A plant for transmitting electric power between a direct voltage network and an alternating voltage network through a power station. A converter of a station has two current valves connected in series, each having one turn-on and turn-off type breaker and a diode connected anti-parallel therewith. Circuits are provided to detect the direction and the intensity of the current through the converter, as well as the current valve through which it flows to actuate the control apparatus on the basis of the detected current level and the identity of the valve carrying the current. The control apparatus operates to commutate current through the valve which is not carrying current when a detected current level in the current carrying valve exceeds a first predetermined level.

The present invention relates to a plant for transmitting electric power between a direct voltage network and at least one alternating voltage network connected thereto through a station. Specifically, at least one VSC-converter converts direct voltage into alternating voltage and, conversely converts alternating voltage to direct voltage. An apparatus controls the converter of the station to regulating the current flowing between the alternating voltage network and direct network voltage. The converter has on the direct voltage side thereof two current valves connected in series between the two poles of the direct voltage network and the alternating voltage network connected between the two valves. Each current valve has at least one turn-on and turnoff type breaker and a diode connected in anti-parallel therewith. The breakers of the two current valves are oriented in the same current carrying direction.
Such a plant has recently been known through the thesis "PWM and Control of Two and Three Level High Power Voltage Source Converters" by Anders Lindberg, Kungliga Tekniska Hogskolan, Stockholm, 1995, which describes such a plant for transmitting electric power through a direct voltage network for High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC). It is pointed out that the invention is not restricted to this application, but for illustration only and not in any way limiting the invention to the application of plants of this type.
Before the advent of the plants according to the thesis, plants for transmitting electric power through a direct voltage network for High Voltage Direct Current have used line-commutated CSC (Current Source Converter) converters in power transmission stations. Since the development of IGBTs (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor=bipolar transistor having an insulated gate) for high voltage applications for valves in converters, which may easily be turned on and turned off simultaneously, VSC (Voltage Source Converter) converters for forced commutation are now an alternative to the line-commutated CSC.
This type of transmission of electric power between a direct voltage network for High Voltage Direct Current and alternating voltage networks connected thereto offers several important advantages with respect to line-commutated CSCs. For instance the active and reactive power flow may be controlled independently of each other, and there is no risk of commutation failures in the converter and no corresponding risk of transfer of commutation failures between different HVDC links, which may take place in a line-commutated CSC. Furthermore, there is the possibility of feeding power to a weak alternating voltage network or a network without a generator of its own (a dead alternating voltage network) along with other advantages.
In a plant of this type, the derivative of the current through the inductance located on the alternating voltage side of the converter is directly proportional to the difference between the voltage of the alternating voltage network and the direct voltage of the direct voltage network. This means that should for example the alternating voltage suddenly decrease as a consequence of a ground fault in the alternating voltage network, then the current through that breaker in one of the converter valves, normally an IGBT, which is conducting at that moment increases rapidly. The current derivative is then determined by the phase position of the alternating voltage, and the amplitude depends upon the pre-fault current. The margin between the normal peak current through the converter and the maximum current which may be turned off by the breakers is preferably kept as small as possible. This means that it is difficult for the current regulation carried out by the control apparatus to limit the current before the over current protection is activated. It is a significant disadvantage if the over current protection is activated, since it results in a temporary blocking of the converter, which in turn results in an increase of the voltage of the direct voltage network disturbing all the converters connected thereto. Thus, there is a need for rapidly limiting the current and preventing temporary blocking of the converter.
The same problem may suddenly arise if the alternating voltage suddenly increases rapidly and the direct voltage has a low value. This may occur when the alternating voltage is reconnected after a disconnection of the alternating voltage network as a consequence of a fault. The result may be a high returning alternating voltage, which may in addition thereto be combined with a low direct voltage which was low during the disconnection.

Control apparatus for a converter for transmitting electric power between an alternating voltage network and a direct voltage network


A distance measurement device of the present invention detects a subject image with separation from the background and determines the distance to the subject regardless of backlit or forelit situations. In the distance measurement device, the subject is imaged onto two sensor arrays through different optical paths having parallax. The displacement of one of image signals output from the sensor arrays relative to the other is detected to determine the distance to the subject. On the basis of output signals of the sensor arrays, an object detector unit in a CPU determines a main area in the entire area of each sensor array which is occupied by the main subject image. On the basis of output signals from the main area in each sensor array detected by the object detector unit, a correlation operation unit calculates the displacement of the subject image on one sensor array relative to the subject image on the other sensor array.

The present invention relates to a distance measurement device and more specifically to a passive distance measurement device which determines the distance to a subject using its images.
A distance measurement device conventionally built into cameras is a passive one which determines the distance to a subject using its images. This passive distance measurement device detects the displacement of one of two images of the same subject which are obtained through different optical paths relative to the other and determines the distance to that subject on the principle of triangulation.
The image signals are generally produced by an opto-electric conversion sensor array. The sensor array is not necessarily adapted to receive the images of a main subject alone, but will convert into image signals even images, such as background and the like, other than the main subject to be actually measured.
To minimize the effect of background, various techniques have already been developed. For example, there are known a technique that splits a sensor array (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 62-148910) and a technique that uses a spot where there is very little change in image signal for focusing. Also, a camera that uses distance measurements at multiple points to decide whether a shooting scene is back light or not is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 62-255925.
However, according to the technique disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 62-148910, since a spot of the highest contrast is given priority over others, in back light situations by way of example, distance measurement may be made on the basis of a high-contrast spot on the boundary between the subject and the background. With such a spot where near and distant subjects are mixed, there is the possibility of inaccurate distance measurement.
Moreover, in the technique disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2-135311, since a spot where very little change occurs in image signal is given priority, a sufficient contrast cannot be obtained. Thus, a comparison between two images, i.e., a determination of the distance to the main subject, becomes often impossible.
Furthermore, the technique disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 62-255925 contemplates only deciding back light situations, but not taking measures against such a situation where near and distant subjects are mixed as described above at all.


