft (4) operated by a motor, and a stator disk (1) said stator disk (1), integral with the pump body (2), where the stator disk (1) is a disk whose surface is substantially smooth that can assume, during the evacuation cycle, a bladed configuration, by raising radial sections (5) of the disk surface itself. Raising of radial sections (5) is performed by at least one actuator device (11) controlled, through an electronic control device (12), by a pressure sensor (13) sampling the pressure inside the pump body (2).

The pumping stages for turbomolecular pumps are traditionally composed of pairs of disks, one of which (the stator disk) is integral with the pump body, while the other one (the rotor disk) is integral with a shaft that is centrally placed with respect to the pump body and the stator disk and rotated by a motor.
Both such disks are commonly equipped with blades, the number of which ranges between 20 and 60: these are oriented with opposite blade aspect with respect to the rotation plane, in order to perform pumping of gas molecules with the rotor disk and changing the speed distribution of gas molecules with the stator disk.
In particular, the number of disk blades, and consequently their pitch, generates the capability of compressing gases at a certain speed.
The function of the stator disk is mainly change the speed distribution for gas molecules after they have been pumped by the rotor disk, to be intercepted and pumped by the rotor disk in the following pumping stage.
If the pumping stage lacked a stator disk, the gas molecules would not be pumped by the rotor disk in the following stage; in fact, they leave the rotor disk with a speed distribution whose maximum is next to the opening angle of the rotor that pumped them, and therefore only a negligible portion of these molecules could be intercepted by the following rotor disk.
Since these pumping stages are configured to obtain a high degree of vacuum (that is, very low pressure, the rotor-stator stage efficiency is high only next to low pressure inside the body, that is in extreme rarefaction situations where friction between pumping stage disks and present gas is negligible, while efficiency remains low at the beginning of the evacuation cycle, during which the pump works with viscous gases and the process is governed either by a fore vacuum pump or by possible stages with adequate geometries, integral with the turbomolecular pump shaft.
In the first operating stage of the pump, that is when gas pressure in the body is close to the atmospheric pressure (about 1000 mbar), the presence of a traditional bladed stator disk is therefore disadvantageous, since its deflection function is negligible, while power absorption by friction with present gas is very high.
It has been verified experimentally that a turbomolecular pump having a pumping stage without a stator disk, absorbs, in a steady state rotation, about 17 Watts at 90 Hz and about 50 Watts at 160 Hz, while a pump equipped with traditional stages including bladed stator disks absorbs about 190 Watts at 80 Hz.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a pumping stage for turbomolecular pumps configured in such a manner as to save the absorbed power during the initial stage of the evacuation cycle without losses in the pumping capacity of the pump itself.
These and other purposes are reached by a pumping stage for turbomolecular pumps comprising a rotor disk and a stator disk integral with the pump body and centrally drilled, characterized in that the stator disk is a disk the surface of which is substantially smooth, said surface being able to assume, during the evacuation cycle, a bladed configuration through lifting its radial sections, said lifting of radial sections being controlled by at least one operating mechanism.


An illuminating undergarment carries a series of illuminating devices for emitting light and presenting a glow from underneath an outer garment. The undergarment can be tailored in any suitable form factor, such as a slip for placement under a skirt or skirt portion of a dress or other form factors for use under dresses, blouses, pants, etc. The undergarment comprises a series of illuminating device retention members affixed to a surface of the undergarment body. The undergarment body can be sectioned into segments, enabling changes in length and/or shape. The illuminating devices are removably attached to the undergarment by the retention members. The illuminating devices can be arranged in a random pattern, a pattern representing an object, a pattern representing text, etc. and any combination thereof. The illuminating devices can be powered by a portable power supply and controlled by a circuit and/or a switch.

Individuals strive to present themselves in a particular image. The person's image can vary in many ways, including a memorable tone, a concealing tone, a unique tone, a dressy tone, a casual tone, a sexy tone, and the like. Various components contribute to the person's image, including makeup, hairstyle, attire, shoes, accessories, and the like.
Certain individuals attending certain events strive to make a memorable impression on others. This can include other attendees, the press, and the like. The uniqueness can be for any of a variety of reasons, including special occasions (weddings, prom, homecoming, other school event, sweet sixteen parties, quinceañera, christenings, bar mitzvah, bat mitzvah, fundraisers, awards banquets, concerts, plays, etc.), pageants, evening outings (such dancing, clubbing, concerts, etc.), and the like. Individuals that would desire to make memorable impressions can include a modern bride; a bridesmaid/bridal party; a celebrity attending an event, such as an awards ceremony; a singer or entertainer attending an event, such as the Grammys; a performer performing in a play, a theater event, a street performer, and the like; an actor or actress performing in a recorded production, such as television program, a movie, and the like; a musician performing at a gig; athletic performers, such as ice skaters; ballerinas or other dancers at a recital; cheerleaders performing at an event; and any other suitable event where the individual desires to become a key center of attention.
One manner for making a memorable impression is where an individual wears a dress or other apparel that accent or elude to certain physical properties, including legs, hips, breast line, cleavage, and the like, wherein the accents are directed towards a sexually memorable impression. This can include an outline of the garment, cutouts within the garment, slits within the garment, and the like. Portions of the garment can be open, exposing the individual's skin, utilize a nude backing material, and the like to present the desired perception.
Another manner for making a memorable impression includes a dress or other apparel having accents or other features that are unique. One example of an instance was a dress shaped as a swan. Another example was a garment tailored using fabric having a unique print. Yet another example was a jacket worn backwards.
Lights have been known to be added to various garments, whereby the lights are permanently attached to the inner surface of the fabric of the garment. This configuration limits the application of the under-lighting to the respective garment. The illuminating elements are attached to the interior of the garment in a fixed arrangement, thus introducing another limitation.
What is desired is a garment accessory enabling the wearer with the ability to illuminate any of a variety of garments. An additional benefit would be an apparatus and associated method of use enabling a user to customize an arrangement of a plurality of lights placed upon an undergarment into any specific pattern to illuminate an outer garment.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Illuminating undergarment and method of use


To provide a device that efficiently selects desired data out of a large number of selectable data.

