An opto-electronic assembly is provided comprising a substrate (generally of silicon or glass) for supporting a plurality of interconnected optical and electrical components. A layer of sealing material is disposed to outline a defined peripheral area of the substrate. A molded glass lid is disposed over and bonded to the substrate, where the molded glass lid is configured to create a footprint that matches the defined peripheral area of the substrate. The bottom surface of the molded glass lid includes a layer of bonding material that contacts the substrate's layer of sealing material upon contact, creating a bonded assembly. In one form, a wafer level assembly process is proposed where multiple opto-electronic assemblies are disposed on a silicon wafer and multiple glass lids are molded in a single sheet of glass that is thereafter bonded to the silicon wafer.

Many types of opto-electronic modules comprise a number of separate optical and electrical components that require precise placement relative to one another. A silicon (or glass) carrier substrate (sometimes referred to as an interposer) is generally used as a support structure to fix the location of the components and may, at times, also provide the desired electrical or optical signal paths between selected components. As the components are being assembled on the interposer, active optical alignment may be required to ensure that the integrity of the optical signal path is maintained. In most cases, these opto-electronic modules are built as individual units and, as a result, the need to perform active optical alignment on a unit-by-unit basis becomes expensive and time-consuming.
Indeed, as the demand for opto-electronic modules continues to increase, the individual unit assembly approach has become problematic. Wafer level packaging is considered to be a more efficient and cost-effective approach, with one exemplary arrangement of wafer level packaging disclosed in our co-pending application Ser. No. 13/463,408, filed May 3, 2012 and herein incorporated by reference.
In our co-pending application, a silicon wafer is utilized as a "platform" (i.e. interposer) upon which all of the components for a multiple number of opto-electronic modules are mounted or integrated, with the top surface of the silicon interposer used as a reference plane for defining the optical signal path between separate optical components. The use of a single silicon wafer as a platform for a large number of separate modules allows for a wafer level assembly process to efficiently assemble a large number of modules in a relatively short period of time. Some prior art arrangements describe the use of a glass interposer in place of a silicon wafer interposer, while retaining the ability to assemble multiple opto-electronic modules at the same time. See, for example, U.S. Patent Publication 2012/0106117 authored by V. V. Sundaram and published on May 3, 2012, which discloses a three-dimensional interconnect structure based upon a glass interposer.
In most cases, a "lid" needs to be placed over and attached to the populated interposer component. In one exemplary prior art arrangement, a lid is formed as two separate piece parts, a "sidewall" portion that attaches to the interposer top surface and a flat "top" portion that is bonded to the sidewall portion. The height of the sidewall is generally defined by the space required for the components disposed on the interposer, as well as a layer of adhesive material used to bond the sidewall to the interposer. In other cases, the sidewall is defined by a combination of a "rim" formed on the interposer and a "rim" formed on the lid, where the two rims are later joined to form the sidewall. Heretofore, the manufacture of lids provided with rims was considered to be expensive and required mechanical machining of a glass plate. This subtractive technique is expensive and ill-suited to a wafer level assembly process.

Molded glass lid for wafer level packaging of opto-electronic assemblies


An apparatus and method for testing the physical properties of a material is disclosed. Preferably, the physical properties that may be tested include, but are not limited to, the COR of a material. Accordingly, the apparatus includes a projectile that may be capable of being propelled towards a material sample. The projectile is preferably aimed and fired through a tubular barrel towards the material sample. The tubular barrel preferably comprises a propulsion system that controls pneumatic energy via a pneumatic valve. At least two sensors are placed between the tubular barrel and the material sample in order to detect the passage of the projectile. It is desired that the sensors are placed at precise, discrete positions. As the projectile passes through the field of view of each sensor, the time is recorded to a memory, for example, a counter timer board. The projectile may then impact the material sample, which may preferably be held in place by a fixation device. The fixation device is preferably a holding slot, which may be backed by an infinite mass cylinder. Upon rebounding from the material sample, the projectile passes back through the field of view of the sensors in reverse order, allowing the sensors to capture and record the time of passage to a memory, such as a counter timer board. The physical properties of the material sample may be calculated by a processing device that is operatively connected to at least a portion of the apparatus.

The manufacturing of golf clubs and balls requires extensive testing to determine which equipment will prove most advantageous for golf players. Many tests are performed during the designing of equipment in order to determine which materials are best suited for a particular piece of equipment, such as a club or ball. Testing the properties of a particular type of material enables designers to determine the best mode of applying these materials as well as potential product performance advantages.
To determine the properties of different materials, manufacturers have employed many different testing machines. Due to the high rate of deformation associated with golf ball use, these testing machines involve forming a sample of a material and firing it towards a flat surface, such as an immovable plate. These machines often fire the sample out of a firing mechanism, towards the immovable plate. The sample then strikes the immovable plate and rebounds off of it. A sensing system is typically placed in between the firing mechanism and the immovable plate to record the flight of the sample. Based on the output of the sensing system, the properties of the collision, such COR, and contact duration are measured and material characteristics such as elastic modulus and resiliency may be determined.
Existing testing machines, such as the one described above, have many drawbacks. For example, in order to cause the sample to rebound off the immovable plate in a predictable manner, it is often necessary to manufacture a substantially spherical sample. Manufacturing a spherical sample of a material may require specialized molds, unique degassing equipment, or large material quantities, and thus complicates and increases the cost of material tests. These methods are also more time consuming because they require the uniquely molded material sample to be formed according to strict specifications. Furthermore, these testing machines require a new spherical sample to be manufactured if an existing one is deformed in any way, such as by chipping, cracking, tearing, or change in sphericity.
Thus, a continuing need exists for a testing machine that is capable of repeatedly and reliably testing the physical properties of a material without being susceptible to the strict specifications required for material samples used in prior testing machines. A need also exists for an apparatus which does not require a large volume of sample material for test specimen production.


A panel display system having at least one source device coupled to a plurality of display units interconnected to form a larger display having any desired size and shape. Each display unit is a self-contained panel display having a video random access memory (VRAM) for storing image data, a controller for processing data signals to provide the image data to the VRAM, and an image display panel for displaying the image data. The self-contained panel displays substantially reduce the need for a separate driver card for each panel display, and substantially reduce the communications bandwidth between the source devices and the panel displays of the system. Means for interconnecting the display units include the use of data/control bus connectors and power line connectors, cables, network devices, local area networks, and/or wide area networks.

Heretofore, an increasing need for flat panel display units that can be connected to each other in a mosaic-like fashion, to form a larger display area having various sizes and shapes, has been recognized by industry in such technical fields relating to computers.
The display system for the Apple Macintosh.RTM. is one attempt at solving this problem. The Macintosh.RTM. display system provides display panels that can be arranged in any desired manner to form a larger display area as long as the display panels do not overlap with each other. That is, the displays can be arranged into different configurations as long as the logical display area of the configuration does not provide redundancy between the display panels.
A configuration of such displays, however, can be utilized by only one source device (i.e. one Macintosh.RTM. computer). As a result, the Macintosh.RTM. panel display system is source device specific, and thus not useful to those having a need to interface a plurality of source devices to a display area consisting of a plurality of such Macintosh.RTM. panel displays. In addition, the Macintosh.RTM. display system is not desirable or useful to those having a need to interface different types of source devices (e.g. TV's, computers and network devices) to the same display area.
Moreover, each display panel or unit of the Macintosh.RTM. system is driven and controlled by a separate display control card placed in the expansion slots of the source device (i.e. Macintosh.RTM. computer). As a result, since each source device has a limited number of expansion slots available for such control cards, the number of displays that can be added to the display area is limited, and thus the size of the display area of the Macintosh.RTM. display system is limited.

Panel display of multiple display units for multiple signal sources


The invention relates to a transmission (100) for a hybrid drive arrangement which can be coupled to two drive assemblies (7, 8), comprising an input shaft (10) and an output shaft (11), at least one first and one second shifting element (SE1, SE2) and at least one double planetary gear (5). The input shaft (10) is connected to the planetary carrier of the double planetary gear (5) and the output shaft (11) can be coupled to the first ring gear of the double planetary gear (5) by means of the first shifting element (SE1) and can be coupled to the second ring gear of the double planetary gear (5) and by means of the second shifting element (SE2).

The invention relates to a transmission for a hybrid drive arrangement. Furthermore, the invention relates to a hybrid drive arrangement having a transmission, to a vehicle having a hybrid drive arrangement, and to a method for operating the hybrid drive arrangement, and to a computer program and a machine-readable storage medium.
Transmissions for hybrid drive arrangements are known from the prior art. For example, WO2010/009943 A1 discloses a double clutch transmission which makes the operation of a hybrid vehicle possible by way of internal combustion engine, by way of electric motor, and by way of the two drive units together. Transmissions of this type are complex, heavy and expensive. There is a requirement for transmission topologies with a reduced mechanical complexity, a decreased installation space requirement and a reduced weight.
In the following text, the term "coupled" or "attached" is used in the sense of a fixed connection. In contrast to this, the term "can be coupled" comprises both fixed and switchable connections within the context of the present description. If a switchable connection is specifically meant, the corresponding shifting element is as a rule specified explicitly, in particular a brake or a clutch. If, in contrast, a fixed, rigid or non-rotating connection is specifically meant, the term "coupled" or "attached" is as a rule used and the use of the term "can be coupled" is dispensed with. The use of the term "can be coupled" without specification of a specific shifting element therefore indicates the intentional inclusion of the two types. This distinction takes place solely for the benefit of improved comprehensibility and, in particular, in order to clarify where the provision of a switchable connection instead of a fixed connection or coupling which can as a rule be realized more easily is absolutely necessary. The above definition of the term "coupled" or "attached" is therefore in no way to be interpreted to be so narrow that couplings which are inserted arbitrarily for bypassing purposes are derived from its literal sense.

