A WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplex) terminal device located in a WDM network includes a multiplexing unit that multiplexes a wavelength of a client signal having a single wavelength or a wavelength of at least one of a first plurality of client signals whose wavelengths are multiplexed, to wavelengths of a second plurality of client signals received with their wavelengths being multiplexed, and transmits the second plurality of client signals. Thus, the WDM terminal device can multiplex wavelengths of a plurality of client signals received from a metro WDM terminal device located at a distant place, to a wavelength of another client signal without separating the plurality of client signals by each wavelength, thereby achieving accommodation of a plurality of client signals whose wavelengths are multiplexed, at low cost.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplex) terminal device and a WDM network. More particularly, the present invention relates to a WDM terminal device accommodating a client signal in a WDM network, and the WDM network.
2. Description of the Related Art
According to a related art, accommodation of a client signal to a WDM system is performed separately for each wave, by use of an optical fiber corresponding to the wave. All the client signals are initially converted from a light-signal format to an electric-signal format, and, then, converted from the electric-signal format to a light-signal format, by a transponder, inside or near the WDM system. Subsequently, all the client signals are accommodated in the WDM system. The above-described steps are performed because a wavelength of each client signal supplied to the WDM system is different from a wavelength of each client signal inside the WDM system.
Two types of methods are taken for accommodating a plurality of client signals located at a distant place, according to the related art. According to a first method shown in FIG. 1, client signals to be accommodated in a WDM system are transmitted separately by use of optical fibers whose number is equal to the number of the client signals, from the distant place to the WDM system. Subsequently, the client signals are accommodated in WDM terminal devices 10 or 11, or a WDM-ADM (Add-Drop Multiplexer) device 12 of the WDM system, through a transponder.
On the other hand, according to a second method shown in FIG. 2, a WDM terminal device 15 of a small-capacity WDM system initially carries out wavelength multiplexing to client signals at a distant place. Subsequently, the WDM terminal device 15 transmits the client signals closer to a WDM system that accommodates the client signals at the end. Next, a WDM terminal device 16 of the small WDM system separates the client signals by each wave. Finally, the client signals are accommodated in the WDM terminal devices 10 or 11, or the WDM-ADM device 12 of the WDM system.
For example, a wavelength-multiplexed signal having tens of channels is transmitted or received between the WDM terminal devices 10 or 11, and the WDM-ADM device 12 at a 0.4 nm interval through a band whose wavelength is 1500 nm. On the other hand, a wavelength-multiplexed signal having several to ten odd channels is transmitted or received between the WDM terminal devices 15 and 16, at a 1.6 nm interval through a band whose wavelength is 1500 nm, for instance.
Additionally, in the related art, system setting and management are independently performed to each of a long-distance WDM system, a middle or short distance WDM system and a MUX (Multiplexer) of a SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) system by use of its own EMS (Element Management System) and data link. Therefore, in a case in which a client constructs a network by combining each system, complicated management of the entire network by use of a plurality of EMSs is necessary.
Additionally, according to the first method, optical fibers whose number is equal to the number of the client signals to be accommodated are necessarily placed or leased between the distant place and the WDM system. Thus, a cost of achieving the fist method is high.
Further, according to the second method, the WDM terminal devices 15 and 16 of the small-capacity WDM system are necessarily placed at two positions right before the distant place and the WDM system accommodating the client signals at the end. Consequently, a cost of achieving the second method is also high.

Low-cost WDM terminal device accommodating plurality of client signal


A new cultivar of Phlox, ‘Verscan’, characterized by its very dwarf and compact plant habit, its bi-colored flowers that are bright red-purple and white in color, its leaves with a thick substance, its healthy plant growth, its strong basal branching, and its low susceptibility to powdery mildew.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Phlox plant, botanically known as Phlox paniculata 'Verscan' and will be referred to hereafter by its cultivar name, 'Verscan'. The new cultivar represents a new herbaceous perennial grown for landscape use.
The Inventor discovered 'Verscan' as a chance seedling in August of 2011 in a field planted with various Phlox cultivars and unnamed proprietary Phlox plants in Haarlem, The Netherlands. The parentage of 'Verscan' is therefore unknown.
Asexual propagation of the new cultivar was first accomplished by stem cuttings in Haarlem, The Netherlands in September of 2011 by the Inventor. Asexual propagation by stem cuttings and division has determined that the characteristics of the new cultivar are stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations.

A. VERSCHOOR HORTICULTURE IMPORT-EXPORT B.V.


An electrical connector includes a dielectric housing having passageways extending therethrough. Electrical terminals are positioned in the passageways. Resilient latch arms are provided by the housing and include projections for engaging the terminals in the passageways. The housing has receptacles adjacent the resilient latch arms. A seal is located in a recess about the outside of the housing. A terminal locking and seal retaining member includes lock arms insertable into the receptacles in the housing for limiting movement of the resilient latch arms and thereby maintaining the projections in latching engagement with the terminals. The member also includes a peripheral flange for engaging the seal and maintaining the seal in the recess about the housing.

Electrical connectors typically include an outer dielectric housing surrounding an array of terminals to insulate the terminals and prevent the terminals from contacting any other electrical apparatus. The terminals often are of the axial connectable type in which male and female terminals of complementary connectors are axially mated in order to make an electrical connection. To effect axial connection of the terminals, a mating force must be applied to the terminals and, because the terminals are encased within their respective connector housings, the terminals may become detached from their respective housings unless they are properly retained therewithin.
A variety of approaches have been employed for retaining terminals within connector housings. Generally, two approaches are most common. First, the terminals may be inserted into their respective housings and retained therein by appropriate locking means with no further steps required. These types of connectors often are undesirable because of the rather high insertion forces required to insert the terminals into their respective housings. If excessive insertion forces are compromised, the retention forces of the terminals may be inadequate.
A second approach which has been used to achieve both low insertion forces for inserting the terminals into their respective housings, while at the same time providing a connector assembly in which high forces are required to separate the terminals from their respective housings, is to use multiple component housings in which a separate spacer or locking device is employed to retain the terminals within their respective housings after the terminals are inserted into the housings with low insertion forces.
Generally, a typical electrical connector employing the second approach, above, includes a dielectric housing having passages for receiving the terminals. Resilient latches are provided by the housing, and the latches include projections for engaging the terminals in the passages. The housing has receptacles adjacent the resilient latches, and a lock means is inserted into the receptacles for limiting movement of the resilient latches and thereby maintaining the projections in latching engagement with the terminals.
As stated, the second approach requires multiple component housings. This may be undesirable particularly when the connectors embody other features which may require still further components. For instance, the connectors may have external environmental seals, whereby one connector is inserted into a complementary connector, with a seal ring or the like thereabout. Often, still additional components are required to maintain the seals in their proper positions. The overall result is that the electrical connectors become unduly complicated and are not cost effective because of the number of components required to make up the entire connector assembly.
This invention is directed to solving the above problems by providing a unique, simple electrical connector which utilizes a locking member which performs the multiple functions of (a) defining a mating face of the connector, (b) locking the terminals within the connector housing and (c) retaining a seal about the periphery of the housing, all functions being accomplished by a single easily fabricated component.

Electrical connector with external seal and internal terminal retaining means


The imaging apparatus of the present invention can display both real-time images received by an image pickup device and an image(s) recorded on a recording medium at the same time on a display part. The image(s) recorded on the recording medium and to be displayed is selectively switched between image data selected from a recording part in accordance with a shooting instruction and image data selected from the recording part in accordance with an instruction other than the shooting instruction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera having a function capable of displaying an image for viewing a subject before shooting.
2. Description of the Related Art
The liquid crystal display (hereinafter abbreviated as "LCD") provided on the backside or the like of the digital camera is becoming larger in size and higher in definition year by year. Along with this tendency, the amount of information capable of being displayed on one screen is increasing. Making use of such a feature, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-24919 proposes displaying a compressed and recorded image in the same quality of a playback mode as well as displaying an image captured with an image pickup device in real-time on a LCD monitor. This proposal allows a user to check at the time of shooting how the image quality is degraded due to the compression.

Imaging apparatus that can display both real-time images and recorded images simultaneously


Disclosed embodiments relate to performing an advertisement campaign filtering process while protecting the privacy of both an advertiser and a user of a personal computing device. Techniques include maintaining a plurality of sets of advertising competition rules, the plurality of sets of advertising competition rules being associated with a plurality of discrete advertising campaigns; for a set of advertising competition rules from the plurality of sets of advertising competition rules: identifying advertisement targeting criteria associated with the set of advertising competition rules, differentiating, from within the advertisement targeting criteria, between advertisement-sensitive targeting criteria and advertiser-insensitive criteria, and transforming the advertisement-sensitive sensitive targeting criteria; and transmitting, to the personal computing device, at least a portion of the transformed advertisement-sensitive targeting criteria.