Technical Field
The present invention relates to an input device, an information processing device, and an input method.
Background Art
There is known a detecting device that is worn on a wrist of a subject in a form like a wristwatch and detects biological information such as a pulse and a blood pressure of the subject. When using the detecting device, the subject needs to input individual information such as age and sex necessary for calculating the biological information. These kinds of individual information include a plurality of items. In addition, choices in each of the items are diversified. Therefore, input operation of the individual information is complicated. In recent years, operability and designability are requested for an input unit for inputting the individual information. In a processing device described in PTL 1, operation buttons for inputting individual information are configured by a touch panel to realize visual operation by fingers and sophisticated design.

Input device, information processing device, and input method

Abstract: A pulse meter 10 includes a body motion sensor 60 that detects body motion information concerning a limb, an inclination-angle calculating unit 24 that calculates an inclination angle of the limb on the basis of the body motion information, a display unit 50 that displays an input candidate value corresponding to the inclination angle, and a determination instructing unit 40 that decides the input candidate value as an input value.


A method for improving the associating articles of information or stories with topics associated with specific subjects (subject topics) and with a general topic of words that are not associated with any subject. The inventive method is trained using Hidden Markov Models (HMM) to represent each story with each state in the HMM representing each topic. A standard Expectation and Maximization algorithm, as are known in this art field can be used to maximize the expected likelihood to the method relating the words associated with each topic to that topic. In the method, the probability that each word in a story is related to a subject topic is determined and evaluated, and the subject topics with the lowest probability are discarded. The remaining subject topics are evaluated and a sub-set of subject topics with the highest probabilities over all the words in a story are considered to be the "correct" subject topic set. The method utilizes only the positive information and words related to other topics are not taken as negative evidence for a topic being evaluated. The technique has particular application to text that is derived from speech via a speech recognizer or any other techniques that results in a text file. The use of a general topic category enhances the results since most words in any story are not keywords that are associated with any given subject topic. The removal of the general words reduces the numbers of words being considered as keywords related to any given subject topic. The reduced number of words being processed allows the method to enhance the discrimination between the fewer words as related to the subject topics. The topics can range from general, for example "the U.S. economy", to very specific, for example, "the relationship of the yen to the dollar in the U.S. economy."

Electronic news sources, including radio, television, cable, and the Internet have vastly increased the amount of information available to the public. Government agencies and businesses depend on this information to make informed decisions. In order to quickly access a particular type of information, it is important that this information be indexed according to topic type or subject. Topics of interest may be broadly defined, for example the U.S. President, or more narrowly defined, for example the U.S. President's trip to Russia. Manual sorting methods require excessive time and provide a limited number of topics with limited scope.
Automatic methods have been developed that transcribe and index and relate each story to one or more topics. These techniques typically model a topic by counting the number of times each word is used within a story on a known topic. To classify a new story, the relative frequencies of all the words in that story related to each topic are multiplied together. The topic with the highest product is selected as the "correct" topic. A limitation of such methods is that most words in a story are not "about" that topic, but just general words. In addition, real stories have several topics and these prior art methods assume that each word is related to all the various topics. In particular, classification of all words in a story create a limitation because a keyword (a word that is related to a topic) for one topic becomes, in effect, a negative when the keyword is classified (albeit with low probability) for another legitimate topic. This is a particular limitation of the prior art techniques. The result is that these prior art techniques have limited ability to discriminate among the various topics which, in turn, limits the accuracy with which stories can be indexed to any particular topic. One example of a prior art technique for automatic story indexing against subject topics is described in a paper entitled, Application of Large Vocabulary Continuous Speech Recognition to Topic and Speaker Identification Using Telephone Speech, by Larry Gillick, et al. from the Proceedings ICASSP-93, Vol. II, pages 471-474, 1993.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method that acknowledges that there are generally several topics within any given story and that any particular word need not be related to all the topics, while providing for multiple topics and their related words.
It is another related object of the present invention to realize that many, if not most, words used in a story are not related to any topic but are words used in a general sense.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method where there is reduced overlap between the various topics within any one story.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method of improved accuracy of topic identification.
It is yet another object of the present invention to improve topic identification by automatically determining which keywords relate to which topics, and then using those keywords as positive evidence for their respective topics, but not as negative evidence for other topics.


Methods and apparatus are disclosed for contamination prevention of vehicle cameras and sensors. An example vehicle includes an exterior, a camera along the exterior and including a lens, and a controller. The controller is to determine, based upon images captured by the camera, whether a contaminant is approaching the lens and identify a contaminant state upon determining the contaminant is approaching the lens. The example vehicle also includes a nozzle to spray washer fluid to prevent contamination of the lens responsive to the controller identifying that the contaminant is a liquid.