Transmission for a hybrid drive arrangement, method for operating the hybrid drive arrangement, computer program and storage medium


A content addressable memory (CAM) device and process for searching a CAM. The CAM device includes a plurality of CAM cells, match-lines (MLs), search lines, and ML sense amplifiers. The ML sense amplifiers are capable of self-calibration to their respective thresholds to reduce effects of random device variation between adjacent sense amplifiers.

An associative memory system called Content Addressable Memory (CAM) has been developed to permit its memory cells to be referenced by their contents. Thus CAM has found use in lookup table implementations such as cache memory subsystems and is now rapidly finding use in networking system applications such as network address translation, and other applications such as pattern recognition, and data compression. CAM's most valuable feature is its ability to perform a fast search operation in which search data is compared with data stored within the CAM. Typically search data is loaded onto search lines and compared with stored words in the CAM. During a search-and-compare operation, the CAM performs a fully parallel search and generates a match or mismatch signal associated with each stored word, indicating whether the search word matches a stored word or not.
To allow this fast parallel comparison between all stored words to a single search word, each CAM word contains dedicated search hardware. Each CAM cell contains additional bit-comparison transistors, in addition to a conventional storage element, which is typically implemented as a Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) cell or a Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) cell. This added circuitry is combined across the word with a match-line (ML) to produce a match or mismatch signal for each CAM word.
Moreover, this search hardware allows the entire contents of the CAM memory to be searched in a single memory cycle.
Thus, in contrast to standard memory (SRAM or DRAM) which would typically require 1K clock cycles to complete a search of a 1K words memory, a CAM has the ability to search all entries simultaneously in a single clock cycle.
Unfortunately, as technology scales to submicron geometries, random device variation (RDV) is becoming more prominent. RDV of parameters such as transistor length, transistor width and transistor threshold voltage could be significant even in identically designed neighboring devices. The effects of RDV are especially evident in the design of semiconductor memories. Because most memories rely on sense amplifiers to detect small voltage signals on largely capacitive array lines, RDV in the memory cells as well as sense-amplifier devices can produce incorrect results. To improve reliability, memory designers tune their sensing circuits conservatively, thereby trading off performance in order to maintain a large sensing margin for reliable operation.
In advanced technologies (i.e. 100 nm and smaller gate geometry) RDV is becoming a major bottleneck for improving performance. As device variation increases, timing uncertainty for signal arrival and data capture increases, requiring larger data capture margins, and therefore limiting performance.
Due to its single-ended nature, the ML sensing performed during the CAM search operation is even more sensitive to RDV than the differential sensing used in the SRAM read circuitry. Thus, to maintain reliable operation, most ML sensing schemes employ full-swing sensing which is both slow and power-inefficient.

Self-referenced match-line sense amplifier for content addressable memories

International Business Machines Corporation


The invention relates to a method of routing traffic from a sender to a receiver in a communication network said method comprising for at least two possible routes between the sender and the receiver the step of calculating at least one metric for at least one link in each route, characterized by the steps of calculating a sensitivity parameter for said at least one metric and taking said sensitivity parameter into account when selecting a route. The sensitivity parameter may be based on a derivative of said metric with respect to a variable on which said metric depends. The method may also comprise the step of calculating a reliability parameter for said at least one metric and taking said reliability parameter into account when selecting a route.

The present invention applies to a communication network in which data can be transmitted from a sender to a receiver via a number of intermediate network nodes. Data can be transmitted via different routes, each comprising one or more of the intermediate network nodes. A direct path between two adjacent nodes is referred to as a link. Depending on which communication links are used for a communication flow different transmission routes (or paths) through the network from the sender to the receiver can be distinguished.
It is important in any such communication system to optimize the selection of the routes to utilize the resources as efficiently as possible.
In existing routing solutions a route selection is typically based on assigning a cost value, or metric, to each communication route, that is, a route metric. The route metric is generally determined as the sum of the metric values for all links, or hops, in the route. Typically, but not necessarily each node determines link metric values for its own links and the values are distributed to other nodes using routing protocols. The best route is typically selected to be the route that has the best route metric.
This prior art solution has several problems. One is that the metric assigned to a route may have an uncertainty. The metric may be determined based on the estimation of link properties that may be subject to estimation errors. It may also take some time before a metric can be considered when making a routing decision. This may be due to the fact that certain changes, for example, in link properties, take some time before they are measured in the estimation process and thus influence an associated metric. Also, it may take some time for a metric to be distributed to a function which uses this metric for a routing decision.
The prior art solution described above also does not take into account the fact that the route metric is a dynamic parameter, which changes over time, for example as the load in the network changes.

Communication node and a method for routing traffic in a communication network by calculating at least one metric for at least one link and a sensitivity parameter for said metric


A sound generating device for generating a sound wave in a body of water is provided. The device includes a pair of axially aligned pistons. An electromagnet is mounted on at least one of the pistons. Activation of the electromagnet causes the pistons to move towards each other. A spring is positioned between the pistons and biases the pistons away from each other. Provision is made for changing the spring rate during operation so that the device will operate at mechanical resonance throughout the intended frequency range. A control device controls the current flowing through the electromagnets. The current is controlled to induce a predetermined variance of axial displacement between the pistons and thereby generate a sound wave.

The present invention relates to the field of sound generation. More particularly, the invention relates to a device for producing sound waves in a body of water.
There are many circumstances in which it is desirable to produce sound waves in a body of water. Seismic visualization of marine oil reservoirs is one example. Seismic visualization is a technique used to determine the size and shape of underground oil reservoirs. The technique involves radiating sound waves into the earth's surface above the reservoir and then capturing the reflected sound waves. The acoustic characteristics of the reflected sound waves are then analyzed to visualize the size and shape of the underground reservoir as well as the geological formations in the area surrounding the reservoir. This technique is useful when exploring for new oil reservoirs and also for managing oil production from a known oil reservoir.
Exploring for new oil reservoirs typically involves methodically visualizing a particular subterranean area. A basic level of visual detail is needed to determine if and where an oil reservoir is located. However, after an oil reservoir has been located, a more detailed view of the reservoir and surrounding areas is required to effectively manage the production of oil from the reservoir. The increased visual detail is required to locate optimal drilling locations to maximize the production of oil.
The level of visual detail afforded by a seismic visualization system is largely dependent upon the capabilities of the sound generating device. In general, a device producing a large bandwidth of frequencies can provide the more detailed visualization. Typically, when exploring for new oil reservoirs, devices producing frequencies of less than 70 Hz are capable of generating a resolution detailed enough to locate oil reservoirs. In production management, however, greater frequencies are required to adequately visualize the geological features surrounding the oil reservoir.
Generating sound waves in a body of water for seismic visualization purposes is typically performed with a device called an air gun array. The air guns within the array are detonated above the sea bottom to generate a sound wave that travels through the water to the earth's surface. The sound is partially transmitted through the surface and is partially reflected back from the stratified geological interfaces below. The reflections are sensed by any of several any of several known devices that are capable of interpreting the echoes and producing the visualization of the subterranean area.
The use of air guns to seismically visualize oil reservoirs in a marine environment presents several problems. Because of the design of the typical air gun, a large air gun is required to generate a sound wave having enough power to effectively visualize a reservoir. Thus, a large carrying vessel is required. In addition, the sound generated by the air gun cannot be radiated preferentially downward towards the oil reservoir. As a result a large amount of unwanted signals are echoed back from undesirable objects. A significant amount of signal processing is required to filter out the undesired echoes.
The frequency bandwidth of air guns is also limited. Currently, known air guns radiate insufficient power at frequencies greater than about 70 Hz. The limited frequency bandwidth provides insufficient resolution to visualize the oil--water interface within the formation. It is of great importance to effective oil - field management that successive locations of this interface be visualized at different times during production. In addition, the great power output of the air guns directed into a water body presents several environmental concerns. In particular, air guns are believed to present a serious threat to the nearby sea life.
In light of the foregoing there is a need for an environmentally friendly device capable of radiating a low frequency, high powered, and broad band of sound.


A radiation detector system having a heat pipe based cooling. The radiation detector system includes a radiation detector thermally coupled to a thermo electric cooler (TEC). The TEC cools down the radiation detector, whereby heat is generated by the TEC. A heat removal device dissipates the heat generated by the TEC to surrounding environment. A heat pipe has a first end thermally coupled to the TEC to receive the heat generated by the TEC, and a second end thermally coupled to the heat removal device. The heat pipe transfers the heat generated by the TEC from the first end to the second end to be removed by the heat removal device.

