Method of, and apparatus for, optical character recognition of predominate and non-predominate color coded characters based on hypothesis testing utilizing both geometric optical character recognition and color coded optical character recognition techniques. In this hypothesis testing technique, geometric OCR is used to generate a null hypothesis that a target character has been recognized, and an alternative hypothesis that the target character has not been recognized. Color coded OCR is used to select either the null hypothesis or the alternative hypothesis. Alternatively, the roles of geometric OCR and color coded OCR may be reversed such that color coded OCR is used for hypothesis generation, and geometric OCR is used for hypothesis selection.

Conventional optical character recognition (OCR) techniques fall into two major categories. The first technique is geometric OCR. The second technique is color coded OCR.
Geometric OCR attempts to recognize a character based on the character's shape or the geometric representation of a set of pixels or dots. A character as used herein is meant to include a printed or written symbol which can be recognized by an OCR device or a human reader. The character can be an alphabetical symbol or an icon. Furthermore, the term pixel and dot will be used interchangeably to describe a distinguishable point recognizable by an OCR device. In such a geometric OCR approach, color is used only to define the shape of a character. Even if characters are represented by multiple colors, the multiple colors are converted to either black or a gray scale before shape analysis. Although the geometric OCR approach can provide a recognition accuracy as high as 99.5%, character recognition errors still occur due to character shape defects and character shape variations. Such character shape defects may take the form of smudged characters or improperly formed characters. Such character shape variations may take the form of character fonts other than those character fonts for which the OCR device is designed to recognize.
The second technique of color coded OCR attempts to recognize a character based on the character's color. In such an approach, color is used not only to indicate the shape of a character, but also to indicate the identity of the character. For example, "a" is printed red, "b" is printed blue, and "c" is printed yellow. Color coding OCR is not subject to the shape processing errors of geometric OCR as it does not perform shape processing. However, color coded OCR may be subject to color processing errors. Such color processing errors may take the form of ink color shifts, improper color density, improper color intensity, or color scanner misalignment.
Thus, there is a need for an OCR approach which can substantially increase the accuracy rate of optical character recognition techniques while overcoming both the shape processing error deficiency of geometric OCR and the color processing error deficiency of color coded OCR.

Method of and apparatus for optical character recognition based on geometric and color attribute hypothesis testing

International Business Machines Corporation


A safety edge element made of flexible material includes a flat electric conductor, a rounded electric conductor as well as a first portion and a second portion. The first portion includes a base for the connection to a door or gate, a top with a seat to receive the flat electric conductor and two lateral sides to flexibly connect the base with the top. The base, top and lateral sides define a chamber. The second portion has a top and two lateral sides for the engagement with the top of the first portion and a seat arranged in the top of the second portion to receive the rounded electric conductor so that the rounded electric conductor is spaced from the flat electric conductor when the safety edge element is at rest and so that the rounded electric conductor is brought into contact with the flat conductor when the safety edge element experiences forces in orthogonal and inclined directions with respect to the base of the first portion.

The application of a so-called safety edge to horizontally pivoted rolling gates is already known. It consists of a rubber or soft material profile and a traction cable extending into the rubber profile and connecting to at least one microswitch, normally closed, inserted in the electrical circuit of the motor controlling the rolling gate. Since the edge is not stressed, the microswitch remains closed and the rolling gate is enabled to operate regularly. If, on the other hand, during the rolling gate movement, usually while closing, the edge detects or interferes with a foreign element that hinders its motion, the stressed cable causes the microswitch to open, thus opening the electrical circuit of the motor unit and stopping the rolling gate to prevent damages to people or things. In such safety edge, the cable essentially has the function of actuating means for the mechanical drive of a control to at least one microswitch. In another embodiment, a safety edge to be used on rolling gates uses laminations or crop ends of laminations s actuators, but always associated to current switches.

Safety edge for horizontally pivoted rolling gates


A shape inspection device is adapted for a curved resin hose having a hose body including a bent portion. The shape inspection device has a first fixing portion for fixing one longitudinal end portion of the curved resin hose, a second fixing portion for fixing the other longitudinal end portion of the curved resin hose, and an inspecting portion between the first and the second fixing portions. The inspecting portion has an inspecting and verifying arrangement along a pathway of the hose body of the curved resin hose as designed. The inspecting and verifying arrangement has verifying members disposed outside the pathway and spaced from the pathway.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shape inspection device for a resin hose that is used for a piping system in a motor vehicle, etc., more specifically, to a shape inspection device capable of inspecting accurately a curving shape or a curvature shape of a curved resin hose having a bent portion or bent portions.
2. Description of the Related Art
For a piping system in a motor vehicle, a resin hose as well as a rubber hose has been used. The rubber hose is excellent in assembling properties and vibration absorbing properties, while the resin hose is light-weight and excellent in handling properties. Also, the resin hose is hard to flex. So, when the resin hose is formed into a shape following a piping layout in advance, the resin hose is installed so as to accurately follow the piping layout. This is an advantage of the resin hose.
By the way, a curved resin hose having a bent portion is formed in a mold that is configured for molding or forming the curved hose of size and shape as designed. However, the curved hose that is formed often does not have a shape as designed since a curving shape or a curvature shape of the curved resin hose is likely deformed or changed when the curved resin hose is removed from the mold. That is, in many cases, the shape of the curved resin hose removed from the mold is not accurately the same as designed. So, it is required to verify whether the curved resin hose has a shape falling within an acceptable range, namely, within a usable range, by inspecting the shape of the curved resin hose that is produced.
In inspection of the shape of the curved resin hose, a produced hose is attached on a shape inspection device one by one. The shape inspection device used here has a fit-in portion that is shaped to conform to or follow the shape of the hose as designed, and the curved resin hose is tried to be fitted in the fit-in portion for inspecting the shape or the curving shape of the curved resin hose. When the curved resin hose is fitted in the fit-in portion, the curved resin hose is found usable. When the curved resin hose cannot be fitted in the fit-in portion, the curved resin hose is found unusable (for example, refer to Patent Documents 1 and 2 although these patents relates to rubber hoses).
[Patent Document 1]JP-A-10-122443[Patent Document 2]JP-A-61-11204
Although a curved resin hose is hard to flex, in fact, the curved resin hose has flexibility or resiliency to some extent. Therefore, even when a curving shape or a curvature shape of the curved resin hose is greatly changed compared to a shape as designed, the curved resin hose could be forcibly pushed into the fit-in portion. So, inspection results obtained with use of such inspection device may be improper or may not be reliable.
Under the foregoing circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide a shape inspection device for a curved hose that allows for accurate inspection of a shape or a curving shape of a curved resin hose.


A self-standing container having four sidewall panels, a bottom panel, and openable top panel, wherein (i) all the panels are formed of a polymer material, and (ii) the top panel has a closure configured to close the top panel in relation to the sidewall panels. Each sidewall panel has a pocket panel attached thereto forming a pocket. A spring steel stiffener is positioned between each sidewall and pocket panel, with the spring steel stiffener forming a closed loop.

In the waste disposal industry, various types of containers are utilized to store waste. For various types of waste, including hazardous waste, polymeric liners are utilized to encapsulate the waste inside a container or enclosure. For large scale projects, a rigid waste container, such as a metal container, may be used, and a flexible liner may be positioned in the container to protect the container and to enclose the waste for disposal. In smaller scale projects, a rigid container may not be justified. In such projects, a free-standing, self-supporting flexible container is more practical. It typically is preferable that such containers be flexible until put in use, so that the containers can be easily folded, stored and shipped.
Prior art flexible, self-supporting disposal containers included synthetic material bags, such as polypropylene bags, wherein the bag sidewalls included pockets in which semi-rigid planar materials, such as cardboard sheets, could be inserted. The cardboard sheets provided the needed degree of rigidity to the bag sidewalls to allow the bag to be self-supporting. Because the enclosures were likely exposed to external environmental conditions, such as rain, the cardboard materials could become saturated with water and collapse, and the container would then cease to be self-supporting and create storage and transportation issues, particularly for hazardous wastes.

Containment bag with self-supporting sidewalls


Articles and methods for the use of such articles are described for use in immobilizing nucleophile-containing materials. In one aspect, the invention provides an article comprising: a substrate having a first surface and a second surface; and a phosphonitrilic tethering group affixed to the first surface of the substrate, the phosphonitrilic tethering group comprising a reaction product of a complementary functional group on the first surface of the substrate with a phosphonitrilic tethering compound. A method of immobilizing a nucleophile-containing material to a substrate is also described, the method comprising: providing a phosphonitrilic tethering compound; providing a substrate having a complementary functional group capable of reacting with phosphonitrilic tethering compound; preparing a substrate-attached phosphonitrilic tethering group by reacting the phosphonitrilic tethering compound with the complementary functional group on the substrate resulting in an ionic bond, covalent bond, or combinations thereof; and reacting the substrate-attached phosphonitrilic tethering group with a nucleophile-containing material to immobilize the nucleophile-containing material.

