A graphic data-acquisition system which employs an active tracking system provides a retrofittable apparatus for converting a substantially planar surface into an electronic data capture device, in which the components of the system are readily retrofittable, at relatively low cost, to a wide variety of otherwise conventional writing-surface structures, such as so-called dry-erase whiteboards. Conventional triangulation techniques are used to track the position and motion of a writer or eraser. An encoding facility associated with the writing implement provides the ability to distinguish whether the writing implement is used for marking or an as erasing implement, as well as determining the nature or character of written line width or eraser swath. A data stream thus generated can be used in a variety of ways, such as for example, to feed information into the memory of a digital computer, and/or to feed information for transmission to remote stations.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates to electronic data capture devices. More particularly, the invention relates to a retrofittable apparatus for converting a substantially planar surface into an electronic data capture device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Electronic blackboards date at least to the mid-1960s, at which time emphasis was placed on the communication of graphical data, specifically handwriting and sketches, from one location to another. U.S. Pat. No. 3,706,850 discloses a system related to such activity.
At about the same time, graphic tablets that allowed the entry of line drawings into a computer were developed. U.S. Pat. No. 3,838,212 is an early example of developments in this area.
By the mid-1980s, a third kind of a product group was developed to address the need for a local hard copy of material written and sketched onto a dry-erase, so-called whiteboard. This generic group of systems, known collectively as electronic copyboards (ECBs), relates fundamentally to stand-alone devices that have much in common with well known reducing photocopiers.
Each of these devices attempts to provide the user with a natural communication metaphor that uses familiar writing tools. In the case of electronic blackboards and electronic copyboards, the metaphor is a fixed wall-mounted surface meant for mass viewing, in which marking or writing is accomplished by the use of colored markers, and in which erasing is accomplished by wiping the surface with an eraser. In the case of the graphic tablet, the metaphor is a desktop slate and stylus meant for individual use.
Those skilled in the art recognize that both electronic blackboards and electronic copyboards typically require dedicated, highly specialized surfaces and equipment structures. These specialized structures result in an immobile, cumbersome, and relatively expensive system. Systems and approaches generally in this line of technical art are illustrated, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,613,066 to Cecreman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,313 to Garwin et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,506,354 to Hansen, U.S. Pat. No. 4,670,751 to Enokido, U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,977 (Re. 33,936) to Miyamori, U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,329 to Mallicoat, U.S. Pat. No. 4,814,552 to Stefik et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,248,856 to Mallicoat, U.S. Pat. No. 5,023,408 to Murakami, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,434,370 to Wilson.
The ""066 patent discloses a display panel and means responsive to the positions and moves of a pointer on the panel to generate information signals for a computer. Thin, coherent light beams parallel to the surface of the panel a systematically and repetitively displaced in crossing relation to scan at least part of the surface. The position of a marker relative to the display panel is detected by interference of the marker with the scanned light beams.
The ""313 patent focuses on an indicator-to-data processing interface which employs a light source and a background reflector as constituents in a system to monitor occlusion of light occurring from the positioning and movement of a manually moved indicator over a surface.
The ""751 patent discloses an eraser for an electronic blackboard having a variable erasing area. The eraser includes a small area erasing unit and a detachable large area erasing unit. Detectors determine when the eraser is touched to the surface of the board, as well as whether the small area erasing unit or the large area erasing unit are currently in use.
The ""977 patent discloses an electronic blackboard, writing instrument, and position-detecting control unit. The system uses magnetic bias to detect the position of an writing/erasing element relative to that of video information displayed on a writing surface.
The ""329 and ""856 patents address a graphic input system which employs ultrasound (the ""329 patent) or scanned light (the ""856 patent) to monitor the position of a mobile element over a surface. The ""856 patent includes at least two spaced transceiver-structure stations that optically track the position and motion of a writer or eraser based upon bar code techniques. While it is suggested in the ""856 patent that these transceiver-structure stations may be retrofitted to a conventional writing-surface structure, no discussion is provided for performing such retrofit, nor is it clear that the scanning technology disclosed would be suitable for a retrofit application, where the spaced, separate structures cannot be rendered insensitive to in-use relational changes (for example, movement and vibration of the white board occasioned by movement of the writing implement to and across the surface of the white board during use), and where adequate precision to effect an accurate scan cannot be achieved without regular calibration during use due to the relative positional instability of the multiple spaced sensors.
The ""552 patent discloses an input device, or stylus, for entering hand drawn forms into a computer comprising a writing instrument, a pressure switch doe determining whether the instrument is in contact with the writing surface, an acoustic transmitter for triangulating the position of the stylus on the surface, and a wireless transmitter for transmitting data and timing information to the computer. In operation, the stylus transmits an infrared signal which the system receives immediately, and an ultrasound pulse which two microphones receive after a delay which is a function of the speed of sound and the distance of the stylus from each microphone. From this information the system can calculate the position of the stylus. Switches for indicating functions are mounted on the stylus. Multiple styluses can be used, each transmitting a distinctive identification code so that the system can determine which stylus is the signal source.
The ""408 patent describes an electronic blackboard, including a sensing tablet which senses the position of a writing tool that includes a tuned circuit having a predetermined resonant frequency.
The ""370 patent discloses a graphic data acquisition system in which a digitized record is produced according to the X, Y, and Z position of a writing implement relative to a writing surface. An expanse of electromagnetic radiation is generated in a zone adjacent to the writing surface, and an electromagnetic interactive pen interacts with such electromagnetic radiation to produce a signal that locates the pen relative to the writing surface.
Prior art systems of the type outlined above are relatively complex, immobile, and costly. Typically, they are not readily retrofittable at all, much less to a wide variety of writing-surface structures which are already in hundreds of thousands of users""possessions. In fact, for useful and accurate operation, such systems depend upon a specific surface having either embedded sensors or otherwise precisely predetermined qualities. Further, prior art systems are not particularly adapted to yield information about the condition of a writing stylus or an eraser much beyond its position or station over a writing surface.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a novel graphic data-acquisition system which offers not only the various features and advantages made available by prior art, but which further effectively addresses the various performance, cost, simplicity, mobility and sophistication issues mentioned above. It would be especially advantageous to provide such a system that is readily retrofitted to existing writing surfaces without the need for special mounting arrangements or regular calibration, while providing a high degree of precision and stability, and while also providing a rich complement of sophisticated features.
The invention is a graphic data-acquisition system which employs a continuously active tracking system to provide a retrofittable apparatus for converting a substantially planar surface into an electronic data capture device. Various techniques are disclosed that allow the fabrication of a retrofittable assembly, such that any substantially planar surface may be converted into an electronic data capture device. Thus, the components of the system are readily retrofittable, at relatively low cost, to a wide variety of otherwise conventional writing-surface structures, such as so-called dry-erase whiteboards.
The invention employs any conventional triangulation technique to track the position and motion of a writer or eraser. As discussed above, many such techniques are known, but these techniques have traditionally required a specialized or dedicated writing surface or have been otherwise unsuited for retrofit to an existing writing surface. The invention exploits to advantage both the significant improvements in modern tracking technology and a novel and improved fitting technique that allows rapid and efficient retrofit of a tracking assembly to a dry-erase whiteboard or other planar surface, while providing a precision tracking system that accurately tracks a writing implement in three dimensions, thus capturing all marks placed on the marking surface.
Further, by using an encoding facility associated with a writing implement the invention provides the ability to distinguish whether the writing implement is used for marking or an as erasing implement, as well as determining the nature or character of written line width or eraser swath, for example specific color in the instance of a colored writing instrument. A data stream thus generated can be used in a variety of ways, such as for example, to feed information into the memory of a digital computer, and/or to feed information for transmission to remote stations for live presentation of writing activity occurring on the writing-surface area in the system.

Retrofittable apparatus for converting a substantially planar surface into an electronic data capture device