Online and mobile advertising are becoming increasingly prevalent and highly targeted. Advertising may take the form of promotional marketing messages, electronic coupons or offers, political statements, social communications, and various other types of messages sent to user devices (e.g., mobile devices, wearables, desktop computers, etc.). The growth and popularity of electronic advertising has incentivized an increase in the collection of users' private data by social media and advertising platforms (e.g., Facebook™, Google™, Microsoft™, Twitter™, etc.). These entities develop techniques to select and/or bid for electronic advertisements based on various types of user data in order to send targeted advertisements to users' devices on behalf of advertisers. For these entities, the more user data they are able to gather, and the more meaningful that data is from an advertising perspective, the better they are able to perform targeted electronic advertising.
While advertising platforms and advertisers have an incentive to collect and leverage personal data of users, they are limited by concerns of user privacy. For example, in Europe the General Data Protection Regulation restricts the collection and use of personally private data, and similar rules govern advertising activity in the United States. Part of the impetus behind these rules is a desire to shield user data from companies, especially to protect their highly sensitive or personal data. Another motivation is reducing the damage that can flow from personal data being shared with unauthorized entities. For example, a security breach at a social media platform could result in a potential leak of millions of users' private data. Further, just as individual users have privacy interests in their data, so to do advertising campaign providers. The entities that develop algorithms for targeting users and managing advertisement bidding schemes invest significantly in developing techniques based on their unique needs and strategies. Thus, advertising campaign providers also need privacy protections for their advertising campaigns to guard against security breaches or fraud.
Current methods of providing targeted advertisements are not sufficiently secure and protective of data privacy. According to current techniques, electronic advertisement platforms may collect personal or sensitive data they are not permitted to collect, and may use that data in administering targeted advertisement campaigns. Advertisement platforms that do not collect meaningful personal or sensitive data, on the other hand, may be unable to adequately perform targeting or price bidding for particular advertisement campaigns. Consequently, existing techniques for targeted advertising result in compromised privacy for individuals, weaker targeting for advertisements, or both. Further, when advertisers' own targeted campaign rules are shared with advertising platforms, there is a risk that the advertisers' or the platforms' own business data (e.g., campaign parameters) will be shared with competitors or other unauthorized entities.
Accordingly, in view of these and other deficiencies in existing techniques, technological solutions are needed for providing targeted advertisements in a secure manner that leverages personal or sensitive data without that data being shared externally from users' personal devices. Solutions should advantageously allow safe and secure use of user's private data without requiring that such data be transmitted to an advertising platform. Further, solutions should allow for more deeply and richly targeted advertisements while maintaining data privacy.

Advertisement campaign filtering while maintaining data privacy for an advertiser and a personal computing device


In a control method for the movement of a tool with a machine tool, the machine tool involves a numerically controlled machine tool, in order to produce an arbitrary required surface of a workpiece by machining. A numeric path program is created which describes the machining of the workpiece with the tool at machining points and which controls the control device. The numeric path program produces a path with respect to the geometric nature of the surface of the workpiece to be machined, with the path including a plurality of sample points and individual paths, with each individual path connecting a pair of the sample points to each other. The numeric path program is evaluated and selected on the basis of a geometric quality criterion, with the geometric quality criterion having continuity as at least one criterion.

The invention relates to a control method for the movement of a tool by means of a machine tool in order to produce an arbitrary desired surface by machining, comprising a numerically controlled machine tool, wherein the numeric path program, which describes the machining of the workpiece by means of the tool at the machining points, is produced in order to control the machine tool by means of a control device, and wherein the path consists of a plurality of sample points and individual paths and each individual path connects a pair of sample points to each other, and wherein the machine tool is controlled in accordance with the produced path. The invention further relates to a control device.
Workpieces that are to be produced on a CNC machine are mostly constructed in Computer-Aided Design (CAD). Any given components are often composed of a larger number of geometry elements. The transitions are designed as required and are either geometrically smooth or explicitly not smooth (edges, corners, phases etc.). It is precisely in the first category, namely the geometrically smooth transitions, that there are large differences in quality, which are attributable in part to basic weaknesses of the software itself, in part to incorrect operation, for example the construction of the workpiece.
For machine production the geometrical description in the steps Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) and Post Processor (PP) is transferred into a CNC path program. In its path programming of the workpiece, the CNC path program, as well as necessary control information as important information, contains the positioning commands for the production process at the machine tool.
In CAM the basic strategy for machining is defined, i.e. the form and the sequence in which the tool (e.g. a milling tool) is guided over the material. This can for example be in the form of a zig-zag or in a spiral form etc. Further developments increase the productivity of the machine by considering the amount of swarf currently being formed. A higher yield of "swarf per advance", i.e. the volume removed per length of tool path, is obtained by specially generated tool paths.

Control method for the movement of a tool and control device


Methods and systems are provided for registration of preoperative images to ultrasound images. The preoperative images are segmented using a shape model. An ultrasound procedure is performed to acquire the ultrasound images. The path of an ultrasound transducer used in the ultrasound procedure is tracked. The path is used to deform the segmented preoperative images, providing an alignment. The ultrasound images are registered to the preoperative images using the alignment.

The present embodiments relate to registration of intra-operative ultrasound images to preoperative images.
In order for preoperative images to be effectively used to supplement ultrasound guidance, an image registration procedure combines the preoperative data and ultrasound images into a common coordinate space. Image registration is the process of overlaying or fusing together two or more images from the same scene taken at different times, from different viewpoints, and/or different sensors.
In clinical practice, image registration may be accomplished manually by a user after viewing both images. Manual registration may be quick, but very inaccurate. Additionally, there are a number of techniques to perform the registration automatically using computational algorithms. For example, feature detection may identify edges, regions, boundaries etc. in both sets of images. Feature matching may determine a correspondence of the detected features in both images. A mapping function may align the two images together. The images may be overlaid in a single view.
Feature detection, feature mapping, and mapping functions work well with static scenes. For example, in landscape planning or mapping, features may not move and thus may be matched with a high level of accuracy. However, for medical procedures, feature mapping may be insufficient to accurately align structures due to soft tissue deformation or movement that occurs during the imaging process.

Deformable registration of preoperative volumes and intraoperative ultrasound images from a tracked transducer


A valve operator for a valve includes a valve operator housing defining at least one cavity and positioned to be at least partially contiguous with a valve stem passage of the valve. The cavity has a fixed volume and is sealed from the exterior environment. The valve operator includes a fugitive emissions detector having at least one sensor for measuring the pressure and temperature of the fluid within the interior of the cavity. The detector also includes a processor having an input for receiving data from the at least one sensor, a processing unit connected to the input to receive the data from the input and monitor changes in the amount of substance within the cavity by comparison of changes in temperature and pressure within the cavity and an output for providing an indication of fugitive emissions when the processor indicates an increase in substance within the cavity.

Industrial valves are very widely used globally to control the flow of fluids in manufacturing, civil services and other industries. For example, industrial valves may be used oil and gas, water and waste water, power, marine, mining, food, pharmaceutical and chemical industries. Industrial valves must be designed to minimise leakage. In particular as valves by their nature, necessitate some non-static seals they will present a potential leak location in any industrial flow system. Valve manufactures are constantly improving their products to reduce the risk but this cannot eliminate all risk of leakage. Such Leakage may lead to loss of profit/revenue, increased maintenance costs, increased process risk/risk to operators, risk of contamination (to the environment) and/or risk of contamination (to the fluid/product).
These risks can be mitigated by implementing control methods in accordance with the principles of fugitive emissions control. According to numerous regional directive/regulations the suggested approach and/or best practice to fugitive emissions control by order of priority is as follows:                i. Prevention by the selection of non-leaking or leak-tight equipment,        ii. Monitoring for the detection of leaks,        iii. Reparation of leaks as promptly as possible,        iv. Continuous upgrading of leak prevention achievements.
The present invention is directly intended to address the second issue, namely the monitoring and detection of leaks. This is commonly referred to in the art as "fugitive emission detection". It will, however, be appreciated that the third and fourth principles are directly impacted by the execution of the fugitive emission control and detection. As such, the skilled person would appreciate that an effective fugitive emission detection system could have a profound impact on the broader fugitive emission control processes.
There are a number of existing approaches which are currently in use and/or commercially available for fugitive emission detection.
Some techniques rely upon manual, labour intensive, detection. For example: Audible Noise detection in which an operator/inspector listening for unusual noises from equipment; the use of Gas Leak Spray in which a suspected leak area is sprayed with a spray and resulting in visible gas bubbles when a leak is present; or traditional valve isolation and inspection in which the valve is isolated and manually inspected (possibly as part of a preventative maintenance programme). Clearly these methods are labour intensive (often requiring specialist skilled labour), of limited accuracy and time consuming.
Accordingly, there have been various developments which seek to automate or assist in the field of fugitive emission detection.
Gas Leak Detection Devices are available which may be handheld or worn by inspection personnel and measures the environment and emits an alarm upon sensing emissions. Inspections using such "sniffer" devices may be carried out at fixed intervals (with the intervals being determined based upon safety). Typically such devices are focused on the detection of dangerous levels of a volatile gas which could be harmful to the user.
One of the more common systems is to use Infrared Temperature measurement tools. These tools measure and compare temperature values upstream and downstream of the valve. The Joule-Thomson effect states that both upstream and downstream temperatures must be equal; as such discrepancies between these values may be an indicator of fugitive emissions. However, not all leaks can be detected by this method (some leaks do not cause a measurable temperature differential). Further the external temperature readings of pipelines and fittings can be influenced by other external factors which may result in a loss of accuracy or even the ability to detect changes related to leaks altogether.
A further detection system is Acoustic Emissions which utilises an indirect measure of turbulence within the valve (for example via a piezoelectric device) and can determine leakage based upon variations in the turbulence. Such systems only provide an indirect indication of leakage and require extensive tailoring to a particular valve. For example a large database of empirical data is needed to support the detection of changes and many variables in the detection need specific, detailed, knowledge of the particular valve and flow conditions.
Finally, Ultrasonic Stethoscopes may be used to pass an ultrasonic wave through the valve to find possible leak paths. The efficiency of this method is currently unconfirmed. However, there are clear limitation/difficulties to this approach since listening frequency must be very carefully selected to filter out nearby noise. Accordingly, the use of Ultrasonic Stethoscopes requires a specifically trained and skilled operator.
Thus, it will be appreciated that there remains a desire to provide an emission detection method and/or apparatus for assisting and/or automating fugitive emission detection, particularly fugitive emissions associated with valves. At least some embodiments of the present invention are intended to provide an alternative emission detection system which may address at least some of the disadvantages of some of the above described methods.