The covalent attachment of biologically active molecules to the surface of a substrate can be useful in a variety of applications such as in diagnostic devices, affinity separations, high throughput DNA sequencing applications, the clean-up of polymerase chain reactions (PCR), and the like. Immobilized biological amines, for example, can be used for the medical diagnosis of a disease or genetic defect or for detection of various biomolecules.
The modification of solid supports (e.g. particulate chromatography supports) by introduction of reactive functional groups for the immobilization of any of a variety of ligands is known. The attachment of a nucleophile (e.g., NH2, SH, OH, etc.) to a substrate may be achieved through the use of tethering compounds. A tethering compound has at least two reactive functional groups separated by a linking group. One of the functional groups provides a means for anchoring the tethering compound to a substrate or support by reacting with a complementary functional group on the surface of the substrate. A second reactive functional group can be selected to react with the nucleophile-containing material. Supports containing hydroxyl groups (e.g. cellulose, cross-linked dextrans, wool, and polyvinyl alcohol) may be treated with cyanuric chloride (trichlorotriazine) for the attachment of enzymes, antigens, and antibodies. Hydroxyl-containing supports such as Sepharose may be reacted with trichlorotriazine (TCT) which may then bind one or more nucleophiles. Solid nylon beads derivatized with cyanuric chloride have been used for oligonucleotide based hybridization assays. TCT coated paper and nylon membranes have also demonstrated utility in transfer hybridization experiments of DNA, RNA, and proteins.
Known tethering compounds are typically highly reactive with nucleophile-containing materials including biological materials. But, the reaction of the tethering compounds to nucleophile-containing materials may compete with other reactions, such as the hydrolysis of the tethering compound, when reactions with nucleophiles are conducted in aqueous solutions. Hydrolysis can result in incomplete or inefficient immobilization of the nucleophile-containing materials on a substrate.
There is a need for improved immobilization substrates and for tethering compounds compatible with such substrates. Accordingly, it is desired to provide supports and tethering compounds that are useful for ligand immobilization in any of a variety of applications.


An optical guide plate serves as a surface illuminant in a liquid crystal display, and includes a transparent optical guide body shaped in a trapezoidal prism, a line light source radiating light toward the bottom surface serving as an incident surface and a reflecting sheet opposed to a granulated diffusion surface extending between the incident surface and a top surface and opposed to a light output surface, wherein micro projections are formed on the granulated diffusion surface so as to form an air layer between the granulated diffusion surface and the reflection sheet without any direct contact between the granulated diffusion surface and the reflection sheet, thereby permitting the incident light to be propagated through the air layer.

This invention relates to a liquid crystal display and, more particularly, to a liquid crystal display equipped with an optical guide plate and a process for fabrication thereof.
An optical guide plate is incorporated in a liquid crystal display together with a light source such as a lighting equipment or a back light. The light source radiates light, and the optical guide plate directs the light toward an array of pixels. The optical guide plate makes the light source serve as a surface illuminant.
A typical example of the optical guide plate has a diffusing surface, a light output surface and an incident surface. The diffusing surface is opposed to the light output surface, and the incident surface extends between the diffusing surface and the light output surface. The light source is attached to the incident surface, and the light is incident on the incident surface. Most of the light repeats the reflection at the boundary between the optical guide plate and the air due to the difference of optical density therebetween, and proceeds in the optical guide plate. While the light is proceeding, the light is irregularly reflected on an irregular reflecting means. When a light component is incident on the irregular reflecting means at the incident angle equal to or less than the critical angle, the light component is output from the light output surface. The irregular reflecting means is implemented by a white printed layer of diffusing material such as white ink. Otherwise, the diffusing surface is granulated or roughened so as to make it granulated.
User requests the manufacturer to make the surface illuminant thin. The granulated surface is suitable for the user""s request. An example of the prior art optical guide plate with the granulated surface is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication of Unexamined Application (laid-open) No. 2-176629.
FIG. 1 illustrates the prior art optical guide plate disclosed in the Japanese Patent Publication of Unexamined Application. The prior art optical guide plate comprises an optical guide body, a line light source 3, a curved mirror 4 and a reflecting sheet 5. The optical guide body 1 has a diffusing surface 2a, a light output surface 2b and a side surface therebetween. The diffusing surface 2a is inclined with respect to the light output surface 2b, and the distance therebetween is decreased from the side surface toward the other side surface. The side surface serves as an incident surface, and the line light source 3 is opposed to the side surface. The curved mirror 5 is attached to the optical guide body 1 so as to encapsulate the line light source 3 inside the space defined by the curved mirror and the side surface. The diffusing surface 2a is granulated, and the reflecting sheet 5 is attached to the granulated diffusion surface 2a. The air is confined between the granulated diffusion surface 2a and the reflecting sheet 5.
When the line light source 3 is energized, the line light source 3 radiates light, and the light is incident onto the side surface. The incident light proceeds in the prior art optical guide plate. The light radiated from the optical guide body 1 toward the reflecting sheet 5, and is reflected thereon. The light is partially reflected on the diffusion surface 2a. Thus, the light repeats the reflection and refraction at the boundary between the air and the optical guide body 1, and proceeds toward the side surface opposite to the incident surface. The light is partially reflected on the diffusing surface 2a, and is radiated from the light output surface 2b.
A problem is encountered in the prior art optical guide plate in that the luminance on the light output surface 2b is gradually reduced toward the side surface opposite to the incident surface. Another problem is that the light output surface 2b is not uniform in brightness.
It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide an optical guide plate, which has a light output surface constant in the luminance over the distance between an incident surface and the opposite surface and, accordingly, uniform in the brightness thereover.
It is also an important object of the present invention to provide a process for fabricating the optical guide plate.
The present inventor contemplated the problem inherent in the prior art optical guide plate, and found that the air was locally evacuated from between the optical guide body 1 and the reflecting sheet 5. The non-uniform brightness and the reduction of luminance were derived from the local evacuation of the air as follows. The surface roughness of the diffusion surface 2a was 1 to 5 microns, and the optical guide body 1 tended to locally hold the reflecting sheet 5 in contact with the diffusion surface 2a. The air was evacuated from between the part of the diffusion surface 2a and the reflecting sheet 5. The total reflection took place on the part of the diffusion surface 2a, and the part of the diffusion surface interrupted the optical propagation through the air. If there was the air constant over the boundary between the diffusion surface 2a and the reflecting sheet 5, all the light was not taken into the optical guide body 1, again, due to the difference in density between the optical guide body 1 and the air. Thus, the amount of light was reduced in the direction leaving the incident surface, and the luminance was reduced due to the shortage of the light. On the other hand, the total reflection locally increased the amount of output light, and made the brightness on the light output surface 2b non-uniform.
To accomplish the object, the present invention proposes to form micro-projections large enough to space the reflecting sheet from the diffusion surface.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an optical guide plate used in a liquid crystal display comprising an optical guide body formed of a transparent material, and including an incident surface, a granulated diffusion surface for scattering light components, a light output surface for radiating the light components therefrom and micro-projections formed on the granulated diffusion surface and having peaks spaced from the granulated diffusion surface wider than the granulation, a reflecting sheet supported by the peaks of the micro-projections so as to form an air layer therebetween, and a light source opposed to the incident surface for supplying the light components to the optical guide body.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a process for fabricating an optical guide plate, comprising the steps of forming a transparent optical guide body having an incident surface, a granulated diffusion surface, a light output surface and micro-projections formed on the granulated diffusion surface and having peaks spaced from the granulated diffusion surface wider than the granulation, and assembling a reflecting sheet and a light source with the transparent optical guide in such a manner that the reflecting sheet is supported by the peaks and that the light source is opposed to the incident surface.

