A method to obtain a cloud-stored virtual desktop includes a set of user preferences, applications and shortcuts to files that a user desires to access. The method includes (A) transferring from a client device to a cloud broker a virtual desktop request comprising a user identification and a client device type identification; (B) passing the virtual desktop request to a cloud desktop agent responsible for maintenance of virtual desktops and virtual desktop metadata in the cloud storage system; (C) selecting by the cloud desktop agent a list of available virtual desktops for the user and the client device type based on a comparison with the virtual desktop metadata; (D) transferring the list of available virtual desktops to the cloud broker; and (E) forwarding the list of available virtual desktops from the cloud broker to the client device to enable the user to select a virtual desktop to be opened.

A desktop defines a set of user preferences, e.g. menu bars as well as their look and feel, applications and shortcuts to files that a user desires to access easily, e.g. through a single mouse click or finger touch. As a consequence, a desktop provides a unique view over one or plural storage spaces of the same user, like for instance the user's private and public cloud storage, the user's local hard disk storage, the user's dropbox storage space, the user's google drive storage space, etc. On a PC or laptop, a desktop definition per user is stored locally, on the hard disk. In a corporate network, a desktop definition per user is stored centrally, on a server. In case the desktop is a corporate desktop, it shall typically also prevent access to some of the storage spaces such as particular cloud storages, the dropbox storage space, etc. for security reasons.
In the above definition of desktop, the term "shortcut to files" must be interpreted broadly to cover any shortcut to directories, subdirectories, documents, data, etc., whether stored on the client device, private or corporate servers, or in a cloud storage environment. It is further noticed that a single user can define more than one desktop stored locally.
Whereas a desktop is a locally stored set of user preferences, applications and shortcuts to files that a user desires to access easily after login on his/her client device, a virtual desktop in the context of the present patent application is a set of user preferences, applications and shortcuts to files that the user desires to access easily, that is stored remotely, in a cloud storage system. A virtual desktop in other words does not reside on any of the user's client devices, e.g. his laptop, tablet PC or smartphone, but is stored in a cloud storage system and pushed back to the user's client device after login. Similarly to traditional desktops, a single user can define more than one virtual desktop stored in the cloud storage system.
One example of such virtual desktop is the Transferable Desktop from ZeroPC, of which a description can be retrieved from the Internet via the URL:
www.zeropc.com/go.htm?src=transfer.html
The Transferable Desktop solution from ZeroPC enables a user to customize one or more virtual desktops, stored in a cloud storage system, and to share one or more of his desktops with other users in the cloud environment.
ZeroPC however does not allow to create virtual desktops per device type. With the introduction of "bring your own device" policies in corporate organizations, different corporate users will desire different virtual desktops depending on the device or devices they are using.
Further, corporate organizations desire to define and control the access policy from one place, such that for instance a corporate IT department can block access to one or some of the public cloud storage providers by disabling access to them through the virtual desktop definitions.
European Patent Application EP 2 357 558 A2 entitled "Independent access to virtual machine desktop content" recognizes in paragraph [0008] the desire of users to use any type of device to access data stored in the cloud, and the complexity of delivering and running virtual desktops on a wide spectrum of devices. EP 2 357 558 thereto proposes an Enhanced Virtual Desktop Management System enabling a user to access its data, applications and settings stored in cloud storage. The Enhanced Virtual Desktop Management System known from EP 2 357 558 uses an API incorporated in the web browser or other third party interface providing access to the user's data without running a virtual desktop (see for instance paragraphs [0042] and [0046]).
It is an objective of the present invention to disclose a method and system for obtaining a virtual desktop that overcomes the above mentioned drawbacks of existing solutions. More particularly, it is an objective of the present invention to disclose a method and system for obtaining upon request of a user a preferred virtual desktop representation for that user and the device type (laptop, tablet PC, smartphone, . . . ) of that user. It is a further objective to obtain upon request of a user a preferred virtual desktop representation for the location (office, home, public location, . . . ) of that user. It is a further objective to obtain upon request of a user a preferred virtual desktop representation considering the type of access (private/corporate) of that user.

Method to obtain a virtual desktop stored in a cloud storage system, a corresponding cloud broker and cloud desktop agent


Certain embodiments of the present invention provide a method and system for real-time motion correction in compound ultrasound imaging. Certain embodiments include receiving an image frame, estimating motion between the image frame and a previous image frame, updating a previous motion estimate with the estimated motion to form an updated motion estimate, and correcting the image frame and the previous image frame using the updated motion estimate. The method may also include forming a compound image from the image frames. In an embodiment, motion may be estimated between the image frame and a previous frame using cross correlation, reference point registration, and/or other estimation method, for example. The image frame and the previous image frame may be corrected using the updated motion estimate in an affine transformation or other correction method, for example. In an embodiment, the method provides real-time correction as image frames are being received.

The present invention generally relates to ultrasound imaging. In particular, the present invention relates to real-time motion correction for ultrasound spatial compound imaging.
Ultrasound is sound having a frequency that is higher than a normal person may hear. Ultrasound imaging utilizes ultrasound waves or vibrations in the frequency spectrum above normal human hearing, such as the 2.5-10 MHz range. Ultrasound imaging systems transmit ultrasound into a subject, such as a patient, in short bursts. Echoes are reflected back to the system from the subject. Diagnostic images may be produced from the echoes. Ultrasound imaging techniques are similar to those used in sonar and radar.
A medical ultrasound system forms an image by sequentially acquiring echo signals from ultrasound beams transmitted to an object being imaged. An individual beam is formed by transmitting a focused pulse and receiving the echoes over a continuous range of depths. An amplitude of an echo signal decreases significantly for signal reflectors located deeper in the object due to increased signal attenuation of intervening structures, such as intervening tissue layers. Therefore, a signal-to-noise ratio decreases since noise generated by the ultrasound system's signal amplifiers, for example, may not be reduced to arbitrary low levels.
Forming the best possible image at all times for different anatomies and patient types is important to diagnostic imaging systems. Poor image quality may prevent reliable analysis of the image. For example, a decrease in image contrast quality may yield an unreliable image that is not usable clinically. Additionally, the advent of real-time imaging systems has increased the importance of generating clear, high quality images.
B-Mode or "Brightness" mode is a common display format for an ultrasound image. Currently, B-Mode ultrasound imaging system transducers fire a narrow ultrasound beam or vector in a single direction. The transducer array then waits to listen to all echoes returning from reflectors along that same straight line. Strength of the return echoes is used to represent a reflectivity of an object. Reflectivity of an object, such as an anatomy of a patient, is typically calculated using a range equation. The range equation determines that time equals signal round trip divided by speed of sound in a subject medium. Current ultrasound systems utilize receive beamforming to reconstruct an object being imaged. That is, an ultrasound system listens for echo signals using a receiver which is then used for beam reconstruction and beam directional determination. The scheme of firing an ultrasound beam and listening for reflected echoes is repeated sequentially in a number of directions to span a two-dimensional section in an object space, such as an anatomical space. The ultrasound system paints each line that is determined from the reflected echo signals with a brightness level corresponding to a return echo signal strength. A complete set of vectors that sweep out a section of space constitutes a B-Mode frame. The reconstruction process is repeated to successively paint frames and achieve a standard real-time B-Mode display.
Spatial compounding has become an advanced and important diagnostic tool in a wide range of applications in ultrasound imaging. In spatial compounding, a target is scanned from several angles of insonification or irradiation with sound or other such waves. Multiple received images are then combined or averaged to form a single image. A compounded image typically shows less speckle or interference introduced by scattering which degrades image resolution. A compounded image may also provide better specular reflector delineation than conventional ultrasound images from a single angle. In some ultrasound machines, multi-angle spatial compounding has been implemented on different types of transducers, such as a one-dimensional linear array and a one-dimensional curved linear array.
Spatial compound imaging improves contrast resolution by reducing speckles and enhancing tissue boundaries. However, a spatial compounded image is a summation of a series of frames, which are collected at different times. Consequently, spatial compounding is susceptible to motion, such as tissue or probe motion. Additionally, imaging with an extended field of view results in blurriness or artifacts from regular motion. Therefore, an improved method and apparatus for reducing or eliminating motion effects, such as blurriness, in a spatial compounded image would be highly desirable.

Method and apparatus for real-time motion correction for ultrasound spatial compound imaging


Receptacle assembly including a receptacle housing having a front end, a back end, and an elongated module cavity that extends between the front and back ends. The receptacle assembly also includes a communication connector that is positioned to mate with a pluggable module when the pluggable module is inserted into the module cavity. The receptacle assembly also includes a light source that is positioned proximate to the port opening and supported by the receptacle housing. The light source generates light signals that are viewable at the front end. The receptacle assembly also includes a flexible cable coupled to the light source. The light source generates the light signals based on electrical current received through the flexible cable.

