A projection display apparatus includes a polarization beam splitter, a first phase compensation plate including two layers, and a light modulator. Each layer has a constant axial angle, and an optical axis of each layer inclines with respect to the x axis in an xz plane. The axial angle of the layer closer to the polarization beam splitter among the two layers is larger than the axial angle of the layer farther from the polarization beam splitter. 20°≦θmax−θmin≦80° is satisfied where θmax is a maximum value of the axial angle and θmin is a minimum value of the axial angle. 40°≦θave≦70° is satisfied where θave is an average value of axial angles of the two layers.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a projection display apparatus (image display apparatus) such as a liquid crystal projector.
2. Description of the Related Art
Since a polarization characteristic of a polarization beam splitter or a phase compensation plate (phase difference plate) of a projection display apparatus have incident angle dependency, polarized light in the entire incident angle range cannot be uniformly split, but the light partially becomes leaked light. In addition, since normally reflected light (0th order reflected light) and other order diffracted light beams which are generated through reflection of incident light on an image display element (image modulator) are reflected at different angles, the incident light is differently influenced by polarization elements, so that light leakage occurs. Due to the light leakage, a problem occurs in that the contrast of a projection image is deteriorated.
In order to solve this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. ("JP") 2011-33762 proposes arranging a phase difference plate having an inclined optical axis between the polarization beam splitter and the image display element. The phase difference plate has different refractive indexes in two orthogonal directions in the optical plane, and a phase difference larger than λ/4 to the polarized light having a designed wavelength λ which vertically enters the optical plane. Assume that a z axis is a normal direction of an incident/emitting plane of the polarization beam splitter, a y axis is a direction perpendicular to the z axis and the normal line of the polarization splitting plane, and an x axis is a direction perpendicular to the z axis and the y axis. Then, the optical axis of the phase difference plate is located on the xz plane and inclines with respect to the x axis. By appropriately setting the angle of the optical axis, the asymmetry generated by the polarization beam splitter can be compensated (cancelled).
JP 2011-33762 uses the uniaxial dielectric crystal such as sapphire or quartz for the phase difference plate, but the uniaxial dielectric crystal is hard to process or handle and has a high sensitivity to the axial angle and a low contrast stability. In other words, when the angle of the optical axis shifts from the designed angle due to the manufacturing error and the installation error, the contrast of the projection image is greatly deteriorated and the contrast cannot be stably improved.


A signal power coefficient and a noise power coefficient are calculated for each channel, using parameters which have been optimized up to a small error value by an optimizing means, then using the thus-calculated signal power coefficient and noise power coefficient, there are determined a signal power and a noise power for each channel, and the signal power and the noise power thus determined are displayed on one and same display screen channel by channel.

The applicant in the present case has previously proposed such a CDMA signal waveform quality measuring method as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid Open No. 173628/1998. FIG. 13 shows an example of power display of various channels as measured by the measuring method disclosed therein.
In FIG. 13, electric power W is plotted along the axis of ordinate, while channels CH are plotted along the axis of abscissa. In the example of FIG. 13, Walsh code length is set at "32" to permit connection of 32-channel lines, and a state is shown in which channels 0, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 . . . 29, and 31 are generating signals.
According to the conventional method for displaying the result of CDMA signal waveform quality measurement, a signal power of each channel is merely displayed and the measurement of noise level is not performed. Particularly, the measurement of noise level is an important parameter, for example, in case of building a base station for portable radio communication and making tests.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a CDMA signal waveform quality display system capable of measuring a noise level for each channel and displaying the result of the noise level measurement on a power display screen and further capable of displaying both signal power and noise power of each channel on one and same screen.

CDMA signal waveform quality display system, method, and program, and storage medium storing the program


A switchgear mounting assembly for a load center includes a base assembly, an electrical bus assembly, and a bracket. The base assembly includes a base and a central protrusion extending outwardly from the base. Bus bars are electrically connected and mechanically coupled to the central protrusion and include stabs, which extend radially outwardly from the central protrusion. The bracket is coupled to the central protrusion and includes supporting elements. Each supporting element maintains a corresponding electrical switching apparatus in electrical communication with a corresponding one of the stabs. The switchgear mounting assembly is therefore structured to mount the electrical switching apparatus in a radial array extending around the central protrusion.

1. Field
The disclosed concept pertains generally to electrical systems and, more particularly, to load centers. The disclosed concept also relates to switchgear mounting assemblies for load centers.
2.Background Information
Electrical apparatus, such as electrical switching apparatus or electrical meters used in power distribution systems, are often mounted on or within an electrical enclosure (e.g., without limitation, a panelboard; a load center; a meter breaker panel) either individually or in combination with other electrical meters or switchgear (e.g., without limitation, circuit switching devices and circuit interrupters such as circuit breakers, contactors, motor starters, motor controllers and other load controllers).
The electrical enclosure is typically coupled to and supported by a structure such as, for example, a wall of a building, and includes a number of electrical bus members. A panelboard, for example, typically includes an elongated rectangular electrical enclosure wherein the bus electrical bus members run longitudinally between the top and the bottom of the rectangular enclosure. A plurality of circuit breakers are mechanically coupled and electrically connected to corresponding electrical bus members by electrical connector assemblies, such as clip members or a number of separate fasteners that are structured to mechanically couple the circuit breakers to a contact stab of the desired electrical bus member. Thus, the circuit breakers are arranged in a linear or "in-line" configuration within the enclosure.
Among other disadvantages, such designs require a relatively high part count (e.g., without limitation, fasteners; connectors; buses; panels), which can complicate the fabrication process, as well as make the assembly process complex and time-consuming. In addition, some prior art designs suffer from issues relating to poor mechanical and electrical connectivity between the circuit breakers and electrical bus members or stabs. Known load centers are also relatively large and require a separate supporting structure, such as the aforementioned wall of a building in order to support the elongated rectangular enclosure and electrical components enclosed therein. Further, the elongated rectangular enclosure is typically disposed within a corresponding prefabricated recess in the wall, in order to attempt to generally conceal the load center. These and other issues add to the cost and complexity associated with known load centers.
There is, therefore, room for improvement in load centers and in switchgear mounting assemblies therefor.

Load center and switchgear mounting assembly therefor


A braking system for a bicycle. The system has a front and back wheel braking handles that each have a braking cables that extend to a front wheel and a back wheel respectively. Extending between the front and back braking handles is an interconnecting braking cable. The front braking cable has a rocker therein such that when the rocker is used in association with the interconnecting cable the front brake of the bicycle is actuated and deactuated as the back brake of the bicycle is also actuated and deactuated.

This invention relates to a bicycle braking system. More specifically this invention relates to a bicycle braking system that allows the front brake of the bicycle to be actuated and regulated only as the back brake is used and released.
Traditional bicycle braking systems comprise a pair of brake handles that are pivotally connected to handlebars such that when pivoted or clasped by a user, the brake cables that run to calipers on the wheels of a bicycle frictionally cause a stop in rotation of a bike wheel. Thus, a front wheel braking handle has a cable that runs from the handle to a front tire and the back wheel braking handle has a cable that runs to a back tire. When bicycling and an individual actuates the front wheel braking handle without actuating the back wheel braking handle, the bike has a tendency to flip over causing injury or death.
Therefore, a primary object of the present invention is to provide a bicycle braking system that is easy to manufacture and causes improved braking.
These and other features, objects, and advantages will become apparent through the specification and claims.


A tractor having a steerable axle that pivotally moves laterally in response to a corresponding steering action of the steerable wheels mounted on the steerable axle and is also pivotally supported for oscillatory pitching movement about a longitudinal axis is disclosed wherein an oscillation stop is provided in the form of an arcuate track mounted to the steerable axle and a pair of transversely spaced rollers engageable with the arcuate track through the entire range of lateral movement of the axle to limit the amount of permissible oscillatory pitching movement. The arcuate track has a center of curvature that coincides with the vertical pivot axis for the lateral movement of the axle. The rollers are spaced on opposing sides of the longitudinal axis and have rotational axes that are generally aligned with the center of curvature of the arcuate track. The upper surface of the arcuate track has an undulating configuration to vary the permissible vertical pitching motion of the axle as the steering angle of the steering mechanism changes.