LCD optical guide plate with a roughened back surface having projections that support a reflecting sheet


A driving circuit for an optical modulator is disclosed. The driving circuit includes a differential amplifier and a DC-level equalizer. The differential amplifier amplifies a differential input signal consisting of a positive-phase signal and a negative-phase signal, and outputs a driving signal to the optical modulator. The DC-level equalizer superposes two bias levels to the positive-phase and negative-phase signals respectively, and adjusts the bias levels thereof to equalize respective peak or bottom levels of the positive-phase and negative-phase signals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates to a driving circuit, in particular, the application relates to a driving circuit for transmitting an optical signal with a plurality of logic levels applicable to the Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM) system.
2. Background Arts
In optical transmission systems of core communication networks and local communication systems between servers in data centers, optical transceivers, which is are commonly used to convert electrical signals to optical signals and vice versa, transmit the optical signals with other optical transceivers in high speed.
Generally, such an optical transceiver comprises a transmission part (optical transmitter) and a reception part (optical receiver). The transmission part comprises a semiconductor laser as a light source, an optical modulator, and a driving circuit in order to convert an electrical signal to an optical signal and transmit the optical signal into an optical fiber cable. The optical modulator modulates a CW (Continuous Wave) light provided from the light source by a driving signal. The driving circuit provides the driving signal and also a bias level as a reference of the driving signal. Such a modulation system using a light source and an optical modulator is called as the external modulation system. Specifically, some optical transceivers use Electro-absorption Modulated Laser (EML), in which an Electro-Absorption Modulator (EAM) and a semiconductor laser are integrated on the same semiconductor chip, to meet the requirements of the miniaturization and the low power consumption for downsizing the optical transmission system and increasing the communicating channels into the optical transmission systems in higher density.
Optical transceivers have some specific external forms, called Form Factor, for instance, XFP, QSPP+, CFP, and so on. Each of the form factor is individually defined by MSA (Multi-Source Agreement), a kind of industry standard, which specifies not only the external dimensions of an optical transceiver but also electrical and optical characteristics, communication protocols with a host system for monitoring and control, arrangement of pin outs, and so on. Currently, CFP MSA has been established as a standard of the 100 Gbps optical transceiver and some commercial products have been released and delivered. The CFP optical transceiver brings a 100 Gbps transmission technology to the optical transmission systems by using some leading-edge techniques like WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) of 4 wavelength channels and the 25 Gbps transmission per channel. In addition., Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM) system has been recently studied as a candidate of a new 100 Gbps transmission technology.

Driving circuit for driving non-linear optical modulator by signal having plural logic levels


There is provided a displacement measurement apparatus including: a light source; a pair of diffraction gratings that light emitted from the light source enters, the pair of diffraction gratings opposing each other while being relatively movable along an optical axis; a first optical sensor that detects interference light obtained by diffracted light emitted from a diffraction grating device of each of the pair of diffraction gratings; a second optical sensor that detects non-interference light emitted from the pair of diffraction gratings; and a correction unit that corrects a signal obtained by the first optical sensor based on a signal obtained by the second optical sensor.

For example, International Publication No. WO2011/043354 discloses a displacement measurement apparatus that uses an optical interference. The displacement measurement apparatus includes, in the stated order from a light source side, a laser light source, a collimator lens, a first diffraction grating, a second diffraction grating, and an optical sensor. The optical sensor detects diffracted light (e.g., 1-order) diffracted by the first diffraction grating and interference light with respect to diffracted light (e.g., 1-order) that is caused as 0-order light that has passed directly through the first diffraction grating is diffracted by the second diffraction grating. The displacement measurement apparatus measures a distance between the first diffraction grating and the second diffraction grating, that is, a displacement of a measurement target, based on a change in a light amount due to brightness/darkness of the interference light detected by the optical sensor (see, for example, paragraphs [0020], [0023], and [0027] and FIG. 1 to 3 of International Publication No. WO2011/043354).

Displacement measurement apparatus and displacement measurement method


A hydrometric vane has a housing, an upstream casing and a downstream casing provided in the housing, an impeller rotatably supported in the housing and axially movable between the casings. The impeller has a hub which forms an annular chamber and extends into the downstream casing to form a gap therebetween so that when a fluid flows through the gap an underpressure loading the hub is caused and compensates a hydrodynamic pressure acting on the impeller. The hub has a central part and a cylindrical casing between which the annular chamber is formed. The downstream casing has at least one opening communicating with the annular chamber so that the liquid which leaves the annular chamber can flow through the at least one opening. A closure member is arranged on the central part and movable to a closing position in which it interrupts a communication between the annular chamber and the downstream casing. A ring is located in the region of the gap and extending into the annular chamber, and a counter ring is provided at an outlet end of the ring gap.

The present invention relates to a hydrometric vane or so-called sail wheel of Waltmann.
European patent document EP-PS 0,076,189 Bl shows a flow measuring device or flow meter of the above mentioned type. The device disclosed in this reference has a guiding element for passing a fluid medium to be measured under a predetermined pressure, and a turbine located in the guiding element and having vanes on a periphery of its cylindrical hub. The turbine is supported rotatably and also axially movably between two stationary casings located upstream and downstream respectively. Also a means is provided to produce a zone with an underpressure of approximately constant value independently from the axial position of the hub at one side of a transverse surface of the upstream end of the hub. On the other hand, the downstream casing embraces a hollow cylindrical part in which the downstream end of the above mentioned hub extends with a play to provide an overpressure zone at the side of the transverse surface of the downstream end of the hub. Thereby a hydrodynamic thrust, resulting from the flow of the fluid medium, is always compensated due to the difference between the above mentioned overpressure and the above mentioned underpressure, so that the above mentioned downstream end of the hub has a diameter increase relative to the remaining part of the above mentioned hub. The combination of relative profile of the downward widened end of the hub and the downward casing determines the overpressure in such a way that it reduces when the hub moves in the axial direction relative to the upstream casing.
Depending on the flow speed of the liquid the forces change in the flow direction and require a corresponding change in the oppositely directed dynamic pressure force. This is achieved by the axial movement of the impeller. In the known arrangement relatively great axial movements of the impeller are required in order to achieve the suspended condition of the blades. Moreover, the regulating conditions are relatively unstable.


A trellis support device includes first and second subassemblies, and each subassembly having one or more elongate support members joining together a plurality of ring portions. The ring portions are configured to align and connect together adjacent first and second subassemblies. The first and second subassemblies are configured to engage an underlying support material and to provide a structurally supported growth area for plants.

A trellis is a structure, often made from interwoven pieces of wood, bamboo, plastic or metal that is made to support climbing plants and vines. Trellises are typically generally planar, fence-like structures. As a result, they can also be used as a decorative fence or border for gardens, sidewalks, landscaping, and so on.
Trellises typically comprise latticework or other supporting structure that is attached to a frame. The frame serves to support the latticework and usually also includes a mounting portion that is placed partially into the ground in order to hold the trellis in place at a desired installation location.
It is often desirable to place climbing plants and vines around upwardly-projecting objects such as ground-mounted lamp posts, other lawn and garden posts, poles, decorations, scarecrows, or plant stalks in order to achieve a desired aesthetic effect. Additionally, in gardening, it is often desirable to add structural support to unstable growing plants to support heavy vegetation, blooming flowers, fruits, or vegetables, such as for peonies or tomato plants. Various plants have large, heavy blooms where the weight of the flower needs to be supported above the ground, and various plants can produce heavy fruits or vegetables which benefit from support above the ground. It is often desirable to support the plant stalks and blooms or fruit to protect them from damage due to insects, dirt or from contact with the ground. It is also beneficial to support the blooms or fruit up higher off the ground so they are more visible. However, generally planar trellises are not readily adaptable for such purposes. Known circular plant supports tend to be made of thin, light-weight, one-piece wire construction and cannot be easily installed once the plant is large and starting to set flower buds. Yet, the placement of a large sized convention wire support over a young plant detracts from the natural aesthetic appeal of the lawn or garden. Also, known supports of one-piece construction cannot be disassembled for easy, compact storage, and cannot accommodate posts with large headpieces, such as a mailbox or bird feeder. Furthermore, a lamp post usually provides little in the way of support for climbing plants and vines. There is a need for a way to provide a knockdown support for unstable plants generally, and for climbing plants and vines freestanding or planted around vertical posts and other similar structures.