Valve operator including a fugitive emissions detector, and a method of detecting fugitive emissions from an industrial valve


A duty cycle detector including a first circuit, a second circuit, and a third circuit. The first circuit is configured to receive a clock signal having a first duty cycle and to provide a first oscillating signal having a first period proportional to the first duty cycle. The second circuit is configured to receive an inverted clock signal that is the inverse of the clock signal and having a second duty cycle and to provide a second oscillating signal having a second period proportional to the second duty cycle. The third circuit is configured to provide first output signals that indicate the first duty cycle of the clock signal based on a first phase difference between the first oscillating signal and the second oscillating signal.

Typically, a computer system includes a number of integrated circuit chips that communicate with one another to perform system applications. As chip speeds increase, the amount of data communicated between chips increases to meet the demands of some system applications. Often, the computer system includes a controller, such as a micro-processor, and one or more memory chips, such as random access memory (RAM) chips. The RAM chips can be any suitable type of RAM, such as dynamic RAM (DRAM), double data rate synchronous DRAM (DDR-SDRAM), graphics DDR-SDRAM (GDDR-SDRAM), reduced latency DRAM (RLDRAM), pseudo static RAM (PSRAM), and low power DDR-SDRAM (LPDDR-SDRAM).
Many of the integrated circuit chips, such as the memory chips, receive a clock signal to operate. In a memory chip operating at high frequencies, it is important to have a clock signal that has about a 50% duty cycle. This provides the memory with approximately an equal amount of time on the high level phase and the low level phase of a clock cycle for transferring data, such as latching rising edge data and latching falling edge data, into and out of the memory.
Typically, a clock signal is provided by an oscillator, such as a crystal oscillator, and clock circuitry. The oscillator and clock circuitry often provide a clock signal that does not have a 50% duty cycle. For example, the clock signal may have a 45% duty cycle, where the high level phase is 45% of one clock cycle and the low level phase is the remaining 55% of the clock cycle. To correct or change the duty cycle of the clock signal, a duty cycle detector can indicate the duty cycle of the clock signal and the output of the duty cycle detector can be provided to the clock circuitry that corrects the clock signal to have about a 50% duty cycle.
Duty cycle detectors are usually either analog duty cycle detectors or digital duty cycle detectors. Analog duty cycle detectors often require big design efforts and even in power saving mode an analog duty cycle detector consumes power. Digital duty cycle detectors often include fine delay units that are difficult to build and complex control circuitry.
For these and other reasons there is a need for the present invention.

Duty cycle detector with first and second oscillating signals


An apparatus for treating fuel for increasing fuel combustion efficiency in an internal combustion engine including a fuel source and a fuel line includes a fuel line supply segment carrying liquid fuel; a fuel line receiving segment in fluid communication with the internal combustion engine; a fuel containment housing having an inlet port and an outlet port; structure for sealingly connecting the housing inlet port to the fuel line supply segment; structure for sealingly connecting the housing outlet port to the fuel line receiving segment; several metal wire strands contained within the housing; and structure for retaining the wire strands within the housing. A method for treating fuel for increasing fuel combustion efficiency in an internal combustion engine including a fuel supply system includes the step of passing the fuel over treating elements within the fuel supply system made up of several different metals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved device, composition of materials and method for charging and polarizing by ionization and heating fluid hydrocarbon fuels prior to combustion, which results in reduced exhaust emissions, improved fuel combustion efficiency and engine performance, and reduced oil contamination in engine crankcases.
More specifically the present invention relates to a device, method and composition of materials for rearranging and charging long and short chain hydrocarbon molecules in liquid fuels, creating electrostatic and thermal molecular disassociation by friction and ambient engine heat and returning fuel from the fuel system. The fuel runs through the engine and returns to the fuel tank and then runs back through fuel delivery system, of which the present invention is part. This return function adds to the ability of the device to cause maximized fuel reaction with metal alloys, resulting in maximum thermal benefits to the fuel.
The molecular reaction occurs as the fuel flows in direct contact with, collides with, passes over, and oscillates through a combination of precious and nonprecious metals and metal alloy knitting mesh wire spiral coils and screens. The screens are made of aluminum only, and are placed in the inlet and outlet passageways of the cylindrical copper and nickel housing device, The copper and nickel housing is so described because its principal alloy components are those metals, but the actual metallurgical constituency is specifically set forth hereinafter. The knitted mesh spiral coiled wire stands, are compacted and composed of various metals, base metals and metal alloys as more specifically set forth hereinafter.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have long been devices intended to improve fuel efficiency in internal combustion engines. Some of these devices have been effective, yet greater efficiency is still attainable.
It is thus a principal object of the present invention to provide a device which fits into an existing fuel delivery system of a motor vehicle or to an otherwise utilized internal combustion engine which causes fuel to burn more efficiently.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a device which is highly compact and easy to install.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide such a device which is safe and replaceable.
It is finally an object of the present invention to provide such a device which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture.


A press felt for use in the press section of a papermaking machine. The felt is comprised of at least one base fabric to which at least one batt layer is attached by needling or another suitable method. A woven or nonwoven fibrous scrim may be included between the base fabric and the at least one layer of batt material, or between any two or more layers. At least one of the base fabric, the at least one layer of batt material, or the fabric scrim is comprised of polymeric fibers which are blended with fibers whose modulus of elasticity is substantially less than the modulus of elasticity of the polymeric fibers. Press felts manufactured in accordance with the teachings of the invention provide a retarded elastic spring-back in the vertical (or Z) direction of the felt following the mid-nip point in the press section. This retarded elastic spring-back advances the post nip separation position of the felt and the paper web towards the mid-nip point, thus reducing rewetting of the paper sheet. Fibers comprised of regenerated celluosics, such as viscose rayon, have proven effective for use as the low modulus of elasticity component fibers in the press fabrics of the invention.

The present invention relates to improved dewatering of a paper web in a press section of a papermaking machine. More particularly, the invention relates to press felts that incorporate or are arranged to provide a reduced or retarded spring back elasticity after the mid nip point between the press rolls to reduce rewetting of the paper web.
Press felts are endless belts which may contain a seam and which are used to convey an embryonic paper web from the forming section, through the press and into the dryer section of a papermaking machine so as to dewater and ultimately dry the paper product so that it is suitable for use. In the press section, at least one press nip is typically provided between either a pair of rotating cylindrical rollers, or a roller and concave shoe. The embryonic paper web passes through the at least one press nip laid either upon a single felt, or sandwiched between at least two press felts. As the web passes through the at least one press nip, water is expressed from it and passes into the at least one press felt.
Papermaker's press felts are well known. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,199,401 to Liu et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,225 to Dufour, U.S. Pat. No. 4,414,263 to Miller et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,806,413 to Penven , U.S. Pat. No. 5,360,656 to Rexfelt et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,864,931 to Best et al. These felts are usually comprised of a woven base fabric (typically formed of nylon or similar polymeric yarns) to which is attached, generally by needling, at least one layer of a pre-tacked staple fiber web, commonly referred to as a batt. Typical press felt batts will usually include between one and about 5 or more layers of a pre-tacked staple fiber web needled onto a first planar surface of the base fabric (usually the surface which, when in use, will be in contact with the paper sheet, and is hereafter referred to as the "PS") to form a PS batt, and from none to one or more layers needled to the opposite planar surface (which when in use will be in contact with the equipment of the paper machine, and is hereafter referred to as the "MS") to form the MS batt. The staple fibers used to form either or both the MS and PS batt are typically made from one or more nylons, polyesters or other polymeric materials such as are commonly employed in the manufacture of industrial textiles.
The batt provides a smooth surface for the paper web and a void volume into which water, which has been expressed from the paper web at the press nip, can be received. The base fabric provides some additional void volume, as well as a stable structure to which the batt can be attached. The base fabric is typically comprised of interwoven polymeric monofilament or multifilament yarns to which the batt is attached, generally by needling or other entanglement process such as is known in the art.
After the paper web has been pressed in at least one nip in the press section, it will still contain an appreciable amount of water, as much as from 30% to about 60% or more by weight. This remaining water must now be removed in the dryer section of the papermaking machine in order to provide a paper product. The final drying of the paper product is typically carried out by evaporative means, which requires a large amount of energy. This adds substantially to the cost of manufacturing the paper product. Generally, a 1% increase in the dryness of the sheet exiting the press section will translate into about a 4% energy savings in the dryer section. It is also possible that the speed of the paper machine may have to be reduced or at least limited due to the evaporative capacity of the dryer section.
The generally accepted theory of operation of a papermaking machine press section is described in Wahlstrom, P. B., A Long Term Study of Water Removal and Moisture Distribution On A Newsprint Machine Press Section, Parts I and II, Pulp and Paper Mag. Can., 60, No. 8: T379–T401 (August 1960); Id., No. 9: T418–T451 (September 1960). Briefly, on the entrance side of the nip, water is removed by compression and the resulting hydraulic pressure to a maximum dryness, which is achieved at the mid nip point. However, rewetting of the paper web occurs through capillary action that draws water back from the press felt once the paper web has passed through the nip.
There have been a number of attempts to reduce this rewetting, such as by using hydrophilic or hydrophobic fibers or coatings in or on press felts, or the introduction of an anti-rewetting layer on or between the mid layers of the press felt batt. However, while such measures have resulted in limited improvements, there is still the need for improved dewatering in the press section to reduce production costs.
Thus, it would be highly desirable if the water removal in the press section could be improved to increase the amount of water transported away from the paper product as it passes through the press section.