Oftentimes, vehicles include cameras (e.g., digital cameras, analog cameras) that capture image(s) and/or video of a surrounding area. In some instances, the image(s) and/or video captured by the cameras are presented to a driver (e.g., via a center console display) to facilitate the driver in controlling motive functions of the vehicle. In some instances, the image(s) and/or video captured by the cameras are utilized by electronic control module(s) of the vehicle to facilitate autonomous and/or semi-autonomous motive functions performed by the vehicle. Also, vehicles oftentimes include sensors (e.g., radar sensors, lidar sensors, ultrasonic sensors) that detect and identify locations of nearby objects to facilitate electronic control module(s) in performing autonomous and/or semi-autonomous motive functions of the vehicle.

Contamination prevention of vehicle cameras and sensors


A method of processing ultrasound images, the method including operations of receiving color image data including a plurality of frames; determining one or more key-frames from among the plurality of frames, based on a brightness value of each of the plurality of frames; setting a region of interest (ROI) in each of the one or more key-frames based on brightness values of a plurality of regions included in each of the one or more key-frames; performing image compensation on the plurality of frames based on the ROIs of the one or more key-frames; and reconstructing the color image data by using the image-compensated frames.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for processing ultrasound images, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for reconstructing color image data by compensating for the color image data.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus delivers an ultrasound signal (in general, equal to or greater than 20 kHz) to a predetermined internal part of a target object by using a probe, and obtains an image of the internal part of the target object by using information of a reflected echo signal. In particular, the ultrasound diagnosis apparatus is used for medical purposes including detection of foreign materials in the target object, damage measurement and observance, or the like. Compared to X-rays, the ultrasound diagnosis apparatus is stable, is non-invasive, and displays an image in real-time, so that the ultrasound diagnosis apparatus is widely used with an image diagnosis apparatus. The image of the target object, which is obtained via the probe, undergoes a process such as rendering and then is displayed.

Method and apparatus for processing ultrasound images


The present invention provides for a universal holster assembly for securely storing one or more handguns. The holster assembly comprises a first and second end walls. A supporting pad is located between the first and second end walls. The first and second end walls and the supporting pad define a cradle configured for holstering a handgun. A hollow tube extends through a set of aligned openings formed in the first and second end walls and the supporting pad. A plug having a head and a body is used to secure each end of the tube. The body is inserted into an end of the tube and a head urging against an exterior surface of one of the end walls, thus securing the holster assembly. Additional cradles may be defined by adding dividing walls and additional supporting pads. Further, one or more storage compartments may also be provided.

Ownership of firearms and personal defense weapons is on the rise. Many individuals own several handguns. The term handguns as used herein includes handguns, revolvers, Tasers, pistols, stun guns, and the like effective for protection. When not in use, handguns are often stored in a gun safe or locker. Handguns are often laid on their side, which takes up valuable shelf space in the gun safe, and renders handguns vulnerable to being scratched and damaged. This can also be unsafe as handguns can get mixed in with other firearms and items stored in the safe.
Accordingly, what is needed is a holster assembly for storing a handgun that more efficiently uses the available space in a gun safe and that protects the handgun from damage. It would also be desirable for such a holster assembly to be durable, yet capable of being manufactured cost effectively.


Embodiments of the invention relate to optimizing a file system for different types of applications in a compute cluster using dynamic block size granularity. An exemplary embodiment includes reserving a predetermined number of storage allocation regions for each node in a cluster, wherein each storage allocation region comprises a set of contiguous data blocks on a single storage disk of locally attached storage; using a contiguous set of data blocks on a single storage disk of locally attached storage as a file system's block allocation granularity for striping data to be stored in the file system for a compute operation in the cluster; and using a single data block of a shared storage subsystem as the file system's block allocation granularity for striping data to be stored in the file system for a data access operation in the cluster.

A file system is a method for storing and organizing files and data. File systems use storage subsystems to maintain files and data. File systems are management structures that impose a logical structure on a storage subsystem to allow client computers to create, store and access files of data on the storage subsystem. A Distributed File System is a file system that supports sharing of files and storage resources for multiple clients over a network. A cluster file system is a type of distributed file system that allows multiple compute nodes of in a cluster to simultaneously access the same data stored on a shared storage subsystem.
A compute cluster is a system with multiple nodes that interact with each other to provide a client system(s) with data, applications, and other system resources as a single entity. Compute clusters provide scalability and reliability by allowing nodes and shared storage to be added to the cluster. File systems are used to manage storage of data within the compute cluster. Storage is allocated by a file system in a compute cluster by assignment of particular areas of storage to data to be stored. Compute nodes in cluster view a file system as a local resource with direct access to the cluster file system's shared storage subsystem.
Cloud computing is a computing model providing a client(s) with remote virtualized computing resources as a service. Cloud computing provides software and hardware resources to a client(s) by hosting and delivering resources as services remotely and on demand over a network. End-users are thereby enabled to exploit compute resources, on demand, without investment in infrastructure and management. Underlying architecture for cloud computing typically comprises large distributed clusters of servers that work in concert.