There is provided a digital recording and reproducing apparatus which is capable of determining whether or not recording data was rewritten, reliably and in a short time period without increasing manufacturing costs thereof. A digital recording and reproducing apparatus is configured to be capable of having a removable external memory mounted therein, for recording recording data in the external memory and reproducing a sound based on the recording data recorded in the external memory. An identification data-generating block generates identification data for use in determining whether or not the recording data was rewritten. An internal memory can record the identification data. A control block records the identification data in the external memory as part of the recording data and at the same time records the identification data in the internal memory such that the identification data is recorded in FAT data concerning the recording data in a manner correlated to a title of a file to be recorded therein. When the control block reads in the recording data from the external memory, if the identification data corresponding to the title of the file in the FAT data concerning the recording data read in from the external memory exists in the internal memory, the control block compares the existing identification data and the identification data recorded in the recording data read in with each other, and carries out predetermined processing if the compared identification data are different from each other.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a digital recording and reproducing apparatus which is capable of recording and reproducing recorded data by using a removable external memory as a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a digital recording and reproducing apparatus of the above-mentioned kind, a sound recording and reproducing apparatus is known which uses a card-type removable memory (hereinafter referred to as the xe2x80x9cmemory cardxe2x80x9d) as a recording medium. In this sound recording and reproducing apparatus, an analog sound signal input via a microphone is subjected to analog-to-digital conversion to generate sound data, and the sound data is recorded in the memory card. In this case, in a sound recording and reproducing apparatus of this kind, generally, when production of sound data in a memory card has been completed, FAT (File Allocation Table) data of the sound data is recorded in a FAT data recording area of the memory card. On the other hand, when a sound is to be reproduced, sound data thereof is read out from the memory card in accordance with the FAT data, and then digital-to-analog conversion of the sound data is carried out to thereby generate an analog sound signal. This analog sound signal is sounded from a speaker or an earphone.
The above sound recording and reproducing apparatus, however, suffers from the following problems: In the sound recording and reproducing apparatus, a general-purpose memory card is employed as a recording medium for recording sound data. In this case, the memory card is configured such that it can be removed from the sound recording and reproducing apparatus and used in another sound recording and reproducing apparatus or a personal computer, and moreover such that it can reproduce a sound based on sound data and edit the sound data by using the apparatus or the personal computer. This makes it possible to dishonestly rewrite sound data recorded in the memory card. On the other hand, differently from analog sound data recorded by an analog recording and reproducing apparatus, digital sound data recorded by the digital recording and reproducing apparatus makes it difficult, for instance, even if part of the sound data was overwritten, to clearly recognize a boundary between original sound data originally recorded in the memory card and the overwritten sound data. Therefore, it is difficult for the conventional sound recording and reproducing apparatus to determine whether or not the present sound data is overwritten, and further whether or not the sound data is authentic.
In the above case, if part of sound data was overwritten in a quite normal fashion, FAT (File Allocation Table) data of the sound data is replaced by FAT data of new sound data, so that there is generated FAT data which is different from an original FAT data in date information and recording address information. Therefore, when sound data was recorded in the memory card, if FAT data of the sound data is caused to be stored in a built-in memory, and it is determined, when a sound is reproduced based on the sound data, whether or not FAT data items stored in the memory card and the built-in memory respectively are identical to each other, it is possible to determine whether or not the sound data was rewritten. However, since FAT data itself can be rewritten relatively easily, it is possible, for instance, to rewrite the sound data dishonestly to restore FAT data having the same contents with those of FAT data corresponding to the original sound data. This makes it difficult, when the FAT data was restored, to determine whether or not the sound data was rewritten in spite of the fact that the sound data was rewritten.
Further, to prevent sound data from being rewritten by a third party, there have been already devised a technique which records a predetermined user identification code in a memory card in advance such that only a sound recording and reproducing apparatus which first recorded sound data in the memory card can rewrite the sound data, and a technique which encrypts sound data per se to thereby disable rewriting of the sound data by another sound recording and reproducing apparatus. According to the former technique, rewriting of recording data can be prevented. However, it is required to record beforehand user identification codes different from each other in a manner associated with a corresponding one of a very large number of memory cards since it is necessitated to record a user identification code in each memory card in advance. Consequently, the user identification codes themselves become complicated and large-sized codes. Therefore, an important data recordable area of the memory card is occupied by the large-sized codes. Further, it takes a long time period to carry out identification processing for identification of a complicated and large-sized user identification code, and at the same time necessitates a sophisticated identification program and a high performance control section, which results in increased manufacturing costs of the sound recording and reproducing apparatus. On the other hand, the latter technique which encrypts sound data per se suffers from the problem that it takes a longer time period to carry out recording processing for recording sound data due to intricate encryption processing, and moreover it takes a longer time period to carry out reproduction processing for reproducing sound data due to decoding processing for decoding the encrypted sound data. Additionally, a sophisticated processing program for encrypting and decoding sound data and a high performance control section are necessitated.
It is a main object of the invention to provide a digital recording and reproducing apparatus which is capable of determining whether or not recording data was rewritten, reliably and in a short time period without increasing manufacturing costs thereof.
To attain the above object, the invention provides a digital recording and reproducing apparatus which is capable of having a removable external memory mounted therein, for performing recording of recording data in the external memory and reproduction based on the recording data recorded in the external memory, the digital recording and reproducing apparatus comprising an identification data-generating block for generating identification data for use in determining whether or not the recording data was rewritten, an internal memory in which the identification data can be recorded, and a control block for recording the identification data in the external memory as part of the recording data and at the same time recording the identification data in the internal memory in a manner correlated to a title of a file to be recorded in FAT data concerning the recording data, wherein when the control block reads in the recording data from the external memory, if the identification data corresponding to the title of the file in the FAT data concerning the recording data read in from the external memory exists in the internal memory, the control block compares the existing identification data and the identification data recorded in the recording data read in with each other, and carries out predetermined processing if the compared identification data are different from each other.
The digital recording and reproducing apparatus according to the invention includes the identification data-generating block for generating identification data, the internal memory in which the identification data can be recorded, and the control block for recording the identification data recorded in the external memory in the internal memory in a manner correlated to the title of the file of the recording data, and when the identification data corresponding to the title of the file of the recording data exists in the internal memory, the control block compares the two identification data recorded in the external memory and the internal memory, respectively, and carries out predetermined processing if the identification data are different from each other. This makes it possible to determine whether or not the recording data was rewritten, reliably and in a short time period although the apparatus is simple in construction, whereby it is possible to carry out suitable reproduction processing and notification processing for notifying the operator that the recording data has been rewritten, based on results of the determination. Further, differently from the method of fixedly recording an identification code beforehand in an external memory, it is possible to reduce the manufacturing costs of the external memory itself, and therefore it is possible to use an inexpensive memory available on the market as a recording medium.
In this case, it is preferred that the control block records the identification data in a header information recording portion of the recording data when the recording data is recorded in the external memory.
According to this preferred embodiment, the control block records the identification data in the header information recording portion of the recording data, whereby the identification data can be recorded in the recording data even immediately after the start of a recording process when the amount of the recording data per se is not finally determined. Further, during a reproduction process, it is possible to read out the identification data from the header information recording portion in a short time period to determine identity of the recording data, which makes it possible to shorten time periods required both for the recording process and the reproduction process.
Alternatively, it is preferred that the control block records the identification data in a data main body recording portion of the recording data when the recording data is recorded in the external memory.
According to this preferred embodiment, the control block records the identification data in the data main body recording portion of the recording data, whereby when compared with the method of recording identification data in the header information recording portion, it is difficult to locate the recording address of the identification data, thereby making it possible to prevent the identification data from being restored dishonestly after the recording data was rewritten. As a result, it can be determined reliably based on the above identification data whether or not the recording data was rewritten.
In this case, it is preferred that the identification data-generating block generates a plurality of items of the identification data according to an amount of the recording data, and wherein the control block scatteringly records the plurality of items of the identification data in the data main body recording portion, and at the same time records recording address information of the items of the identification data in the internal memory in a manner correlated to the title of the file of the recording data, and wherein when the recording data is read in from the external memory, the control block extracts the plurality of items of the identification data scatteringly recorded in the data main body recording portion of the recording data, based on the recording address information corresponding to the title of the file of the recording data, and compares each of the items of the identification data recorded in the internal memory in a manner correlated to the title of the file and each of the extracted items of the identification data, with each other.
According to this preferred embodiment, the identification data-generating block generates a plurality of items of the identification data according to the amount of the recording data. The control block scatteringly records the items of the identification data in the external memory such that the items of the identification data are scattered in the data main body recording portion, and records recording address information of the identification data in the internal memory in a manner correlated to the title of the file of the recording data, whereby e.g. when part of the recording data is rewritten, the identification data scatteringly recorded in the data main body recording portion is written over. Therefore, by comparing this identification data with the identification data recorded in the internal memory, it is possible to reliably determine whether or not the identification data was rewritten. Further, when compared with the method of recording a predefined number of items of the identification data, it is difficult to locate a recording address corresponding to an item of the identification data, thereby making it possible to reliably prevent the identification data from being restored dishonestly after the recording data was rewritten. Further, the method of fixedly defining the number of items of the identification data has points to be improved in that when the amount of recording data is small, the recording data is bloated by recording an unnecessarily large number of items of identification data at very short recording intervals in the recording data, whereas when the amount of recording data is large, it becomes difficult to reliably determine whether or not the recording data was partially rewritten since identification data is recorded at very large recording intervals in the recording data. In contrast, according to the digital recording and reproducing apparatus of the invention, the number of items of the identification data to be recorded is defined depending on the amount of recording data, whereby the recording data can be prevented from being bloated and at the same time it is possible to reliably determine whether or not the recording data was partially rewritten.
Further, it is preferred that the control block defines recording intervals of the plurality of items of the identification data in a random fashion and scatteringly records the plurality of items of the identification data in the data main body recording portion.
According to this preferred embodiment, the control block scatteringly records the plurality of items of the identification data at recording intervals defined in a random fashion, whereby when compared with a case in which recording intervals for recording identification data are defined in advance, it becomes more difficult to locate the recording address of the identification data, which makes it possible to reliably determine whether or not the identification data was restored dishonestly after the recording data had been rewritten, while reducing the amount of identification data.
Further, it is more preferred that when the compared identification data are determined to be different from each other, the control block notifies that the recording data read in from the external memory was rewritten, as the predetermined processing. In this case, it is more preferred that when the items of the identification data are determined to be identical to each other, the reproduction based on the recording data read in from the external memory is permitted without further processing.
According to this preferred embodiment, when the items of the identification data are different from each other, the control block notifies that the recording data was rewritten. As to recording data which was not rewritten, the reproduction process for reproducing the same can be continued without further processing, whereas when the recording data was rewritten, it is possible to notify the operator of the fact e.g. by displaying letters and symbols or delivering alerting sound, thereby stop the reproduction process.
Also, it is preferred that the identification data-generating block generates the identification data such that the identification data contains date information corresponding to a recording date of the recording data.
According to this preferred embodiment, the identification data-generating block the identification data such that the identification data contains date information corresponding to a recording date of the recording data, whereby compared with the method of recording, for instance, fixed numerical value information or the like as identification data, it becomes difficult to locate the recording address of the identification data, so that it is possible to determine more reliably whether or not the recording data was rewritten, although the apparatus is simple in construction.
Further, it is preferred that the identification data-generating block generates the identification data such that the identification data contains numerical value information generated in a random fashion.
According to this preferred embodiment, the identification data-generating block generates the identification data such that the identification data contains numerical value information generated in a random fashion, whereby compared with the method of recording, for instance, fixed numerical value information or the like as identification data, it becomes difficult to locate the recording address of the identification data, so that it is possible to determine more reliably whether or not the recording data was rewritten, and even if the recording data was recorded on the same date, it is possible to determine more reliably whether or not the recording data was rewritten, since it becomes less likely that items of identification data having the same information are generated.
Further, it is preferred that when the present apparatus is applied to a digital recording and reproducing apparatus configured to be capable of recording and reproducing sound data as the recording data, the digital recording and reproducing apparatus includes a sound signal input block for inputting an analog sound signal, a sound data-generating block for generating the sound data by converting the analog sound signal to digital data and compressing the digital data, a sound signal-generating block for decompressing the sound data recorded in the external memory to generate the digital data and converting the digital data to the analog sound signal, and an amplifier circuit for amplifying the converted analog sound signal to output the amplified sound signal.
According to this preferred embodiment, by applying the digital recording and reproducing apparatus according to the present invention to a voice recorder or the like for recording voice data or sound data which can be rewritten relatively easily, such that the apparatus is configured to be capable of recording and reproducing the voice data, it is possible to reliably determine whether or not the voice data was rewritten.
It should be noted that the disclosure of the present specification relates to the subjects included in Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-277535 which was filed with Japanese Patent Office on Sep. 13, 2000, and all of the disclosures thereby are expressly incorporated herein by reference.