A process for producing a polyacetal copolymer, which is extremely heat-stable and is extremely reduced in the quantity of unstable terminals even in a high polymerization yield in which trioxane as the principal monomer, comprises copolymerization of trioxane as the principal monomer with a cyclic ether or cyclic formal having at least one carbon-to-carbon bond as the comonomer by using a specific heteropoly-acid or acid salt thereof as a polymerization catalyst until the content of the remaining monomers is lowered to at most 10% by weight based on all the monomers fed, adding 0.01 to 10% by weight, based on the resulting crude polymer, of a solution containing a catalyst deactivator, or contacting a basic gas as the deactivator to deactivate the catalyst, and subjecting the crude polymer as such to heat melting treatment without washing thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for producing a polyacetal copolymer. In particular, it relates to an improved process for producing polyacetal copolymer being excellent in the qualities such as heat stability comprising simple steps, wherein the principal monomer is copolymerized with a comonomer copolymerizable therewith using a heteropoly-acid or an acidic salt thereof as the polymerizing catalyst.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, processes for producing cationic copolymers comprising trioxane as the principal monomer and a cyclic ether or cyclic formal having two or more vicinal carbon atoms as the comonomer have been known as the process for producing polyacetal copolymers. The cationic activating catalysts used as catalysts for these copolymerizations include Lewis acids such as halides of boron, tin, titanium, phosphorus, arsenic and antimony, e.g., boron trifluoride, tin tetrachloride, titanium tetrachloride, phosphorus pentachloride, phosphorus pentafluoride, arsenic pentafluoride and antimony pentafluoride, and compounds such as complexes or salts of them; protonic acids such as perchloric acid; protonic acid esters such as esters of perchloric acid with lower aliphatic alcohols, e.g., tert-butyl perchlorate; protonic acid anhydrides such as mixed acid anhydrides of perchloric acid and lower aliphatic carboxylic acids, e.g., acetyl perchlorate; and trimethyloxonium hexafluorophosphate, triphenylmethyl hexafluoroarsenate, acetyl tetrafluoroborate, acetyl hexafluorophosphate and acetyl hexafluoroarsenate.
Among them, boron trifluoride and coordinate compounds of boron trifluoride with organic compounds such as ethers are the most conventional as catalysts for copolymerizing trioxane as the principal monomer with a comonomer and widely used industrially.
However, there have been problematic that conventionally used polymerization catalysts such as boron trifluoride series compounds are required in relatively large quantities (for example, 40 ppm or more based on the whole monomers), that the polymerization degrees of the resulting polymers are limited since the deactivating treatment of the catalyst is not sufficiently completed, even though the deactivating treatment is applied, and the decomposition is accelerated by remaining of substances originated from the catalyst after polymerization, and that the resulting polymers contain unstable terminal moieties in considerable amounts requiring complicated steps for stabilization thereof.
That is, in a process for copolymerizing trioxane by means of such conventional catalysts as described above, a deactivation of the catalysts after polymerization is important. While the deactivation thereof is insufficient, it accelerates a decomposition of a resulting polymer and largely causes an obstruction against a stability of the resulting polymer in later steps. Accordingly, when a boron trifluoride and the like are used as a catalyst, such very complicated steps that in order to sufficiently deactivate the catalyst, for example, a lot of a deactivator solution is added to the product obtained by the polymerization, the product is sufficiently washed to remove residual monomers and residues originated from the catalyst, and the deactivator solution is separated and dried, or the monomers have to be recovered from the washing solution. Such complicated steps are not preferred from an economical point of view.
Moreover, in order to eliminate complexity brought about by such deactivation treatment of catalysts, a method is proposed in which an addition amount of a deactivator solution is decreased and washing of a crude polymer is omitted (for example, JP-A-52-57285, JP-A-57-80414, JP-A-62-285909, and JP-A-63-27519). A method for deactivating the catalyst by contacting a gaseous deactivator to a resulting copolymer is further proposed (for example, JP-A-58-167608 and JP-A-2-263813). In such methods, however, such generally known polymerization catalysts as boron trifluoride series catalysts can not sufficiently be deactivated, and therefore it is extremely difficult to obtain polymers having a good heat stability. In particular, an increase in a polymerization yield can reduces the necessity for recovery and washing of monomers, but it makes a resulting polymer further unstable and requires a complicated stabilization treatment in a later step. Therefore, it does not result in simplification of the steps and restricts the stability of the products. Accordingly, it is not preferred in terms of quality.

Process for preparing polyacetal copolymer


To effectively utilize knowledge of relationship information among material property parameters the users tangibly and intangibly have in a search system that generates a graph in which material property parameters are nodes and relationships of the material property parameters are edges from a database of material property parameter pairs whose relationships are already known, and conducts a path search in the generated graph. A search system, which includes the database, a graph generator that generates the graph, and a graph searcher searches the graph, further includes a user interface and a user information storage unit corresponding to each user. The user conducts a search unique to the user by inputting relationship information between the material property parameters that he has to the user information storage unit and integrating the relationship information into the above graph. Further, by accumulating a history of searches conducted by the user in the user information storage unit and analyzing the search history, the user can be provided with new knowledge.