Dewatering of a paper web in a press section of a papermaking machine


A method includes identifying, by a first router, a number of label switched paths from the first router to a destination router, wherein each of the label switched paths includes less than a predetermined number of routers. The method may also include storing, for each of the label switched paths, information identifying each router in the label switched path. The method may further include identifying a least cost label switched path based on the stored information.

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a label based switching and forwarding protocol that often results in a very fast lookup of a forwarding table. For example, in an MPLS network, a label is affixed to packets in a customer's traffic. A receiving router or other network device uses the label to make a forwarding decision.
Routers within an MPLS network, such as Label Switched Routers (LSRs), may exchange labels using the Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) and may make forwarding decision in accordance with the Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP). In a large MPLS network, a label switched path (LSP) may be created using the IGP and label information. In scenarios where LDP is used, label information is exchanged between neighboring LSRs. However, these labels are not distributed to other routers in the network. Therefore, the labels are only locally significant to the router that receives and/or sends the label.
In a network that includes multiple hops or segments from the ingress LSR to the egress LSR of the LSP, a broken LSP can present a significant troubleshooting task to an engineer. For example, the engineer must check the routing table and label forwarding table at the ingress and egress LSRs and any LSRs in between. Depending on the size and design of the network, this troubleshooting task can be time consuming and susceptible to errors.


A hydrogen fuel cell comprising: an anode; a cathode; an electrolyte; a source of a hydrogen-containing fuel for the fuel cell; and a source of an oxidant for the fuel cell; wherein the anode and, optionally, the cathode includes a catalyst comprising an alloy of the formula (I):PdxBiyMz  (I)wherein: M is one or more metals; x is 0.2 to 0.4; y is 0.6 to 0.8; z is not greater than 0.1; and x+y+z=1; is described. Catalysts and electrodes for hydrogen fuel cells comprising the alloy and electrochemical methods using the alloy catalysts are also described.

A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts a source fuel into an electrical current and water. It generates electricity inside a cell through reactions between a fuel and an oxidant, triggered in the presence of an electrolyte. The reactants flow into the cell, and the reaction products flow out of it, while the electrolyte remains within it. Fuel cells can operate virtually continuously as long as the necessary flows are maintained.
A fuel cell comprises a fuel electrode (anode), an oxidizer electrode (cathode), an electrolyte interposed between the electrodes and means for separately supplying a stream of fuel and a stream of oxidizer to the anode and the cathode, respectively. In operation, fuel supplied to the anode is oxidized releasing electrons which are conducted via an external circuit to the cathode. At the cathode the supplied electrons are consumed when the oxidizer is reduced. Proton exchange membrane fuel cells use a solid proton-conducting polymer membrane as the electrolyte.
Applications for fuel cells include battery replacement; charging of mini- and microelectronics such as portable electronic devices; sensors such as gas detectors, seismic sensors, and infrared sensors; electromechanical devices; automotive engines and other transportation power generators; power plants, and many others.
Electrochemical fuel cells can employ a variety of gaseous fuels and oxidants. For example, hydrogen fuel cells employ molecular hydrogen as the fuel and oxygen in air or a carrier gas as the oxidant. In hydrogen fuel cells, hydrogen gas is oxidised and oxygen gas reduced to form water, with an electrical current produced as a by-product of the redox reaction. Electron flow along the electrical connection between the anode and the cathode provides electrical power to load(s) interposed in the circuit with the electrical connection between the anode and the cathode. The anode and cathode reactions in hydrogen/oxygen fuel cells are shown in the following equations:Anode reaction: H2→2H++2e−Cathode reaction: ½O2+2H++2e−→H2O
Hydrogen fuel cells usually employ a catalyst at the electrodes, especially the anode, to increase the rate of the redox reaction. Such catalysts typically comprise noble metals such as ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, silver, osmium, iridium, platinum or gold. However, these metals are scarce and therefore expensive.
In particular, palladium is commonly used in catalysts for redox reactions involving hydrogen. However, palladium is known to absorb electrolytically produced hydrogen to form a hydride: the hydride forms a rapidly disintegrating powder which makes it unsuitable for catalysis.
It would therefore be desirable to produce a material suitable for catalysing the redox reactions taking place in a hydrogen fuel but is cheaper than the materials currently used.
Greeley et al., Nature Materials, 2006, 5, 909-913, describes a computational high-throughput screening method of electrocatalytic materials for hydrogen evolution, and describes in detail a platinum/bismuth alloy and its catalytic activity in hydrogen evolution.
WO 2008/080227 describes a number of different catalysts, especially platinum/tin and palladium/bismuth catalysts, and their use in a number of electrochemical oxidation of organic compounds, in particular formic acid.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,843,173 describes palladium-bismuth/carbon catalysts and their use in oxidising glucose to gluconic acid.
BE 883331 describes palladium-bismuth intermetallic compounds, including PdBi2. The compounds are stated to be useful as catalysts for converting aldehydes and alcohols into carboxylic esters.
U.S. 2007/0167318 describes catalytically active compositions comprising Pd, Bi and at least one other element. The compositions are stated to be useful in dehydrogenating hydrocarbons.
WO 2004/012290 describes intermetallic compounds for use as catalysts and catalyst systems. The intermetallic compounds are stated to be useful for catalysing reactions in fuel cells.
GB 1559700 describes electrochemical cells capable of catalysing the conversion of a hydrocarbon containing at least one hydroxyl group, in which at least one electrode comprises a composition comprising bismuth and one or both of platinum and palladium.

Bismuth palladium based catalyst for a fuel cell with a molecular hydrogen source


Provided is a photodetector including a light receiving portion that accumulates and outputs the amount of received observation light as electric charges; an offset portion that adds an offset signal to an output signal from the light receiving portion; an AD conversion portion that AD-converts the sum of the output signal and the offset signal obtained by the offset portion; a control unit that controls the AD conversion portion such that it A-D converts said sum when the light receiving portion is charged and discharged; and an offset correcting portion that corrects the offset signal by adjusting the value of the offset signal contained in the black level value such that the black level value obtained by the AD conversion portion from said sum when the capacitor is discharged becomes equal to a predetermined target value.

A known laser scanning microscope in the related art uses an integrator circuit to amplify an electrical signal to obtain a signal (for example, see PTL 1). By using the integrator circuit, an image with a high SN ratio can be obtained even when light coming from a specimen is faint. Furthermore, by adjusting the offset of a black level signal, the contrast can be adjusted such that the light coming from the specimen is displayed with the optimum brightness in an image.