Digital recording and reproducing apparatus capable of determining whether data was rewritten or not


A building management system for a building system includes a building system interface configured to receive building system data; a knowledge base configured to receive the building system data, the knowledge base providing a model of the building system, the model including semantic descriptions of the building system data, the semantic descriptions of the building system data being arranged in an ontology; and a user interface configured to access the knowledge base.

A building management system may be used to read building system data from a building system and to write building system data to a building system. For example, in an HVAC application, a building management system may be used to read existing chiller water temperatures and to write an updated chiller water temperature set point to the chiller controller. Existing building management systems are highly diversified in terms of: 1) data representation and technological frameworks; 2) terminology and conceptual models; and 3) protocols and communication channels to access managed devices. As a result, building management systems are independent silos, i.e., isolated data stores incapable of reciprocal operation with each-other, even when managing the same building/site.

Building management system having knowledge base


A fuse element is formed integrally from a conductive metal plate such that two narrow portions are formed side by side between a pair of electrical connection portions. The narrow portions each assume an arch shape and constitute a parallel conductive path. Arch-shaped convex portions are arranged so as to oppose to each other with a predetermined gap therebetween, thus constituting a fusing portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuse element used in protecting an electric circuit provided in an automobile or the like, and more particularly, to the structure of a fusible portion formed integrally with an electrical connection portion, from a thin metal plate.
The present application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-149914, which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Related Art
A related-art automobile fuse of this type will be described by reference to that described in, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. JP-A-07-65690, and shown in FIG. 5. As shown in FIG. 5, a fuse element P is formed integrally from a conductive metal plate, such as copper. A pair of connection terminals 53 are formed at the respective ends of a narrow portion 51. A thin metal layer is formed from tin on the surface of the fusible portion 51 by plating. A low-fusing-point metal chip 54 is provided in the center and at a position where the greatest amount of heat will develop when an electric current flows through the fusible portion 51. The low-fusing-point metal chip 54 is held by wrapping and caulking crimp pieces formed on the respective side edges of the fusible portion 51, thus forming a fusing portion 52. The fusible portion 51 is bent into an inverted U-shape with the fusing portion 52 taken as a center. The connection terminal portions 53 provided at the respective ends of the fusible portion 51 are connected to an electric circuit.
In order to cause the fusible portion 51 to satisfy a fusing characteristic with as low a resistance value as possible, there is utilized a phenomenon of the low-fusing-point metal chip 54 spreading into the fusible portion 51. A predetermined time lag is ensured by the thin metal layer formed on the surface of the fusible portion 51. However, if a comparatively low overcurrent which does not induce fusing of the fusible portion 51 within the period of the time lag flows through the fuse element repeatedly or if there has frequently arisen a phenomenon of the fusing portion 52 being instantaneously heated as a result of rushed flow of an overcurrent through the fusible portion 51, the low-fusing-point metal chip 54 induces gradual progress in diffusion alloying of the fusing portion 52. As a result, deterioration arises in the characteristic of the fusing portion 52; that is, a characteristic of shortening a time required for fusing the fusing portion 52. Hence, there arises a problem of the fuse element failing to attain predetermined durability.
In order to ensure a fusing characteristic and durability of a fuse, the low-fusing-point metal chip 54 requires complicated manufacturing processes and special management in relation to the purity of material, dimensional accuracy, and maintenance of fixed adhesion of the low-fusing-point metal chip 54 to the fusible portion 51, thereby resulting in low productivity and adding to manufacturing costs.