In radiation detector systems, cooling of the radiation detector and input components of the amplification circuit generally reduces electronic noise and enhances spectroscopic performance of the system. Liquid nitrogen (LN2) has traditionally been used for such cooling purposes.
A major weakness of LN2 cooling is the necessity for a large reservoir (i.e., dewar). Also, using LN2 is hazardous, inconvenient, and pricey. By way of example, severe burns can result from skin contact with LN2. In addition, the LN2 dewars must be refilled on a regular basis (e.g., twice per week) in order to maintain the detector at operating temperature.
Further, radiation detectors are frequently mounted at locations that are not easily accessible, and refilling the LN2 dewar is often an unsafe and uncomfortable operation, during which a user must carefully follow safety procedures or risks injury. The cost of purchasing, storing and handling LN2 over the lifetime of a radiation detector can be very high. Since LN2 evaporates from both the detector dewar and the storage tank, a waste cannot be prevented. Also, during the refilling process, significant amounts of LN2 are typically lost due to evaporation and spillage. Thus, in addition to the expense of LN2 consumed for cooling the detector, additional expenses are incurred because of LN2 loss during dewar refilling and storage.
By way of example, about ten liters of LN2 per week evaporate from a standard detector dewar, and about the same amount is lost during transfer and through evaporation from the storage tank. Therefore, a standard 160-liter storage tank lasts about eight weeks and must be refilled an average of 6.5 times per year. Hence, the annual cost of cooling an LN2-based detector for operation is approximately $2,500 per year. To the annual cost of LN2 must be added the cost of labor for handling LN2 and refilling the detector dewar. Even if this labor averages only twenty minutes per week, it can add hundreds of dollars per year to the cost of servicing an LN2-cooled detector.
In addition, the handling of LN2 often requires the purchase of a special liability insurance. Further, conventional LN2-cooled radiation detectors are bulky, due to their large capacity (e.g., nine liters) dewars, and typically weigh over forty pounds. Placed at the end of a long support structure, an LN2-cooled detector is cantilevered, and is vulnerable to vibrations that interfere with high resolution imaging in its applications in electron microscopes.
Radiation detectors utilizing thermo electrical cooling (TEC) (i.e., Peltier cooling) are being frequently used in many applications. The development of silicon structures such as low leakage current p-i-n and drift type detectors as well as high resistivity compound semiconductor detectors (HgI2, CdTe, CdZnTe and others) allow for construction of high energy resolution, spectroscopy systems without requiring LN2 cooling. Also, attempts are being made to develop Si[Li] systems that can operate with TEC cooling.
The TEC has distinctive advantages over the use of LN2. A TEC is a small heat pump that has no moving parts and can be used in various applications where space is limited and reliability is very important. The TEC operates using direct current by moving heat from one side of the module to the other with current flow and principles of thermodynamics. The theories behind the operation of TEC can be traced back to the early 1800's when Jean Peltier discovered that there is a heating or cooling effect when electric current passes through two conductors.
A typical single stage TEC includes two ceramic plates with p-type and n-type semiconductor material (e.g., bismuth telluride) between the plates. The elements of the semiconductor material are connected electrically in series and thermally in parallel. When a positive voltage is applied to the n-type thermo-element, electrons pass from the p-type thermo-element to the n-type thermo-element and cold side temperature decreases as heat is absorbed. The heat absorption (cooling) is proportional to the current and the number of semiconductor element pairs. The heat is transferred to the hot side of the cooler, where it is dissipated into a heat sink and/or the surrounding environment.
Although the amount of TEC cooling is proportional to the current applied, the power dissipated by Joule heating in the TEC is proportional to the square of the current, and it can be shown that half of this Joule heat must be pumped from the cold junction. For this reason, an increase in current above a certain level will result in less net cooling because the Joule heating is increasing at a faster rate than the cooling.
A multi-stage TEC is essentially two or more single stage TECs stacked vertically with fewer thermo-elements in each ascending stage. The multi-stage TECs are used to achieve larger temperature differential between cold and hot sides.
Despite its many advantages, the TEC is inferior to LN2 when it comes to heat pumping capacities and the lowest achievable temperature. However, in many cases use of the thermo electrical cooling is sufficient to achieve the desired performance characteristics of a spectroscopy system. Nevertheless, the above listed deficiencies typically impose strict limitations on the design of the spectrometer in terms of the placement of the cold components and dissipation of the heat generated by the TEC. In particular, it is difficult to extract heat from spectrometers having a configuration including a long probe design.
The long probe designs are often used in applications such as electron microscopy and many other x-ray fluorescence measurements. The detector needs to be placed in proximity to the samples being examined in order to assure a large solid angle of measurement. Very often the access to the sample is limited, for example, by electron focusing lenses or/and other instruments and objects including the sample holder.
For this reason, a front-end of the spectrometer is constructed as a long cylinder with a small diameter and the detector is placed at the front of the cylinder behind an entrance window. If the TEC is situated in proximity to the detector, there is a long path for the heat from the TEC to dissipate to the surrounding environment. A copper rod is typically used to conduct heat to an external radiator or a radiator and fan. Despite the fact that copper provides a good heat conductivity, there usually is a large temperature gradient generated along the heat conductor, thus elevating temperature at the hot side of the TEC.
By way of example, the temperature gradient generated due to 5 W heat energy conducting along a copper rod having 1.2 cm diameter and 15 cm length is 17° C. This phenomenon further limits the lowest achievable temperature at the cold side (i.e., the end thermally coupled to the radiation detector) of the TEC. In order to overcome this problem, other designs involve a water or coolant circulation at the base plate which is thermally coupled to the hot side of the TEC. This solution itself brings additional complexity and cost to the system. Moreover, the coolant flow may introduce vibration and noise to the spectrometric system.
An example of using a copper rod to conduct heat from the detector to the cold side of the TEC and then attaching the hot side to a copper base cooled by flowing water is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,075,555 to Woldseth et al. Some of the other concerns associated with this method are as follow. First, the long copper rod ("cold finger") causes a big loss in the cooling efficiency due to thermal radiation from the cold copper rod to the room temperate wall surfaces. The multi-stage TEC is a very low efficiency device, and losing temperature due to surface thermal radiation further complicates the design of an additional radiation shield surrounding the whole length of the copper rod (in some microanalysis products, a length of 10 inches (25.4 cm) or more). This radiation shield tube also needs to be cooled down by the same TEC.
Further, the TEC top stage is very fragile, and connecting it to the copper rod, even through a copper braid ("flexi cold finger"), can frequently cause the top stage of the TEC to break down as a result of mechanical shocks. In addition, cooling down the hot side of the TEC with flowing water is a relatively expensive solution. A chiller or a water radiator needs to be added, and in addition to the extra cost, it is also an additional bulky device which is inconvenient to add in many applications.
Therefore, a cooling system for a radiation detector system that overcomes one or more of the problems associated with above-mentioned LN2 cooling or TEC/copper rod cooling is desired.

Radiation detector system having heat pipe based cooling


The disclosure provides a method and an apparatus for live streaming. The method includes receiving a live streaming pausing command sent by a first client, in which the live streaming pausing command is configured to instruct a pause of a live streaming in a live streaming room created with a login account of the first client; pausing acquisition of live streaming data from the first client and acquiring a target resource based on the live streaming pausing command; sending a target resource to a second client to instruct the second client to switch from displaying a live streaming picture to displaying the target resource, in which the second client includes a client of an account entered in the live streaming room.

In the increasingly popular live streaming service, a common user may start a live streaming, and share his own life and work with worldwide audiences as an anchor in real time, for example the well-known game live streaming, live show (eating broadcast, talent show, tour show).
In some live streaming rooms, the audience can see all the contents in an interface of the anchor side. Taking a game live streaming room as an example, after the audience enters the live streaming room, the audience can see the game played by the anchor, operations and outfits of the anchor and so on. When the anchor launches an application during the live streaming, the audience can see operations of the anchor on the application.

Method and apparatus for live streaming, server, system and storage medium

Beijing Dajia Internet Information Technology Co., Ltd.


An azole derivative represented by general formula (I) or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, having both of a leukotriene antagonistic effect and a thromboxane A2 antagonistic effect and being useful in preventing or treating allergic diseases, ischemic heart diseases or ischemic brain diseases, and a medicinal composition containing the same as the active ingredient, wherein R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 may be the same or different and represent each hydrogen, cycloalkyl, etc., or R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 together with (a) may form a fused ring (b) or (c) which may be substituted by optionally substituted lower alkyl, amino, etc.; R.sup.3, R.sup.6, R.sup.7, R.sup.8 may be the same or different and represent each hydrogen, amino, etc.; R.sup.4 represents cyano, tetrazolyl, --COOR.sup.9, etc.; R.sup.5 represents hydrogen or lower alkyl; D represents optionally substituted lower alkylene; X and Z may be the same or different and represent each oxygen or sulfur; Y represents --N.dbd. or --CH.dbd.; A represents --O--B--, --B--O--, --S--B--, --B--S-- or --B-- (B being lower alkylene or lower alkenylene); and n is 0, 1, or 2.