The subject matter described herein relates to a receptacle assembly having a light indicator.
At least some known receptacle assemblies, such as input/output (I/O) connector assemblies, are configured to receive a pluggable module and establish a communicative connection between the pluggable module and an electrical connector of the receptacle assembly. As one example, a known receptacle assembly includes a receptacle housing that is mounted to a circuit board and configured to receive a small form-factor (SFP) pluggable transceiver. The receptacle assembly includes an elongated cavity that extends between an opening of the cavity and an electrical connector that is disposed within the cavity and mounted to the circuit board. The pluggable transceiver is inserted through the opening and advanced toward the electrical connector in the cavity. The pluggable transceiver and the electrical connector have respective electrical contacts that engage one another to establish a communicative connection.
In many cases, the communicative connection is confirmed through the use of a light pipe assembly. The light pipe assembly typically includes one or more light pipes in which each light pipe has an input end that is positioned above a light-emitting diode (LED) and an output end positioned near the front of the receptacle assembly. The light pipe extends through or around the receptacle housing between the input and output ends. The LED is mounted to the circuit board near the electrical connector. When the pluggable transceiver is properly mated with the electrical connector, the LED emits light indicating that a communicative connection has been established. The light enters the light pipe through the input end, propagates through the light pipe, and exits the light pipe at the output end. The emitted light notifies a user that the pluggable transceiver has established a communicative connection with the electrical connector. In some cases, an additional light pipe may be used that indicates a speed of the data transmission or provides other information regarding the status of the communicative connection.
One challenge often addressed in the design of a receptacle assembly is the transfer of excess heat, which may negatively affect electrical performance. In some cases, the receptacle assemblies are configured to permit air to flow through the receptacle assembly thereby transferring the heat that emanates from the pluggable transceiver and/or the electrical connector to the exterior of the receptacle assembly. Light pipes, however, may occupy space that is proximate to the pluggable transceiver(s) thereby reducing airflow and/or creating unwanted turbulence that negatively affects heat transfer.
Accordingly, there is a need for a receptacle assembly that indicates a status of a connection between a pluggable module and a connector while also permitting a sufficient amount of airflow to transfer heat away from the receptacle assembly.

Receptacle assembly having a light indicator


A method for cyclically controlling the braking of a vehicle includes the following steps: (a) detecting a road surface frictional force of said vehicle, (b) detecting a brake fluid pressure, and (c) controlling the brake fluid pressure in response to detected values including the brake fluid pressure and the road surface frictional force, the controlling including decreasing the brake fluid pressure in response to the road surface frictional force declining during an increase of the brake fluid pressure and increasing the brake fluid pressure in response to the road surface frictional force declining during fall-off of the brake fluid pressure.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to an antilock braking device for precluding the locking of the wheels of a vehicle on sudden application of the brake and a road surface friction sensor and a road surface friction coefficient detector which can be used as components of said antilock braking device.
2. Technical Background
The conventional antilock braking device for cars or other vehicles generally employs a system such that the braking action is automatically controlled according to the chassis speed and wheel speed in such a manner that the slip ratio will fall within a definite range (See, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 30585/1984 and Japanese laid-open Patent Application KOKAI No. 61354/1985). The relationship between road surface friction coefficient and slip ratio is variable according to the texture of the road surface and, for this reason, the above system does not always provide the maximum braking force depending on the condition of the road surface and, in such cases, does not insure the minimum braking distance. Furthermore, because the chassis speed value used is an approximate value estimated from the wheel speed, the precision of slip ratio control is not sufficiently high. In order to ascertain the exact chassis speed, one has to rely on complicated devices such as the ground relative speed sensor (for example, Japanese laid-open Patent Application No. 64861/1988) or chassis deceleration sensor (for example, Japanese laid-open Patent Application No. 170157/1988).
In the conventional antilock braking device described in Japanese laid-open Patent Application No. 25169/1988, the road surface friction torque acting on the wheel (tire torque) is calculated from the wheel angular acceleration and brake fluid pressure values and the beginning of a fall in tire torque during the elevation of brake fluid pressure is utilized as one of the criteria for ascertaining the condition immediately preceding a wheel lock. However, since the tire torque is indirectly calculated from the wheel angular acceleration and brake fluid pressure, the above system does not take care of indefinite constants such as the moment of inertia of the wheels, the braking efficiency of the brake and so on, thus presenting problems in terms of the accuracy of data. There also is the problem that since the distance between the wheel to the road surface varies according to the deceleration of the chassis depending on the pneumatic pressure of the tires and the weight of the chassis, the road surface friction force and the tire torque are not necessarily maintained in a fixed ratio.
It is an object of this invention to provide an antilock braking device free from the above-mentioned disadvantages of the conventional device.
It is another object to provide a road surface frictional force sensor and a road surface friction coefficient detector which can be used as components of said antilock braking device.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Road surface friction sensor and road surface friction coefficient detector, and vehicle antilock braking device


A system and method of creating electronic characters in one or more electronic formats, selectively customizing the characters, and presenting them via electronic channels in response to satisfaction of one or more programmable conditions is disclosed. The system enables entities to competitively bid to customize the personality and/or other attribute of a character. For example, a character may be presented via an electronic channel to an audience (e.g., one or more end users who view, listen to, or otherwise experience a character through an electronic channel). An entity may bid on altering that character's personality and/or other attribute. If the entity's bid is selected by the system (e.g., over other bids that also compete to alter one or more attributes of that character), the system customizes the character's personality and/or other attribute according to the winning bid's customization, and presents the customized character via the electronic channel to the audience.

Developing and customizing characters for instantiation via electronic channels can be a time consuming process. For instance, programming conditions under which a character should be presented via an electronic channel can be cumbersome and overly integrated with existing solutions. Furthermore, making characters perform specific actions in response to satisfaction of specified conditions in specific electronic channels and formats can be a time consuming and challenging process. To the extent a character owned by a first party is subject to intellectual property rights owned by that party, others may find it challenging to customize and use that character for presentation in various channels and formats.
These and other drawbacks exist with existing technology and conventional ways to programmatically instantiate customized characters via electronic channels.

System and method for creating and selectively modifying characters and conditionally presenting customized characters via electronic channels


A network device may include logic configured to receive a packet from a packet forwarding engine, create a flow ID for the packet, determine whether the flow ID matches one of a plurality of flow IDs in a table, determine whether the packet is associated with a flow to be sampled, sample the packet and additional packets associated with the flow that are received from the packet forwarding engine when the flow is to be sampled and transmit the flow ID and the sampled packets via a switch to an interface.

Network devices, such as switches or routers, may be used not only to route and/or switch data packets to their destinations, but may also be used to collect information related to the data packets and network traffic. Existing network devices that collect flow statistics and/or sample data packets are not able to correlate flow statistics with sampled data packets as these functions are performed by different components at different points within the network device.


A housing for an axial flow heat-dissipating fan includes an annular wall including an air inlet in a first end thereof and an air outlet in a second end thereof. A motor of an axial flow heat-dissipating fan is received in the annular wall. A plurality of axially extending slits are defined in a circumference of the annular wall. Each axially extending slit has a first end adjacent to the air outlet and a second end adjacent to the air inlet. A width of the first end of each axially extending slit is smaller than that of the second end of each axially extending slit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a housing for an axial flow heat-dissipating fan. In particular, the present invention relates to a housing for an axial flow heat-dissipating fan for increasing an inlet amount of air and for maintaining wind pressure inside the housing.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 6,132,171 discloses a blower that sucks air inside a wall through radial slits as a fan rotates. The wall is formed away from ends of fan blades. Outer peripheral sections of the wall are planar and substantially flush with a rectangular casing body at a middle of upper, lower, right, and left sides of the body. The radial slits are formed in the wall for increasing the air inlet amount. A plurality of annular plates are spaced from each other and stacked in a direction along an axis of rotation of the fan to form the wall with radial slits. Spacers forming and supporting the slits are arranged toward the middle of each of the four sides of the casing body and located on the outer peripheral sections. However, turbulence easily occurs when air is flowing through the area between the fan blades and the radial slits, as the airflow passing through the radial slits along a direction is almost orthogonal to the airflow passing through the air inlet.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,710,486 discloses a housing structure for a heat-dissipating fan. The housing structure comprises a housing, a plurality of axial guide blades, and a rotor. A radial air inlet is formed between two adjacent axial guide blades for increasing the inlet air amount. When the rotor is rotated, major airflow is sucked through an air inlet into the housing. Also, blades of the rotor change airflow sucked through the radial air inlets from a radial direction to the axial direction of the housing. Due to the additional airflow, airflow between the upstream and the downstream of the blades can be balanced and air noise is lowered. However, since each radial air inlet has a uniform width throughout its length, the airflow that has just left the air outlet may be sucked back into the housing at the area adjacent to the air outlet side when the airflow is being sucked by the rotor into the housing via the radial air inlets. The air output is thus adversely affected. Further, in a case that the radial air inlets are two wide, the air pressurizing effect in the housing is reduced, failing to provide expected blowing efficiency.

Housing for axial flow heat-dissipating fan

Sunonwealth Electric Machine Industry Co., Ltd.


A box for housing breathing masks in a passenger aircraft has a housing closed by a door and a pipe in the housing for delivering respiratory gas under a first pressure to the masks via a flexible line. In rest condition a catch holds the door in closed position. It may be disabled for providing access to the masks. A command, electrical or in the form of a second pneumatic pressure in the pipe, limits the opening of the box to a partially-open position preventing the masks from falling out upon release of the latch.