This invention relates generally to a steering mechanism for an agricultural tractor in which the front axle is laterally shiftable in response to a steering movement of the steerable wheels and, more particularly, to an oscillation stop mechanism that is cooperable with the laterally shiftable axle to limit the amount of oscillatory pitching movement throughout the entire range of lateral shifting movement of the axle.
Tractors, whether used in an agricultural setting or in an industrial setting, typically include a fixed axle through which primary driving power is transferred through fixed wheels rotatably mounted on opposing ends of the fixed axle, and a steering axle having pivotally mounted steerable ground engaging wheels rotatably mounted on the opposing ends thereof to support the chassis of the tractor above the ground. Supplemental driving power is often provided through the steerable ground engaging wheels, while a steering mechanism remotely controllable by the operator from the operator's compartment selectively controls the pivotal movement of the steerable wheels relative to the steering axle.
One such steering mechanism incorporates a transversely disposed, horizontally extending hydraulic cylinder supported by the steering axle and connected to the opposing steerable wheels. This hydraulic cylinder affects pivotal movement of the steerable wheels about their respective pivotal connections to the steering axle by manipulating the pressures in the hydraulic cylinder to effect a transverse displacement of the cylinder rod, causing a turning of the wheels.
Due to physical limitations relating to the range of movement of the steering mechanism and to the eventual interference between the steerable wheels and the steering axle or chassis frame, the amount of pivotal movement of the steerable wheels relative to the steering axle is limited by tire size and track setting to a given restricted turning angle. This maximum turning angle defines the minimum turning radius of the tractor for a given chassis clearance width, axle oscillation angle, wheel base length and king pin spacing. The selection of the length of the wheel base, i.e., the distance between the fixed axle and the steering axle, is a compromise between the need to minimize the turning radius and, therefore, minimize the wheel base length, and to maximize ride considerations which require longer wheel base lengths.
Further complicating the development of a steerable axle to improve turning characteristics of vehicles such as agricultural tractors is the requirement of accomodating the oscillatory pitching movement associated with such vehicle axles. The limits imposed on the structural components to stop the pitching motion of the axle relative to the chassis must be effective throughout the entire range of lateral shifting movement provided to the steerable axle. In some instances where the tractor tires are closely spaced and less than a full turn is being attempted, there is very little clearance between the tire and the chassis sheet metal; however, when tight turns are being made the tire is sufficiently displaced from the chassis sheet metal that adequate clearance exists to allow a normal oscillation range. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a mechanism to vary the permissible oscillatory movement of the axle as a function of the degree of turn being attempted.

Variable oscillation stops for tractors with compound steering mechanism


A method for optimizing provisioning workflows in cloud computing is provided. The method comprises determining a time coefficient for each resource type or aggregated resource types which define the installation time of a current workflow; accessing the current workflow and creating a tree topology based on the current workflow which defines serialized and parallelized provisioning steps; dividing the tree topology into independent sub-paths; determining a timing condition for an execution time of an optimized workflow; creating an optimized workflow template maintaining the timing condition by: selecting cheapest installation methods and cheapest resources; and reducing the parallelization of the tree topology; creating the optimized workflow by merging the optimized workflow template with data and the resource types of the current workflow.

Prior art resource provisioning environments comprise provisioning systems which deliver a consumer system on request of a consumer. Such provisioning systems run provisioning tools on provisioning servers which utilize resource pools for hardware and software components by executing a pre-defined provisioning workflow from a workflow repository. Each single provisioning workflow of those prior art provisioning workflows, describes a unique target consumer system topology plus the rules how to build the consumer system from the provisioning resources. Utilizing different approaches to provision a certain unique consumer system in an optimized way requires pre-defined variations of the provisioning workflow.
Resource provisioning response time ("request-to-deliver") is an important differentiating feature for cloud resource providers. Pre-defined prior art provisioning workflows cannot be adapted to the fastest provisioning method at run-time. Instead, a high volume of pre-defined provisioning workflow variations for the same target consumer system topology have to be developed. Further, runtime system conditions (e.g. network throughput) are not considered, since the provisioning workflows are pre-defined, and variations are selected on a "best-guess" basis.
In the Patent Application Publication US 2010/0153482 A1 "CLOUD-BASED AUTOMATION OF RESOURCES" by Kim et al. an IT administration workstation is disclosed, which hosts a workflow authoring application (e.g., Citrix Workflow Studio or Microsoft Visual Studio®), a console application which includes a workflow conversion engine and a management dashboard application. An IT administrator runs the workflow authoring application in conjunction with activity libraries to author a workflow composed of a collection of individual activities from the activity libraries and then test a workflow that defines provisioning or tear down of a VM host, storage area network (SAN), other network device or application services running on those VMs.
Today's resource provisioning systems execute pre-defined workflows without adapting those workflows to the circumstances at invocation time. The resource provisioning response time is an important unique or differentiating feature for cloud resource providers but not considered, yet. Just doing the provisioning job will not improve provisioning response time (static process), thus, will not offer better request-to-deliver time.

Optimizing provisioning workflows in cloud computing

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A method, a computer readable medium, and a system for discovering an Optical Network Terminal (ONT) in a Dense Wave Division Multiplex (DWDM) hybrid Passive Optical Network (PON) Line Terminal (LT), comprises implementing, by an Optical Line Termination (OLT), a ranging procedure on at least one downstream link, wherein the OLT is communicably coupled to the ONT, discovering at least one new ONT, by the OLT, on the at least one downstream link based on the ranging procedure, discovering an unranged ONT, by the OLT, during the ranging procedure, and determining, by the OLT, that the unranged ONT resides on the at least one downstream link.

In a traditional optical transceiver board, there is a matched set of optical transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) entities, or ports. While the traditional approach of having a receiver matched with a transmitter is still possible, it is inefficient.
The traditional approach of managing the TX and RX ports would use 4 RX circuits which would then match Media Access Control (MAC) interface electronics. The Media Access Control (MAC) data communication protocol sub-layer is the part of the seven-layer OSI model data link layer (layer 2). It provides addressing and channel access control mechanisms that make it possible for several terminals or network nodes to communicate within a multipoint network. The MACs would then be managed for the respective portion of the total upstream traffic from the ONTs on the PON. A passive optical network (PON) is a system that brings optical fiber cabling and signals all or most of the way to the end user. A PON consists of an Optical Line Termination (OLT) at the communication company's office and a number of Optical Network Units (ONUs) near end users. A PON typically consists of an OLT, which resides in a Central Office (CO). The OLT typically services a number of ONUs that are usually connected in a star arrangement using optical splitters, which reside at a premise of a user. PONs are designed on the premise of time-sharing of resources. This traditional solution would require 4 RXs plus potentially 4 MAC electrical interfaces.
Referring to FIG. 1, a traditional system 100 comprises an optical transceiver board 102 with a matched set of optical transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) ports 106. Each TX/RX port is coupled to a MAC interface 104. A wavelength-division multiplexer (WDM) 108 is coupled to each of the ports 106 to multiplex the optical carrier signal, and to a combiner 110, which is a passive device that combines the optical power carried by many input fibers into a single output fiber. The combiner 110 is coupled to an external PON 112. As previously mentioned, this type of a system is inefficient.
Therefore, what is needed is an ability to overcome these problems and limitations to allow the RX and TX ports to be managed more efficiently.

ONT discovery in a DWDM hybrid PON LT configuration


A magnet temperature control device, for use in a magnetic resonance system having a magnet, includes a pipeline and a temperature regulator. The pipeline is connected to a liquid or gas circulation, and the temperature regulator is connected in series in the pipeline to regulate the temperature of the liquid or gas. A part of the pipeline is arranged inside the magnet, while the rest of the pipeline is arranged outside said magnet; the part of said pipeline which is arranged inside said magnet is distributed uniformly within the magnet, and its cross-sectional shape is in an annular, helical, radicalized or network form, or a combination thereof. Compared to the use of a heater that is distributed only on the surface of the magnet, the pipeline distributed inside the magnet can control the magnet temperature more directly and effectively, so as to smooth and eliminate the temperature change of the magnet promptly by the liquid or gas flow therein, thereby making the magnet temperature more stable.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnet temperature control device, and in particular to a magnet temperature control device for a permanent magnet magnetic resonance system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Referring to FIG. 1, in a typical permanent magnet magnetic resonance system, magnets 20, pole plates 30 are respectively arranged in turn on upper and lower magnetic yokes 10. Stability is an important parameter for the magnetic field components of a permanent magnet magnetic resonance system, although there exists a plurality of external factors that affect the stability of a permanent magnet, in which the temperature stability is the most important one. However, the magnetic components for permanent magnet magnetic resonance, in particular the magnets 20 for generating the magnetic field are very sensitive to temperature changes. The reason is that the characteristics of the permanent magnet material change considerably with the temperature, thus the magnetic field excited by it has corresponding changes, and such changes are shown as fluctuation in magnetic field density and deterioration in its uniformity, and the abovementioned changes in the magnetic field will directly result in a decrease of imaging quality of the magnetic resonance system.
Therefore, in a magnetic resonance system, in particular a permanent magnet magnetic resonance system, the stability of the main magnetic field depends on the temperature stability of the magnet itself. In order to keep the temperature stability of the magnet, U.S. Pat. No. 5,652,517 discloses a technology for heating the magnets by using AC and DC heaters. In this patent, the AC and DC heaters are distributed on side faces of both the upper and lower magnetic yokes of the magnets, and a temperature probe is disposed close to the center of the upper pole plate. The DC heater is used only at the initial stage of temperature increase; under normal operation, the magnet temperature depends on the temperature probe and the DC heater for its control and adjustment.
PCT application PCT/GB99/02778 discloses another technology for maintaining the magnets' temperature stability; and in this patent application, since it is considered that heat is continuously dissipated to the surrounding environment from the surface of the magnet, the magnet temperature is kept constant by placing a DC heater on the surface of the magnet.
Japanese application JP3109042 discloses a technology for controlling the magnet temperature by using oil circulation; in this patent application, a loop for heating the magnet is formed by an oil groove, a heater, an oil pump and oil pipes wound on a magnet; and the output power of the heater is controlled by detecting the temperature difference between the inlet oil pipe and the outlet oil pipe, so as to accomplish the object of maintaining the magnet's temperature stability.
However, in the abovementioned various solutions in the prior art, the magnet temperature is adjusted by mounting a heating device or a constant temperature device on the surface of the magnet, without taking into the account the case that the magnet itself generates heat which needs to be dissipated. When heat is generated inside the magnet, by way of adjusting the heater on the surface of the magnet alone it can only ensure the surface temperature of the magnet to be constant, while the temperature change inside the magnet will keep oscillating for quite a long time and it cannot be eliminated, thus resulting in the fluctuation of magnetic density and deterioration of uniformity, and damaging the imaging quality of the magnetic resonance system.


