The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a sample for thin film property measurement and analysis, and a sample manufactured thereby and, more specifically, to: a method for manufacturing a sample capable of measuring or analyzing various properties in one sample; and a sample manufactured thereby.

In recent years, as a size of a semiconductor wafer increases and a display having a large area is required, there is a gradually increasing need to deposit a thin film having a large area and measure or analyze properties of the deposited thin film.
When a thin film such as graphene is deposited on a large area by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or transferred onto a substrate, it is required to measure and analyze various properties such as electrical characteristics, a grain size, a crystal grain shape, and transmittance, and the like, of graphene in order to evaluate reliability of the thin film. However, in order to measure or analyze the properties of graphene by conventional methods, it is necessary to manufacture different forms of samples depending on respective property measurement and analysis methods.
In order to analyze a structure of graphene through Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope (SEM), or the like, it is necessary to manufacture a sample in which graphene is transferred onto a non-conductor substrate such as silicon oxide (SiO2). However, it is impossible to analyze a nanoscale microstructure through Raman spectroscopy or SEM. In order to observe the nanoscale microstructure, a transmission electron microscope (TEM) should be used. Electrons are needed be transmitted through the sample to perform TEM analysis, and thus a sample for TEM analysis should be separately manufactured. However, it is not easy to measure the electrical properties of the samples for TEM analysis. In addition, in order to measure the transmittance, it is required to manufacture a sample in which graphene is transferred onto a glass substrate. Further, in order to specify the electrical properties of graphene, a field-effect transistor should be manufactured in most cases.
As described above, various forms of samples should be manufactured depending on respective methods for property measurement and analysis, which causes complexity and problems in that it is required to measure properties or analyze a structure of each of regions in which property measurement and analysis are different.

Method for manufacturing sample for thin film property measurement and analysis, and sample manufactured thereby

SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY R&DB FOUNDATION


A process (30) for the repair of a component part (36,66) incorporating a cold spray process step (50) for depositing material particles (54) to fill a discontinuity (40) in the part surface (42) or to create a desired surface geometry (78) on the part (66). The cold spray process may be controlled to provide a grit blasting effect prior to depositing the material in order to remove contaminants (48) from the surface of the part. The material deposited (56) by the cold spray process may form a joint (78) between an insert (72) and the part (66). The process may be used to repair parts made of directionally solidified (DS) or single crystal (SC) base material (44) without causing a re-crystallization of the base material. The process may further be used to deposit repair material (56) over a braze material (22).

This invention relates generally to the field of materials technologies, and more specifically to the field of component part fabrication and repair, and specifically to a process for fabricating or repairing a turbine component by applying layers of a material using a cold spray technique.
It is well known that the power and efficiency of operation of a gas turbine engine or a combined cycle power plant incorporating such a gas turbine engine may be increased by increasing the firing temperature in the combustion portions of the turbine. The demand for improved performance has resulted in advanced turbine designs wherein the peak combustion temperature may reach 1,400 degrees C. or more. Special materials are needed for components exposed to such temperatures. Nickel and cobalt based superalloy materials are now used for components in the hot gas flow path, such as combustor transition pieces and turbine rotating and stationary blades. Such superalloy materials are known in the art and include, for example, alloys 738, Mar M247 and CM 247LC. It is also known to coat a superalloy metal component with an insulating material to improve its ability to survive high operating temperatures in a combustion turbine environment. A ceramic top coat may be applied to a superalloy substrate structure with an intermediate metallic bond coat. Common ceramic insulating materials include yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ), hafnia or scandia stabilized zirconia, and yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG). The bond coat layer provides oxidation resistance and improved adhesion for the thermal barrier coating layer. Common bond coat materials include MCrAlY and MCrAlRe, where M may be nickel, cobalt, iron or a mixture thereof. The metallic bond coat provides a level of thermal insulation, and in some applications may be used alone without an overlying ceramic layer.
Superalloy materials may be cast conventionally or as directionally solidified (DS) or single crystal (SC) material. Once the material is in the directionally solidified or single crystal structure, it is undesirable to subject the material to a combination of temperature and mechanical work that would result in its re-crystallization. A weld repair to a part formed of a directionally solidified or single crystal material may significantly degrade the material properties and operating performance of the part as a result of re-crystallization in the heat affected zone of the weld, as well as possible re-crystallization in other areas of the part occurring during any associated post-weld heat treatment.
FIG. 1 illustrates a top view of a prior art turbine blade 10 including a blade root 12, an airfoil portion 14 and a tip portion 16. The blade root 12 is designed to be inserted into and retained by a disc on a rotating shaft (not shown) of the turbine. The airfoil portion 14 is shaped to extract energy from combustion gases passing over the airfoil portion 14, thereby imparting rotating mechanical energy to the turbine shaft. A thermal barrier coating, such as described above, may be applied to a portion of the airfoil portion 14. Airfoil portion 14 may be designed to include one or more cooling passages formed below the surface of the airfoil for the passage of cooling air necessary to ensure the integrity of the blade material in the hot combustion gas environment. During the manufacturing process, such cooling passages are drilled or cast to extend from the edge of the blade tip portion 16. These openings must then be sealed during the fabrication process in order to assure the proper flow of the cooling air within the blade 10. If the size of the opening is sufficiently small, it may be sealed by a weld plug 18. For larger openings, it may be necessary to cover the opening with a cap, such one or more plates 20, in order to seal the opening. U.S. Pat. No. 4,073,599 issued on Feb. 14, 1978, to Allen et al. describes such a blade tip closure design. Plates 20 are mechanically restrained by the structure of the blade tip 16 and are held in position and sealed by one or more brazed joints 22.
It is known that turbine blades 10 may develop one or more cracks 24 near the tip 16 of the blade 10 due to low cycle fatigue stresses imparted on the tip 16 during the operation of the turbine. The turbine blade 10 must be removed from service and/or repaired before a crack 24 extends beyond a critical dimension in order to prevent catastrophic failure of the blade and turbine. It can be appreciated that a crack 24 may be repaired by removing the material adjacent to the crack 24 to form a crack repair volume, and then filling the crack repair volume with weld metal. However, the presence of braze joint 22 can complicate the repair process, since weld integrity is adversely affected when applied over a braze material.
The repair of turbine component parts is complicated by the difficulties associated with welding, in general, and the welding of superalloy materials, in particular. Welding operations are further complicated by the presence of contaminants on the surface of the part to be repaired, and the proximity of braze material in the vicinity of the weld. Post-weld heat treatment adds time and cost to the repair, and it may further degrade the properties of directionally solidified or single crystal base materials. Thus, an improved process is needed for repairing turbine component parts.
The present invention utilizes a,cold spray material deposition process in lieu of welding to fabricate or repair a component part. By depositing repair material with a cold spray process, the re-crystallization of directionally solidified and single crystal base materials is prevented, and the need for a high temperature heat treatment is eliminated. Repairs employing the cold spray deposition of repair material may be made directly over brazed material. Insert materials may be joined to a part by forming a joint from cold sprayed material. The immediate area of a repair may be cleaned of contaminants during a cold spray material deposition step by the grit blasting effect of a cold spray pattern halo.
Accordingly, a process for repairing a component part is described herein as including the steps of: identifying a discontinuity in a part surface; excavating material from the part surface proximate the discontinuity to form a repair surface; and directing particles of a repair material toward the part at a velocity sufficiently high to cause the particles to deform and to adhere to the repair surface.
A process for repairing a turbine is described herein as including the steps of: at least partially disassembling a turbine to provide access to a part having an area to be repaired without removing the part from the turbine; directing particles of a repair material toward the area to be repaired at a velocity sufficiently high to cause the particles to deform and to adhere to the surface of the area to be repaired; and re-assembling the turbine.
A process for repairing a turbine blade having a crack in a tip portion is described, the tip portion including a plate joined to the tip portion by a braze joint, the crack being proximate the braze joint, the process comprising the steps of: preparing the surface of the tip portion proximate the crack to form a repair surface, the repair surface extending to include at least a portion of the braze joint; and directing particles of a repair material toward the repair surface at a velocity sufficiently high to cause the particles to deform and to adhere to the repair surface.
A metals joining process is described as including the steps of: forming a first joining surface on a first part comprising a first metal; forming a second joining surface on a second part comprising a second metal; positioning the first joining surface proximate the second joining surface; and directing particles of a joining material toward the first and the second joining surfaces at a velocity sufficiently high to cause the particles to deform and to adhere to the first and the second joining surfaces to form a joint there between.
A process for repairing a part is described herein as including the steps of: identifying a discontinuity in a surface of a part; directing a pattern of particles of a repair material toward the surface of the part, the pattern having a center area and a halo area surrounding the center area; wherein the speed of the particles in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the part is sufficiently high in the center area to cause the particles to deform and to adhere to the surface of the part; and wherein the speed of the particles in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the part is not sufficiently high in the halo area to cause the particles to deform and to adhere to the surface of the part but is sufficiently high to remove contaminants from the surface of the part; moving the pattern of particles across the discontinuity so that particles in the halo area first clean the surface of the part proximate the discontinuity and particles in the center area then adhere to the surface of the part to repair the discontinuity.
A process for forming a desired geometry on a part, the process comprising the steps of: forming a part having a geometry other than a desired geometry; directing particles of a material toward the part at a velocity sufficiently high to cause the particles to deform and to adhere to the surface of the part; and continuing the step of directing particles until the desired geometry is formed.
In a further embodiment, a process for repairing a component part is described, the process including the steps of: identifying a discontinuity producing an unacceptable stress rise in a part; directing particles of a repair material toward the discontinuity at a velocity sufficiently high to cause the particles to deform and to adhere to the surface of the discontinuity; and continuing the step of directing particles until the discontinuity has been filled with repair material to an extent necessary to reduce the stress rise to a desired level.


