A display device includes a light source that emits a plurality of color lights, and a liquid crystal panel that controls transmission or reflection of the color light from the light source. One field is divided into a plurality of subfields: fr, fg and fb. A specific color light is emitted for at least a partial time of each subfield. An image corresponding to the specific color light is displayed on the liquid crystal panel. Durations of the subfields fr, fg and fb are set to be different from any other subfield in same field. A reflection-type gradation displaying is executed based on a combination of the durations of the subfields.

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a field-sequential display device and a method of color displaying using the display device.
2) Description of the Related Art
One of the popular methods of multicolor displaying in a field-sequential display device is to divide a field into several subfields, emit a light of a specific color within a part of a time period of the subfield, and at the same time, display an image that corresponds to the light on an displaying unit, by configuring a display device with a light source that emits a plurality of color lights, each of which can be controlled independently and the displaying unit that controls either of transmission or reflection of the light from the light source and reflection of an external light.
In order to realize the field-sequential display device that can display multiple colors, three color (RGB) light sources with a high speed switching capability is necessary. In the past, since an optimal light source was not available, the field-sequential device was only employed to display specific colors, such as a simple guide plate based on about four colors. However, rapid improvement of blue LEDs and high luminance of green LEDs enabled colors of red, blue and green to be obtained with high luminance, and now the three colors can be used as the light sources of the field-sequential display for displaying full color images with high performance.
Since the red, blue, and green LEDs have a broader color reproduction range on a chromaticity diagram than a color filter display device, colors not conventionally available can now be represented, thereby it is possible to display more faithful and beautiful images. Furthermore, since a color filter is not used, it is possible to obtain a high transmittance and a low electrical power consumption of backlight, resulting in an energy saving effect of a whole system. From these advantages, development of the field-sequential display device is being rapidly advanced (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 11-52354 (1999)).
FIG. 10 illustrates display timing of a conventional display device. In the display device, an LED is used as a light emitting element, and a liquid crystal panel is used in a displaying unit. An area "a" indicates light emitting timing of each color in the backlight LEDs arranged on a rear surface of the liquid crystal panel, and an area "b" indicates scanning timing and displaying time of each line on the liquid crystal panel.
In the example shown in FIG. 10, in order to obtain color displaying using an integration effect in the time axis direction of a human eye, a field frequency ("field" shown in FIG. 10) is set to 100 Hz. One field is divided into three subfields and comprises an R subfield fr for turning a red LED on, a G subfield fg for turning a green LED on, and a B subfield fb for turning a blue LED on. As shown in the area "a", each LED of the color corresponding to each subfield emits a light for a fixed emitting time Tb in the latter part of each subfield.
Each subfield of the liquid crystal panel comprises a writing time Tw, a responding time Tr, and a displaying time Td. During the writing time Tw, an electric voltage is supplied based on pixel data while scanning each pixel of the liquid crystal panel sequentially, and transmittance is adjusted. The responding time Tr, which is set to be shorter than the writing time Tw, is from the end of the writing time Tw until obtaining of a desired image on a full screen based on a response of the liquid crystal. The rest is the displaying time Td for which the desired image is displayed.
In the area "a", the light emitting time Tb is set in such a manner that the displaying times are equal, and the LED is turned on only for the displaying time Td. This produces an effect that a color mixing is prevented by allowing the LED to emit only for a time for which the image displaying is defined. If the LED starts to emit the light, for example, during the writing time Tw, an image of a previous subfield remains on a portion where the scanning of each line is not ended or a portion where the liquid crystal does not respond. This results in a time for which the image does not match with the luminescent colors, and this may cause the color mixing.
As described above, the conventional technology emits the LEDs of each color in the backlight sequentially in order of red, green and blue and displays images on the liquid crystal panel corresponding to each color light in synchronization with the light emitting to realize a color display. Furthermore, by using a liquid crystal panel with a capability of displaying multi-gradation, it is possible to realize a display in full-color.
When comparing the color filter type display device with the field-sequential display device, the transmittance of the liquid crystal display device shows a great difference. Since the liquid crystal panel of the field-sequential display device is a simple monochrome one, the transmittance is higher than 35%, while the transmittance of the liquid crystal panel into which a color filter is incorporated is about 10%.
Therefore, even when both devices are used as transmission-type display devices using the backlight, the field-sequential display device enables color displaying with higher brightness in comparison with the color filter display device. When both devices are used as reflection-type display devices using an intense external light, the color filter display device cannot display an image because of a contrast. On the contrary, the field-sequential display device has a merit that a sufficient displaying is possible, and thus it is suggested to use the field-sequential display device both as the transmission-type display device and the reflection-type display device (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-203411).
FIG. 11 illustrates a problem occurring when the conventional display device used in a cellular terminal. The cellular terminal 1200 is frequently used in an environment where the external light is bright such as the outdoors, and thus the display device should be visually recognized satisfactorily regardless of the indoors and the outdoors.
In the indoors where the light intensity is relatively low, a sufficient visibility can be obtained as the transmission-type display device by the backlight, however, since the sunlight 1205 with an intensity of nearly 100 times higher than that in the indoors enters a liquid crystal screen 1201 in the outdoors, the visibility in the outdoors becomes greatly lower than the visibility in the indoors. As a countermeasure against this problem, the cellular terminal 1200 can be covered by one hand so that the sunlight 1205 is blocked. However, since the sunlight 1205 is actually a scattered light, the intensity of incident light is not expected to be reduced remarkably, and thus the sufficient visibility cannot be obtained as the transmission-type display device.
With reference to FIG. 12, a reflection-type displaying operation of the field-sequential display device is explained below. When the sunlight 1205 enters the liquid crystal screen 1201, the light is reflected due to a difference in refractive index on an interface between a windscreen 1202 arranged on the liquid crystal screen 1201 and an air layer, and on an interface between a surface of the liquid crystal screen 1201 and the air layer. Before entering the liquid crystal screen 1201, reflected light 1207 that is about 10% of the sunlight 1205 reaches a user.
Since the color filter is not used, the transmittance of the liquid crystal screen 1201 is about 35%. Therefore, 35% of the sunlight in 90% of the sunlight entering the liquid crystal screen 1201 enters and is reflected by the backlight 1203 so as to again enter the liquid crystal screen 1201. If polarized light is not eliminated at this time, the sunlight is not absorbed by the color filter, and thus 100% of the sunlight transmits directly.
The intensity of reflected light 1211 returning to the visible side, therefore, becomes about 32% of the sunlight 1205. The contrast, thereby, becomes as follows:Contrast=(L×42%)/(L×10%)=4.3This value is about four times as large as that of the color filter display device. When the contrast is 4.3, not only characters but also images can be sufficiently recognized. Brightness of white displaying (L×42%) becomes three times as high as that of the color filter display device, thereby enabling displaying with good visibility. In the field-sequential display device, acceptable reflection-type displaying using the external light, which is impossible in the color filter display device, becomes possible, and thus the field-sequential display device can be used both as the transmission-type display device and the reflection-type display device that can obtain the acceptable visibility in both the indoors and the outdoors.
However, since the conventional technology works basically under a condition that the transmission displaying unit whose light source is the backlight is used, the following problem arises.
In the field-sequential display device according to the conventional technology, as shown in FIG. 5 of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-52354 (1999) and FIG. 6 of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-203411, the three subfields of R, G and B are obtained by dividing one field into three of the same duration. Transmission-type displaying and reflection-type displaying operations in the field-sequential display device having the subfields of the same duration are explained below with reference to FIG. 13 and FIG. 14. FIG. 13 and FIG. 14 illustrate examples of a color bar displaying, rather than the image displaying, in order to clarify the difference between the transmission-type displaying and the reflection-type displaying.
FIG. 13 is a pattern diagram of display states in various photo-environments. Arrows shown in FIG. 13 relatively indicates the photo-environments: the arrow 13 represents the external light, 0 means that the intensity of light is zero in a dark room or the like, and 100 shows that the intensity of the light is a maximum in the outdoors under fine weather. In the indoors such as a normal office, the intensity of light corresponds to about 30.
On the other hand, the arrow 14 represents the backlight intensity. The backlight intensity is always 10 because it is constant regardless of environments. The bottom left of FIG. 13 illustrates the display state in which the intensity of the external light is zero at the time of displaying the color bars using the field-sequential display device. When the intensity of the external light is zero, a reflected component of the external light does not exist, and thus the emitted light of the color light by means of the field-sequential driving is visually recognized directly as the transmission-type displaying, so that the color bars are displayed with high color saturation.
The bottom right of FIG. 13 illustrates the display state in which the intensity of the external light is 100 corresponding to the outdoors under fine weather. When the external light is stronger than the intensity 10 of the backlight, the transmission-type color displaying using the backlight is hardly recognized visually, and thus the reflection-type displaying using the external light is dominant.
A black color that is displayed on the left end of the color bar displaying in FIG. 13 is visually recognized directly as black. On a blue display section, the transmission-type displaying is obtained only in the subfield fb of FIG. 10, and non-transmission-type displaying is obtained in the other subfields fr and fg. The external light, therefore, reflects only in the subfield fb and does not reflect in the subfields fr and fg. This state for each color is shown in FIG. 14.
The transmission and non-transmission of the liquid crystal panel in each subfield are shown in FIG. 14 by white and black squares. The display color section 17 corresponds to the color bar displaying of FIG. 13 and illustrates the transmission-type display colors by means of the backlight when the intensity of the external light is zero. A gradation display section 18 shows a ratio that black (non-transmission) appears in the three subfields with respect to the respective display colors. This is repeated in the respective fields, and when a human eye recognize that sufficient integration is made during one field, a number of non-transmission appearances can be visually recognized directly as the gradation displaying. That is to say, four-gradation displaying of 0/3, 1/3, 2/3 and 3/3 in the three subfields are executed.
When the intensity of the external light is 100 and thus brighter than the backlight, the reflection monochrome displaying using the external light is visually recognized by the human eye, and as shown in the gradation display section 18, the three colors of blue, red, and green are recognized as the monochrome gradation displaying of 1/3, and three colors of magenta, cyan, and yellow are recognized as the monochrome gradation displaying of 2/3. For example, the color bars are displayed, six kinds of the color displaying from blue to yellow in the bottom left of FIG. 13 becomes only two-gradation displaying including 2/3 gradation displaying and 1/3 gradation displaying in the bottom right of FIG. 13. Six kinds of color displaying contents in the color displaying of the transmission-type displaying are, therefore, displayed with only two gradations in the reflection-type displaying, thereby arising a problem that the contents of the color bars cannot be discriminated.
Even in the case of character displaying or the like other than the color bar displaying, if red characters are displayed on a blue background, for example, when the external light becomes gradually intense and the reflected component is increased, the blue and the red, therefore, become nearly 2/3 gradation displaying, as shown in FIG. 14, and as the external light becomes more intense, it is gradually difficult to discriminate these colors, and then they cannot be discriminated at all. This is applied also to combinations of other colors, and thus the colors that obtain the same gradation in the gradation display section 18 shown in FIG. 14 cannot be discriminated.
When the display device is used in an environment of an intermediate state where the intensity of the external light changes from 0 to 100, the color becomes unnatural. In the field-sequential displaying where the reflection of the external light is taken into consideration, it is natural that the color displaying by means of the backlight is considered to be corresponding to a color adjuster of a television device. That is to say, when the external light is intense, the color displaying by means of the backlight corresponds to a state that the color adjuster narrows down the color.
When the intensity of the external light is 100, the color becomes zero (the backlight becomes invisible) and the transmission-type color displaying shown in the bottom left of FIG. 13 is impossible, but the color bar displaying is replaced by the monochrome bar displaying shown in the bottom right of FIG. 13. It is natural that the monochrome bar displaying becomes monochrome displaying with eight gradations including from black to white of 7/7, 617, 5/7, . . . 1/7 and 0/7 in order of visibility. For example, when green is compared with magenta, if the intensity of the external light is 100, green should be brighter than magenta. As shown in the gradation display section 18 in the bottom right of FIG. 13 and FIG. 14, however, green is 2/3 gradation displaying and magenta is 1/3 gradation displaying, and thus green is darker than the magenta.
That is to say, when the external light changes in the display state, a color component of the reflection-type displaying using the external light is superposed on a color component of the transmission-type displaying using the backlight. The brightness/darkness of green and magenta is inverted in result, the displaying of dark green and bright magenta is obtained, and this is unnatural as the color bar displaying from the viewpoint of the visibility. This is a problem that arises because luminance components and color components of the respective color displaying do not match with each other.
In the conventional technology, as described above, when the reflection-type displaying is executed in an environment that the external light is intense, a display image cannot be recognized with a specific color, and since the color components and the luminance components of the colors do not match with each other, the transmission-type displaying and the reflection-type displaying are brought into an unnatural display state from the view point of the visibility.