Photodetector, for use in a laser microscope, with offset correction for uniform black levels


A hard magnetic Bi-substituted rare earth iron garnet material with excellent Faraday rotary moment, temperature property, wavelength property and insertion loss is provided. A Bi-substituted rare earth iron garnet material having a chemical composition of (Bi3-a-b-cGdaTbbYbc) Fe(5-w)MwO12 (where, M is at least one element selected from the group consisting of Ga, Al, Ge, Sc, In, Si and Ti, 0.5≦a+b+c≦2.5, 0.2≦w≦2.5) can be provided with hard magnetism and have excellent Faraday rotary moment, temperature property, wavelength property and insertion loss.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hard magnetic garnet material used for an optical communication system, a Faraday rotator, a method of manufacturing a Faraday rotator and a method of manufacturing a Bismuth-substituted rare earth iron garnet single crystal. The present invention also relates to an optical device using a Faraday rotator and an optical communication system provided with an optical device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optical communications are currently becoming widespread at an increasing speed in contrast to telecommunications with small transmission capacity. As will be explained later, reasons may be summarized as follows: Optical communication allows, large volume transmission at high-speed, is advantageous in long-distance transmission because it requires fewer relays and is free of influences from electromagnetic noise.
Light is same as a radio wave used for TV or radio broadcasting or wireless communications in the sense that it is an electromagnetic wave. However, frequency of an electromagnetic wave used in optical communications is approximately 200 THz, equivalent to approximately 20000 times that of satellite broadcasting (approximately 10 GHz). Having a high frequency means having a short wavelength and being able to transmit more signals at high speed all the more. By the way, a wavelength (central wavelength) used in optical communications is 1.31 μm (1310 nm) and 1.55 μm (1550 nm).
As is well known, an optical fiber used for optical communications has a double structure of glass pieces of different refractive indices. Since light passing through the central core is repeatedly reflected inside the core, signals are transmitted correctly even if the optical fiber is curved. Moreover, since highly transparent, high purity silica glass is used for the optical fiber, optical communication attenuates only by approximately 0.2 dB per km. Accordingly, optical communications allow transmission of approximately 100 km without amplifiers and allows the number of relays to be reduced compared to telecommunications.
EMI (electromagnetic interference) becomes an issue in telecommunications, while communications using optical fibers are free of noise by electromagnetic induction, which allows information transmission with extremely high quality.
A current optical communication system converts an electric signal to an optical signal using an LD (laser diode) in an optical transmitter, transmits this optical signal through optical fibers and converts the optical signal to an electric signal using a PD (photodiode) in an optical receiver. Thus, elements essential to an optical communication system are LD, PD, optical fibers and optical connectors. Except for a relatively low-speed, short-distance communication system, a high-speed, long-distance communication system also requires, in addition to these device, optical transmission devices such as light amplifier and optical distributor, optical parts applied to these devices such as optical isolator, optical coupler, optical splitter, optical switch, optical modulator, optical attenuator, etc.
What plays a particularly important role in a high-speed, long-distance transmission or a multi-branched optical communication system is an optical isolator. In a current optical communication system, optical isolators are used in LD modules of an optical transmitter and relays. The optical isolator is an optical part that plays a role in transmitting electromagnetic waves only in one direction and blocking electromagnetic waves which are reflected at some midpoint and return. The optical isolator applies a Faraday effect which is a kind of magneto-optical effects. The Faraday effect refers to a phenomenon of rotation of the polarization plane of light which has passed through materials exhibiting a Faraday effect, that is, a Faraday rotator using such as rare earth iron garnet single crystal. The characteristic that the polarization direction of light rotates such as the Faraday effect is called "optical rotary power". Unlike normal optical rotary power, in the case of the Faraday effect, even if the light propagation direction is reversed, the original condition is not restored, but the polarization direction further rotates. An element using the phenomenon that the polarization direction of light rotates due to the Faraday effect is called a "Faraday rotator".
The function of the optical isolator will be explained taking an LD module as an example.
An LD is built in an optical transmitter as an LD module integrated with an optical fiber. The optical isolator is placed between the LD and optical fiber and has the function of preventing reflected light from returning to the LD using the Faraday effect. Reflected returning light refers to light which is emitted from the LD, slightly reflected by components such as optical connectors and returned. Reflected returning light causes noise to the LD. The optical isolator that lets light pass in only one direction eliminates this noise and maintains communication quality.
In the case of the LD in the optical transmitter, the vibration direction (polarization direction) of light emitted from the LD is determined to be only one direction, and therefore a polarization-dependent type optical isolator of a simple structure is used. FIG. 6 shows a basic configuration of a conventional polarization-dependent type optical isolator 10. The optical isolator 10 is comprised of a Faraday rotator 11 constructed of a garnet single crystal, a cylindrical permanent magnet 12 that surrounds the Faraday rotator 11 and magnetizes the Faraday rotator 11 and polarizers 13 and 14 that are placed at the front and back surfaces of the Faraday rotator 11. These polarizers 13 and 14 are placed at a relative angle of 45°. With the optical isolator 10, the direction in which light propagates will be called a "forward direction", while the direction in which light is reflected and returned will be called a "backward direction".
Then, the mechanism whereby the optical isolator 10 blocks passage of light in the backward direction will be explained. FIG. 7A shows how light in the forward direction passes through the optical isolator 10, while FIG. 7B shows how light in the backward direction is prevented from passing through the optical isolator 10.
As shown in FIG. 7A, linearly polarized light that has passed through the polarizer 13 in the forward direction is rotated 45° by the Faraday rotator 11 and passes through the polarizer 14 placed at a relative angle of 45°. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 7B, in the backward direction, linearly polarized light that has passed through the polarizer 14 is further rotated 45° by the Faraday rotator 11, and therefore the light cannot pass through the polarizer 13.
The polarization-dependent optical isolator 10 used-for the LD module has been explained above. On the other hand, a polarization-independent optical isolator is also available, such as an optical isolator used for a light amplifier. In the case of a light amplifier, light from an optical fiber enters directly into the optical isolator, and so it is not possible to identify the polarization direction. For this reason, a polarization-independent optical isolator has been developed. The basic configuration thereof is well known and therefore explanations thereof will be omitted here. When the present invention simply refers to an "optical isolator", it has a concept including both the polarization-dependent and polarization-independent types.
The Faraday rotator affects the performance of the optical isolator. Therefore, the properties of materials composing the Faraday rotator are important factors in attaining a high performance optical isolator. The important factors in selecting materials composing the Faraday rotator include having large Faraday rotation angle with the wavelength used (1.31 μm, 1.55 μm in the case of optical fiber) and having high-level transparency. As a material satisfying these conditions, YIG (yttrium iron garnet: Y3Fe5O12) was used initially, but it was insufficient in terms of mass production and miniaturization.
Then, it was discovered that when a rare earth site of a garnet single crystal was substituted by bismuth (Bi), the Faraday rotary moment was improved drastically, and since then this Bi-substituted rare earth iron garnet single crystal came into use for the Faraday rotator.

Hard magnetic garnet material, faraday rotator, optical device, optical communication system, method of manufacturing faraday rotator and method of manufacturing bismuth-substituted rare earth iron garnet single crystal


A method for testing a plurality of regions in a color space to identify any of, or a subcombination of, the following color vision deficiencies: protanopia, deuteranopia, tritanopia, and related anomalies. A set of distractor colors is distributed across a region of color space such that the confusion line through a single target color intersects approximately the middle of the set. The distractor set spans a region extending in both chromaticity and luminance, which provides leeway for display errors since the confusion line will intersect the set even if colors do not render exactly as specified, and color deficient observers would still not be able to identify the target. A web-based implementation enables remote testing of subjects.

The invention relates to the field of vision testing and, in particular, to a color vision deficiency test using a computer display.
For a number of testing situations, such as remote testing over the Internet, the main challenge is to develop a color vision deficiency test that can provide meaningful assessment in spite of the degradations inherent in uncalibrated and otherwise unknown display devices. Often, performance on psychophysical tests can improve when device miscalibrations lead to artifacts that provide additional cues for the correct target, resulting in a higher false negative rate for detecting sensory deficiencies, meaning that color deficient observers are inappropriately categorized as not having color vision deficiencies. By designing the presentation so that limitations in the display increase the false alarm rate (instead of the false negative rate), a more conservative measure of performance is achieved. The benefit for a screening evaluation is that it is less likely that a person having a sensory deficit will be overlooked, i.e., more people in need of attention will be directed to the appropriate clinicians.
Colors can be described by coordinates in a three-dimensional color space; an example of this is the RGB triplet used to specify colors on a computer monitor. Color vision deficiencies can be characterized by confusion lines in a color space, wherein two colors lying on such a line are difficult or impossible to discriminate from each other by a color deficient observer. Many tests of color vision exploit this phenomenon, and their reliability hinge on the precision with which test colors can be specified. However, if one has only limited control of monitor calibration, as is the case when testing over the Internet, colors displayed at a remote location generally do not render as specified. Color deficient observers could thus pass the test if colors do not fall on a confusion line, which is a disastrous failure mode and one of the main reasons color vision assessment is not generally feasible outside a carefully controlled clinical setting.
There are three major types of color vision deficiencies: protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia, corresponding to an absence or malfunctioning of long, medium, and short wavelength-sensitive cone photoreceptors, respectively. Subcategories of color vision deficiency are the "anomalous" versions of each of the three major categories. The three major categories are characterized by the inability to discriminate colors along particular confusion lines in color space. Anomalies are characterized by greater difficulty, as compared to color normal observers, in discriminating colors along similar confusion lines as the corresponding major deficiencies. Each major type of color vision deficiency requires a test series tailored to its unique set of confusion lines. Each major type of color vision deficiency requires a test series.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Color vision deficiency screening test resistant to display calibration errors