A temperature indicating apparatus for a cooking vessel, the apparatus having a housing having at least one opening, a template, a light directing mechanism, and a temperature sensing mechanism. The template being positioned generally in alignment with the opening. The light directing mechanism having a light radiating structure positioned to illuminate the template. The template being moveably coupled to the temperature sensing mechanism. The light directing mechanism being coupled to the housing. A process for monitoring the temperature of a cooking vessel including a temperature indicating apparatus for a cooking vessel, the apparatus having a housing having at least one opening, a template or translucent panel or both, a light directing mechanism, and a temperature sensing mechanism is also described.

The present invention relates generally to the field of cooking and more specifically to the use of accessory or integral devices which may be used to indicate the general temperature of the cooking vessel or the temperature of the material or food within the cooking vessel. Further, the present invention is believed to have particular application in the field of "Waterless" cooking especially in conjunction with devices which provide an audible signal.
"Waterless" cooking is old, as are knobs which give an audible signal when steam is formed to indicate attainment of cooking temperatures. Knobs for cooking vessels which are provided with whistles and having mechanisms to turn the whistle off or to allow the escape of steam are also known. Additionally, knobs with temperature indicating devices are also known. However, there is no system available to closely monitor the changes of temperature inside the cooking vessel, and to provide a combination of auditory and visual signals. While a whistling device may alert a cook when the temperature is high enough to start cooking, it offers no means to observe the variation of temperature inside the vessel during the cooking process. Cooking vessels retain a considerable amount of heat and it is desirable for the cook to have a visual reference to control the temperature inside the vessel. This is especially desirable where the cook may be hearing impaired or where the cook is engaging in "Waterless" cooking. Further, there is no teaching in the prior art of a structure for a cooking vessel that may be illuminated to enhance visual recognition of information, like temperature of the cooking vessel, for the user of the cooking vessel.
Accordingly, it is a goal of the present invention to provide both a structure and a method for supplying information about the temperature of the cooking vessel and the food in the cooking vessel in a visual manner.
It is a further goal of the present invention to provide a structure and method which relies on the use of light from a light source, traveling through a light tube or equivalent structure, to provide information to the user of the cooking vessel.
It is a further goal of the present invention to provide a structure and/or a method which may be used to illuminate the template or translucent panel or both to convey information regarding the temperature or cooking status of the cooking vessel or the material contained within the cooking vessel.
It is a further goal of the present invention to provide a structure and method which relies upon the use of both audible signals and visual signals to convey information regarding the temperature or cooking status of the cooking vessel or the material contained within the cooking vessel.

Temperature indicating device for a cooking vessel


Disclosed are systems and methods for tracking the eye. In one embodiment, a method for tracking the eye includes acquiring stereo images of the eye using multiple sensors, isolating internal features of the eye in the stereo images acquired from the multiple sensors, and determining an eye gaze direction relative to the isolated internal features.

1. Technical Field
Oculometers are used to measure the eye gaze direction, as well as the fixation duration and dual eye binocular convergence point. Such oculometers have many potential applications in the medical, scientific, engineering, manufacturing, military, and entertainment domains. Example applications include use of an oculometer as a tool for the medical diagnosis of ocular functions, as an aid to the paraplegic handicapped, for the measurement of ocular functions and workload in human factors studies, as a measure of subject training, as a tool for fatigue monitoring, as part of an electronic safety net to detect performance degradation due to pilot incapacitation in piloted and tele-operated vehicles, as a component of an electronic intelligent pilot-vehicle interface used for adaptive aiding in piloted and tele-operated vehicles, for task scan analysis including measuring situation awareness, for human operator control of machines and interaction with computer games, and for advertisement and usability analysis. Oculometers can be designed for use with head-mounted video displays such as those that have been developed for virtual reality, stereographic displays, monocular or binocular vision helmet-mounted displays, and night vision goggles. These displays are used in piloted helicopters, vehicles, and control stations for teleoperated robotics.
2. Description of the Related Art
Prior art oculometers typically comprise a light source that illuminates the eye to be tracked, and a single light sensor that captures rays of light that are reflected from the eye. Although such oculometers provide an indication of eye position and, therefore, gaze direction, the use of a single light sensor presents various potential limitations or drawbacks. For example, a single sensor may not receive the rays reflected off of the cornea or eye interior in cases in which the user's gaze is fixed upon an object positioned at an extreme angle relative to the forward-looking direction (e.g., when the wearer is gazing laterally). As another example, if the single sensor is used to collect image data that is used to locate features in the eye of interest in three-dimensional space, multiple images may need to be captured over time, thereby increasing processing time and potentially introducing error due to eye movement over the duration in which the image data is captured.

Systems and methods for tracking the eye


A heat dispersing method for IC of PC boards has a first step of placing a heat dispersing member having an excellent heat dispersing character and a plastic feature directly on an IC, a second step of transmitting the heat of the IC directly to the heat dispersing member, a third step of positioning and combining the heat dispersing member with a housing of an electronic equipment, a fourth step of transmitting the hat of the heat dispersing member and in the housing through the housing and into open air. The device includes a housing housing, a PC board and a heat dispersing member to disperse out the heat of the IC quickly for prolonging its service life.

This invention relates to a heat dispersing method for IC of PC boards and its device, particularly to one having reinforced structure, good heat dispersing function, practicality and prolonging IC service life.
A hub nowadays used in a computer network is usually made of either iron or plastic. But conventional hubs have inferior heat dispersing character, needing a heat dispersing member placed on an IC for quickly transmitting the heat produced by the IC to the heat dispersing member to reduce the heat of the IC to protect it from becoming short lived and from harming its electric features. (As high heat may shorten the service life of IC and increase electric and magnetic interference and signal transmitting interference). Then the high heat may disperse in an interior of the hub and exhausted out with a fan fixed at one end of the hub.
As seen from the above description, the hub should have a heat dispersing member and a fan for forcing quick dispersion of the heat of an IC to maintain its electric features and prolong its service life from a theoretical view point. But practically high heat of an IC is not completely exhausted out by the fan, still remaining in the interior of the hub, resulting in the inner heat reaching 70.degree. C. or 80.degree. C., not satisfying the object of those components. As for the hubs made of plastics, they function worse than those made of iron in dispersing heat.

Heat dispersing method for IC of PC board and its device


A power tool includes a tool bit, a tool holder, a bit holding member, a bit mounting hole, a through hole, an outside opening, a bit mounting hole side opening, an engaging member, a cylindrical operating member, a movement preventing portion, a biasing member, a first engaging region, a second engaging region, and a third engaging region. As the first, the second and the third engaging regions respectively cooperate, the tool bit can be automatically secured to the bit holding member by inserting the tool bit into the bit mounting hole of the bit holding member. Mounting and removing of the tool bit can be achieved without a ring spring.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power tool that performs a screw-tightening operation or a drilling operation and more particularly, to a technique to mount a tool bit to the power tool with a simple construction.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese non-examined laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-218412 discloses a driver bit mounting device for an impact driver. According to the known device, the tool bit is mounted simply by inserting the driver bit into the bit mounting hole of the tool holder. In the known device, an, elongate hole radially extends through the tool holder having a bit mounting bole and has a predetermined length in the axial direction. A steel ball is disposed in the elongate hole and can move in the both axial and radial directions of the tool holder. The steel ball is biased by a ring spring such that part of the steel ball protrudes into the bit mounting hole. When the driver bit inserted into the bit mounting hole, the steel ball is pushed by the lip end portion of the driver bit and once moves in the axial direction while expanding the ring spring in diameter. Thereafter, the steel ball further moves outward in the radial direction, so that the driver bit is allowed to be inserted When the driver bit is inserted until the groove (notch) of the driver bit faces the steel ball, the steel ball moves inward in the radial direction by the restoring force of the ring spring and then moves in the axial direction into engagement with the groove. As a result, the driver bit is prevented from moving into the direction of removal and locked in the inserted position.
In the known art, after insertion of the driver bit, the steel ball which is in engagement with the groove of the driver bit is prevented from moving outward in the radial direction by a movement preventing portion of a cylindrical opting sleeve fitted on the tool holder. Thus, the steel ball is held engaged with the groove of the driver bit With such construction, the ring spring is necessarily indispensable for moving the steel ball in the axial direction into a position in which the steel ball faces the movement preventing portion of the operating sleeve. Thus, the number of parts is increased and the structure is complicated.