This application provides a method and an apparatus for making an emergency call. The method includes: obtaining location information of UE; determining, based on the local information, whether the UE is located in a home country of an HPLMN of the UE; and when the UE is located in the home country of the HPLMN, if a predetermined condition is satisfied, initiating a VoWiFi emergency call by using an IMS APN of the HPLMN, where the predetermined condition includes: the UE has completed IMS registration, and a PLMN on which the UE camps includes no emergency APN. According to the method and apparatus for making an emergency call provided in this application, a VoWiFi emergency call success rate can be increased to some extent.

A VoLTE (Voice over LTE) technology is a voice transmission technology based on an IP multimedia subsystem. A higher quality and more natural voice call effect can be provided for a user by using the VoLTE technology, and therefore the technology is increasingly widely applied.
As the VoLTE technology is increasingly widely applied, an emergency call becomes one of basic functions that need to be implemented in the VoLTE technology. The emergency call is a telephone service that allows a mobile subscriber to connect an emergency call to an answering organization in a timely manner by using a simple dialing method in the case of an emergency. When no subscriber identity module (SIM) card is inserted into user equipment (UE) or UE is locked, the answering organization can still be connected by using an emergency call, to give an alarm or seek help.
Before the UE makes an emergency call by using the VoLTE technology, the UE needs to first interact with a network side to complete network camping and IMS registration. When the UE needs to initiate an emergency call through VoLTE, if a public land mobile network (PLMN) on which the UE camps includes an emergency APN for an emergency call, the UE may initiate a VoLTE emergency call by using the emergency APN. If the UE camps on a home public land mobile network (HPLMN), when the HPLMN includes no emergency APN, the UE may initiate a VoLTE emergency call by using an IMS APN of the HPLMN.
However, in actual application, in some specific environments such as a high building or a basement, there may be relatively poor cellular signal coverage due to a complex cellular signal coverage status of a telecommunications operator. When cellular signal coverage of each telecommunications operator is excessively poor, a VoLTE emergency call may fail, resulting in a low emergency call success rate.

Method and apparatus for making emergency call


According to some embodiments, a method determining a number of stages associated with an instruction to be executed via a processor pipeline, determining a number of stages associated with a subsequent instruction, and stalling the pipeline based on the number of stages associated with the instruction to be executed and the number of stages associated with the subsequent instruction is provided.

An instruction to be executed by a processor may be associated with a number of different operations. For example, execution of an instruction might involve: fetching the instruction; decoding the instruction; performing an Arithmetic-Logic Unit (ALU) operation; and accessing data/memory. The processor could perform all of these operations for one instruction before beginning any of the operations for the next instruction. This approach, however, may limit the rate at which the processor executes instructions.
It is known that processor performance may be improved when instructions are executed via a processor "pipeline." FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a processor pipeline 100 including a fetch stage 110 that retrieves an instruction from memory and increments a program counter. A decode stage 120 may translate that instruction and retrieve information from a register file. The pipeline 100 may also include an ALU stage 130 that performs arithmetic and logic operations on operands (e.g., information that was retrieved from the register file during the decode stage 120). A data/memory stage 140 may read and/or write information as appropriate. Some instructions may further have a second data/memory stage 150. For example, an instruction that reads from memory or that accesses a coprocessor might have a second data/memory stage 150.
Note that each stage in the pipeline 100 may simultaneously perform operations associated with different instructions. For example, the fetch stage 110 may retrieve a first instruction from memory during a first clock cycle. When that operation is complete, the decode stage 120 can decode the first instruction and retrieve information from a register file during a second clock cycle. While the decode stage 120 is performing these operations for the first instruction, the fetch stage 110 can retrieve the next instruction from memory. Because the pipeline 100 may perform operations associated with a number of different instructions at the same time, the rate at which the instructions are executed may be increased.

Stall optimization for an in-order, multi-stage processor pipeline which analyzes current and next instructions to determine if a stall is necessary


A Modbus data protocol register formatting system and method are disclosed. The system and method provide for the Modbus communications protocol request and recall of data stored in a register in the data base native format, and the conversion of the data into a different requested format. The system and method similarly provide for the writing of data into a device register from a known variable format into the data base native format. The ability to convert the data by a format converter after recalling the data, or before storing the data, obviates the need to store or write data in different or multiple formats. The inventive method uses a modified register mapping that comprises defined mapping elements identifying the data address location, the requested data format, along with the data variable. The register mapping is fully variable to provide for a wide range of data formats and data address formats. The inventive system uses, in addition to the Modbus master and slave devices, a format converter that converts the data recalled into the requested data format, or converts the data to be written into the slave device native data format.

Data communication standards and communication protocols are well known, widely used, and wide spread. Such standards provide the basis for various electronic devices to be able to communicate with each other. Certain communication standards have been in place since the 1970s and, due to their flexibility and ease of use, are still extensively used today in digital and analog communications between devices.
One such communications standard is the Modbus protocol. The original Modbus interface, created in late 1970s, operated on the RS-232 standard, with later interfaces was operated and running on the RS-485 standard. Because of the flexibility of the Modbus protocol, including the ability for it to be implemented and use by computer processors as well as intelligent sensors, the Modbus communications protocol developed into widely used standard that is still in use today. Indeed, because of the prevalence of the Modbus protocol, its use will likely continue for many years to come.
Modbus is a master device/slave device communications protocol that provides for the master device to request or initiate a message and the slave device to response or reply to the master device message. In data transmission, the Modbus communications are predominantly reading and writing of data from one register in a device to another register in one or more other devices. One of the strengths of the Modbus communications protocol is that the format of the data being transmitted is not limited by the protocol. That is, Modbus works on most any data format determined or set by the master and slave devices so long as the data formats are compatible.
There in is one of the limitations of the Modbus protocol: while there is substantial flexibility in usage of the Modbus protocol, there are often problems with interoperability between devices storing, retrieving and requesting different data formats. More particularly, while a slave device may have as a native data format floating point data, a request may come from a master device seeking data for a register with a 32-bit integer format. Other formats widely used for sensors include 16-bit integer format. Where multiple master and slave devices are communicating, the efficient inter-communication between such devices may be hindered if not prevented.
Systems have been designed for communication protocols. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,443,886 (the "'886 patent"), issued to Gross for a Communication Protocol System and Method, discloses a specific expanded protocol having a data packet, a control byte, and a checksum byte. The control byte of the protocol further includes several bits to identify (a) the address of a slave controller, (b) the data type being transmitted, (c) the source of the data, (d) whether data is included in the data packet, (e) the state of the master controller, and (f) the run/stop state of the master controller. The '866 patent does not however include any process to convert the format of the data packet being transmitted.
Another design for Modbus communications protocol in shown in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/689,513, Publication No. US 2008/0235420, by Wei (the "'513 application"), for a Method Of Detecting Master/Slave Response Time-Out Under Continuous Packet Format Communications Protocol. The disclosed method in the '513 application provides for the continuous sending of Modbus requests to a slave device through a detection device and to record each Modbus request sent time, and to have the slave device provide back to the detection device a response for each Modbus request. Calculations are then used to determine the precise response time-out of the slave device. As with other known prior art, the '513 application does not include any processing of the data packet transmitted to be able to convert the format of the data transmitted.
What is needed is a Modbus communications protocol that allows the master device to recall data from a slave device, where the data is stored in the slave device in the slave device's native format, and then allows for converting the data to another format based upon the Modbus register address protocol. What is also needed is a communications protocol that allows a master device to write data to a slave device, where the data format is to be converted to the slave device native format based upon the register address protocol. Such a Modbus communications protocol and method and system have not been created or recognized in the communications field.