The present disclosure relates to a method for measuring the maturity or cell wall thickening of a sample of cellulosic fiber. The method at least includes exposing the sample of fiber to polarized light, capturing one or more images of the sample through crossed polar lenses and a compensator plate so that the image(s) include interference colors from the sample; and conducting computer analysis on the captured image(s) to determine the maturity or degree of cell wall thickening of the cellulosic fiber by comparing the image(s) to reference color interference data.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for measuring the maturity or degree of cell wall thickening of a sample of naturally occurring cellulosic fibre including cotton fibre.
Cellulosic fibre such as cotton typically has a central lumen or hollow region that represents the residual protoplasm of the living fibre cell which has a cell wall. An important property affecting the quality of fibre having the structure of cellulosic fibre is the degree of thickening of the cell wall by cellulose which is sometimes referred to as fibre maturity or circularity.
Fabric manufactures and spinners regard fibre maturity as an important indicator of the suitability of the fibre for processing from both a chemical and a physical perspective.
For example, immature fibre which is fibre with little or no cell wall thickening is known for causing the following problems during processing: small entanglements called neps; irregularities in processed fibre assemblies including finished yarns; and non-uniform in dyeing of fabrics.
More generally immature fibre decreases processing efficiency and particular steps may be taken to reduce the processing difficulties depending on the maturity of the fibre.
In addition pressure to manage fibre maturity is increasingly being exerted on research agronomists and plant breeders and therefore there is a need to develop a suitable technique for testing the maturity of cellulosic crops in a farming and harvesting environment.
The measurement of fibre maturity particularly cotton fibre has been the subject of 40 years of research and is still viewed as a difficult technical problem. A technique that has in the past been used for measuring fibre maturity involves the direct measurement of the cross-sections of a fibre using a microscope to determine fibre maturity and is regarded as a benchmark for all other tests. However, this direct technique suffers from significant experimental error due to the microscope measurements involved and the limited numbers of fibres that can be practically measured. Other indirect techniques have failed to generate sufficient industry confidence because of their lack of accuracy and/or precision.
Polarized light microscopy is a technique that has long been used to investigate the crystalline structures of inorganic and inert organic materials, e.g., minerals, fibres (natural and synthetic), bone, china, chitin and some fixed sections of organisms. The technique has been used extensively in textile and industrial fibre identification and particularly of fibres that exhibit birefringent properties, i.e., fibres that behave like a uni-axial optical crystal. The optical axis in birefringent fibres is usually parallel along the fibre axis with the refractive index being dependent upon the plane of polarization of the incident light. When plane polarized light is transmitted through a birefringent object the light ray is split into two mutually perpendicular vibrating fast and slow rays, which propagate through the object at two different speeds. Upon emerging from the object a phase difference occurs between the fast and slow rays. When recombined into a single ray by passage through a second polarizor (analyzer) the rays interfere with each other, which in turn create different interference colours that highlight different crystalline characteristics.
A standard test for determining the maturity of fibres by viewing them through crossed polarizing lenses and a first-order red Selenite compensator plate is described in a text entitled "The Standard Method of Test for Maturity of Cotton Fibres (Sodium Hydroxide Swelling and Polarized Light Procedure), 354-359, Designation: D1442-00, ASTM Textile and Fibre Test Methods 2000". The compensator plate is inserted between the polarizing lenses to increase the level of retardation between the slow and fast rays and hence improve the intensity of colours produced when the rays are recombined. The compensator is also known as wavelength retardation plate or wavelength filter.
The standard test involves arranging a bundle of fibres parallel to each other with a minimum of overlapping in a solution such as water or a clear mineral oil on a glass microscope slide. A cover slide is then positioned on top of the fibres before being placed between the crossed polar lens arrangement. The interference colours appearing from the fibres are the result of the optical phenomena described above and have been classified in a text entitled "Polarized Light Preferred for Maturity Tests" Textile World, February 1945, by Grimes.
Table 1 below provides the accepted standard interference colours for mature and immature cotton fibres compiled by Grimes.
TABLE 1Colours of cotton fibres under polarized lightWITHOUTWITH SELENITE PLATESELENITEAdditiveSubtractiveFIBREPLATEColoursColoursCLASSIFICATIONFirst OrderSecond OrderFirst OrderMATURElight yellowYellowLight yellowwhiteGreenYellowIMMATUREgray-blueBlueOrange-yellowgrayPurpleOrange
A disadvantage of the standard test is that the operator must make an assessment of the colours of the fibres and make a subjective decision on the colour of the fibres which gives rise to large discrepancies in the results from different laboratories. Furthermore, the test is too slow to be carried out for routine testing applications in terms of both specimen preparation and test time. According to our experience, ordinarily the time period required to carry out the standard test on a sample of fibres is in excess of 30 minutes. There would also be additional time in preparing the specimen prior to testing.
It is an object of the present invention to alleviate the disadvantages of the standard test method described above while measuring the maturity or cell wall thickening of cellulosic fibres including cotton.

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation


A scanning backlight unit (BU) for a matrix display comprises a plurality of light sources (L1, . . . , Ln). A driver (2) supplies drive signals (D1, . . . , Dn) to the light sources (L1, . . . , Ln). A controller (3) controls the driver (2) to separately activate the light sources (L1, . . . , Ln) to obtain light-emitting regions (5) being active. A light sensor (4) is associated with a group of at least two of the light sources (L1, . . . , Ln) to supply a sensor signal (SES) which indicates a luminance (LU) of the group. The controller (3) reads the sensor signal (SES) at different instants (ts1, . . . , tsn) at which mutually different subsets of the light sources (L1, . . . , Ln) of the group are active to control the driver (2) to supply power levels to the light sources (L1, . . . , Ln) of the group to obtain a luminance (LU1, . . . , LUn) of each one of the light sources (L1, . . . , Ln) of the group in dependence on the sensor signal (SES).

US 2003/0016205-A1 discloses a lighting unit for use as a backlight of a liquid crystal display device. The backlight is locally turned on, for part of the frame period only, to reduce smear effects occurring for moving images. Such a backlighting is usually referred to as scanning backlighting. The lighting unit comprises a plurality of light sources and associated light-emitting regions that are arranged in the vertical scanning direction of the liquid crystal display. Thus, in the direction in which the multiple gate lines, which select rows of pixels of the display, are driven sequentially. The light emitting sources associated with the light-emitting regions are sequentially turned on and off synchronously with the scanning of the lines of pixels. A light sensitive element is associated with each one of the light-emitting sources. The light sensitive element feeds-back the luminance of the associated light-emitting source to a control circuit which changes the drive signal supplied to the light-emitting source to minimize the difference in luminance between the respective light-emitting regions.
Thus, the scanning backlight produces instead of a constant light plane for constantly illuminating the complete matrix display, light areas which are present for a relatively short period in time only. The relatively short period is shorter than a frame period. This has the advantage that the integration by the human eye which tracks a moving object decreases and thus the smearing becomes less visible. Further, the switching periods wherein the pixels of the matrix display change their optical behavior can be selected to occur when no light is impinging. Usually, in a scanning backlight, the light of a particular one of the light sources has to be concentrated in the associated one of the light-emitting regions; the light should not be divided over the complete area of the matrix display. Consequently, differences in the luminance of the light sources will become quite visible.


The present invention relates to compounds which inhibit the binding of metal ions to a region in the N-terminal loop of the β-amyloid peptide which includes a cluster of histidine residues. In addition, the invention relates to pharmaceutical compositions including these compounds as the active agent, and to methods of treatment involving the administration of these compounds. The compounds of the invention are useful in the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease and other amyloid-related conditions. In a first aspect the present invention provides a compound which interacts with the β-amyloid peptide in such a way that the N-terminal loop of the peptide (amino acid residues 1-15) is blocked or destabilised, thereby inhibiting the binding of one or more metal ions to at least one histidine residue within the N-terminal loop. Preferably the compound inhibits binding of Cu2+, Zn2+ and Fe3+ ions, but not Mg2+ or Ca2+ ions.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterised by the presence of distinctive lesions in the victim's brain. These brain lesions include abnormal intracellular filaments called neurofibrillary tangles, and extracellular deposits of amyloid in senile, or amyloid, plaques. Amyloid deposits are also present in the walls of cerebral blood vessels of Alzheimer's patients.
The major constituent of amyloid plaques has been identified as a 4 kilodalton peptide (39-43 residues) called β-amyloid peptide (Aβ) (Glenner and Wong, 1984). Diffuse deposits of Aβ peptides are frequently observed in normal adult brains, whereas Alzheimer's disease brain tissue is characterised by more compacted, dense-core β-amyloid plaques. These observations suggest that Aβ deposition precedes, and contributes to, the destruction of neurons that occurs in Alzheimer's disease. In further support of a direct pathogenic role for AD, β-amyloid has been shown to be toxic to mature neurons both in culture and in vivo (Yanker et al., 1989).
Natural Aβ is derived from proteolysis from a much longer protein known as the amyloid precursor protein (APP) (Kang, J et al, 1987). The APP gene maps to chromosome 21, thereby providing an explanation for the β-amyloid deposition seen at an early age in individuals with Down's syndrome, which is caused by trisomy of chromosome 21.
Aβ peptides are cleaved from APP, and then undergo aggregation to produce the insoluble toxic β-sheet structures which are found in extracellular deposits in Alzheimer's disease and Down's syndrome. Recent data suggest that the aggregated peptide has redox properties and can generate reactive oxygen species, which attack enzymes and possibly cell membranes, causing neurotoxicity (Markesbery, W. R. 1997). Antitioxidants are known to protect against Aβ-induced toxicity.
Aβ has been shown to bind copper and iron in stoichiometric amounts, with the associated formation of reactive oxygen species such as peroxides and hydroxide radicals, which are possible sources of the neurotoxicity (Bush et al., 1998). While the formation of peroxide in post-mortem samples of Alzheimer's disease brain has been observed, there was little peroxide formation in control tissue (Cherny et al., 1998). The peroxidase activity observed in the samples of Alzheimer's disease brain was abolished when treated with certain chelators (Cherny et al., 1998). The formation of reactive oxygen species was accompanied by a reduction in the valence state of the metal, ie Cu(II) to Cu(I) and Fe(III) to Fe(II) (Atwood et al., 1998a). Reactive oxygen species can also lead to free radical formation on the Aβ peptide, which leads over time to covalent cross-linking of the Aβ peptides (Bush et al., 1998). In addition, a number of metal ions, including Zn, Ni and Cu, have been shown to induce aggregation of Aβ (Atwood et al., 1998b). When brain tissue from both control and Alzheimer's disease-affected subjects was treated with chelators which are specific for zinc and copper, there was greatly enhanced solubilisation of Aβ, with an increase of up to 700%, suggesting that zinc and copper play a role in the assembly of the Aβ deposits (Cherny et al., 1998).
Histidine residues have been implicated in the binding of metal ions to Aβ peptides. For instance rat Aβ1-40, in which His13 is mutated to Arg, does not aggregate, nor does Aβ1-40 treated with diethyl pyrocarbonate, which binds to the imidazole nitrogen of histidine (Atwood et al., 1998). Subsequently to the priority date of this application, it was reported that three histidine residues in the N-terminal hydrophilic region of human Aβ provide primary metal binding sites, and that the solubility of the complex between metal and Aβ depends on the mode of metal binding. The authors proposed that Cu2+ would protect Aβ against Zn-induced aggregation by competing with zinc ions for binding sites on the histidine residues (Miura et al., 2000).
In contrast, we propose that inhibition of binding of zinc, copper and/or iron to the Aβ peptide will have significant therapeutic value in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
It has been reported that certain tetrapyrroles, especially certain porphyrin and phthalocyanine compounds inhibit conversion of normal, protease-sensitive prion protein (PrPsen) to the protease-resistant form (PrPres) which is implicated in the pathogenesis of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) such as Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (Caughey et al., 1998), and that three of these compounds inhibited TSE disease in vivo (Priola et al., 2000). However, both metal-free and metal-complexed tetrapyrroles were active, and the authors considered that the mechanism of action involved direct interaction between the compound and the infectious agent. Although the authors speculated that the compounds might also be useful in the treatment of non-prion mediated amyloid-related conditions, such as Alzehimer's disease or Type II diabetes, this was no more than speculation (Priola et al., 2000). Moreover, all of the compounds disclosed have multiple substitutions or the tetrapyrrole ring, whereas the tetrapyrrole compounds of the present invention are preferably substituted only on one of the rings.
It will be clearly understood that, although a number of prior art publications are referred to herein, this reference does not constitute an admission that any of these documents forms part of the common general knowledge in the art, in Australia or in any other country.