An organic electro-luminescence device and a fabricating method thereof wherein an organic light-emitting layer can be provided at an accurate location to prevent a deterioration of picture quality. In the organic electro-luminescence device, a first barrier rib is provided between adjacent organic electro-luminescence cells along a first direction. A second barrier rib is provided between said adjacent organic electro-luminescence cells along a second direction and is positioned between the first barrier ribs.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electro-luminescence display (ELD), and more particularly to an organic electro-luminescence device and a fabricating method thereof wherein an organic light-emitting layer can be provided at an accurate location to prevent a deterioration of picture quality.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, there have been developed various flat panel display devices reduced in weight and bulk that is capable of eliminating disadvantages of a cathode ray tube (CRT). Such flat panel display devices include a liquid crystal display (LCD), a field emission display (FED), a plasma display panel (PDP) and an electro-luminescence display device (ELD), etc. Particularly, the ELD has a structure in which electrodes are attached onto each side of an organic light-emitting layer basically consisting of a hole carrier layer, a light-emitting layer and an electron carrier layer. The ELD has been highlighted to be a post-generation flat panel display device owing to characteristics of a wide viewing angle, a high aperture ration and a high chromaticity, etc.
Such an ELD is largely classified into an inorganic ELD and an organic ELD depending upon its used material. The organic ELD has an advantage in that it can be driven with a lower voltage than the inorganic ELD because electrons and holes emit a light while being extinguished after making a pair when electric charges are injected into an organic EL layer provided between a hole injection electrode and an electron injection electrode. Further, the organic ELD has advantages in that it can be formed on a flexible transparent substrate such as plastic and can be driven with a lower voltage (i.e., less than 10V) than the PDP or the inorganic ELD; and it has a relatively small power consumption and an excellent color sense.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a structure of a conventional organic ELD.
Referring to FIG. 1, the organic ELD has an anode electrode 4 and a cathode electrode 12 provided on a substrate 2 in a direction crossing each other.
A plurality of anode electrodes 4 are provided on the substrate 2 in such a manner to be spaced at a desired distance. An insulating film (not shown) having an aperture for each EL cell area is formed on the substrate 2 provided with the anode electrodes 4. On the insulating film, barrier ribs 8 for separating an organic light-emitting layer 10 and the cathode electrode 12 to be provided thereon are positioned. The barrier rib 8 is provided in a direction crossing the anode electrode 4, and has a backward taper structure in which its upper portion has a larger width than its lower portion. The organic light-emitting layer 10 made from an organic compound and the cathode electrode 12 are entirely deposited onto the insulating film provided with the barrier rib 8. The organic light-emitting layer 10 has a hole carrier layer, a light-emitting layer and an electron carrier layer deposited onto the insulating film. Such a passive ELD emits electrons and holes when a driving signal is applied to the anode electrode 4 and the cathode electrode 12. The electrons and holes emitted from the anode electrode 4 and the cathode electrode 12 are re-combined within the organic light-emitting layer 10 to generate a visible light. The generated visible light outputs to the exterior via the anode electrode 4 to thereby display a desired picture or image.
Hereinafter, a method of fabricating the conventional organic ELD will be described with reference to FIG. 2A to FIG. 2D.
Firstly, as shown in FIG. 2A, the anode electrode 4 is provided by depositing a metal transparent conductive material onto the substrate 2 made from a soda lime or a vulcanized glass and then patterning it by the photolithography and the etching process. Herein, indium-tin-oxide (ITO) or SnO2 is used as the metal material.
The insulating film (not shown) is formed in such a manner to expose a light-emitting area by coating a photosensitive insulating material onto the substrate 2 provided with the anode electrode 4 by the spin coating technique and then patterning it by the photolithography and the etching process.
As shown in FIG. 2B, the barrier rib 8 is formed by depositing a photosensitive organic material onto the insulating film and then patterning it by the photolithography and the etching process. The barrier rib 8 is provided to divide the pixels in such a manner to cross the plurality of anode electrodes 4.
As shown in FIG. 2C, the organic light-emitting layer 10 is formed on the substrate 2 provided with the barrier rib 8 by utilizing a shadow mask (not shown).
As shown in FIG. 2D, the cathode electrode 12 is formed by depositing a metal material onto the substrate 2 provided with the organic light-emitting layer 10.
Meanwhile, the formation of the organic light-emitting layer 10 by utilizing the conventional shadow mask raises a problem in that an organic light-emitting material passing through a slit of the shadow mask is not secured at an accurate location to generate a formation badness of the organic light-emitting layer 10, thereby causing a deterioration of picture quality.
This will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 3 below.
When a heating vessel 20 contained with a specific organic material (e.g., a light-emitting material 21 for implementing a red (R) color) is heated, the specific organic material 21 (e.g., a light-emitting material 21 for implementing a red (R) color) within the heating vessel 20 is sublimed to be deposited onto the anode electrode 4. Herein, a shadow mask 22 is provided in such a manner to be spaced at a desired distance from the anode electrode 4 as the barrier rib 8 is formed on the barrier rib. Further, as a process tolerance is generated upon fabricating the shadow mask 22, the specific organic material 21 having passed through a slot 24 of the shadow mask 22 is widely spread. Thus, there is raised a problem in that a deposition of it onto the adjacent sub-pixel for implementing a different color (i.e., the sub-pixel for implementing a green (G) color or a blue (B) color) occurs frequently.
Therefore, the formation badness of the organic light-emitting layer 10, such as a mixing of different color organic light-emitting material at each sub-pixel (i.e., R, G or B sub-pixel), or a formation of improper amount of organic light-emitting material, is generated to cause a deterioration of picture quality such as a non-uniformity of picture quality upon a light-emission of the organic ELD.

Organic electro-luminescence display having first and second barrier ribs and method of fabricating the same


A system and method for generating a realistic visual representation of forecast weather conditions. A “future time-lapse” video image of weather conditions effecting a given area may be generated automatically from a meteorologist's weather forecast. The resulting presentation may include a photo-realistic terrain background, an image of a landmark, such as a cityscape familiar to users, realistic three-dimensional cloud images, as well as informative textual and/or graphical overlays. Realistic fractal cloud images may be generated in an efficient manner by combining a plurality of slices taken through a spherical solid fractal texture to create three-dimensional cloud images.

Modern televised weather reports incorporate computer generated graphical information in combination with video segments and live presenters to provide weather reports which are both informative and entertaining. Such reports typically are prepared by a meteorologist or other technician based upon weather information provided from a variety of weather information sources. Computer based production equipment is employed for generating graphical displays of weather information and for combining the graphical displays with video segments to provide the entire weather report presentation.
Computer-based systems, including detailed computerized geographic maps, and other graphics generating capabilities, may be employed to combine the information provided from various weather information sources and forecast models into an integrated weather report. Computer-generated graphics often are combined with live presenters and/or live or recorded video segments to provide a complete weather presentation to a viewer as part of a televised weather report. For example, such a presentation may include live video of current weather conditions or recorded video segments of weather conditions occurring during the day for which the weather report is provided.
Video segments of past and current weather conditions employed as part of a televised weather presentation may include time-lapsed photography video presentations. For example, a video camera may be positioned to take a video image of the sky conditions evolving throughout a day or other time period of interest (e.g., taken near a landmark which would be recognized by viewers of the weather presentation). The video camera may be computer controlled to take frames of video images at spaced apart time intervals throughout the time period of interest. When the time-lapsed video created in this manner is played back at normal speed, a sped-up video image of the evolving sky conditions is presented. Using time-lapsed photography in this manner, a televised weather report may present a dramatic video summary of evolving sky conditions throughout an entire day with a video segment running only a few seconds.
Forecasts of future weather conditions for a location typically are provided as part of a weather presentation using a relatively simple graphical and textual presentation format. For example, future weather conditions are often presented using a simple graphical presentation format showing a time-line of future time periods with high and/or low temperatures and a graphical indication of general sky conditions for those time periods indicated thereon. Such a presentation may include a computer generated graphic illustration of a sun, if the forecast sky conditions are sunny, clouds, if the forecast sky conditions are cloudy, rain and lightening, if thunderstorms are predicted, etc. Such sky condition graphics and forecast high/low temperatures may be overlaid on a map display, thereby allowing forecast sky conditions and temperatures for a given time period to be presented simultaneously for various locations throughout a region.
Although such relatively simple presentations of future forecast weather conditions are typically clear, accurate, and easily understandable, such simple presentations are not very dramatic or memorable. What is desired, therefore, is a system and method for generating a presentation of future forecast weather conditions which conveys more dramatically to viewers thereof the weather conditions they are likely to experience in the future. Such a system and method should be easily employed by meteorologists or other technicians to generate quickly dramatic forecast weather presentations based on available weather forecast data.
A fractal is a geometrically complex object, the complexity of which arises through the repetition of form over some range of scale. Fractal complexity is the repetition of the same thing over and over again, at different scales, as opposed to non-fractal complexity, which is the accumulation of a variety of distinct and unrelated events over time. For example, trees describe an approximate fractal pattern, as the trunk divides into branches that further subdivide into smaller branches that ultimately subdivide into twigs; at each stage of the division the pattern is a smaller version of the original. Fractals are relevant to any system involving self-similarity repeated on diminishing scales
Fractals are used in computer graphics generation. For example fractal techniques have been used to render computer generated graphical images of naturally occurring objects or structures which follow a fractal pattern. In such fractal based computer graphics generation techniques there typically is a basic computer implemented graphics generating operation that is performed, and basically the same operation is performed over and over again, at smaller and smaller scales. At the completion of the computer graphics generation process, you end up with something that looks like a complex structure that one might observe in nature. Furthermore, the resulting image can have infinite detail, because as one zooms in, you can just keep on doing the repetitious fractal operation over and over again to achieve the desired detail. Thus, a computer generated fractal object appears complex, and infinitely detailed. But the operation to create such an object is a simply a repetition of the same basic operation. You stop when you have enough detail. And for computer graphics, the size of the pixels impose an ultimate limit on the operation.
Fractal techniques have been used to generate computer generated graphical cloud images. True volumetric fractal cloud images have been known for a number of years. These known fractal cloud images, and the techniques for generating them, are very complex. Such known fractal cloud images have been "slowly" rendered only on very expensive Silicon Graphics super computers running UNIX operating systems.
What is desired, therefore, is a system and method which enables fractal cloud images to be displayed in real-time on any modest personal computer using a standard operating system.