An aqueous hair cleansing agent containing the following components (A), (B) and (C) and water:    (A) an anionic surfactant;    (B) a specific organo polysiloxane; and    (C) one or more of cationized polymer(s) selected from (c-1) and (c-2):    (c-1) a cationized polymer having cellulose skeleton or galactomannan skeleton; and    (c-2) a cationic polymer having diallyl dimethylammonium salt skeleton.

In recent years, function for providing a conditioning effect is critical for hair cleansing agents, in addition to basic functions as the cleansing agent such as foaming, cleansing-ability and the like.
Patent Document 1 describes that a specific amount of a cationic derivative of guar gum is employed in a shampoo composition and an aqueous emulsion of insoluble and involatile silicone containing a specific size of dispersed silicone is employed, in order to improve hair conditioning characteristics of the shampoo composition.
Patent Document 2 describes that a combination of an organic carboxylic acid and a specific organic solvent and a specific organo polysiloxane (modified silicone) is employed to obtain a hair cosmetic composition, which exhibits enhanced manageability and touch feel of the hair and enhanced styling-abilities of both of the set-ability just after coiffed and the style-holding effect.
In addition to above, other technologies employing modified silicones include a technology described in Patent Document 3.


According to at least one aspect of the present invention, an ammonia borane containing hydrogen storage material is provided to be present with substantially reduced formation of borazine or diborane. In at least one embodiment, the hydrogen storage material includes at least one ammonia borane (NH3BH3); and at least one amide of the formula M(NH2)x, wherein M is a cationic element or a combination of two or more cationic elements from groups 1 to 14 of the periodic table and x represents a total cationic charge to charge balance M.

1. Technical Field
One or more embodiments of this invention relates to hydrogen storage materials containing ammonia borane and methods for supplying hydrogen.
2. Background Art
Hydrogen is desirable as a source of energy for many applications because its reaction with air produces a clean by-product of water. Hydrogen has increasingly been considered an environmentally benign energy carrier in the field of mobile or stationary applications.
However, use of hydrogen as an energy carrier has been met with many implementation challenges. For example, efficient storage and release of hydrogen is identified as one of the key practical obstacles to realizing a transition to hydrogen-powered vehicles.

Hydrogen storage materials containing ammonia borane


The sound output setting system for information processing terminals is provided, capable of outputting a desired call progress tone from a terminal to be heard by the user easily with simple configuration. The system includes a SIP server and information processing terminals connected via a LAN using SIP. The SIP server has a tone management table for defining and recording types of sounds output by the information processing terminals in association with their identification codes, and an audio file storage region for recording audio files corresponding to the identification codes. The information processing terminal has a client application unit, which acquires a management table from the tone management table and an audio file from the audio file storage region at a predetermined time, and compares them with recorded data in its own tone management table region and audio file storage region to update the recorded data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a telephone system employing Internet Protocol (IP), and in particular to a sound output setting system for use in information processing terminals having a telephone terminal function and capable of easily setting and updating a received audio signal. The audio signal is a call progress tone signal, such as a signal of a dial tone (DT), ring-back tone (RBT), or busy tone (BT), received by the terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, the conventional circuit-switching network architectures are being rapidly replaced with Internet architectures. This consequently increases the use of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) as a communication protocol for Internet telephones employing Voice over IP (VoIP). The SIP is a communication protocol enabling a user to freely select a desired application or service by means of end-to-end control and mild and flexible management of networks and services. Some office telephone systems use a private branch exchange or key telephone system to form a communication network. However, there are some services among the existing services, that cannot be provided as a unified service in these systems by using the end-to-end control architecture.
In these existing services, call progress tones provided to users are included. The call progress tones are provided to a user prior to establishment of a media session at a telephone terminal. In the case of a circuit-switching network architecture, the services are managed by a centralized controller possessed by a telephone exchange for the purpose of controlling the same. This means that an audio channel is formed between the centralized controller and the telephone terminal prior to establishment of the session between the telephone terminals. Therefore, the user is allowed to hear a call progress tones such as a dial tones (DT) or ring-back tone (RBT) through a signal sound generated by the centralized controller. In the case of an end-to-end control architecture such as SIP, however, the call control is performed by means of a text type message through the communication protocol. Therefore, no audio channel is established until a called party responds to the call and a talk session is established. Consequently, the centralized controller does not intervene during the talk session. The call progress tone thus has to be generated by the telephone terminals. The telephone terminals are allowed to select freely a type of tones to be output. However, unified specifications are applied to design the exchanges and the telephone terminals. Thus, a complicated processing is required to unify the specifications thereof if the tones to be transmitted are to be unified in the system.
In order to solve such problems, office telephone system using SIP as a communication protocol employ an extended Back-to-Back User Agent (B2BUA) in which a SIP User Agent (SIPUA) is used as a central telephone equipment having an exchange function or a telephone exchange. According to this method, the telephone exchange communicates with a calling terminal and a called terminal while connecting their audio channels in the telephone exchange. In this case, a talk session is established between the telephone exchange and the telephone terminal, and a call progress tone formed by output sounds generated by the telephone exchange is heard at the telephone terminal. However, the SIP session state of the telephone terminal is different from the actual communication session state, which substantially reduces the design freedom of client applications using the SIP.
An improvement for solving this problem is disclosed, for example, in JP-2004-312357-A2 (Patent Document 1) relating to an Internet telephone system. According to the Patent Document 1, a telephone unit connected to the Internet receives streaming delivery of audio data from an audio server connected to the Internet, and a telephone terminal outputs the audio data. Using the streaming delivery, however, packet arrival delay is apt to occur when the network traffic is high. Further, troubles may occur such as clipping of the beginning of the tone sound and interruption of the tone sound when streaming delivery processing load is increased due to concentration of accesses to the audio server.
In order to solve such problem of output sound interruption, a system can be packaged to be composed of central IP telephone equipment serving as a telephone exchange and IP telephone terminals. This is effective means for manufacturers. Specifically, in the system, the telephone terminal has a digital signal processor (DSP) mounted thereon, and when a communication control command is issued by the IP telephone exchange to the IP telephone terminals, the communication control command notifies parameter information to form the output sound. This processing enables the IP telephone terminals to dynamically produce and output the related sound. A management table of audio files corresponding to the sound output information notified by the IP telephone exchange and all the prospective audio files must be prepared in the IP telephone terminals.
However, the ringing specifications such as frequencies and cycles of the call progress tones differ among countries and regions. Therefore, the output sound specifications have to be changed according to a country or region where the IP telephone exchange is installed. The IP telephone terminal has to restructure the audio files into an application compliant to the standard of the country or region according to the output sound specifications of the IP telephone exchange. More specifically, the IP telephone application provides an install image containing an audio file to the terminal user. Further, in some cases, the providing vendor of the IP telephone exchange is different from that of the IP telephone application. If this is the case, whenever a vendor providing the IP telephone exchange changes the specifications, a vendor providing the IP telephone application is following the change and requires to prepare a restructured install image.
Further, the IP telephone terminal has no audio files corresponding to the output sounds. Therefore, if the IP telephone exchange adds new sound output information and the IP telephone terminal receives a communication control command to output the new output sound, the IP telephone terminal is not able to output the related sound. In order to avoid such circumstances, it is known to provide preliminary sound output information so that the new audio file is provided to the IP telephone application vendor to restructure the install image. However, this method is restricted if the prepared preliminary sound output information is limited. It is in the first place impossible to solve the problem of occurrence of situation in which the IP telephone application vendor is required to restructure the install image whenever a new audio file is added.
The present invention relates to a system in which central telephone equipment having a telephone exchange function using IP is combined with telephone terminals via a network, and communication is controlled by Voice over IP (VoIP). In such a system, output sound specifications for call progress tones need be changed according to a country or region where the central telephone equipment is installed. However, the change of the output sound specifications cannot be performed easily by simple configuration. The present invention intends to solve such problems of the system.

Sound output setting system for information processing terminal


An improved bottle cap device formed so as to have a positive sealing arrangement for use with bottles that store gaseous fluid such as soda water and like beverages, wherein the bottle cap device includes a threaded cap body and a hinged cover or lid that is formed having a sealing semi-spherical structure defined by a depending convex wall that engages a gasket mounted within the cap body when the cover is locked in a close sealed position.

