A non-contact, omni-directional capacitive probe for use in dimensional gauging includes an electrically conductive spherical sensing tip that forms a capacitor with a workpiece, the capacitance of the capacitor being indicative of the distance between the spherical sensing tip and the workpiece.

The present invention is directed to a capacitive probe for use in dimensional gauging. More specifically, the invention is directed to a non-contact, omni-directional probe for use with a coordinate measurement machine (CMM).
Computerized CMMs have become standard equipment in machine shops, QA laboratories, and precision engineering labs. The CMMs guide a sensing probe in a coordinate measurement system to obtain dimensional information from a workpiece.
Several different sensor probe types are available. In systems with mechanical contact type sensor probes, the sensor probe is guided into contact with the workpiece until a switch in the probe is opened or closed. The CMM computer acquires the dimensional information upon activation of the switch.
Such mechanical contact probes have several disadvantages. Mechanical contact probe typically require contact forces in excess of a tenth of a newton thus rendering them useless in, for example, gauging silicon structures which cannot be touched in a non-destructive manner.
Non-contact probes may be used in lieu of the mechanical contact probes described above. One type of non-contact probe is described in McRae, "Using Capacitive Sensing for Noncontact Dimensional Gauging", Sensors, pp. 13-20, October 1988. The article describes the use of a flat plate sensor that forms a parallel plate capacitor when placed adjacent a conductive target plate (e.g. workpiece). The capacitance of the parallel plate capacitor is inversely proportional to the distance between the sensor and the target plate. Thus,
C=K/d where PA1 C is the capacitance, PA1 K is a constant, and PA1 d is the distance between the sensor and target plate.
Parallel plate capacitive probes have several disadvantages. They must be precisely aligned in parallel with the target plate so that the capacitive plate area remains relatively constant. Additionally, the unidirectional character of the parallel plate capacitance only allows positional measurement along a single coordinate axis that is normal to the flat probe plate.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a non-contact, omni-directional capacitive probe for use in dimensional gauging.

Omnidirectional capacitive probe for gauge of having a sensing tip formed as a substantially complete sphere


An aircraft pressurized air system and method is disclosed. The system includes a compressor that receives and compresses outside air, and an air cycle machine that receives compressed air from the compressor and directs conditioned air to an aircraft pressurized zone. The system also includes a contaminant sensor disposed along an air flow path between the compressor and the aircraft pressurized zone, comprising an optical guide, a metal organic framework on an exterior surface of the optical guide in operative fluid communication with air from the air flow path, a light source in communication with the optical guide at a first end of the optical guide, and a light detector in communication with the optical guide at a second end of the optical guide.

This disclosure relates to aircraft and on-board air supply systems, and more particularly to an on-board air delivery system with contaminant detection.
Aircraft equipped to fly at elevations above 10,000 feet can include an air supply system that supplies pressurized air to the aircraft cabin. Such systems generally draw a bleed of air from a compressor section of a gas turbine engine used for propulsion as a source of pressurized air, but can also utilize compressed air from other sources such as an electrically-powered compressor. The compressed air supply can be subject to further conditioning such as in an air cycle machine in which the compressed air can be cooled, subjected to one or more compression and expansion steps by turbine and compressor blades on a shared rotary power connection, and dried before delivery to a cabin air recirculation loop. As with any occupied enclosed conditioned air space, it is desirable to maintain an acceptable air quality, and air treatment processes such as ozone removal and various types of filtration or other air quality treatments have been used or proposed. However, testing for contaminants can be challenging in an aircraft environment where conditions can be adverse and performance specifications can be demanding.

Aircraft air supply and contaminant detection system


Systems and methods for color coordination for scanned products are provided. A kiosk has an input device, a display device, and an optical code reader. The kiosk has access to a product/color database. The kiosk is configured to receive an identification code scanned by the optical code reader, determine a flooring product associated with the identification code, determine at least one coordinating color for the flooring product based on the product/color database, display a simulated environment including a sample room having at least one selectable surface, display on the display device the at least one coordinating color, receive with the input device a selected color, receive with the input device a selected surface from the sample room, and display on the display device the simulated environment showing the sample room with the flooring product and with the selected color on the selected surface of the sample room.

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure, which is not necessarily prior art.
Retail stores that sell coating products, such as paints and stains, often sell other products for interior design and decoration, such as carpet, flooring, window treatments, lighting fixtures, other fixtures, furniture, decorations, and other items located within an interior of a building, such as a home or commercial space. For a particular project, a consumer may first select one of the other products for interior design and decoration and then look for matching or coordinating paint colors that go with the selected product. The consumer, however, may be unsure as to which paint colors match or coordinate with the selected product and, as a result, may limit their paint color selection.
Consumers may browse and select particular colors electronically using, for example, a kiosk, a website, a website application, a mobile application, etc. For example, a color selection and coordination system that allows a user to select a starting color and that provides coordinating colors for the starting color is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,230,629, "Data-driven color coordinator," which is incorporated herein by reference. For further example, an automated method and apparatus for providing color selection capability is described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,530,163, "Automated Color Selection Method and Apparatus," which is also incorporated herein by reference.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Systems and methods of color coordination for scanned products


Provided is a semiconductor package, including: a lower package to which elements are mounted; a metal post connected to the lower package and including at least one metal material portion; and an upper package to which elements is mounted, and which is connected to the metal post via a solder ball.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a semiconductor package.
2. Description of the Related Arts
According to the development of semiconductor technologies, electronic devices have been miniaturized and have become lighter in order to meet the users' demand, and accordingly, a multi-chip packaging technology for implementing the same kind or different kinds of semiconductor chips as one unit package has been magnified. Compared to a package implemented by semiconductor chips, the multi-chip package is advantageous in terms of a package size or weight and a mounting process, and in particular, the multi-chip package is mainly applied to portable communication terminals for which miniaturization and weight lightening are required.
Among these multi-chip packages, a stack type package in which a package substrate is stacked on another package substrate is called a package on package (hereinafter referred to as "PoP"). As the semiconductor package has become higher in capacity, thinner in thickness and smaller in size with the development of semiconductor package technologies, the number stacked chips have been recently increased.
The conventional package on package applies a method of connecting two packages using a solder ball printing process and a reflow process or connecting an upper package, having memory dies mounted by forming vias up to a PoP pad of a lower package (through molded via method) by performing a laser drilling process with respect to a molding portion after molding the lower package and printing a solder ball in the vias, to the lower package using a reflow process.
However, in order to implement high integration and high performance of package on package products, the number of mounted dies has been increased or attempts to mount passive elements have been performed. To realize this, it is important to further increase a distance between packages.
However, the conventional semiconductor package is problematic in that cracks or collapse is generated from a solder ball when a size or a height of the solder ball is increased in order to increase a distance between the packages.


Methods and systems for managing information about fuel stations. A system includes an imaging system and a profile management system. The imaging system is used for generating imaging data for a fuel station onboard a vehicle. The profile management system receives the imaging data. The profile management system identifies selected information for the fuel station based on the imaging data received. The selected information includes an identification of the fuel station, pricing information, and at least one of fuel inventory information, or business hours information for the fuel station. The profile management system updates a profile for the fuel station based on the selected information. The profile management system sends at least a portion of the profile for the fuel station to a target system.

Currently, different types of navigation systems are used to identify information about fuel stations. For example, a user may use an in-vehicle navigation system or a navigation application on a mobile device to identify nearby fuel stations. These navigations systems may provide information about the nearby fuel stations. The information provided for a fuel station may include, for example, an address of the fuel station, a distance to the fuel station, and business hours for the fuel station. In some cases, however, some of the information may be incorrect or out-of-date. Further, the information provided by these available navigation systems may not include other types of information that would be useful to the user.

Data analytics for smart vehicle fueling


A peak efficiency detection system may include a switched power supply (SPS) module providing an output supply signal. The SPS module may have an internal node, and a plurality of SPS circuits configured to generate the output supply signal on the internal node. A dead type module may generate control signals. A central node external to the SPS module may deliver the output supply signal to a load module. A power stage size control module may generate control signals for controlling the SPS module. A peak-efficiency detection (PED) module may receive the output supply signal from the central node, the control signals from the SPS module, and the control signals from the power stage size control module. The PED module may generate a signal representative of an efficiency of the SPS module.