Optimizing a file system for different types of applications in a compute cluster using dynamic block size granularity

International Business Machines Corporation


A calibration system for circuit inspection tools in which analog threshold levels are automatically set by digital signals. The inspection too includes an optical detector system that provides video signals to channels each containing an analog processor. In the analog processor an analog reference signal, an analog video inspection signal which may contain a defect indication and a digital threshold signal are employed. The digital threshold signal is converted into an analog threshold signal which is summed with the analog reference signal that has been inverted. The inverted, thresholded reference signal is then summed with the analog video signal. The summed analog video signal and thresholded reference signal is compared with a zero level. If the sum is greater than zero a defect is indicated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to inspection systems for inspecting electronic components, and more particularly to an automatic calibration system for setting threshold levels in an inspection system.
2. Background Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,378 issued Feb. 9, 1993 to Murray et al and entitled CALIBRATED AUTOMATIC TEST SYSTEM discloses a calibrated automatic test system including a test station for generating digital test function codes and a test head containing a plurality of I/O pins for connection to a device under test. Each I/O pin includes a pin electronics circuit responsive to the digital test function codes for providing test signals to the device under test. The pin electronics circuits are inexpensive CMOS IC's and lack the accuracy needed to test VLSI devices at the frequencies of interest. An external calibration unit is connected to each I/O pin and data measurements are taken which represent the performance of the CMOS IC's. The data measurements are converted to calibrated function codes representing desired data values which are then stored in correction memory circuits which respond to nominal digital test function codes and substitute in their places calibrated function codes which are then supplied to the pin electronics circuits.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,105 issued Mar. 17, 1987 to Inbar entitled DIGITAL PEAK DETECTING MEANS FOR A PULSE TRAIN OF ELECTRICAL SIGNALS HAVING A FREQUENCY WITHIN A KNOWN FREQUENCY BANDWIDTH describes a digital peak detecting circuit for receiving a pulse train of electrical signals having a frequency within a known frequency range and for converting the same into digital signals is shown. The digital peak detecting circuit includes an input circuit having a phased-locked loop for producing clock pulses at a frequency which is a preselected integer of the electrical signals frequency and for deriving therefrom an analog input signal. A pulse control circuit receives and counts a predetermined number of clock pulses and produces count enabling signals. A peak detecting circuit is provided which includes a comparator which has the analog input signal and a analog output signal voltage applied to the inputs thereof and which has an output coupled to the pulse control circuit. A digital counting circuit is responsive to count enabling signals by changing count direction and produces discrete digital output signals which are stored in a latch register at the time the digital counting circuit changes its count direction. A digital-to-analog converter produces the analog output signal voltage and it is applied to the comparator input for comparing the analog input signal with the analog output signal voltage and the comparator enables the digital counting circuit as long as the analog input signal is of a greater magnitude than the analog output signal voltage, and when this condition is reversed, the digital counting circuit is reversed in counting direction, and the binary value thereof is stored in the latch register.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,380,757 issued Apr. 19, 1983 to Vancsa and entitled DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM AND ANALOG TO DIGITAL CONVERTER THEREFOR describes a system in which, from a plurality of parallel channels of communication, each including a voltage-to-frequency (V/F) converter, a central clock synchronously timed for each channel, the derivation of a train of pulses having a number of pulses representative of the magnitude of an analog signal inputted to the V/F converter. The central clock also times the multiplexing at the measuring point of either the analog input signal or a bias voltage for calibration or a voltage reference for sealing. The central processor receives the counts from each train of pulses, combines them and threats them to provide a corrected count in each channel separately. Clocking and pulsing are effected through an isolation transformer associated with each channel, to and from the central processor.
Other patents which illustrate various other testing, detecting, and digital-to-analog converting and other circuits available in the art are as follows: U.S. Pat. No. 5,053,770; 5,003,196; 4,947,169; 4,829,236; 3,891,930; and 3,824,588.

Automatic threshold level structure for calibrating an inspection tool

International Business Machines Corporation


A segmented labyrinth seal assembly and method according to which a plurality of arcuate segments extend around a rotating shaft with the shaft being engaged by a sealing portion of each segment, thus sealing against the movement of fluid in an axial direction along the shaft. An engagement member extends from one end of at least one segment and is adapted to engage the corresponding end of the adjacent segment. The engagement member is urged in a direction towards the corresponding end to apply a separation force between the ends, and the separation force is adjustable.

The present disclosure relates, in general, to a seal assembly and method and, more particularly, to a segmented labyrinth seal assembly and method for sealing against the leakage of fluid.
Segmented labyrinth seal assemblies are often used to seal against the leakage of fluid in applications involving a rotating shaft that penetrates a fixed casing such as in turbo machine, centrifugal compressor, and the like. These type of seal assemblies usually include a series of arcuate labyrinth segments disposed in an end-to-end relationship and together extending around the rotating shaft with minimal clearance. The segments are adapted to expand during light loads or sudden loss of load to minimize rubbing damage caused by misalignment, vibration and thermal distortion.
However, these assemblies are often difficult to assemble, do not necessarily provide uniform loading on all segments, and are difficult or impossible to adjust.
Therefore, what is needed is a segmented seal assembly of the above type that is relatively easy to assembly, provides uniform loading on all segments of the assembly and can easily be adjusted.