The present invention relates to an improved bottle cap device and more particularly to a bottle cap that is formed having a positive sealing arrangement for use with bottles that store gaseous liquid such as soda water and like carbonated beverages. The bottle cap device includes a cap body and a sealing cover or lid that is formed having a depending semi-spherical sealing member that engages a gasket mounted within the cap body each time the cover is locked closed.
Many types of cap devices are presently in use and they vary in configuration and how they are capped on a bottle. This is generally due to the configuration of the bottle in which the soda is stored. Some known soda-bottle caps are just simple plastic snap-on units or caps having internal threads that match particular bottle arrangements and these caps have no particular sealing arrangement. Both of the types of caps do not provide proper sealing to prevent gases within the soda water from slowly leaking out. When the gas is allowed to escape from the bottled soda it is no longer desirable since it becomes what is referred to as "flat".
Therefore, such bottle caps generally have inherently poor sealing qualities. This is particularly true with bottle caps that are mounted to the larger 2 liter soda bottles commonly sold in markets, liquor stores, drug stores and like places. These bottles are often provided with soft aluminum caps that are fixedly sealed to the thread outlet neck portion of the bottle. This type of cap is removed from a bottle by rotating the cap so as to force it to break loose from an integrally formed holding ring member. Many times, the soft metal caps are distorted by the force required to remove them, causing the cap to lose its circular shape which then prevents it from being properly sealed, and allows the gases to leak out of the bottle.
Accordingly, there is a need for a sealing cap that is simple to operate and yet provides a very positive seal when remounted to me threaded neck portion of a 2 liter plastic bottle or other container.


A retaining mechanism (10) for captively retaining an adapter (4) to the forward lip (2) of a bucket for earth excavating utilizes a ratcheted pawl (14) within a C-clamp (12). The pawl ratchet (24) engages a complementary pawl surface (26) of the rear half (16b) of a split pin assembly (16). The forward half (16a) of the split pin can be attached to the rear half (16b) by shear screws (52). Moreover, the forward half (16a) of the split pin can be attached to the rear half (16b) by an elastomeric element (64). The split pin assembly (16) acts as a wedge member, firmly securing the adapter (4) to the lip (2). To remove the retaining mechanism (10) from the adapter (4) and lip (2), the pawl (14) may be disengaged from the rear split pin (16b) by manipulating the pawl through an access port (28 ) in the C-clamp (12). Alternatively, the forward split pin (16) may be driven through the opening in the adapter and lip.

Excavating equipment typically utilizes a bucket with a forward lip to scoop up quantities of earth for transport. A number of adapters can be removably attached to the forward lip of said bucket, while a plurality of teeth are removably attached to the adapters. To captively retain the adapter to the forward bucket lip, aligned transverse openings are formed through these interengageable elements, and a retaining mechanism is driven into these elements.
Retaining elements or locking devices for attaching the adapter to the bucket have a variety of configurations. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,267,653 to Hahn et al. discloses a "Locking Device for Excavating Equipment" which utilizes a clamp member, locking member, and wedge for releasably locking a slip-over adapter to the lip of a shovel dipper. The locking member is mounted in a recess in the confronting face of the clamp member. The clamp member is then installed within the aligned openings of the lip and adapter and seated against the lip. The wedge member is vertically elongated and is tapered by having a forward wall downwardly convergent relative to a rearwardly facing wall. The confronting wall is equipped with a series of crests and valleys. The locking member also includes an elongated body which in the forwardly facing portion thereof is constructed to define a plurality of cooperating crests and valleys. Bonded to the locking member is a resilient portion. As the wedge member is driven into the aligned openings adjacent to the clamp member, the crests and valleys of both the wedge member and the locking member engage. The resilient portion of the locking member is equipped with a longitudinally extending bore which enables the locking member to compress back into the cavity or recess whenever the wedge moves one-half a notch. Thereafter, the lock member moves back to its original position when the movement equals one full notch.
Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,867 to Hahn et al. also discloses a "Locking Device for a Whisler Type Adapter" which utilizes a wedge, C-clamp lock, and a spring loaded keeper member interposed therebetween. There is no taper between the mating faces of the wedge and C-clamp. In operation, the locking device is able to move freely as the adapter moves so there is no constraint behind the C-clamp and wedge assembly. The wedge member is equipped with a ratchet adapted to engage and mate with a ratchet portion provided on the keeper member. The keeper member is also provided with a plurality of rearwardly extending ports on which the springs are mounted. The springs are also supported in countersunk openings provided in the forward face of the C-clamp. A lug is also provided on the rearward surface of the keeper member, said lug being apertured to receive a pin. The pin is slidably mounted within a horizontally extending slot provided in the side wall of the C-clamp. In sum, the system flexes with the movement of the Whisler adapter about the lip, allowing the adapter to move rather than utilize a solidly locked C-clamp and wedge system which is intended to keep the adapter tight on the lip.
A disadvantage with both Hahn et al. ('653) and Hahn et al. ('867) lies with their flexibility. With Hahn et al. ('653), to allow for the insertion of the wedge, the elastomeric element must provide a certain amount of compressibility. However, this same compressibility allows for too much vibration during operation. This vibration can lead to the ejection of the wedge. Likewise, the spring assembly in Hahn et al. ('867) tends to fail due to the amount of flex to which the system is subjected.
Therefore, a need exists for a retaining mechanism that firmly engages an adapter to the forward lip of an excavating bucket. Such a retaining mechanism should allow for easy removal of any wedge member used. Moreover, such a retaining mechanism should display only the slightest elasticity.


A system and method for displaying 3D data are presented. The method involves subdividing a 3D display region into two or more display subregions, and assigning a set of display rules to each display subregion. Visible portions of a 3D data set in each display subregion are displayed according to the rules assigned to that display subregion. In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention the boundaries of the display regions, the display rules for each display subregion, and the 3D data sets assigned to be displayed in each display subregion can be set by a user, and are interactively modifiable by a user during the display. In exemplary embodiments of the invention the same 3D data can be displayed in each display subregion, albeit using different display rules. Alternatively, in other exemplary embodiments of the present invention, a different 3D data set can be displayed in each display subregion. In still other exemplary embodiments of the present invention, the various 3D data sets can comprise scans of the same object or body using different sensing modalities.

In the early 1970s traditional projected X-ray pictures were supplemented by computerized tomography, which digitally reconstructed a set of slices from multi-directional views (as from a microtome). This led to much research being directed towards methods of presenting such information visually in 3D, whether by volume rendering the data directly, using various algorithms, or by surface extraction to represent such shapes as a liver or a tumor by a geometric structure composed of polygons or triangles, which on many computers can be colored, lit and displayed more quickly. Soon after the appearance of CT other 3D imaging modalities were developed, such as, for example, Magnetic Resonance (MR) imaging, Positron Emission Tomography (PET), single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and ultrasound (US), which first presented single slices under user control of position and angle, later integrated into the creation of 3D data sets. Beyond the realm of medical applications, other modalities such as seismography and electromagnetic geological sensing are also important sources of volume data, as well as are data acquisition technologies in numerous other fields.
Different modalities yield different information. For example, in medical diagnostics, CT shows bone more clearly than does MR, but MR can identify tumor tissue. This led to a desire for multi-modal imaging so that, for example, a surgeon can see where a tumor is relative to features on the bone that can guide her in orienting herself and navigating through the patient's body. The first requirement for such multi-modality is registration, which brings the 3D images into alignment. Registration is a non-trivial problem, since not only does each modality report in a different system of (x, y, z) coordinates, depending on the sensing device and its location, but often each has different warping of the data, so that straight lines in one data set often correspond to curves in another. Warping is intrinsic in some modalities. For example, the ideal linearly-varying magnetic field strength for magnetic resonance imaging is mathematically impossible in a finite device. To a considerable extent such warping is automatically compensated within the scanner for the controlled environment of medical devices, but this is less true for seismic scans. Medically a perfect match may not exist, if one data set is from a reference brain and the other is from a patient distorted by a tumor, and one has an optimal matching problem. For simplicity, situations are addressed herein in which the registration problem for two or more 3D data sets is assumed to have been solved.
An additional hurdle is that of image fusion, which displays the combined multi-modal information to a user. Whereas registration has an observer-independent criterion of correctness, i.e., data associated with the same coordinates should describe properties at the same physical location in the patient, image fusion raises questions of perceptual psychology. There may be a large variety of data, including not only the numbers in the original scan but derived quantities such as porosity, as well as 3D objects of other kinds, such as extracted surfaces, center curves of blood vessels, possible implants, etc., to display. Hence the term data modalities, as distinct from sensing modalities, is utilized herein to include such additional objects of attention. For a surface constructed, for example, as the boundary of a particular type of tissue, registration is not a concern inasmuch as the surface was constructed with reference to the coordinates of the volume data set from which it was extracted. Nonetheless, the different information conveyed by surface rendering of one and a volume rendering of the other require coordination in display as well as in a user's mind. It follows from comparison of the information to be displayed and the number of pointwise display elements (usually red, green, blue and transparency) that it is simply impractical to display all data at every point.
A shader is a rule assigning display properties to particular values of a data set. It determines attributes such as, for example, color, transparency, simulated light reflection properties, etc. at each point, and is normally chosen so as to make the differences within and between data sets perceptible, such as, for example, the position, size and shape of a particular region of interest, e.g., a region occupied by cancer cells or by petroleum shale. Many alternative shader choices may be useful for the same data set. For example, a rule such as "make everything except bone transparent and hence invisible" results in the display of the skull of a scanned patient as if it was removed from the surrounding flesh, while a rule such as "show all points with values high enough to be tissue and not empty air" displays the skin surface as the boundary of an opaquely rendered region. As well, since hair data often average to a density value which is hard to distinguish from noise, such displays commonly make a patient appear bald. FIG. 1 is an illustration of the fact that for a complex 3D object various different renderings are possible, each with advantages and disadvantages. In the example of FIG. 1, two different renderings 101 and 102 may reveal different features: in rendering 101 a surface or solid structure 110 with a faintly visible core 111, or as in rendering 102, a visible core 120 with other parts of the model suppressed. Thus, the choice of shader is another source of co-registered views, without input from various multiple sensing modalities, whose mutual relations may be important to a user.
One possible multimodal display method is to allow different data modalities to control different color components of the displayed image, in what is termed a "false color" display. For instance, CT-reported density (high in bone) might control the red component, while MR values (with settings adjusted to tumor sensitivity) might control the green. However, it is a fact of psychophysics that red and green light combine to create a distinct sensation of yellow in a viewer's perspective, as if there were a light source at a single yellow frequency intermediate between red and green. Notwithstanding that fact, users do not directly perceive yellow as "red and green combined." Therefore, an association of yellow with "cancerous bone" must be learned in a particular application, rather than occurring naturally based upon her knowledge that "red is bone" and "green is cancer". False color thus places new and different training demands on a user for each application, rather than being a solution which is transferable across various 3D data display environments. Further, since human eyes are limited to three classes of color receptors, false color cannot fully represent four simultaneous data modalities. It is therefore necessary in many situations to switch between displays of different data modalities, while retaining, to the extent possible, the context provided by the mutual registration of all the modalities. This need is addressed by the present invention.