Color display device emitting each color light for different time period


Systems, methods, and computer-readable media provide for secure access to virtual machines in heterogeneous cloud environments. In an example embodiment, client credentials, such as a public key of a public-private key pair, are provided to a virtual machine in a first cloud, such as a private cloud. The virtual machine can be migrated from the first cloud to a second cloud, such as one of a plurality of heterogeneous public clouds. The virtual machine in the second cloud can be accessed from the first cloud via Secure Shell (SSH) authentication using the client credentials. The client credentials can be updated, and the updated client credentials can be used for subsequent SSH access to the virtual machine in the second cloud.

Industry trends indicate a growing movement among enterprises and other entities to hybrid cloud designs. These enterprises and other entities are choosing such designs to acquire additional on-demand computing, storage, and network resources, thereby eliminating the need to build for peak capacity within their own data centers. Public clouds do not have the same initial capital investments that may be necessary to build out a company's own private data center. In addition, a public cloud can better absorb a company's need for elasticity by providing almost unlimited pay-as-you-grow expansion. Although hybrid cloud models are conceptually and financially very attractive, customers are often reluctant to place their applications in the public cloud, away from their own premises. When an organization deploys an application or part of an application in the public cloud, it wants to be sure that the transition from the private data center to a hybrid model is not only operationally feasible, but also that the company retains data access and control in the new architecture.