The present invention relates to boxes for housing breathing masks used on board aircraft in order to accommodate such masks and comprising a door which is opened in such a way that each mask drops down at the disposal of a passenger and is supplied with a breathable gasp generally oxygen, in the event of depressurization.
For that, the boxes, each of which contains one or more masks, are normally kept closed by a catch. The catches of all the boxes are simultaneously disarmed in an emergency by supplying the mask supply pipes at a pressure higher than a determined threshold or by sending an electrical command to them.
The boxes have to be checked systematically on a regular basis. To do that, the box is opened manually by an operator who checks that a mask is stored and connected to the gas supply. During this operation, it often happens that a mask drops down and has to be put back, this being a tricky operation which takes time even though time is limited, especially when the operation is performed immediately before boarding.
It is an object of he present invention to provide boxes that make checking easier. To this end there is provided a box, the catch of which is associated with means which are rendered active by command, for example in response to a second pneumatic pressure (lower than a first pressure which disarms the catches when the catches are disarmed by applying a pneumatic pressure to the mask supply pipe), or via an electrical route, the said means then limiting the opening of the box to a partially opened position which prevents the mask or masks from dropping out when the catch is subsequently disarmed.
In an embodiment, said means consist of a plunger carried by the door, urged by return means into a position in which it is inactive and moved pneumatically into a position in which it cooperates with means carried by a housing of the box so as to limit the opening of the door when this plunger is moved by applying the second pressure. The door catch may be a simple magnet-ferromagnetic component assembly, the force of attraction of which is overcome by a push-rod when the latter is subjected to a breathable-gas pressure higher than a determined threshold.
The invention also has a second aspect, which can advantageously be used with the first, but which may be used independently thereof, takes account of the fact that the oxygen supply available on board an aircraft is limited. Following depressurization at high altitude, the masks drop down, the passengers are permanently supplied as soon as they open the individual supply tap to the mask by pulling on a cord to which the mask is attached, and the crew begins a descent then generally cuts off the oxygen supply once the aircraft has returned to about 10,000 feet or 3000 metres.
However, there is then the problem of maintaining an oxygen supply to those of the passengers who have not coped well with the depressurization or whose state of health so demands. The use of portable oxygen cylinders, which are bulky and heavy, provides only a rather unsatisfactory solution. Maintaining the supply by asking the cabin crew to shut off all the oxygen inlet taps of the masks other than those to which a supply needs to be maintained takes a great deal of time.
The invention also sets out to provide a masks box and an emergency oxygen supply device to address the above difficulties. To this end there is provided a box comprising, in addition to the tubes supplying the masks receiving the oxygen through a valve that opens automatically in the event that a supply pressure at least equal to a first value p1 is provided via an inlet pipe, an oxygen tapping equipped with a valve that opens automatically for as long as the pressure in the pipe exceeds a second value p3, less than p1 and possibly less than p2.
The pressures p1 and p3 may, for example, lie respectively between 3 and 4 bar and between 2 and 2.5 bar with respect to the pressure in the cabin. When the box is fitted with a catch allowing its opening to be limited, the pressure p3 will be chosen to be lower than p2. The following levels are, for example, possible:
p1: 350 kPa
p2: 240 kPa
p3: 200 kPa
The above characteristics, together with others, will become better apparent from reading the description which follows of some particular embodiments which are given by way of non-limiting examples. The description refers to the accompanying drawings.

Breathing masks box for emergency equipment


A structure of direct type backlight module with high uniform emitting light explores a design of lenticular lens of diffusing plate. The lenticular lens is against the central location of light source, where the light of lamp is scattered and the curvature of said lenticular lens far away light source is enlarged, then to reduce the scatter effect and achieve uniformity. The other lenticular lens also can be designed for light location and distance. Each lenticular lens is against light location, and incident light can be reflected through the angle of microstructure surface at the entrance facet, but farther location can be resulted in total refraction due to large inclined angle, and diminishing the transmission light of light source then influencing the uniformity, finally reducing total reflection of wide angle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure of direct type backlight module with high uniform emitting light, which emphasizes on a direct type backlight module with high efficiency of light diffusion and transmission and low-cost diffusing plate.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the increment of HDTV, DVD player and Digital TV requirement, consumers are more and more concerned about the image quality of television. Besides, some defects of conventional CRT TV are high power consumption, high radiation, blinking, and heavy weight. Therefore, new generation display device having high solution in different monitors competition during these years has gradually placed CRT. Liquid crystal display with potential display technology has been always highly concerned for new generation display. The manufacturers in Japan, Taiwan and Korean are devoted into LCD technology research and adopting large-scale production equipment, therefore, the quality of LCD has been continuously improved and marketing price is getting down which bring the requirement of LCD and more criteria on related technology. The image of liquid crystal monitor is controlled by electric fields power, but liquid crystal panel itself can not emit light and provides monitor light through backlight module. Generally speaking, LCD has two different kinds of backlight source that are side type and direct type. Side type backlight source cannot provide high brightness and uniform light on the application of large-size liquid crystal monitors, due to being influenced by lamp tubes and light transmission distance. On the contrary, direct type backlight can achieve the criteria of large-size liquid crystal monitor through increasing lamp tubes and diffusion device design. Besides, light guide plate of side type backlight module will increase thickness while size is enlarged to achieve uniform distribution of light. According to the calculation, the weight of light guide plate whose average brightness 5000 cd/m2 for 21″ is over 2 kilogram. The trend of present monitor is towards to light weight, the weight of light guide plate becomes a significant criterion. Using light diffusing plate can reduce in a range of from 60 to 80% weight that has obvious advantage for the application of large-size backlight module.
Light diffusing plate of direct type backlight module replacing light guide plate of side type is an important component to have scattering and uniformity light. The primary function of "Light diffusing plate" is to scatter light, such as light box, light signboard, even the light box which using for X-ray examination in the hospital, that all use the similar diffusing plate to scatter the light uniformly. That causes in good effect on light scattering. Although the diffusion efficiency of early diffusing plate fits the requirement, the light transmission ratio and uniformity are still not good for display application, whose defect is the insufficient brightness. Generally speaking, the transmission rate of the whole light field of these diffusing plates are in a range of from 30 to 50% that has already not satisfied the consumer's requirement, under the trend of high brightness of display. Japanese diffusing plate manufacturers devote to solve these defects recently, by adding different categories of light dispersant and strictly controlling the process, the light transmission efficiency and uniformity has been successfully improved. Although transmission rate has increased in a range of from 50 to 70%, the transmission rate is not satisfied by the customers as high criteria product. On the other hand, in order to achieve the design of thinner monitor product, backlight module has to develop towards to lightweight and thin, therefore, the higher diffusion efficiency is required. But much light diffusion dispersant has been used for diffusing plate and causes in reducing transmission rate. In brief, high diffusion and transmission rate for the present diffusing plate are hardly presented at the same time. There is only way to satisfy the requirements of high brightness and diffusion is to modify the structure of diffusing plate or backlight module. The manufacturers of LCD TV or backlight module adopt a method that is to use a diffusing plate with higher transmission rate. The vestige of CCFL can not be uniformed by diffusing plate, therefore, 1 to 2 diffuser put at the emitting facet of diffusing plate to achieve the effect of light scattering again which resulted in a range of from 5 to 10% light energy loss, then accommodating to prism sheet to bring light and counterbalance the loss. Finally, the purpose of thin and lightweight backlight module can be implemented but resulted in huge increment of cost and lessening the visible angle of TV.
Liquid Crystal Display itself cannot emit light and requires backlight module to provide light source for monitor. Diffusing plate is an important component of backlight module for light scattering. The function of diffusing plate is to scatter light uniformly emitting from CCFL to provide stable and uniform light source for liquid crystal panel. Moreover, the brightness and quality of LCD are very related to the efficiency of light source. In order to increase the effect of light scattering, the light dispersant is added into said diffusing plate, but the price of light dispersant is very expensive.
Therefore, to propose a structure of direct type backlight module with high uniform emitting light, according to the aforementioned problems, which enable to solve the defects of using much, light dispersant for diffusing plate and to increase light diffusion and transmission and cost effectively. Based on the inventor engaging on the research and develop and sales experiences for the related products for many years, the inventor finally proposes a method to solve the aforementioned problems for a structure of direct type backlight module with high uniform emitting light.

Structure of direct type backlight module with high uniform emitting light


A default value of transmission input speed in a motor vehicle powertrain having an automatic-shift multi-gear ratio power transmission is continuously updated based on a measured value of the input speed and other reliable speed data including transmission output speed and engine speed. The default value is substituted for the measured input speed when a malfunction of the input speed sensor is detected, and transitions back to the measured input speed when the input speed sensor malfunction is no longer present.