System and method for displaying and comparing 3D models (“3D matching”)


A system and method for operating a mud motor in a wellbore. The method includes running the mud motor into the wellbore. A threshold rate of a pressure increase over time is selected. A rate of a pressure increase over time is measured across the mud motor in the wellbore. A flow rate of a fluid being pumped into the wellbore is varied when the measured rate is greater than or equal to the threshold rate.

A mud motor is a downhole tool that uses hydraulic power from fluid flowing therethrough to drive a drill bit. Each mud motor has a specification sheet that provides a user with information about the operation of the mud motor. The specification sheet may identify a differential pressure versus rotations per minute ("RPM") curve for the mud motor at a given flow rate through the mud motor. As the differential pressure increases, the RPM generally decrease toward zero, at which point the mud motor stalls. For example, the specification sheet may indicate that the mud motor stalls (i.e., the RPM=0) at 4100 PSI when the flow rate through the mud motor is 600 GPM. In the field, however, this same mud motor may actually stall at lower pressures (e.g., 2500 PSI) when the flow rate is 600 GPM, which makes it difficult for the user to predict when the mud motor will stall and prevent this from occurring.
After a stall, the mud motor may quickly accelerate again. For example, the mud motor may accelerate from 0 RPM to 200 RPM in less than 0.5 seconds, which results in a large inertial rotational acceleration. As can be appreciated, accelerating at this rate may damage the mud motor and reduce the life expectancy thereof.

System and method for mitigating a mud motor stall


Methods, software programs and systems for extending and modifying software functionality, and, more particularly, for using one or more patterns for an enterprise software object to express desired functionality and configuration, and to generate the enterprise software object using the patterns, in an enterprise environment are disclosed. A method according to certain of these embodiments includes selecting one or more patterns from a number of patterns, where the one or more patterns are for an enterprise software object. The enterprise software object can then be generated. The enterprise software object is generated using the one or more patterns. Each of the patterns is configured to describe a solution within a corresponding one of a number of problem domains.

Reductions in the cost of computing coupled with virtualization and large-scale utility computing have resulted in ubiquitous computing resources and network connectivity, which has, in turn, resulted in new computing paradigms (e.g., cloud computing). Such Internet-scale computing resources can reduce the cost of operations for many applications. Cloud computing further provides a foundation for collaborative applications and a target for mobile platforms. Cloud computing is based on a scalable server platform suitable for handling computing loads of highly interactive collaborative applications, such as social applications and cloud-based office applications.
As Internet-scale computing infrastructure becomes increasingly affordable to mass-paid services, cloud computing users will seek matching affordability in software resources. Cloud computing resources can provide platform-as-a-service (PaaS) products, including software and product development tools hosted within the cloud infrastructure. Alternatively, software-as-a-service (SaaS) cloud models include software products interacting with users through a front-end portal. In such environments, users will desire software functionality in an affordable price range. Such users may be, for example, business users with limited training and/or experience in software programming, if any at all. Notwithstanding, the need remains for enterprise customers of cloud resources to be able to configure software in a manner appropriate to their needs.
Historically, creation of software has been approached from the perspective of the computer. Most software is expressed through use of general purpose programming language. Thus, programs are focused on what is required of the computer (e.g., execution details), rather than the problems that the software is developed to address. Addressing changes to the problem or desired solution is thus effected by modifying the program's code. But the general purpose programming languages used to write software are just that—general—and so were not created to clearly express a specific problem to be solved. This makes writing such software, as well as making subsequent modifications (e.g., to reflect changes in the problem addressed thereby), a difficult task.
The people most familiar with the problem to be solved are those who use the software in their particular problem domain. Domain experts are familiar with the issues, concepts, and definitions that need to be satisfied in the problem domain. On the other hand, software programmers have expertise in software creation and, with the domain experts, traditionally work to generate software. This division of labor and expertise inevitably leads to frustration in one or both parties, as changes in program specifications and the complexity of the problem domain are understood by the domain expert, but cause numerous rewrites and revisions on the part of the programmer. Similarly, misunderstandings on the part of the programmer regarding the description provided by the domain expert can lead to frustration on the part of the domain expert.
FIG. 1A is a simplified block diagram illustrating a traditional software development workflow. A domain expert 105 communicates a problem statement to a programmer 110. This is typically done using forms that cannot be automatically transformed into code, such as specifications, use cases, stories, notes, sketches and the like. Programmer 110 then uses the intentions thus described, together with the programmer's knowledge and expertise in software engineering, to create source code 115, which can then be executed by a computer. Changes to software for purposes of either maintenance or correctness must be defined in the problem statement provided by domain expert 105, and then be separately implemented by programmer 110. In order to extend or otherwise maintain a program, programmer 110 must disassemble the implementation, reason about the part in question, solve the problem and then reassemble the implementation, in order to achieve the desired result. This process of "taking apart" software and then putting the software back together can introduce programming errors and increase costs of the software.
In order to have software mirror the domain expert's intentions for the software, it is preferable to express the problem in domain terms. This necessarily requires a second step that takes the problem description made in domain terms and transforms that description to a software that a computer can execute, that is, program generation. While a programmer can write code in a fashion that uses terminology familiar to the domain problems addressed by the software, such programming can prove difficult in large systems, with a domain having a complex vocabulary, and in other such circumstances.
In light of the foregoing, and to accommodate user's need for enterprise-class cloud programming facilities, it is therefore desirable to provide such users with application development environments that are (1) simple enough to be used by users lacking extensive programming training and/or experience, and (2) sufficiently easy to customize, both to match the skills of such users and allow for efficient customization. Further, such application development environments should allow application customization to be performed in a manner that does not interfere with other users' access to the cloud resources involved (e.g., the application(s) being customized).

Pattern-based construction and extension of enterprise applications in a cloud computing environment


A computer implemented scheme for a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system where point cloud feature extraction and segmentation by efficiently is achieved by: (1) data structuring; (2) edge detection; and (3) region growing.