Secure access to virtual machines in heterogeneous cloud environments


A method for establishing a media for communications in association with a location information service provided in association with a communication system is disclosed. In the method a user equipment is provided with information enabling the user equipment to communicate on a user plane connection with at least one location service entity when the user equipment is visiting a communication network other than a home network of the user equipment. This information may then be used for establishment of a user plane connection in the visited communication network between the user equipment and a location service entity.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to location information services provided in association with a communication system, and in particular to communication of information when providing information about a location of a mobile user equipment visiting a network other than a home network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various services can be provided for a user of a mobile user equipment by means of a communication system. Recent development in the field of mobile user equipment has lead to arrangements wherein information about the location of a mobile user equipment is determined and utilized when providing services for the user equipment or other parties. Such services are sometimes called location sensitive services.
A mobile user equipment may comprise, for example, a mobile telephone, a laptop computer, a personal data assistant or any other mobile station enabled for wireless communication with another station. An example of a communication system providing mobility for users thereof is the public land line mobile network (PLMN) or cellular network. Another example is a mobile communication system that is based, at least partially, on use of communication satellites. Wireless communications may also be provided by means of other arrangements, such as by means of local wireless area networks.
The skilled person is aware of the basic principles of a wireless communication system. A wireless communication system typically operates in accordance with a given standard or specification which sets out what the various elements of the system are permitted to do and how that should be achieved. For example, the standard or specification may define if the user, or more precisely, user equipment or terminal is provided with a circuit switched service or a packet switched service or both. Communication protocols and/or parameters which shall be used for the connection are also typically defined. For example, the manner how communication shall be implemented between the user equipment and the elements of the communication network is typically based on a predefined communication protocol. In other words, a specific set of "rules" on which the communication can be based on needs to be defined to enable communication by means of the communication system.
A communication system needs to be able to provide various different functions in order be able to operate. These functions can be divided in different categories. A category comprises functions that relate to the actual carrying of communications such as voice or multimedia or other data content in the system. Another category can be seen as being formed by control or management functions such as the control of various services and the actual communication. Signaling associated with different functions is thus understood as being carried on different planes. For example, control messages are communicated on a control plane and the actual communication is transported on a user plane. The communication on the user plane is supported the signaling of the control messages on the control plane. The predefined rules commonly dictate the appropriate plane that shall be used for communication.
Typically the communication systems provide the different planes by means of separate channels, e.g. by means of separated signaling and communication channels. Such arrangements are employed e.g. by signaling system 7 (SS7) core networks and Q.931/GSM/WCDMA subscriber access. Therefore the term signaling channel may be used when referring to control plane communications. Similarly the term communication channel may be used when referring to user plane communications.
The various functions of communication systems may have developed quite independently from each other. Different protocols may also be used in different communication systems. The standards and protocols define e.g. which plane shall be used for a certain purpose.
The mobile network apparatus and/or user equipment can be employed for provision of information regarding the geographical location of the user equipment and thus the user thereof. A mobile user equipment and thus the user thereof can be positioned by various different techniques. For example, substantially accurate geographical location information that associates with a user equipment can be obtained based on a satellite based positioning system, for example the GPS (Global Positioning System) or Galileo. More accurate location information can be obtained through a differential GPS or an assisted GPS (A-GPS). In an approach the cells or similar geographically limited radio access entities and associated controllers of the communication system are utilized in production of an estimate concerning the location of a mobile user equipment. To improve the accuracy of the location information the communication system may be provided with additional equipment, for example specific location measurement units (LMUs), that provide more accurate data or additional data that may be used when locating of a user equipment.
It is also possible to conclude information about the geographical location of a user equipment when the user equipment is located outside a home network thereof, i.e. when the user equipment is located in a coverage area of a visited or "foreign" network. The visited network may be made capable of transmitting the location of the mobile user equipment back to the home network, e.g. to support services that are based on location information or for the purposes of routing and charging.
Location information may be used for various purposes, such as for location of a mobile telephone that has made an emergency call, for locating vehicles or given mobile subscribers for commercial purposes and so on. In general, a client (for example a user or another entity wishing to receive location information regarding a user may) may send a request for location information to the location service provision entity. An appropriate location service entity will then process the request, obtain the required data and generate an appropriate response.
Communication associated with location services may be signaled on the control plane and/or user plane, the selection depending on the application.
Applications that use control plane for communication of at least a part of information for location determination commonly employ embedded signaling protocols. Communications that associate with location information services may be communicated solely on the control plane. However, this may cause relatively high load on the control plane. This may be especially the case on the air interface between a mobile user equipment and a radio network servicing the mobile user equipment.
It has been proposed that a mobile user equipment could be located by using user plane signaling for communication of at least a part of location service information. Some of user plane applications are a kind of overlay solutions wherein a data connection is established on a user plane between a relevant server and a mobile user equipment to transfer on radio interface information that is needed in location determinations. The user plane data connection may be especially established for communication of location information. In another approach location information may be communicated on a user plane connection established for other purposes. The user plane signaling may be based on appropriate communication protocol, for example the Internet Protocol (IP) or data messages such as short message service messages. An example of the proposals presented in Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) wherein user plane is used is known by the work name 'Secure User Plane Location' (SUPL).
In practice a user plane location system requires that the mobile user equipment knows an address or other routing information for a user plane location server so that the mobile user equipment can exchange information with the server on the user plane. A user plane location server may also need to know the identity, such as the Mobile Subscriber Integrated Services Digital Number (MSISDN) or other identifier, of the mobile user equipment or other routing information in order to form a user plane connection to the mobile user equipment.
The proposal is believed to work satisfactorily when the user is in his/hers home network. However, problems may arise when a user is roaming in other networks. A roaming mobile user equipment may not know the address or other identity information related to the local user plane enabled location service entity, for example a local SUPL server. If a user equipment knows only the address of the home network location service entity, a problem is that the home network location service entity may not be able to provide assistance data relevant and valid in the roamed network. If a mobile station gets a location request from a user plane enabled location service entity while roaming, the user equipment may need to be able to trust that the location service entity is a legitimate entity allowed to request location information and to send assistance data.
As a more detailed example of the possible problems, lets consider a situation where a user who is a subscriber to a Finnish cellular network roams in a cellular network in the USA. The mobile user equipment of the user is not aware of the IP address of the local server, for example a local SUPL server, of the roamed network in the USA. The local server may nevertheless need the location of the roaming user equipment, for example in order to be able to provide the location of the roaming user equipment for emergency services. In the case of an emergency call the local server of the roamed network may try to request location information from the mobile user equipment, but the mobile user equipment does not know whether it can trust the origin of the request or not. Furthermore, if the mobile user equipment wants to get assistance data, it is possible in certain applications that the user equipment may only know the user plane address of a location service server in the home network in Finland. The home network server, however, may not have all assistance data that is needed for location in the USA.

Providing location information in a visited network


A method for the regeneration of used lubricating oils to produce lubricant base oils includes the steps of (a) removing resin and impurities by distillation, (b) catalytic oxidation treatment and (c) adsorption process. The method can efficiently reduce the color, metal ions, and sulfur content under mild reaction conditions at low cost and obtain high yield of regenerated oil above 85 wt. %.

Used lubricating oils, which are discarded after having been used in engines or other machines, consist of lubricant bases and additives and their decomposed by-products. In addition, they may contain contaminants, such as metal ions, water, and solvents, which are acquired during their utilization and collection. In the past, used lubricating oils were commonly disposed by combustion and landfill. Due to increased stringent environmental regulations, many jurisdictions now prohibit combustion and landfill of used lubricating oils. Since most components of used lubricating oils are valuable chemicals, various methods for recovering lube base oil from used lubricating oils have been developed.
A method commonly used to treat used lubricating oils is to add sulfuric acid to the used lubricating oils. Sulfuric acid interacts with contaminants in the used lubricating oils, resulting in separation of most contaminants and decomposition by-products from the used lubricating oils. After the acid treatment, a clay adsorption is often used to further purify and remove remaining contaminants (U.S. Pat. No. 4,502,948). Although this is a relatively simple and low-cost method for treating used lubricating oils, the wastes (acid sludge and contaminated clay) generated from the process are difficult and expensive to treat. As a result, the acid treatment method is prohibited by many jurisdictions.
Another commonly used method for treating used lubricating oils is to use a combination of flashing, evaporation, and distillation, in which water, light decomposed hydrocarbons, and lube oil base stock can be fractionated and removed from heavy impurities (E.P. Patent No. 3,078,730A1). The obtained lube oil base stock can be subjected to catalytic hydroprocessing to yield a lube oil base stock with quality similar to virgin lube oil (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,980,511). Nevertheless, hydroprocessing is a relatively high cost process. The removal of contaminants, such heteroatom compounds containing sulfur, nitrogen, and oxygen, by adsorption process was developed (U.S. Pat. No. 3,930,988).
Extraction process is also used to treat used lubricating oils, in which a light, saturated hydrocarbon solvent is mixed with used lubricating oils to separate the lube oil base stock from impurities, such as high molecular weight additives, additive fragments, and oxidized oil products (U.S. Pat. No. 3,919,076). However, the extraction process has limited applications due to its high energy utilization for solvent recovery.
The above summarizes the used lubricating oil treatment methods commonly known to the persons skilled in the art. Nevertheless, in view of increasing stringent environmental regulatory requirements, there is still a need for developing a more efficient and cost-effective treatment method for used lubricating oils.

Method for regeneration of used lubricating oils

Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences


An article of apparel includes a concealed weapon pocket positioned at a location on the article of apparel which allow for easy access by a user, such as a lower side portion of a coat or jacket, for example. The front panel includes an upper portion that is releasably secured about its top edge and upper side edges to the main panel, and a lower portion that is fixably secured about its bottom and lower side edges to the main panel. A flap associated with a front cargo pocket may be grasped by hand and moved in a generally forward and downward direction to expose the upper portion of the concealed weapon pocket. The user may then grasp and deploy a weapon disposed in the pocket with minimized structural interference from any portion of the pocket or surrounding apparel structure.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an article of apparel having a pocket adapted to carry a weapon in a concealed manner, yet facilitate rapid deployment of the weapon.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many jurisdictions throughout the United States allow for the possession of weapons, such as firearms, on persons for self-defense. Possession of such weapons is typically carried out in a manner in which the weapon is concealed from view to prevent exposing the bearer to a potential threat from another that could result from the weapon being exposed to view or which could potentially raise suspicion or otherwise cause the bearer to be a target of a violent encounter.
While many clothing options exist in the marketplace to aid in the concealment and deployment of concealed weapons, known articles of clothing do not allow extremely rapid deployment of the weapon in the event of an emergency situation while still maintaining a high degree of concealment. When an emergency situation arises in which the bearer is in grave danger of severe bodily harm or death, time is of the essence. In order to maximize concealment, many clothing systems require the bearer to conceal their weapon underneath standard clothing or on the inside of the article of clothing, such as with jackets, vests and other outwear. This requires the wearer to reach inside or underneath their clothing to access their weapon, and therefore provides a greater risk of fumbling the weapon or snagging the weapon on a part of the clothing when removing the weapon from the storage area, in turn sacrificing speed to maintain maximum concealment. Any slight delay in deploying the weapon can potentially have tragic consequences.
What is needed is an improvement over the foregoing.

Article of apparel including concealed weapon pocket


The present invention provides a system and a method for a retaining wall which minimizes cost, assembly time and environmental impact while providing substantial load-bearing capacity. The system includes: a plurality of vertical helical piers driven into the ground, tie-back helical piers driven at a non-vertical angle into the ground, substantially horizontal waler rods, and substantially vertical extensions, which are interconnected through interlocking connectors. Multiple levels of the load-bearing structure can be built on top of each other depending on the height of the soil to be retained. Loads from the retained soil may be transferred to the extension bars and waler rods through wood lagging, wood planks, different types of plates, or some other intermediary. A mesh support for the soil can be provided in addition to the load-bearing structure. Trees, bushes or other plants can be planted through the mesh in the retained soil to improve the environmental impact of the invention.