Reliable measurement or estimation of various parameters of a motor vehicle powertrain is essential to proper electronic control of the powertrain components. For example, automatic shifting of a multi-gear ratio power transmission requires a reliable measure or estimation of the transmission input speed. While the essential parameters are often measured with dedicated sensors, the control must include provisions for operation of the powertrain components in the event of sensor malfunctions. For example, if a transmission input speed sensor malfunctions during operation of the vehicle, the powertrain controller can respond by reverting to a "limp-home" control mode in which the transmission only operates in a specified gear ratio. Alternatively, it may be possible for the powertrain controller to reliably determine a default value for the transmission input speed based on other sensor data and provide normal or near-normal control of the transmission based on the default value. For example, the transmission input speed may be calculated based on measured vehicle speed or on measured transmission output speed and gear ratio if gear shifting is not in progress. However, it can be difficult to determine if the measured vehicle or transmission output speed signals are reliable, and knowledge of the transmission input speed is usually required during gear shifting for purposes of shift quality control. Accordingly, what is needed is a method of determining a reliable and continuously available default value of transmission input speed for use in powertrain control in the event of one or more speed sensor malfunctions.

Method of determining a default transmission input speed


There is provided in accordance with the present invention a spin pack for filaments that contains one or more electroformed plates. The invention additionally provides a process for producing a plate for a spin pack, which process has the step of electroforming the plate.

The present invention is related to a spin pack. More specifically, the present invention is related to a spin pack containing one or more electroformed plates.
Spin packs for manufacturing fiber from melt-process or solution-processed polymers are well known in the art. A monocomponent fiber spin pack receives a flowably processed stream of a polymer or a blend of polymers and distributes the polymer stream to the spin holes to form a multitude of filaments. A multicomponent conjugate fiber spin pack contains a more complicated distribution system that separately distributes the streams of the component polymers in predetermined positions into the spinning holes to form unitary filaments from each hole.
In general, a spin pack is designed to have a number of modular sections or plates such that the spin pack can be easily cleaned and each plate can be replaced with a new or different plate. Conventionally, the sections or plates of a spin pack are metal articles that are individually precision milled or cut from a metal block to have various channels and bores. Consequently, the production of a spin pack is highly laborious and costly, and it is highly laborious and difficult to produce exact duplicates of a spin pack or plates of a spin pack.
Producing a spin pack for multicomponent conjugate filaments exacerbates the cost and reproducibility problem since a conjugate filament spin pack requires a complicated distribution design that allows precise distribution of different streams of flowably processed polymer compositions throughout the spin pack without allowing intermixing of the streams.
There have been attempts to find less costly methods for producing spin pack plates. One example of such attempts uses a photo-chemical etching process to produce plates for a spin pack. Although the cost of producing etched plates is relatively lower than milled plates, a chemical etching process is not as accurate as a milling process, and thus, the etching production process does not eliminate the reproducibility problem.
There remains a need for a spin pack production process that is less costly and yet highly precise and reproducible.


A sheet harness apparatus for retaining and supporting a person on top of a bed on their back, where the bed includes a head of the bed and a foot of the bed, a mattress, means for elevating the head of the bed relative to the foot of the bed and thereby positioning the mattress at an incline, and bed parts including a bed spring and a bed frame, the sheet harness apparatus including a sheet having a sheet head end and a sheet foot end and a sheet upper surface and a sheet lower surface, for fitting onto a mattress; a harness fastened to the sheet; and at least one sheet anchor strap with a strap connected end fastened to the sheet and a strap anchoring end having a strap anchoring fastener, for wrapping around a part of a bed at the head of the bed and fastening to itself, so that the strap anchoring end forms a loop around a part of the bed and thereby prevents the sheet from sliding toward the foot of the bed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the fields of medical and hospital equipment. More specifically the present invention relates to a sheet harness apparatus for retaining and supporting a person on top of a bed on their back, and preferably at the center of the bed, whether the mattress is positioned horizontally or on an incline, for safely orienting and positioning a person such as an infant having SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), GURDS, or a cold, who cannot lie on his or her stomach. The apparatus can support and secure adults as well, such as invalids and hospitalized patients lying on a mattress raised to an inclined angle to help them eat and swallow food.
The apparatus includes a waist harness such as a diaper or a pair of shorts fastened to a fitted sheet having a sheet head end and a sheet foot end for fitting onto a mattress, and at least one sheet anchor strap with a strap connected end fastened to the sheet head end and with a strap anchoring end having a strap anchoring fastener for wrapping around a part of a bed at the head of the bed such as the bed springs or bed frame and fastening to itself, so that the strap anchoring end forms a loop around a part of the bed and thereby prevents the fitted sheet from sliding toward the foot of the bed, such as when the mattress head end or head of the bed is raised to place the mattress at an incline. The waist harness preferably is fastened to the center of the fitted sheet upper surface and preferably with sewn stitches. The strap anchoring fastener alternatively fastens to part of the bed itself, or to any other object at or adjacent to the head of the bed. Two spaced apart and parallel sheet anchor straps preferably are provided and both fastened to the sheet head end for wrapping around a part or parts of the bed so that support at the sheet head end is more broadly distributed. The sheet anchor strap or straps preferably are fastened with sewn stitches to the sheet lower surface, near the center of the fitted sheet. Each strap anchoring fastener preferably includes mating hook and loop fastener patches which are positioned to meet and engage when the anchoring strap is looped around part of a bed.
The waist harness preferably takes the form of a diaper which, for an adult includes diaper fasteners in the form of sets of tie ports, each tie port being fitted with a grommet, and tie strips for fitting through registering tie ports. For a child, lighter and easier to operate fasteners such as snap fasteners are substituted for the tie ports and tie strips. A fly preferably is provided in the adult diaper, so that the fly provides access to the groin and a catheter can be passed through the fly.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have long been devices and assemblies for securing a person reclined on a support surface such as a mattress or reflux wedge. Elkin, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,251,846, issued on Aug. 7, 2007, discloses a harness for securing an infant to a reflux wedge, including a crotch support and straps extending over the top of the reflux wedge and secured to back of the reflux wedge.
LaValle, U.S. Pat. No. 6,708,356, issued on Mar. 23, 2004, teaches a bedding article including a top panel secured to a bottom panel with fasteners to define openings for receiving the legs and lower torso of a baby. Fasteners extend radially from the periphery of the bottom panel to releasibly secure the bottom panel to a sleeping surface.
Hillstead, U.S. Pat. No. 6,834,405, issued on Dec. 28, 2004, reveals a mechanism for securing an infant in the supine position, including a supporting pad having an infant retaining harness at its center and laterally extending straps wrapping around the sides of a mattress.
McConnell, U.S. Pat. No. 5,746,219, issued on May 5, 1998, discloses an infant sleep positioning device including a child harness and laterally extending straps for engaging upright side posts of a crib.
De Bell Daniel, U.S. Pat. No. 5,233,714, issued on Aug. 10, 1993, teaches an infant restraining device including an infant supporting structure with portions which wrap around the sides of a mattress.
McGrath-Saleh, U.S. Pat. No. 4,802,244, issued on Feb. 7, 1989, discloses a premature infant bedding construction including a bedding to receive a prone body of an infant and a U-shaped retainer.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a sheet harness apparatus which comfortably and yet securely secures a person within a harness at the center of a mattress when the mattress is positioned at an incline, the harness being secured with straps extending over the head of the mattress to an anchoring structure such as the frame of a bed.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a sheet harness apparatus in which the harness is secured to the center of a fitted sheet so that the harness remains centered on the mattress.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide such a sheet harness apparatus which optionally includes a fly to pass a catheter from a patient.
It is finally an object of the present invention to provide such a sheet harness apparatus which is easy to use, can be laundered, and is relatively inexpensive to manufacture.


Methods, systems, apparatus and articles of manufacture for secure recoverable offline storage of a shared secret are provided herein. A method includes establishing a connection with a cryptographic device to access a first item of encrypted information maintained by the cryptographic device, wherein the first item of encrypted information comprises an item of cryptographic information encrypted with a first item of key information, decrypting the first item of encrypted information with a second item of key information to retrieve the item of cryptographic information, and encrypting the item of cryptographic information with a third item of key information to create a second item of encrypted information, wherein the third item of key information is associated with the cryptographic device.

In many situations, two (or more) systems, separate from each other, need to perform an operation or a form of processing using a shared secret. The shared secret can, by way of example, have been determined via a key agreement protocol. To protect the secret from being compromised, it is advantageous not to save a key associated with the secret to system storage, but rather, to maintain the key in system memory. Challenges arise, however, if either of the two (or more) system crashes or exits. In such a scenario, the key will be lost.
Nonetheless, existing storage security approaches include storing a shared secret on a storage disk. However, as noted, in such approaches, an attacker can retrieve the secret value from the storage. Additional existing approaches include encrypting a shared secret with a symmetric key and saving the shared secret with the symmetric key on a storage disk. However, in such approaches, if the storage is compromised, then both the encrypted secret and the key to decrypt that secret, as a result of being stored on the same storage, are vulnerable.
Accordingly, a need exists for storing a shared secret so that in the case of system failure and/or exit or restart, the secret can be recovered without an attacker being able to recover the key from storage media.

Secure recoverable offline storage of a shared secret


A method of making an intermetallic-bonded ceramic composite involves combining a particulate brittle intermetallic precursor with a particulate reactant metal and a particulate ceramic to form a mixture and heating the mixture in a non-oxidizing atmosphere at a sufficient temperature and for a sufficient time to react the brittle intermetallic precursor and the reactant metal to form a ductile intermetallic and sinter the mixture to form a ductile intermetallic-bonded ceramic composite.