An objective of prediction and design in material research is to identify materials having target characteristics. A method that has been widely used to achieve this objective is to identify a material having target characteristics from a condition-characteristic chart. The method is: observing a change in a characteristic upon changing one specific condition among a plurality of conditions to create a chart, and interpolating or extrapolating the chart to obtain a condition under which the target characteristic is achieved, thereby identifying a material that matches the target characteristics. The term "chart" herein is synonymous with "graph," like a line graph. However, the term "chart" is hereafter used to distinguish from a "graph" consisting of nodes and edges, which will be described later.
Here, a change in characteristics upon changing one specific condition among a plurality of conditions is often obtained experimentally. This is because, even if many literatures are searched, it is difficult to obtain a large amount of data having the same conditions except for the above specified condition.
PTL 1 discloses a search system capable of objectively searching for constituent substance information of a new material having desired characteristics.
The search system disclosed in PTL 1 includes a database containing a plurality of pieces of material property parameter information for each of a plurality of (many) substances. Here, for some substances, material property parameters to which real data has not been provided may be contained in the database. Two-dimensional space or three or more-dimensional space is created with a material property parameter to be searched for being one axis and some of the other material property parameters being the other axis (or axes), and each of the substances in the database is mapped in the space. At this time, material property parameters without real data are interpolated by virtual data predicted by multivariate analysis, calculation based on a predetermined logical expression, the first principle calculation, etc. In a search map obtained by mapping real data and virtual data, a substance having desired characteristics is to be specified based on a predefined rule.
PTL 2 discloses a search system and a search method capable of searching for an unknown combination of material property parameters having a significant relationship based on an already known relationship from among a plurality of arbitrary combinations of material property parameters. This search system includes a database, a graph generator and a graph searcher, and is configured as follows. The database stores a plurality of pairs of material property parameters having mutual relationships, and the graph generator generates a graph in which a plurality of material property parameters stored in the database are nodes and in between the nodes corresponding to the material property parameter pairs stored to have mutual relationship are edges. The graph searcher searches the graph generated by the graph generator under a provided search condition and outputs a search result.

Search system and search method for finding new relationships between material property parameters

NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR MATERIALS SCIENCE


A data processing apparatus forms a portion of a coherent cache system and has a master device for performing data processing operations including a wait for event operation causing the master device to enter a power saving mode. A cache stores data values for access by the master device when performing the data processing operations. Coherency handling circuitry is responsive to a coherency request from another portion of the coherent cache system, to detect whether a data value identified by the coherency request is present in the cache, and if so, to cause a coherency action to be taken in respect of that data value stored in the cache. Wake event circuitry issues a wake event to the master device if the coherency action is taken, and the master device exits the power saving mode.