Segmented labyrinth seal assembly and method


An apparatus is disclosed for measuring formation resistivity through a conductive pipe in a wellbore. The apparatus includes a sonde adapted to be moved through the wellbore, and a plurality of voltage measurement electrodes are disposed on the sonde at spaced apart locations. At least one current source electrode is disposed on the sonde. All the electrodes are adapted to make electrical contact with the pipe. The apparatus includes a digital voltage measuring circuit controllably coupled to selected ones of the voltage measurement electrodes.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of Earth formation electrical resistivity measuring devices. More particularly, the invention relates to wellbore instruments for measuring formation resistivity from within an electrically conductive pipe or casing.
2. Background Art
Electrical resistivity measurements of Earth formations are known in the art for determining properties of the measured Earth formations. Properties of interest include the fluid content of the pore spaces of the Earth formations. Wellbore resistivity measuring devices known in the art typically require that the Earth formations be exposed by drilling a wellbore therethrough, and that such formations remain exposed to the wellbore so that the measurements may be made from within the exposed formations.
When wellbores are completely drilled through the Earth formations of interest, frequently a steel pipe or casing is inserted into and cemented in place within the wellbore to protect the Earth formations, to prevent hydraulic communication between subsurface Earth formations, and to provide mechanical integrity to the wellbore. Steel casing is highly electrically conductive, and as a result makes it difficult to use conventional (so called "open hole") techniques to determine the resistivity of the various Earth formations from within a steel pipe or casing.
It is known in the art to make measurements for determining the electrical resistivity of Earth formations from within conductive casing or pipe. A number of references disclose techniques for making such measurements. A list of references which disclose various apparatus and methods for determining resistivity of Earth formations from within conductive casings includes: USSR inventor certificate no. 56052, filed by Alpin, L. M. (1939), entitled, The method for logging in cased wells; USSR inventor certificate no. 56026, filed by Alpin, L. M. (1939), entitled, Process of the electrical measurement of well casing; U.S. Pat. No. 2,459,196, to Stewart, W. H. (1949), entitled, Electrical logging method and apparatus; U.S. Pat. No. 2,729,784 issued to Fearon, R. E. (1956), entitled, Method and apparatus for electric well logging; U.S. Pat. No. 2,891,215 issued to Fearon, R. E. (1959), entitled, Method and apparatus for electric well logging; French patent application no. 72.41218, filed by Desbrandes, R. and Mengez, P. (1972), entitled, Method & Apparatus for measuring the formation electrical resistivity In wells having metal casing; International Patent Application Publication no. WO 00/79307 A1, filed by Benimeli, D. (2002), entitled, A method and apparatus for determining of a formation surrounding a cased well; U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,186 issued to Kaufman, A. A. (1989), entitled, Conductivity determination in a formation having a cased well; U.S. Pat. No. 4,820,989, issued to Vail, III, W. (1989), entitled, Methods and apparatus for measurement of the resistivity of geological formation from within cased boreholes; U.S. Pat. No. 4,837,518 issued to Gard et al. (1989), entitled, Method and Apparatus for measuring the electrical resistivity of formation through metal drill pipe or casing; U.S. Pat. No. 4,882,542 issued to Vail, III, W. (1989), entitled, Methods and apparatus for measurement of electronic properties of geological formations through borehole casing; U.S. Pat. No. 5,043,668 issued to Vail, III, W. (1991), entitled, Methods and apparatus for measurement of electronic properties of geological formations through borehole casing; U.S. Pat. No. 5,075,626 issued to Vail, III, W. (1991), entitled, Electronic measurement apparatus movable in a cased borehole and compensation for casing resistance differences; U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,794 issued to Vail, III, W. (1993), entitled, Methods of apparatus measuring formation resistivity from within a cased well having one measurement and two compensation steps; U.S. Pat. No. 5,510,712 issued to Sezginer et al. (1996), entitled, Method and apparatus for measuring formation resistivity in cased holes; U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,715 issued to Singer et al. (1996), entitled, Method and apparatus for measuring formation resistivity through casing using single-conductor electrical logging cable; U.S. Pat. No. 5,563,514 issued to Moulin (1996), entitled, Method and apparatus for determining formation resistivity in a cased well using three electrodes arranged in a Wheatstone bridge. U.S. Pat. No. 5,654,639 issued to Locatelli et al. (1997), entitled, Induction measuring device in the presence of metal walls; U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,024 issued to Vail, III, W. (1996), entitled, Determining resistivity of a formation adjacent to a borehole having casing using multiple electrodes and resistances being defined between the electrodes; U.S. Pat. No. 5,608,323 issued to Koelman, J. M. V. A. (1997), entitled, Arrangement of the electrodes for an electrical logging system for determining the electrical resistivity of subsurface formation; U.S. Pat. No. 5,633,590 issued to Vail, III, W. (1997), entitled, Formation resistivity measurements from within a cased well used to quantitatively determine the amount of oil and gas present. U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,049 issued to Gissler et al. (1997), entitled, Apparatus for measuring formation resistivity through casing having a coaxial tubing inserted therein; U.S. Pat. No. 5,809,458 issued to Tarnarchenko (1998), entitled, Method of simulating the response of a through-casing resistivity well logging instrument and its application to determining resistivity of earth formations; U.S. Pat. No. 6,025,721 issued to Vail, III, W. (2000), entitled, Determining resistivity of a formation adjacent to a borehole having casing by generating constant current flow in portion of casing and using at least two voltage measurement electrodes; U.S. Pat. No. 6,157,195 issued to Vail, III, W. (2000), entitled, Formation resistivity measurements from within a cased well used to quantitatively determine the amount of oil and gas present; U.S. Pat. No. 6,246,240 B1 issued to Vail, III, W. (2001), entitled, Determining resistivity of formation adjacent to a borehole having casing with an apparatus having all current conducting electrodes within the cased well; U.S. Pat. No. 6,603,314 issued to Kostelnicek et al. (2003), entitled, Simultaneous current injection for measurement of formation resistance through casing; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,667,621 issued to Benimelli, entitled, Method and apparatus for determining the resistivity of a formation surrounding a cased well.