Disclosed herein is a framework for facilitating patient signal analysis. In accordance with one aspect, actiniform segmentation is performed on patient signal data waveform based on an actiniform shape. The actiniform shape is centered at a peak of the waveform and includes connection lines extending from the peak to key time points of the patient signal data waveform. Actiniform parameters may be extracted from the segmented patient signal data waveform. Additionally, one or more actiniform ratios may be determined based on the actiniform parameters to monitor changes in the patient signal data waveform.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the top killer diseases in today's society, accounting for nearly 500,000 deaths in America each year. Studies estimate that 50% of men and 33% of women under the age of 40 will develop some form of CAD sometime during their lifetimes. Sudden cardiac death has steadily accounted for approximately 50% of all heart-related, out-of-hospital deaths and improved clinical procedures almost entirely ignore this group. The fact that patients generally fail to recognize their symptoms and seek prompt medical attention contributes to this tragic statistic. However, the early stages of CAD are usually non-symptomatic and even invisible with current clinical cardiac signal analysis strategies. If fatal cardiac arrhythmia events can be sensitively and accurately detected and captured, the cardiac functional abnormality frequency and severity can be earlier detected and characterized. This may greatly help the doctor to provide early and more effective clinical treatment and then prevent fatal heart diseases.
Recognition and characterization of early arrhythmia events, such as ventricular tachycardia, myocardial ischemia (MI) and infarction, are critical for rhythm management of the cardiac disorders and irregularities. Currently, waveform morphology and time domain parameter analysis of depolarization and repolarization of cardiac signals, such as P wave, QRS complex, ST segment and T wave, are used for monitoring and identifying cardiac arrhythmia. However, such current clinical methodologies are sometimes subjective and time-consuming, and require expertise and clinical experience for accurate interpretation and proper cardiac rhythm management.
Recently, some research efforts have started to apply more sophisticated mathematical theories to interpret patient signal, such as frequency analysis, symbolic complexity analysis and nonlinear entropy evaluation, focusing primarily on generating a new pathology index for qualitative cardiac arrhythmia characterization. Although these research efforts may be able to qualitatively describe the pathology or event, they cannot provide enough information on cardiac electrophysiological function/activity interpretation, tissue mapping, arrhythmia localization, etc.
Additionally, traditional medical methods usually focus on changes in the time (amplitude, latency, etc.) or frequency (power, spectrum, etc.) domain, which may not efficiently and accurately capture minute signal changes in a partial portion (P wave, QRS complex, ST segment, etc.) of a cardiac cycle. Such changes are usually invisible in the signal wave morphology display or need extensive clinical expertise to obtain an accurate diagnosis. Consequently, a high failure rate of arrhythmia diagnosis and false negatives (FN) may result. A false negative (FN) wrongly indicates that a person has disease X (e.g., myocardial ischemia), even though he or she does not actually have the disease.
Known clinical approaches for cardiac arrhythmia identification and analysis based on electrocardiography (ECG) signals are subjective and require extensive expertise and clinical experience for accurate interpretation and appropriate cardiac rhythm management. More objective analytical and diagnostic strategies for cardiac signals and activities are needed. Furthermore, known methods based on amplitude (or voltage) variation analysis may not be sufficient for cardiac function evaluation and pathology diagnosis. No quantitative clinical evaluation and link between myocardial ischemia event/status and the amplitude and variation index are provided.
Known clinical evaluations for cardiac malfunction detection and characterization (e.g., MI and infarction) are based on the "golden standard" using ST segment voltage deviation (e.g., 0.1 mV elevation is the clinical standard for myocardial ischemia or MI detection). However, there are at least two shortcomings with the golden standard for this kind of diagnosis and evaluation: (a) this standard only works for surface ECG signals, but not for intra-cardiac electrograms (ICEG); (b) ST segment deviation in voltage cannot be utilized to quantitatively characterize myocardial ischemia severity. There is a clinical need for both quantitative and qualitative approaches for cardiac arrhythmia detection and characterization.
Further, current clinical methods based on cardiac pathology information extraction (e.g., atrial fibrillation or AF detection and MI diagnosis) may not be able to qualitatively and quantitatively capture minute changes, and predict the pathological trend, especially in the early stage of tissue malfunctioning and acute cardiac arrhythmia. Known current methods may not efficiently analyze the real-time growing trend of cardiac arrhythmias, such as the pathology trend from low risk to medium risk, and then to high risk (severe and fatal) rhythm (especially for some fatal arrhythmia, such as VT growing and trend to VF).
Even further, known clinical methods and strategies for cardiac pathology event detection and evaluations rely only on partial portion cardiac waveform and electrophysiological procedure, such as ST segment changes for myocardial ischemia. However, different portions of the cardiac waveform may provide some additional information of the events and cardiac diseases.
In addition, there are many cardiac arrhythmia (such as ischemia and fibrillation) analysis methods for detecting and treating heart pathology, such as heart rate variability, medicine, implantable cardioverter, etc. However, the efficiency and reliability of these kinds of clinical approaches may not be sufficient, especially in a noisy environment since atrial activities may be buried in noise and artifacts. It would be a challenge to efficiently and reliably extract atrial arrhythmia information from the electrophysiological signals (e.g., surface ECG and intra-cardiac electrograms). Current medical applications also need better methods to detect cardiac pathology events in a more reliable and timely manner, and particularly to provide early warning and treatment options for fatal heart arrhythmia, which can be used in implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) patients.

Patient signal analysis based on actiniform segmentation


The invention relates to a method for separating emulsions of oil and water, the method comprising incorporating a demulsifying-effective amount of a silicone demulsifier into an emulsion comprising an oil phase and an aqueous phase, the silicone demulsifier having a molecular structure comprising a polysiloxane backbone of at least two siloxane units covalently bound to (i) one or more alkylene oxide groups comprising one or more alkylene oxide units independently having one to five carbon atoms, and (ii) one or more oxirane-containing and/or oxetane-containing groups, wherein said oxirane or oxetane is optionally ring-opened by reaction with a chemical or group capable of ring-opening an oxirane or oxetane ring, respectively, and wherein a solid filler is substantially excluded from the silicone demulsifier and emulsion. The invention also relates to compositions containing the above-described demulsifier and the water and oil phases of an emulsion.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to silicone demulsifiers of particular use in separating water emulsified in oil.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known that emulsions often cause difficulties in industrial processing operations. For this reason, the emulsified components need to be separated. Often, one or more chemicals, known as demulsifiers, are used for this purpose.
For example, during crude oil processing, it is common place for water to become emulsified in the oil. The emulsified water is problematic from several standpoints, most notably as a corrosive to pipelines and as a disruptor to oil distillation processes. The resulting water-in-oil emulsion is typically highly stable as a result of natural surfactants (e.g., naphthoic acids, asphaltenes, and resins) in the crude oil.
To disrupt the stabilized water-in-oil emulsions in crude oil, specialized demulsifiers have been used. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,004,559, 4,183,820, 3,677,962, and British Patent No. GB 1439793, all of which disclose the use of polyoxyalkylene-polysiloxane copolymers as demulsifiers in crude oil or petroleum processing.
However, there remains a need for demulsifiers capable of breaking and/or separating such emulsions more effectively.


A differential transimpedance amplifier used in amplifying optical signals transmitted with a balanced code has a level restore circuit which integrates the digital output of the amplifier and feeds back the result to one of the differential inputs of the amplifier. The feedback signal removes imbalances from the amplifier output. The balanced amplifier output can then be processed by a clock reconstruction circuit to accurately sample the received optical signal with a low bit error rate.

The present invention relates to binary communication receivers and more particularly to an amplifier feedback circuit for removing amplifier offsets in fiber optic receivers processing balanced code.
Binary communication receivers typically operate with signals in the microvolt or millivolt range which must be amplified to logic levels. Typically, differential input devices are used. The input stage is not perfectly balanced and when multistage amplifiers are used each stage adds and amplifies the previous offsets. When a laser is used to generate optical signals, the laser characteristics can also contribute to the DC offset problem. The differences in input voltages needed to bring the output of the amplifier to zero is called the input offset voltage. Offsets occur due to manufacturing variations in the transistors used in the amplifier. The input offset voltage drifts with temperature and time. Any unbalance is amplified along with the input signal and cause the digitized output of the amplifier to distort the time period of the digitized signals.
High speed digital (gigabit system) fiber optic data systems use balanced coding schemes to simplify the data recovery circuitry. In a balanced coding scheme the average number of high and low bits are equal. In an optical system, where the signal from the amplifier is processed by a clock restoration arrangement which controls a latch, for example, to sample the digital output of the amplifier, the clock restoration circuit relies on the fact that the width of the high and low digital pulses will be equal. When the pulses are not of equal length the bit error rate in sampling the data increases, limiting the data transmission rates that can be achieved. A reduction in pulse width distortion would decrease the bit error rate. In systems where long distances between transmitters and receivers are desired, an increase in the bit error rate adversely affects data integrity. A sensitivity decrease of 10 dbm can result due to offset effects which can result in a distance penalty of approximately 20 kilometers in order to maintain a desired bit error rate.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a feedback circuit for an amplifier receiving balanced code which removes amplifier offsets which would degrade performance.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a feedback circuit for an amplifier receiving balanced code which allows the best bit error rate achievable, to be obtained from the amplifier.
It is another object of the current invention to provide a feedback circuit which can be implemented on the same integrated circuitry as the amplifier.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a level restore circuit to balance amplifier offsets suitable for use with a high gain transimpedance amplifier.

Fiber optic amplifier with active elements feedback circuit


In a method for guiding brachytherapy radiation treatment the patient is supported on a table and an MR magnet is brought into the treatment bunker through doors for imaging while the after-loader for the radiation source delivery is stored away in a storage location outside the RF shield. A safety system controls movement of the after-loader and the magnet. Images of the patient obtained while the patient is on the table are used to locate the applicator with respect to the lesion and organs-at-risk. The MR and X-ray compatible patient support table with MR coil integration includes a removable end-extension, which provides pelvic access for applicator insertion.