The present invention relates to systems and methods for retaining walls that support vertical or inclined excavation cuts, embankments and the like. In particular, the present invention introduces an environmentally friendly, modular and inexpensive way of structurally supporting soil through helical piers driven into the ground, horizontal waler rods, vertical extensions and interlocking connectors. The resulting structure can withstand high structural loads, while creating a minimal environmental impact.
Retaining walls in civil engineering serve to prevent erosion or a collapse of excavation cuts and soil embankments. They must withstand significant structural loads, while minimizing the cost, the time to erect, and their environmental impact. The retained soil may be vertical or inclined, which poses different types of issues to be dealt with, an inclined wall being more prone to the erosion problems, while vertical walls are more prone to a collapse.
The need for retaining walls has been recognized in civil engineering for a long time. Many methods for building retaining walls have been developed. Traditionally, retaining walls have been made, for example, of a contiguous wire mesh, concrete or brick blocks with interlocking features, or by pouring concrete that is typically supported by structural steel beams. Some of these traditional methods have significant environmental impact, like, for instance, pouring concrete and/or driving the steel beams into the ground. This type of retaining wall can have an extremely high bearing capacity, but the cost and the environmental impact, both to erect and to remove, of such a wall are very significant. Some other retaining walls are made of interlocking brick or concrete elements. Such retaining walls are well-suited for the inclined soil slope, but are usually not useful for building vertical walls due to their inherently weak lateral load-bearing capacity.
Other retaining walls rely on boxes or wire mesh cages that are pre-filled with stone, brick or soil. These walls occupy significant lateral space in order to achieve the requisite load bearing for the vertical walls. Retaining walls are also built by first creating a strong L-shaped wire mesh surface. Next, the space between the wire mesh and the inclined soil surface is filled with soil or rock. The resulting structure tends to have significant load-bearing capacity, but is expensive, non-removable and environmentally degrading.
There are also retaining walls that use helical piers as a foundation element which is positioned in the soil. One such method creates an in-situ pile with soil displacer plates, which create a hollow cylindrical space in the tail of a helical pier rotated into the ground. Next, a column of concrete is built on top of this created foundation element. However, these methods are quite invasive due to the augered nature of the tie-back to the helical pier, and they result in essentially a non-removable retaining wall.
Thus, there exists a need for systems and methods for building the retaining walls with significant load-bearing capacity, modular structure, short assembly time, and minimal environmental impact.

Green retaining wall utilizing helical piers


A surgeon can select an entry point and a target point in a preoperative image volume of the patient. The target point and entry point form a trajectory line along which the surgeon wishes to perform a surgical procedure such as a biopsy and line up a surgical instrument. Once a surgical platform is moved along a guide arm arc close to a point on the trajectory line, the surgical platform is locked to the guiding arm. A pivot point position at the center of a ball joint in the middle of a metal plate is then arranged to be exactly at a point on the trajectory line. The metal plate is locked down and the ball joint is rotated to ensure that the surgical sleeve extends exactly along the trajectory line. This allows a decoupling between the position and orientation movements required to line the surgical sleeve up with the trajectory line to perform a surgical procedure. An interoperative localization device (ILD) is used to track the position of the surgical guide relative to the image space.

The present invention relates to a biopsy guide in which surgical devices can be accurately positioned relative to an image.
A variety of devices have previously been used during surgery to position a patient in an operating room and so that the position of a particular location on a patient can be accurately located.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,617,925 to Laitinen discloses an adaptor for definition of the position of brain structures. This is implemented using spatial coordinates in computerized tomography and NMR examination and transferring the coordinates to a stereotactic apparatus. The adaptor includes supports for holding a patient's head in place.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,386,602 to Sheldon et al. relates to an intracranial surgical operative apparatus. The apparatus in this patent is used for operating on the brain with minimal disturbances.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,465,069 to Barbier et al. relates to the cranial insertion of a surgical needle utilizing computer-assisted tomography.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,257,998 to Ota et al. relates to a medical three-dimensional locating apparatus capable of accurately reproducing the three-dimensional position data of a focus obtained through an imaging diagnosis in an affected part of a patient body for an actual surgical operation. This patent additionally discusses the selection of an optimum approach angle of a direction to approach the focus point along a reference line through a simple operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,352 to Patil discloses a computer-assisted tomography stereotactic system. The system disclosed in the Patil patent discloses an apparatus for performing surgical procedures through a patient's skull to a target within the skull using a computer-assisted tomography scanner.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,602,622 to Bar et al. discloses a computer tomography apparatus producing transverse layer images. A patient-targeting device is used to introduce a biopsy needle into a patient along a path determined by the targeting device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,638,789 to Shelden et al. discloses a stereotactic method and apparatus for locating and treating or removing lesions. The apparatus defines points in a region using a three-dimensional coordinate system with reference to a ring attached to the patient to establish a reference point for the three-dimensional coordinate system at the center of the ring.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,387,220 to Pisharodi discloses a stereotactic frame and localization method incorporating localization frames which is operable without the use of head pins or screws. Several natural cranial reference points are initially established. Once the natural reference points are established, localization is performed using a spherical coordinate system incorporating lines, planes and angles referenced on and within the head.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,427 to Magnusson et al. discloses a puncture guide for computer tomography. A needle of a tissue sampling device is guided to a target location within the body of a patient. The biopsy needle is directed along a desired path and the depth of penetration of the needle is controlled to prevent accidental overpenetration of the needle. The guidance device is not limited to the plane perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the patient but is also capable of guiding the needle in a plane which is neither perpendicular or parallel to the longitudinal axis.
Previous guiding devices are difficult in providing an image guided surgical system which may be used during surgery without complicated coordinate system calculations.


A method of processing a circuit design in a circuit design tool includes: identifying selection of a parameterized core to be instantiated in a description of the circuit design managed by the circuit design tool and configured for implementation in target hardware; processing a configuration file for the parameterized core to select a set of parameter values from a plurality of sets of parameter values dynamically based at least in part on the target hardware; creating an instance of the parameterized core in the circuit design having the selected set of parameter values; and implementing the circuit design for the target hardware.

Circuit designs for integrated circuits (ICs) can be generated using a variety of techniques. In some examples, designers can write register-transfer level (RTL) code program-language code, or a combination thereof to design a circuit for implementation in a target IC device. The target IC device can be a programmable IC, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a mask-programmable IC, such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or the like. During circuit design, designers can make use of pre-designed circuits available from logic libraries provided for a particular target IC device. Such pre-design circuits are referred to as "Intellectual Property (IP) cores" or just "cores". The cores are generally tested and debugged blocks of logic that can be used for specific purposes to simplify implementation of a circuit in a particular target IC device.
Some cores are static. A designer can select a static core, such as a counter, from a library for use in a given circuit design. Although the counter may not be customizable for a particular designer's needs, several counters may be available in the library and a designer can select the appropriate counter for a particular design. Other cores are parameterized cores. Parameterized cores can be specifically configured for a designer's particular needs by defining parameter values. The parameter values translate into RTL parameters, which customize the logic and functionality of the core. For example, a designer can select a parameterized counter from a library having a width parameter. When the designer creates an instance of the counter, the designer can define a value for the width parameter (e.g., a 4-bit counter, an 8-bit counter, etc.).
Some parameterized cores can include a large number of parameters, some of which are dependent on others. In some cases, a designer may not be familiar with all the parameters of a given core, particularly when some cores define parameters differently than other cores. A designer may find it cumbersome to modify each and every parameter of a parameterized core. For some parameterized cores, a designer needs to understand the purpose of several parameters, which may not have a standard definition, and be able to identify a good combination of parameter values. A designer may have to resort to testing of different sets of parameter values, particularly when some parameters are dependent on other parameters, before finding an appropriate configuration for the particular circuit design and target IC device.

Circuit design with predefined configuration of parameterized cores


The present document relates to coding. In particular, the present document relates to coding using linear prediction in combination with entropy encoding. A method (600) for determining a general prediction filter for a frame of an input signal (111) is described. The z-transform of the general prediction filter comprises an approximation to the z-transform of a finite impulse response, referred to as FIR, filter with the z variable of the FIR filter being replaced by the z-transform of an allpass filter. The FIR filter comprises a plurality of FIR coefficients (412). The allpass filter exhibits a pole defined by an adjustable pole parameter. The method (600) comprises determining the pole parameter and the plurality of FIR coefficients, such that an entropy of a frame of a prediction error signal (414) which is derived from the frame of the input signal (111) using the general prediction filter defined by the pole parameter and the plurality of FIR coefficients (412) is reduced.