The approaches described in this section could be pursued, but are not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Switched Mode Power Supply (SMPS) DC/DC converters are used in an increasing number of electronic applications, such as cellular phones, laptop computers, etc., due to their higher efficiency than linear power supplies. Indeed, SMPS have lower power losses than linear power supplies. Another advantage of SMPS is their capability to provide a stabilized supply current or supply voltage to a load.
Controlling the stability of the power supply signal is a challenge for SMPS manufacturers. Indeed, electronic devices such as tablets or cellular phones, for instance, desire a well stabilized continuous voltage supply despite variations of temperature and variations of power consumption during their use for a phone call or during video recording, for instance. To meet this, it is useful to continuously control the voltage supplied to the electronic device and to adjust the operation of the SMPS.
An approach allowing controlling of the supply voltage delivered to the load by an output stage of the SMPS can include continuously monitoring the output voltage with a controller generating a duty-cycle signal delivered to the power-stage comprised of power switches such as power metal oxide semiconducting (MOS) transistors.
One potential drawback of this approach, however, is that it may be difficult to efficiently control the output supply voltage so as to accurately account for the intrinsic losses of the MOS transistors. These include static and dynamic contributions, namely ohmic losses and switching losses. Indeed, with an aim to increase the life-time of the battery, for instance, it is helpful to determine the losses of the SMPS with respect to the power requests of the load. As a result, the size of the output stage can be dynamically optimized in order to avoid extra power losses inside the SMPS during discharge of the battery, due to the switching losses occurring during normal operation of the device.

Switched mode power supply peak-efficiency detection


A source endpoint connected via a Virtual Local Area Network to a first access port and a destination endpoint connected to a second access port. Two or more network processing devices indirectly connected through a backplane interconnect to transmit data between the source and destination endpoints according to a protected port status of the first and second access ports.

The invention relates to an apparatus, system and method to implement a protected port feature in a network, such as a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN). The protected port feature may be referred to as Private VLAN Edge.
A protected port feature may be desirable in a network in which the transmission of information to and between endpoints needs to be controlled. In certain situations, it is preferable that some endpoints receive more or less information than others. Similarly, it may be desirable to limit or restrict the flow of information to one or more endpoints. The protected port feature identifies ports as being either protected or unprotected and thereby determines how data is transmitted to or between these ports.
The protected port feature may be supported in a Local Area Network (LAN) that includes a conventional switch. The endpoints are connected to each other through the local, common switch. The switch is able to control the transmission of data transmitted to endpoints connected to its local ports. A LAN or VLAN that includes two or more conventional switches does not support the protected port feature.
The invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Private VLAN edge across multiple switch modules


An agricultural apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus is adapted to be mounted to an agricultural machine such as a tractor and is provided with a boom having two arms extending in a direction substantially transverse to the agricultural machine. The boom arm are provided with a plurality of heads, adapted for either cutting or spraying, and can be used to cut or spray discrete areas of vegetation over which the apparatus passes. The apparatus is adapted to maintain the arms in a direction substantially parallel to the vegetation over which it is passing irrespective of the terrain.

The use of agricultural machinery is well known as an efficient manner to effectively manage large areas of vegetation. The type of machine varies with the specific application but it is well known to utilise individual machines for the cutting of vegetation and spraying. These machines are connectable to an agricultural vehicle such as a tractor and are operable, typically from within the cab. When providing a machine with a plurality of heads, either for spraying or cutting, it is necessary to ensure that these are provided in a stable operating condition such that the vehicle can traverse different terrain conditions without altering the performance of the cutting or spraying.
Agricultural cutting machines are well known for varying applications. The cutting machines are typically mounted to the front of the tractor, and controlled from within the cab of the tractor by the driver. Depending on the application the cutting machine may comprise one or a plurality of cutting elements.
Another known cutting machine is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,683,603 and discloses a plant topping device which is connectable to a tractor. This plant topping device includes at least one rotary cutting device which is mounted upon a frame which extends transversely to the movement of the tractor to which the device is mounted. The frame is moved over the tops of the plants and the action of the rotary blade cuts the tops off the plants. The device is fully height adjustable. By using multiple cutting heads it is possible to cut a plurality of plants at the same time. This device is described for use in tobacco farming wherein a plurality of plants are provided in parallel rows. By using a device such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,683,603 it is possible to top multiple plants in adjacent rows at the same time. While being advantageous in that multiple plants may be cut simultaneously, the device of U.S. Pat. No. 3,683,603 suffers in that the frame portion extends to only one side of the tractor, thereby reducing the cutting coverage, and due to the rigid mounting arrangement of the frame to the tractor is not suitable for mounting multiple heads to the frame. The addition of more cutting heads to this device in an attempt to overcome these shortcomings, is not possible as the mounting arrangement is not sufficiently stable to support the additional length of the frame required to support more cutting heads.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,614 discloses a mower boom with a dampening mechanism. This is provided in the form of a torsion hitch which enables a cushioning of movement of a mower attachable to a tractor. This cutting arrangement does not extend any great distance beyond the width of the tractor, and therefore the area of cutting that can be effected in any one sweep is quite small.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,210,997 describes a side mounted cutting arrangement which is extendible to one side of the agricultural vehicle to which the cutting arrangement is mounted. The arrangement includes an articulated boom with a cutting head mounted to the end thereof. The boom is pivotable through an arc in excess of 180°, and does enable the cutting of vegetation some distance from the agricultural vehicle, but due to the provision of only one cutting head is limited to a specific area application.
There, therefore, exists a need to provide an improved cutting device for cutting a multiplicity of plants in adjacent rows. There also exists a need to provide an improved spraying head arrangement for enabling the spraying of a large area of vegetation utilising a stable spraying device.


A method for producing a pattern for the precision-cast representation of a component having a cavity is provided. In the method wherein the component is a turbine component having a cavity, the finished pattern comprises a core and an outer contour pattern, the outer contour pattern at least partially surrounds the core and at least partially defines the outer contour of the turbine component. The core is produced from a curable core material, which cures during the course of the method, and the outer contour pattern is produced from a material which can be burned or melted out. In this case, first the outer contour pattern is produced with a cavity corresponding to the cavity of the turbine component and subsequently the curable core material is filled into the cavity and cured to produce the core.

In the production of hollow cast components, for example turbine components, the production of the cavity is of particular importance. For example, turbine blades for gas turbines comprise a blade surface, which has a leading edge and a trailing edge. The leading and trailing edges are connected together by a wall on the suction side and a wall on the pressure side. Between the walls on the suction and pressure sides, at least one cavity is arranged which extends through a major part of the blade surface and is used to supply a coolant, for example air or steam, by which the turbine blade is cooled during operation of the turbine. The cooling effect depends on the configuration of the cavity and its accurate positioning inside the blade surface. Comparatively minor deviations in the positioning of the cavity can lead to a considerable difference in the cooling effect.
The shape and position of the cavity inside the blade surface therefore represent a challenge for the design of turbine blades. Not infrequently, a range of design modifications are required in order to optimize the placement and shape of the cavity in relation to the outer contour of the turbine blade, until the final design is established. In the development process, turbine blades with different designs are produced and tested, before the final design is established.
The production of hollow cast turbine blades for gas turbines, for example, is carried out by means of a ceramic precision casting technique. During this, a core made of a ceramic material is injected or cast in order to define the cavity. This core is subsequently placed into a mold for injecting or casting a wax pattern, and the wax is injected or cast into the mold. After the wax has cooled, the finished wax pattern together with the ceramic core form a pattern for the precision-cast preparation of the turbine blade, which in the further course of the method is employed to produce a ceramic mold for casting the turbine blade. In order to produce the ceramic mold, a ceramic shell is applied around the wax pattern. After the ceramic shell has been cured, the wax of the wax pattern is melted out so as to leave a mold for casting the hollow turbine blade. This mold comprises on the one hand the ceramic shell and on the other hand the ceramic core. Such a method is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,780.
Since, despite numerical aids for the simulation of flow and cooling properties, corrections of the core design have to be carried out by means of tests in the final stage of the product development, the described method of product development is relatively expensive because new casting or injection molds for the core and the wax pattern need to be produced for each design.
DE 101 29 975 A1 has therefore proposed to equip the casting or injection molds for casting the core with replaceable inserts, so that the core design can be modified without having to produce completely new casting or injection molds for the core. This procedure, however, merely allows local corrections but not overall correction of the core design. Furthermore, in the method described in DE 101 29 975 A1, corrections to the design of the outer contour of the turbine blade are not possible without producing new tools for this, for instance new casting molds.
The production of tools for manufacturing the ceramic cores and the wax patterns is elaborate and cost-intensive, as before. For example, large parts of the development time and the development costs during the production process development for hollow cast turbine blades are spent on production of the tools. Furthermore, the tools cannot be released for mass production until after the design of the hollow cast turbine component has been approved. Otherwise, modifications to the design could lead to a considerable time delay and high costs.
DE 32 11 777 A1 discloses a method for producing a metal turbine blade from two blade halves, which are metallurgically connected together.
GB 2 096 525 A likewise discloses that two metal turbine blade halves are connected together.