A light weight easily constructed multipurpose laundry cart which is constructed of tubular plastic and provides a frame which supports laundry bags therein and further provides a drop leaf ironing board and a drop leaf folding table hinged to the frame top for mobility with the frame. A horizontal hanging bar is also provided which is pivotally supported to the top of the laundry cart frame so that it may be folded in a horizontal plane against the frame for mobility with the frame. The drop leaf ironing board and laundry folding table may also be folded downwardly against the frame for mobility of the entire cart assembly and for easy storage.

The field of invention relates to a cart structure, and more particularly pertains to a new and improved multipurpose laundry cart which is arranged for the support and transport of various laundry stations.
Many laundry cart apparatus of various types have been utilized in the prior art. However, they fail to provide the necessary multiple laundry work stations, ease of assembly, storage and mobility. It is an object of the present invention to provide a multipurpose laundry cart which fulfills these needs.

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A story based card game has a series of sequential rounds, the card game comprising a plurality of sets of location cards, one set of location cards for each of a plurality of locations associated with an aspect of the story, each set of location cards including one card for each round of the game, wherein each round includes at least one correct location card for that round, wherein the correct location card for each round includes text indicating that the it is the correct card for that round and including a continuation of the story, whereby the series of correct locations cards for the rounds of the game combine to form a story summary.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to games and, more particularly, to storyline based card games.
2. Background Information
Board games challenge the mind and teach players various skills and concepts, such as formulating strategies, sharing, socializing, competing, winning, and losing. Board games represent a class of activities that encourage cognitive mental development by challenging player's minds, as opposed to their bodies.
Card based games, whether played on an associated board or not, generally incur inexpensive manufacturing costs and offer correspondingly inexpensive games to the consumers. A Card based game is any game using playing cards, either traditional (e.g. poker, or rummy) or game-specific (e.g. Magic the Gathering). A playing card is a typically hand-sized piece of heavy paper or thin plastic. A complete set of cards is a pack or deck. A deck of cards is used for playing one or many card games.
The earliest playing cards are believed to have originated in Central Asia. The documented history of card playing began in the 10th century, when the Chinese began using paper dominoes by shuffling and dealing them in new games. Four-suited decks with court cards evolved in the Moslem world and were imported by Europeans before 1370. In those days, cards were hand-painted and only the very wealthy could afford them, but with the invention of woodcuts in the 14th century, Europeans began mass-production.
Collectible card games (CCGs), also called trading card games (TCGs), are played using specially designed sets of playing cards. While trading cards have been around for much longer, CCGs combine the appeal of collecting and strategic game play. The first collectible card game was The Base Ball Card Game produced by The Allegheny Card Co. at the turn of the 19th century. The modern concept of CCG games was first presented in Magic: The Gathering™, designed by Richard Garfield and published by Wizards of the Coast in 1993.
Background storylines are often used to establish a setting in which a strategy card game is played. One card game has used cards to convey or build a series of storylines, namely Nanofictionary™ is a card game created by Andrew Looney and published by Looney labs in which players collect cards and use them to make up stories. At the beginning of the game, the players are dealt various cards that represent story elements (characters, settings, situations, and resolutions.) Players then all take a turn at once, exchanging these cards for new ones or collecting more of them if desired. After every player has accumulated a full story's worth of cards, each creates a short story based on the cards they ended up with and the group then votes on who has the best story. This process may be repeated.
Trivial Pursuit™ is a board game where progress is determined by a player's ability to answer general knowledge or popular culture questions. The game was conceived in 1979 by Scott Abbott and Chris Haney. The questions asked are provided in unique card sets that make up the essence of the game. A large number of distinct question sets have been produced over the years since its introduction, generally specializing in a given field.
Clue™ is a crime fiction board game originally published by Waddingtons beginning in 1948. It was devised by Anthony E. Pratt, and is now published by Hasbro. The game is set in a mansion, with the board divided into different rooms. The players each represent a character who is a guest staying at this house, whose owner, Mr. Boddy (Dr. Black in some versions), has been found murdered. Players attempt to solve the murder. The solution to the murder requires the three components of Suspect, Weapon, and Room. With all of the suspects, weapons and rooms being represented in a single game deck of cards.
Games in general have long been used by educators to assist student in learning by increasing the enjoyment in the material presentation or review.
The always remains a need for educational games, and for interesting games in general.


Various embodiments include an adjustable gas distribution assembly for an adjustable plasma spray device. In one embodiment, the assembly includes: a first gas distribution ring including a plurality of openings allowing a gas to pass to an inner diameter thereof, the first gas distribution ring including a mating surface upstream of the plurality of openings; and a positioning ring axially aligned with the gas distribution ring between the first gas distribution ring and an electrically charged outlet of the plasma spray device, wherein the positioning ring includes a mating surface that mates with the mating surface of the first gas distribution ring to form the gas distribution assembly, wherein the mating surface of the positioning ring is sized to mate with a plurality of distinct gas distribution rings including the first gas distribution ring.

Thermal spraying is a coating method wherein powder or other feedstock material is fed into a stream of heated gas produced by a plasmatron or by the combustion of fuel gases. The hot gas stream entrains the feedstock to which it transfers heat and momentum. The heated feedstock is further impacted onto a surface, where it adheres and solidifies, forming a thermally sprayed coating composed of thin layers or lamellae.
One common method of thermal spraying is plasma spraying. Plasma spraying is typically performed by a plasma torch or gun, which uses a plasma jet to heat or melt the feedstock before propelling it toward a desired surface. Most conventional plasma spray guns operate efficiently (e.g., over 60% efficiency) at one power mode (e.g., 75 kW) and in one position with respect to a specimen. Therefore, when spraying different surfaces and/or different specimens (e.g., at different power requirements), different plasma spray guns, arranged in different positions, may be necessary.

Adjustable gas distribution assembly and related adjustable plasma spray device


According to the present invention, a method of performing coordinated multipoint transmission and reception in an overlaid cellular system in which a first base station and a second base station overlay each other, the method comprising performing a handover using a coordinated multi-point transmission and reception scheme based on Channel State Indicator-Reference Signal (CSI-RS) information of user equipment by the first and second base stations.

1. Technical Field
The present invention concerns a coordinated multi-point transmission and reception method, and more specifically, to a coordinated multi-point transmission and reception method for robust handover in a mobile communication system under an overlaid cell and a new cloud base station environment.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Currently, 3GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution)-based systems base their handover on hard handover. However, hard handover essentially needs to have accurate handover time, and incorrect handover time leads to a deterioration of mobility and may cause an area where communication is impossible. In particular, in future cell environments, handover may be more frequent, thus resulting in service quality being drastically down. Accordingly, a need exists for addressing such problems.

Coordinated multi-point transmission and reception method in overlaid cell environment

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institiute


Various embodiments relate to a method of performing microbeam radiation therapy on a subject, including: producing a high-energy radiation beam in a first direction; producing planar microbeams using the high-energy radiation beam in the first direction, wherein the microbeams have a width, wherein the planar microbeams produce scattered electrons; and applying a magnetic field in a direction lying in a plane substantially parallel to the planar microbeams, wherein the strength of the magnetic field corresponds to the width of the microbeam.