Conventional methods of making ductile intermetallic-bonded ceramic composites involve hot-pressing of powder mixtures in graphite dies. Complex shaped articles cannot generally be made via such methods because of the axial nature thereof.
For such materials to become viable commercial products, development of sintering techniques not involving the application of mechanical pressure was required. A method was developed to sinter these types of composites to densities to about 90% theoretical density (T.D.) without the application of mechanical pressure.
Attempts to sinter intermetallic-bonded ceramic composites utilizing the same types of powders used for the hot-pressing of these materials were unsuccessful. The relative particle size of the Ni.sub.3 Al powders was significantly larger than the ceramic powders. In addition, the Ni.sub.3 Al powders employed were pre-alloyed with boron and were characterized by ductility and high strength. Normally, powder mixtures are dispersed by milling together, however, because of the large size difference and the inherent ductility of the Ni.sub.3 Al powders, milling was not sufficiently effective in producing a homogeneous mixture. The poor densification (<90% T. D.) is attributed to the insubstantial wetting behavior between the large Ni.sub.3 Al particles and the smaller WC and TiC. In addition, the sintered composites revealed large pores believed to be due to the void left by the original Ni.sub.3 Al particle after it was `wicked` into the surrounding carbide particles.
For further information, please refer to the following:
1. U.S. Pat. No. 4,762,558 issued to German, et al. teaches the use of elemental Ni and Al powders in a reaction sintering method of making Ni.sub.3 Al at low temperatures (<1000.degree. C.). No additions of ceramic powders are used; Ni.sub.3 Al content is 100%.
2. U.S. Pat. No. 4,919,718 issued to Tiegs, et al. teaches the use of large-particle-size (>20 .mu.m) pre-alloyed ductile Ni.sub.3 Al powders to make composites that are densified by hot-pressing. The content of Ni.sub.3 Al ranges from 5-20 wt. %.
3. U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,758 issued to Buljan, et al. teaches the use of elemental Ni and Al powders with Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 --TiC mixtures that are densified by hot-pressing. The content of Ni.sub.3 Al ranges from 5-20 wt. %.
4. Mei, et al, "Investigation of Ni.sub.3 Al-Matrix Composites Strengthened by TiC", J. Mater. Res., Vol. 8, No. 11, Mater. res, Soc. (1993) teaches the use of an in-situ reaction of Ni, Al, C and Ti powders to produce materials with 35 wt. % (45 vol. %) TiC in a Ni.sub.3 Al matrix (55 vol. %).

Method of making sintered ductile intermetallic-bonded ceramic composites

Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corporation


A truck topper having a pair of sidewalls in parallel spaced relation and adapted to be mounted to the bed of a truck at one end and having grooves at an opposite end. The grooves receive a retractable roof such that when attached to a retraction assembly the roof will retract to open the top of the truck topper.

The present invention relates to a truck topper and more specifically to a truck topper having a retractable roof.
Truck toppers are devices which are adapted for placement on the bed of a standard pickup truck to thereby enclose the pickup truck bed. A standard truck topper has a front end, a rear end, a roof, and side walls. Usually a door is placed in the rear end of the truck topper to allow access to the contents of the pickup bed.
A problem in the art exists in that when items that are taller than the truck topper are placed into the bed of a pickup truck, the truck topper must be removed which is time consuming and physically difficult for one person. To solve this problem, devices having complicated canopy systems with retractable canopies allow the canopy to be retracted for the loading of an item in the truck that is taller than the canopy.
For example, one device has an arcuate bow that supports a canopy that can be moved from an open position to a closed position of the container of a truck. A disadvantage is that the cover moves as a single unit eliminating the structural support of the sidewalls of the topper for securing a load during transport.
In addition, further problems exist with toppers having a retractable roof portion. As one example, without added support, the topper will expand and narrow in response to wind forces during transport. When the topper is not maintained in a square/plum position, it becomes difficult to open and close the retractable roof portion. Also, by using a retractable roof portion, sealing the interior compartment from rain and moisture presents challenges. Current canopies do not effectively solve this problem.
Accordingly, a need exists in the art for a topper for a truck having a roof portion that is independently retractable from the side portions.
Therefore, it is a principle object of the present invention to provide a truck topper that has a retractable roof to allow for easy storage and transport of items taller than the sides of the truck topper.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a truck topper having a roof portion that is retracted by a retraction assembly that is manual or automatic.
Another object of the invention is to provide a truck topper that will accommodate tall loads and provide structural support during transport.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a truck topper that has a retractable roof that is resilient to the elements.
Still a further object of the present invention is to provide support for a topper to stabilize the topper against wind forces.
One other object of the present invention is to provide sealing and drainage elements to protect the inside compartment from moisture and rain.
These and other objects, features, or advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the specification and claims.


A roof curb is shipped in a disassembled state to an installer who assembles, sizes, locates and configures the curb to accommodate slope on any roof without welding or metal cutting. The curb includes an aluminum walls, each having a channel for receiving the bottom edge of a board, which may be taper cut according to the pitch of the roof to provide a level surface for supporting an appliance. Methods of making and installing the roof curb also are disclosed.

Metal buildings having metal roofing have become popular for commercial, industrial and warehousing uses. These buildings often require roof openings for skylights, fans, air conditioning units and the like. The installation of such equipment requires a roof curb for support.
Traditionally, roof curbs have been designed specifically and custom made to provide a relatively horizontal mounting structure for a particular rooftop appliance given the shape and pitch of a particular roof. Designing and building these traditional roof curbs, often formed from a singular piece of metal to uniquely accommodate a particular roof pitch, has been a laborious and time consuming task for roof curb manufacturers and rooftop appliance installers. Further, because these roof curbs are installed in a metal roof system, the actual opening may vary with respect to the roof corrugations, seams or ribs, which may be ascertainable only shortly before installation. This untimely design-and-build practice delays appliance installation.
Manufacturers developed standardized roof curbs to help limit installation delays. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,559,753, issued Dec. 24, 1985, to Ralph H. Brueske, for Method of Installing a Prefabricated Curb Unit to a Standing Seam Roof, which describes a method of installing a metal roof curb in which the rims of the curbs are pre-welded to a roof panel, and the curb containing-panel is attached to a large opening cut into the roof. However, this method requires cutting a hole in the roof that is larger than the opening for the equipment that may be susceptible to leakage.
Prefabricated roof curbs tend to be quite large, thus have been difficult to ship in a cost effective and timely fashion, let alone by traditional rapid delivery methods. Consequently, roof curb manufacturers have had to ship their products by truck, which is slower and more expensive.
Traditional roof curbs include four coated steel curb walls positioned to define an open rectangular frame joined by factory welding at the corners. Because welding burns off the corrosion resistant coating of the steel, the manufacturer or installer must provide an additional coating of rust inhibitor paint to keep the roof curb from rusting when installed on the roof. Routine rust inhibitor paint coatings are required to protect the roof curb throughout the life of the product. Mechanical attachment, such as with threaded fasteners, may secure the corners without welding. However, on-site sizing and drilling of traditional roof curb panels creates exposure to corrosive weathering.
What is needed is a standardized, corrosion-resistant roof curb that can be shipped in a disassembled state, which an installer may assemble, size, locate and configure to provide an appropriate roof slope on any roof without welding.


Collecting debug information includes facilitating a communication session for an endpoint operated by a user. One or more user-driven conditions are monitored, where a user-driven condition results from an action by the user. Data is gathered during the monitoring. Whether the communication session is satisfactory or unsatisfactory is determined from the one or more user-driven conditions. Monitoring is discontinued if the communication session is satisfactory, and debug information is generated from the gathered data if the communication session is unsatisfactory.

Debug information may be collected in order to detect and analyze problems in a communication system. According to some known techniques for collecting debug information, debug information is collected for at least nearly all communication sessions. These known techniques, however, require large amounts of memory and generally decrease performance. Moreover, the majority of the collected data typically is not related to a problem.
According to other known techniques for collecting debug information, debug information is collected for a call after a problem with the call has been detected. These known techniques, however, typically require the use of a system administrator or custom support engineer to initiate the collection. Moreover, informative debug information may occur before the problem is detected and thus before the information is collected.

Collecting debug information according to user-driven conditions


A new type of multi-chopper for cutting strands or ribbon shaped material such as strands of glass fibers, and a method of using this chopper, is disclosed. The chopper has at least two chopper assemblies on a rotating frame. When one chopper assembly needs repair, the frame is rotated which brings a rebuilt or repaired chopper assembly into operating position quickly and also brings the assembly needing repair into a position where it can be worked on while the other chopper is operating resulting in much reduced downtime. The frame of the chopper can rotate around a vertical or horizontal line, or around a line passing through two opposite corners of a frame.