Organizing point cloud data into a data structure is a common processing step to simplify the analysis and ensure efficiency. Tree and grid data structures are two frequently used strategies to enable several components of algorithms (e.g., neighbor searching, visualization) effectively and efficiently. In point cloud processing, a tree data structure (e.g., k-D tree, octree) is usually a point-based strategy to organize the data, where each point serves as a node in the tree and the tree stores the relationships between these nodes. By contrast, structuring the point cloud data into a grid (e.g., 2-D image, 3-D voxel) often starts with a defined grid structure, then each cell in the grid is populated by projecting the point cloud to it. Many existing methods exploit either type of structure in a variety of tasks including storing, processing, analyzing, and visualizing the point cloud data.
However, despite the type of the data structure, most have challenges coping with large volumes of data and the variable spatial distribution, inherent to terrestrial and mobile LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data. For example, the depth of a tree structure can vary dramatically from one branch to another due to the unevenly distributed point cloud, which can result in significantly increased computational complexity. On the other hand, because the grid is pre-defined, a user has to balance the cell size/detail with computation time. Additionally, a lot of grid structures implement down-sampling or re-sampling, which can cause significant information loss or result in wasted memory due to a large number of cells with no data.

Apparatus and method for efficient point cloud feature extraction and segmentation framework


A method for identification of malicious internet content and campaigns is provided. The method extracts a cryptocurrency indicator within a compromised data set and inserts the cryptocurrency indicator into a threat intelligence database. The method identifies a set of cryptocurrency transactions associated with the cryptocurrency indicator. From the cryptocurrency indicator and the set of cryptocurrency transactions, the method generates a transaction graph with a set of features representing the set of cryptocurrency transactions. The method modifies the threat intelligence database with at least a portion of the transaction graph.

Threat identification systems may correlate indicators of compromise. Such threat identification systems may correlate similar indicators of compromise which are of a limited number of types. Some threat identification systems analyze and identify financial impacts of known attacks or known attack types. Some threat identification systems analyze network activities for specified entities, performing long term analysis to build predictive threat maps.

Cryptocurrency transaction pattern based threat intelligence

International Business Machines Corporation


A puncture-proof structure for tires is provided. The structure forms a spare tire body that can be assembled rapidly and adapted to various tire types by being finely tuned. A tire using the spare tire body is puncture-proof such that when punctured by sharp articles or knifes, the tire can still work to make safe arrival at a nearby repair workshop. This saves a car driver who has a damaged tire from the trouble of shoving the car and from the danger of endangering his/her life, in turn ensuring the public traffic safety.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a puncture-proof structure for tires, which can be rapidly installed into a tire and is adaptive to various tire types by using fine tuning, thereby ensuring driving safety.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, tires can be categorized into regular tires that have an inner tube therein and tubeless tires without using an inner tube, both of which are not resistant to damages caused by external force. A tire with an inner tube is ready to work when the inner tube is inflated to expand an outer tube of the tire. Upon puncture by a knife or a sharp article, the tire becomes flat and unusable immediately, bringing the driver with much trouble, such as shoving the car. In the case such a tire gets punctured when the car using it is running fast, traffic accidents are likely to happen. On the other hand, tubeless tires are known to be able to defer the tire's complete flatness upon puncture, so as to provide sufficient buffer time for the driver to drive the car to a nearby repair workshop. While this buffering function does allow a driver with a damaged tubeless tire to safely arrive at a repair workshop, this function can also hinder a car driver from immediately noticing the tire damage as the tire pressure does not drop sharply. In this case, if the car driver is not aware of the tire damage drives his/her car in high speed or on a rugged road, the tire is likely to become unusable immediately and put the driver into the risk of a traffic accident that endangers his/her life.
In view of the shortcomings of the prior-art devices, the present inventor is concerned about the public traffic safety and has invented numerous novel tire improvements, including many that have been patented in many countries. Nevertheless, instead of being complacent about his achievements, the inventor continues to research and improve his patented inventions (as the inventor owns numerous applications and patents, the list is too long to be exhaustively named herein), and herein provides a further improved simplified structure that can be assembled rapidly in order to benefit the public in terms of driving safety.
The configuration, objectives, means and spirit of the present invention will be explained in detail in the following paragraphs and the accompanying drawing.


A thermostat is disclosed having a bimetallic strip actuating a single pole, double throw switch, one throw to sense temperatures below the lower limit of a set point range and the other throw to sense temperatures above the upper limit of the set point range. In typical applications one throw for actuating heating and the other throw for actuating cooling. The bimetallic strip is provided with typically a cantilever support at one end and extends between dimensional spaced double throw contacts at the opposite end. Spacing of the contacts determines magnitude of the set point range. An intermediate beam type support is provided between the cantilever support and double throw contacts. This beam support consists of an adjustment screw acting on one side of the bimetallic strip and a spring directly opposing the adjustment screw. The adjustment screw moves the bimetallic strip relative to the contacts for operating excursion of the thermostat thus positioning the mid-point of the set point range between subfreezing and incubation temperature ranges. The spring is selected to act with respect to the adjustment screw to both bias the strip against the adjustment screw as well as provide a non linear vibrational damping to the bimetallic strip. Circuitry is disclosed for passing minimal current through the mechanical portions and amplifying and driving a heater or cooler, preferably electrical heaters and coolers. There results a thermostat which cannot thermally lockup, is resistant to vibration, and can be adjusted to narrow band operation over a wide range to temperatures.