Cancer continues to be one of the foremost health problems. Conventional treatments such as surgery and chemotherapy have been extremely successful in certain cases; in other instances, much less so. Radiation therapy has also exhibited favorable results in many cases, while failing to be completely satisfactory and effective in all instances. An alternative form of radiation therapy, known as microbeam radiation therapy (MBRS) or microbeam radiosurgery (MBRS) may be used to treat certain tumors for which the conventional methods have been ineffective.
MBRS differs from conventional radiation therapy by employing multiple parallel fan beams of radiation with a narrow dimension or thickness that may be on the order of 10 micrometers to 200 micrometers. The thickness of the microbeams is dependent upon the capacity of tissue surrounding a beam path to support the recovery of the tissue injured by the beam. It has been found that certain types of cells, notably endothelial cells lining blood vessels, but also oligodendroglial and other supporting cells, have the capacity to migrate over microscopic distances, infiltrating tissue damaged by radiation and reducing tissue necrosis in the beam path. In MBRS, sufficient unirradiated or minimally irradiated microscopic zones remain in the normal tissue, through which the microbeams pass, to allow efficient repair of irradiation-damaged tissue. As a result, MBRS is fundamentally different from other forms of radiation therapy.
In conventional forms of radiation therapy, including the radiosurgical techniques employing multiple convergent beams of gamma radiation, each beam is at least five hundred micrometers wide, so that the biological advantage of rapid repair by migrating or proliferating endothelial cells is minimal or nonexistent. Observations of the regeneration of blood vessels following MBRS indicate that endothelial cells cannot efficiently regenerate damaged blood vessels over distances on the order of more than 100 micrometers (μm). Thus, in view of this knowledge concerning radiation pathology of normal blood vessels, the skilled artisan may select a microbeam thickness as small as 20 μm but not more than 100 μm. Further, the microbeams may include substantially parallel, non-overlapping, planar beams with center-to-center spacing of from about 50 μm to about 500 μm. Also, the beam energies may range from about 30 to several hundred keV. These microbeams result in a dosage profile with peaks and valleys. The radiation dosage in the peaks is large enough to kill the targeted tumor, but also kills healthy cells in the peak dosage areas. The region between the peaks is called the valley region. The minimum radiation dosage in the valleys (i.e., the "nadir" valley dosage) is small enough to prevent clonogenically lethal damage to all potentially reparative cells in the valley dosage areas.
A division of a radiation beam into microbeams and the use of a patient exposure plan that provides non-overlapping beams in the tissue surrounding the target tumor allows the non-target tissue to recover from the radiation injury by migration of regenerating endothelial and other reparative cells of the small blood vessels to the areas in which the endothelial cells have been injured beyond recovery. Therefore, the probability of radiation-induced coagulative necrosis in normal, non-targeted tissue is lowered, which may improve the effectiveness of clinical radiation therapy for deep-seated and/or superficially situated tumors.
Various studies have shown the microbeam tissue-sparing effect for X-ray microbeams. Although other methods and processes are known for radiation therapy, none provides a method for performing radiation therapy while avoiding significant radiation-induced damage to tissues proximal to, distal to, and interspersed with the targeted lesion.
Present radiation therapies often take many days and weeks of treatment to provide enough radiation to a target tumor. On the other hand, MBRS can provide an effectual treatment in a single visit. Very high-energy radiation may be used with MBRS that results in the destruction of tumor tissue while allowing for the regeneration of healthy tissue affected by the microbeams.
Further, MBRS provides a method for treating cancerous tumors by using extremely narrow, quasi-parallel X-ray microbeams increasing the precision and accuracy of radiation therapy. MBRS also provides a method of using extremely small microbeams of radiation to unexpectedly produce effective radiation therapy while avoiding significant radiation-induced damage to non-targeted tissues.
A major benefit of MBRS is that the microbeams are so narrow that the vasculature of the tissue and other components of the tissue through which the microbeams pass can repair themselves by the infiltration of endothelial cells and other cells from surrounding unirradiated tissue. Present knowledge indicates that such infiltration can take place only over distances on the order of less than 500 μm and depends on the specific tissue being irradiated. The dimensions of the microbeams and the configuration of the microbeam array are therefore determinable with reference to the susceptibility to irradiation of the target tissue and the surrounding tissue to irradiation and the capacities of the various involved tissues to regenerate.
In MBRS it is possible to define an extraordinarily narrow penumbra (edge between the peak and valley regions) between the area radiated and the adjacent very low radiation area. Once the microbeams enter tissue they may be scattered and/or absorbed. The photoelectric effect and Compton scattering dominate the two interactions of the initial microbeam with the tissue. Both of these effects are photon-energy-dependent and the scattering angle distribution is well characterized in the physics literature. In both of these interactions electrons are emitted and may potentially go in any direction and may travel distances comparable to the width of the area irradiated by the microbeam. Some of these electrons will stay within the boundaries of the width of the irradiated area, which corresponds to a desired treatment area, while others will exit this area, and hence potentially damage untreated tissue. The electrons that exit the exact area of the initial microbeam treatment area and deposit their energy effectively act to blur the sharp line between the intensely irradiated area (peak) and the area of minimal radiation (valley). Widening of the penumbra (blurring at the edge between the peak and valley regions) is detrimental to the desired dose delivery and can: harm the adjacent healthy tissues; limit useful microbeam treatment depth; limit depths of tumors below the skin; limit the types of tumor/lesions/conditions treated; and limit the usefulness of MBRS in general.
Confining the radiation dose and/or damage geometry of the scattered electrons to the intended Microbeam treatment area (peaks) and out of the spared regions (valley) between the Microbeam peaks would enhance the efficacy of the radiation therapy. In some cases the spread of the radiation dose and/or damage region outside of the intended peak area would limit or prevent the usefulness of Microbeam treatment because of the detrimental effect of the radiation dose and/or damage in the unplanned valley regions.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,247 to Slatkin et al. titled Method for Microbeam Radiation Therapy provides additional background related to MBRS, and is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein.

Magnetic confinement for microbeam radiation damage area


A CPU casing structure includes a casing body having a rear wall on which a side wall is mounted to define an open front side for receiving a nonpackaged a CPU therein. A heat dissipator having a base positionable over and in physical contact engagement with the CPU to provide heat transfer therebetween is releasably secured to the front opening of the casing body by means of at least one clip so as to substantially cover the front opening and thus house the circuit board and the CPU therein. The casing body has at least one clip anchoring members formed on the top edge thereof. The clip have a central section selectively postionable on the base of the heat dissipator and a fixed, but preferably resilient, end extension extending through holes formed on the casing body, the circuit board and the heat dissipator. The end extension has a bending on the free end thereof and the bending is formed as an acute angle to be received within a sloped cavity having an inclination of substantially the same angle formed on the casing body. The clips also have a movable extension defined by a hinged tab having a slot engageable with the respective anchoring member to secure the clips and thus fix the heat dissipator to the casing body together.

The development of electronic technique brings computer CPUs into a high density and high speed era. With the fast increase of processing speed of the computer CPU, the amount of heat generated during the operation of the CPU fast increases to such an extent that without an additional heat dissipating device, which will be referred to as "heat dissipator", the CPU may readily malfunction due to the significant temperature rise caused by the heat generated during its operation.
One of the most prevailing CPUs nowadays is the so called "Pentium II" available from Intel Co. which comprises a CPU chip and an external cache both mounted on a circuit board and encased in a PLGA (Plastic Land-Grid Array) packaging. The formation of the PLGA packaging is time consuming and complicated so that such a packaging significantly increases the overall cost of the CPU. The packaged CPU is usually mounted to for example a computer main board by being inserted between two spaced members on the computer main board and engaged thereby so as to be fixed on the computer main board.
To overcome the cost problem and to increase market competitivity, a non-packaged version of the CPU is also available which has no PLGA package so that the manufacturing time and the cost are both cut down. However, to be compatible with the CPU support members on the computer main board that are designed to accommodate the packaged CPU, a casing has an outer configuration compatible with the CPU support members of the computer main board is needed to contain and protect the non-packaged CPU.
In the co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/064,315, which is filed on Apr. 23, 1998 and assigned to the assignee, a CPU casing structure for receiving and protecting the non-packaged CPU is disclosed which comprises at least one external anchoring member to allow a heat dissipator to be readily secured thereto by means of at least one clip engageable with the anchoring member for removing heat generated by the non-packaged CPU. The clip comprises a central section with a moveable extension on a first end and a fixed extension on a second end, both being in a direction substantially normal to the central section. The first extension comprises a hinged tab having a hole or slot thereon to engage the anchoring member on the casing. The second extension has a paw which extends through holes formed on the heat dissipator and the CPU casing to engage an outer surface of the CPU casing so as to secure the heat dissipator to the casing.
The paw on the fixed extension is formed by simply bending the free end of the extension to be substantially right-angled for overlapping and thus being supported by the outer surface of the casing. This, however, causes a problem that the engagement between the paw and the casing is achieved only by overlapping the right-angled bending on the outer surface of the casing which is not firm in fixing the paw to the casing. Thus, it needs an improved configuration for more firmly securing the clip to the CPU casing to mount the heat dissipator to the casing.

CPU casing structure with improved heat dissipator anchoring configuration


The electronic casino gaming system consists of several system components, including a microprocessor (12), a main memory unit (13) that is typically a random access memory, and a system boot ROM (14). Also included in the electronic casino gaming system are a non-volatile RAM (17), a mass storage unit (18), a disk subsystem (19), and a PCI bus (20). The disk subsystem (19) preferably supports SCSI-2 with options of fast and wide. A video subsystem (22) is also included in the electronic casino gaming system and is coupled to the PCI bus (20) to provide full color still images and MPEG movies.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to microprocessor based gaming Systems used in gambling casinos.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Microprocessor based gaming systems are known which are used in gambling casinos to augment the traditional slot machine games (e.g. three reel single or multi-line games) and card games, such as poker and black jack. In a typical gaming systems of this type, a microprocessor based system includes both hardware and software components to provide the game playing capabilities. The hardware components include a video display for displaying the game play, mechanical switches for enabling player selection of additional cards or game play choices, coin acceptors and detectors and the electronic components usually found in a microprocessor based system, such as random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), a processor and one or more busses. The software components include the initialization software, credit and payout routines, the game image and rules data set, and a random number generator algorithm. In order to be acceptable for casino use, an electronic gaming system must provide both security and authentication for the software compounds. For this reason, gaming commissions have heretofore required that all software components of an electronic gaming system be stored in unalterable memory, which is typically an unalterable ROM. In addition, a copy of the contents of the ROM or a message digest of the contents (or both) are normally kept on file in a secure location designated by the gaming commission so that the contents of an individual ROM removed from a gaming machine can be verified against the custodial version.
In a typical arrangement, a message digest of the ROM contents is initially generated prior to the installation of the ROM in the machine by using a known algorithm usually referred to as a hash function. A hash function is a computation procedure that produces a fixed-size string of bits from a variable-size digital input. The fixed-sized string of bits is termed the hash value. If the hash function is difficult to invert—termed a one-way hash function—the hash function is also termed a message digest function, and the result is termed the message digest. The message digest is unique to any given variable size input data set, i.e., the game data set stored in the ROM. When it becomes necessary to later authenticate the ROM from any given machine, the ROM is physically removed from the game console and the message digest of the ROM contents is computed directly from the ROM using the original hash function. The computed message digest is compared with the message digest on file at the designated custodial location (typically in the casino itself). This procedure is typically carried out whenever a machine produces a payoff beyond a given threshold value. If the two message digests match, then the contents of the ROM are considered to be authenticated (verified) and the payout is made to the player.
While such electronic casino gaming systems have been found to be useful in promoting casino game play, the restriction requiring that the casino game program be stored in unalterable ROM memory, leads to a number of disadvantageous limitations. First, due to the limited capacity of the ROM storage media traditionally used to hold the program, the scope of game play available with such systems is severely limited. For sophisticated games using motion video and audio multi-media elements, much more memory capacity, on the order of hundreds of megabytes, is necessary. However, physical verification of such a large quantity of physical devices is not practical, and has thus far been an impediment to creating sophisticated games with more player appeal. Second, the authentication check is only conducted on a limited basis (usually after a jackpot) or other significant winning game outcome, and the authentication procedure requires that game play be halted until the ROM contents have been found to be authentic.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Electronic casino gaming system with improved play capacity, authentication and security