The present invention pertains to an apparatus for cutting strands such as mineral fiber like fiber glass, synthetic fibers like polyester or polyethylene and natural fibers like hemp and cotton, or for cutting ribbon like materials, and the method of using the apparatus, particularly to cut glass fiber continuously at high speed. The apparatus is called a multi-chopper because it has at least two chopper assemblies and is a vast improvement over the choppers used heretofore in that it greatly reduces downtime caused by chopper malfunctions or normal wear of the chopper assembly parts.
In processes of making chopped fiber of various kinds, a chopper receives continuously one or more strands made up of a plurality of fibers and chops the strand(s) into short lengths generally ranging from about 1/8th inch to 3 or more inches long. The strand(s) are often moving very fast through the chopper, typically at several thousand feet per minute. One example of such a process is the process of making chopped glass fiber as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,508,461, 3,771,701, 3,815,461, 3,869,268, 4,175,939, 4,249,441, 4,347,071, 4,373,650, 4,398,934, 4,411,180, 4,551,160, 4,576,621, and 4,840,755, which references are incorporated herein by reference. As time progresses blade edges and a backup roll on the chopper deteriorate to the point that the chopper is not cutting cleanly and "double cuts" or incomplete cuts are produced, i. e. one or more individual fibers are not cut leaving the chopped pieces linked together with one or more fibers. Since incomplete cuts are unacceptable, just prior to the elapsed time where incomplete cuts can no longer be avoided or where other factors such as vibration become serious, the chopper is shut down and the old backup roll and/or old blade roll are removed and replaced with rebuilt or new backup and/or blade rolls. This procedure requires at least 5-8 minutes and frequently more time, especially when it is necessary to replace another part on the chopper.
While the chopper is shut down for rebuild or repair, the fiber continues to issue from the fiberizing bushings on the line serviced by the chopper and must be sent to the basement as scrap, since it is impractical to stop the bushings from fiberizing. Also, the thermal balance on the fiberizing tips of the bushings are impacted negatively when the chopper is shut down because less external air is drawn into the tip area by the slow moving fibers as compared to when the chopper is pulling the fibers at thousands of feet per minute. This condition, it is believed, causes the thermal equilibrium of the bushing to be disturbed, and causes the glass exiting the tips to change temperature. If a chopper is down for more than a few minutes, this will cause the strand to break out (caused by fibers breaking) numerous times for many minutes after the chopper is back on line. This condition is sometimes referred to as "false starts" and this undesirable situation results in a significant reduction in fiberizing efficiency, i.e. a percentage obtained by dividing the weight of good fiber produced in a given period of time by the weight of molten glass that exited the bushings in the same period of time. Overheated bushings caused by chopper down times of 5 minutes or more can reduce fiber efficiency significantly for 10-20 minutes or more after the chopper is back on line. Also, while the bushings are "hanging", i.e. not fiberizing at high strand speed, such as when the strands are not being pulled at a speed of at least 1000 feet/minute by the chopper, etc., the melt rate of the bushings that are "hanging" drops significantly which changes the pull rate on the melter and upsets the equilibrium of the melter reducing glass quality and fiberizing efficiency.
The chopper has to be rebuilt on a regular basis and the time between rebuilds will vary depending on the diameter of the fiber being chopped, the type of chemical sizing on the surface of the fiber (most contain lubricants that complicate chopping), the condition of the chopper, the speed of chopping, and the quality of the lowest quality portion of the lowest quality blade edge or backup roll. Typical life times of blade rolls/backup rolls are in the range of 6-36 hours, depending on the type of fiber being chopped as explained above. A chopper typically services about 8-15 bushings, each putting out 100 or more pounds of fiber per hour, 24 hours per day and 7 days per week and a typical operation will have 8-20 choppers operating. Chopper down time typically costs at least ten dollars per minute per chopper. It can be readily seen that substantially reducing the down time of the choppers during rebuilds or repair will have a substantial positive financial impact on the operation.
This problem of substantial downtime of fiberization due to rebuilds of the choppers has persisted for many years in spite of the very substantial financial incentive to reduce or eliminate the problem.

Chopper for cutting fiber continuously, and method


A method, comprising: generating a macro P-wave velocity model, including resolution of residual moveout errors, using reflection tomography from a seismic data set; generating a diffraction response from the macro P-wave velocity model for a given common image gather location therein assuming a locally laterally invariant model; converting the generated diffraction response for the given common image gather location to a migrated reflection response to yield a modeled data set; comparing the modeled data set to the given common image point from the seismic data set; updating the macro P-wave velocity model based on the result of the comparison; and iterating the diffraction response generation, the diffraction response conversion, comparison, and update until the modeled data set converges to the common image gathers. This method is an extension of the 1D waveform inversion where the correct source/receiver positions are determined in a locally laterally invariant medium by backprojecting raypaths from each image point using the local dip at that image point.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to seismic surveying and, more particularly, to a technique for use in analyzing the resultant information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Seismic exploration is conducted both on land and in water. In both environments, exploration involves surveying subterranean geological formations for hydrocarbon deposits. A survey typically involves deploying acoustic source(s) and acoustic sensors at predetermined locations. The sources impart acoustic waves into the geological formations. Features of the geological formation reflect the acoustic waves to the sensors. The sensors receive the reflected waves, which are detected, conditioned, and processed to generate seismic data. Analysis of the seismic data can then indicate probable locations of the hydrocarbon deposits.
One technique for analyzing the seismic data is called amplitude variation with offset ("AVO"). AVO is a variation in seismic reflection amplitude with change in distance between a source and a receiver that indicates differences in lithology and fluid content in rocks above and below the reflector. AVO analysis is a technique by which geophysicists attempt to determine characteristics of the geological formation such as thickness, porosity, density, velocity, lithology and fluid content of rocks. Successful AVO analysis employs certain well-known techniques for processing seismic data and seismic modeling of the seismic data to determine rock properties with a known fluid content. With that knowledge, it is possible to model other types of fluid content.
Seismic modeling is the comparison, simulation or representation of seismic data to define the limits of seismic resolution, assess the ambiguity of interpretation or make predictions. Generation of a synthetic, or modeled, seismogram from a well log and comparing the synthetic, or modeled trace, with seismic data is a common direct modeling procedure. Generating a set of pseudologs, or synthetic data, from seismic data is the process known as seismic inversion, a type of indirect modeling. Models can be developed to address problems of structure and stratigraphy prior to acquisition of seismic data and during the interpretation of the data. One type of inversion is pre-stack waveform inversion ("PSWI").
The interest shown by exploration seismologists in amplitude-variation-with-offset ("AVO") analysis for the direct detection of hydrocarbons from seismic data has been growing over the past few years. Reflection records of prestack seismic data contain valuable amplitude information that can be related to the subsurface lithology. With the increasing popularity of AVO, considerable work has also been carried out on the AVO inversion, and the fundamental problem of non-uniqueness associated with such an inversion is now well recognized. See, e.g., Hampson, D., "AVO Inversion, Theory, and Practice", 10 The Leading Edge, 39-42 (1991); Sen, M. K., and Stoffa, P. L., "Genetic Inversion of AVO", 11 The Leading Edge,"27-29 (1992).
Thus, both AVO and PSWI have been used for a number of years. Walden, AT., "Making AVO Sections More Robust", 39 Geophysical Prospecting, 915-942 (1991), described a method for angle decomposition using a zero dip assumption as may be used in AVO. Mallick, S., "Model-Based Inversion of Amplitude-Variation-With-Offset Data Using a Genetic Algorithm," 60 Geophysics, 939-954 (1995) ("Subhashis") presented a method for PSWI, also with the assumption of zero reflector dip.
The pre-stack waveform inversion method described by Subhashis assumes that the input common image gathers are migrated with the correct velocity, but does not describe a method for determining the correct velocity field. More precisely, the PSWI technique of Subhashis is a genetic algorithm which attempts to match observed pre-stack seismic data by forward modeling using a trial velocity field. This trial velocity field, which must be laterally invariant, is perturbed until the modeled data matches the observed data as closely as possible. The velocity field which yields the optimum match is the output from the inversion. The input data is normally a pre-stack time migrated ("PSTM") gather, and the inversion is independent for each gather. The method is often referred to as a 1D ("one-dimensional") inversion which is not strictly true since the input to the process is 3D PST1M gathers. A more accurate term for the inversion would be zero dip, since the forward modeling uses zero for the reflector dip.
The present invention is directed to resolving, or at least reducing, one or all of the problems mentioned above.


During execution of a program, a code patching component may insert a redirection patch into a native-code representation of the program. The code patching component may identify a patch area in the native-code representation, copy existing code from the patch area to another location for subsequent emulation by a trap handler, determine the number of instructions and type of native-code elements within the patch area, and replace native-code elements in the patch area with native-code elements representing a jump type instruction and a target address argument for the jump type instruction (directly or indirectly indicating the location of new code that replaces the code in the patch area). The target address argument may be determined by the code patching component based on the program's characteristics, and may include a collection of elements representing existing code, trap type instructions, NOP type instructions, or arbitrary values.