It is known to provide multi-processing systems in which two or more master devices, for example processor cores, share access to shared memory. Such systems are typically used to gain higher performance by arranging the different processor cores to execute respective data processing operations in parallel. Known data processing systems which provide such multi-processing capabilities include IBM370 systems and SPARC multi-processing systems. These particular multi-processing systems are high performance systems where power efficiency and power consumption is of little concern and the main objective is maximum processing speed.
It should be noted that the various master devices need not be processor cores. For example, a multi-processing system may include one or more processor cores, along with other master devices such as a Direct Memory Access (DMA) controller, a graphics processing unit (GPU), etc.
In order to control access to various shared resources within the shared memory, it is known to use semaphores. A semaphore is a protected variable or abstract data type used to restrict access to a shared resource in a multi-processing system environment. The value of a particular semaphore identifies the status of a shared resource, and through the use of such semaphores it is possible to maintain an ordering between certain data processing operations being performed by one master device and other data processing operations being performed by another master device.
For example, if one master device is being used to perform one or more setup operations resulting in the storing of certain data values in memory which will then be used by another master device, a semaphore may be provided in memory which is set by the first master device when it has completed its setup operations, with the other master device polling that semaphore, and only proceeding to perform its associated data processing tasks once the semaphore has been set. In other examples, particular semaphores can be directly associated with particular data structures in memory, for example particular data values, buffers, etc. The semaphores can take a variety of forms, from a simple lock value which is either set or unset, to counter values where each counter value indicates a different state of the associated shared resource. In other examples, the semaphore can take the form of a pointer. For example, considering a shared resource in the form of a circular buffer, one master device producing data to be stored in that buffer may maintain a write pointer as a semaphore, whilst another master device acting as a consumer of the data in that buffer may maintain a read pointer as a semaphore. Both master devices may use the values of the read and write pointers to control their operations, so as to ensure that the actions of both master devices stay synchronised.
It will be appreciated from the above discussion that, dependent on the value of a semaphore accessed by a particular master device, that master device may determine that it cannot currently perform the data processing tasks that it is waiting to perform, and often in such situations the master device may determine that it cannot do anything except wait for the semaphore value to change to a value that allows it to continue processing. For example, if a processor is handling an interrupt from a device, it may need to add data received from the device to a shared queue. If another processor is removing data from the queue, the first processor must wait until the queue is in a consistent state and the associated semaphore (typically a lock) has been released before it can set the semaphore and add the new data to the queue. It cannot return from the interrupt handler until the data has been added to the queue, and hence it must wait.
In circumstances such as these, it is known to provide a "spin-lock" mechanism. In accordance with this mechanism, a master device requiring access to a protected shared resource will continually poll the semaphore until the semaphore has a value which indicates it can proceed. Typically, the master device will then set the semaphore to a value indicating it now has access to the shared resource.
In a multi-processing system where low power consumption is desirable, this continual polling of the semaphore is undesirable because energy is consumed to no useful effect, and additionally in systems implementing multi-threading, the execution of spin-locks by waiting threads may be highly detrimental to performance.
As discussed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,249,270, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference, it is known to provide a master device with the ability to execute a wait for event operation, whereby the master device enters a power saving mode until an event is received at an event input port of that master device, whereupon the master device wakes up. In the above described patent, this process is used as mechanism for conserving energy in the above-mentioned spin-lock situation. However, if a master device enters such a power saving mode of operation, it is clearly important to provide a mechanism to enable that master device to be woken when the semaphore value changes, and hence the master device may be able to continue its operation. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,249,270, this is achieved by arranging for the other master devices in the system to issue a notification over a dedicated path when they update the value of a semaphore, for example when they clear a semaphore lock to identify that they no longer require access to a particular shared resource. Such notifications are issued by the master devices via performance of a send event operation (in U.S. Pat. No. 7,249,270, such send event operations being performed by execution of a send event (SEV) instruction). A number of problems can arise with such an approach.
Firstly, software programming errors may fail to take account of write latencies within the data processing system, due for example to the use of write buffers within master devices. This may result in a first master device that is releasing the lock for a particular shared resource issuing a send event to a second master device which is currently in the power saving mode, with that second master device then waking up and polling the lock before the state of the lock has actually been changed, due to a delay incurred by draining of the write buffer. In that scenario, the second master device that has woken up and repolled the lock will see that the lock is still set, and will then go back to sleep, but will not receive any further send event notification. Typically the second master device will eventually wake up due to other stimulus, for example receipt of an interrupt, but this problem can clearly give rise to a significant performance impact by causing master devices to spend more time offline than necessary.
Another problem is that such an approach assumes that all of the master devices capable of updating semaphores have also been provided with SEV capability, and hence will issue send event notifications when updating semaphores in order to wake up any master devices that are currently in a power saving mode following performance of a wait for event operation. Whilst this may not be a problem in a symmetric multi-processing system, where multiple (typically identical) processor cores share access to memory, it is more likely to be an issue in heterogeneous systems where the various master devices may be different, for example one or more processor cores, a DMA engine, a GPU, etc.
Another issue is that the send for event notification generated in response to execution of an SEV instruction is typically broadcast globally to all of the other master devices, potentially causing spurious wake up of those master devices, resulting in unnecessary power consumption incurred by those master devices waking up, repolling the semaphore of interest to them, determining that there is no change of status in their semaphore, and then re-entering the power saving state.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an alternative mechanism for waking up a processor that has entered a power saving mode following performance of a wait for event operation, which does not suffer from the above disadvantages associated with the use of SEV instructions.
Entirely separate to the issue of semaphore usage within multi-processing systems, it is known to provide one or more of the master devices with their own local cache in which to store a subset of the data held in the shared memory so as to improve speed of access to data within such multi-processing systems. Whilst this can improve speed of access to data, it complicates the issue of data coherency. In particular, it will be appreciated that if a particular master device performs a write operation with regards to a data value held in its local cache, that data value will be updated locally within the cache, but may not necessarily also be updated at the same time in the shared memory. In particular, if the data value in question relates to a write back region of memory, then the updated data value in the cache will only be stored back to the shared memory when that data value is subsequently evicted from the cache.
Since the data may be shared with other master devices, it is important to ensure that those master devices will access the up-to-date data when seeking to access the associated address in shared memory. To ensure that this happens, it is known to employ a cache coherency protocol within the multi-processing system to ensure that if a particular master device updates a data value held in its local cache, that up-to-date data will be made available to any other master device subsequently requesting access to that data. The above type of multi-processing system, where multiple master devices share data, use caches to improve performance, and use a cache coherency protocol to ensure that all of the master devices have a consistent view of the data, is often referred to as a coherent cache system.
The use of such cache coherency protocols can also give rise to power consumption benefits by avoiding the need for accesses to memory in situations where data required by a master device can be found within one of the caches, and hence accessed without needing to access memory.
In accordance with a typical cache coherency protocol, certain accesses performed by a master device will require a coherency operation to be performed. The coherency operation will cause a coherency request to be sent to the other master devices identifying the type of access taking place and the address being accessed. This will cause those other master devices to perform certain coherency actions defined by the cache coherency protocol, and may also in certain instances result in certain information being fed back from one or more of those master devices to the master device initiating the access requiring the coherency operation. By such a technique, the coherency of the data held in the various local caches is maintained, ensuring that each master device accesses up-to-date data. One such cache coherency protocol is the "Modified, Owned, Exclusive, Shared, Invalid" (MOESI) cache coherency protocol.
Cache coherency protocols will typically implement either a write update mechanism or a write invalidate mechanism when a master device seeks to perform a write operation in respect of a data value. In accordance with the write update mechanism, any cache that currently stores the data value is arranged to update its local copy to reflect the update performed by the master device. In accordance with a write invalidate mechanism, the cache coherency hardware causes all other cached copies of the data value to be invalidated, with the result that the writing master device's cache is then the only valid copy in the system. At that point, the master device can continue to write to the locally cached version without causing coherency problems.
Within such coherent cache systems, it is typically the case that local caches continue to service coherency requests even if the associated master device is idle or in a power saving state. For example, the Powerpoint presentation "ARM11 MPCore and its impact on Linux Power Consumption" by J Goodacre, ARM Limited, available on the internet at http://elinux.org/images/7/76/MPCore_and_Linux_Power.pdf describes a multi-processing system where a processor can perform a wait for event operation to enter a power saving state, but with the associated local cache still able to service coherency requests.