Three dimensional weather forecast rendering


A weather radar system includes processing electronics. The processing electronics sense weather and determine significant weather based upon the altitude of the weather. The altitude of the weather can be compared to a flight path to determine its significance. A display can provide visual indicia of the significant weather in response to the processing electronics.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,424,288 invented by Daniel L. Woodell and assigned to the assignee of the present application discloses systems for and methods of displaying radar information using weather radar systems. Weather radar systems generally include an antenna, a receiver/transmitter circuit, a processor, and display. The processor is coupled between the display and the receiver/transmitter circuit. The receiver/transmitter circuit is coupled between the processor and the antenna.
The processor provides transmit signals through the receiver/transmitter circuit to the antenna to transmit radar beams. The processor receives radar return signals derived from radar returns received by the antenna. The radar return signals are provided to the processor via the receiver/transmitter circuit.
Conventionally, pilots use weather radar systems to detect and avoid hazardous weather. The radar return signals are processed to provide graphical images to a radar display. The radar display is typically a color multi-function display (MFD) unit that provides color graphical images to represent the severity and location of weather. Some aircraft weather radar systems also include other hazard detection systems such as a turbulence detection system. The turbulence detection system can provide indications of the presence of turbulence or other hazards. Conventional weather radar systems include those manufactured by Rockwell Collins, Inc., Honeywell International, Inc. and others.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,424,288 discloses an airborne weather radar system that can use multiple scans at different tilt angles to generate a single displayed image. The data from the multiple scans can be compared to reduce visual display of ground clutter. Ground clutter refers to weather radar returns that are the result of reflections from the surface of the Earth or objects associated with the ground. The system can use a measure of power changes between beams at different elevations to determine if weather radar returns are from the ground or weather.
Heretofore, weather radar systems have generally been designed to detect all weather that is in view while removing ground clutter from the display. U.S. Pat. No. 6,603,425 invented by Woodell and assigned to the assignee of the present application discloses such a system. However, such weather radar systems tend to collect and display a large amount of weather images and do not limit the number of weather images provided. Such systems do not necessarily meet customer demands because pilots are more interested in a limited view of weather (e.g., a view of only weather that poses a threat to the aircraft). Although certain weather may be in view, the aircraft's altitude may be such that the detected weather poses no threat to the aircraft because the aircraft flies significantly above such weather. In most situations where weather significance needs to be determined, weather will extend from some maximum altitude to some low level. So in those situations the determination of estimated flight path either penetrating or passing above the weather is required to provide situational awareness. In a few cases, such as the takeoff and climb case, determination of the aircraft's clear path underneath overhanging weather is desired.
Thus, there is a need to determine whether weather is within an aircraft's flight path. There is also a need for a system for and a method of determining presence of weather in a flight path of an aircraft using an on-board weather radar system. Further still, there is a need for real time or pseudo-real time determination of weather that is significant to an aircraft. Yet further, there is a need for a weather radar system optimized to determine the relevant weather. Yet further still, there is a need for a system that automatically rejects weather detection well below an aircraft's current and future position. The need for flight path weather detection can best be seen in light of terminal area operation. In one case a climbing aircraft could be climbing above low altitude weather below the flight path. Detection and display of that non-significant weather would in a best case be a distraction to a flight crew. On the other hand the flight crew of an aircraft beginning a descent into an airport needs to know weather conditions at or near the runway surface. While the display of this weather is very useful during descent, display of this weather during other flight phases could cause the crew to deviate around weather threats that do not exist at their altitude. Even further still, there is a need for a weather radar system that only displays weather that is significant to an aircraft. There is further still a need for a display methodology for such significance (e.g., density modulation for weather under the aircraft's flight path altitude or removal of all weather displays of all weather below the flight path or above the estimated flight path).
It would be desirable to provide a system and/or method that provides one or more of these or other advantageous features. Other features and advantages will be made apparent from the present specification. The teachings disclosed extend to those embodiments which fall within the scope of the appended claims, regardless of whether they accomplish one or more of the aforementioned needs.

Weather radar with significance determination


The present disclosure relates to a buckle arrangement for a seat for a vehicle or vessel. The buckle arrangement comprises a casing, an insertion slot for inserting a latch into the casing, a locking mechanism for locking the latch and a release element for releasing the locking mechanism, allowing releasing of the latch. The locking mechanism is enclosed in the casing and the insertion slot is adapted for guiding the latch to the locking mechanism. The buckle arrangement further comprises an insertion frame surrounding the insertion slot and a buckle frame surrounding the insertion frame and the release element, wherein the insertion frame is connectable to the casing in such a way that a portion of a skin of the seat is clampable between the insertion frame and the casing. The disclosure further relates to a seat for a vehicle or vessel comprising such a buckle arrangement.

A seat in a vehicle, such as a car, bus, truck or lorry, or in a vessel, such as a boat, ferry or aircraft, may be provided with a safety belt in order to protect the user of the seat in case of a collision. In a common configuration of the safety belt, a latch portion is to be inserted into a buckle arrangement in order to lock the latch in the buckle, thereby buckling up the user of the seat.
According to known technology, the buckle arrangement is connected to the seat or to the body of the vehicle or vessel. The buckle arrangement is normally arranged beside the seat, if the seat is a single seat, e.g., a front seat of a vehicle. If the seat is a combined seat comprising seats for more than one person, e.g., a rear seat of a vehicle, the buckle arrangement often lies on top of the seat. In both cases, there is a risk that a piece of clothes of the user, e.g., a jacket, gets caught in the buckle arrangement. Further, if the user wants to place a bag on an adjacent seat, such as a handbag, a strap or belt of the bag may get entangled in the buckle arrangement of the user's seat or of the adjacent seat. If the seat is a rear seat, the buckle arrangement may make lateral displacement in the seat, e.g., in order to reach the central rear seat, more difficult.
Patent document US 2009/0094807 A1 discloses a rear seat with a buckle arrangement, in which the buckle is located in a recess of the seat, when an occupant is not seated, and is arranged to stand up from the seat, when the occupant is seated in the seat.
However, patent document US 2009/0094807 A1 only relates to rear seats. Further, although the risk of clothes or straps getting caught or entangled is less when the buckle is in the recess than when standing up, there is still such a risk.


A hollow diamond shell with a size of a few micrometer to hundreds of micrometer and having a geometrical shape and its fabrication method are disclosed. A diamond film is deposited by a CVD method and porous grits are used as a victim substrate to be etched later, so that the substrate can be easily removed by a capillary phenomenon that an etching solution can be intensively absorbed in a substrate etching process. Thus, a perfect diamond shell with only a plurality of fine pores with a nano size without any conspicuous opening can be obtained. Also, a diamond shell with a small opening of below 10 percent of the surface area of grits can be fabricated by controlling a nuclear generation of diamond particles.

Artificial diamond is synthesized by a high pressure and high temperature (HPHT) method, a detonation method, or a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method.
Diamond synthesized by the HPHT (synthesis conditions: about 50,000 air pressure and 1,400° C.) developed in 1955 has cubo-octahedron grit or irregular powder form with a size of below a few hundreds μm. Diamond obtained by a single crystal growth method performed also under the HPHT has a bulk form with a size of a few mm3. Diamond obtained by a detonation method (about 100,000 air pressure, 1,000° C.) has a powder form close to a spherical shape with a size of a few nm.
The general shape of diamond obtained by the HPHT method and the detonation method has such grit (or powder) form as natural diamond. This is because volume of an equipment that can generate a high pressure (above about 50,000 air pressure) to obtain diamond, a high temperature and high pressure phase of carbon, is limited.
Meanwhile, in 1980s, the CVD method (primary synthesizing conditions: about 100 Torr and 700° C.), by which diamond can be synthesized at below an atmospheric pressure, was developed so that more diverse types of diamond can be fabricated. According to the CVD synthesis method, a gas is activated by using heat or plasma in a certain vacuum container and deposited in a type of a polycrystalline film on a surface of a matrix(substrate) maintained at about 700° C. In this case, diamond is limited to be deposited on the surface of the matrix that contacts with vapor phase. In the CVD method, the synthesis area depends on volume of plasma generated in the used equipment, and the shape of diamond film depends on the shape of the used matrix. The diamond film is deposited with a thickness of a few nm˜a few mm on the platy matrix. It is used in the state of being attached on the matrix like an insert tool or a drill (direct coating: a thin film of below tens of μm) or used in a type of free standing film separated from the matrix(tens of μm˜a few mm). In addition, a diamond free standing film in a dome shape with a diameter of a few cm2 can be fabricated by using a matrix with a bent portion. In addition, by inducing a uniform nuclear generation in vapor phase according to the CVD method, a spherical diamond powder with a size of a few hundreds of nm can be synthesized.
However, the related art diamond synthesizing methods cannot fabricate diamond with a hollow shell structure.