United States Patent Application Publications which cite relevant art include no. 2001/0033164 A1, filed by Vinegar et al., entitled, Focused through-casing resistivity measurement; no. 2001/0038287 A1, filed by Amini, Bijan K., entitled, Logging tool for measurement of resistivity through casing using metallic transparencies and magnetic lensing; no. 2002/0105333 A1 filed by Amini, Bijan K., entitled, Measurements of electrical properties through non magnetically permeable metals using directed magnetic beams and magnetic lenses. and no. 2003/0042016 A1, filed by Vinegar et al., entitled, Wireless communication using well casing
The foregoing techniques are summarized briefly below. U.S. Pat. No. 2,459,196 describes a method for measuring inside a cased wellbore, whereby electrical current is caused to flow along the conductive casing such that some of the current will "leak" into the surrounding Earth formations. The amount of current leakage is related to the electrical conductivity of the Earth formations. The '196 patent does not disclose any technique for correcting the measurements for electrical inhomogeneities in the casing.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,729,784 discloses a technique in which three potential electrodes are used to create two opposed pairs of electrodes in contact with a wellbore casing. Electrical current is caused to flow in two opposing "loops" through two pairs of current electrodes placed above and below the potential electrodes such that electrical inhomogeneities in the casing have their effect nulled. Voltage drop across the two electrode pairs is related to the leakage current into the Earth formations. The disclosure in U.S. Pat. No. 2,891,215 includes a current emitter electrode disposed between the measuring electrodes of the apparatus disclosed in the '784 patent to provide a technique for fully compensating the leakage current.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,186 discloses the technique most frequently used to determine resistivity through conductive casing, and includes measuring leakage current into the Earth formations, and discloses measuring current flowing along the same portion of casing in which the leakage current is measured so as to compensate the measurements of leakage current for changes in resistance along the casing. Other references describe various extensions and improvements to the basic techniques of resistivity measurement through casing.
The methods known in the art for measuring resistivity through casing can be summarized as follows. An instrument is lowered into the wellbore having at least one electrode on the instrument (A) which is placed into contact with the casing at various depths in the casing. A casing current return electrode B is disposed at the top of and connected to the casing. A formation current return electrode B* is disposed at the Earth's surface at some distance from the wellbore. A record is made of the voltage drop and current flowing from electrode A in the wellbore at various depths, first to electrode B at the top of the casing and then to formation return electrode B*. Current flow and voltage drop through the casing (A-B) is used to correct measurements of voltage drop and current flow through the formation (A-B*) for effects of inhomogeneity in the casing.
If the Earth and the casing were both homogeneous, a record with respect to depth of the voltage drop along the casing, and the voltage drop through the casing and formation, would be substantially linear. As is well known in the art, casing includes inhomogeneities, even when new, resulting from construction tolerances, composition tolerances, and even "collars" (threaded couplings) used to connect segments of the casing to each other. Earth formations, of course, are not at all homogeneous, and more resistive formations are typically the object of subsurface investigation, because these Earth formations tend to be associated with presence of petroleum, while the more conductive formations tend to be associated with the presence of all connate water in the pore spaces. Therefore, it is the perturbations in the record of voltage drop with respect to depth that are of interest in determining resistivity of Earth formations outside casing using the techniques known in the art.
The conductivity of the Earth formations is related to the amount of current leaking out of the casing into the formations. The formation conductivity with respect to depth is generally related to the second derivative of the voltage drop along A-B with respect to depth, when current is flowing between A and B*. Typically, the second derivative of the voltage drop is measured using a minimum of three axially spaced apart electrodes placed in contact with the casing, coupled to cascaded differential amplifiers, ultimately coupled to a voltage measuring circuit. Improvements to the basic method that have proven useful include systems which create s small axial zone along the casing in which substantially no current flows along the casing itself to reduce the effects of casing inhomogeneity on the measurements of leakage current voltage drop.
In practice, instruments and methods known in the art require that the instrument make its measurements from a fixed position within the wellbore, which makes measuring formations of interest penetrated by a typical wellbore take an extensive amount of time. Further, the voltage drops being measured are small, and thus subject to noise limitations of the electronic systems used to make the measurements of voltage drop. Still further, systems known in the art for providing no-current zones, or known current flow values for measurements of voltage drop, are typically analog systems, and thus subject to the accuracy limitations of such analog systems.
Still further, it is known in the art to use low frequency alternating current (AC) to induce current flow along the casing and in the Earth formations. AC is used to avoid error resulting from electrical polarization of the casing and the electrodes when continuous direct current (DC) is used. Typically, the frequency of the AC must be limited to about 0.01 to 20 Hz to avoid error in the measurements caused by dielectric effects and the skin effect. It is also known in the art to use polarity-switched DC to make through casing resistivity measurements, which avoids the polarization problem, but may induce transient effect error in the measurements when the DC polarity is switched. Transient effects, and low frequency AC errors are not easily accounted for using systems known in the art.