Various cases are known in relation to asthma, which include dyspeptic asthma, allergic asthma, atopic asthma, bronchial asthma, bacterial asthma, cardiac asthma and the like. Particularly, there are a great number of patients of bronchial asthma among these cases, so that studies have been made on agents or methods for its prevention and treatment. The action mechanism of anti-bronchial asthmatic agents is considered from two viewpoints, i.e. bronchiectasis and anti-inflammation, and many therapeutic and preventive agents has been developed. As the aforementioned bronchodilators, .beta..sub.2 -stimulators, methylxanthine and cholinolytic agents may be exemplified, and steroids and mediator inhibitors may be exemplified as the anti-inflammatory agents. However, since the current antiasthmatic agents have disadvantages in that the bronchodilators have strong side effects and the anti-inflammatory agents have low efficacy in therapeutic and preventive effects in comparison with other agents, great concern has been directed toward the development of excellent asthma-preventing and treating agents which can supplement both of these disadvantages.
In recent years, among these anti-inflammatory agents, mediator inhibitors such as PAF antagonists, thromboxane A.sub.2 (TXA.sub.2) antagonists/synthesis inhibitors and leukotriene (LTs) antagonists have been applied to asthma and their efficacy is being recognized. However, it has been reported that the therapeutic effect of these agents on asthma (medium or more improvement of the efficacy of agents) is approximately around 50% when used alone (Igakuno Ayumi 168 (4), 295 (1994) and Igakuno Ayumi 164 (4), 225 (1993)), suggesting that the efficacy is not sufficient because of the difference in the type of mediator which takes the main role in each patient of asthma.
Recently, some compounds capable of inhibiting a plurality of mediators have been reported (for example, an unexamined published Japanese patent application (Kokai) No. 4-154766). However, their effects are not sufficient from the viewpoint of oral absorbability, so that great concern has been directed toward the creation of clinically useful agents which can effect well-balanced inhibition of a plurality of mediators and also are excellent in oral absorbability.

Azole derivative with leukotriene (LTs) antagonizing activity and thromboxane (TX) A.sub.2 antagonizing activity


Nanostructures are implemented in a manner that facilitates controlled, nano-scale dimensional manufacture and implementation. According to an example embodiment of the present invention, a nanostructure is formed from a layer of deposited metallic material, sized using a mask and, in some applications, metal deposition angle. The deposited metallic material is heated to form a metallic nanocluster having a cross-section (e.g., diameter-type or width-type dimensional characteristics) that is less than a width of the layer of deposited metal material. In one application, the metallic material is deposited on a substrate and in wells defined by a mask formed on the substrate. The metallic material is annealed to form metallic nanoclusters having a diameter that is on an order of magnitude less than a width and/or diameter of the wells.

Nanoparticles and nano-scale structures having size characteristics ranging down to the nanometer-range (e.g., having diameter, width or height characteristics that are less than 100 nanometers) have been the focus of a wide range of studies, owing to their interesting physical and chemical properties and broad applications in catalysis, surface science, materials science, medical fields, electronics and others. For instance, nanostructures such as metal clusters, nanotubes, nanowires, circuits and others have been the subject of research and implementation for a variety of applications.
In many applications, nanoparticles are formed for direct implementation with structures, or as a building block for larger structures and/or for the growth of nanostructures. Often, these nanoparticles are desirably formed with controllable sizes down to molecular dimensions. In addition, individual nanoparticles or clusters of nanoparticles are often desirably positioned on supporting structures such as substrates.
Some approaches to the manufacture of nanostructures involve the self-assembly of nanoparticles. Such self-assembly methods have afforded relatively small nanoparticles with packed or connected structures. However, many self-assembly approaches have been limited in application, relative to very small-scale (e.g., sub-20 nm) nanostructures. For instance, photolithography is one approach that has been useful in the manufacture of nano-scale particles, yet is difficult to implement at relatively small scale (e.g., sub-20 nm or sub-10 nm).
The above-mentioned and other factors have presented challenges to the production of nanostructures and to their integration with a variety of applications, such as those involving electronic, structural, medical and other devices.

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


A design data management program directs a computer to perform a procedure of converting design data generated at a designing side to a data format applicable to a production side and transmitting the data to the production side, and a procedure of converting the data to data described in a predetermined language and storing the data in the storage device when a notification of a change of the design data is received from the production side.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to design data management system, and more specifically to a design data management program for management of not only the design data generated at a designing side, but also the design change data generated at a producing side, for example, a factory, for the design data as data described in a predetermined language, for example, the XML (extensible markup language), and a design data trace program for reading data managed as described above in response to an external request, and displaying as a design data change history the result of retrieval under a given retrieval condition.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, using a system such as PDM (product data management), PLM (product lifecycle management), etc. as design data management system, a system of centrally managing various types of engineering data from concept design to general production has been widespread.
Conventionally, at the designing side, that is, in the design system, the time of the design data generated when a new design is used or when a design change is made passes when control is passed to the production side in a factory, for example, the production management division. In the production management division, only the data required in the factory is extracted, and other data is not stored. Therefore, when other design data is required in the factory, the data stored at the design system side is referenced, and the contents have to be confirmed with the manual.
Although production is performed in a factory based on the design data transmitted from the designing side, and, for example, a part to be used in the design data is specified at the designing side, the part may not be used in the factory. For example, when a screw specified in a step cannot be used, another screw is used in the factory. Furthermore, when a specified screw can be used in the factory by obtaining it from, for example, companies A, B, and C, the substitute parts information about which parts are used cannot be obtained at, for example, the designing side. Including the substitute parts information, the design change data at the factory side has not been centrally managed.
That is, when a product is produced in a factory based on specific design data, the design data generated at the design division is transmitted to a plurality of factories, and a plurality of units configuring the product are produced in a plurality of factories, the design data can be uniquely changed or amended by each factory depending on the management level and the convenience of each factory. However, it has been difficult at the design system side to manage the design change data for each factory.
For example, when a product configured by a plurality of units designed by the respective design systems is produced, it is difficult to centrally manage the design data generated by the plurality of design systems in an existing database.
The conventional technologies relating to the above-mentioned design data management system are disclosed by the following documents.
Japanese Published Patent Application No. 7-271642 discloses an engineering information storage device capable of easily checking which version of the component was used in the past document generating process by storing as information data which version of data was used for which component when a document is generated by referring to data of components.
Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2004-178170 discloses a design data management system and program capable of easily converting data for obtaining production data from the design data by converting the design data to input data described in a predetermined format, converting the input data to integral data in a format in which the data can be easily converted to the production data, that is, the data described in the XML, and managing the resultant data.
However, there has still been the problem that the design change data used in each factory cannot be centrally managed including, for example, the substitute parts information although the conventional technologies disclosed by the above-mentioned documents are used.


Apparatus for biological production of ethanol from waste gases includes a bioreactor including a plurality of tunnels each having inlet and outlet passageways, a gasifier reactor generates a continuous supply of syngas from waste gases into the upper portion of each tunnel. A mixing device provides a continuous supply of fermentation microbes in a liquid directed by pumps and spray misters into the tunnel. Pumps direct the liquid vertically for conversion of the syngas into ethanol.

1. Field of the Invention
This present invention is directed towards improving a process utilizing a continuous gaseous waste stream (syngas) through a tunnel fermentation system or tunnel bioreactor under anaerobic conditions.
2. Relevant Art
Previous methods and art of waste gas fermentation involved tanks or tower structures containing the fermentation medium such as a Continuously Stirred Reactor (CSTR) and Immobilized Cell Reactor (ICR). Most demonstrated tanks in the art are of the Continuously Stirred Reactor (CSTR) type and keep the incoming syngas in solution longer to prevent large bubble formation because syngas would co-mingle to a larger a larger bubble as it ascended to the surface without agitation. Previous art needed to have the syngas pressurized to 3 atmospheres (42 lbs) for it to be pumped against the force of 20-30 feet of water solution. Once the syngas has surfaced there is no longer any contact with the ethanol producing microbes and the exposed syngas must be separated for its unused components or combusted to make electricity. The present invention allows for the syngas, primarily composed of CO, CO2 and H2, to slowly meander at very low pressures (less than 5 lbs psi) through a tunnel.
Contact with the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium Ijungdahlii or mixture of microbes with the meandering syngas must be accomplished by pumping the microbial aqueous medium and allowing contact above the aqueous medium surface level.
Previous methods in the art of ethanol production from carbon black waste gas have all been in a continuous stirred bioreactor.
Carbon black waste gases are produced as the result of partial oxidation of hydrocarbons with insufficient air to form amorphous carbon, with about 1.2 pounds of carbon monoxide produced per pound of elemental carbon. These waste gases form a serious atmospheric contamination problem but also represent a valuable chemical feedstock resource not presently being recovered.
Previous methods in the art have included carbon black waste gas containing about 14% CO, 17% H2, 4% CO2 and its major component N2 and is agitated by compressed air into a continuous stirred tank reactor and maintained at 37 degrees C., and contains Clostridium Ijungdahlii isolate ER12 ATCC deposit 55380. The gas retention time is maintained at 0.52 min. The aqueous liquid medium containing water, base salts, B-vitamins, a nitrogen source and a sulfide source is fed into the reactor at a liquid dilution rate (defined as the ratio of the liquid flow rate to reactor volume) of 1.05 hr−1. The agitation rate of this reactor is 322 rpm, the temperature is 37 degrees C. and the operating pH is 5.03. Under these conditions, the conversion of CO was 83% and the conversion of H2 was 54%.
Optimal gas retention times in (CSTR) models using agitation were in the range of three minutes and 1000 rpm on the bench scale model. The gas recovery varies with its uptake by the bacteria, which was in turn a function of the cell density. See U.S. Patent Application, J. L. Gaddy, Pub. No. US 2003/0211585 A1, Nov. 13, 2003.
There remains a need in the art of fermentation of industrial gaseous substrates also known as syngas for an improved handling system to allow optimal exposure of syngas for the production of ethanol.