With the sophistication of modern medical products, there has arisen a need to maintain such products while stored in narrow temperature ranges. Living organisms and cultures often must be maintained as near as possible to the "incubation point" (about 37.degree. Centigrade) during storage and shipping. Other drugs, hormones and vaccines must be stored and shipped as close as possible to the freezing point (0.degree. C.). However, these materials are damaged--and in some cases becoming fatally dangerous--if they are allowed to freeze. Insulin is a common example of such a hormone.
Ever since Banting and Best isolated insulin in 1922, diabetics the world over have become dependent upon this life giving hormone. A suspension of this polycrystalline material must be injected at least once daily for the typical Type 1 (juvenile onset) diabetic person to remain healthy. About one-half of the people with Type II (adult onset) diabetes also must take insulin. Often physicians will prescribe two different types of insulin to take with each injection, and also may require that several injections be taken each day. The diabetic can be in serious trouble without his insulin, and unless each insulin dose is carefully measured, hypoglycemia and sudden loss of consciousness may result.
Insulin is a temperature sensitive material. If it has been frozen, large particles, called clumps, permanently form in the injection vial. This clumping also takes place if the insulin suspension has been exposed to excessive temperatures.
The clumps will easily pass through the injection needles. However, a measured dose of this clumped material may contain many times the number of insulin crystals which otherwise would have been present in a similarly measured dose of unfrozen or unheated insulin. Since the biological potency of insulin is largely proportional to the number of crystals injected, life threatening errors in dosage can result from the use of clumped insulin.
Clumping will take place with crystal clear "Regular" insulin, without any noticeable change in appearance of the vial. However, the clumping effect is much more severe and potentially dangerous with the slower acting insulin preparations such as the isophane, zinc, and protamine suspensions commonly used by diabetics.
Another effect known as "fibril formation" takes place if insulin is exposed to room temperatures for any length of time. The new bio synthetic insulins are particularly prone to this effect.
Use of fibrilized insulin presents the same dangers as use of the clumped hormone. Also, the fibrils will clog the needles and orifices of syringes and jet injectors--a major problem with the new "insulin pens."
Apart from clumping and fibril formation is the degradation of insulin caused by exposure to light or by mechanical agitation and light. Just a few hours exposure to direct sunlight will result in substantial loss of potency. Indirect sunlight, for example, encountered when the vial is kept on a window sill, or in a room with florescent lighting, simply slows the rate of degradation. Shaking or vibration of the insulin vial results in similar loss of potency.
The ideal storage conditions are a temperature as close to freezing as practical, without actually freezing, and protection from mechanical agitation. The insulin manufacturers and their distributors try to maintain finished inventory while in storage or transit within the range of 2.degree.-8.degree. C. Only if stored within this temperature range, and protected from sunlight and mechanical agitation, can the manufacturer guarantee product quality to its expiration date.
Diabetes has afflicted mankind since time immemorial. However, in the past two decades its increase has exceeded the increase in world population by a considerable margin, brought about largely by the increase in longevity. A 1985 report by the World Health Organization states that seven percent of the population of the developed countries will have acquired diabetes by the age of forty. In the U.S. alone, it is estimated that there are over 10 million diabetics, about half of whom should take insulin.
Transport of such drugs is difficult. Simply stated, transport can only occur when it is assured that the drugs will be maintained as close as possible to their required temperature ranges. When this is understood, the inadequacy of conventional so-called "instrument quality" shipping devices can be understood.
First, one must understand that with respect to a drug that can only be stored in narrow temperature ranges, two things can happen. First, the drug can become too hot. Second, the drug can become too cold. Therefore, any system utilized during shipping must be capable of heating the shipment before it becomes too cold and cooling the shipment before it becomes too hot--all within the required narrow temperature ranges.
Conventional refrigeration and heating cycles are incompatible with most shipping requirements. The required apparatus and associated controls are too large--especially when relatively small quantities of temperature sensitive drugs must be rapidly shipped, as by air freight. One solution that has suggested itself is to use certain all electric heating and cooling equipment.
In such all electric heating and cooling equipment, resistance heating is utilized for adding thermal energy and so-called Peltier effect solid state heat pumps are utilized for cooling. Thus, the storage system can be simplified to essentially solid state electric devices and electric generation or battery devices having sufficient power to maintain the required temperature ranges during storage and/or transport.
The importance of absolute minimum power consumption can be further illustrated by considering the growing awareness and need for temperature control of medical materials in under developed countries and in remote locations where solar cell systems are the only practical source of electric power.
Unfortunately, the use of such temperature control devices has been curtailed by the lack of accurate, power conserving thermostats. A discussion of the inadequacy of conventional thermostats in the narrow temperature range environment is believed instructive.
The following discussion primarily concerns mechanical thermostat systems. Electronic temperature control systems using thermocouples, thermistors, and other electronic sensors together with associated circuitry, are either too large, too power consuming or too expensive for the applications considered here.
All conventional mechanical thermostats have two major control characteristics. One control characteristic is "differential" or hysteresis; this the difference between the devices "on to off" and "off to on" states. The other control characteristic is "tolerance"; this is the variation to which devices of the same class can be relied upon to change from one condition to the other. Remembering that utilizing conventional technology that a conventional thermostat is a single pole, single throw device, and that one device is required to control the heating apparatus and that another such device is required to control the cooling device, the inadequacies of these heating and cooling controls can be understood. Note, single pole, double throw devices will be discussed later.
Taking the case of relatively sensitive but inexpensive thermostats--which would be economically practicable with as shipping heating and cooling system--thermostats having a differential of no more than 5.6.degree. C. and a tolerance of 0.8.degree. C. can be reasonably purchased (currently for about $8.00). This will give a maximum temperature spread between the on and the off cycles of such devices of 7.2.degree. C.
Now let us suppose that two such devices are utilized, one for heating and the other for cooling. Further, and in order to avoid both heating and cooling devices being in the "on" state simultaneously we separate the supposed devices by a safety margin of just 0.6.degree. C.--a wholly impractical separation. It will be found that it will not be possible to control the temperature of the resulting heated and cooled shipment within a thermal range of less than 15.degree. C!
Unfortunately, another problem enters this rather difficult temperature control environment. Where the two heating and cooling devices are placed as close as possible in the operating ranges to maintain temperature control within narrow thermal limits, the possibility of both the heating and cooling devices being in the "on" state emerges. Assume that the controlled environment becomes too cool and the heater turns on. Further assume that as the temperature rises--but before the heater turns off, the cooler is turned on. A condition known as "thermal lockup" is created. Taking the case of an all electric heating and cooling system relying on a finite and concomitantly shipped power source--such as a battery--required temperature control energy will be rapidly used. If all energy is consumed before the shipped goods reach their required destination, spoilage may result.
Because of the possibility of the condition known as thermal lockup, such individual heating and cooling thermostats are not set as closely in their respective operating ranges as might be desired for the required temperature control. The result is even further temperature excursion of the stored and/or shipped drugs.
Precision single pole double throw (SPDT) "snap action" mechanical thermostats are available from manufacturers. However, thermostats of this type suffer from the problems of differential and tolerance previously described and are thus unsuitable where narrow temperature control ranges are necessary. Although these SPDT thermostats can be used to eliminate the thermal lockup condition, they present another problem--the SPDT element instantaneously switches from one contact to the other. Thus, heating or cooling is always on, even when the shipment is within its desired temperature range and neither heating or cooling is required. This can be as wasteful of power as the thermal lockup condition.
As stated earlier, an ideal temperature range for storing and shipping insulin, certain hormones, vaccines, and other drugs is 2-8.degree. C. In incubation application applications, a temperature range of 35-37.degree. C. is often required. As has been shown, these narrow control ranges are not practical with conventional miniature mechanical thermostat systems, and sophisticated electronic systems needed for such tight temperature control are either too large, too power consuming, or too expensive for the application.
For purposes of saving power, neither heating or cooling should be applied, or remain on, so long as the shipment is within its acceptable temperature range. For example, when the desired temperature range is from 2.degree. to 8.degree. C., an ideal situation would have the temperature spread between application of heating or application of cooling ("dwell") as wide as practical, but never exceeding 6.degree. C. Similarly, in the incubation application, the dwell should be as close to 2.degree. C. as practical but never exceeding 2.degree. C.
Assuming that temperature control is required for drug goods in transport--such as during conventional "air freight" or the conventional air plane travel of a diabetic--other problems immediately surface. Vibration is such a problem. Typically, the shipper or traveller has no control over such vibration; any temperature control system must consequently be reasonably resistance to vibration.
Simply stated, temperature control within narrow operating ranges is other than trivial--especially where storage during transport is required.
Consequently, there is a need for a temperature control device which can be used during storage and transport for the control of heating and cooling devices to maintain temperatures sensitive materials within narrowly defined temperature ranges while consuming a minimum amount of power. This disclosure is directed to such a device.

Single pole double throw thermostat for narrow range temperature regulation


According to one embodiment, an electronic device includes a content transmitter. The content transmitter is configured to output a content item including first data and second data to one transmission path, by applying a first copyright protection system to copyright protection of the first data and applying a second copyright protection system to copyright protection of the second data. The first copyright protection system involves encryption of data to be copyright-protected. The second copyright protection system involves no encryption of data to be copyright-protected.

In recent years, electronic devices capable of handling a digitalized video or audio such as personal computers and smartphones have become widespread. An electronic device of this type generally incorporates therein a data communication function, and is capable of transmitting/receiving audio-visual (AV) content between itself and other electronic devices.
On the other hand, among the AV content items, there are quite a number of content items the copyright of which requires protection by, for example, limiting duplication. Accordingly, various contrivances configured to transmit/receive AV content items between a plurality of electronic devices while effecting copyright protection have hitherto been proposed.
As a system configured to protect a visual copyright, for example, the high-bandwidth digital content protection system (HDCP) is known. Further, as a system configured to protect an audio copyright, for example, the serial copy management system (SCMS) is known. The HDCP is a system involving encryption of data to be copyright-protected, and the SCMS is a system involving no encryption of data to be copyright-protected. Accordingly, regarding the video and audio included in one AV content item, although the object of copyright protection is common to both of them, a case where they differ from each other in degree of countermeasure to be required as copyright protection, such as a case where encryption is required of one of them, whereas so far as encryption is not required of the other one is conceivable.
Incidentally, heretofore, only one copyright protection system has been adopted to transmit one AV content item to one transmission path, and adopting a plurality of copyright protection systems to transmit one AV content item to one transmission path has not totally been conceived. Accordingly, for example, it has been necessary to subject even the audio of which so far as encryption is not required to encryption to be required of only the video. In such a case, however, in the electronic device on each of both the transmission side and reception side of the AV content, a useless increase in cost resulting from incorporating therein a module (which is originally unnecessary) configured to encrypt/decrypt the audio is brought about.

Electronic device and method of transmitting content item


Materials of the lead perovskite family PbZr.sub.x Ti.sub.1-x O.sub.3 have been discovered to be excellent masking materials in the etching of silicon and silicon-containing materials with chlorine and fluorine -based plasmas. Generally, materials of the lead perovskite family are suitable masking materials for any material that is etched in chlorine and fluorine -based plasmas.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to masking materials for use in plasma etching, and more particularly to masking materials for applications in plasma etching of silicon and silicon-containing materials using chlorine and fluorine -based plasmas.
2. Description of Related Art
Plasma etching techniques using species produced from chemically inert and chemically active gases have many industrial uses, including notably in the fabrication of integrated circuits. Chemical plasma etching equipment includes barrel etchers, parallel plate etchers, and reactive ion etchers. Chemical plasma etching processes rely exclusively or to a substantial degree on excited gas species that are suitable for reacting chemically with the material to be etched, although in some cases sputtering of the masking material and/or material being etched can occur depending on the molecular weight of the impinging gas and the molecular weight of the material exposed to the impinging gas. For example, chloride-based and fluorine-based plasmas have been successfully used in the etching of photoresist-masked silicon, silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, aluminum and tungsten.
Patterned plasma etching involves the use of a masking material having a significantly slower etch rate in the plasma than the etch rate of the material being etched. Masking material should also be easy to apply and distribute across the material being etched, and easy to strip after etching is complete. Unfortunately, the photoresist masking material in common use in the semiconductor industry is subject to chemical attack by chlorine-based and fluorine-based plasmas. While erosion of the masking material is tolerable in many process applications, the erosion is excessive in such applications as deep trench fabrication requiring lengthy exposure of the wafer to the plasma. Hence, a masking material that can be readily applied and distributed across a wafer or other body and easily patterned and easily stripped, but that is relatively impervious to certain commonly used plasmas is desirable.

Masking material for applications in plasma etching