This invention relates to a compact cavity ring down spectrometer for detection and measurement of trace species in a sample gas using a tunable solid-state continuous-wave mid-infrared PPLN OPO laser or a tunable low-power solid-state continuous wave near-infrared diode laser with an algorithm for reducing the periodic noise in the voltage decay signal which subjects the data to cluster analysis or by averaging of the interquartile range of the data.

The availability of compact and efficient spectroscopic quality tunable diode lasers has generated interest in the development of portable optical diagnostic instruments. Advances in the communications industry have produced inexpensive, reliable and robust diode lasers in the near infrared. In the area of trace gas detection, the use of sensitive in situ diagnostics enables improved field measurements and better process control in a wide variety of applications, such as environmental monitoring, process control, and medical diagnostics.
Many technologies are available for measuring trace species of a sample gas, but there are tradeoffs between accuracy, sensitivity, selectivity, size and cost. Absorption spectra resulting from methods such as tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) with wavelength or frequency modulation, and FTIR are usually easy to interpret and are not limited by species selectivity. However, these are generally orders of magnitude less sensitive than laboratory techniques such as GC/MS, laser induced fluorescence (UF), and photoacoustic spectroscopy (PA).
Cavity ringdown spectroscopy (CRDS) is a highly sensitive linear absorption technique that is capable of monitoring a wide range of species. U.S. Pat. No. 6,842,548 to Loock et al. discloses a standard method and apparatus for measuring one or more optical properties of a test medium, comprising providing an optical waveguide loop comprising a test medium, illuminating the optical waveguide loop with a plurality of light pulses, and detecting roundtrips of the light pulses at one or more locations along the loop, wherein the detected light pulses are indicative of one or more optical properties of the test medium. Preferably, ring-down time of said light pulses is determined. The invention provides measures of optical properties such as absorbance and refractive index of a test medium such as a gas, a liquid, and a solid material.
Although most often performed using pulsed lasers, a number of groups are now exploring the use of cw, solid state lasers in CRDS. Lehmann et al., Meijer et al., and Romanini et al. were the first to use continuous-wave lasers for CRDS. In cw-CRDS a laser beam probes an optical cavity constructed of two highly reflective mirrors (R>0.9999). Light builds up in the cavity when the wavelength matches a cavity transmission mode. The frequency spacing between cavity transmission modes is the free spectral range (FSR).FSR=1/Lrt  (1)
Where Lrt is the round trip path length of the cavity in centimeters. Once the intensity reaches a preset level, the source is terminated and a ringdown event is captured. Initial attempts at cw-CRDS employed locking the cavity length to the laser frequency to ensure the buildup of light. U.S. Pat. No. 5,528,040 to Lehman discloses an apparatus for detection and measurement of trace species in a sample gas. A ring down cavity cell is filled with the sample gas. A continuous wave laser emits radiation, which is directed from the continuous wave laser to the ring down cavity cell where it resonates. A photo detector measures radiation levels resonated by the ring down cavity cell and produces a corresponding signal. The decay rate of the ring down cavity cell is calculated from the signal produced by the photo detector and is used to determine the level of trace species in the sample gas.
Romanini et al. modulated the cavity length to scan several transmission modes of the cavity across the laser frequency. This allowed for the buildup of light in the cavity at any frequency without the complications of cavity locking. U.S. Pat. No. 6,084,682 to Zare discloses distinct locking and sampling light beams are used in a cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) system to perform multiple ring-down measurements while the laser and ring-down cavity are continuously locked. The sampling and locking light beams have different frequencies, to ensure that the sampling and locking light is decoupled within the cavity. Preferably, the ring-down cavity is ring-shaped, the sampling light is s-polarized, and the locking light is p-polarized. Transmitted sampling light is used for ring-down measurements, while reflected locking light is used for locking in a Pound-Drever scheme.
An acousto-optic modulator (AOM) has been used in conjunction with a threshold circuit to shut off the light source when sufficient buildup occurred. Paldus et al. showed that an additional benefit of using an AOM is that the first order beam generated by the device is frequency shifted, so any light that is fed back to the laser diode source will not result in stabilization problems caused by optical feedback. Paldus et al. also developed a ring configuration which allowed for locking the cavity to the laser frequency, thus increasing the precision in ringdowns and improving detection limits.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,903,358 to Zare discloses a cavity ring down spectroscopy (CRDS) system uses a free-running continuous wave (c.w.) diode laser stabilized by frequency-shifted optical feedback in the presence of strong reflections from a high-finesse Fabry-Perot resonator. The frequency-shifted feedback stabilization eliminates the need for tightly controlling the relative positions of the laser and resonator. Non-frequency-shifted feedback is used for linewidth broadening. An acousto-optic modulator placed between the diode laser output and the resonator input frequency-shifts light reflected by the resonator input, causing the laser to cycle in phase with a period equal to the inverse of the frequency-shift. The laser diode line width can be stabilized from several MHz for high resolution spectroscopy of species at low pressures, to several hundred MHz for lower resolution spectroscopy of species at atmospheric pressures.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,277 to Zare discloses the use of light that is coupled into a cavity ring down spectroscopy (CRDS) resonant cavity by using an acousto-optic modulator. The AOM allows in-coupling efficiencies in excess of 40%, which is two to three orders of magnitude higher than in conventional systems using a cavity mirror for in-coupling. The AOM shutoff time is shorter than the roundtrip time of the cavity. The higher light intensities lead to a reduction in shot noise, and allow the use of relatively insensitive but fast-responding detectors such as photovoltaic detectors. Other deflection devices such as electro-optic modulators or elements used in conventional Q-switching may be used instead of the AOM. The method is particularly useful in the mid-infrared, far-infrared, and ultraviolet wavelength ranges, for which moderately reflecting input mirrors are not widely available.
Sensitivity is also an issue. U.S. Pat. No. 6,727,492 to Ye et al. discloses an ac technique for cavity ringdown spectroscopy permits 1×10−10 absorption sensitivity with microwatt light power. Two cavity modes are provided temporally out of phase such that when one mode is decaying, the other mode is rising. The system and method provides a quick comparison between on-resonance and off-resonance modes and enables sensitivities that approach the shot-noise limit.
Others have tried various data manipulations to improve results. U.S. Pat. No. 6,915,240 to Rabinowitz discloses a novel system and method for data reduction for improved exponential decay rate measurement in the present of excess low frequency noise. The system and method fit the tail of a record to a straight fine wherein the straight line is extrapolated to the entire record and then subtracted from the initial data points before a logarithmic transformation is taken.
Fieldable methods for detecting and measuring chemical hazards are needed. However, instruments that operate in the field must be able to withstand mechanical vibration and shock, and produce accurate and reliable results.