Biological production of ethanol from waste gases


Systems for providing multi-layer authentication are provided. In some examples, a system may receive data associated with a signal detected by a computing device. The signal may be emitted from a smart processing device. The received signal data may be compared to pre-stored signal data to determine whether a match exists. If not, an instruction disabling functionality of the smart processing device may be generated and transmitted to the smart processing device. If so, an instruction enabling functionality of the smart processing device may be generated and transmitted. The system may generate a request for next layer authentication data. The request may be transmitted to one or more computing devices and next layer authentication response data may be received. The next layer authentication response data may be compared to pre-stored next layer authentication data to determine whether a match exists. If not, an instruction disabling functionality of the smart processing device may be generated and transmitted. If so, an instruction enabling additional functionality of the smart processing device may be generated and transmitted.

Aspects of the disclosure relate to electrical computers, systems, and authentication functions. In particular, one or more aspects of the disclosure relate to providing multi-layer authentication with selective level access control.
Protecting user data, personal finances, and thwarting unauthorized activity are priorities for users today. As users are conducting transactions, accessing buildings, and the like, authentication is used to confirm that the user is not, in fact, unauthorized. However, conventional devices used in these scenarios often have data printed on them which is readily available for use by an unauthorized user should the unauthorized user gain access to the device. Further, in some conventional arrangements, access to printed data on a device may be sufficient to perform any number of functions associated with the device, without limit. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide multi-layer authentication to control visible data while providing selective level access control.

Multi-layer authentication system with selective level access control


A system for measuring an analyte of interest, particularly carbon dioxide, dissolved in a fluid media of a patient including a nanoelectronic sensor and a measurement instrument in communication with the sensor and configured to receive at least a signal from the sensor indicative of a response of the sensor to at least the analyte of interest.

As described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/099,293 filed Jun. 18, 1998 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,447) entitled "Patient CO2 Measurement" by M. Weil et al., and other patent applications incorporated by reference herein, methods and apparatus have been developed for sampling of carbon dioxide (CO2) as present in human tissue.
Examples include measurement strategies for determining tissue CO2 by sampling gases diffused across a mucous membrane. In a further example, a system for sublingual measurement of CO2 has been made and marketed as the CapnoProbe by Nellcor Puritan Bennett (Tyco Healthcare/Mallinckrodt). Unfortunately there are challenges involved with this approach (see FDA Press Release P04-82 dated Aug. 27, 2004, which is published on the web as http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/news/2004/NEW01108.html).
Each such probe is packaged in a metal canister filled with a saline solution and sealed in a foil envelope labeled as non-sterile. In this instance, the probe and associated saline were reported to contain the bacteria Burkholderia Cepacia and other opportunistic pathogens that can cause serious infections, usually in persons who have decreased resistance to infection. This has resulted in the recall of certain devices. The saline storage limitations are related to the detection technology employed. See, for example, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/535,878 filed Sep. 28, 1995 by J. Alderete, et al. for "Optical Carbon Dioxide Sensor, and Associated Methods of Manufacture" (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,714,121 assigned to Optical Sensors Incorporated), which is incorporated by reference herein. What is needed is an inexpensive carbon dioxide sensor for reliable, and safe measurement of carbon dioxide that does not require storage in a saline solution to maintain its operational characteristics.

Nanoelectronic measurement system for physiologic gases and improved nanosensor for carbon dioxide


The permanent wave clip (1) has three curlers (2,3,4) which can be arranged parallel to each other including a releasable and exchangeable hair tip curler (6) rotatable about its axis which is clipped in a curler holder (7). A curler (2), which is a hair root curler (9), has a smaller diameter than the hair tip curler (6). The central hair curler (3) can be pivoted out of and into a parallel relationship with the other curlers by means of a pivot (17) in a preferred embodiment. The permanent wave clip (1) is easily operated and provides an outstanding hair root curl.

The present invention concerns a permanent wave clip with three curlers, which can be arranged with their long axes substantially parallel and with an outer hair tip curler furthest from the hair roots, which is exchangeable and rotatable about its long axis and with a connection device for connection of the curlers.
This type of permanent wave clip is described in German Published Patent Application DE-OS 43 00 166. A hair strand is first wound in a curved shape around a first curler closest to the hair roots (hair root curler), then is curled in the opposite direction around a central curler and finally wound around a third curler (the hair tip curler) in the same direction as in the case of the first hair root curler. The three curlers are releasably and/or elastically connected with each other. The hair tip curler is rotatable.
The known permanent wave clip of this type has the disadvantage that it is comparatively difficult to handle or manipulate and the hair tip curler can be placed in a position predetermined by the connection device between the curlers with a comparatively great effort. Furthermore the permanent wave clip of the prior art is hardly suitable to obtain a good hair root curl.


The present invention relates to a method of using a suction cleaning device which provides liquid dispensing, scrubbing, squeegeeing, and suction drying in a single, compact, self contained device. The suction cleaning device includes a cleaning device housing, a handle connected to the housing, an absorbent cleaning member mounted on the housing and movable between an extended and a retracted position, and a pair of squeegee blades. The device includes a suction system which draws the water from the floor surface which has been cleaned into a tank mounted on the housing which collects the liquid from the floor surface. A clean water bottle is provided on the housing for delivering cleaning liquid to the floor and a rechargeable battery power source provides power to the suction motor. The cleaning device is compact and lightweight and leaves the floor in a substantially dry state. The method includes dispensing cleaning liquid from the bottle provided in the self contained cleaning system and cleaning the floor with the cleaning member and the cleaning liquid. The cleaning member is retracted and contaminated cleaning liquid is wrung from it. The squeegee member collects the contaminated cleaning liquid from the floor and the suction system draws the contaminated cleaning liquid into the tank to leave the floor in a substantially dry state.

The present invention relates to an improved wet mop. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a cordless wet mop including a scrubbing assembly and a vacuum assembly for collecting dirty water from the floor to achieve a clean and substantially dry floor surface.
Mops for cleaning floor surfaces generally include an absorbent mop or sponge head and some type of wringing mechanism for wringing dirty water out of the mop or sponge head. In particular, the mop is used in conjunction with a bucket of cleaning liquid, usually consisting of water with a cleaning additive. The mop absorbs the cleaning liquid which is used to scrub the floor. Once the mop has been contaminated by scrubbing the floor, it is inserted back into the bucket to rinse the mop and to absorb additional cleaning liquid. The continuous introduction of the dirty mop into the clean liquid in the bucket quickly contaminates the clean liquid in the bucket and reduces the cleaning ability during a remainder of the mopping operation. Thus, it would be desirable to prevent contamination of the cleaning liquid during a floor cleaning operation. In addition, it would be desirable to eliminate the approximately 15 minutes of floor drying time necessary with conventional mop and bucket cleaning.
Suction squeegees have been proposed which remove cleaning liquid from a floor surface which has previously been cleaned. One such suction squeegee device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,199. However, this suction squeegee device does not eliminate the problem of contamination of the clean water bucket because a conventional mop and bucket must be used to clean the floor prior to use of the suction squeegee device. In addition, this suction squeegee has the disadvantage of requiring three or four separate devices to perform the cleaning operation including the suction squeegee, a mop, a mechanism to wring dirty water out of the mop, and a bucket.
Another suction cleaning apparatus has been described which provides a combined scrubbing and water pick-up apparatus for cleaning and drying a floor surface. This device includes a combined clean water and dirty water tank with a flexible membrane separating the clean and dirty water in the tank. Clean water is dispensed from the tank and a cleaning nozzle including bristles or brushes used for scrubbing. After scrubbing, a suction system is activated to remove the dirty water from the floor and the dirty water is collected in the tank.
Examples of combination scrubbing and water pick-up devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,986,764; 3,020,576; 3,040,362; 3,040,363; and 3,060,484. The devices described in these patents have several drawbacks including the cumbersome size and weight of the device, the need for a power supply cord which gets in the users way, and the safety concerns associated with the use of household voltage in combination with a water filled device.


A device for providing active, closed-loop humidity control to the environment surrounding and within a hollow-bodied wood instrument. The device includes at least one humidity sensor, and preferably two, one for monitoring the environment's humidity, and one for monitoring the device's response. With data from these humidity sensors, a microcontroller determines whether the system should take action to increase the humidity of this environment by controlling a vapor-generating device. Water is supplied to this device by a water reservoir.