Audio encoders and in particular lossless audio encoders typically employ a FIR (Finite Impulse Response) prediction filter to reduce the entropy of an audio signal. Employing an IIR (Infinite Impulse Response) prediction filter may lead to improved prediction results and to reduced entropy of the prediction error signal. IIR prediction filters may e.g. be used in the so-called Dolby TrueHD lossless encoder. However, unlike FIR predictors it is typically difficult to derive optimal IIR prediction coefficients on a frame-by-frame basis that guarantees the stability of the predictor system (for the encoder) and its inverse system (for the decoder).
The present document addresses the above-mentioned technical problem. In particular, the present document describes methods for determining the coefficients of IIR-based prediction filters which lead to improved prediction results (i.e. which lead to a reduction of the entropy of the prediction error signal). The IIR prediction filters may be determined such that stability may be guaranteed. As such, the methods described in the present document enable the use of IIR-based prediction, thereby providing audio encoders (in particular lossless audio encoders) with improved coding gains.

Signal adaptive FIR/IIR predictors for minimizing entropy


A fully-automatic transplanting combined machine includes a traction apparatus, operation apparatus and a control system. The operation apparatus is mounted on the traction apparatus with a main body frame and is towed behind the traction apparatus. The operation apparatus includes a rotary tillage furrowing system, a system for slightly preparing soil and opening narrow furrows, a planting system, and a soil covering compacting system which are arranged successively from front to back. The planting system includes more than one planting unit. The fully-automatic transplanting combined machine is capable of orderly performing rotary tillage, cleaning stubble, leveling a border check, opening a furrow, cutting narrow slits, transplanting, covering soil, compacting soil in untilled soil at one process, so as to create the soil requirements for high-speed transplanting of blanket seedlings such as rape and other crops.

The transplanting technique is widely used in China and other countries as the development of the seedling cultivation technique. Generally, transplanters are divided into manual transplanters, semi-automatic transplanters, and fully-automatic transplanters depending upon the degree of automation. Furthermore, based upon their structural features, transplanters are divided into pincette type transplanters, chain type transplanters, seedling guiding tube type transplanters, flexible disc type transplanters, and hanging cup type transplanters. Different types of transplanters are suitable for planting different crops.
Rape is particularly susceptible to moisture and thus sometimes produces rotten roots and dead seedlings in rainy weather and it is prone to withering in dry weather conditions. In this regard, it is necessary in some case to open a furrow and bed soil before a transplanting operation. The Chinese patent, No. CN106538114A, discloses a multi-shaft shallow tillage and furrowing method for transplanting rape. The patented invention provides a furrowing device in combination with stubble cleaning, shallow tillage, and rotary tillage, which realizes furrow opening, soil throwing, shallow tillage, soil breaking, and soil leveling and cleaning in one operation in order to produce finer granular soil and make preparations for transplanting. Such a device design, however, is not suitable for large-batch and multi-row transplanting operations. There remains a deficiency in soil preparation and shaping. In addition, the Chinese patent, No. CN109168494A, discloses that the planting density of rice is similar to the planting density of rape, and the rotary transplanter employed by the rice transplanter can realize high-speed and high-quality transplanting. On comparison with transplanting rice, however, the rice seedlings are inserted into soft mud, while the rapes are inserted into a solid soil block. Soil type affects the type of transplanter used. If the rice transplanting method is applied to transplant rape, for example, the stalk is easily broken, and the seedling is likely to be damaged. Moreover, seedlings are likely to be affected by interaction in the high-speed transplanting, leading to a reduction in the erectness of the seedlings, which affects the transplanting quality. Hence, the recirculating transplanting device for rape pot seedlings, for example, is designed to be suitable for transplanting rape in dry land, but the transplanting efficiency thereof is much lower than the transplanting speed of rice transplanters.
Furthermore, planting mechanisms of existing dry land transplanters in China and other countries mostly involve complex operations during the process of picking and placing seedlings. This process is accomplished by multiple mechanisms, and thus the seedlings cannot be fully controlled. The seedlings fall due to their own weights, resulting in a low planting efficiency.

Fully-automatic transplanting combined machine

Nanjing Institute of Agricultural Mechanization, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs


A tube bender comprising a mandrel, a forming member connected to the mandrel for coaction with the mandrel to effectuate bending of a tube wherein the forming member has at least two bending positions defined thereon, a handle pivotally connected to said forming member, and a release member movable relative to said handle and configured to be secured in a locked position relative to said forming member when said handle is selectively moved to any of one said at least two bending positions thereby preventing relative movement between said handle and said forming member. The release member enables an operator to move the release member to an unlocked position to permit such operator to move the handle relative to the forming member between the at least two bending positions.

This invention relates to tube bending tools and more particularly to a manually operable tube bender especially suited for effecting bends in excess of 90 degrees.
Manually operated tools for bending tubing are quite old and well known in the art. For example, such tools are widely used by electricians for forming bends in an electrical conduit. Examples of commercial tube benders sold by Stride Tool Inc. and its predecessors are described and claimed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,379,360, 4,220,642, 4,289,872, 4,229,873, 4,343,496, 4,379,340, and 4,424,660 ("the Stride patents"). The tools described in the Stride patents are capable of bending tubes up to 180 degrees. While these tools have enjoyed longstanding commercial success, the tools are somewhat awkward for use in effecting bends in excess of 90 degrees because the handles, which are manipulated by an operator to effect the bend, cross over when a tube is being bent beyond 90 degrees. When the handles cross over, manipulation of the tool becomes somewhat awkward and difficult. Moreover, an operator in bringing his hands toward one another through the first 90 degrees after the cross over, an operator's force application is reversed and one is pulling one's hands apart or pressing with crossed arms.
Another tool that has been available commercially for a period of time requires disconnection of one of the handles after a 90 degree bend has been completed by unscrewing the handle from the tool element to which it is connected. The handle is then reconnected by threading it into other threaded recess to effect bending from 90 degrees up to 180 degrees.
Accordingly it would be desirable to produce a manually operated tube bender which is capable of effecting bends up to 180 degrees without handle cross over or the need to disconnect and reconnect one of the handles after 90 degrees of bending has been accomplished.


The illustrative embodiments described herein provide a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for managing usage policies for data recorded with a digital life recorder. A usage profile sensor determines whether a broadcast of a usage profile is detected. A usage profile sensor receives the broadcast of the usage profile in response to a first determination that the broadcast of the usage profile is detected, wherein the usage profile comprises a usage policy. A usage profile processor determines whether the usage profile is currently being tracked. A usage profile processor records a start date, a start time, and usage profile information into a tracking table in response to a second determination that the usage profile is not currently being tracked.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system, and in particular, to a method and apparatus for processing data. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for managing usage policies for data recorded with a digital life recorder.
2. Description of the Related Art
Advancements in technology have drastically changed the way people do things. Gone are the days of printed encyclopedias. These paper-based resources have been replaced by a plethora of information readily available on the World Wide Web. Instead of taking a roll of film to a photo shop to be developed, digital images are stored on computers, laptops, and in digital photo frames. Additionally, because snapping a digital photograph or taking a digital video costs virtually nothing, more digital photos and videos are taken than was previously taken by conventional means. The digital images represent memories of special or even obscure events. However, searching for a particular digital image from the collection of digital images stored on a computer is a difficult task. In addition, numerous events in our daily lives are never captured on film. Furthermore, photos do not capture the spoken words, feelings, or environmental factors associated with everyday activities.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a mechanism for dynamically capturing, storing, and presenting data associated with all aspects of daily activities in an efficient manner.