Method for producing a pattern for the precision-cast preparation of a component comprising at least one cavity


A method and a system for evaluating at least one of a risk, safety and efficiency property of a portfolio belonging to a class of one of a probability density and a probability distribution, for a given time frame are provided. The method comprises: obtaining portfolio pricing data over said given time frame; obtaining at least one benchmark Xb; with respect to investment returns, fitting one of a stochastic investment class over said given time frame in relation to said benchmark Xb by obtaining a location parameter a, a scale parameter b and other corresponding shape parameters; and an empirical investment class over said given time frame in relation to said benchmark Xb; determining a mean return value Xm and a standard deviation σx using said class; graphically illustrating said portfolio in relation to said benchmark Xb using said return value Xm and said standard deviation σx on an investment chart; determining for said portfolio by using properties of said class a solution to (Xm−Xb)=[(ES−Xb)·α]+[(EP−Xb)·γ]=I′S+I′P; graphically illustrating at least one said component of said expression (Xm−Xb), in the form of a topographical map on said investment chart using said benchmark Xb.

Much of the modern art of investing relates to the evaluation of the appropriate trade-off of risk against return in the constitution of portfolios for investors. The problem is not simple. The investor provides unique combinations of investment goals and objectives, as well as risk perceptions that all naturally fluctuate over time based on past experiences and future expectations. Portfolios are typically baskets of instruments chosen from a universally diversified supermarket of investments. And, whereas return is easily quantified, much of the number crunching of modern portfolio theory now deals with the quantification of risk.
Risk refers to the uncertainty of the financial outcome of an investment portfolio following a given investment period. The value of the portfolio will fluctuate against a headwind of events that can never be foreknown, justifying modeling it as a random variable in a stochastic process. The uncertainty is practically nil, however, for certain offerings of assets such as short-term (30 days) treasury bills, yields of which are guaranteed by the taxation powers of government and their ability to expand the monetary float. Risk is thus better viewed in the context of a riskless benchmark: investors choose to invest in risky assets, and be subjected to their random fluctuations, on the condition they yield a risk premium, i.e. an incremental gain relative to the benchmark. Performance of the risky asset itself can also be benchmarked to its fluctuations: the greater the fluctuations, the greater the expected risk premium for a risk-adverse investor.
Early on, in formulating the expected returns-variance of returns rule leading to the constitution of efficient portfolios along an efficient frontier, H. M. Markowitz (see "Portfolio Selection", Journal of Finance, March 1952, pp. 77-91) dealt with this uncertainty by suggesting that "if the term risk was replaced by variance of return (or standard deviation of return), little change in apparent meaning would result." Unfortunately, some 50 years later, this suggestion has been popularized to the extent that risk has mostly become synonymous with variance or standard deviation, or volatility of return as measured by either, usually without the slightest reference to the original context of optimal efficient frontier. The work of H. M. Markowitz (see "Portfolio Selection", Journal of Finance, March 1952, pp. 77-91) is classified as a linear/quadratic as well as an expectation/dispersion risk measure by G. C. Pflug (see "How to measure risk ?", Modeling and Decisions in Economics: Essays in Honor of Franz Ferschl, Physica-Verlag, 1999). U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,003,018, 6,275,814 and 6,282,520 are centered on the concept of efficient frontier.
The paradox that volatility can also induce safe beneficial gains, not only risky detrimental losses, has led others to consider as more appropriate a class restricted to downside risk measures (see "A Brief History of Downside Risk Measures", by David Nawrocki, Journal of Investing, Vol. 8, No. 3, Fall 1999, pp. 9-25), most notably the below-mean semi-variance, the below-target semi-variance (SVt), and the Lower Partial Moment (LPM), the latter due to Vijay S. Bawa (see "Optimal Rules for Ordering Uncertain Prospects", Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 2, No. 1, 1975, pp. 95-121) and Peter C. Fishburn (see "Mean-Risk Analysis with Risk Associated with Below Target Returns", American Economic Review, Vol. 67, No. 2, 1977, pp. 116-126). Therein, the SVt, an expectation/dispersion risk measure (see "How to measure risk?", G. C. Pflug, Modeling and Decisions in Economics: Essays in Honor of Franz Ferschl, Physica-Verlag, 1999), is shown to be a subclass of LPM. The LPM is related to the notion of moments of a probability density function in general. For a random variable x occurring with a probability density P(x), the nth moment about a point or target t over the full range of x is the weighted sum or integral, for discrete or continuous functions P(x), respectively, of the difference (x−t)n, the weights corresponding to the probability P(x). The LPM notion restricts the range of x to values below the target t while expanding the range of the exponent n from integer to real values a. The LPM then qualifies below-target risk in terms of the so-called risk tolerance parameter a. The LPM for (a=0) corresponds to the below-target probability, or the probability of loss given the target establishes the threshold in the profit and loss probability density and cumulative distribution functions. The LPM for (a=1) is the unconditional expected loss, whereas the LPM for (a=2) is the SVt. Basing risk tolerance on the lower partial moments of a stochastic distribution then bridges over to the field of ranking portfolios based on stochastic dominance and the values of their nth moment over a range of x (see "Stochastic Dominance: Investment Decision Making under Uncertainty", H. Levy, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, Mass., 392 pp. 1998).
A widespread downside risk measure is the value-at-risk measure V@Rα. V@Rα has gained regulatory status in defining minimum capital reserves or standards in relation to banks' market risk exposure, or risk of loss from adverse movements in the market values of assets, liabilities or off-balance-sheet positions (see "Basle Committee on Banking Supervision", Basle, Amendment to the Capital Accord to Incorporate Market Risks, Federal Reserve System, 1996; "Conservatism, Accuracy and Efficiency: Comparing Value-at-Risk Models", J. Engel and M. Gizycki, Working paper 2, Policy Development and Research, Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, Reserve Bank of Australia, March 1999; "Evaluation of Value-at-Risk Models Using Historical Data", D. Hendricks, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review, April 1996; "Bank Capital Requirements for Market Risk: the Internal Models Approach", D. Hendricks and B. Hirtle, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review, December 1997; and "Value-at-Risk: Recent Advances", I. N. Khindanova and S. T. Rachev, Handbook on Analytic-Computational Methods in Applied Mathematics, CRC Press, 2000). V@Rα is also generously called upon in evaluating the performance of corporate pension plans, and has been built into the framework of many commercial software risk packages. V@Rα corresponds to the measure on the downside of the applied probability density function that is exceeded further on the downside only by a given very small probability of occurrences a, typically 1% or 5%. V@Rα is classified as an inverse-linear risk measure as it is linear in the inverse distribution function or quintile function α (see "How to measure risk?", G. C. Pflug, Modeling and Decisions in Economics: Essays in Honor of Franz Ferschl, Physica-Verlag, 1999). Application of V@Rα to typical portfolios generally results in the highlighting of exceptionally high negative returns (losses). Surprisingly, no benchmark is set explicitly in V@Rα analysis: an implicit benchmark, one which relates to capital preservation, is the threshold between positive and negative performance, or 0% return. However, in the case of exceptional portfolios of such good expected return and low volatility that provide positive V@Rα measures, what exactly is at risk is no longer clear.
The controversy over V@Rα (and other risk measures) erupted following the fundamental work of P. Artzner, F. Delbaen, J.-M. Eber and D. Heath (see "Thinking Coherently", Risk 10, November 1997, pp. 68-71 and "Coherent Measures of Risk", Mathematical Finance, Vol. 9, July 1999, pp. 203-228) and P. Artzner (see "Application of Coherent Risk Measures to Capital Requirements in Insurance", North American Actuarial Journal, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 11-25, 1999). They first distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable risk: a position has unacceptable risk if its future value is unacceptable. A measure of risk of an unacceptable position is then the minimum extra capital that, invested in a reference prudent instrument such as default-free treasury bills, makes the future value of the modified position become acceptable. Risk is thereby described by a real single number or quantity (in effect, the result of mapping of risk functions into the domain of real numbers). In reality, this single number may correspond to the pure insurance premium to be paid out to a secondary market for insurance liabilities or, if such a market does not exist, to the contribution to a reserve built up by the investor to compensate for unacceptable future values. This notion of risk is then consistent with that of the riskless hedge corresponding to the pricing of options for securing investment portfolios, as developed by F. Black and M. Scholes (see "The Pricing of Options and Corporate Liabilities", Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 81, No. 3, May/June 1973, pp. 637-654). U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,287 discusses a computer based method intended to optimize the trade-off between this risk cost and residual profit. P. Artzner, F. Delbaen, J.-M. Eber and D. Heath (see "Thinking Coherently", Risk 10, November 1997, pp. 68-71 and "Coherent Measures of Risk", Mathematical Finance, Vol. 9, July 1999, pp. 203-228) continue by setting out four axioms (or self-evident truths that require no proof) that define coherent risk measures. A risk measure satisfying translation invariance, subadditivity, positive homogeneity and monotonicity is called coherent. V@Rα is shown to violate subadditivity: the V@Rα of position 3 obtained from the combination of positions 1 and 2 may be superior to the sum of the V@Rα measures for positions 1 and 2 taken alone. Diversification seemingly leads to an increase in risk, which is incoherent. V@Rα would then dangerously promote concentration, not diversification. A risk measure based simply on a linear combination of the expected return and the variance, standard deviation or semi-variance is also shown to be incoherent.
An important section of the financial community, rightly preoccupied with coherence, has moved quickly to fill the void perceived to be left by V@Rα in promoting worthier risk measures. A measure that has come to the forefront is the Expected Shortfall (or shortfall expectation) at a specified level α, i.e. ESα, with (0≦α≦1) corresponding to a probability of loss as set out by the profit and loss probability density function. ESα is then the mathematical transcript of the concept "average loss in the worst 100α% cases" (see "On the Coherence of Expected Shortfall", Journal of Banking and Finance, C. Acerbi and D. Tasche, Vol. 26, No. 7, July 2002, pp. 1487-1503). Other similar measures are the Worst Conditional Expectation WCE (see "Thinking Coherently", P. Artzner, F. Delbaen, J.-M. Eber and D. Heath, Risk 10, November 1997, pp. 68-71 and "Coherent Measures of Risk", Mathematical Finance, Vol. 9, July 1999, pp. 203-228), the Tail Conditional Expectation TCE (or conditional tail expectation CTE or Tail V@R), the Conditional Value-at-Risk CV@R, the α-tail mean and the Mean Excess Loss MEL (see "Extreme Value Theory as a Risk Management Tool", P. Embrechts, S. I. Resnick and G. Samorodnitsky, North American Actuarial Journal, Vol. 3, No. 2, April 1999, pp. 30-41). All these measures strive essentially to define the same concept but discrepancies may arise in the case of discrete, or mixtures of discrete and continuous probability density functions, if a same quintile a is applicable to more than one threshold, i.e. {P[X≦x]=α} for more than one x. For continuous probability density functions, these measures converge to the same value (see "On the Coherence of Expected Shortfall", C. Acerbi and D. Tasche, Journal of Banking and Finance, Vol. 26, No. 7, July 2002, pp. 1487-1503).
The acceptance of Expected Shortfall also signifies a convergence between actuaries, statisticians and financial analysts. It is a natural and coherent estimator of risk in a portfolio. To be precise, it refers here to the conditional expected shortfall, i.e. the expected shortfall or most probable shortfall in the event of a shortfall. In that it is preoccupied with measuring the magnitude, severity or intensity of loss given that a loss has occurred, it is a fundamental complement to the measure of frequency or probability of loss. This juxtaposition was also correctly transposed in A. Sen (see "Poverty: an Ordinal Approach to Measurement", Econometrica, Vol. 44, No. 2, March 1976, pp. 219-231) as pointed out in F. Eggers, A. Pfingsten and S. Rieso (see "Three Dimensions of Shortfall Risk: Transformation and Extension of Sen's Poverty Index", 9th Symposium on Finance, Banking and Insurance, Universität Karlsruhe (TH), Germany, December 2002).
Various combinations of frequency and severity of investment losses can arise affecting the overall portrayal and classification of risk. Table 15 suggests one such classification based on insurance industry practice. Table 15 is an illustration of the Insurance industry classification of risk based on frequency and severity of loss.
TABLE 15Insurance industry classification of risk based onfrequency and severity of lossFrequency Of LossLowHighSeverityLowNegligibleImportantOf LossTo Very ImportantHighImportantCriticalTo Very Important
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,884,287, 5,999,918 and 6,012,044 fundamentally rely on point calculations of the probability of loss in providing financial advice.
For those with absolute risk aversion, the only possible solution is risk avoidance attained by investing solely in guaranteed investment products and, ultimately, short term treasury bills.
For those willing to take on elements of risk in their quest for greater returns, risk should be consciously controlled by first establishing rational perspectives with regards to allowable risk levels pertaining to frequency and severity. Continuous monitoring is required to insure these perspectives are met and maintained.