Handling of a wait for event operation within a data processing apparatus


A semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell suitable for having a predetermined cell state based on a data stored therein, a control signal generation unit suitable for generating a control signal for changing the cell state of the memory cell during a reading operation, an information storage unit suitable for storing a variation status information of the control signal to which a moment when the cell state of the memory cell changes is reflected, and an output unit suitable for outputting the variation status information of the control signal stored in the information storage unit as a signal corresponding to the data stored in the memory cell.

1. Field
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to semiconductor design and more particularly, to a semiconductor memory device for storing data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor memory devices are classified into volatile memory devices, such as a Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) device and a Static RAM (SRAM) device, and non-volatile memory devices, such as a Programmable Read Only Memory (PROM) device, an Erasable PROM (EPROM) device, an Electrically EPROM (EEPROM) device, and a flash memory device. The main difference between the volatile memory devices and the non-volatile memory devices is whether the devices retain data when power supply is cut off. In other words, the volatile memory devices lose the data stored therein when power is turned off, while the non-volatile memory devices retain the data stored therein even though power is turned off. Therefore the volatile memory devices require an additional circuit to retain the data stored therein.
The non-volatile memory devices may have better characteristics than the volatile memory devices in terms of retainability of data. However, the volatile memory devices are superior to the non-volatile memory devices in terms of size and speed of the device circuits for the same storage capacity. Therefore, the volatile memory devices or the non-volatile memory devices are selected according to the purpose of a memory system. In short, the volatile memory devices are included in a memory system that mainly requires good access speed and the non-volatile memory devices are included in a memory system that mainly requires retainability of data.
Meanwhile, a flash memory device of the non-volatile memory devices stores a data in a memory cell through a programming operation and an erasing operation. The programming operation is an operation of accumulating electrons in a floating gate of a transistor that constitutes a memory cell, and the erasing operation is an operation of discharging the electrons accumulated in the floating gate of the transistor into a substrate. The flash memory device stores a data of '0' or '1' in a memory cell through the operations, and during a reading operation, it senses the amount of electrons accumulated in the floating gate and decides whether the data stored in the memory cell is '0' or '1' based on the sensing result.
One memory cell stores one bit data and this kind of memory cell is referred to as a single level cell. In these days, however, the flash memory device stores a data of more than one bit in one memory cell, which is referred to as a multi-level cell. In the case of the single level cell, one decision voltage, which is called a single threshold voltage, is required in order to decide whether the data stored in the memory cell is '0' or '1'. In the case of the multi-level cell, at least three threshold voltages are required in order to decide whether the data stored in the memory cell is '00', '01', 10' or '11'.
Data stored in the flash memory device have a data distribution according to a value of the data. The data distribution, however, may overlap with an adjacent data distribution and due to the overlap between the neighboring data distributions, there may occur a read error that the data decided based on the threshold voltage and the data substantially stored in the memory cell during a reading operation. Recent progress in fabrication and design makes data distributions narrower but it also makes margin between the neighboring data distributions narrower as well, which means that the overlap between the neighboring data distributions becomes greater, and thus the probability of the read error becomes higher.
N-bit over-sampling emerges lately to prevent the error. According to the n-bit over-sampling, (2n)−1 threshold voltages are used to distinguish different data distributions from each other instead of one threshold voltage.
FIGS. 1 and 2 are data distribution diagrams illustrating the n-bit over-sampling.
FIG. 1 shows a 1-bit over-sampling (A), a 2-bit over-sampling (B), and a 3-bit over-sampling (C). Referring to FIG. 1, the 1-bit over-sampling (A) uses one threshold voltage, and the 2-bit over-sampling (B) uses three threshold voltages. The 3-bit over-sampling (C) uses seven threshold voltages. Since a reading operation has to be performed for each threshold voltage, the reading operation is performed seven times in the case of the 3-bit over-sampling (C).
FIG. 2 exemplarily shows the 3-bit over-sampling being applied to a multi-level cell where a two-bit data is stored in one memory cell.
Referring to FIG. 2, in the case of the multi-level cell that stores a two-bit data, the Most Significant Bit (MSB) and the Least Significant Bit (LSB) have to be decided during the reading operation. Since each of the MSB and the LSB has to be over-sampled at seven threshold voltages, the reading operation has to be performed in a total of 21 times (21=3*{(23)−1}).
If a 4-bit over-sampling is applied to a multi-level cell where a two-bit data is stored in one memory cell, the reading operation has to be performed in a total of 45 times (45=3*{(24)−1}). Assumed that it takes approximately 20 μs to perform the reading operation once, it takes approximately 420 μs to read the data stored in the memory cell in the case of the 3-bit over-sampling and approximately 900 μs in the case of the 4-bit over-sampling.
As the number of bits to be over-sampled increases, it takes longer time to perform a reading operation on one memory cell.