Establishing usage policies for recorded events in digital life recording

International Business Machines Corporation


A method and system for adjusting saturation in digital images that operates as closely as possible to the long-, medium-, short-(LMS) cone spectral response space. According to the method, a sensor component image such as an RGB image from a digital imager is input and converted to the LMS space. White point adaptation and equalization are performed on the LMS data. The saturation adjustment is then performed by applying a stretching transformation to the L and S LMS components with respect to the M component of each pixel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to digital image sensors, and, more specifically, to a color saturation adjustment method for image sensors and digital cameras.
2. Description of the Related Art
Saturation is an important visual aspect when viewing color images and video. When capturing color images by a digital camera, captured spectral data must be processed in order to match the original scene viewed by the human eye. Considerable saturation boost has been used to process the data to match the original scene. Saturation is the ratio of the dominant wavelength to other wavelengths in a color.
It is desirable to adjust saturation of colors in digital images without changing other important visual aspects, such as, for example, the perceived hue of the color, or the uniformity across different hues in the image.
There are several known methods and color models for adjusting saturation without disrupting other visual characteristics of a digital color image. For example, the HSV (Hue, Saturation, Value) model is a well-known color model in which the saturation attribute is independently adjustable. HLS (Hue, Lightness, Saturation) is another closely related model. While these models may be effectively utilized to adjust saturation in digital color images, the cost and complexity of adjusting saturation according to these and other known methods is substantial. For example, non-linear behavior such as perceived hue changes and non-uniformity exists when saturation is adjusted substantially. Other color models such as the 1931 standard observer model adopted by the Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE) based on a model of human rods and cones, also exhibit non-uniformity and/or non-constant hue behavior. The same is true of numerous CIE derivative models such as LUV and L*a*b.
In color television systems, "YCbCr" color difference space is used to encode color information. It also provides a convenient color space for hue and saturation adjustments. This technique, however, also suffers from the non-uniformity and hue changes when saturation is increased.
As the shortcomings of these known saturation adjustment methods demonstrate, human vision is a highly adaptive and complex system that cannot be accurately mapped to a simple and regular geometric space for all possible viewing conditions. Adapted white point and color responses will change according to the viewing conditions.
In contrast to the known electronic image sensors, the three types of color receptors in the human eye—long-, middle-, and short-wavelength cones (LMS)—have been found to exhibit significant overlap in spectral response. As a consequence of this overlapping spectral response, the hue-discrimination response of the human eye is highly non-linear, with peak sensitivity occurring near certain wavelengths. Furthermore, each LMS receptor has independent gain control.
It is desirable to have an imaging system having saturation adjustment that operates as close as possible to the LMS cone spectral response space to thereby more closely replicate human vision.

Simple and robust color saturation adjustment for digital images


A method for producing highly dispersed catalysts is disclosed. The method includes contacting a support material with a solvent for a period of time, adding a metal salt to the solvent and support mixture, and then adding a reducing agent to the solution to reduce the metal salt to nanometer sized metal particles on the surface of the support. Excess solvent is used in the process, the volume of solvent being greater than two times the pore volume of the support.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the production of supported catalysts, more specifically to the method for making heterogeneous catalysts containing nano-meter sized metal particles.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many industrial products such as fuels, lubricants, polymers, fibers, drugs, and other chemicals would not be manufacturable without the use of catalysts. Catalysts are also essential for the reduction of pollutants, particularly air pollutants created during the production of energy and by automobiles. The majority of industrial catalysts are composed of a high surface area support material upon which chemically active metal nanoparticles are dispersed. The support materials are generally inert, ceramic type materials having surface areas on the order of hundreds of square meters/gram. This high specific surface area usually requires a complex internal pore system. The metal nano-particles are deposited on the support and dispersed throughout this internal pore system, and are generally between 1 and 100 nanometers in size. Catalysts of this type are also referred to as heterogeneous catalysts, because the catalyst particles are solid phase, while the reactants interacting with the catalyst are generally liquid or gas phase.
Processes for making supported catalysts go back many years. One such process for making platinum catalysts, for example, involves the contacting of a support material such as alumina with a metal salt solution such as a platinum chloride solution. The salt solution "impregnates" or fills the pores of the support during this process. Following the impregnation, the support containing the salt solution would be air dried, causing the metal salt to precipitate within the pores. The support containing the crystallized metal salt would then be exposed to a hydrogen or carbon monoxide gas environment, reducing the solid metal salt to metal particles. This process, however, made it difficult to produce highly dispersed catalysts because of the difficulty in controlling the precipitated metal salt crystallite sizes and distributions. Often, depending on the reduction conditions, the metal particles would diffuse together creating larger, less desirable particles (sintering).
With the advent of the more recent focus of nanotechnology, methods for fabricating nanometer sized metal particles in liquid solutions have been combined with impregnation techniques to create heterogeneous catalysts. This process offers the potential advantage of being able to determine metal particle size, morphology and particle size distribution prior to impregnation into the support.
Yoo et al., in an article entitled "Propene Hydrogenation Over Truncated Octahedral Pt Nanoparticles Supported on Alumina", Journal of Catalysis, 214 (2003), pg 1-7, discloses a process for loading colloidal Pt nanoparticles (synthesized by a 1:5 concentration ratio of K2PtCl4 to polyacrylate capping polymer) into an alumina support via impregnation.
Miyazaki et al., in an article entitled "Morphology Control of Platinum Nanoparticles and Their Catalytic Properties", Journal of Nanoparticle Research, Vol. 5, pg 69-80, 2003, discloses the preparation of Pt nanoparticles of varying morphology through the use of different capping polymers. Various shapes (such as square, triangular, and hexagonal) of platinum crystallites, as observed by transmission electron microscopy, were obtained. Supported catalysts were made by impregnation of previously formed Pt crystallites into an alumina support. Water was removed from the support by freeze drying, and the capping polymers were removed by calcining in air at 500° C. for 8 hours.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,569,358 discloses a method of preparing a porous material incorporating ultrafine metal particles comprising the following steps: (1) preparing surface-protected ultrafine metal particles by reducing metal ions in the presence of molecules such as dodecanethiol molecules; (2) immersing a wet gel in a solution of the ultrafine metal particles, thus forming an ultrafine metal particle/wet gel composite in which the ultrafine metal particles are incorporated in the wet gel; and (3) drying the ultrafine metal particle/wet gel composite to form a porous body.
The aforementioned processes utilize a protecting agent, or capping polymer, to control particle size, morphology, and reduce agglomeration. However, removal of the capping polymers or protecting agents can be an issue for sensitive catalytic processes, as their destruction may leave contaminating residues that are undesirable. These residues may reduce activity of the catalyst by occupying active sites necessary for subsequent reactions. The residues may also leave behind trace quantities of poisons that will eventually kill the catalyst over time. Removal of organic capping agents and polymers usually require oxidation (or burning), the exothermic heat from which can produce unwanted sintering due to the high temperatures. Sintering will increase the metal particle size and reduce the active surface area which is undesirable. Furthermore, the use of capping agents can hinder the introduction of the metal crystallites into small pores of the support.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,686,308 discloses a supported catalyst comprising catalyst metal nanoparticles having an average particle size of typically 2.0 nm or less, which are supported on support particles at a loading of 30% or more. Typical catalyst metals are selected from platinum, palladium, ruthenium, rhodium, iridium, osmium, molybdenum, tungsten, iron, nickel and tin. Typical support particles are carbon. A method of making a supported catalyst comprises the steps of: a) providing a solution of metal chlorides of one or more catalyst metals in solvent system containing at least one polyalcohol, typically ethylene glycol containing less than 2% water; b) forming a colloidal suspension of unprotected catalyst metal nanoparticles by raising the pH of the solution, typically to a pH of 10 or higher, and heating said solution, typically to 125° C. or higher; c) adding support particles to the colloidal suspension; and d) depositing the unprotected catalyst metal nanoparticles on the support particles by lowering the pH of said suspension, typically to a pH of 6.5 or lower.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,603,038 discloses a method for producing a catalyst containing one or several metals from the group of metals comprising the sub-groups Ib and VIIIb of the periodic table on porous support particles, characterized by a first step in which one or several precursors from the group of compounds of metals from sub-groups Ib and VIIIb of the periodic table is or are applied to a porous support, and a second step in which the porous, preferably nanoporous support to which at least one precursor has been applied is treated with at least one reduction agent, to obtain the metal nanoparticles produced in situ in the pores of the support. Catalysts were typically prepared by impregnation of the support with a metal salt solution, followed by a drying step. Subsequent to drying, the impregnated support materials were reduced by various techniques including re-impregnation with liquid reducing agents. Typically, the initial salt impregnation process was performed with support to salt solution ratios on the order of 1 g support/1 ml solution. These impregnation conditions are typical of traditional prior art, and generally result in lower dispersions and poor control of particle sizes and particle size distributions.
What is needed is a catalyst manufacturing process that provides improved control over metal crystallite particle sizes, distributions and morphologies without the contamination of capping agents.

Method for producing heterogeneous catalysts containing metal nanoparticles


The invention relates to a flap (2) of a motor vehicle ventilation system, which is disposed in a housing (1) in the mounted state and controls the air supply to the interior of the vehicle along with a second flap (4). The flap (2) according to the invention comprises a pivot axis about which the same can be pivoted. At least one portion of the flap area (2′) is pivotable and/or flexible to the pivot axis or shaft (2″) and/or another portion of the flap (2) juxtaposing the pivot axis.

The invention relates to a flap of a motor vehicle ventilation system.
Provided in conventional motor vehicle ventilation systems upstream of a blower is a recirculating air flap and a fresh air flap which can be opened and closed by a common controller. In this arrangement the flaps are controlled such that the recirculating air flap is already closed when the fresh air flap is still not fully open, this requiring highly complicated kinematics.
On the basis of the prior art the object of the invention is to make available an improved flap. In particular, the flap is intended to simplify controlling the recirculating air flap and fresh air flap so that the kinematics between drive (actuator) and flaps is rendered relatively simple.