Compact near-IR and mid-IR cavity ring down spectroscopy device


A medical device is directed to techniques for removing polarization artifacts from electrical activity signals in order to detect presence of an evoked response. More specifically, a medical device receives a signal that represents electrical activity within a heart of a patient following delivery of a stimulation pulse to the heart and reconfigures a filter state of a filter from an initial filter state to remove the polarization artifact from the electrical activity signal in order to determine whether a cardiac event, such as an evoked response has occurred. The medical device may, for example, when the filter of the medical device is a digital filter, recalculate the values of digital filter components using the present input value of the electrical activity signal as a direct current (DC) input value of the digital filter.

Implantable medical devices, such as pacemakers, determine whether capture has occurred in response to a stimulation pulse in order to determine the effectiveness of the pacing therapy administered to the patient. The term "capture" generally refers to a cardiac depolarization and contraction of the heart in response to a stimulation pulse applied by the implantable medical device.
A common technique used to determine whether capture has been effectuated is to monitor the cardiac activity of a patient and to search for presence of an evoked response following a stimulation pulse. The evoked response is an electrical event that occurs in response to the application of the stimulation pulse to the heart. The cardiac activity of the patient is monitored by the medical device by tracking stimulation pulses delivered to the heart and examining, via one or more electrodes on leads deployed within the heart, electrical activity signals that occur concurrently with depolarization or contraction of the heart.
The evoked response is often difficult to detect due to a polarization artifact present on the sensing electrode employed to sense the electrical activity of the heart. This problem is especially prevalent in pacing systems that use the same lead to deliver the stimulation pulse and sense electrical activity of the heart after delivery of the stimulation pulse. Polarization of the pacing electrode is caused by accumulation of charge on an interface between the electrode and the cardiac tissue of the heart during delivery of a stimulation pulse.
The presence of the polarization artifact on the electrode can lead to errors in evoked response detection. For example, the generated polarization artifact may result in the pacemaker identifying a false evoked response, which in turn leads to missed heartbeats. Further, the polarization signal can cause the pacemaker to fail to detect an evoked response that is in fact present.

Removing polarization artifacts from electrical activity signals to detect cardiac evoked response


The present invention relates to an austenitic stainless steel tube for boiler, used for superheater or reheater in thermal power plant, giving excellent resistance to high temperature steam oxidation, in particular to an austenitic stainless steel tube containing 16 to 20% Cr by weight, and being cold-worked at the inner surface of the tube. The Cr concentration in the vicinity of the inner surface of the steel tube is 14% by weight or larger, and the hardness at 100 μm depth from the inner surface of the steel tube is 1.5 times or larger the average hardness of the mother material or is HV 300 or larger.

An austenitic stainless steel represented by 18Cr-8Ni steel is generally used for superheater or reheater in thermal power plant to ensure high temperature strength. With increase in the steam temperature, however, oxide scale is formed on the inner surface of the steel tube by high temperature steam even in the austenitic stainless steel. Since the austenitic stainless steel generally has large thermal expansion coefficient, the formed oxide scale is exfoliated from the inner surface of the tube by the temperature changes due to the shut-down and start-up cycles of boiler, then the exfoliated scale is deposited at bend sections of the boiler steel tube to induce plugging of the tube. In other cases, the exfoliated scale is scattered into the turbine section to cause erosion of turbine blades.
In recent years, the steam temperature increases more than ever to realize further high efficiency of thermal power plant in view of reduction in Co2 emissions. Accordingly, the improvement in the resistance to high temperature steam oxidation at the inner surface of the steel tube used for these applications, specifically the suppression of oxide scale forming and the prevention of exfoliated oxide scale have become further important technological issues.
As for measures to improve the resistance to steam oxidation for austenitic stainless steels, (1) use of high Cr steel tube, for example 25% Cr steel tube; or (2) use of fine-grained steel tube has been employed. For the case of high Cr steel tube, however, the Ni content is unavoidably increased to form a single austenite phase, resulting in expensive steel tube. For the case of fine-grained steel tube, which improves the resistance to steam oxidation by the refinement of grains in the austenitic stainless steel, the effect is not satisfactory to the increase in the steam temperature. Thus, the fine-grained steel tube cannot prevent the formation of oxide scale, and further encounters to troubles caused by the exfoliation of formed scale.
In JP-A-53-114722, (the term "JP-A" referred to herein signifies the "Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication"), JP-A-54-138814, JP-A-55-58329, and JP-A-58-39733 disclose methods to improve the resistance to steam oxidation by combining cold-working and heat treatment. Those methods are to improve the resistance to steam oxidation by applying heat treatment after cold-working, enhancing the effect of grain refinement accompanied by the recrystallization of the cold-working portion, and enhancing the effect of oxide film formed during the heat treatment. Similar to the above fine-grained steel tube, however, those methods cannot suppress the formation of oxide scale, and they cannot be expected to maintain the resistance to steam oxidation for a long period.
On the other hands a method to improve the resistance to steam oxidation is provided by applying cold-working only to the inner surface of austenitic stainless steel tube. That is, JP-A-49-135822, "A method for preventing high temperature steam oxidation of steel tube for boiler and for heat exchanger, composed of austenitic stainless steel", and JP-A-52-8930, "A method for preventing high temperature steam oxidation of austenitic stainless steel" disclose that the work-hardening on the inner surface of the steel tube by shot-blasting has enhanced good resistance to steam oxidation even under the actual plant condition. The steel tube manufactured by the method disclosed in the prior art has shown sufficient resistance to seam oxidation at a steam temperature of 569° C., as described in the examples.
Regarding the steel tube manufactured by the above method, there is a report comparing the mechanical properties between the shot-blasted inner surface of steel tube and the steel tube without treated by shot-blasting in terms of depth of hardened layer being formed by shot-blasting (Takahiro Kanero and Yusuke Minami, "Mechanical Properties of Shot-blasted Stainless Steel Boiler Tubings", Thermal and Nuclear Power Engineering, Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 99-105, April, (1979)).
Under the steam conditions in recent years at or higher than 593° C. of steam temperature under ultra supercritical pressures, however, it was confirmed that even the above steel tube with a work-hardening layer on the inner surface of the steel tube by shot-blasting dose not necessarily have the sufficient resistance to high temperature steam oxidation. Consequently, there is a need for an austenitic stainless steel tube with further excellent resistance to high temperature steam oxidation.

Austenitic stainless steel tube for boiler with excellent resistance to high temperature steam oxidation


The present invention pertains to a method and device for transmitting a control signal, and a method for a terminal to transmit a control signal according to one embodiment of the present invention can comprise: a step for sensing a forced termination in a first subframe during active time; and a step in which if the forced termination is sensed and if, in a second subframe among a pre-set number of subframes after the first subframe, Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) transmission via a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) is set, and if neither one among Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) feedback transmission and Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission is set in the second subframe, the CQI transmission is executed via the PUCCH. The embodiment of the present invention enables power consumption by the terminal to be reduced.

Mobile communication systems were developed to provide the subscribers with communication services on the move. With the rapid advance of technologies, the mobile communication systems have evolved to support high speed data communication services beyond the standard voice communication services.
Recently, standardization for a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, as one of the next-generation mobile communication systems, is underway in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). LTE is a technology for realizing high-speed packet-based communications with the data rate of up to 100 Mbps, which is higher than the currently available data rate, and its standardization is almost complete.
In the wireless mobile communication system, it is very important reduce power consumption. In order to achieve this, the LTE mobile communication system adopts discontinuous reception in which the terminal transmits uplink control signal only in active time during the discontinuous reception cycle, thereby minimizing power consumption of the terminal.
The present invention proposes a method and apparatus for reducing complexity and cost of the terminal and minimizing power consumption by defining efficient terminal operation in the situation of increasing forcibly the processing capability of the terminal unnecessarily in the discontinuous reception process.

Method and device for transmitting reverse control signal in mobile communication system


Provided are techniques for analyzing recordings for data to be protected and identifying recipients and alerts. A recording is stored in temporary storage. Data to be protected about a situation is identified in the recording. One or more recipients are identified based on the data to be protected about the situation. One or more alerts for the one or more recipients are identified based on the data to be protected about the situation. The one or more alerts are sent to the one or more recipients along with the recording. The recording is deleted from the temporary storage.

Embodiments of the invention relate to analyzing recordings for data to be protected and identifying recipients and alerts. The recordings may be images, audio recordings or videos. The data describes a situation.
With more people carrying smart phones with cameras, there are many more images being captured. In some cases, these images are saved to the smart phone and/or to a cloud data store. The images may include data (e.g., secured content) about a situation (e.g., someone is injured and needs medical attention).
In some cases, a user wants to send an image with such data to a recipient without saving the image in the smart phone or in the cloud data store.
Currently, when an image is taken and sent to another smart phone, the image is also automatically saved to the local device or to the cloud data store, even if the user does not want the image saved (e.g., because the image contains secure content). Then, the user has to manually clean up the storage (i.e., delete the image from the smart phone or the cloud data store). That is, the image is saved and then has to be manually deleted, which is tedious and creates extra work for the user.