It is well known that the moisture content in wood-bodied instruments has a significant impact on an instrument's structural integrity and tonal quality. Excessive drying may cause cracks along ring-lines of the wood or at the interface of two wood sections, usually glued together. Arid conditions may also result in deformations to the soundboard, affecting the position of the "bridge" and resulting in misalignment of the strings with respect to the neck. Deformations, also referred to as bowing, bending, or warping, may also contribute to a separation between the soundboard and the bridge of a guitar or between the body and neck of most wood-bodied instruments. Therefore, it is essential to prevent the wood from drying out. A humidifier placed inside the instrument (or instrument case) acts to add water vapor to the air in and surrounding the hollow body of the instrument. The rate of humidification depends on relative humidity differences between humidified air and air near the instrument's wood surfaces.
Previous attempts to humidify hollow-body instruments have been proposed. Those attempts involve the use of a passive (or open-loop) technique that relies on assumed vapor pressure differentials with no feedback from active, accurate sensors.
Some of the prior inventions designed to address humidity concerns are moisture rich containers placed inside an instrument's protective carrying case. Perforations in the container allow moisture to leave the container and to diffuse throughout the case, ultimately entering into the hollow body of the instrument. However, as noted over 50 years ago by HOLLANDER (U.S. Pat. No. 3,407,700), the case is typically vapor permeable and permits water vapor to escape from the case. This limits the amount of water vapor that can potentially enter the hollow body of the instrument. Additionally, the moisture that remains in the case rarely enters the sound hole, and thus rarely enters the hollow body, which is a significant issue, since the most sensitive surfaces of a wood instrument to the humidity of the ambient environment are the unprotected surfaces inside the instrument. With the humidification device placed within the instrument's case, but not inside the instrument, the problem of too little moisture entering the hollow body of the instrument arises for two reasons: (1) the small size of the sound holes limits the amount of humidified air that can diffuse into the wood instrument and (2) the humidified air must travel a significant distance to contact the unprotected surfaces inside the instrument, which probabilistically decreases the chance that the humidified air will contact these surfaces. As yet another issue, the moisture content of these inventions is quickly exhausted, requiring users to refill the containers frequently. Additionally, passive humidification means may also be detrimental to the instrument, since the adjusted humidity could still remain inaccurate.
Despite the severe limitations presented above in humidifying a case, efforts of this type continued. BERLINER (U.S. Pat. No. 3,431,038) increased the water capacity. EGBER (U.S. Pat. No. 8,748,723) considered using a saturated aqueous solution encased in a semipermeable membrane. Some of the problems with semipermeable pouches include (but are not limited to): the restriction to use aqueous solutions that do not chemically react with the packaging, the potential for release of undesirable gases (such as hydrogen sulfide), a limited moisture transfer capacity (only a fraction of the moisture in the package can be used for humidification), and the need for a specific pouch for a specific environment or desired humidity range. Another problem is that use of these products involves weighing the package before installation and then periodically afterward to calculate the remaining moisture content—a prohibitively cumbersome task.
A significant improvement to humidifiers consists of placing the humidifying device inside the hollow body rather than in the case. HOLLANDER (U.S. Pat. No. 3,407,700) disclosed a snake-like structure that is inserted into the hollow body through the sound hole. Inside the device is a damp, spongy material. Placing the humidifier inside the wood instrument mitigates the problem presented above of humidified air entering the sound hole. Regardless, water vapor can still leave the sound hole and the case. In addition, these inventions require frequent maintenance of the moisture source and do not provide the user with critical details about the environment inside the hollow body. Variations to this idea include VON MYER (U.S. Pat. No. 3,721,152), LASKIN (U.S. Pat. No. 4,572,051), LIGHT (U.S. Pat. No. 5,289,751), and HEPPLE (U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,087,645/8,220,782).
BLACKSHEAR (U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,793) improved the prior state of the art by proposing a mechanism to seal off the hollow body in order to mitigate the effect of moisture loss to the ambient environment. His detailed investigation into moisture loss mechanisms revealed that moisture can penetrate the lacquer or epoxy finish on the outside of an instrument. Therefore, even instruments with the sound hole covered require a humidification device with a large water reservoir, since the water vapor can still escape the enclosed internal environment.
Blackshear also noted the deleterious effect of sudden changes in humidity. "Because wood is viscoelastic, i.e., it can flow as well as elastically deform, greater swings in humidity and the resulting volume changes can be tolerated without crack formation if the changes occur gradually." However, a shock to the system from sudden changes in humidity can ultimately lead to large stresses in the wood resulting in cracks. Although Blackshear mentioned moisture shock in his discussion, his device does not actively control the actual rate of humidification.
The remaining effort in Blackshear's work was in building an improved humidification system that operates under specific but limited ambient conditions. The specificity of this device limits its operation to a narrow range of ambient conditions. In addition, the sponge of this device still needs to be re-wet weekly.
None of the aforementioned inventions provide an indicator of the actual humidity level inside the instrument body. The commercial product Planet Waves Acoustic Guitar Humidifier by D'Addario has a temperature and humidity sensor and display. In addition, it suspends into the hollow body via the strings, and it is filled with a damp, spongy material. However, this product does not cover the sound hole. Furthermore, the output of the Planet Waves humidity sensor does not affect the output of the moist sponge. Consequently, this system is passive and the humidity sensor is useless unless the user regularly monitors it.
In fact, all of the previously mentioned inventions are passive (open-loop) systems. Terms used in prior patents such as "auto regulation" or "self-regulating" are misnomers that imply that these devices incorporate active closed-loop humidity regulation. Instead, these devices stop producing an output when vapor pressure reaches equilibrium, not when a user-defined set point is reached, which may be above or below the equilibrium value. Furthermore, the majority of these devices do not measure the humidity of the environment.
The inventor, Shengxie Nangong (CN 201804543 U), combined some of the features of the prior art to produce a sound-hole cover with a snake-like sponge that penetrates into hollow body. There is also a hydrometer that displays the current humidity level. However, like the other prior art, this system is passive, is incapable of achieving a desired set point, and needs to be maintained frequently.
In summary of the prior art: the performance of the prior art is heavily bounded by initial ambient conditions (i.e. if the initial ambient humidity is too low, an equilibrium may never be reached), the permeability of the instrument, the permeability of the case (if used), and the diligence of the user to frequently inspect the humidifying device; many of the semipermeable pouches contain toxins or corrosive elements; the moisture transfer capacity of the prior art is low; most devices do not display the actual humidity level in the hollow body or the case; the prior art does not control the humidification rate to address moisture shock, and the prior art does not actively control the output of the moisture-generating device.

System and method for active humidification of hollow-bodied wood instruments


A method is disclosed for correction of the effects of ink back-flow and lateral flow in the inking system of a web-offset printing press. A plate coverage equation dependent on plate coverage is used to compensate for ink back-flow into the ink reservoir. An ink key distribution function is utilized to correct for the blurring effects of lateral ink spread caused by the action of vibrator rollers. A correction is also made for the ink saturation effect. The method is applicable to an ink key preset system.

A web-offset printing press includes an inking assembly for each color of ink used in the printing process. Each inking assembly includes an ink reservoir as well as a blade disposed along the outer surface of an ink fountain roller. The amount of ink supplied to the roller train of the press and ultimately to a substrate such as paper is adjusted by changing the spacing between the edge of the blade and the outer surface of the ink fountain roller. The blade is divided into a plurality of blade segments, and the position of each blade segment relative to the ink fountain roller is independently adjustable by movement of an adjusting screw, or ink key, to thereby control the amount of ink fed to a corresponding vertical strip or zone of the substrate. Note that electronic equivalents of an ink key also exist, such as the equivalent disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,129,320, issued Jul. 14, 1992 to Fadner. The term "ink key" is intended to include any device which controls the amount of ink fed to a corresponding vertical strip or zone of the substrate.
Typically, ink is also spread laterally from one vertical zone to adjacent vertical zones due to the movement of vibrator rollers, which oscillate in a lateral direction relative to the substrate.
The amount of ink on the ink fountain roller itself is also adjustable by changing the angle that the ink fountain roller rotates each stroke. Typically, this occurs by adjusting a ratchet assembly, as is known in the art.
In order to preset the initial positions of the ink keys, it is common for a printing press operator to examine printed copies or proofs of the image to be printed and to note the amount of color necessary in respective vertical zones of the image to be printed. Based on this visual examination as well as experience with the press, ink, and type of substrate (typically paper), the operator will preset the ink keys to approximate the settings that will be required once the press is running. As an example, low-tack yellow ink has a low pigment strength and requires a greater amount of ink to produce an image with a given optical density. As another example, uncoated paper requires more ink than does coated paper to achieve an image having a given optical density.
In addition to presetting the ink keys, once the press is running, it is common for a press operator to continually monitor the printed output and to make appropriate ink key adjustments in order to achieve appropriate quality control of the color of the printed image. For example, if the color in a zone is too weak, the operator adjusts the corresponding ink key to allow more ink flow to that zone; if the color is too strong, the corresponding ink key is adjusted to decrease the ink flow. During operation of the printing press, further color adjustments may be necessary to compensate for changing press conditions, or to account for the personal preferences of the customer.
The above-described visual inspection techniques used in connection with ink key presetting and color control are inaccurate, expensive, and time-consuming. Further, since the required image colors are often halftones combined with other colors, such techniques also require a high level of operator expertise.
Various other methods for presetting the ink keys are also known, which rely on a more exact measurement of plate coverage to achieve more accurate results than those obtained by visual estimation. Plate coverage is the ratio of the inked area to the total plate area, and provides a measure of the amount of ink required to print the desired image. By dividing the printing plate into zones corresponding to the ink keys, and determining the plate coverage of each zone, an initial ink key setting can be determined.
By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,509 describes a method wherein the plate coverage of each ink key zone is determined by photo-electronic scanning of a portion of the printing plate. The ink key positions are calculated to be proportional to the plate coverage in a corresponding zone. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,210,818, 4,187,435, and 4,180,741 also describe systems wherein ink keys are adjusted according to the plate coverage in a corresponding zone. Here, the plate coverage is determined using a light source to illuminate an image area such as a photographic film of the image or a printing plate to be printed and using light sensors to measure the light reflected from the film. Again, the ink key positions are calculated to be proportional to the plate coverage in a corresponding zone.
Other ink key preset systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,170,711, 5,070,784, and 5,524,542. The systems described therein also account for various empirical parameters associated with the characteristics of the press, ink, type of job, and type of paper. These empirical parameters are typically learned from consistent usage of the preset system. Several different sets of parameters are often necessary for various types of printing jobs, especially for different plate coverages.
The above-described methods for presetting the ink keys are also somewhat inefficient and inaccurate because they do not take into account various factors such as ink back-flow, lateral ink spread, and ink saturation. Since substrate material is wasted until acceptable color is achieved, a more accurate method of presetting the ink keys will minimize the required number of adjustments while the press is running, saving both valuable time and material costs. Especially for print jobs of short duration, start-up waste can be a major percentage of total time and materials required.
Methods other than visual inspection of the printed image are also known for monitoring color quality once the press is running. These methods typically include measuring the optical density of a printed image. Optical density of various points of a printed image can be measured by using a densitometer or scanning densitometer either off-line or on-line of the web printing process. Off-line optical density measurements are performed by illuminating a test image with a light source and measuring the intensity of the light reflected from the image. Optical density (D) is defined as: EQU D=-log.sub.10 (R)
where R is the reflectance, or ratio of reflected light intensity to incident light intensity. An effective on-line method for accurately measuring the optical density of a printed image is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/434,928, invented by John C. Seymour, Jeffrey P. Rappette, Frank N. Vroman, Chia-Lin Chu, Bradly S. Moersfelder, Michael A. Gill and Karl R. Voss, and assigned to the assignee of the present invention.