Brachytherapy involves the delivery of radiation dose via radioactive seeds within or adjacent to the tumour using either percutaneous insertion of needle applicators or insertion of intracavity applicator(s). A range of different applicators have been developed for several different tumour sites, including prostate, cervical, vaginal, rectal, esophagus, and lung. The applicator insertion is typically performed using ultrasound guidance or simply palpating the anatomy and guiding the applicator to the correct position.
Following the insertion of the applicator, x-ray images are typically acquired to determine the location of the applicator relative to the anatomy. However, increasingly, MR has been used in brachytherapy for imaging applicator placement and for treatment planning purposes. This move to MR has led to the development of MR-compatible applicators and accessories. The typical workflow for including MR in the brachytherapy process involves insertion of the applicators, moving the patient to the MR suite, and then once again moving the patient to another location for treatment.
Once the applicator is in place, the patient is moved to a radiation shielded bunker for high dose rate (HDR) treatment delivery, or a typical patient hospital room for pulsed dose rate (PDR) or low dose rate (LDR) treatments. For HDR therapies, the applicators in the patient are hooked up to long transfer tubes that connect to a remote after-loader device. The after-loader device provides a set of connections for the transfer tubes, through which the after-loader can move radioactive seeds (typically Co-60 or Ir-192) along the transfer tubes and into the applicators in the patient. The radioactive seeds stop at certain points along the applicator for predefined lengths of time to create a conformal dose distribution pattern. Once complete, the radioactive material is brought back along the transfer tube into the after-loader.
The main drawback of the MR inclusion in HDR brachytherapy today is that it involves moving the patient between the location of applicator insertion, MR imaging and treatment bunker. Some approaches have integrated the insertion of needles within the MR, using sophisticated tabletop designs or MR-compatible robotic systems. However, these approaches still require that the patient be transported between the MR and treatment bunker.
In U.S. Pat. No. 8,513,946 (Petropoulos) issued Aug. 20, 2013 filed May 14, 2010 assigned to IMRIS there is disclosed a "Movable table for Magnetic Resonance Imaging", which includes an embodiment of the invention with a pelvic region cut-out to provide access for pelvic procedures.
In U.S. Pat. No. 8,295,906 (Saunders) issued Oct. 23, 2012 and originally published Feb. 25, 2010 assigned to IMRIS there is disclosed the integration of MRI with radiation therapy.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,908,690 (Luginbuhl) issued Mar. 22, 2011 assigned to Sentinelle Medical there is disclosed an MR table top for MR-guided interventions called "Supine patient support for medical imaging.
The disclosures of the above patents are hereby incorporated herein by reference.

Method for MR-guided brachytherapy with consistent patient positioning


A method for generating transaction aware snapshots, the method may include: (a) starting a creation of a certain point in time snapshot for a consistency group that comprises at least one logical volume; (b) detecting that at the certain point in time there is an uncompleted transaction for writing multiple information units to the consistency group; the uncompleted transaction started at a transaction start point in time that precedes the certain point in time; (c) preventing an access to the certain point in time snapshot until a completion of the uncompleted transaction; and (d) associating the multiple information units with at least the certain point in time snapshot.

A single logical operation (transaction) performed by an application may include several write operations (also referred to as writes) directed towards a disk layer of a storage system. For example, a filesystem that is hosted by an application layer of a storage system (or is hosted by a host computer that is coupled to the storage system) can perform file operations that involve writing data as well as writing metadata in the corresponding inode (inode being a metadata structure that includes metadata about the file). This may include writing new data to the file, adding pointers to the newly added data in a mapping data structure of the file, updating the size and timestamps of the file in its inode and optionally updating a timestamp of a parent directory.
The writes of a single transaction may be directed to a single logical volume or to a group of logical volumes (that form a consistency group). For example, the data of the file may be written in one logical volume while the metadata of the file may be written to a different logical volume of the same consistency group.
Storage systems may use various methods for keeping the integrity of the information they store. One method includes taking, at different points in time, snapshots of the same consistency group. The consistency group may include one or more logical volumes.
Snapshots of the same consistency group taken at different points of time are also referred as different snapshot versions. The term snapshot version refers to a unique identifier that uniquely identifies the specific snapshot at least among all the snapshots of the snapshot family of the same consistency group and is indicative of the time or order of creation relative to other snapshots in the family, for example, a newer snapshot is associated with a snapshot version that is larger than a snapshot version of an earlier created snapshot. The snapshot version may include for example a running index. Thus indexes 1, 2, . . . n may represent first till n'th snapshots (snapshot versions) SN(1), SN(2), . . . , SN(n) taken at points of time T(1), T(2), . . . T(n).
If a snapshot is taken between the writes of the transaction, the snapshot contains a partially executed transaction (incomplete transaction), which reflects an inconsistent state of the application stored data. A recovery based on such a snapshot can be erroneous. The inconsistency may exist whether the snapshot is of a single volume or the snapshot is of a group of volumes (that form a consistency group) involved in the transaction.
FIG. 1 is a timing diagram (1) that illustrates (a transaction inconsistent) snapshot version (n+1) {SN(n+1)} that includes data written by first till third writes of a transaction 8.
Version n snapshot (also referred to as SN(n)) was taken at time Tn 10. SN(n+1) was taken at time T(n+1) 20. SN(n+2) was taken at time T(n+2) 30.
Transaction 8 started at start point of time Tstart 11 and ends at Tend 23. Transaction 8 includes five writes—first till third writes taken at Tw1 12, Tw2 13, Tw3 14 (all between Tn 10 and T(n+1) 20) and fourth and fifth writes taken at Tw4 21 and Tw5 22 (between T(n+1) 20 and T(n+2) 30).
SN(n+1) includes only data corresponds to the first three writes of transaction 8 and thus is a transaction inconsistent snapshot.
FIG. 2 is a timing diagram 2 that illustrates a creation of transaction consistent snapshot at the expense of delaying the initialization of the creation of snapshots. Thus, SN(N+1) should have been taken at T(n+1) 20 but it was delayed (by delay 50) until transaction 8 is completed—and thus is actually taken at point of time T(n+1)′ 20′. In addition, new transactions (not shown) that are initiated between T(n+1) 20 and T(n+1)′ 20′ are withheld until after SN(N+1) is taken at T(n+1)′ 20′.
FIG. 2 may provide a partial representation of two known solutions for generating transaction consistent at the expense of delaying the initialization of the creation of snapshots and delaying the start of new transactions.
One known solution is called "Block and Drain", where the application blocks new transactions from users before a snapshot is taken, drains all pending writes, and when all pending writes are completed, a snapshot is taken (SN(n+1) taken at T′(n+1) 20′ after being delayed by delay 50) and the blocking of new writes is removed. This causes a pause of up to few seconds in the workflow.
Another solution temporarily stores all the new incoming write requests in a temporary location, while draining pending writes and (once all pending writes are completed) taking a snapshot (SN(n+1) at T′(n+1) 20′ after being delayed by delay 50). After the draining is completed and a snapshot is taken, the temporarily stored incoming write requests are executed. While the users are not restrained from sending write requests, there is still a pause in the normal workflow as well as implementation complications.
There is a growing need to provide a system, method and a computer readable medium for providing transaction consistent snapshots.

System, method and a non-transitory computer readable medium for transaction aware snapshot


In a clearance-free supporting structure for a pivotal axle applicable to an operation device of a multi-stage automatic transmission, at least one pair of first projections is formed on a housing between which the pivotal axle is inserted to enable a pivotal movement of the pivotal axle, a pair of left and right truncated cone shaped portions are formed on the pivotal axle, at least one pair of second projections is formed on the housing to graspably contact with the pair of left and right truncated cone shaped portions to enable the pivotal movement of the pivotal axle, at least one recessed portion formed on the housing at a position placed in proximity to a base portion of each of the pair of first projections to enable a slidable contact thereof with the pivotal axle, and a biasing device biases the pivotal axle to be pressed toward the recessed portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a clearance-free supporting structure for a pivotal axle (portion), for example, the clearance-free supporting structure of the pivotal axle (portion) disposed within a shift lock mechanism (or a shift lock unit) in an operation device of a multi-stage automatic transmission to be mounted in an automotive vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
A Japanese Patent Application First Publication No. 2003-127691 published on May 8, 2003 (which corresponds to a United States Patent Application Publication No. US 2003/0074999 A1 published on Apr. 24, 2003) exemplifies a previously proposed shift lock mechanism for a multi-stage automatic transmission. In the multi-stage automatic transmission disclosed in the above-described Japanese Patent Application First Publication, functions of a park lock at a P (Parking) position and an R (Reverse) inhibit at an N (Neutral) position are provided. In the above-described Japanese Patent Application First Publication, the shift lock mechanism which achieves both of the above-described functions is integrated into a single unit and fixed on an outer side surface of a frame of the multi-stage automatic transmission.
In details, a lock unit is fixed onto the outer side surface of the frame. The lock unit is provided with a lock lever which is brought in close contact with a stop (or stopper) lever attached to a select lever. Lock unit includes a base plate on which a plurality of engagement portions are engaged with a plurality of engagement holes opened to one of side surfaces of left and right (lateral) directions of the frame and to which the lock lever, a pivotal axle portion, and an actuator such as a solenoid to pivot the pivotal axle portion are operably attached. The lock lever and its pivotal axle portion are constructed as follows: The pivotal axle portion orthogonal to a vicinity to a pivotal axle base portion of a main body of the lock lever in an approximately sector shape and having a predetermined length are integrally formed of a synthetic resin. The pivotal axle portion is provided with a small-diameter axle portion fitted into an axle supporting portion formed on a base plate. This small-diameter axle portion can be fitted into a cut-out (notch) portion. The axle supporting portion other than the notch portion is an arc-shaped projection rotatably supporting the pivotal axle portion. One end portion of the pivotal axle portion is rotatably supported on an axle supporting portion constituted by an annular projection insertably formed on base plate. The other end portion of pivotable axle portion is integrally formed with a lower portion projected toward an oblique side direction and integrally formed with a lever portion projected in parallel to an axial center line of the pivotal axle portion and at a position having a predetermined length toward a radial direction from the axial center line. Hence, the pivotal axle portion is pivotable and can be moved toward the axial direction via the axle supporting portions. Hence, a clearance against a window hole of the frame with which lock lever is engaged can be absorbed. The lever portion is formed with an elongated hole. A pin projection installed on an operation portion of the actuator is engaged with the elongated hole. The pin projection is elongated so that a distance between the operation portion and lever portion is so long that the clearance between inner side surfaces of the window hole can be absorbed. A release lever is pivotally supported on the base plate by means of an axle and is biased by means of a spring so that its one end portion of the release lever and the projection are always spaced apart from each other. The other end portion of the release lever is brought in close contact with a lever end portion of a pin whose upper end portion is exposed to an indicator portion.