Semiconductor memory device and operation method thereof

Industry-University Cooperation Foundation Hanyang University


An automatic detection and selection circuit resident in a DCE is provided. The circuit is coupled to the DCE interface connector and detects receipt by the DCE of V.35 and RS-232 transmit data signals, distinguishes between those signals, and selects circuitry for passing the data therethrough. The circuit comprises a switch coupled to a first TX data terminal (pin 2 or P) of the DCE interface connector, first and second line receiving circuits, a microprocessor, and a relay. The first line receiving circuit is coupled to a first pole of the switch and to the second TX data terminal (pin S) of the DCE interface connector and provides indications as to whether or not an input signal is present at at least one of pins P and S. The second line receiving circuit is coupled to the second pole of the switch and provides indications as to whether or not a valid RS-232 transmit data signal is detected. The microprocessor is coupled to the outputs of the line receiving circuits, and based on the indications output thereby, appropriately controls the relay, and hence the switch. The microprocessor first checks in a V.35 mode as to whether a data signal is being received. It then checks in a RS-232 mode as to whether the data signal is a valid RS-232 signal. If not, it switches the circuit back to the V.35 mode.

This invention broadly relates to data terminal interface circuits. More particularly, this invention relates to a terminal interface circuit which permits a user to connect devices using either a RS-232 or a V.35 interface to a transmission product without detailed knowledge of the interface and strapping requirements.
Interfaces between data terminals (DTE) and data communications equipment (DCE) are typically subject to standards. Among the standards for data terminal interfaces are the RS-232 and V.35 standards which govern the electrical characteristics for interchange circuits; i.e. electrical connectors. Details of the RS-232 and V.35 standards are published respectively in Interface Between Data Terminal Equipment and Data Circuit--Terminating Equipment Employing serial Binary Data InterChange; EIA-232-D; Electronics Industries Association (1987), and CCITT Red Book, Recommendations of the V Series.
It is generally desirable for multirate data communications equipment to be compatible with both RS-232 and V.35 standards so that the DTE can receive and transmit data using either format. Thus, DCE manufacturers often provide their DCE's with both RS-232 and V.35 capabilities. However, in order to operate the DCE, the user must know whether the interface being utilized is an RS-232 or V.35, and must configure the DCE (typically by hard strapping numerous berg jumpers, throwing switches, or plugging in appropriate modules) to be compatible with the interface. Moreover, if the line to which the DCE is connected is changed from an RS-232 compatible line to a V.35 compatible line or vice versa, the user must power down the DCE, reconfigure the DCE appropriately, and then power up the DCE. Further, if the user incorrectly configures the DCE; i.e. by making the wrong hard strap selections, communications interface failure can result.

Automatic detector and selector of RS-232 or V.35 interface


A hand held ultrasonic instrument (10) is provided in a portable unit that performs C-Mode imaging and collects 3D image data. In a preferred embodiment a transducer array (60), display unit (20), beamformer (40), power system, and image processor are integrated in one enclosure weighing less than three pounds. In operation, the portable unit is scanned across a target and the displayed image is conveniently presented to the operator whereby the displayed image corresponds exactly to the target, or a scaled fashion if desired.

Medical imaging is a field dominated by high cost systems that are so complex as to require specialized technicians for operation and the services of experienced medical doctors and nurses for image interpretation. Medical ultrasound, which is considered a low cost modality, utilizes imaging systems costing as much as $250K. These systems are operated by technicians with two years of training or specialized physicians. This high-tech, high-cost approach works very well for critical diagnostic procedures. However it makes ultrasound impractical for many of the routine tasks for which it would be clinically useful.
A number of companies have attempted to develop low cost, easy to use systems for more routine use. The most notable effort is that by Sonosite. Their system produces very high quality images at a system cost of approximately $20,000. While far less expensive than high-end systems, these systems are still very sophisticated and require a well-trained operator. Furthermore, at this price few new applications are opened.
The applicability of conventional ultrasound is further limited by the typical image format used. Images are produced in what is commonly referred to as a B-Mode format, representing a tomographic slice through the body perpendicular to the skin surface. This image format is non-intuitive and the simple act or process of mentally registering the B-Mode image to the patients anatomy requires significant experience.
Most existing ultrasonic imaging systems utilize an array transducer that is connected to beamformer circuitry through a cable, and a display that is usually connected directly to or integrated with the beamformer. This approach is attractive because it allows the beamformer electronics to be as large as is needed to produce an economical system. In addition, the display may be of a very high quality. Unfortunately this configuration is not intuitive for most users because the image appears far from the patient. Furthermore, these systems typically acquire B-mode images, that is, images consisting of a tomographic slice taken perpendicular to the face of the transducer array. Most new users find images in this format very difficult to interpret and to register mentally with the tissue geometry. Conventional system configurations can be awkward to use because of the lengthy cable involved. Finally, the typical large size of the beamformer limits the system's portability.
Some conventional system architectures have been improved upon through reductions in beamformer size. One of the most notable efforts has been undertaken by Advanced Technologies Laboratories and then continued by a spin-off company, Sonosite. U.S. Pat. No. 6,135,961 to Pflugrath et al., entitled "Ultrasonic Signal Processor for a Hand Held Ultrasonic Diagnostic Instrument," hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, describes some of the signal processing employed to produce a highly portable ultrasonic imaging system. The Pflugrath '961 patent makes reference to an earlier patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,817,024 to Ogle et al., entitled, "Hand Held Ultrasonic Diagnostic Instrument with Digital Beamformer," hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. While the titles of these patents refer to a hand-held ultrasound system, neither integrates the display and transducer unit. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,203,498 to Bunce et al., entitled "Ultrasonic Imaging Device with Integral Display," hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, however, the transducer, beamformer, and display are all integrated to produce a very small and convenient imaging system. The Bunce '498 system, however, has some imitations. For example, but not limited thereto, Bunce '498 continues to use the confusing b-mode image format and its configuration is not intuitive for some users making it difficult for an untrained user to interpret the image and connect it to the organ, target, or subject under investigation.
The present invention ultrasonic imaging system and method provides the opportunity to be a common component of nearly every medical examination and procedure. The present invention provides a system and method which shall be referred to as "sonic window".
The present invention system may be produced, and the related method performed, at a low cost and will be nearly as easy to use as a magnifying glass.
The present invention ultrasonic imaging system and method provides the potential to have a broad and significant impact in healthcare. The instant document identifies various clinical applications of the present invention sonic window, but should not be limited thereto, and other applications will become attained as clinicians gain access to the system and method.