Flap of a motor vehicle ventilation system


An extendable squarer for processing digital signals, suitable for processing a square operation for n-bit data is disclosed. The extendable squarer comprise a bit expanding circuit and a plurality of operating units. The bit expanding circuit comprises n−1 bit expanding output terminals for outputting a plurality of bit expanding data. The operation units receive a plurality of bit codes of the n-bit data corresponding thereto according to the binary weight. In addition, except for bit code of the most-significant bit, the other operation units receive the corresponding bit expanding data output by the bit expanding circuit respectively. The present invention generates the square operation value of the n-bit data based on the corresponding bit expanding data and bit codes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a squarer, and more particularly to an extendable squarer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Square operations have been widely applied in VLSI circuits, communication systems and radar systems. Earlier, multipliers have been applied to execute the square operations. Due to the complicated operating systems or integrated circuits, hundreds of thousands of multipliers are required. This would cause the increase of costs.
In order to resolve the problem, square operation technology and circuits have been developed. FIG. 1 is a table of Booth multiplication. Referring to FIG. 1, y represents a multiplicand, x represents a multiplier and i represents the number of bits and an integer. Booth method checks three bits and skips two bits for each operation. Therefore, one bit will be overlapped and m/2 column of the partial product terms are generated as shown in FIG. 1.
FIG. 2 is a partial multiplication matrix of a prior art squarer. Referring to FIG. 2, A represents bit codes, and subscripts represent the bits of the bit codes. In FIG. 2, it shows a partial multiplication matrix of a 4-bit data (A0 A1 A2 A3) square operation.
In addition, the Booth encoding method is also applied for square operations. For example, before the Booth encoding method performs square operations for 8-bit data, the 8-bit data are shown as below:−b727+b626+ . . . +b020=B326+B224+B122+B020                 wherein b represents the bit codes of the 8-bit data, and the subscripts represent the bits of the bit codes. B1, B2, B3 and B4 represent the operators according to the Booth encoding method and are shown as below:Bi=−2b2i+1+b2i+b2i−1
FIG. 3 is a partially folded multiplication matrix according to a 8-bit Booth method. Referring to FIG. 3, the square value of the 8-bit data can be shown as below:
            (                        2                                B            3                                          2            6                          +                  2                                B            2                                          2            4                          +                  2                                B            1                                          2            2                              )        ×          B      0                  2      0        +            B      0        ×          2      0        +            (                        2                                B            3                                          2            4                          +                  2                                B            2                                          2            2                              )        ×          B      1                  2      4        +            B      1        ×          B      1                  2      4        +            (              2                          B          3                                  2          2                    )        ×          B      2                  2      8        +            B      2        ×          B      2                  2      8        +            B      3        ×          B      3                  2      12                      This formula can be simplified as below:(P023+C0)+(P123+C1)24+(P223+C2)28+C3212         wherein P and C are represented by the following formulas:Ci=Bi×Bi i=1, . . . , 4Pi=(−b725−2i+b624−2i+ . . . +b2+220+b2i+120)×Bi i=0, . . . , 2
These prior art methods require a great size of the circuit. This requirement conflicts with the trend of integration of circuits.

Extendable squarer and operation method for processing digital signals

Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology, Armaments Bureau, M.N.D.


A system and method for detecting and monitoring wafer probe stability including the steps of, probing each die on a wafer, and for each die determining whether the result of the probe is a pass or a fail. If the result of a probe is a fail, re-probing the die and determining whether the re-probe is a pass or a fail. Once all the dies have been probed determining the rate of die re-probes that lead to passes, comparing the rate of passes on re-probes to a pre-determined limit, and if the rate of passes on re-probes is greater than the predetermined limit, assigning the probe status as unstable.

In wafer manufacture probing is a process for testing if dies formed on a wafer are functional. Probing dies on a wafer involves penetrating the surface of the wafer at predetermined points to make contact with the pads of each die. The probe uses probe needles to make contact with the pads of each die. Once the probe has penetrated the surface of the die an electronic signal is passed through the die from at least one probe needle to at least one other probe needle. Information received from the probe needle(s) is used to determine the functionality of the die.
Problems may arise in the probing process due to a number of different reasons. These reasons include dirt being trapped on the probing needles, surface residue building up on the probing needles, and the probing needles becoming bent out of shape.
At present an operator reviews the probe results and judges whether there is a probing issue by visual inspection of failed wafer results or low yield of certain results. For example the operator may suspect that there is a probing issue as the number of failed dies per wafer gradually increases. The disadvantage of the present method is that probing problems usually begin long before they are detected by the operator. This leads to the probing failure of potentially large numbers of dies that are good dies.

Method for detecting and monitoring wafer probing process instability

Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Co. Pte. Ltd.


An ultrasound probe positioning system (100) comprises a positioning unit (102) for holding an ultrasound probe unit (104) and for moving the ultrasound probe unit and positioning it at a target position and a positioning control unit (106) configured to provide target positioning data indicative of a target position that establishes a mechanical contact of the ultrasound probe unit with an external object (110) and to control the mechanical positioning unit in moving and positioning the ultrasound probe at the target position. The positioning unit comprises a force actuation unit (108) configured to adapt a pressing force amount of a mechanical pressing force exerted on the object in response to a variation of a counterforce amount so as to maintain a predetermined net pressing force amount exerted by the mechanical pressing force against the counterforce.

Frequent imaging during the course of radiation treatment (image guided RT, IGRT) can assist in providing a more accurate radiation dose delivery to a target and for less toxicity of delivered radiation to normal tissue. In current clinical practice, such frequent imaging is suitably performed using a cone beam computer tomography (CT) scanner. However, this image modality requires an invasive implantation of fiducial markers, adds an additional radiation dose to the patient and does not allow for intra-fraction motion monitoring.
An alternative involves the use of ultrasound (US) imaging. US imaging is harmless for the patient, relatively cheap, and allows for real-time volumetric organ tracking. Ultrasound imaging is used in combination with medical treatment techniques such as, for instance, external beam radiotherapy (external beam RT) or catheterization procedures.
The publication US 2012/0083692 A1 describes a system for contact pressure control in medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging. According to this publication, the compression of tissue within the patient may be measured using ultrasound scanning. The desired amount of compression in the region of interest for diagnosis may be obtained. It is described that, for example in breast imaging, the desired compression for imaging a portion of the breast is compared to compression measured from ultrasound data. Once the desired tissue compression is achieved, the pressure applied by the transducer is maintained while the diagnosis scan occurs. For example, a robotic arm locks or otherwise maintains the pressure during scanning.

Ultrasound probe positioning system and method of hands-free controlling the pressure applied by an ultrasound probe to an external object


An element manager acquires information identifying a network element. Based on the acquired information, the element manager associates a template configuration with the network element. The template configuration includes configuration parameter values. Subsequent to the associating, the element manager provides configuration information describing a configuration of the network element without retrieving the configuration information from the network element. The configuration information is based on the template configuration. An element manager and programming first determine that a configuration of a network element should match a template configuration. The configuration includes configuration parameter values utilized by the network element. The element manager and programming acquire at least one of the configuration parameter values and determine that the at least one acquired configuration parameter value does not match a corresponding configuration parameter value of the template configuration. Based on this determination, the element manager and programming take an action.

Networks of elements (e.g., packet switches, servers, routers, and the like) may be managed by an element manager. The element manager may perform various functions such as receiving alarms from the elements, upgrading software or firmware on the elements, and configuring the elements. In order to manage a network element, the element manager may use configuration information describing a configuration of the network element. In some cases, the element manager may retrieve the configuration information from the network element.
Retrieving configuration information from one network element might not seem burdensome. However, retrieving configuration information from a large number of network elements may be time consuming and may significantly burden a network connecting the network elements together by consuming a large amount of bandwidth during inconvenient periods of time.

Managing a network element using a template configuration


Disclosed is a light emitting device package capable of improving luminous efficiency. The light emitting device includes a substrate; a first buffer layer on the substrate; a first insulating layer on the first buffer layer; a second buffer layer on the first insulating layer; a second insulating layer on the second buffer layer; a third buffer layer around the second buffer layer and the insulating layer; and a light emitting structure on the third buffer layer.