A device which may be configured to generate delayed clock signals by a specified phase difference, which may include a clock generator circuit for generating at least one clock signal, a delayed clock signal generator for delaying the at least one clock signal, a phase detect circuit for generating a selecting signal based on the amount of phase delay detected according to a half-cycle (π), and in comparison with the clock signal, a phase interpolation circuit for controlling the delay time of the delayed clock signals and interpolating the delayed clock signals, and a selecting circuit which outputs the delayed clock signal delayed by a specified phase difference.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the delaying of clock signals using delayed signal generators, which may detect, create or interpolate delayed clock signals. The delayed clock signals may include a delay in a clock signal cycle.
2. Description of the Related Art
A poly-phase clock generator which utilizes a PLL (Phase Lock Loop) may extract signals from a VCO (Voltage Controlled Oscillator) that are phase locked by a phase of π/2, for example. FIG. 8A is a block diagram illustrating a conventional poly-phase clock generator utilizing a PLL. FIG. 8B is a timing diagram illustrating the input/output signals, which correspond to the input/output signals illustrated in the VCO of FIG. 8A. Referring to FIGS. 8A and 8B, if for example clock signal P0 is locked up with clock reference signal fref, the VCO may extract phases from P1, P2 and P3. FIG. 8B illustrates P0 having a phase cycle opposite from P0. P1 for example, may be delayed by a phase difference of π/2 compared to fref, and P3 may have a phase cycle opposite of P1.
A poly-phase clock generator utilizing a PLL may have certain advantages and disadvantages over a traditional PLL, depending upon the circuit configuration constructed to include the PLL. An advantage of using a poly-phase clock generator may include the removal of jitter. However, the poly-phase clock generator may have certain disadvantages. A first disadvantage may be the storage of unwanted jitter resulting from a closed loop configuration of the VCO. A second disadvantage of using a poly-phase clock signal generator may be the need for an analog circuit including a capacitor that uses a charge pump, and thus may not include a single integrated chip. In an attempt to compensate for the disadvantages that may be present when using a poly-phase clock generator, an increase in the dimensions, operation speed and power consumption of a corresponding circuit configuration may be required.
Another disadvantage that may be presented when using a poly-phase clock generator is the multiple clock cycles that may be required when attempting to lock onto a phase. Requests made for clock cycles to lock phase may require tens to hundreds of clock cycles before a phase is locked. Obtaining multiple clock cycles may require the clock signal generator change power levels promptly depending on the number of clock cycles required to lock phase.
A poly-phase clock signal generator may utilize a DLL (Delayed Locked Loop) instead of a PLL. The operation of the DLL may be similar to the PLL when used in a poly-phase clock signal generator, for example the DLL may include using a phase locked at 90 /2 similar to the PLL configuration, and a VCDL (Voltage Controlled Delay Line) which extracts poly-phase clock signals, as show in FIG. 9. Conversely, there may be differences between a poly-phase clock signal generator which utilizes a DLL instead of a PLL.
FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a poly-phase clock signal generator employing a conventional DLL.
A VCDL may include a voltage regulator which delays a phase cycle output of the VCDL up to a phase of 90 /2, and may also extract signals from the output. As a result, if signals are extracted from a DLL, there may be certain advantages of a DLL when compared to a PLL which utilizes an analog circuit. For example, the DLL may use an open loop VCDL which is different from a closed loop VCO. The open loop VCDL may not have to store the phase error that a closed loop VCO would store, thus a more stable system may be obtained.
The clock generator that may be used in a digital DLL may have smaller dimensions, and thus may require less operation voltage than a PLL clock generator. However, a poly-phase clock signal generator which utilizes a DLL configuration may be subject to input jitter, and duty error associated with processing clock signals, and may require multiple clock cycles in order to lock a phase, similar to the PLL configuration.


An image processing device that updates a pixel value of a processing target image and generates a new image generates a first feature vector based on the processing target image and a first feature map generated with at least one pre-decided filter; updates the processing target image to generate an updated image; generates a second feature vector based on the updated image and a second feature map generated with at least one pre-decided filter; performs quality evaluation of the updated image based on the first and second feature vectors and generates a quality feedback vector which is a vector based on a result of the quality evaluation; performs an encoding amount evaluation on the updated image and generates an encoding amount feedback vector which is a vector based on a result of the encoding amount evaluation; and determines an updating amount in updating of the updated image based on the quality feedback vector and the encoding amount feedback vector.

In general, to encode a moving image, it is necessary to control an encoding amount at a target bit rate according to restrictions on a bandwidth of a storage or a transmission network. A general encoding device includes an encoding amount control mechanism and performs encoding amount control in view of balance between an occurrence encoding amount and quality after encoding or decoding.
In H.264/AVC and H.265/HEVC which are general moving image encoding standard specifications, an occurrence encoding amount is controlled by adjusting a quantization parameter (QP) when a coefficient of a discrete cosine transform (DCT) or a discrete sine transform (DST) is quantized. On the other hand, deficiency of a high frequency component caused with an increase in the QP and block distortion occurring in a block boundary have an influence on image quality.
A general encoding device performs tradeoff evaluation between quality evaluation and encoding amount evaluation in order to adjust quality and an encoding amount. However, because it is necessary to perform the encoding again when parameters are adjusted, a calculation cost increases. Therefore, a method of adjusting quality and an encoding amount more simply is required.
Thus, for example, methods of performing pre-processing on a moving image which is an encoding target have been proposed.
For example, NPL 1 discloses a technique for applying a lowpass filter to an image as pre-processing to remove a high frequency component of which a large encoding amount is generally necessary in advance and by dispersing an encoding amount originally assigned to the high frequency component on an entire screen to achieve suppression of block distortion. For example, NPL 2 discloses a technique for applying an adaptive filter to an image and removing a noise component to achieve a reduction in an encoding amount.

Image processing apparatus, image processing method and image processing program

NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION


A method and apparatus for loading tool steel and high speed steel powder to a deformable mold for compacting is disclosed. The particles are exposed to a uniform vacuum during transfer from a sealed container through a sealed conduit and into a sealed deformable mold. By this method and apparatus, the particles are uniform throughout the container and substantially free of impurities, without requiring conventional outgassing.

1. Brief Description of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for loading tool steel and high speed steel powder into a deformable mold for compacting, with the powder during transport to the mold being under dynamic, uniform vacuum.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Incident to the powder-metallurgy production of tool steel and high speed steel articles, prealloyed particles of the composition from which the article is to be made are loaded into a deformable container. This deformable container is then sealed and the prealloyed particles therein are consolidated by hot isostatic pressing within a gas-pressure vessel. To achieve the desired product quality, particularly from the standpoint of uniformity of microstructure and the absence of deleterious impurities, such as oxides, it is important that the powder be free of these impurities at the time of compacting. This is typically achieved by outgassing the deformable mold after the powder has been loaded therein and before sealing for consolidation as by hot isostatic pressing. As a result of the significant size and quantity of powder within the mold, it is difficult to achieve removal of impurities during outgassing uniformly with respect to the powder from top to bottom of the mold. Typically, the powder at the top of the mold, which is near the stem through which outgassing is accomplished, is at a much lower impurity level than the powder at the bottom of the mold. Consequently, after consolidation, the impurity level and thus the properties of the consolidated article may vary along the length thereof.