System for measuring earth formation resistivity through and electrically conductive wellbore casing


In high efficiency coding of a motion image signal in transmission or recording of the motion image signal, plural prediction signals are determined by independently compensating a motion of reproduction signals of plural frames positioned before a frame to be coded. A linear combination of these prediction signals is used as derived a prediction signal. An error of the frame to be coded and the derived prediction signal is coded. As a result, the distortion of the prediction signal, that is, the prediction error is reduced, and the coding efficiency is enhanced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image coding method for high efficiency coding of motion image signals for transmission or recording of such motion image signals, and to an apparatus for performing the image coding method.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the image coding apparatus, recently, together with the development of the television telephone and the television conference system, various high efficiency coding technologies have been realized. In particular, coding technology making use of inter-frame prediction coding is widely used in the image coding apparatus.
The inter-frame prediction coding system determines a prediction signal by predicting a frame to be encoded from another frame, and encodes a prediction error which is a difference between the frame to be encoded and the prediction signal. The prediction signal is determined using the following methods. (1) A reproduction signal of a frame before the intended frame to be encoded is delivered from a memory of a local decoder, and is compensated for motion to obtain a prediction signal. (2) A reproduction signal of a frame before the intended frame to be encoded and a reproduction signal of a frame after the intended frame are delivered from memories of a local decoder, and after they are compensated for motion, a mean value of them is determined as a prediction signal.
In the method (2), in other words, a frame located between two reproduction signals apart from each other by two frames or more is determined by motion compensating frame interpolation, and this frame is used as the prediction signal. One such prior art image coding apparatus is disclosed in EP90304841. The conventional image coding apparatus is explained below.
The motion picture signals entering the image coding apparatus are subjected to two types of prediction methods alternately on a frame by frame basis. The prediction method is the manner of determining the prediction signal. The first prediction method includes reading the reproduction signal two frames before from a frame memory of a local decoder, and compensating the read signal for motion to obtain a prediction signal, and the second predict method includes determining an image signal by motion compensating frame interpolation from preceding and succeeding reproduction frames as a predicting signal. Afterwards, a prediction error signal is determined which is a difference between the frame to be encoded and the prediction signal, and an encoded prediction error signal is the output signal of the image coding apparatus. The image coding apparatus, possessing a local decoder, decodes the code, determines the reproduction image, and stores it in a frame memory.
In such a configuration, however, a reproduction frame later in time is needed when determining the prediction signal from the reproduction frames before and after the frame to be coded, that is, the frame later in time must have been already coded. To realize this, it is necessary to change the time sequence of the frames of the motion picture signals entering the coding apparatus, and therefore the configuration of the coding apparatus is complicated.

Image coding method and image coding apparatus


The shaking machine contains a drive shaft (13) having at an upper end thereof an eccentric shaft portion (12) formed with a predetermined off-center value; a frame (16) supporting the drive shaft via a bearing (14); and a shaking table (18) provided on a lower surface thereof with a bearing (17) in which the eccentric shaft portion is fitted and allows the shaking table to make a circular orbital revolving movement with the rotation of the drive shaft. The frame and the shaking table are connected to each other by an integral rotation regulating coupling (19) for regulating the shaking table not to rotate integrally with the drive shaft, and the drive shaft penetrates the integral rotation regulating coupling.

Among shaking machines, those which have shaking tables to be are shaken in circular orbital movements are each provided with a drive shaft, having at the upper end an eccentric shaft portion formed to have a predetermined off-center value, supported by a pair of bearings disposed to the top and bottom of a frame, with the eccentric shaft portion being fitted in a bearing attached to the lower surface of the shaking table. However, according to this constitution only, although the shaking table is caused to start a circular orbital revolving movement by the rotation of the drive shaft, it begins to autorotate before long to rotate integrally with the drive shaft and ceases shaking.
Accordingly, the above-described shaking machine is provided, at three or more positions around the drive shaft, with driven shafts each having an eccentric shaft portion with the same off-center value as in the counterpart in the drive shaft, and the eccentric shaft portions of the driven shafts are fitted not to the bearing described above but to other bearings attached to the lower surface of the shaking table, respectively, so that the eccentric shaft portions of the driven shafts may rotate in the same phase with respect to the eccentric shaft portion of the drive shaft to regulate autorotation of the shaking table and allow the shaking table to be shaken in a circular orbital revolving movement.
However, since this shaking machine uses one drive shaft and three or more driven shafts, all having eccentric shaft portions with the same off-center value, machining accuracy is strictly required in each shaft. Further, in order to obtain smooth shaking of the shaking table, phase adjustment accuracy is strictly required in the drive shaft and driven shafts in the step of assembling them. Accordingly, assembling and adjustment of the parts take time. Further, insufficient measures have been taken against vibration of the shaking machine itself caused by the eccentric movement of the shaking table.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a shaking machine which can give smooth shaking of the shaking table using a simple structure and which can reduce the number of parts and the machining and assembling time, leading to reduction of its cost as a product and also vibration of the shaking machine itself.

Shaking machine with rotation regulating coupling


Efficient transmission and reception of electromagnetic radiation are achieved by an antenna on a substrate. An antenna is fabricated on the top surface of a substrate which includes a periodic dielectric structure. The antenna operates at a frequency within the band gap of the periodic dielectric structure. Radiation emitted by the antenna cannot propagate through the structure and is therefore emitted only into space away from the substrate. When the antenna is receiving, radiation striking the device does not propagate through the substrate but is concentrated at the antenna. A phased array with isolated elements is achieved by fabricating the array elements on top of a substrate having a periodic dielectric structure and by surrounding the circuits associated with each antenna element with the periodic dielectric structure. Radiation from an element or associated circuitry at a frequency within the band gap of the structure cannot propagate into the substrate to interfere with other elements.

Planar antennas are typically mounted on dielectric substrates to facilitate their use in hybrid circuits. They have been used extensively on substrates having low dielectric constants.
As the demand for high frequency devices has increased, however, substrates with low dielectric constants have become less and less useful. The parasitic reactances of the hybrid circuits have a significant detrimental effect on the operability of the constituent devices at high frequency.
It has become desirable, therefore, to implement planar antennas on higher dielectric semiconductor substrates. Monolithic integrated circuits which include the devices, antennas and associated interconnects would greatly improve high frequency performance. Unfortunately, efficient planar antennas have been difficult to implement on uniform semiconductor substrates. Because of the high dielectric constant of semiconductors, most of the radiation emitted by the antenna passes into and is trapped by the substrate, resulting in inefficient antennas. In these conventional integrated circuits, the higher the dielectric constant of the substrate, the less efficient the planar antenna.
Several techniques have been proposed to solve this problem. One technique is to place a conducting plane on the bottom surface of the substrate opposite the antenna. The conductor reflects radiation back toward the top surface. However, the power radiated through the top surface is increased by only about a factor of two. Most of the power still remains trapped in the substrate.
A second approach is to modify the bottom surface so that all of the radiation escapes. This is accomplished with a hyper-hemispherical lensing element having the same dielectric constant as the substrate. The problem with this approach is that the lensing element is so large as to be incompatible with integrated circuits.