The embodiment relates to a light emitting device, and more particularly, to a light emitting device and a light emitting device package capable of improving luminous efficiency.
Generally, a light emitting device (LED) includes a p-n junction diode having a characteristic of converting electric energy into light energy. The p-n junction diode can be formed by combining group III-V elements of the periodic table. The light emitting device can represent various colors by adjusting the compositional ratio of compound semiconductors.
When a forward voltage is applied to an LED, electrons of an n layer are combined with holes of a p layer, so that energy corresponding to an energy gap between a conduction band and a valance band may be released. This energy is mainly realized as heat or light, and the LED emits the energy as the light. For instance, a nitride semiconductor represents superior thermal stability and wide band gap energy so that the nitride semiconductor has been spotlighted in the field of optical devices and high-power electronic devices. In particular, blue, green, and UV light emitting devices employing the nitride semiconductor have already been developed and extensively used.
According to the related art, the nitride semiconductor is formed by sequentially laminating an N-type first semiconductor layer, an active layer and a P-type second semiconductor layer on a silicon (Si) substrate.
However, when a GaN semiconductor layer is grown on a silicon substrate, since the substrate and the semiconductor layer have mutually different crystal structures, a lattice mismatch is generated while being spaced apart from an interface or due to a thermal expansion coefficient difference, a stress is generated.
The crystal mismatch and the thermal expansion coefficient difference cause a dislocation and a crack, so that electric and optical characteristics of a light emitting device are deteriorated.


A system includes a gasification feed injector. The gasification feed injector includes a tip portion that has an outer wall and a feed outlet, and an injection axis of the gasification feed injector extends through the feed outlet of the tip portion. The gasification feed injector also has at least one fastener extending radially from the outer wall relative to an injection axis of the gasification feed injector through the feed outlet of the tip portion. An attachment location of the at least one fastener is located away from the feed outlet of the tip portion. The system also includes a heat shield, which includes a tile radially disposed on the at least one fastener and radially secured to the outer wall via fastening the tile to the at least one fastener. In addition, the tile wraps around a distal end portion of the tip portion.

The subject matter disclosed herein relates to feed injectors, and, more particularly, to a heat shield for feed injectors.
A variety of reactors and combustion systems employ feed injectors to inject a fuel or feedstock into a chamber, combustion chamber. For example, an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant includes a gasifier with one or more feed injectors. The feed injectors supply a carbonaceous feedstock, such as an organic feedstock or a coal slurry, into the gasifier along with oxygen and steam to generate a syngas. In general, a partial combustion or gasification reaction occurs downstream from the feed injectors. However, a flame and/or heat from combustion in close proximity to the feed injectors can reduce the life of the feed injectors, particularly if the feed injectors exceed certain temperatures. For example, the feed injector may be subject to increasingly greater temperatures toward the tip and/or other locations close to the flame. The lives of feed injectors may be reduced by such high temperatures.


A method of reducing crack propagation in an airfoil includes: providing an airfoil having a root spaced apart from a tip, spaced-apart leading and trailing edges, a suction side extending from the leading edge to the trailing edge, and an opposed pressure side extending from the leading edge and the trailing edge, supporting the airfoil against bending loads; and burnishing the airfoil using a burnishing element, so as to create at least one burnished section of residual compressive stress, the at least one burnished section being located adjacent the leading edge and spaced from the leading edge by an offset distance selected so as to avoid deformation of the leading edge.

This invention relates generally to fatigue-resistant and damage-tolerant components and methods of producing such components.
Various metallic, ceramic, and composite components, such as gas turbine engine fan and compressor blades, are susceptible to cracking from fatigue and damage (e.g. from foreign object impacts). This damage reduces the life of the part, requiring repair or replacement.
It is known to protect components from crack propagation by inducing residual compressive stresses therein. Methods of imparting these stresses include shot peening, laser shock peening (LSP), pinch peening, and low plasticity burnishing (LPB). These methods are typically employed by applying a "patch" of residual compressive stresses over an area to be protected from crack propagation, for example a leading edge of a gas turbine engine compressor blade. However, shot peening is detrimental to the surface finish and has a lot of variation in its intensity even with industry standard control systems in place. Parts like compressor airfoils lose their efficiency with rough surface finishes produced by shot peening. Also, the residual stresses imparted by shot peening are very close to the surface of the part. Laser shock peening cans be expensive due to the required specimen preparation, equipment used, and personnel training requirements. Furthermore, both shot peening and laser shock peening can be relatively slow processes.

Method for increasing fatigue notch capability of airfoils


The present invention relates to laundry care compositions comprising mono-azo carboxylate dyes.

As textiles age, their color tends to fade or yellow due to exposure to light, air, soil, and natural degradation of the fibers. To mitigate this unwanted effect, laundry detergent manufacturers incorporate shading dyes into their products. The purpose of shading dyes is typically to counteract the fading and yellowing of the textiles by providing a blue-violet hue to the laundered fabrics, reducing the visual impact of the yellowing. In laundry care compositions dyes may be affected by interaction with laundry care adjuncts in the composition. This can lead to changes in the dye properties, such as deposition properties, which either may not generate sufficient fabric shading or which may lead to undesirable build up over time on fabric surfaces, especially nylon fabric. There remains a need to provide a laundry care composition that comprises a shading dye that has a good deposition profile onto nylon fabric, and that has a good removal profile from nylon fabric during the subsequent laundering process so as to prevent any unwanted dye build up on the nylon fabric.

Laundry care composition comprising carboxylate dye


A method of removing ties and a wrapper from a fiber bale being at least partially covered by the wrapper and surrounded by the ties tightened about the wrapper includes the steps of severing the ties; carrying the ties away from the bale and pulling the wrapper off the bale in several parts after the ties are carried away from the bale.

This invention relates to a method and an apparatus for removing ties (such as wire hoops or straps) and wrapper parts from textile fiber bales.
According to a known process, the entire wrapper and the previously severed bales ties are removed together from the bale. As the bale abuts a carrier element, the wrapper is grasped by the carrier element which is then lowered through a clearance between conveying devices and pulls the wrapper and the bale ties through the clearance, so that the wrapper and the ties remain in contact with one another. It is a disadvantage of this process that the wrapper ma be caught by corners or edges of the bale and thus the carrier element does not reliably grasp and fully remove the same from the bale. It is a further disadvantage that the relatively long and unwieldy bale ties may become entangled in the wrapper which may lead to jamming, causing operational disturbances in the automatic process.

Method and apparatus for removing ties and wrappers from textile fiber bales


The invention relates to methods of treating a disease or condition, wherein expression or activity of soluble CLCA1 is up-regulated, by administering inhibitors of soluble CLCA1. The invention also relates to methods of isolating soluble CLCA1 from a bodily fluid.

Ion transport across the plasma membrane is critical for maintaining the normal physiology of the cell. Ion transport across the plasma membrane is mediated by a variety of membrane bound proteins which act as channels and pumps. Dysfunctional ion channels or pumps will lead to a disease state. Cystic fibrosis is a disease resulting from a defect in a cAMP-mediated chloride channel, CFTR (Welsh et al. 1993, Cell 73:1251). The physiological manifestation of cystic fibrosis includes airway obstruction resulting from thick secretions of mucus into the airways of the lung and gastrointestinal tract and the subsequent colonization of the lung airways by pathogenic microorganisms (Clarke et al. 1992, Science 257:1125; Clarke et al. 1994, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 91:479; Eng et al. 1996, Ped Pulmonol 21:77) and mucus plugging of pancreatic ducts of the gastrointestinal tract (WO 01/54685). The association of cystic fibrosis with aberrant ion transport has lead investigators to hypothesize that dysfunctional ion transport might be related to other diseases with similar symptoms. Thus, dysfunctional ion transport has been implicated in diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pathway disease (COPD), i.e., emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
CLCA1, and its murine homolog, gob-5, are putative calcium activated chloride channels (WO 99/44620). Both have been implicated in the pathology associated with asthma. Asthma is characterized by a hypersensitivity to environmental allergens which is associated with an inflammatory response and the increased production of mucin (WO 01/54685; WO 99/44620). Expression of CLCA1 and gob-5 are up-regulated in response to allergen challenge. Expression has also been linked to mucin overproduction (Hoshino et al. 2002, Am J Respir Crit Care Med 165:1132). Over expression of CLCA1 and gob-5 has been shown to induce expression of MUC5AC, a mucin gene, in a muco-epidermal cell line. Additionally, adenovirus mediated antisense therapy has abrogated the effects of gob-5 hyper-responsiveness and mucin production in an in vivo mouse model (Nakanishi et al. 2001, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98:5175).
It has been suggested that CLCA1 is expressed as a 125 kD precursor which is cleaved to form a 90 kD subunit and a 37 kD subunit which associate on the cell surface to form an active ion channel. It has also been suggested that the 90 kD subunit forms four transmembrane domains. It has further been suggested that expression of CLCA1 is associated with chloride ion flux across the plasma membrane and that non-selective chloride channel inhibitors such as niflumic acid, 4,4′-diisothiocyanatostilbene-2,2′-disulfonic acid, and dithiothreitol will abrogate this effect. (Gruber et al. 1999, Genomics 54:200).

Method of treatment using antibody to CLCA-1