Method and apparatus for the topographical mapping of investment risk, safety and efficiency


A system and method for assessing the risk associated with the protection of data privacy by software application. A decision engine is provided to assess monitor and manage key issues around the risk management of data privacy. The system creates a core repository that manages, monitors and measures the data privacy assessments of applications across an institution (e.g., a corporation). The system and method employs automated questionnaires that require responses from the user (preferably the manager responsible for the application). The responses are tracked in order to evaluate the progress of the assessment and the status of the applications with respect to compliance with the enterprise's data privacy policies and procedures as well as the regulations and laws of the jurisdictions in which the application is operated. Once a questionnaire has been completed, the application is given ratings both with respect to the data privacy impact of the application and the application's compliance with the data privacy requirements. If a risk exists, a plan for reducing the risk or bringing the application into compliance can be formulated, and progress towards compliance can be tracked. Alternatively, an identified exposure to risk can be acknowledged through the system, which requires sign off by various higher level managers and administrators.

Risk management relates to procedures for assessing and managing risk that are established by the enterprise, with accompanying directives by management to comply with the procedures. For example, a given manager of a department may be required to establish the level of risk associated with the operation of a particular computer system (e.g., the risk of losing use of such a computer system for some period of time). This manager may formulate a system for evaluating and reporting the risk, that can be used by lower level and project managers. For example, on a periodic basis such as quarterly, the managers for a given department might be required to communicate to upper management the various risk factors and risk evaluations that are related to its computer information systems operations. The risk factor related information can be documented through various forms or questionnaires for evaluating risk and risk factors associated with projects for which they are responsible. These forms and questionnaires can be compiled into reports and other summary data to provide a department manager with a fairly good idea of the level of compliance with various enterprise procedures.
Typically, if a group within the department is not in compliance with the established procedures for the enterprise, this information can be so noted in the summary or compiled data presented to the department manager. In such a case, the department manager can establish plans to bring the group into compliance, and to monitor the status of the group in progressing with the plan.
The impact of evaluating the risk for a given enterprise can have serious consequences with regard to the success or profitability of the enterprise. If the enterprise has established procedures that are designed to protect the enterprise from liability, or otherwise assure that levels of risk within the enterprise are minimized, the enterprise can be exposed to liability if the procedures are not properly followed. For example, in the area of data privacy, most responsible enterprises have policies and procedures for protecting the personal information of their employees and customers. Further more, each state and Federal government has laws regulating the privacy of personal information. Failure to follow these policies, procedures and laws can expose the enterprise to significant liability.
In typical enterprises, the analysis, statuses and reporting to upper management of the procedures with respect to data privacy are often haphazard and inconsistent. For example, some managers may find the requirement of filling out forms and answering questionnaires to be an inefficient use of time, and fail to effectively complete risk assessments. Other managers may have an attitude that protecting data privacy is not an important priority. Furthermore, most departments fail to evaluate the external dependencies that it has, and the impact on its ability to perform its functions should those external entities fail to protect the employees and customer's data.
Where tools for the risk assessments with respect to data privacy do exist., they tend to be form intensive, and inconsistent between various enterprise locations. It is difficult to track and maintain the data that can be obtained from forms related to assessment of data privacy risk, and even more difficult to take an enterprise view of such risk, which is absolutely required for effectively managing the liability of the enterprise. Some computer based systems have been developed to overcome the difficulties with traditional paper based risk assessment systems. It does not appear that any such systems have been developed with respect to assessing and containing the risk associated with data privacy.

System and method for managing data privacy


A multipurpose functional fluid is disclosed which is comprised of a major amount of a hydrocarbon oil and a minor amount, sufficient to improve characteristics of the fluid of a novel additive. The additive is comprised of a calcium salt complex, a group II metal dithiophosphate salt, a borated epoxide, a carboxylic solubilizer and a sulfurized composition. The calcium salt is preferably in the form of an overbased calcium sulfonate salt, the antiwear agent is preferably in the form of a zinc dithiophosphate salt, the borated epoxide is preferably the reaction product of boric acid and a 16 carbon 1,2 epoxide, the carboxylic solubilizer is preferably in the form of a reaction product of an acylating agent containing a substituted hydrocarbyl-based substituent containing about 12 to 500 carbon atoms; and the sulfurized composition is in the form of a cosulfurized mixture of 2 or more reactants selected from the group consisting of at least one fatty acid ester of a polyhydric alcohol, at least one olefin and at least one fatty acid. Other components such as viscosity improvers and antifoaming agent are generally present in the fluid.