Ink key control in a printing press including lateral ink spread, ink saturation, and back-flow compensation


An electrode (1) for cold cathode tube has a cylindrical sidewall portion (2), a bottom portion (3) provided at one end of the sidewall portion, and an opening portion (4) provided at the other end of the sidewall portion. The sidewall portion and the bottom portion are made of tungsten. The tungsten has fibrous crystalline structure extending substantially perpendicularly to a direction of thickness of the sidewall portion or the bottom portion. The thickness T of the sidewall portion or the bottom portion and an average width W of the fibrous crystalline structures in the direction of the thickness satisfy the following relational expression: 0.003≦W/T≦0.07.

Cold cathode tubes have conventionally been used as backlights of liquid crystal display devices. In addition to high brightness and high efficiency, a long life is required of cold cathode tubes in such application. For example, in the application in a liquid crystal TV and the like, they are required to have a long life of more than 60000 hours. Further, since the discharge starts with glow discharge in cold cathode tubes, a material more easily causing the start of the discharge is desired for electrodes for cold cathode tube.
A cold cathode tube useful as a backlight for liquid crystal display device has a structure such that minute amounts of mercury and rare gas are filled in a glass tube whose inner surface is coated with a phosphor, and electrodes for cold cathode tube and lead-in wires (for example, KOV+dumet wires) are mounted in both end portions of the glass tube. In such a cold cathode tube, upon voltage application to the electrodes in the both ends, the mercury sealed in the glass tube is evaporated, resulting in emission of ultraviolet light, and the phosphor absorbs the ultraviolet light to emit light.
As a material forming electrodes for cold cathode tube, a material which is relatively easily worked, such as Ni, Ti, or Al, is used. Such an electrode for cold cathode tube, however, is likely to deteriorate the life of a lamp because of a relatively high cathode fall voltage necessary for electron emission from the electrode to a discharge space and because of the occurrence of what is called a sputtering phenomenon. The sputtering phenomenon refers to a phenomenon that an electrode material scatters when ions collide with the electrode during lighting of the cold cathode tube, and the scattered material, the mercury, and the like deposit on a wall surface in the glass tube.
The mercury is taken into a deposit layer formed by the sputtering phenomenon, and thus is not usable for light emission, which extremely lowers brightness of the cold cathode tube. Reducing such a sputtering phenomenon reduces the consumption of the mercury, realizing a longer life even with the same amount of the sealed mercury.
In order to lower the cathode fall voltage and reduce the sputtering phenomenon, an electrode structure has been attempted in which an electrode for cold cathode tube is formed in a bottomed cylindrical shape and a cutout portion is provided in its sidewall portion (see a Patent Reference 1). This structure aims at both the effect of lowering the cathode fall voltage and the effect of reducing the sputtering, by a hollow cathode effect.
Further, there has been made a proposal of a cylindrical electrode for cold cathode tube made of tungsten or the like, whose surface area is increased by setting a relation between a thickness a of its bottom portion and a thickness b of its side surface portion to a>b and by using a sintered compact with a 80 to 98% relative density (see a Patent Reference 2). With these designs, it has been attempted to increase a coverage amount of an electron emissive material to prolong the life of the cold cathode tube.
The electrodes for cold cathode tubes are modified in their shapes and the like, thereby realizing a longer life. However, the conventional electrodes for cold cathode tube are facing a demand for further improvement in characteristic though a certain level of improvement is recognized therein regarding a discharge start characteristic, a life characteristic, and the like. Further, the electrodes for cold cathode tube are manufactured by, for example, using a drawn metal plate. However, conventional metal plates used for manufacturing the electrodes have a problem that those excellent in workability are inferior in discharge start characteristic and the like, whereas those excellent in discharge start characteristic are inferior in workability.
Patent Reference 1: JP-A 2001-176445 (KOKAI)
Patent Reference 2: JP-A 2004-178875 (KOKAI)

Electrode for cold cathode tube, and cold cathode tube and liquid crystal display device using the same


A stackable folding chair has a seat and a back pivotably attached to the rear edge of the seat. Front legs are pivotably attached at right and left edges of the seat. Rear legs are pivotably attached to the bottom of the seat. Armrests are pivotably attached to the seat back and adjustably attached to the front legs. The rear legs are pivotable relative from an extended position a folded position in which the rear legs are substantially parallel to and beneath the seat. Adjustable attachment of the armrests to the front legs allows the angle of the seat back to be adjusted as well as enabling the front legs and seat back to fold substantially parallel to the seat. The stackable folding chair preferably injected molded from plastic.

Folding chairs of various types are well known. Such chairs typically have a seat which is pivotably attached to legs such that the seat can be pivoted from an open position for sitting to a folded position for storage. Many such folding chairs have a seat back connected between the pair of legs. The advantage of these chairs is that they can be stored in a relatively small space when in a folded condition.
Another type of chair, popular for use as outdoor furniture, is a molded plastic chair. These chairs are a single molded structure and are usually configured so that one chair may be stacked on another chair.
Stackable chairs have an advantage in that they can be stacked upon one another and placed on a pallet for easy transport. A retailer may display the stacked chairs on the same pallet on which they have been shipped. Consumers may also store several stackable chairs stacked one upon another. While the stackability is an advantage for storage and display, larger stackable chairs are disliked by consumers because they will not fit into many automobiles. Consequently, there is a need for a chair which is both stackable and can be folded. Such a chair would fit into most family cars when folded.
Adirondack chairs are a larger type of chair and are very popular. These chairs tend to be either a single molded unit or a wooden chair in which the pieces of the chair are nailed together to form a single unit. Most wooden Adirondack chairs are not foldable, and are also very difficult to stack. Indeed, the only method of stacking such an Adirondack chair is to place one chair in an upright position and the invert the second chair and place it over the first chair. Consequently, there is a need for an Adirondack chair which is both stackable and foldable.


The invention provides methods for detecting abnormal prostate conditions, such as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN), and adenocarcinoma, in an animal by comparing the amount of the Breast Tumor Kinase (BRK) tyrosine kinase in the nuclei of prostate luminal epithelial cells in a test sample with an amount of nuclear BRK protein in epithelial cells of normal prostate glands.