Software programs sometimes need to be patched (e.g., to correct an error or implement a new feature) after they have been released and are in use. For example, in systems in which functions, portions of functions or other code segments have been compiled into binary code representations of these functions or code segments, the compiled code sometimes need to be replaced with new code that is compatible with the old code and its data structures. A code patching operation sometimes includes the insertion of code (sometimes referred to as a redirection patch) that redirects execution from one sequence of instructions to another. Some existing techniques for performing binary patching require that all running threads of an executing program are halted while such a code patching operation is performed, e.g., in order to ensure that they are not affected by the patching.
In addition, prior to performing a code patching operation, some existing binary patching techniques must analyze the instruction stream as well as various call stacks and/or other runtime data structures in order to determine whether a code patching operation can be performed without breaking the program being patched. For example, the code patching operation may not be able to be performed if it cannot be determined that there are no entry points within the code being patched for which a return or jump to that entry point prior to completing the patch operation or following the completion of the patch operation will result in incorrect or invalid behavior (e.g., due to an intermediate state that includes an invalid combination of instructions and/or arguments). Some instruction set architectures include instructions of variable lengths, meaning that it may not even be clear where all of the instruction boundaries (and, thus the entry points) in the program being patched are located, which can make such an analysis even more difficult, time consuming, and (in some cases) prone to error.
While embodiments are described herein by way of example for several embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments are not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit embodiments to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word "may" is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words "include," "including," and "includes" mean including, but not limited to.

Runtime patching of native-code programs


Avermectin compounds are glycosylated at the 4',13- Or 14a-positions by adding the avermectin compounds to the fermentation medium of a novel strain of Streptomyces avermitilis. The 13-hydroxy and 14a-hydroxy methyl groups of the avermectin compound are glycosylated with a glycosyl moiety, specifically an oleandrose group. The new strain offers the added advantage of not producing any C5-O-methylation products. The compounds are potent anthelmintic and antiparasite agents, and compositions for such uses are also disclosed.

Avermectin compounds are natural products produced by the fermentation of Streptomyces avermitilis as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,519 to Albers-Schonberg et al. The avermectin compounds have a natural .alpha.-L-oleandrosyl-.alpha.-L-oleandrosyloxy group at the 13-position. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,203,976 to Fischer et al certain synthetic procedures are disclosed for glycosylating various hydroxy groups or the avermectin molecule, including the 4"-hydroxy of the avermectin disaccharide group but not the 14a-position.

Strain of streptomyces avermitilis capable of glycosylating avermectin compounds at the 13- and 14A positions


The inkjet recording apparatus includes a conveyance belt, a conveyance plate, a suction unit, an inkjet head, and a cleaning unit. The conveyance belt has a plurality of through holes. The conveyance plate includes a plurality of through holes formed in bottom portions of the plurality of recessed portions. The suction unit is configured to suck the sheet to the conveyance belt. The inkjet head includes a head main body and a head end portion adjacent to the head main body, and faces an upper surface of the conveyance plate via the conveyance belt. The cleaning unit removes ink adhering to a lower surface of the head main body. A depth of the recessed portion in a facing region facing the head end portion of the conveyance plate is shallower than a depth of the recessed portion in a region other than the facing region.

There is known an inkjet recording apparatus in which a sheet is sucked and conveyed by a conveyance belt, and ink is discharged onto the sheet from a line type inkjet head including a plurality of nozzles arranged in a direction intersecting with a conveyance direction. The conveyance belt is provided with a plurality of through holes, and the sheet is sucked by absorption of air from the through holes. In this method, when ink adheres to the vicinity of the nozzles, there is a concern that the discharge direction and the discharge amount of the ink may change. Therefore, a function of cleaning the lower surface of the inkjet head using a cleaning member having flexibility has been proposed.
For example, it has been proposed that a lower surface of an end portion (hereinafter, referred to as a head end portion) of the inkjet head in a direction intersecting with the conveyance direction is inclined so as to become higher as a distance from a center of the inkjet head increases, thereby making recovery of deflection of the cleaning member gentle and suppressing scattering of ink. It has been proposed to supply a cleaning liquid to the cleaning member through the holes provided on the lower surface of the head end portion.


A method and system for detecting a person falling, confirming a potential fall, and taking action to mitigate the effects of a fall.

People in old age homes, care facilities, hospitals, or who are living alone are at greater risk when it comes to falling. Not only are the elderly and infirm more likely to fall, but the consequences are also more severe, especially when there is no one around to provide help in a timeous manner.
Wearable fall detectors, like the FitBit wristwatch and Life Alert pendant have limited accuracy in identifying when a user has fallen. In many instances, the fall may be a gradual lowering to the ground as a user feels dizzy or is starting to pass out. In these situations, accelerometer-based devices are extremely unreliable in detecting falls. Also, insofar as a user has passed out, they may not be in a position to notify emergency response teams or family members to alert them that there is an emergency. Pendants on a lanyard have also been known to become a choking hazard.
Studies have also shown that many users take their wearables off at night when they go to bed, thus leaving them exposed if they have to get up in the middle of the night or if they forget to put the wearable device back on again the next morning.
The present invention seeks to address these shortcomings.

Fall validation with privacy-aware monitoring

Healthcare Integrated Technologies, Inc.


A temporary sign panel is made by placing sheets of used newspaper on a flat surface to form a first layer, fixing two edges of the first layer to the surface, and covering the layer with a flour and water paste. A second layer of newspaper is placed on the first, with the sheets staggered so lines between sheets do not coincide. Two edges of the second layer are fixed to the surface, and the second layer is covered with flour and water paste. Next, a third layer of newspaper is placed over the second, staggered so no lines between sheets coincide. The paste is allowed to dry, then the panel is removed from the surface, and the entire panel is painted with an exterior grade of house paint. The resulting panel can be painted with the desired sign, and the panel is stiff enough for normal display.

Signs that are intended to be relatively permanent are typically constructed of wood, metal or plastic, and such signs last for many years, depending on the exact construction and the environment of the sign. Signs that are intended to be relativey temporary are typically constructed of paper, or a flexible plastic film that is a few thousandths of an inch, or around a tenth of a millimeter in thickness. Of course the paper may have an extremely short useful life in the event of inclement weather, including both precipitation and wind. The flexible plastic film may last quite well, even in inclement weather, but the fact that the sign is flexible frequently allows the sign to be rendered unreadable. As a flexible plastic sign, or banner, flutters in the wind, most of the sign on the material will be illegible. Furthermore, the usual plastic banner or sign is rather thin and translucent, so only one side of the material can be effectively used for a sign.
Obviously, better sign materials are known in the art, but the better materials tend to be prohibitively expensive for signs that are intended to be used briefly. The prior art does not include a material that is durable enough to be practical and inexpensive enough to be economical for temporary signs.

Ga Regional Hospital at Atlanta, 3073 Panthersville Rd.


Exercise apparatus has a pair of members exercising a pair of limbs of a user to alternate between and first and second opposite direction motions, such as a stepper or stair climber, and is provided with a resistance mechanism coupled to the pair of members and having first and second modes resisting motion, with the first mode resisting a first member moving in a first direction, and the second mode resisting the second member moving in the first direction.

The invention relates to exercise apparatus including a resistance mechanism for exercising a pair of limbs of a user to alternate between first and second opposite direction motions, including steppers, stair climbers, and the like.
Exercise apparatus having a pair of members for exercising a pair of limbs of a user to alternate between first and second opposite direction motions are known in the prior art, including steppers, stair climbers, and the like. The pair of limbs, such as the user's legs, move oppositely to each other such that when one leg is moving in a first direction the other leg is moving in a second opposite direction, and vice versa.
The present invention provides in combination exercise apparatus of the above type having a simple and effective resistance mechanism.

Exercise apparatus with resistance mechanism


A system, method, and device for applying conductive bonding material to a substrate are disclosed. The method includes providing conductive bonding material in a plurality of cavities of a mold. A total number of cavities in the plurality of cavities being greater than a total number of at least one conductive pad of a circuit supporting substrate corresponding to the mold. The conductive bonding material in the mold is heated to a reflow temperature of the conductive bonding material. At least one wettable surface is placed in substantial contact with the heated conductive bonding material in at least one cavity. The mold and the corresponding circuit supporting substrate are brought in close proximity to each other such that the heated conductive bonding material in at least one cavity comes in contact with at least one conductive pad of the corresponding circuit supporting substrate.