A functional fluid is a term which encompasses a variety of fluids including but not limited to tractor fluids, automatic transmission fluids, manual transmission fluids, hydraulic fluids, power steering fluids, fluids related to power train components and fluids which have the ability to act in various different capacities. It should be noted that within each of these fluids such as, for example, automatic transmission fluids, there are a variety of different types of fluids due to the various transmissions having different designs which have led to the need for fluids of markedly different functional characteristics. One type of functional fluid is generally known as a tractor fluid which can be used in connection with various types of tractor equipment in order to provide for the operation of the transmission, gears, bearings, hydraulics, power steering, mechanical power take off and oil immersed brakes of the tractor.
The components included within a functional fluid such as a tractor fluid must be carefully chosen so that the final resulting fluid composition will provide all the necessary characteristics required and pass a variety of different types of tests. In general a tractor fluid must act as a lubricant, a power transfer means and a heat transfer means.
Tractor fluids have a number of important specific characteristics which provide for their ability to operate within tractor equipment. Such characteristics include the ability to provide proper frictional properties for preventing wet brake chatter of oil immersed brakes while simultaneously providing the ability to actuate wet brakes and provide power take-off (PTO) clutch performance. A tractor fluid must provide sufficient antiwear and extreme pressure properties as well as water tolerance/filterability capabilities.
The extreme pressure (EP) properties of tractor fluids are demonstrated by the ability of the fluid to pass a spiral bevel test as well as a straight spur gear test. The tractor fluid must pass wet brake chatter tests as well as provide adequate wet brake capacity when used in oil immersed disk brakes which are comprised of a bronze, graphitic compositions and asbestos. The tractor fluid must demonstrate its ability to provide friction retention for power shift transmission clutches such as those clutches which include graphitic and bronze clutches.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,410,438 discloses a lubricant and liquid fuel composition which includes borated epoxides which are indicated as being useful in fluids such as heat exchange fluids, transmission fluids, and hydraulic fluids.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,933,659 discloses a functional fluid for lubricating oil compositions which is comprised of a major amount of an oil of lubricating viscosity and an effective amount of an additive. The additive includes effective amounts of an alkaline succinimide, a group II metal salt of a dihydrocarbyldithiophosphoric acid, a basic sulfurized alkaline earth metal alkyl phenate and a component which is a fatty acid ester, fatty acid amide or fatty acid amine or mixtures thereof. The patent indicates that the lubricating compositions are useful as functional fluids in systems requiring fluid coupling, hydraulic fluid and/or lubrication of relatively moving parts. The lubricating compositions are indicated as being useful as the functional fluid in automatic transmissions and particularly in the automatic transmissions of passenger automobiles.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,953,347 discloses sulfurized compositions prepared by reacting, at about 100.degree.-250.degree. C., sulfur with a mixture comprising (A) 100 parts by weight of at least one fatty acid ester, (B) about 0-50 parts by weight of at least one fatty acid, and (C) about 25-400 parts by weight of at least one aliphatic olefin containing about 8-36 carbon atoms.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,116,877 discloses an elastomer compatible seal swell additive. The additive may be used in connection with automatic transmission, power transmission fluids and hydraulic steering fluids. The fluid is a mineral lubricating base oil which includes an oil-soluble bis(hydrocarbyl) phosphite ester and an oil-soluble hydrocarbyl substituted phenol wherein a specific weight ratio is maintained with respect to the phosphite and phenol. The patent indicates that the inclusion of these particular additive compounds in the particularly disclosed ratio provides enhanced elastomer compatibility to the fluid.
Published European Patent Application 113,199 published Jul. 11, 1984, discloses a tractor hydraulic fluid which includes oleyl phosphite in a tractor antifriction hydraulic fluid as well as thioethyloctadecenylsuccinate containing tractor hydraulic fluids.
British Patent 1,452,513 dated Oct. 13, 1976, discloses lubricant compositions which include a fatty acid and a fatty acid amide in a wet braking system for tractors which was found to be useful in reducing the amount of noise over a wide temperature range.
British Patent 1,440,261 discloses a composition for reducing the noise in the wet braking systems of tractors. The fluid was comprised of a lubricant oil, and a detergent or dispersant mixed with stearic acid. The composition indicated that it also included alkylene polyamine dispersants, calcium and barium sulfonates and phenates, antiwear-antioxidants and oleic acid.

Functional fluid with borated epoxides, carboxylic solubilizers, zinc salts, calcium complexes and sulfurized compositions


A credit derivative trading system comprises a credit derivative authority configured to receive defined positions for credit derivatives and update a plurality of trade clients in real-time whenever there is movement in the market for a particular credit derivative.

1. Field of the Inventions
The field of the invention relates generally to credit derivatives and more particularly to the transacting in credit derivatives in an online environment.
2. Background Information
Currently, conventional credit derivative markets comprise a user base of larger institutions. These large institutions use the credit derivative markets for a variety of reasons. For example, commercial banks, both domestic and foreign, can obtain significant economic, regulatory, and capital relief from selling credit risk in a credit derivative market. Commercial banks can also use the credit derivative markets to add credit risk to their portfolios as an alternative to the lending market. Insurers, which typically posses excellent credit evaluation skills, primarily use the credit derivative markets to take on credit risk for a premium. Investment management companies and Hedge Funds, or other investors, use the credit derivative markets to both take on and shed risk.
The dealer community represents some of the largest financial intermediaries in the world. The dealers tend to be large, multi-national institutions that make markets in credit derivatives. The scale and scope of each dealer's credit derivative business varies widely, with some dealers having extensive credit derivative operations, and other being occasional market participants. Thus, in conventional credit derivative markets, information flow is concentrated in a few dealers. Generally, the end users, such as those described above, transact through the dealers and not directly with each other. Often, information is scarce and incomplete as it relates to the buyers and dealers participating in the market, as is information concerning price and the risk associated with particular derivatives.
Dealers transact with other dealers via a broker market. A broker is an intermediary that transacts business between dealers. The brokers do not principal risk. Generally, information dissemination from the brokers is very inefficient. Further, the brokers business is limited to the dealers, because there is no meaningful contact between the brokers and end users.
There are other drawbacks to conventional credit derivative markets. One such draw back is that conventional credit derivative markets tend to be regionalized, e.g., with individual markets being localized by continent and/or time zones. For example, the U.S. credit derivative market tends to trade strictly in U.S. credit risk, while the European credit derivative market usually trades in European credit risk. Due to the manual and labor intensive nature of conventional credit derivative markets, it is very difficult for dealers to break down the localized nature of conventional credit derivative markets.
Another drawback is the high cost to transact in a conventional credit derivative market. Each dealer in a conventional credit derivative market tends to employ large intermediary infrastructure to facilitate the transactions. The size of the infrastructure leads to large transaction costs, which will remain as long as conventional credit derivative markets remain regionalized and controlled by just a few dealers. Further, because information is concentrated in the hands of a few large participants, conventional credit derivative markets are inefficient and illiquid. The illiquidity persists because for many of the largest participants, their only transactional outlet is through the dealers. Traditionally, another drawback is operational inefficiency that results from a lack of standardized documentation. The operational inefficiency is made worse by the fact that the documentation processes involved tend to be manual processes, which is also in part due top the lack of standardization.
Another drawback that will be mentioned here is the inefficient, fragmented, and disjointed distribution mechanisms of conventional credit derivative markets. When a market participant wants to transact, they will call one of a few dealers to ask for a price. Dealers usually will go through a broker at this point. Alternatively, the dealer will often call a limited number of other possible participants to determine if they are willing to transact. If the dealer determines that they are likely to find a willing participant at an acceptable spread, then the dealer will likely try to consummate the transaction, e.g., using a broker. Frequently, however, multiple dealers are calling the same potential participants trying to determine a willingness to transact. As a result, potential transactions are often selected out of the market because participants have few outlets, the dealer feels that the fee to consummate the transaction is too low, and/or the dealer will not principal the risk because they fear they will not be able to find a willing participant on the other side of the transaction. Consequently, while a few participants benefit from the economic inefficiencies of conventional credit derivative markets, many do not.
Another difficulty in trading credit derivatives occurs when a dealer or, buyer desires to trade a large number of credit derivatives. A desire for a large transaction can influence the market in a manner adverse to the trader.

Systems and methods for an online credit derivative trading system


A method, apparatus and computer program product for providing additional information to an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system user is presented. A call from a user is received at the IVR system, and a session is provided for the user. Additionally, a page is generated for the session. The page is communicated to the user; and is dynamically updated for the user as the user traverses menus of the IVR system.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems are a telephony technology that can read a combination of touch-tone and voice input provided by a remote user. An IVR system gives users the ability to access a database of information via phone. A typical IVR system has several menus of prerecorded options that the caller can choose from. While many choices are as basic as choosing a number, some options may require the caller to speak detailed information such as his/her name and/or account number. This input is received by the IVR system and is used to access the appropriate information in the database. For example, a bank may have an IVR system that allows members to call in and check their balance or recent transactions. Credit card companies and stock brokerage firms also use IVR systems to allow users to access information from their account. The technology can also be used for other purposes such as phone surveys, checking movie times, call center forwarding and the like.
A contact center is a system which a person can communicate with to receive information. Such communication can include, but is not limited to, telephone calls, Internet access, email, and FAX. A contact center can include one or more interactive voice response (IVR) systems. The one or more IVRs provide automatic branching voice queries to which the caller responds with button pushes on a telephone keypad or with voice responses on a telephone. The contact center may be provided having only the one or more IVR systems, or alternatively, the contact center may be provided having human agents. For example, at the end of the IVR branching voice queries, the caller can be directed to press zero to speak to an agent. In some environments the use of a contact center by a customer is referred to as self-service.