Analyzing recordings for data to be protected and identifying recipients and alerts

International Business Machines Corporation


This invention is directed to graft materials for implanting, transplanting, replacing, or repairing a part of a patient and to methods of making the graft materials. The present invention is also directed to stent grafts and endoluminal prostheses formed of the graft materials. More specifically, the present invention is a graft material which includes polymeric sheet comprising holes. The graft material also comprises an ECM disposed in the holes of the polymeric sheet. The polymeric sheet of the graft material could be a textile or a porous polymer.

Identification of materials suitable for grafts can be difficult, because such materials must possess disparate properties. For example, vascular graft materials should exhibit mechanical stability under continuous stress, should have compliance similar to that of the host tissue, and should be nonthromogenic. In some applications, graft materials may also provide for endothelialization and have sufficient porosity to allow for capillarization. Other preferred properties of graft materials include being non-allergenic and non-carcinogenic. While all of these properties may be specifically designed into a material, it is also desirable for the material to be inexpensive to fabricate.
Portions of the human vasculature may be replaced or treated with synthetic vascular grafts. One typical area of application includes the replacement or treatment of blood vessels with vascular grafts. Synthetic vascular grafts may have wide variety of configurations and may be formed from a wide variety of materials. Conventional vascular graft implants include those which are formed from a biologically compatible material which retains an open lumen to permit blood to flow through the synthetic graft after implant. Polymeric structures typically used for vascular graft and stent procedures may include woven and non-woven textiles and porous polymer sheets.


A motion-detecting module includes a PCB, a light-emitting unit, and a light-sensing unit. The light-emitting unit is electrically disposed over the PCB. The light-sensing unit has a light-sensing die electrically disposed on the PCB and a package cover covered on the light-sensing die, and the package cover has a through hole corresponding to the light-sensing die and a transparent element disposed in the through hole. The present invention does not need extra package protection body of the prior art for protecting the light-sensing die during the transport of the light-sensing module. The present invention use original package cover to prevent the light-sensing die from being damaged by external force, and the original package cover shelters the light-sensing die from extra stray light.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motion-detecting module, and particularly relates to a motion-detecting module that has a light-sensing die directly and electrically disposed on a PCB without performing a sensor die packaging process.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of optical mouse technology of the prior art, a light source device such as LED projects an incident light onto a surface such as a desk or a mouse pad to form a reflected light, and the reflected light is captured via a light-sensing module. The motion of an optical mouse can then be acquired by detecting changes in reflection due to the surface roughness or uneven structures on the surface.
The light-sensing module of the prior art for detecting motion has a light-sensing die packaged via a package protection body firstly, and then the light-sensing die is electrically connected to a PCB. This process prevents the light-sensing die from being damaged during the transport of the light-sensing module. However, the above-mentioned method would increase extra cost (such as extra package material and device) and process (package process).


An error detection system for automatically evaluating writing includes: an example construction apparatus to collect example sentences including various literary styles, to break up the collected example sentences in units of morphemes, and to construct the example sentences in an example-based index database (DB); and an error detection apparatus to break up an input sentence in units of morphemes, to generate one or more morpheme sequences bound in arbitrary window sizes based on one or more of morphemes of the broken-up input sentence, to search the example-based index DB for each of the generated morpheme sequences, and to detect an error according to a frequency at which said each morpheme is arranged in a corresponding morpheme sequence among morpheme sequences searched for through the example-based index DB.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and do not constitute prior art.
Recently, college entrance exams and scholastic ability tests of enterprises are changing in order to evaluate actual English proficiency in speaking or writing.
That is, the Ministry of Education (MOE), in order to enhance proficiency in English, has developed the National English Ability Test (NEAT) (an Internet-based listening, reading, speaking, and writing assessment). The inventor(s) has noted that NEAT is currently enforced as an example, and the civil service exam or Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) English test may be replaced with NEAT. In such an English ability test, an automated writing evaluation system is introduced to evaluate writing ability.
The automated writing evaluation system grammatically analyzes a written sentence and evaluates whether the written sentence is grammatically appropriate through error detection. The inventor(s) has noted that in this case, in the process of analyzing the written sentence, a process of analyzing morphemes of the sentence and tagging parts of speech to the morphemes is indispensably required. Because a morpheme analyzing and part-of-speech tagging device of the related art depends upon only part-of-speech sequence information without also considering vocabulary, parts of speech, meanings, and contextual co-occurrence relations of peripheral words, the inventor(s) has experienced that there is a problem in that accuracy is significantly degraded.
The inventor(s) has noted that to solve this problem, an error detection and correction method of complementarily applying rule information and statistical information of words using a dictionary, a language model, and the like, and constructing peripheral word rules and word context information has been proposed.
The inventor(s), particularly, has noted that the language model represents a connection relation between words based on grammatical statistical information using a probability, easily extract the connection relation from many text sentences of a given region, and have high accuracy in error detection. However, actual language naturally varies with time and place rather than obeying standardized rules, and thus often differs from the grammatical statistical information. For example, implied words, Internet terminology, newly established modern language, and the like, violate grammar, but is often used in real life and is detected as errors based on grammatical statistical information.
Accordingly, the inventor(s) has noted that in writing evaluation, there is need of an approach capable of minimizing errors in error detection by applying patterns frequently used by people nowadays, even when a complex rule is not continuously generated, and accurately correcting detected errors.

Example-based error detection system for automatic evaluation of writing, method for same, and error detection apparatus for same


A method and apparatus for propelling a tool having a body within a passage. The tool includes a gripper including at least a gripper portion which can assume a first position that engages an inner surface of the passage and limits relative movement of the gripper portion relative to the inner surface. The gripper portion can also assume a second position that permits substantially free relative movement between the gripper portion and the inner surface of the passage. The tool includes a propulsion assembly for selectively continuously moving the body of the tool with respect to the gripper portion while the gripper portion is in the first position. This allows the tool to move different types of equipment within the passage. For example, the tool advantageously may be used in drilling processes to provide continuous force to a drill bit. This enables the drilling of extended horizontal boreholes. Other preferred uses for the tool include well completion, logging, retrieval, pipeline service, and communication line activities.