In modern semiconductor devices, the ever increasing device density and decreasing device dimensions demand more stringent requirements in the packaging or interconnecting techniques of such devices. Conventionally, a flip-chip attachment method has been used in the packaging of IC chips. In the flip-chip attachment method, instead of attaching an IC die to a lead frame in a package, an array of solder balls is formed on the surface of the die. The formation of the solder balls is normally carried out by an evaporation method of lead and tin through a mask for producing the desired solder balls. However, the evaporation method has many drawbacks such as inefficient use of material, degraded yields when the pitch falls below 225 μm, non-stable evaporation masks for 300 mm wafers.
Another method for depositing solder balls is solder paste screening. However, with the recent trend in the miniaturization of device dimensions and the reduction in bump-to-bump spacing (or pitch), the solder paste screening technique becomes impractical. For instance, one of the problems in applying solder paste screening technique to modern IC devices is the paste composition itself. Pastes are generally composed of a flux and solder alloy particles. The consistency and uniformity of the solder paste composition become more difficult to control with a decreasing solder bump volume.
A possible solution for this problem is the utilization of solder pastes that contain extremely small and uniform solder particles. However, this can only be done at a high cost penalty. Another problem in using the solder paste screening technique in modern high density devices is the reduced pitch between bumps. Since there is a large reduction in volume from a screened paste to the resulting solder bump, the screen holes must be significantly larger in diameter than the final bumps. The stringent dimensional control of the bumps makes the solder paste screening technique impractical for applications in high density devices.
A more recently developed injection molded solder ("IMS") technique attempted to solve these problems by dispensing molten solder instead of solder paste. However, problems have been observed when the technique is implemented to wafer-sized substrates. U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,143, which is commonly assigned to International Business Machines Corporation, discloses the injection molded solder technique and is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. One of the advantages of the IMS technique is that there is very little volume change between the molten solder and the resulting solder bump. The IMS technique utilizes a solder head that fills boro-silicate glass molds that are wide enough to cover most single chip modules.
The IMS method for solder bonding is then carried out by applying a molten solder to a substrate in a transfer process. When smaller substrates, i.e., chip scale or single chip modules are encountered, the transfer step is readily accomplished since the solder-filled mold and substrate are relatively small in area and thus can be easily aligned and joined in a number of configurations. For instance, the process of split-optic alignment is frequently used in joining chips to substrates. The same process may also be used to join a chip-scale IMS mold to a substrate (chip) which will be bumped. One problem with current IMS systems is that they are restricted to linear deposition of solder into rectangular molds. That is, the mold and the solder head are moved linearly with respect to each other such that the cavities move perpendicular to a slit in the solder head thereby filling the cavities as they pass. The molds are limited to a rectangular configuration.
The mold materials used for IMS to date have included borofloat glass, silicon wafers, kapton, and polyimide on glass, carbon, and recently molybdenum. Each of these has advantages and disadvantages. The most commonly used material to date has been borofloat glass, because of its durability, ease of alignment, excellent temperature coefficient of expansion, and ability to easily make the proper form-factor (rectangular and thick enough to provide rigidity).
One problem with several of the mold materials, including borofloat, kapton, polyimide on glass, is that an existing infrastructure for building the molds does not exist. Unlike glass masks used in plating of solder, or metal masks used in evaporation of solder, both of which are readily available internationally, mold fabrication does not exist in mass production. While infrastructure does exist for some mold fabrication, such as molybdenum, this suffers from other disadvantages.
A problem common to the solder ball forming techniques discussed above and other techniques not discussed such as molten solder screening is with the mold used for transferring solder balls to substrates. Current molds comprise a pattern of cavities with a one to one correspondence to pads on a substrate, that is, cavities on a mold only exist at locations corresponding to a location on a substrate with a pad. In other words, current molds can only be used for a particular substrate design. Every new or change in design requires a new build of a mask or mold. This is true for existing technologies of plating and evaporation, as well as with IMS. In most cases, it is also preferable to produce multiple copies of masks or molds for throughput or redundancy. The costs for these new masks and molds will vary significantly, but are costly. This also drives delivery time, which can gate the delivery of final parts. This is especially costly in the event of a redesign, which can take several weeks onto the delivery schedule.
Therefore a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.

Universal mold for injection molding of solder


A discharge lamp has a base with a burner having a discharge vessel with at least two electrodes and a supply conductor extending from the base to one electrode as well as a return conductor extending from the other electrode to the base, wherein the supply conductor is surrounded in the burner by a glass tube while the return conductor extends outside the burner along it, and between the surface of the supply conductor and an inner surface of the glass tube a distance is formed by an air-filled space and retained as low as possible or preferably at least approximately zero, so that the intensity of an electrical field formed between the supply conductor and the return conductor is low and the return conductor can be guided along near the burner, which makes possible a compact construction of the discharge lamp or the use of a high ignition voltage for the discharge lamp and/or its operation at high altitudes without the danger of partial discharges in the glass tube or ark-overs outside the discharge vessel.

The present invention relates generally to discharge lamps, in particular for vehicle illumination devices.
Discharge lamps of the above mentioned general type are known in the art. One of such discharge lamps is disclosed in the German patent document DE 43 19467 A1. This discharge lamp has a base and a burner connected with it. The burner has a discharge vessel with two electrodes which form a light arc during the operation of the discharge lamp. The electrodes are connected correspondingly with the electrical conductors. One electrode is connected with a supply conductor in the burner which is surrounded by a glass tube, while another electrode is connected with a return conductor which is located outside of the burner and extend along the burner to the base. The burner is mechanically connected with the base by the glass tube surrounding the supply conductor, and therefore the glass tube must have a sufficiently large cross-section, to reliably hold the burner. Also, constructions of discharge lamps are known in which the mounting of the burner is performed through a glass tube which surrounds it. Here however the inner glass tube must have a sufficiently large cross-section, so that the discharge vessel can be formed from it. An air-filled space remains between the surface of the supply conductor and the inner surface of the glass tube.
In order to provide a compact construction of the discharge lamp including the base, it is desirable to guide the returned conductor as close as possible on the glass tube to the base. For actuating the discharge lamp, it must be ignited, and for this purpose high frequency high voltage is applied through the conductors to the electrodes and can reach several tens kilovolt. It must be guaranteed that it does not lead to undesired partial discharges in the glass tube or ark-overs outwardly of the discharge vessel, which occurs in particular during an ignition of the discharge lamp with a high frequency high voltage of several megahertz. These partial discharges outside the discharge vessel represent on one side a danger and lead on the other side to braking of the lamp ignition since it takes away the required ignition energy. It has been shown that a strong electrical field is formed in particular between the supply conductor and the return conductor near the base or in the region of the base under the influence of the high voltage. It is caused by the available air-filled space between the surface of the supply conductor and the inner surface of the glass tube, which space has a low electrical insulation action. Especially pronounced are these disturbing partial discharges during the operation of the discharge lamp with reduced outer air pressure, which as a rule occurs at great altitudes.

Discharge lamp, in particular for vehicle illumination devices, with burner and discharge vessel


Embodiments include methods and apparatuses for sensing acoustic waves for a conferencing application. A conferencing apparatus includes a plurality of microphones oriented to cover a corresponding plurality of direction vectors and to develop a corresponding plurality of microphone signals. A processor is operably coupled to the plurality of microphones. The processor is configured to perform a beamforming operation to combine the plurality of microphone signals to a plurality of combined signals that is greater in number than one and less in number than the plurality of microphone signals. The processor is also configured perform an acoustic echo cancelation operation on the plurality of combined signals to generate a plurality of combined echo-canceled signals and select one of the plurality of combined echo-canceled signals for transmission.

In a typical telepresence application, such as, for example, teleconferencing, a loudspeaker may be located on top, bottom or side of a television set, a microphone may be located in line with the television set and a participant sits in line with a television for the audio conferencing part of it.
Many improvements have been made in teleconferencing and video conferencing systems, which may use microprocessors and software to accomplish a wide variety of system tasks and signal processing algorithms to improve on, compress, and even encrypt video and audio streams. Some teleconferencing applications may include multiple microphones in an array to better capture acoustic patterns of a room and the participants in the room. However, arrayed microphones can cause their own problems with duplicate coverage and echoing.
There is a need for methods and apparatuses to improve on the acoustic quality of microphone arrays with echo cancelation and a need to perform this echo cancelation efficiently.

Methods and apparatuses for echo cancelation with beamforming microphone arrays


A computer-based method for identifying ice storm risk across a geographical extent includes receiving, at a computer-based ice storm risk calculation system, historical data regarding a plurality of past ice storms. The historical data includes, for each respective one of the plurality of past ice storms, data about the size of the geographical region that was impacted by the ice storm, the thickness of ice that accumulated from the ice storm, and qualitative data (e.g., written observations in new reports, etc.) reflecting human observations of the ice storm's impact. The method further includes calculating an ice storm severity index based, in part, on the size of the geographical region that was impacted by the ice storm and the thickness of the accumulated ice that resulted from the ice storm, and validating the calculated ice storm index with the qualitative data reflecting the human observations of the ice storm's impact.

Freezing rain events and their more severe counterpart, ice storms, may occur when precipitation falls through atmospheric layers with differing thermal profiles. When precipitation begins in a sub-freezing environment aloft in the atmosphere, it begins to fall as snow. If lower levels of the atmosphere are above freezing, this falling snow will melt into rain droplets. When rain encounters a surface environment that is below freezing, the rain freezes on contact with the sub-freezing surfaces, and it is termed freezing rain. This freezing rain can accrete on the surfaces and objects below freezing, such as trees, powerlines, and roads, potentially causing substantial damage and travel delays. Freezing rain events with damaging ice accretion are generally included in what is referred to as ice storms in this document.
Freezing rain events and ice storms are uniquely damaging weather events that impact many areas around the globe. They often result in widespread disruption, including loss of electricity, impassable roads, and downed trees and power lines. Some estimates place the annual insured losses attributable to winter storms to over $2 billion a year, and severe individual events, like the 1998 Ice Storm affecting a larger portion of North America, including major metropolitan centers in the United States and Canada, can top even that annual amount.
It may be desirable for affected communities, the insurance industry, and others to accurately understand and account for the level of ice storm risk at one or more particular locations.

Automated severity-based risk scoring for ice storms and freezing rain