Method and apparatus providing additional information to an interactive voice response (IVR) system user


The present disclosure relates to quantitative magnetic resonance imaging. A time series of magnetic resonance images of an examination region are assigned to different time points following an excitation is acquired by means of a magnetic resonance device, a signal evolution varying with respect to time is determined from the magnetic resonance images for each pixel from the magnetic resonance data of all of the magnetic resonance images and, by comparison of the signal evolution with comparison evolutions stored in a database, at least one quantitative result value on which the comparison evolution exhibiting the greatest agreement is based is assigned to a respective pixel.

Magnetic resonance imaging constitutes an important tool in particular in medicine, in diagnostics for example. In this environment it was common practice until now in most cases to record qualitatively weighted magnetic resonance images, for example T1-weighted, T2-weighted and/or proton-density-weighted images. However, a quantitative magnetic resonance imaging technique has also been proposed to ultimately obtain a result in the form of a quantitative measurement map in which, for example, relaxation times or other material parameters are plotted pixel by pixel.
A well-known quantitative magnetic resonance imaging method is the technique known as magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF), by means of which multiple physical values, for example the relaxation times T1 and T2, can be measured simultaneously pixel by pixel in one measurement. In this process, a large number of magnetic resonance images are acquired sequentially as a time series preferably using a one-shot imaging technique, measurement parameters such as the repetition time, flip angle and the like varying over the course thereof such that other signal evolutions are produced across the magnetic resonance images as a function of the physical properties in the regions measured by the pixels. These signal evolutions, which are also referred to as fingerprints, can be assigned to an n-tuple of physical result values, for example material parameters, through matching with comparison evolutions in databases.

Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging techniques


In an embodiment, Applicant's method can automatically determine proficiency in a given language by tracking a user's gaze during reading a sample text. The language proficiency test includes reading sentences in a language (e.g., a language to the user's native language). The user's, or learner's, gaze is recorded using an eye-tracking camera while they read the sample text. Applicant's method and corresponding system predicts the language proficiency of the learner based on their gaze patterns. Applicant's method and corresponding system can also predict performance on specific standardized language proficiency tests such as Michigan EPT (Michigan English Proficiency Test), TOEIC® (Test of English for International Communication®), and TOEFL® (Test of English as a Foreign Language®).

Standardized language tests are used to determine proficiency in a given language. Such tests are subjectively judged on a test-taker's reading comprehension or writing abilities by a grader or against answers (e.g., of a multiple-choice test). Standardized tests have major drawbacks, however. Standardized tests can rely on manually created ad-hoc tasks, are prone to cheating, require test specific preparation and are expensive to develop.

Eye tracking as a language proficiency test


A method and system for wastewater treatment includes flowing a quantity of a wastewater into a first microbubble chamber having a plurality of diffusers for injecting microbubbles into the wastewater to promote oxygenation. The microbubble includes activated sludge for treating the wastewater. The wastewater is then flowed from the first microbubble chamber through a plurality of rotating discs having a biofilm of microorganisms mounted thereon. The discs rotate about a shaft such that a portion of each disc is exposed to air during rotation. The wastewater is the flowed into a second microbubble chamber having a plurality of diffusers for injecting microbubbles into the wastewater. The treated wastewater is then recovered.

Untreated wastewater of municipal or industrial origin has a severe, negative impact on the environment. This is especially true for the wastewater generated in the food processing industries and in sanitary landfills (landfill leachate). In that sense, the commercial opportunities for decentralized wastewater treatment plants, also known as package plants, are huge. As environmental regulations in industrialized countries become stricter, the installation of obsolete decentralized systems (aeration ponds, septic tanks, trickling filters) will be either banned or severely restricted. Indeed, certificates of approval for many of those methods are already increasingly difficult to obtain. These obsolete technologies are being replaced by compact, efficient and economically effective ones.
The treatment of wastewater from landfills or from wineries and fruit-processing plants is far more complex than the treatment of typical domestic wastewater. Wineries and other agricultural and food processing plants generate wastewater that due to its composition and high organic load, seasonal variability and acid and malodorous nature represent a serious environmental problem. Along with the wastewater, sludge is produced both during wine production and wastewater treatment and is collected at the bottom of tanks, holding ponds, and wastewater treatment units. A winery generates 40 to 60 L of wastewater for each case of wine produced. The nature of the wastewater is extremely variable in quality and quantity throughout the year, as it depends on the soil, the type of grapes, and the winery operation underway at any particular time, and the location where the sample is taken. Thus, although there is not "typical" winery wastewater, the following ranges can serve as useful guidelines for the numerical values of its constituents: pH [2.5-11], BOD5 [700-27,000], COD [500-35,000], TSS [400-6,350], Total Nitrogen [20-350], DO [0.5-3.8], and Total Phosphorous [2-60]. The above seven constituents of winery wastewater are of special interest to regulators due to the high levels found in winery wastewater relative to domestic wastewater. As prime vineyard land becomes increasingly expensive, using less space to deal with the treatment of wastewater is becoming a technical and economic challenge. In addition, increasing both wine production and surcharges for treating their wastewater in municipal plants are inducing wineries to treat their wastewater on-site. Unfortunately, most of the wastewater treatment technologies presently available are either very inefficient, very land intensive or both. Aerated lagoons or ponds are acceptable solutions when both, land is abundant and cheap, and concerns about odours and underground seepage are not environmental issues. In addition, aerated lagoons are hard to control. Indeed, low temperatures and rains can have a very negative effect on the performance of the pond. The hydraulic residence time of the wastewater in ponds is measured in months and foul odours and aesthetically unpleasant sights are common. On the positive side ponds require little supervision. However, the use of ponds is being rapidly restricted and the concession of permits by regulatory agencies is becoming increasingly difficult.
Another rudimentary technology very much used by small wineries, rural business and households is the septic tank. On the positive side is its moderate initial capital cost. On the negative side is the fact that this treatment method is paradoxically recognized as a major water polluter. Its removal efficiency is exceedingly low and its performance is unpredictable as it depends on the nature and topography of the land where it is installed. Furthermore, the owner's sense of responsibility to avoid both the use of certain domestic chemicals and pumping the tank according to certain schedules make the septic tank a primitive and unreliable method. The land requirement relative to its treatment capacity is very high and its use is associated to unpleasant odours and the pollution of aquifers. Septic tanks are a source of widespread concern.
Leachate from municipal landfills and septage from septic tanks, often hauled by trucks for treatment in municipal plants, are even more problematic as sources of wastewater. These types of wastewater contain many unpredictable chemical pollutants including toxic metals, high ammonia concentrations, refractory, chlorinated compounds, domestic chemicals etc. so that conventional biological treatments can be severely affected by toxic shocks or surges leading to operational malfunction of the plant. Municipal wastewater consists of a number of wastewater streams including domestic, industrial, landfill leachate, and septage wastewaters. Thus, although, one cannot talk of a typical municipal wastewater, the following pollutant ranges, obtained from the Municipal Wastewater Treatment EDAR Toledo in Spain, represent well municipal wastewater containing landfill leachate and septage: BOD5 [400-1300] mg/L, COD [ 650-2200] mg/L, TSS [ 300-1700] mg/L, Ammonia [ 50-110] mg/L. In addition, many undetermined pollutants form part of this kind of wastewater. The performances of the Active Biological Contactor (ABC) with the aforementioned wastewaters are presented in this document.

Active biological contactor (ABC); a modular wastewater treatment system


An organic light emitting display panel that includes a substrate, a plurality of pixels disposed on the substrate and forming a matrix, and an auxiliary organic light emitting element disposed at a distance from the pixel.

1. Field of the Invention
The described technology relates generally to a portable display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A portable display device has various shapes and functions for convenience of a user, and includes a display panel for displaying entire information of a portable phone and a window for protection of the display panel from an external impact.
The display panel is a liquid crystal display (LCD), or may be an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display and displays an image with a plurality of pixels.
The above information disclosed in this Related Art section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the described technology and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Organic light emitting diode display panel and portable display including the same

Samsung-ro, Giheung-Gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-Do


A method is provided that includes assigning one or more first records of a first table and one or more second records of a second table to corresponding range groups of a plurality of range groups. The method further includes comparing at least one record of the first table with at least one record of the second table, where the at least one record of the first table and the at least one record of the second table are assigned to a first range group of the plurality of range groups. The method also includes, based on the comparing, identifying a parent record and a child record and segmenting the parent record based on the child record. Further, the method includes subsequent to the segmenting the parent record, performing a join operation on the first table and the second table.

Tokenization is widely used to securely conduct digital payment transactions today. Typically, a third-party token service provider may be used to generate and manage payment tokens. To this end, token service providers store mappings between tokens and account number of payment instruments. These mappings (and therefore the account numbers) can be vulnerable to being stolen in the event that a security flaw with computers of the token service provided is exploited.
Embodiments of the present disclosure and their advantages are best understood by referring to the detailed description that follows. It should be appreciated that like reference numerals are used to identify like elements illustrated in one or more of the figures, wherein showings therein are for purposes of illustrating embodiments of the present disclosure and not for purposes of limiting the same.