Intuitive ultrasonic imaging system and related method thereof

University of Virginia Patent Foundation


Airport gate visual docking guidance system digital twin methods, systems, and devices are described herein. One method includes: identifying that a device of the visual docking guidance system is non-responsive, determining which device is non-responsive, initiating start-up of one visual docking guidance system program selected from: a visual docking guidance system software program, a central computing system program, or an operating station program, selecting a digital twin data set corresponding to the device of the visual docking guidance system that was non-responsive, wherein the set includes parameter data that was customized by a user of the visual docking guidance system and is particular to the device of the visual docking guidance system that was non-responsive, and sending the digital twin parameter data to the device of the visual docking guidance system that was non-responsive to update one or more parameters stored in association with the visual docking guidance system program.

Airports have increasingly been adopting systems generally referred to as visual docking guidance systems (VDGS) to manage aircraft on the ground and gate area functions. Each visual docking guidance system unit/device includes an sensor data processing unit, a docking controller, a display unit, and at least one video, RADAR, and/or LIDAR sensor.
Typically, one visual docking guidance system is deployed per airport gate. Central computing system software connects to the docking controller to determine the status of the gate and to send docking schedules and manual control commands to the gate area.
One concern in a visual docking guidance system is that the ability to bring the visual docking guidance system up and running are very time consuming tasks. This can occur, for example, in case of system failures and replacement of visual docking guidance system units, in case of system software upgrades, or regular software maintenance activities
There are various reasons that this may occur, for instance: a loss of configuration of various visual docking guidance system sub-systems when the system fails or there might be records/details manually maintained in the system, but these details are not updated when certain parameters are changed in a sub-system. Further, the configuration data of each of the sub-systems and rules defined for gate operations are typically required for the central computing system to maintain communication with visual docking guidance systems and perform normal functionality.
Even though redundant servers are available for central computing system software, some configuration and calibration information related to a visual docking guidance device or unit is not maintained in the central computing system software as those details are very specific to visual docking guidance system sub-systems. Further, in certain airports, due to cost constraints, they do not utilize redundant serves. In that case, any failure in the central computing system will lead to huge downtime if the central computing system is not restored quickly.
Assuming that there is a scenario where visual docking guidance system at a particular gate is not working and that the visual docking guidance system hardware needs to be completely replaced, after changing to a new visual docking guidance system hardware unit, a technician must bring back the system to the same normal state that it was before by configuring all necessary things properly for that gate. The technician must be clear on what the configuration of the system was before it failed and ensure it is brought back to the same state. This process and accountability can be difficult and time-consuming tasks and may lead to down time of the gate. This is an additional cost to airport operations.


The present invention relates to regulation of angiogenesis. More particularly, the present invention is directed to nucleic acids encoding “angiogenesis regulatory proteins and nucleic acids” which are involved in modulation of angiogenesis. The invention further relates to methods for identifying and using agents, including small organic molecules, antibodies, peptides, cyclic peptides, nucleic acids, antisense nucleic acids, RNAi, and ribozymes, that modulate angiogenesis via modulation of angiogenesis regulatory proteins and nucleic acids; as well as to the use of expression profiles and compositions in diagnosis and therapy of diseases related to angiogenesis.

Angiogenesis is typically limited in a normal adult to the placenta, ovary, endometrium and sites of wound healing. However, angiogenesis, or its absence, plays an important role in the maintenance of a variety of pathological states. Some of these states are characterized by neovascularization, e.g., cancer, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, and age related macular degeneration. More specifically, pathological states characterized by neovascularization include lymphoma, hematologic cancers, melanoma, breast cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, colan cancer, ovarian cancer, liver cancer, Kaposi's sarcoma, metastatic disease, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and benign proliferative disorders including hemangiomas. Others, e.g., stroke, infertility, heart disease, ulcers, delayed wound healing, and scleroderma, are diseases of angiogenic insufficiency. Therefore, there is a need to identify nucleic acids encoding proteins involved in the regulation of angiogenesis, to identify, e.g., modulators of angiogenesis, as well as new therapeutic and diagnostic applications.