Diamond shell fabricated by using porous particle and the fabrication method thereof

Korea Institute of Science and Technology


A telecommunications terminal is provided with two protocols. After initialization and activation of one of the protocols, a status inquiry is sent to a digital exchange indicating the activated protocol. The telecommunications terminal is operated according to a received status message indicating the protocol being used by the digital exchange, or if none is received before elapse of a timer, according to the second of the two protocols.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of adapting protocols of a telecommunications terminal to a protocol of a digital exchange.
2. Background Information
Guideline 1TR6 of the German Bundespost describes the transfer of signalling information between an ISDN digital exchange and ISDN telecommunications terminals. Thus, all ISDN terminals will be equipped, in accordance with the protocol 1TR6, to be able to exchange information with a digital exchange operating according to this protocol (cf. ISDN-D-Kanal-Protokoll 1TR6, Ausgabe 1.90, Deutsche Bundespost, FTZ).
In Europe, a committee of the ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) is currently drawing up an ISDN protocol for Layer 3 functions (cf. Document No. ETS T/S 46-30, Version 1, Jul. 19, 1990, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), User-Network Interface Layer 3 Specification for basic call control, Application of CCITT Recommendations Q.930/I.450 and Q.931/I.451).
If the ETSI protocol is introduced in Europe, i.e., if it is used in all digital exchanges, the old protocols in all ISDN terminals (in the Federal Republic of Germany the aforementioned protocol 1TR6) will have to be replaced by the ETSI protocol.


An impedance compensation circuit generates per-group pull-up impedance information and per-group pull-down impedance information to calibrate a plurality of input/output pads and dynamically updates impedance information on a per channel basis. A group refers to a group of I/O pads having similar output drive strengths in a channel. A channel refers to all I/O pads, which collectively provide a bus interface to an external device. For example, all the I/O pads interfacing with a memory module may be grouped into a channel, and address I/O pads in a channel may be arranged into a “group.” Memory I/O pads may be grouped together into a channel since memory interface pads have input/output characteristics that may be different from those of other types of I/O pads in the chip. According to one embodiment, per-group programmable offset information provides calibration information that may be different for each group in each channel.

Input/Output pads, also known as I/O buffers, are used in many integrated circuit applications. Conventional I/O pads typically include push/pull buffer configurations that include, for example, an output driver pull-up circuit and an output driver pull-down circuit. I/O pads are often connected to internal or external or off-chip pads on printed circuit boards or other integrated circuits. The I/O buffers are connected to other circuits through transmissions lines, such as printed circuit boards traces or any other suitable transmission lines. As is known in the art, transmission line signal distortions can result from impedance mismatches between the output buffer circuitry and the transmission line impedance. These signal distortions can vary due to fabrication process variations, temperature variations and other variations. Accordingly, I/O buffers have been designed to match the output impedance of the buffer with the transmission lines impedance. Without proper impedance matching, overshooting, undershooting and signal distortion can occur, particularly at high speeds. Further, an output pad may be required to drive multiple inputs. As a result, the drive strength of the output buffer requires adjustment accordingly.
Conventional solutions typically incorporate the use of off-chip components to implement matching termination networks. However, these can take up large amounts of space on the integrated circuit. Other, on-chip solutions require the use of separate test I/O pads for determining suitable impedance matching. For example, one external test pad is typically used to determine the suitable pull-up circuit impedance, whereas a separate additional test pad is used to determine suitable impedance matching for the pull-down circuit of the output buffer. In addition, separate external impedance calibration resistors are used for each I/O buffer section. The use of additional test pads and external resistors can impact board density, reliability and cost.
According to one embodiment, an on-chip impedance matching network provides a type of controlled impedance I/O pad by controlling a serially connected resistive element separate from the output drivers. For example, an array of programmable resistors in the form of parallel coupled transistors are controlled by on-chip calibration circuitry to program an on-chip impedance array by turning on and off various combinations of NFET transistors using an up/down counter. An external calibration resistor is connected to an internal chip pad. A differential amplifier is used to compare the internal pad voltage to a reference voltage. A difference between input voltages of the differential amplifier is perceived as a resistance mismatch between the external calibration resistor and the resistance of the transmissions line. The differential amplifier's output is programmed as an up/down counter to increase or decrease an output. The calibration is typically continuous. The method uses a separate programmable resistor array for each of a pull-down section and a pull-up section of an output buffer. However, this can unnecessarily increase the complexity and cost of the impedance matching circuit.
Other methods employ a plurality of external calibration resistors to duplicate the output buffer structure as the impedance compensation structure. Where two test pads and two external calibration resistors are used, the pull-up circuit, such as a P channel-based pull-up circuit, and an N channel output buffer pull-down circuit are typically independently tested and matched during normal operation of the chip. However, using dual calibration resistors can generate unnecessary internal noise. Known programmable impedance matching circuits effectively duplicate the structure of an I/O buffer, and the actual I/O buffer includes corresponding programmable resistor arrays that are then programmed to be identical to the impedance level determined through the I/O buffer impedance matching circuit. Typically, such I/O buffer impedance compensation circuits use, for example, an external pull-up calibration resistor that has an impedance equivalent to the line impedance to determine an appropriate impedance setting for the I/O pull-down circuit. Similarly, an external pull-down calibration resistor is coupled to ground and is used to determine a suitable impedance level for the pull-up circuit.
According to another method, an impedance compensation circuit for an I/O pad provides dynamic impedance compensation by using programmable impedance arrays and a dynamically adjustable on-chip load. Only a single off-chip calibration resistor is used, and only a single test pad is necessary. According to this method, all the I/O pads are calibrated to the same output drive strengths. However, memory interface pads, for example, typically require different output drive strength calibration for different groups in a channel. These interface pads, such as memory interface pads, may also require different drive strength calibration for different channels. As a result, all the I/O pads are calibrated with the same calibration setting, resulting in suboptimum calibration settings for some I/O pads.
According to another method, separate impedance controllers and impedance matching calibration circuits may be implemented for each of the different types of pads, such as memory pads. However, implementing separate impedance controller circuits and impedance matching calibration circuits would be an inefficient use of the limited number of transistors on an integrated circuit chip, and, further, would be expensive.

Dynamic impedance compensation circuit and method


A sharpening tool for pointed objects is described. The device is comprised of a cylindrical body with a hole extending part way through it from one end. A slot from the side of the cylindrical body intersects the hole near its bottom. A replaceable sharpening stone fits into the slot and is held in place by a retaining means. A shaft is attached to the end of the cylindrical member opposite the hole for attachment to a power source for rotating the device. An object to be sharpened is inserted into the hole and the device is rotated to sharpen the object.

There are a number of situations where a pointed object becomes dulled or blunted during use. A common method of resharpening the dulled point is to contact it with an abrasive wheel or grinding stone. The wheel rotates and the object to be sharpened is held against the wheel at a desired angle and rotated to resharpen the point.
In may be undesirable, inconvenient or even impractical to bring some pointed objects to a wheel for grinding. Such a situation is encountered, for instance, for a snowmobile track containing a great number of pointed metal studs which improve traction. The studs become dulled or blunted during use and can be removed for sharpening, but this is difficult and time consuming.
Applicant has invented a device for sharpening such dulled studs in place which provides controlled sharpening in an extremely short time period per stud. The sharpener has a removable abrasive member held at a preselected angle to the stud to be sharpened, providing a consistent finished product. The apparatus is useful for sharpening nearly any pointed object and is not limited to the studs of a snowmobile track.


A single pair of pliers for bending orthodontic arch wires in all quadrants of a patient's mouth. Includes first and second actuating members, each including a handle portion for grasping in the hand, and a head portion that projects at an angle. The actuating members are pivotally joined so that the head portions can be moved toward and away from each other into respective closed and open positions. A first occlusal jaw on head portion of the first actuating member has an internally angled channel profile and a second occlusal jaw on the head portion of the second actuating member also has an internally angled channel profile facing the other internal channel. A gingival jaw member having upper and lower externally angled corners is adapted to mate with the internally angled profiles of the upper and lower occlusal jaws, respectively, when the head portions are in the closed position.

In the practice of orthodontics, super elastic arch wires are secured to misaligned teeth for applying directional forces such that the teeth can be realigned. To bend and activate super elastic arch wires in four quadrants of a patient's mouth, two pairs of specialized pliers were needed, i.e., left hand and right hand pliers. These are commercially available as Bendistal Pliers, and are based on the description in my U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,236 issued Mar. 7, 1995 for "Orthodontic Pliers".

Orthodontic pliers for four quadrant V-bends