The estimated incidence of prostate cancer in men over the age of 50 is 30%, making it the most common form of cancer among males. Currently, prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among men in the United States.
Although a considerable amount of research has been devoted to developing effective therapies against the disease, prostate cancer remains difficult to treat. The most common forms of treatment remain based on surgery, radiation therapy, or a combination of surgery and radiation therapy. However, these methods are ineffective in a significant number of cases and have a great many deleterious side effects.
Two previously identified prostate specific proteins, prostate specific antigen (PSA) and prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP), have been identified and used as markers for identifying patients with or at risk for prostate cancer. The therapeutic and diagnostic potential of PSA and PAP, however, is limited. For example, PSA levels do not always correlate with the presence of prostate cancer. In some cases, elevated PSA levels are associated with a number of non-prostate cancer disorders, including benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Furthermore, PSA measurements correlate with prostate volume, an unreliable marker for prostate cancer, and do not indicate the level of metastasis.
Besides serum markers, such as PSA, physicians recommend the digital rectal examination (DRE) for aging men, particularly men over the age of 50 or who have a family history of prostate cancer. The sensitivity of the DRE is limited, because the examining finger can only palpate the posterior and lateral portions of the gland, leaving some tumors undetected. If a DRE or serum marker test is abnormal, imaging tools, such as MRI or transrectal ultrasound must be used to further examine the gland. However, cancer is confirmed only by a biopsy.
Pathologists in the United States primarily use the Gleason system to assign as grade to tumors detected in biopsies. The Gleason system involves histologic grading based on the pattern of glandular formation, assigning a number of 1 to 5. Lower numbers are well differentiated and higher numbers are poorly differentiated (Gleason and Mellinger, 1974, J. Urol. 111:58–64). A pathologist assigns one number based on the level of differentiation of the most prevalent grade in the sample, and makes a second assessment based on the predominant secondary grade. The two grades are added together to get the "Gleason sum." While the Gleason system is widely used, it often leads to variable scores between different diagnosticians. Poor reproducibility between diagnosticians is a major problem in grading prostate tumors.
The screening methods for detecting and diagnosing prostate tumors discussed above are limited in their sensitivity. Consequently, there is a need in the art for improved methods of diagnosing prostate cancer. Given the discrepancy between pathologists in grading the severity of tumors, there also remains a need for an easier, more accurate method of grading prostate tumors.

Altered intracellular localization of BRK/Sik protein tyrosine kinase in human prostate tumors

The Board of Trustees of the Univeristy of Illinois


Provision of a technology capable of presenting information regarding derivative files secondarily derived and created from a leaked file, by retrieving the first leaked file, and capable of presenting personal information recorded on a computer accessible via a wide area network. There is provided an apparatus including a recording section for recording original data of a leaked file, an extracting section for extracting the original data and representations corresponding to information that should be prevented from being leaked and included in one or more files existing in a recording area to be investigated, an investigating section for investigating a degree of association between the file existing in the recording area to be investigated and the original data based on the extracted representations, and a presenting section for presenting information on a file created based on the leak.

In recent years, there has been a problem of how to prevent a third party from leaking, stealing, and improperly using given information. Moreover, if leakage of any given information occurs from an information processing system, it is desirable that an administrator of that system can surely track and obtain the cause of the leakage of the given information.
Therefore, there is a known method of tracing and obtaining the cause of the leakage by leaving histories in which an access has been made to the information that should be prevented from being leaked and referencing the histories in which the access has been made after the leakage (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2004-118243, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2003-076662). According to this method, the cause of the leakage can be identified by user names in the access histories by referencing the access histories after the information has been leaked out once.

Information presentation apparatus, and information presentation method and program for use therein


Systems and methods for creating custom professional videos are disclosed. The system includes client computing devices, an administrator computing device, and professional editor computing devices, all of which communicate with one or more servers via a network. A server of the one or more servers receives media data including at least one image file, text data, and an audio file from a client computing device via a network. The server creates a video job based on the media data and transmits it to a professional editor computing device. The professional editor uses at least one editing application running on the professional editor computing device to create a video based on the video job. The server transmits the created video to the administrator computing device for review. The server transmits the created video to the client computing device upon approval by the administrator.

The opportunities for small and large companies to use video to promote their business in digital channels and media are expanding rapidly. The channels they are using include: Social media sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc.), email and email marketing campaigns, websites, mobile devices (e.g., iPads, mobile phones, etc.), cable TV, Taxi TV, digital media, and many more. The opportunity to showcase video in various venues increases every year. Companies often have content including photographs, key information, and logos that can be used to create a video. With the increased availability and ease of use of digital devices that capture video, many of those companies also have video clips they have shot with digital cameras or their cell phones. This content can be used to create compelling, engaging videos that can help a company drive business.
However, many of these companies lack the resources, time, experience, or skills required to create a compelling, engaging video from their content. Many of these companies do not have a video department, a skilled editor on staff, or the proper software to transform their raw materials into an effective, professional video that can be used in these ever-increasing digital channels to help grow their business.

Systems and methods for managing the process of creating custom professional videos


According to a particular embodiment, a method for evaluating different antenna designs includes receiving different sets of antenna patterns representative of the different antenna designs from a corresponding number of data sources. The different sets of antenna patterns are applied to a characterizer component for generating a sidelobe banking (SLB) characteristic map for each set of antenna patterns received. A SLB effectiveness chart is generated from the SLB characteristic map. A best antenna weighting set is selected based on which auxiliary antenna pattern exhibits the best performance. The best of antenna weighting factors are used for designating the antenna design having superior SLB performance characteristics.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to antenna system design and more particularly to radar systems that utilize sidelobe blanking (SLB) for suppressing interference signals.
2. Description of Related Art
In many radar applications, stray signals may enter the radar through the sidelobes of the main antenna and may be interpreted as main beam signals. This results in false detections and angle error. Sidelobe blanking (SLB) has been commonly used to suppress such signals when they are impulsive (low duty cycle) whether they are due to sidelobe jammers, strong targets or discrete clutter echoes. The principle of SLB is to inhibit detection when such signals appear in the radar sidelobes.
In his 1968 paper entitled "Performance of Sidelobe Blanking Systems", Maisel (Pub. Info) introduced what has come to be regarded as the classic SLB architecture. Maisel was concerned with the case where detection was based on a single radar pulse from a target with a constant radar cross section (RCS) and defined expressions for some of the relevant performance probabilities for evaluating SLB characteristics. These include Probabilities of Blanking (Pb), Probabilities of False Alarm (Pfa) and Probabilities of Detection (Pd). Farina and Shnidman have extended Marisel's work to include some expressions for certain types of target fluctuations.
The classic SLB architecture defined by Maisel has two antennas and associated receiver channels (i.e. main and auxiliary channels). The main antenna exhibits a relatively narrow main beam to interrogate its field of view and receive corresponding echo radiation therefrom. The auxiliary antenna, implemented as a single omni-directional element to the antenna system, exhibits a much broader main beam having less gain compared to the narrow main beam to receive the echo radiation. The auxiliary antenna gain is designed to be higher than the maximum sidelobe level of the main channel antenna pattern. The SLB logic circuits compare the signals processed by the two channels and determine whether or not to blank the main radar channel (i.e. decides that the echoes come from the sidelobes and blanks the echo). When the main channel output is larger than a suitable blanking threshold level, that is based on the auxiliary channel output, the main channel signal is processed as usual (i.e. it is submitted to the conventional circuits of the radar to ascertain whether a target is present in the searched direction). If this is not the case, then the main channel signal is inhibited or blanked (i.e. decided that the echoes come from the sidelobes and the echo is blanked).
As illustrated in FIG. 4A, the main goal of the SLB design is to select the parameter gain margin β, which is the difference (in dB) between the sidelobes δ of the main antenna and the auxiliary antenna gain ω. The numerical calculations of the Pb, Pfa and Pd parameters are necessary to select the proper values of F, ω, β and consequently of the auxiliary antenna gain ω, given the maximum sidelobe level Gω. These calculations are described in the article entitled "Design of SLB systems in the presence of correlated ground clutter" by A. Farina and F. Gini published in IEE Proceedings—Radar, Sonar Navigation, Vol. 147 No. August 2000. The use of Pb, Pd and Pfa rely on many system parameters including SLB gain margin, detection threshold, SLB threshold, target signal to noise ratio, interference to noise ratio (including jammer and clutter) and SLB configuration (before and after detection). One problem with this approach is that it is difficult to make comparison with multiple variables. Thus, the results do not reflect the performance of SLB antennas but instead are controlled by the system parameters. Further, the number of described approaches that compare the probabilities of blanking illustrate that there are too many parameters to manage.
Another approach involves comparing the cumulative percentage of gain margin. In this case as illustrated in FIG. 3, the method involves comparing the cumulative percentage of gain margin defined as the gain difference between the auxiliary and main antennas at corresponding angular positions as denoted by the shaded area in FIG. 3. The diagram also illustrates a typical distribution of the gain margin in a bell shaped curve. As shown, the cumulative percentage is usually reversed (one minus the percentage). The disadvantage is that this method relies on a single point comparison which is inaccurate.
The above prior art approach is further illustrated as follows. FIGS. 4B, 4C and 4D illustrate an example of a set of antenna patterns corresponding to a main beam pattern and auxiliary A and B sidelobe patterns. FIG. 4E illustrates a v-plane cut of the antenna patterns, the auxiliary B pattern appears low because the v-plane cut is on its null. FIG. 4F illustrates cumulative percentage at 0 gain margin. That is, the results of the second approach of computing cumulative percentage of the gain margin of the auxiliary A and auxiliary B sidelobe patterns. Comparing the cumulative percentage of gain shows the auxiliary A sidelobe pattern having a higher cumulative percentage at gain margin values>0 while the auxiliary B sidelobe pattern has higher cumulative percentage at gain margins<0. Thus, from this, utilizing the single gain point of 0, it is difficult to tell which antenna will perform better.
In addition to the above, the SLB systems discussed above are usually fixed during their design and hence they are not adaptive during real time operations. That is, SLB is effective at identifying interference from pulsed interference sources in the sidelobe directions. Thus, when there are platform motion or element or sub-array failures, SLB becomes less effective at identifying interference.
Accordingly, it is an object to provide a method of providing an effective SLB capability for inclusion in an antenna design.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of providing effective SLB during real time operation.

Sidelobe blanking characterizer system and method