Clearance-free supporting structure for pivotal axle applicable to shift lock unit of multi-stage automatic transmission


Positive charges of a sensor element are stored in a capacitor for converting a voltage, are converted into a positive voltage by an amplifier, and then are outputted. When the polarity of the charges of the sensor element are inverted to be negative, the charges inversely flow from the capacitor for converting the voltage and feed back to an equivalent capacitor of the sensor element. The output of the amplifier reduces and returns to a zero-point. An automatic correcting circuit makes an FET conductive and the charges are discharged in order to prevent the fluctuation of the zero-point level due to the negative drift.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a charge signal converting amplifier which converts a charge signal outputted from a charge generating sensor into a voltage.
2. Description of the Related Art
A charge generating sensor such as a piezoelectric element generates a charge in proportion to a load magnitude which is mechanically applied. Generally, the charge generating sensor is suitable for measuring a continuous dynamic pressure, and is used as a pressure sensor (cylinder pressure sensor) for measuring a combustion pressure in a cylinder. In order to extract a signal from the charge generating sensor, the signal from the charge generating sensor is generally converted into a voltage signal by using an amplifier with an ultra-high input impedance. Referring to FIG. 8, the charge signal converting amplifier (so-called "a charge amplifier") has a feedback capacitor C between an input and an output of an amplifier AO having an infinite gain with an opposite phase (reverse phase). The charge amplifier is frequency used.
However, the measurement with the charge generating sensor always has a zero point drifting problem due to a charge leakage or a temperature change. For example, upon measuring the pressure by connecting the charge signal converting amplifier to a pressure sensor such as the piezoelectric element, the pressure increases from a zero level and returns thereto. Then, the zero level outputted from the charge signal converting amplifier drifts in the negative direction because the charges of the pressure sensor become negative in accordance with the charge leakages, or drift and fluctuate in the positive direction due to the temperature increase. This impedes the accurate measurement.
A description is given about examples of level fluctuations of zero points due to the charge leakages or temperature changes when the charge amplifier is connected to the cylinder pressure sensor comprising the piezoelectric element attached to a combustion chamber of the engine for measuring a combustion pressure in the cylinder.
In a normal engine having a four-stroke cycle (intake compression—combustion—exhaust), a piston reaches nearly a top dead center (TDC) position. Then, an exhaust valve is closed, and an intake valve is opened. In the case of a natural aspiration engine, the cylinder pressure becomes the atmospheric pressure. In the case of an engine with a supercharger, the pressure becomes a pressure obtained by adding a boost pressure (e.g., 500 mmHg to 1,500 mmHg) to the atmospheric pressure.
Then, the piezoelectric effect of the sensor element generates a charge proportional to a cylinder pressure load. The generated charge in this case is designated by a reference symbol −q. The charge −q is charged by the feedback capacitor C of the charge amplifier, and it is converted into a voltage signal +V by the amplifier A0, and the converted signal is outputted. Therefore, the signal level is at the zero level when the cylinder pressure becomes the atmospheric pressure. When the boost pressure exists, the signal level is at the level obtained by adding the boost pressure as a DC voltage component to the zero level of the atmospheric pressure. Then, the signal level becomes a basic level of a combustion waveform which rises by the combustion pressure to be generated later.
During the period when the piston moves from the TDC position to a bottom dead center (BDC) position, the intake continues in the meantime and, the cylinder pressure is not highly changed and is maintained to approximately the basic level. Next, the piston approximately reaches the BDC position, and the intake valve is closed. Then, the compression starts for a period from the BDC to the TDC. Simultaneously with the compression start, the cylinder pressure starts to increase, the charges of the piezoelectric element increase and are sequentially charged by the feedback capacitor C of the charge amplifier. Further, the voltage signal +V, which is converted and outputted by the amplifier AO, increases.
As a result of an ignition just before the piston reaches the TDC position (i.e., just before the maximum level of the compression pressure), the combustion pressure is generated and the generation of the combustion pressure rapidly increases the charges of the piezoelectric element. Further, the voltage signal +V, which is converted and outputted by the amplifier AO, also rapidly increases. Then, a signal outputted as the combustion pressure is the signal at the above-mentioned basic level. That is, the combustion pressure is the signal at the atmospheric pressure level in the case of the natural aspiration engine, while it is the signal at the level obtained by superimposing (or overlapping) the signal to the DC voltage component of the boost pressure in the case of the supercharged engine.
Next, after the cylinder pressure becomes a maximum, the piston moves from the TDC position to the BDC position. Accordingly, the cylinder pressure decreases. Then, the charges are inverted in their polarity, and the feedback to the piezoelectric element starts. That is, with respect to the piezoelectric element, it seems that the combustion pressure acts as a positive stress (compression force) and then the charges with the polarity of −q are charged in proportion to the stress. Further, when the combustion pressure decreases, it acts as a negative stress (tension) to the piezoelectric element, and then the polarity of the charges is inverted to +q in proportion to the stress. This phenomenon inverts the polarity of the feedback capacitor C and consequently inverts the polarity of the output signal.
After that, the piston approximately reaches the BDC position, and the exhaust valve is opened (the intake valve is still closed). Then the combustion gas is exhausted while the piston approaches the TDC position. Then, in the case of the natrual aspiration engine, the cylinder pressure of the natural aspiration engine returns to the atmospheric pressure. In the case of the supercharge engine, the cylinder pressure of the supercharged engine returns to the boost pressure. After one combustion cycle ends, the signal levels return to the level before starting the combustion cycle.
An ordinate in an oscillograph denotes the signal voltage and an abscissa denotes a rotational angle of the crankshaft or a period of time. Then, the oscillograph draws the change in the cylinder pressure during one cycle, namely, the combustion waveform is drawn. In the case of the natural aspiration engine, the combustion waveform rises from the atmospheric pressure (signal level), then, simultaneously to the combustion end, and it returns to the original signal level. In the case of the supercharged engine, the signal level rises from the boost pressure level (DC voltage level), then, simultaneously to the end of the combustion, and it returns to the original boost pressure level.
However, in the actual electric circuit comprising the sensor and the amplifier which are connected thereto, the insulation resistance is not actually infinite. Therefore the charges are leaked at each cycle in a combustion cycle having rapid repetitions such as the engine combustion, and the leaked charges are converted into the negative signal voltage. Further, upon measuring the engine combustion pressure, the pressure is measured under the circumstances of having a rapid temperature change and therefore the temperature change is superposed as the output. It seems that the pressure signal is placed on the DC current. Thus, referring to FIG. 9, a drift DV of the signal level is generated for an effective combustion pressure ECP, resulting in the offset of the waveform rising point.
Among waveform data including the above-mentioned offset of the signal level, the combustion waveform in one cycle is picked up and processed from the continuous combustion waveforms under the circumstances using a high speed and large capacity calculating apparatus in the research and development stages. The combustion waveform on the atmospheric pressure or the absolute pressure is estimated and the waveform may be analyzed. However, there are problems to be solved for application to mass production vehicles.
That is, in order to provide a system for measuring the engine combustion pressure and the combustion waveform for mass production vehicles, an offset value is calculated by an on-board device and the signal level needs to be obtained for the drift of the generated signal level. Consequently, a numerous processing capacity must be added to the on-board device, and the device increases in size and the costs increase.
As means for solving the above-mentioned problems, Japanese Patent Application No. 3123798 suggests a technology for substantially maintaining the zero level by connecting a filter having a threshold of 0.01 to 1.0 Hz to the output terminal of the charge signal converting amplifier, and by removing low frequency components of the pressure waveform. However, according to the suggested technology, the low frequency components of the combustion waveform are removed by a high pass filter and therefore the suggested technology uses substantially an AC coupling. As a result, the entire DC components of the waveform are removed. In order to achieve an accurate waveform analysis, a correction needs to compensate for the removed DC components, and thus, the calculating load necessary for the signal processing is not reduced.