Systems and methods for providing tokenization services at a mobile device


A medium contraction amount calculating unit calculates a medium length contraction amount in a fixing process of a recording medium in first printing from a medium length before the fixing process and a medium length after the fixing process. A write timing setting unit has medium contraction amount distributing means which center-distributes time corresponding to the medium length contraction amount to print start timing and print end timing in the next and subsequent printing and sets image write timing in the next and subsequent printing of the recording medium on the basis of the distribution by the medium contraction amount distributing means. When the same image is printed onto both surfaces or onto the same surface, the positional change of the same image can be made inconspicuous.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a printer or the like having a function for printing images onto both surfaces of a recording medium or a function for printing an image onto the same surface a plurality of number of times.
2. Related Background Art
In a conventional image forming apparatus using a heat fixing system, such a phenomenon that the moisture contained in a recording medium is evaporated by the heat of the thermal fixing and the recording medium is contracted after the fixing occurs. Therefore, in the case of printing images onto both surfaces of the recording medium or in the case of printing an image onto the same surface a plurality of number of times, after the image printed first was fixed, the image of the second time is transferred, so that a size of image printed first and a size of image printed at the second time differ. Therefore, particularly, in the case where the same image is printed onto both surfaces or onto the same surface, or the like, an inconvenience that a positional change of the same image is apt to be conspicuous occurs.
To solve such a problem, a technique in which against contraction of the recording medium that is caused by an influence of heat fixing, a correction value of print contents corresponding to such contraction is preset and the influence of the contraction is eliminated by the correction value, or the like has been opened (for example, refer to JP-A-2002-333744).
However, according to such a technique, since it is necessary to previously preset correction values with respect to all kinds of recording media capable of being used in the image forming apparatus, the operation is troublesome. A problem to be solved that since it is necessary to add a storing apparatus or the like, the apparatus becomes complicated and it results in an increase in costs still remains.
It is a problem to be solved that, particularly, in the case where the same image is printed onto both surfaces or onto the same surface, the positional change of the same image is likely to be conspicuous.


A semiconductor memory device, having cells respectively therein given information through rewriting, i.e., a refreshing operation, capable of performing non-periodic refreshing operations is disclosed. The semiconductor memory element internally includes a refresh request signal generator having a reference memory cell 51 connected to a word line in the memory device. The refresh request signal generator 100A generates refresh request signals only at that moment of erasing of information stored in the memory cell. The outputted refresh request signals cause refresh signals to transfer to the memory cell. Thus, non-periodic refreshing operations can be performed, thereby reducing the power consumption, and increasing the number of data input/output work.

In a memory cell consisted of a single transistor and a single capacitor, a discharge of the capacitor makes the stored information therein be destroyed and erased. Therefore, the periodical rewriting of the information, called the refreshing operation, is necessary to continuously store the information. The semiconductor device requiring refreshing operation has a memory control circuit, to perform regular refreshing operations, to perform regular refreshing operations at certain time intervals.
FIG. 1 is a system block diagram of the conventional semiconductor memory device performing refreshing operations. The semiconductor device of FIG. 1 uses DRAM as a memory device 100. If the memory device 100 is internally provided with a refresh address generator 80, the refresh address generator 80, shown in the dotted lines, is not needed.
The refreshing operations are regularly and within a certain time interval carried out through signals produced, by various components such as a central processing unit (CPU) 60 for controlling the memory device 100, an address selector 70, a timer and controller 90, and a refresh address generator 80. Generally the time intervals of the refreshing operations, in a dynamic RAM of 1 mega bits, is 8 msec, and this is executed in 512 cycles.
If it is assumed that 2048 cells are connected to a row address, then all the cells of 1 mega bits can be refreshed, i.e., 512.times.2048=1,048,576 bits. The range of the refreshing operation is determined in dependence upon the refresh characteristics of the semiconductor memory device, and usually, the refresh characteristics at the room temperature (25.degree. C.) are better by about 10 times than that at a high temperature (83.degree. C). However, the range of the refreshing operation is determined by the high temperature refresh characteristics. Therefore, the refreshing operation at room temperature accompany the unnecessary refreshing operations, with the undesirable result that the power consumption is increased, and that the input/output operations of data are restricted by the refreshing operation time.

Semiconductor memory device capable of executing non-periodic refreshing operations


Provided is an organic electroluminescence display device. The organic electroluminescence display device includes a bank that is provided so as to surround a central portion of a pixel electrode, an organic electroluminescence layer that is provided on the pixel electrode, a common electrode that is formed so as to extend from the organic electroluminescence layer to the bank, a color filter layer that overlaps the organic electroluminescence layer, a black matrix layer that overlaps the bank, a spacer that is provided on the black matrix layer, and a wiring that is provided on the black matrix layer so as to be placed on the spacer. The black matrix layer is disposed on the bank through the spacer. A convex portion is formed by the wiring being placed on the spacer, and the convex portion is electrically connected to the common electrode above the bank.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organic electroluminescence display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In top-emission type organic electroluminescence display devices, light is extracted from a negative electrode, and thus the negative electrode is required to be high in light transmittance from the perspective of improvement of light extraction efficiency. Meanwhile, a negative electrode is also required to be high in conductivity from the perspective of low power consumption.
Transparent oxide semiconductor films are generally used as negative electrodes, but an increase in thickness of the transparent oxide semiconductor film is essential to reduce sheet resistance, and transmittance is reduced. Light transmittance and conductivity have a trade-off relationship with each other, and thus it is difficult to satisfy both of them.
When a combination of a transparent oxide semiconductor film and a metal thin film having high conductivity is used, the influence of a light interference effect by the reflection of a metal thin film is great, and thus it becomes difficult to adjust a luminescent color.
When a metal film having high conductivity is formed in a non-emission region, a pixel aperture is not reduced in size, but a higher film formation accuracy than that of the pixel aperture is required, and thus application in production is difficult. For example, it is possible to form a minute auxiliary wiring on a transparent conductive film by deposition using a shadow mask, but a film formation region becomes narrower than a pixel. Thus, a highly accurate mask manufacturing technique and film formation technique are required, which results in a difficulty in practical application.
JP 2002-33198 A or JP 2006-278241 A discloses that an organic layer and a negative electrode are formed on a thin film transistor (TFT) substrate, an adhesion layer is formed on an encapsulation substrate for encapsulating the organic layer, an auxiliary wiring is formed on the adhesion layer, and the encapsulation substrate is bonded to the TFT substrate so that the auxiliary wiring faces a negative electrode. Meanwhile, the auxiliary wiring is pushed into the adhesion layer, and thus the auxiliary wiring and the negative electrode come into contact with each other. In this example, since the auxiliary wiring is formed on the adhesion layer, there is a problem in that a material is limited for a reason that the formation has to be performed without thermal curing.
JP 2009-128671 A discloses that a transparent conductive film is formed on an encapsulation substrate, and the encapsulation substrate is bonded to a TFT substrate, thereby bringing the transparent conductive film into contact with a negative electrode on the TFT substrate. However, since the transparent conductive film covers an emission region, a decrease in light transmittance is inevitable.

Organic electroluminescence display device


The present invention relates to a heat dissipating safety helmet comprising a shell, a liner and a strap. The shell comprises a top portion, a rim, and a visor outwardly extending from the rim, a plurality of spaced longitudinal strips connecting the top portion and the rim. The top portion, longitudinal strip and visor are integrally molded. There are transverse strips between the longitudinal strips, which are transversely interlaced with longitudinal strip. The helmet is weatherable, safe, air-permeable, heat dissipating, durable.

A woven safety helmet now on the market are woven from a variety of substances such as bamboo, rattan or osier. These helmets have inadequate weatherability and protection. They are fragile, flammable, easily broken, and not durable thus they are gradually replaced by molded safety helmets. The molded safety helmets provide good protection but the main disadvantage is air impermeable. Wearers feel uncomfortable because heat cannot be dissipated through the helmet effectively. When the weather is hot, they do not like to wear them and as a result work safety is affected. The benefit of the woven safety helmets is air-permeability so many people still use them. For the above reasons, there have been a research on a woven heat dissipating safety helmet made of a new substance and by a new process, improving the helmet in weatherability, heat insulation, stiffness, heat dissipation, protection, durability, air-permeability so that the helmet enhances safety of human being.

Multi Polar Enterprises (Shen Zhen) Limited


A hand held toothbrush with multiple levels of bristles on a rotary pad. When the user manually pushes the brush, there is a force created which propels the bristles to catch the irregular surface of the teeth, gaps, and pockets, causing the rotary pad to turn. The bristle's pattern is designed specially to improve the rotary pad to circular more effectively. The advantage of this invention is that even though the user operates the toothbrush in left and right movement, the bristles on rotary pad, converts left and right motion into circular motion.