The art of drilling vertical, inclined, and horizontal holes plays an important role in many industries such as the petroleum, mining, and communications industries. In the petroleum industry, for example, a typical oil well comprises a vertical borehole which is drilled by a rotary drill bit attached to the end of a drill string. The drill string is typically constructed of a series of connected links of drill pipe which extend between surface equipment and the drill bit. A drilling fluid, such as drilling mud, is pumped from the surface through the interior surface or flow channel of the drill string to the drill bit. The drilling fluid is used to cool and lubricate the drill bit, and remove debris and rock chips from the borehole created by the drilling process. The drilling fluid returns to the surface, carrying the cuttings and debris, through the space between the outer surface of the drill pipe and the inner surface of the borehole.
Conventional drilling often requires drilling numerous boreholes to recover oil, gas, and mineral deposits. For example, drilling for oil usually includes drilling a vertical borehole until the petroleum reservoir is reached. Oil is then pumped from the reservoir to the surface. As known in the industry, often a large number of vertical boreholes must be drilled within a small area to recover the oil within the reservoir. This requires a large investment of resources, equipment, and is very expensive. Additionally, the oil within the reservoir may be difficult to recover for several reasons. For instance, the size and shape of the oil formation, the depth at which the oil is located, and the location of the reservoir may make exploitation of the reservoir very difficult. Further, drilling for oil located under bodies of water, such as the North Sea, often presents greater difficulties.
In order to recover oil from these difficult to exploit reservoirs, it may be desirable to drill a borehole that is not vertically orientated. For example, the borehole may be initially drilled vertically downwardly to a predetermined depth and then drilled at an inclination to vertical to the desired target location. In other situations, it may be desirable to drill an inclined or horizontal borehole beginning at a selected depth. This allows the oil located in difficult-to-reach locations to be recovered. These boreholes with a horizontal component may also be used in a variety of circumstances such as coal exploration, the construction of pipelines, and the construction of communications lines.
While several methods of drilling are known in the art, two frequently used methods to drill vertical, inclined, and horizontal boreholes are generally known as rotary drilling and coiled tubing drilling. These types of drilling are frequently used in conjunction with drilling for oil. In rotary drilling, a drill string, consisting of a series of connected segments of drill pipe, is lowered from the surface using surface equipment such as a derrick and draw works. Attached to the lower end of the drill string is a bottom hole assembly. The bottom hole assembly typically includes a drill bit and may include other equipment known in the art such as drill collars, stabilizers, and heavy-weight pipe. The other end of the drill string is connected to a rotary table or top drive system located at the surface. The top drive system rotates the drill string, the bottom hole assembly, and the drill bit, allowing the rotating drill bit to penetrate into the formation. In a vertically drilled hole, the drill bit is forced into the formation by the weight of the drill string and the bottom hole assembly. The weight on the drill bit can be varied by controlling the amount of support provided by the derrick to the drill string. This allows, for example, drilling into different types of formations and controlling the rate at which the borehole is drilled.
The direction of the rotary drilled borehole can be gradually altered by using known equipment such as a downhole motor with an adjustable bent housing to create inclined and horizontal boreholes. Downhole motors with bent housings allow the surface operator to change drill bit orientation, for example, with pressure pulses from the surface pump. It will be understood that orientation includes inclination, asmuth, and depth components. Typical rates of change of orientation of the drill string are 1-3 degrees per 100 feet of vertical depth. Hence, over a distance of about 3,000 feet, the drill string orientation can change from vertical to horizontal relative to the surface. A gradual change in the direction of the rotary drilled hole is necessary so that the drill string can move within the borehole and the flow of drilling fluid to and from the drill bit is not disrupted.
Another type of known drilling is coiled tubing drilling. In coiled tubing drilling, the drill string tubing is fed into the borehole by an injector assembly. In this method the coiled tubing drill string has specially designed drill collars located proximate the drill bit that apply weight to the drill bit via gravity pull. In contrast to rotary drilling, the drill string is not rotated. Instead, a downhole motor provides rotation to the drill bit. Because the coiled tubing is not rotated or used to force the drill bit into the formation, the strength and stiffness of the coiled tubing is typically much less than that of the drill pipe used in comparable rotary drilling. Thus, the thickness of the coiled tubing is generally less than the drill pipe thickness used in rotary drilling, and the coiled tubing generally cannot withstand the same rotational and tension forces in comparison to the drill pipe used in rotary drilling.
A known method and apparatus for drilling laterally from a vertical well bore is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,365,676 issued to Boyadjieff, et al. The Boyadjieff patent discloses a pneumatically powered drilling unit which is housed in a specially designed carrier, and the carrier and drilling unit are lowered to a desired position within an existing vertical well bore. The carrier and drilling units are then pivoted into a horizontal position within the vertical well bore. This pivotal movement is triggered by a person located at the surface who pulls a string or cable that is attached to one end of the carrier unit. From this horizontal position, the drilling unit leaves the carrier unit and begins drilling laterally to create an abrupt switch from a vertical to a lateral hole. The carrier is removed from the well bore once the drilling unit exists the carrier unit.
The drilling unit disclosed in the Boyadjieff patent discharges air near the drill bit to push the cuttings and rock chips created by the drilling process around the drilling unit. These cuttings are supposed to fall into a sump located at the bottom of the vertical well bore. This causes the bottom end of the vertical well bore to be filled with debris and prevents the use of the vertical well bore. The debris may also have a tendency to plug and fill the lateral hole. The drilling unit moves within the lateral hole by a series of teeth which are adapted to engage the sidewall of the lateral hole while the hole is being bored. These teeth transfer the drilling forces to the sidewalls of the hole to allow the drill bit to be pushed into the formation. The drilling unit is also connected to a cable guiding and withdrawal tool that is inserted into the vertical well bore to allow removal of the carrier and drilling unit from the lateral hole.
Another method and apparatus for forming lateral boreholes within an existing vertical shaft is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,429 issued to Thompson. The Thompson patent discloses a device that is lowered into a vertical shaft, braces itself against the sidewall of the vertical shaft, and applies a drilling force to penetrate the wall of the vertical shaft to form a laterally extending borehole. The device is generally cylindrical and includes a top section that is sealed to allow complete immersion in drilling mud. The top section also contains a turbine that is powered by the drilling mud. The bottom section of the device is open to the vertical shaft. The device is held in place within the vertical shaft by a series of anchor shoes that are forced by hydraulic pistons to engage the sidewall of the vertical shaft. These hydraulic pistons are powered by the turbine located in the top section of the device.
The device disclosed in the Thompson patent is anchored within the existing vertical shaft to provide support for the drilling unit as it drills laterally. The drilling unit uses an extendable insert ram to drill laterally into the surrounding formation. The insert ram consists of three concentric cylinders that are telescopically slidable relative to each other. The cylinders are hydraulically operated to extend and retract the insert ram within the lateral borehole. A supply of modular drill elements are cyclically inserted between the insert ram and the drill bit so that the insert ram can extend the drill bit into the surrounding formation. In operation, the drilling unit must be stopped and retracted each time the length of the insert ram is to be increased by inserting additional modular drill elements. The insert ram must then re-extend to the end of the lateral borehole to begin drilling again.
A further method for creating lateral bores is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,965 issued to Schmelzer. The Schmelzer patent discloses a self-propelled ram boring machine for making earth bores. The system is operated using compressed air and is driven by a piston which triggers periodic blows by a striking tip.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,827,512 issued to Edmond discloses an apparatus for applying a force to a drill bit. The apparatus drives a striking bit, under hydraulic pressure, against a formation which causes the striking bit to form a borehole. In particular, the body of the apparatus is a cylinder containing two hydraulically operated pistons. Connected to the pistons are two anchoring assemblies which are located around the exterior surface of the tool. The anchoring assemblies contain a plurality of serrations and are periodically actuated to engage the sidewall of the borehole. These anchors provide support for the apparatus within the borehole such that a drill bit can be forced into the formation. The drill bit, however, can only be pushed in one direction. Additionally, the drill bit can only be periodically pushed into the formation because the apparatus must repeatedly unanchor and repressurize the piston chambers to move within the borehole.


An adaptable virtual network system comprises a plurality of network elements and a plurality of virtual links. Each network element is communicatively coupled to at least one other network element via at least one physical link. At least one physical link comprises at least two virtual links. The adaptable virtual network system supports at least two virtual networks, each virtual network comprising at least one virtual link communicatively coupling at least two network elements.

Traditionally, space processing systems are designed for a one-to-one mapping of logical networks to physical networks, with each physical network being presented to the user as a single logical network. Each physical (and hence, logical) network is capable of running a single network protocol over a single network topology, while possibly allowing some protocol-specific variants. There is currently no existing method to partition a single physical network into multiple isolated logical networks for usability, performance, or isolation purposes without resorting to separate physical networks. For space processing systems, employing a dedicated physical network for each logical network in the system is especially costly both in terms of financial resources and the long lead time involved in designing a flight-worthy system. Creating multiple physical networks increases both the complexity and size of the design, and requires designers follow multiple sets of design practices when constructing the system architecture.

Virtual network architecture for space data processing


A data processing system has a plurality of storage systems. In this system, data replication is performed at high speed and efficiency while maintaining data integrity. In addition, when failure has occurred in a configuration element, the time necessary to resume the data replication is reduced. In accordance with an instruction from first host computer, updating of replication-target data and creation of a journal are performed in a storage system A; and updating of replication data and creation of a journal are performed in a storage system B. A storage system C retrieves a journal from the storage system B in asynchronization with the updating, and performs updating of replication data. When failure has occurred in the storage system B, a journal-retrieving end is altered to the storage system, and the replication data is updated in accordance with the retrieved journal.

In recent years, to enable continuous services to be provided at all times to customers, importance has been increasing for techniques regarding data replication between a plurality of storage systems so as to provide services even when failure has occurred in a storage system such as a storage device for storing data, particularly, techniques for performing data replication between remote sites and continuation/resumption for data replication in the event of failure. By way of techniques for replication information stored in a first storage system to a second storage system and a third storage system, there are techniques disclosed in a patent document described below.
In the specification of the U.S. Pat. No. 6,209,002, there is disclosed a technique in which data stored in a first storage system is transferred (replicated) to a second storage system, the transferred data is further replicated by the second storage system and transferred therefrom to a third storage system. A computer and the first storage system are connected together by means of a communication link, the first storage system and the second storage system are connected together by means of a communication link, and further, the second storage system and the third storage system are connected together by means of a communication link. The first storage system retains a replication-object first logical volume. The second storage system retains a replicated copy of the first logical volume, namely a second logical volume, and also retains a replicated copy of the second logical volume, namely a third logical volume. The third storage system retains a replicated copy of the third logical volume, namely a fourth logical volume. The second storage system exclusively executes data replication processing from the second logical volume to the third logical volume, and data replication processing from the third logical volume to the fourth logical volume.
According to the technique disclosed in the specification of the U.S. Pat. No. 6,209,002 described above, the data difference between the first logical volume and the fourth logical volume is not managed. As such, when failure has occurred in the second storage system, since the data difference is not recognized by the first storage system, the full data in the first logical volume should be transferred (replicated) to the third storage system to resume data replication in the fourth logical volume. During the data replication, a complete replicated copy regarding the first logical volume is not present, so that the time required for the processing during that time is preferably as short as possible. However, a problem is that the time is increased proportionately with the amount of the replication object data (the first logical volume).


An exercise machine has a plurality of stations each having an operating device for performance of exercise by a user. At least the operating device is connected by a cable to a connection system which is further connected to a resistance mechanism having a lever with a pair of gas shock absorbers moveably secured to the lever along the length of the lever. A motor and screw vary the connection of the shocks to the lever.