A communication control apparatus includes a first interface, a second interface, a determination unit, and a control unit. The first interface is connected to a detachable recording medium. The second interface is connected to an external device. The second interface includes a first bus controlled by a first bus controller and a second bus controlled by a second bus controller. The second bus has a maximum transfer rate less than that of the first bus. The determination unit is configured to determine a data transfer rate of the detachable recording medium when the detachable recording medium is connected to the first interface. The control unit is configured to establish a connection to the external device via the first bus when the determined data transfer rate exceeds a predetermined threshold, and via the second bus when the determined data transfer rate does not exceed the predetermined threshold.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to communication control and, more particularly, to a communication control technique to be used when connecting a peripheral device via a connector having a plurality of independent data buses.
2. Description of the Related Art
USB 3.0 (Universal Serial Bus 3.0 Specification, Revision 1.0, Nov. 12, 2008) implements a maximum data transfer rate of 5 Gbps and has been developed recently as a next-generation high-speed interface. USB 3.0 includes a SuperSpeed (SS) mode (5 Gbps). USB 3.0 also supports the three transfer modes for use with existing USB 2.0: High-Speed (480 Mbps) mode, Full-Speed (12 Mbps) mode, and Low-Speed (1.5 Mbps) mode.
In general, the bus architecture of a USB host device is configured to branch from one host controller to a plurality of connectors. When a plurality of devices are connected, the host controller allocates 5-Gbps of bandwidth to the plurality of connected devices, which share the bandwidth to implement data transfer to each device. For this reason, when the plurality of devices are transferring data simultaneously, the data transmission bandwidth assigned to each device becomes narrower.
Nevertheless, transfer rates of recording media interfaces have increased. For example, the SD card standard SDXC (eXtended Capacity) defines a plurality of transfer modes and is supposed to implement data transfer at 2.4 Gbps in its fastest transfer mode. SDXC is also downward compatible with existing SDHC (High Capacity) and SD.
In this case, as shown in FIG. 13, a device 2000 may be assumed, which includes a card interface 2002 corresponding to SDXC and an SS controller 2004 corresponding to USB 3.0. When the SDHC card is used, the speed of the card interface 2002 is generally less than 480 Mbps, which is the maximum speed of the USB 2.0 mode. Hence, the benefits brought about by the use of the SS mode for connection to the USB host device are small. From the viewpoint of system operation, it would be preferable to connect the device using the USB 2.0 mode so as to save the SS mode bandwidth for other devices requiring high-speed transfer. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-327247 has proposed a technique of providing a mechanical switch for switching the transfer unit on the peripheral device (device) side and allowing the user to operate the switch in order to select the data transfer unit to be used in accordance with the operation method.
However, according to the above-described conventional technique, the user must determine whether high-speed transfer is necessary and then manually switch the data transfer unit accordingly. This makes user operation cumbersome.
Embodiments of the present invention provide a communication control technique that more suitably allows for the execution of data transfer when connecting a host device and a device via a connector having a plurality of independent data buses.

Communication control apparatus and method of controlling the same


A multi-region light scattering element with the optical characteristics of low speckle, high resolution high contrast, and high gain when used as an imaging element without any resulting loss of transmission or brightness with viewing angle. The multi-region light scattering element contains at least one region asymmetrically shaped light scattering features that are separated from a second light scattering region by a non-scattering region. In one embodiment, one or more of the regions contains particles that are asymmetrically shaped that improve the optical performance. In one embodiment, asymmetric particles are located in two regions separated by a non-scattering region with the particles within each region substantially aligned along an axis and the two axes are substantially perpendicular to each other. Methods for production of the screen element are also described.

Traditional light scattering elements such as those used in projection screens have progressed over the years with the current designs still suffering from design tradeoffs. Some of the key merits for describing a projection screen include, gain, angle of view, resolution, transmission, screen contrast, speckle contrast, and cost. The ideal projection screen for typical applications should have the following merits:                tailored viewing angles in the horizontal and vertical directions, so that the image may be seen from many directions;        high gain, to increase the image brightness, improve contrast, and reduce lamp requirements;        high resolution, such that high resolution images may be projected and displayed with full detail on the screen;        high optical transmission (high optical efficiency) for the light incident on the screen, such that the projection system has reduced lamp requirements or a brighter display;        high image contrast, where light from within the projection system or the ambient surroundings has a low or negligible impact on the perceived image contrast on the screen;        low speckle contrast, allowing the use of smaller filament thus higher coherence length light sources to achieve higher optical efficiency in the projection system; and        low manufacturing cost.
The underlying mechanism by which projection screens work relies on a material which can scatter the projected image into the viewer's eye to produce what is called a real image. Each pixel on the screen effectively acts as a point source of light, and all together they produce the images we see. A surface, such as a projection screen, that scatters the light in all directions so the intensity follows the cosine of the angle and the screen brightness (luminance) is constant over the range of angles, is termed a "Lambertian Surface." Thus, the brightness of a Lambertian screen appears constant, independent of the viewing angle. Projection screens are typically designed to scatter light more in the commonly viewed directions in order to increase the screen luminance in those directions to reduce constraints on the light source. In typical viewing situations, it is not necessary to project the image to the ceiling nor to the floor, since it is unlikely that a viewer will be in those positions. In principle, the brightness of an image on a projection screen from any particular viewpoint can be increased by having the screen preferentially direct light towards those viewing regions rather than scattering light equally in all directions. Therefore, if one could take all the light that would otherwise be wasted in non-viewing regions and re-direct it to the viewing region, i.e., in front of the screen at eye level, this would make the viewing region have a much higher luminance since the extra light is directed there at the expense of the non-viewing region. The increase in luminance relative to that of a perfect Lambertian surface is termed "gain". Thus, a 2× gain screen has a luminance that is twice that of a Lambertian screen for a given angle (typically measured at an angle normal to the surface). For a non-Lambertian projection screen, the extent to which it can be viewed in the horizontal and vertical planes is described in terms of angle of view (AOV) which is typically measured as the full angular width at half the maximum of the luminance curve (FWHM).
Early projection screens were made using ground glass diffusers. Later, technology evolved to the use of particle-containing sheet polymers to diffuse the light uniformly, resulting in—potentially—high gain screens, where the AOV could be as large as desired and controllable by adding more particles to the polymer. These screens suffered a major drawback due to the loss in contrast due to the backscatter of ambient light. Over the years, several methods for increasing the contrast have been developed, including adding tint to a medium between or within the diffuser and the viewer. This increases the contrast, since the ambient light that is scattered back (i.e., "backscatter") toward the viewer has passed through this tinted region twice and is significantly reduced in intensity relative to the light from the projection engine that has only passed through the tinted region once. Other methods for increasing display contrast in ambient light settings include focusing light by using lenticular lenses, beads, or reflecting surfaces (e.g., total internal reflection screens) through transparent apertures in-between light absorbing regions. By focusing the light through small holes, lines, or apertures, the fill factor for the black apertures can be very high, thus absorbing a significant amount of ambient light while passing the light from the projection engine. (These and other contrast enhancement methods are explained in "Projection Displays," Stupp and Brennesholtz, John Wiley & Sons, 1999, pp. 153-175, incorporated herein by reference.) However, with the industry moving to higher resolution HDTV displays and higher resolution monitors, the requirement for the feature sizes of the reflective or refractive methods such as beaded screens or lenticular screens has become more difficult and more costly. With lenticular lens pitches now at less than 100 μm, the cost and complexity of manufacturing are becoming larger issues. With higher resolutions bead screens, the size of the beads needed has also been reduced and the cost and size tolerance required has also increased.
The demand for higher resolution displays has also increased the visibility of speckle. "Speckle" is the optical interference effect resulting from the interference of light rays emerging from a scattering element—such as a screen—that are mutually coherent. The viewers' eye integrates this optical effect and sees a visible pattern. Speckle is typically measured by looking at the variation in intensity across a uniformly illuminated screen. "Speckle contrast" is defined as the ratio of the standard deviation of the intensity to the average intensity. A projection system with "high" speckle contrast means that the speckle pattern is more visible than a system with "low" speckle contrast.
Historically, speckle has not been a problem in low resolution displays. With low resolution displays, if a high coherence length source is used, one can use thicker scattering elements or two scattering regions spaced apart by a non-scattering region in order to reduce the speckle without reducing the resolution to unacceptable levels. More recently, manufacturers have begun using small filament (or arc) light sources to improve optical efficiency and the resolutions of the displays have increased significantly. However, small arc light sources increase the coherence length and when these are combined with many high resolution projection sources, the resulting image quality suffers from speckle (or scintillation). It is expected that in the future, the manufacturers will continue to reduce the lamp filament size to increase the optical efficiency and that the projection display resolution will continue to increase, thus speckle will become more of a problem. With laser-based systems, speckle contrast is even higher than that with incoherent or partially coherent light sources. Projection screen materials using a single layer of a scattering element have a tradeoff of speckle versus resolution. A thick single layer reduces the appearance of speckle, but lowers the resolution of the screen. A single thin scattering layer has a high resolution, but speckle is more visible. Two scattering regions spaced apart can reduce the speckle contrast, but also typically decreases the resolution. The effect of the speckle and resolution tradeoff is discussed by Stupp et al., and also in Goldenberg et al., "Rear Projection Screens for Light Valve Projection Systems," SPIE Vol. 3013, 1997, pp. 49-59, incorporated herein by reference. In "Rear Projection Screens for Light Valve Projection Systems," Goldenberg, et. al., SPIE Proceedings, Vol. 3013, 1997 discusses the use of a thick bulk diffuser or scattering elements spaced apart, the conclusion is that using these techniques will reduce the speckle contrast while also reducing the resolution. As a result, manufacturers have simply added spherical particles or surface relief to one of the elements, such as the Fresnel lens or lenticular lens, to add a small amount of diffusion to reduce speckle. This causes a significant decrease in resolution. When diffusive qualities are added to the optical system before contrast enhancing spatial filtering apertures (e.g., a transparent stripe in a black stripe lenticular screen), less of the light is focused through the aperture by the lenses. This reduces the optical efficiency of the system. For example, in a Fresnel lens, lenticular lens, or transparent-black stripe region diffuser screen configuration, addition of particles to the Fresnel or lenticular lens causes less of the light to be focused through the apertures, because the lenticular lens can not focus many of these oblique rays through the clear apertures. Lenticular lenses are typically designed to work with substantially collimated light from a Fresnel lens. Adding the spherical particles to the Fresnel lens, lenticular lens, or other region to reduce speckle in high resolution displays is a tradeoff relative to the reduction in optical efficiency and the added high cost of the particles.
When symmetric scattering particles are added in a region on the viewer side of the contrast enhancing features, the backscatter is increased, usually resulting in reduced contrast.
Screens that use more than one scattering layer typically use optical adhesives to combine the screen components; or, spherical light scattering particles are added to Fresnel lenses, lenticular lenses, substrates or other elements. This often introduces spurious interfacial reflections at the element interfaces, that reduces the contrast of the screen and adds to the production cost. When the interfaces are slanted or curved, such as the case with Fresnel lenses or lenticular lenses, respectively, the spurious reflections are more significant, and reduces the optical efficiency, and, possibly, reduce image contrast. For instance, a small amount of spherical particles added to a Fresnel lens to reduce speckle contrast can cause a significant amount of the scattered light to totally internal reflect within the Fresnel lens because of the large slant angles on the features of the Fresnel lens. This reduces the speckle contrast at the expense of reducing image contrast and reducing optical efficiency by lowering the screen transmission.
Many commercial rear projection televisions have reduced horizontal and vertical viewing angles in order to reduce intensity requirements of the projection lamp. For example, some commercial rear projection televisions have wide horizontal FWHM (full-width half maximum) of 50 degrees and a more narrow vertical FWHM of 20 degrees. This allows for longer lasting or lower intensity lamps to be used, and also reduces the heat and electrical power consumption. These viewing angles are usually achieved as a benefit of using a lenticular lens with transparent-black striped region to increase the contrast. The lenticular lenses spread the light in the horizontal direction after focusing the light through transparent stripes in between opaque black stripes and onto a weakly scattering symmetric diffuser for the light scattering element. A weak diffuser (light scattering diffuser with small FWHM) typically has a high gain, but can also introduce speckle. The combination of the lenticular lens and the diffuser dictate the viewing angles (and resulting gain), and this restricts the design of the lenticular-black stripe system. Similar restrictions also occur in beaded and TIR-based systems such that the angles of view can not be adjusted independently of other elements in the system. Other systems with asymmetric viewing angles typically have high costs, reduced image contrast or high speckle contrast when applied to high resolution projection displays.