The present invention generally relates to a toothbrush with multiple levels of bristles affixed perpendicular on a rotary pad. When user manually operates forward and backward brush movement that converts the bristles forward and backward motion into circular motion. More specifically the present invention relates to a toothbrush with varying lengths and positioned bristles permanently affixed perpendicular on a rounded pad, which rotates when handle of the brush is pushed either to the right or left manually.
It is generally accepted in dental health care maintenance that circular brushing motion around and along the irregular contours of tooth surfaces is the preferred and correct method of brushing teeth and stimulating gums. The circular brushing motion is the best way to clean the gaps and pockets between teeth. It is also generally known that most people find it difficult to brush their teeth in a sustained circular movement manually, because of the physical effort in maintaining the circular movement for an extended length of time. There are electric toothbrushes that accomplish to some extent of this desired result, however they are costly to the consumer and require the use of electricity or batteries. A need therefore exists for an improved inexpensive toothbrush that converts bristles from forward and backward brushing motion into a desirable system of circular brushing motion manually, to clean and stimulate both teeth and gums in the more dental prescribed manner.

Toothbrush with manual rotary patterned bristle method


In a transmission system, a control circuit (4) receives an input binary sequence (T) representing data to be transmitted. The circuit encodes the sequence using a phase alternation code which differs from the phase inversion duobinary code in that the phase shifts applied to a carrier wave are less than 90 degrees. For this purpose, a semiconductor chip (3) includes a laser transmitter and an electro-absorption modulator having two segments. The chip generates said carrier wave and modulates it using the encoded sequence. An optical fiber (54) conveys the modulated wave. And a detector diode (58) receives the conveyed wave and performs intensity discrimination thereon so as to restore the input binary sequence.

In systems providing such transmission, it is desirable to reduce the spectrum width of the signal, i.e. the spectrum bandwidth occupied by the signal to be transmitted, to as narrow a width as possible without increasing the transmission error rate to a problematic extent. In particular, reduced spectrum width can make it possible to increase the number of transmission spectrum channels carried by the same wave.
A known "duobinary" encoding method can be used to achieve the above-mentioned reduction. It is particularly applicable to transmission systems in which the carrier wave is a light wave guided by an optical fiber.
In that case, reducing the spectrum bandwidth of the signal is especially desirable because optical fibers often exhibit chromatic dispersion and because such dispersion deforms the transmitted signal, which deformation increases with increasing signal spectrum width, and thus increases the error rate.
An improved example of that encoding method has been proposed, and it is particularly advantageous when the carrier wave is a light wave guided by an optical fiber because it enables the intensity of the carrier wave to be given two values only. That improved example may be referred to as "phase inversion duobinary" encoding. It causes the carrier wave to have an intensity and a phase that are substantially constant during each of the groups of zero bits or of one bits making up the input signal, each group of zero bits extending between two one bits and being constituted by at least one zero bit and no one bits, and each group of one bits extending between two zero bits and being constituted by at least one one bit and no zero bits. Said intensity is equal to a nominal intensity during the groups of one bits. During the groups of zero bits, it is equal to the quotient of the nominal intensity divided by an extinction ratio TX which it is desirable to make as large as possible. Said phase constitutes a reference phase during the groups of zero bits, and it has a phase shift relative to the reference phase during the groups of one bits. This shift is associated with the group. The sign of shift is reversed between two consecutive groups of one bits when and only when the group of zero bits separating the two groups of one bits comprises an odd number of bits. And its amplitude is set so as to be equal to about 90 degrees.
This set value is inherent to the code. According to the known theory that was used to develop the code, when two consecutive groups of one bits are separated from each other by an odd number of bit periods, the looked-for reduction in the spectrum width of the signal is obtained and results from the combination of two facts. The first fact is that, during the two groups of one bits, a modulation factor affecting the field of the carrier wave has two mutually symmetrical values such as 1 and -1. The second fact is that a cumulative phase shift of 2.times.90=180 degrees of the carrier wave between the two groups makes it possible to give two such symmetrical values to the modulation factor while giving the same value to the intensity of the carrier wave throughout all of the groups of one bits.
The phase inversion duobinary code is described in an article entitled "Reduced bandwidth optical digital intensity modulation with improved chromatic dispersion tolerance", A. J. Price et al., IEEE Electronics Letters, Vol. 31, No. 1, pages 58-59, January 1995).
In known manner, it requires a modulator to be used that satisfies two conditions. The first condition is that the modulator makes it possible to achieve an extinction ratio that is high enough for the intensity of the carrier wave to be considered as being zero during the groups of zero bits.
The second condition is that the modulator is suitable for performing the cumulative phase shift of 180.degree. that the code requires in certain cases between two consecutive groups of one bits.
In the optical field, a type of modulator is known that satisfies both conditions: it is the Mach-Zehnder type of interferometric modulator. That type of known modulator suffers from the drawbacks of ageing quickly, of being costly, bulky, and/or difficult to integrate with other optical components required in a transmission system.

Method of putting binary data on an optical carrier wave, and a transmission system using the method


An electronic signal transmitting device is disposed in a housing of an integrated circuit. The integrated circuit includes at least one first signal end and at least one second signal end. The electronic signal transmitting device includes at least one electromagnetic transmitting unit, coupled between the first signal end and the second signal end for transmitting an electronic signal between the first signal end and the second signal end; and an electromagnetic insulating layer covering the electromagnetic transmitting unit for protecting the integrated circuit from electromagnetic interference.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic signal transmitting device and integrated circuit thereof for transmitting an electronic signal, and more particularly, to an electronic signal transmitting device and integrated circuit thereof with a high electro-static discharge (ESD) resistance.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the advancement of technology, various kinds of electronic circuitry can be integrated/formed in a single chip. The electronic circuitry in an integrated circuit can be classified into core circuitry and input/output circuitry, which are both driven by power sources with different respective voltages. In order to allow the core circuit and input/output circuit to connect with the external power supplies, core power pads and input/output pads are configured in the integrated circuit.
Electro-static charges may easily enter the inside of the integrated circuit via the core power pads and the input/output pads when packing, testing, transporting or manufacturing the integrated circuit. When excessive amounts of charge enter the integrated circuit, an electro-static discharge phenomenon will occur. The electro-static discharge may cause the integrated circuit to work abnormally, and may even damage the electronic circuitry of the integrated circuit in a more serious situation. Thus, how to reduce the effect of electro-magnetic discharge is an important topic to be discussed.

Electronic signal transmitting device and integrated circuit thereof


A connection system includes an optical connector assembly; and an optical plug. The connector assembly includes a stack of gel-groove assemblies and a spring assembly mounted within a housing. Each of the gel-groove assemblies includes a first gel block at a first axial end, a second gel block at a second axial end, and a fiber mating region between the first and second gel blocks. The optical plug including sub-modules over-molded over arrays (e.g., ribbons) of the optical fibers. Each sub-module defines notches for receiving latches of the spring assembly when the optical plug is coupled to the first axial end of the optical adapter. Bare optical fibers extend from the plug, pass through the first axial gel block, and enter the fiber mating region when the plug is coupled to the adapter.

Conventional multi-fiber connectors (e.g., MPO connectors) have a tendency to collect dirt, dust, or other debris. For example, each of the optical fibers of such connectors tends to become contaminated with such debris. Further, debris can accumulate between the optical fibers. Moreover, such connectors can be difficult to clean because of the number and density of the optical fibers. Performance suffers when the optical fibers are not clear of debris.
In addition, manufacturing of multi-fiber connectors is expensive, time-consuming, and difficult. Ferrules to hold the fibers are expensive and difficult to manufacture. Insertion of the fibers into the ferrules also can be difficult. Each of the components is subject to collecting debris during manufacturing. Finally, each of the fibers must be polished after insertion into the ferrules. Polishing is difficult to accomplish with damaging the fibers because of the density of the optical fiber tips.

Manufacturing and using ferrule-less multi-fiber connectors


A mounting mechanism has a base upon which a rotating cam is mounted. The cam has a lobe which extends beyond the perimeter of the base when the cam is in a first position and remains within the perimeter of the base when the cam is in a second position. A detent is used to lock the cam in the first position. The detent includes a leaf spring positioned on the cam which defines a kink. The kink is engageable within a niche in the base when the cam is in the first position. An accessory attached to the mounting mechanism may be attached to a structure using the mounting mechanism. The base fits within a slot in the structure and the lobe of the cam engages the structure when the cam is in the first position to lock the mounting mechanism and the accessory to the structure.

Accessories such as reflex sights are often mounted on firearms, such as the slides of semiautomatic pistols. Mounting is often effected via a mortise and tenon engagement between the accessory and the slide, the mortise being formed in the slide. While this mounting arrangement ensures a secure mount, particularly advantageous for gun sights, it suffers from a disadvantage because once mounted on the slide, it is difficult to remove the sight without damaging the slide's mortise, making the mounting, in effect, permanent. There would be a clear advantage to a mounting which had the security of a mortise and tenon engagement but allowed dismounting of the sight or other accessory without damage to the slide.