1. Field
This invention pertains to exercise equipment. It is particularly directed to multipurpose machines of the type which have a plurality of exercise stations and which provide a compact multi-function weight training exerciser.
2. State of the Art
Multi-function weight training exercise machines of various types are commercially available. Representative such machines are disclosed, for example, by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,697,809; 4,809,972 and 4,964,632. Each of these machines combines a plurality of stations at which a user may exert effort against a resistance. Each station is structured to provide access to one or more exercise units. Each such unit is designed to involve different muscle groups in a specific exercise. A design objective for machines of this type is the provision of reliable and repeatable user adjustment of the resistance level at each exercise unit. Another important consideration is the amount of changeover time required for a user to move from one routine to another utilizing the same resistance source.
Certain machines rely upon a weight stack to provide resistance, as shown by U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,632. Resistive force is adjusted by varying the number of individual weights included in the portion of the stack which is lifted. Considerable time and effort may be required to adjust the number of weights incorporated into the moving portion of the stack. Lifting of the weights is accomplished from a selected station by means of a cable and pulley system. One such station includes a pivoted handlebar lever, the rest position of which is adjustable to accommodate various types of exercises with the expenditure of minimal changeover time. Another station is provided with a leg exercising unit comprising a pivoted arm with padded lateral extensions. This arm functions as a second lever interconnected to the weight stack through a second system of cables and pulleys. The adjustment of the load resistance felt at the respective units is accomplished by adjusting the weight stack.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,840,227; 3,850,431; 3,905,599 and 4,390,179 disclose exercise devices arranged so that a stack of weights may be lifted by any one of a number of mechanisms, thereby affording a user a selection of different exercises. In each of these devices, the weights are lifted directly by a cable so that the full weight of a weighted carriage is applied to the cable. U.S. Pat. No. 4,697,809 describes these devices as well as others of the same type, and discloses an improved cable operated device in which a downwardly biased resistance, such as a spring or weight carriage, may be lifted from various locations without the need for reconfiguring the cable system.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,809,972 discloses a simplified system in which multiple exercise devices are continuously connected to a single weight stack by a pulley and cable system which connects a single cable to the weights. The individual exercise devices are connected to one of multiple cables, each of which is tensioned when any one of the exercise devices is used. One of the cables passes over sets of floating pulleys, through which are reeved other of the cables. The cable ends are provided with stops to prevent retracting of the cable. Thus, when any exercise unit is operated, the other cables in the system are placed into tension. Additional exercise units can be incorporated by the use of floating pulleys on a cable directly connected to another exercise unit.


A new and distinct cultivar of Lobelia plant named ‘Weslobleye’, Characterized by its semi-upright and mounding plant habit; vigorous growth habit; freely branching habit and short internodes; dense and bushy plant form; continuously and freely flowering habit; and dark blue-colored flowers with large white-colored eyes.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Lobelia, botanically known as Lobelia erinus and hereinafter referred to by the name 'Weslobleye'.
The new Lobelia is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Südlohn, Germany. The objective of the breeding program is to create new Lobelia cultivars with good vigor and attractive flower coloration.
The new Lobelia originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in 2003 of a proprietary seedling selection of Lobelia erinus identified as code number 03P626, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with a proprietary seedling selection of Lobelia erinus identified as code number 03P509, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Lobelia was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant with the progeny of the stated cross-pollination grown in a controlled environment in Südlohn, Germany.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal cuttings in Südlohn, Germany since 2004, has shown that the unique features of this new Lobelia are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.


An air operated double diaphragm includes an air valve, air chambers, a center section between the air chambers, pump chambers and diaphragms between the air and pump chambers harnessed together with a piston rod. The air valve includes a statically dissipative body having a bore therein with a statically insulative liner in the bore. The statically insulative liner is fully enclosed within the statically dissipative body. A valve element is slidably positioned in the liner. The liner includes annular tenons to mate with annular mortises in the statically dissipative body and an end cap is used to close the valve cylinder.

The field of the present invention is reciprocating air driven devices and specifically the air valves therefor.
Reciprocating air driven devices have long had the advantage that they can be employed in circumstances and environments where motors and engines are inappropriate. One area of concern with engines and motors is their use in an environment with combustibles. Sparks and hot manifolds can potentially cause ignition of such combustibles with engines and motors.
Even with air driven devices, as with any operating mechanism, sparks resulting from static charges cannot be ruled out under all conditions. Some of the smaller versions of such air driven mechanisms are now made of engineering plastics rather than conductive metal. Such plastics are typically not conductive and cannot be grounded. Therefore, a mechanism may be warranted to avoid static charge buildup and provide an ability to ground the device.
One mechanism for avoiding the buildup of static charge is to blend a conductive filler into the structural plastic. Carbon and metal fibers are typically considered as fillers for the transformation of plastics from statically insulative to statically dissipative. However, such fillers have been determined to adversely effect the longevity of sealing members required to slide on the filled plastic such as in air valves for driving and controlling such devices.
One such application of plastic for reciprocating air driven devices is for air operated double diaphragm pumps which include reciprocating air valves for the control and driving of the pumps. Valve elements having annular seals thereabout sliding within valve bodies are typically used in such air valves. Such arrangements can encounter the aforementioned seal longevity problem. The following patents illustrate a long line of pumps, air valves therefor and details in the construction thereof, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference:
RE 38,2396,142,7495,607,2906,435,8456,102,3635,538,0426,357,7235,957,6705,441,2816,257,8455,927,9545,362,2126,168,3945,746,1704,549,4676,158,9825,619,7866,152,7055,611,678

Air valve for an air driven reciprocating device


Provided is a cryptographic processing apparatus for a storage medium, including: a location information conversion unit that stores a conversion result in a buffer, the conversion result obtained by performing a conversion process on location information indicating a location of data to be accessed on the storage medium; and a data cryptographic processing unit that performs cryptography processing on the data using the conversion result stored in the buffer, the cryptography processing being one of encryption and decryption.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cryptographic processing apparatus and a method and in particular to a cryptographic processing apparatus and a method that perform cryptography processing, namely, encryption or decryption on data to be accessed, based on information indicating the location of the data on a storage medium (location information).
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, there has been increased the need to manage data on a storage medium such as a hard disk drive (HDD) or flash memory by performing cryptography processing, namely, encryption or decryption on the data. Advanced encryption standard (AES)-XTS is becoming a standard cryptographic processing method for such storage media. In AES-XTS, AES encryption is performed on the sector number for identifying the location of data to be accessed on the disk of the storage medium. Then, the data is AES-encrypted or AES-decrypted using the AES-encrypted sector number. Thus, even if pieces of data having the same contents appear at different sector numbers, the encryption results of the pieces of data can differ from each other.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-141284 discloses technology on a magnetic storage device that encrypts the sector number and uses the encrypted sector number to encrypt data. A magnetic storage device according to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-141284 includes a scrambler including a shift register composed of multiple stages and an exclusive OR circuit. The exclusive OR circuit obtains an exclusive OR of logic of a stage of the shift register corresponding to one generator polynomial. The scrambler is configured so that the output of the exclusive OR circuit is fed back to the first stage of the shift register. The binary-coded number or the like of the sector number is set as the initial value for the shift register composed of multiple stages.

Cryptographic processing apparatus and method for storage medium


The present invention relates to an improved downhole seismic source with an epicyclic eccentric weight system for the simultaneous generation of elliptically polarized shear wave seismic energy and compression wave seismic energy coupled into a borehole. The apparatus includes a cylindrical housing and a drive means or electric motor disposed in the housing which provides rotational output to an epicyclic eccentric weight system also disposed in the housing. Expandable tapered wedging collars are used to firmly secure the motor and the epicyclic eccentric weight systems within the housing. A flexible shaft interconnects the centerline of the epicyclic cylindrical roller and the motor whereby the roller receives the rotational output from the motor. The shaft rotates in one direction and the roller rotates in the opposite direction thereby producing an epicyclic motion.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to downhole seismic sources and, more particularly, but not by way of limitation, it relates to an improved type of orbital vibration source with an epicyclic eccentric weight system for generating both shear wave and compression wave energy into an earth medium.
2. Description of the Background Art
Many different types of downhole seismic source mechanisms have been utilized for inducing acoustic energy into a borehole wall and subsequently analyzing velocity and/or phase of received energy to ascertain certain lithologic information. There are currently ongoing efforts in the industry to develop suitable downhole sources for generation of shear waves and/or compression waves with greater power and high signal-to-noise ratios to enable new approaches to seismic data acquisition. Current efforts have taken various forms and utilize diverse mechanisms in attempts to impart a clean, concise seismic energy input through the borehole wall or, in some cases, the well casing, and it is contemplated that development of such sources will open new possibilities of seismic data acquisition and interpretation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,874,061 issued Oct. 17, 1989 to Cole, entitled "Downhole Orbital Seismic Source" relates to a downhole seismic source for the generation of elliptically polarized seismic shear waves and compression waves in a borehole. The invention uses the sonde casing of a generally cylindrical shape which houses an interactive rotational disk or the like to impart transverse rotational motion through the coupling wellbore fluid into the borehole wall. The invention contemplates a number of different types of basic orbital motion generators including motor driven eccentric disks.
U.S Pat. No. 4,709,362 issued Nov. 24, 1987 to Cole entitled "Oscillating Orbital Vibrator" relates to an orbital vibratory mass used for generating seismic signals and the like. The orbital vibrator comprises a hollow cylindrical reaction mass which is mounted by means of a bearing on a crank shaft. The reaction mass orbitally oscillates relative to the axis of the crank shaft without rotating. The eccentricity of the crank causes the reaction mass to orbitally oscillate about the center line of the shaft in response to the shaft's rotation. Since the reaction mass orbitally oscillates instead of rotating, this reduces the internal forces created in the reaction mass by centrifugal force and enables less exotic, less expensive materials to be used in its construction.
Co-pending U.S. patent application No. 07/954,831 entitled "Downhole Hydraulic Rotary Seismic Source" filed Sep. 29, 1992, relates to an improved type of orbital vibration source with a hydraulic power means for generating both shear wave and compression wave energy into an earth medium. The orbital source features a bearing mounted rotor which is optimized for weight eccentricity to total rotor weight and with minimized rotational wind drag. The source provides distributed force contact between the internal components and the external housing and allows two hydraulic motors with single shafts synchronously to drive two separate rotor assemblies which are located axially such that a tendency to excite a fundamental bending mode is minimized. The invention includes a built in lubricant recirculating system intended to lengthen the life of the rotor bearings.