A flexible pouch for receiving flowable products that includes a fitment having a spout to allow the flowable products to be discharged from the pouch. The flexible pouch is formed from a top and a bottom web of material. A sealant strip is attached to a top edge of each of the top and bottom webs of material. A fitment having a canoe and spout is positioned such that the canoe is positioned between the first and second sealant strips. The height of the canoe and the width of the first and second sealing strips are the same to minimize the amount of sealant material. The first and second sealant strips are sealed to each other along the entire width of the flexible pouch to entrap the canoe of the fitment between the top and bottom webs.

The present disclosure generally relates to a flexible pouch for flowable products. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a flexible, stand up pouch with a fitment and a method of inserting the fitment into the stand up pouch.
Various types of disposable, portable containers are known for storing a fluid or dry product. Typically, the flexible pouch is made from a flexible material where an outer layer of the material can have a pre-printed message to provide information to the consumer. The material used to form the flexible pouch is typically supplied in sheet form, on a roll, such that a plurality of pouches can be fabricated utilizing a manufacturing machine.
The pouch is generally formed utilizing a pouch forming machine that receives the rolls of flexible material and creates the flexible pouch. The pouch may include a gusset positioned between the parallel side edges of the pouch such that the pouch is able to stand unsupported. In some packaging configurations, an opening device, such as a fitment or spout, is sealed between the edges of the material at the upper edge of the pouch. The fitment allows material to be dispensed from the pouch while allowing the pouch to be re-sealed after a portion of the product has been removed.
While flexible pouches with fitments are desirable in many instances, they are difficult and costly to produce since each fitment must be individually inserted into the pouch and sealed. Furthermore, for effective sealing of the pouch walls to the fitment, commonly called caulking, a sealant layer is used between the fitment and the material used to form the front and back panels of the pouch. The sealant layer must be thicker and wider than what the other sealed seams of the pouch generally require. In present practice, this increase in sealant thickness at the fitment is accomplished by increasing the sealant thickness on the entire pouch structure. Therefore, there is a need for an improved machine that produces a flexible pouch with a fitment along with an improved method of making such a flexible pouch.


An access system is disclosed that can provide data to a downstream application. In one embodiment, the data is provided as header variables associated with an HTTP request. Other embodiments can use other protocols and other means for transmitting the data. The data provided to the downstream applications include information about the user accessing the application. In one embodiment, the data provided to the downstream application includes information from an identity profile stored in an LDAP directory structure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to technology for providing data to applications from an access system.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the impact of the Internet continues to alter the economic landscape, companies are experiencing a fundamental shift in how they do business. Business processes involve complex interactions between companies and their customers, suppliers, partners and employees. For example, businesses interact constantly with their customers—often other businesses—to provide information on product specification and availability. Businesses also interact with vendors and suppliers in placing orders and obtaining payments. Businesses must also make a wide array of information and services available to their employee populations, generating further interactions.
To meet new challenges and leverage opportunities, while reducing their overall cost-of-interactions, many organizations are migrating to network-based business processes and models. Among the most important of these is Internet-based E-business.
To effectively migrate their complex interactions to an Internet-based E-business environment, organizations must contend with a wide array of challenges and issues. For example, businesses need to securely provide access to business applications and content to users they deem authorized. This implies that businesses need to be confident that unauthorized use is prevented. Often, this involves the nontrivial, ongoing task of attempting to tie together disparate, system-specific authentication and/or authorization schemes.
E-business is also challenged with cohesively managing disparate end user, application, content, policy and administrative information. Historically, user identity and authorization information have been stored in application-specific formats and often on a per-application basis. It is labor intensive to maintain consistency across the disparate repositories and, thus, the cost for user and policy administration increase as more application and content are added. Such an aggregated system is difficult to replicate and scale. This can lead to operational errors, poor user experiences, and loss of confidence in the E-business by all those concerned.
Another challenge facing E-business is how to scale the E-business over time. A successful E-business network, its applications, and content must be able to seamlessly scale from a modest flood of requests to a torrent of requests. At the same time, it must be able to scale administratively. Increases in traffic, users, and content require additional administrative effort.
To meet these challenges, an E-business host company needs a web access solution that delivers the ability to effectively secure and manage all the various network-based interactions.
In the past, various entities have offered identity management systems which store and manage identity information for users such as company employees, suppliers, etc. Additionally, access management systems have been available. These access management systems provide means for authenticating users and authorizing users. However, the previous access management systems do not include, or are not capable of communicating with, a robust identity management system. Those that could communicate with an identity management system did not take full advantage of the information stored and managed by the identity management system. For example, previous access management systems have not leveraged the information in identity management systems to automate additional processes or further personalize a user's experience in the E-business network.

Providing data to applications from an access system


A table expander is provided. The table expander includes a table top. The table top includes a top surface, a bottom surface and an outer edge. The table expander further includes a plurality of clamps attached to the bottom surface of the table top. The clamps may be oriented near the outer edge of the table top and may be equidistant to one another. The present invention may include two, three or four clamps. The table top may be placed on a table so that the clamps are surrounding the edges of the table. The clamps may be secured to the table, thereby securing the table top to the table.

The present invention relates to tables and, more particularly, to a table top expander.
Dine in restaurants have seating areas in which tables and chairs are setup for patrons to eat within the restaurants. Popular restaurants may reach maximum capacity during breakfast, lunch or dinner hours. Additionally, an increase of large parties of five or more guests may seek a table in the restaurant during the popular restaurant hours. To cope, the restaurant may replace existing tables with a larger folding table. However, this is time consuming and creates chaos during a busy dining hour. Alternatively, the restaurant may have extendable tables. These are prohibitively expensive and difficult to relocate in a room.
As can be seen, there is a need for an improved table top expander.