Highly efficient planar antenna on a periodic dielectric structure


A medical image processing apparatus according to an embodiment includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry detects three or more bones and a joint space region from three-dimensional medical image data captured for images of a joint formed between the three or more bones, the joint space region corresponding to a joint space of the joint. The processing circuitry divides the joint space region into a plurality of small regions corresponding to different pairs of opposed bones of the three or more bones. The processing circuitry obtains information on each of the small regions based on the small regions into which the joint space region has been divided that correspond to the different pairs of bones. The processing circuitry outputs the obtained information.

Conventionally, image analysis on medical image data involves quantitative evaluation of a space (also called "joint space") between bones that form a joint therebetween. For example, the distance between two points designated by an operator in two-dimensional projected image data captured by plain radiography is measured as the width of a joint space. Also for example, the area of a region designated by an operator in projected image data is measured as the size of a joint space.
Various techniques have been proposed for enabling automatic measurement of a joint space. For example, based on information on anatomical features of a joint to be evaluated, a region corresponding to the joint is extracted from projected image data. Thereafter, the maximum and minimum values of the width of a joint space and the area of a corresponding region are automatically measured. For such a technique, dedicated computer programs for different kinds of joint, such as one for knee joints and one for hip joints, are developed.

Medical image processing apparatus and X-ray CT apparatus


A mold includes a parting surface, runners, mold cavities, gates and primary air-venting grooves defined in the parting surface. The gates connect the respective runners to the corresponding mold cavities. Each primary air-venting groove includes an air-receiving groove portion and an air-venting groove portion in communication with the air-receiving groove portion. The air-receiving groove portion communicates with the gate and surrounds the corresponding mold cavity. The air-venting groove portion extends to and terminates at a corresponding edge of the parting surface.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to molds having air-venting grooves.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, in an injection molding process, a mold is used. The mold defines a plurality of runners and a plurality of mold cavities communicating with the runners to form a plurality of plastic articles. During the injection molding process, molten material fills the runners and the mold cavities and then is cooled to form the plastic articles. However, air may remain in the runners and the mold cavities in a typical mold, and may deteriorate the plastic articles.
Therefore, what is needed is a mold, which can overcome the limitations described.


A downstream rate limiting control is provided for controlling a continuously variable transmission. The rate limiting control monitors a input and a current machine state and computes the difference between these two inputs and compares the computed error to a predefined rate table to determine if the computed error should be limited or modified. The rate signal will modify the computed error within the control logic with respect to operator comfort and machine parameters.

In known systems, the continuously variable transmission control does not have feedback to the system to modify the operator inputs. Consequently, it is usual to specify rate limits which restrict the rate of response from the speed pedal or the range selector. The rate control on the speed pedal and the range selector will restrict the rate of response of the entire machine. In an open loop system the rates have to be specified upon the operator inputs as there is no state sensing or feedback to the system. Many times it is desirable to have the error signal modified or changed within the control logic downstream of the operator inputs.

Downstream rate limiting method in transmission control


A valve device for pressure-relief of, e.g., hydraulic props of mine equipment, has a main hollow housing into which a guide is in screw threaded engagement for adjustment purposes. The guide has a through bore which slidably receives the cylindrical stem of a valve member. The valve member has a domed head with a stop face held against an inner end face of the guide by means of a compression spring located in the housing and bearing on a thrust bushing guided and located on the head of the valve member. The stem of the valve member has a blind axial bore leading to frusto-conical outlets at its periphery via radial borings. The axial bore in the stem receives pressure fluid to be controlled via the guide bore. A sealing ring held in a groove in the guide bore engages on the periphery of the stem of the valve member. As defined hereinafter, the material of the sealing ring has a certain composition and certain other characteristics of the valve device components have a specific relationship to provide an improved performance. Excess pressure moves the valve member to raise the head off the guide end face against the restoring force of the spring to thereby allow pressure fluid to discharge from the outlets of the valve member, moved beyond the sealing ring.

The present invention relates to pressure-relief valve devices. Various hydraulically-operated units of mine equipment need to be protected against excessive pressure. This is especially the case with hydraulic pit props which support the roof of a mine working. Normally, such props would utilize an oil-water emulsion as pressure fluid at a pressure not in excess of 600 bars and conventionally in the range 200-600 bars. In adverse conditions, the pressure in the working chamber of a hydraulic prop may rise suddenly and normally a small compact pressure relief valve device is connected to the working chamber to relieve the pressure and protect the prop should the pressure rise beyond a certain critical valve. The known valve devices operate entirely automatically and close and open in accordance with the prevailing pressure. One example of a pressure relief valve device is described in the specification for German Gebrauchsmuster No. 1945206. Exacting demands are made on the valve devices since they are expected to perform reliably over long periods of time and they are expected to remain highly sensitive to pressure variation. Such valve devices are moreover expected to perform efficiently in the harsh conditions encountered in mine workings and thus need to be especially durable.
A general object of the present invention is to provide an improved valve device and, above-all, to provide a device in which the reliability and durability are improved.