Downhole epicyclic motion orbital seismic source


The invention proposes a method for feedback control, in which a portion of a data signal is split and rectified and the signal intensity is detected with slow speed electronics for improving the control of a delay line interferometer (DLI) used in optical data transmission. A control signal is generated and fed back to the DLI based on the detected signal intensity. The invention further proposes a device provided with a DLI, a first and second optoelectronic component, and a differential amplifier.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates to data transmission via optical signals in general and especially to a method and a device for automatic control of a delay line.
2. Description of the Related Art
For data transmissions in telecommunication and for data transfer optical signals are increasingly employed. In the past years the speed of data transmission via fiber optical connections increased quite considerably.
To achieve high bandwidths in optical data transmission advanced modulation formats are required. While amplitude modulation is still predominant, advanced modulation formats often make use of an additional phase modulation. Among the advanced modulation formats which will be implemented first due to their simplicity are duobinary coding and differential phase shift keying (DPSK). For duobinary coding and DPSK, as for some other modulation formats, a logical EXOR or "modulo 2" operation of the signal can be necessary in the modulator or demodulator.
The realization of such operation by means of an electrical circuit faces difficulties, but in the optical domain it can be realized by using a delay line interferometer (DLI).
Optical DLIs require high accuracy with respect to delay-to-bitrate mismatch and delay line phase offset. While delay-to-bitrate mismatch does not affect the interference properties of the DLI and also leads to only minor signal distortion, the signal is sensitive to delay line phase offset. This results from the fact that the functionality of an interferometer fundamentally relies on the exactly constructive and destructive interference between two optical fields.
As delay line phase offset or delay line phase tuning depends on various factors, like for instance temperature, laser frequency variation or polarization state, it is necessary in a commercial system to provide an automatic control.
With Mach-Zehnder modulators (MZM), operating on a similar interferometric principle, a phase control can be realized relatively straightforward, because variations of the interference properties have a direct effect on the signal form. A DLI however cannot be controlled in the same way, because the signal, in contrast to a MZM, interferes with a delayed version of itself, resulting in no direct effect on the amplitude of the signal.
In experiments known from literature DLIs are usually manually finetuned. In a commercial system however a manual adjustment cannot be realized.
One prior art solution proposes a method for an automatic control of a DLI where the carrier must be present in the transmitted spectrum. This however disadvantageously requires a deliberate detuning of the phase modulator to a certain extent and results in a signal distortion.


The invention is a lightweight vacuum device to be used on furnishings, floors and walls. The apparatus consists of a housing having suction slots on four sides and the bottom. A motor device sits within the housing and creates a vacuum which draws dust into the slots. A filter mechanism within the housing traps the dust for subsequent removal from the housing. The housing is covered by a soft cloth cover as not to scratch the surfaces to be cleaned. The cover has a plurality of holes on the side and bottom in order to allow the dust particles to access the suction slots and an internally sewed glove to allow the unit to be hand held. An appenditure on the top of the housing has internal threads in order to accept a broom handle to allow the unit to be easily used on floors and walls.

The invention relates to a device for vacuuming dust. More specifically the invention relates to a dust mop which has vacuum capabilities.
Dust accumulation on furnishings, floorings and walls is a continuous problem. The problem must be addressed on almost a daily basis in order to be kept under control. If the dust accumulates, the premises will be unsightly as well as unsanitary. The dust is also a health risk in that it can cause allergic response in the eyes, nose and throat. The dust is also a harbor for microorganisms such as bacteria and dustmites.
The conventional method for dealing with dust ccumulation is the typical vacuum cleaner. The vacuum cleaner is very effective at removing dust from furnishings, walls and floors. The problem with the vacuum cleaner is that it is a bulky item. To clean all of the rooms of a premises requires the need to carry around or roll the heavy machinery from room to room. This can be an almost impossible task for many people such as the elderly. In addition, cleaning with a vacuum cleaner can be extremely tedious in the way that cleaning different surfaces requires many different attachments to be placed onto the vacuum device.
A device commonly used to combat dust collection which does not include the inherent problems of a vacuum cleaner is a dust mitten or feather duster. These devices are hand held and can be stroked over furniture or other surfaces in order to trap dust on its exterior. Such devices, however, are extremely inefficient in that the only way the dust is removed is by the frictional adherence of the dust to the mitten or duster. This is very inefficient and results in removing the dust from one area, sending it airborne and depositing it in another.
A hand held vacuum cleaner such as the `Dustbuster`, which is a trademarked name of the Black and Decker Company is another common source of combating dust accumulation. The hand held unit alleviates the problem associated with the vacuum cleaner, but cannot be used efficiently on such items as furniture
There exists the need for an apparatus for combating dust accumulation which combines the positive attributes of the above mentioned units without the limitations associated with each one.
While these units may be suitable for the particular purpose employed, or for general use, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as disclosed hereafter.


A catalyst protection device includes: a catalyst provided in an exhaust system of an internal combustion engine; a bed temperature acquisition unit that acquires a bed temperature for each of a plurality of regions of the catalyst distributed in an exhaust gas flow direction; and a fuel injection unit that determines for each of the regions whether an increase in fuel injection amount is required on the basis of the corresponding bed temperature acquired by the bed temperature acquisition unit, that calculates an increase in fuel injection amount for each region and that injects fuel of an amount including the sum of the calculated increase values.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a catalyst protection device and catalyst protection method for an internal combustion engine.
2. Description of Related Art
Some internal combustion engines (engines) include an exhaust purification catalyst (hereinafter, simply referred to as catalyst where appropriate) for purifying exhaust gas. However, when the catalyst is excessively heated by high-temperature exhaust gas, or the like, the purification capacity of the catalyst may decrease. In order to keep the high purification capacity of the catalyst, a technique for cooling the catalyst by decreasing the temperature of exhaust gas with the use of the heat of vaporization of fuel through an increase in fuel injection amount, may be used. The increase in the amount of injected fuel in this case is termed over-temperature protection (OT) increase. The amount of injected fuel that is increased through the OT increase is termed OT increase value.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-205375 (JP 10-205375 A) describes a fuel supply control system in which, when a high-load operating state of an internal combustion engine is detected and an estimated temperature of an exhaust control device is higher than or equal to a predetermined temperature, the amount of fuel that is supplied to the internal combustion engine is increased.
Incidentally, the distribution of temperature in the catalyst included in the exhaust control device varies in an exhaust gas flow direction. In addition, it is presumable that a temperature state at the upstream side of the catalyst in the exhaust gas flow direction propagates to the downstream side of the catalyst in the exhaust gas flow direction. However, in JP 10-205375 A, such a temperature distribution in the exhaust gas flow direction in the catalyst is not considered. As a result, the exhaust control device may partially enter an excessive-temperature state.

Catalyst protection device and catalyst protection method for internal combustion engine


A method and apparatus for providing a wide area network infrastructure for providing services on IP networks such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Service over Internet Protocol (SoIP) networks are disclosed. For example, an enterprise customer may subscribe to a service for obtaining a reliable wide area network infrastructure for communicating among two or more customer locations. The network service provider creates a virtual private network in the public domain and another virtual private network in the private domain to interconnect the customer locations. It then connects each customer edge router to two provider edge routers one in each domain and/or instances of provider edge functionality in each domain. Routes are then advertised via two control planes to both virtual private networks.

The Internet has emerged as a critical communication infrastructure, carrying traffic for a wide range of important applications. Internet services such as VoIP and SoIP are becoming ubiquitous and more and more businesses and consumers are relying on their Internet connections for staying connected and being able to conduct business at anytime from anywhere. For example, enterprises with employees and business partners spread out across multiple geographical areas are able to expand their business globally by utilizing the Internet for communications. However, the Internet is a public network and is not as reliable or secure as privately leased lines which are not shared. Therefore, they have predetermined performance level and security. However, as businesses expand globally, the number of interconnected sites increases. The cost of enabling all employees and business partners to communicate via leased lines can become prohibitive.
Therefore, there is a need for a method that enables a service provider to provide a reliable wide area network infrastructure for providing services on VoIP and/or SoIP networks.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for providing a wide area network infrastructure