The present invention relates to apparatus for and methods of performing a binding procedure in respect of a mobile node in a foreign packet data network, the mobile node having roamed from a an home packet data network and having a home packet data protocol address, the method comprising the steps of: the mobile node sending its home packet data protocol address to a node of the network responsible for allocating packet data protocol address to mobile nodes for use in the foreign network (the allocating node); the allocating node allocating or participating in the allocation of a packet data protocol address to the mobile node; the allocating node receiving a packet data protocol address of a receiving node; and in dependence on the received home packet data protocol address, the receiving node packet data protocol address, and the allocated packet data protocol address, the allocating node sending or arranging for another network node to send a message to the receiving node, the message indicating a binding between the allocated packet data protocol and the home packet data protocol address of the mobile node.

Whereas conventional 2G mobile networks, such as those conforming to the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) standards, have provided circuit-switched voice and data services to users' mobile stations (MSs), there is great momentum in the mobile telecommunications industry to deploy packet-switched mobile networks. Packet-switched mobile networks have significant advantages in terms of network and radio resource efficiency and also enable the provision of more advanced user services. With the convergence of fixed and mobile telecommunications, the Internet Protocol (IP), widespread in fixed networks, is the natural choice as the packet routing mechanism for mobile packet networks. Currently IP version 4 (IPv4) is in widespread use in the fixed network domain. However, it is expected gradually to migrate to IP version 6 (IPv6) which offers well-recognised benefits over IPv4, notably in terms of greatly increased address space, more efficient routing, greater scalability, improved security, Quality of Service (QoS) integration, support for multicasting and other features.
A particular example of a mobile packet-switched service currently being deployed is the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) as implemented in both 2G GSM networks and in 3G Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) networks (hereinafter referred to as GPRS networks). It is also expected that non-GPRS wireless access technologies, such as wireless Local Area Network (wLAN), will provide a flexible and cost-effective complement to GPRS for local broadband service access in some areas such as hotspots (conference centres, airports, exhibition centres, etc). wLAN subnetworks may be implemented within the same administrative network domain as GPRS subnetworks, and mobile network operators will want to support mobility of mobile stations between those subnetworks. Furthermore, mobile network operators will want to support roaming of mobile stations between different administrative network domains, which may or may not implement different access technologies.
While GPRS networks, having been designed from the start as mobile networks, have built-in mobility management (for MSs within the GPRS network) and roaming functionality (for MSs roaming between GPRS networks), work has also taken place in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to support mobility of IP user terminals in general. To this end, the IETF has developed the Mobile IP (MIP) protocols. MIP is designed to support mobility when mobile stations (or mobile nodes (MNs) in MIP terminology) move between IP networks with different subnet prefixes (macro-mobility). For example, MIP may be used to support mobility between a GPRS network and a non-GPRS network such as a wLAN network as well as mobility between two different GPRS networks or subnetworks. Mobile IP is not expected to be used for mobility management within a network or subnetwork (micro-mobility) which is typically managed by access technology specific layer 2 mechanisms such as WCDMA softer/soft handover.
There are two versions of MIP to correspond to the two versions of IP. MIP version 4 (MIPv4) is designed to provide IP address mobility for IP version 4 (IPv4) addresses, whereas the newer MIP version 6 (MIPv6) MIP is designed to provide IP address mobility for IP version 6 (IPv6) addresses. MIPv4 is described in the IETF Request For Comment (RFC) 3344 available at the IETF website http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3344.txt?number=3344. Internet draft MIPv6 is described in the IETF Internet draft "Mobility Support in IPv6" available at the IETF website at http://searchietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ieft-mobileip-ipv6-20.txt and referenced as draft-ietf-mobileip-ipv6-20.txt.
MIPv4 mobility management is illustrated in FIG. 1. A MN 40 is allocated a home IP address (HAddr) in its Home Network (RN) 42. Routing procedures in the MN ensure that wherever the MN is within the HN, an IP packet sent from a Correspondent Node (CN) 46 will reach the MN. However, when the MN roams to a foreign network (FN) 44, IP packets addressed to its HAddr will need to be routed to its new location in the FN. In MIPv4, a router 48 in the EN known as the Home Agent (HA) is used to act as a packet forwarding service on behalf of the MN when it is away from home. In a first working mode of MIPv4 (known as FA-CoA mode), when arriving in the FN, the MN is allocated a Care of Address (CoA) by a router 50 in the FN known as the Foreign Agent (FA). Due to perceived limitations of IPv4 address space, it is envisaged that more than one MN may share the same CoA. After allocation of the CoA, the FA 50 sends a binding update to the HA to register the CoA. More specifically, the binding update informs the HA of the association (or binding) between the HAddr and CoA of the MN. Thereafter, when the CN sends a packet to the HAddx of the MN in its EN (case 1), the packet is intercepted by the HA and tunnelled to the FA in the FN via tunnel 52 on the basis of the CoA.
Tunneling involves encapsulating a first data packet (with a header and a payload) as the payload of a second data packet having a new header indicating, as its source and destination addresses, the start and end points of the tunnel, and transferring the second data packet as normal to the tunnel endpoint where it is decapsulated to obtain the first packet. After decapsulation, the tunnel end point, the FA, routes the original packet to the MN using routing procedures in the FN. In MIP, tunnelling involves IP in IP encapsulation using the IETF Request For Comment (RFC) 2003. Thus in MIPv4, an IPv4 packet is tunnelled by encapsulating it within another IPv4 packet.
As an optional procedure in MIPv4, the HA may send a binding update to the CN to register the CoA of the MN. More specifically, the binding update informs the CN of the association (or binding) between the HAddr and CoA of the MN. Thereafter, the CN may address packets directly to the MN at its current CoA, rather than indirectly via its HAddr (case 2), and these packets are received by the FA in the FN and routed to the MN using routing procedures in the FN. This is known as route optimisation since it avoids potentially inefficient triangular routing via the HA which in general will not be on an efficient routing path between the CN and the FA.
In a second optional working mode of MIPv4 (known as CoCoA mode) there is no sharing of CoAs by MNs away from their home network and no FA is used. The MN is allocated a unique CoA, known as a co-located CoA (CoCoA). In this working mode, the MN must itself send a binding update to its HA to register its newly allocated CoCoA. Thereafter, packets sent by a CN and addressed to the MN at its HAddr are tunnelled from the HA directly to the MN. As with FA-CoA mode, as an optional procedure in CoCoA mode, the MN may also send a binding update to a CN to register its CoCoA. Thereafter, packets may be sent by the CN directly to the MN at its CoCoA.
MIPv6 mobility management is illustrated in FIG. 2. Two notable differences of MIPv6 over MIPv4 are as follows. Firstly, due to the greatly increased address space in IPv6, CoAs allocated to a MN in a FN are never shared (ie they correspond to the optional CoCoA in MIPv4). Secondly, as a result, there is no need to deploy a FA in the FN. Referring to FIG. 2, with MIPv6, when a MN 40 moves from its MN 42 to a FN 44, it is allocated a unique CoA and sends a binding update to its HA 48 in its HN to register the CoA. Packets from a CN 46 addressed to the HAddr are intercepted by the HA 48 (case 1) and tunnelled to the CoA via tunnel 54. This tunnelling may be achieved using IPv6 Generic Packet Tunnelling Mechanism described in IETF RFC 2473. However, in MIPv6, route optimisation is not an option but a fundamental part of the protocol and, in general, the MN (not the HA as in MIPv4) should send a binding update to the CN so that it may address packets directly to the MN at its CoA (case 2). When a MN receives a packet tunnelled from a CN via the MN's HA, it may take this as an indication that the CN has no binding for the MN and initiate a CN binding update.
There are a number of problems which arise as a result of the binding update procedures specified in MIPv4 and MIPv6. The problems arise in connection with both binding updates to the HA (let us call these Home Binding Updates (HBUs)) and binding updates to a CN (let us call these Correspondent Binding Updates (CBUs)). One problem is resource utilization in the FN. In MIPv4 CoCoA mode and in MIPv6, the MN performs HBU and CBU procedures which utilise various resources of the FN, including valuable radio resources. With HBUs, this problem is exacerbated by the fact that HBUs will need to be sent periodically, even when the MN is not in use but roaming in a FN over extended periods of time. Resource utilization may also be a problem in MIPv4 FA-CoA mode where the FA performs the HBU.
Another problem with HBU and CBU procedure is security. The issuing of false binding updates to the HA or CN of a MN can lead to security attacks including denial-of-service, confidentiality, man-in-the-middle, hijacking and impersonation attacks (see MIPv6 draft specification section 14, for example). Thus, complex security procedures are mandated in the MIP specifications (see MIPv6 draft specification section 5, for example). These security procedures are slow and costly in terms of processing requirements at the HA, CN and at the MN. This can also adversely effect battery lifetime at the MN and CN.
Another problem is that any delay in HBU procedures can lead to misdirecting of packets to an old CoA, caching of packets at the HA or, worse still, loss of those packets. Similarly, any delay in CBU procedures can lead to misdirecting of packets to an old CoA, triangular routing via the HA or, worse still, loss of those packets. These effects lead to decreased performance at the HA, unnecessary loading of routers through which misdirected or non route optimised packets are sent, and possible disruption to communication sessions between the MN and CN.

Methods of performing a binding in a telecommunications system