The invention classifies volumes (e.g., file systems or LUNs) of a data storage system according to application requirements and allocates space for the volumes on storage devices (e.g., hard disk drives) accordingly. A person such as an IT administrator configures the volumes specifying size, type (e.g., file system or SAN LUN), and priority (e.g., high, medium, low, or archive). The host schedules I/O requests to the storage devices in priority queues using the volume definition to match the application requirements and reduce storage seek time between volumes of different priorities. The host also allocates high performance bands of the storage devices to high performance applications and lower performance bands to lower performance applications. In this manner, the data storage system places data on the band of the storage device that best supports its performance needs.

The present invention relates to quality of service for data storage volumes.
This application incorporates by reference herein as follows:
U.S. application Ser. No. 10/264,603, Systems and Methods of Multiple Access Paths to Single Ported Storage Devices, filed on Oct. 3, 2002, now abandoned;
U.S. application Ser. No. 10/354,797, Methods and Systems of Host Caching, film on Jan. 29, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,965,979 B2;
U.S. application Ser. No. 10/397,610, Methods and Systems for Management of System Metadata, filed on Mar. 26, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,216,253 B2;
U.S. application Ser. No. 10/440,347, Methods and Systems of Cache Memory Management and Snapshot Operations, filed on May 16, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,124,243 B2;
U.S. application Ser. No. 10/600,417, Systems and Methods of Data Migration in Snapshot Operations, filed on Jun. 19, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,136,974 B2;
U.S. application Ser. No. 10/616,128, Snapshots of File Systems in Data Storage Systems, filed on Jul. 8, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,959,313 B2;
U.S. application Ser. No. 10/677,560, Systems and Methods of Multiple Access Paths to Single Ported Storage Devices, filed on Oct. 1, 2003, now abandoned;
U.S. application Ser. No. 10/696,327, Data Replication in Data Storage Systems, filed on Oct. 28, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,143,122 B2; and
U.S. application Ser. No. 10/637,322, Guided Configuration of Data Storage Systems, filed on Apr. 30, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,216,192 B2.
U.S. application Ser. No.10/975,290, Staggered Writing for Data Storage Systems, filed on Oct. 27, 2004; and
U.S. application Ser. No. 10/976,430, Management of I/O Operations In Data Storage Systems, filed on Oct. 29, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,222,223 B2.
The Internet, e-commerce, and relational databases have all contributed to a tremendous growth in data storage requirements, and created an expectation that the data must be readily available all of the time. The desire to manage data growth and produce high data availability has encouraged development of storage area networks (SANs) and network-attached storage (NAS).
SANs move networked storage behind the host, and typically have their own topology and do not rely on LAN protocols such as Ethernet. NAS frees storage from its direct attachment to a host. The NAS storage array becomes a network addressable device using standard Network file systems, TCP/IP, and Ethernet protocols. However, SANs and NAS employ at least one host connected to data storage subsystems containing the storage devices. Each storage subsystem typically contains multiple storage nodes where each node includes a storage controller and an array of storage devices usually magnetic disk (hard disk drive) or magnetic tape drives.
In data storage systems, a host makes I/O requests (i.e., reads and writes) of the data storage subsystems. Each application that is the subject of the I/O request may require different quality of service (QoS). For efficiency each host can accumulate a batch of I/O requests from application users and transmit them to the data storage subsystem.
When the host receives I/O requests, it should process the higher priority requests before the lower priority I/O requests despite the problem that I/O requests arrive at the host without regard to priority. For example, the host should ensure a higher quality of service NAS file system or SAN LUN is not given lower priority than a lower QoS file system or LUN and retain the ability to configure file systems and SAN LUNs by different QoS.
The host must ensure all I/O requests are completed in a reasonable time and must support many applications simultaneously while delivering the appropriate performance to each. It would be helpful if the number of priority levels could be easily modified to allow for different priorities (e.g., two or more) to allow for better tuning of the system. The maximum number of I/O requests allowed per priority level could be then determined through testing and some qualitative analysis of different workloads.

Quality of service for data storage volumes


A bandage remains securely attached to the skin of a wearer during extended exposure to arid, humid or wet conditions. The bandage is readily removed from the attached condition upon application of pressure to its exterior surface. Adhesive portions of the contain pockets or microcapsules filled with an adhesive-inactivating ingredient. The pockets are formed in the backing layer. Microcapsules, if present, are incorporated in the adhesive. The adhesive inactivating ingredient comprises oil from vegetable source, mineral source or fatty acids. The wearer ruptures the pockets or microcapsules by applying pressure to the bandage above the adhesive portions. The adhesive-inactivating ingredient is thereby released at the skin-adhesive interface, permitting an easy, pain-free removal of the bandage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to bandages; and, more particularly to releasable bandages, such as wound dressings, gauze retainers or splints that remain securely attached during use, but can be painlessly released upon demand.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Bandages are well known in the art and are used for various medical applications and sports protection. Sterile bandages marketed under well-recognized trade names, such as 'Band-Aid', 'Cural' and the like, that provide secure attachment of the bandage's adhesive portion to bare skin adjacent to a wound. A sterile wound-covering pad contacts the wound. More recently, adhesives have been developed for bandages that do not peel off even when the bandage is wetted by sweat or swimming activity. The corners of the bandages are oftentimes shaped to prevent easy release of the bandage. All these developments prevent easy removal of the bandage, especially when the area of the skin is covered with hair. Bandage removal is typically so painful that most patients and doctors remove the bandage by pulling sharply, as fast as possible, to minimize the duration of pain. No solution is presently available that allows easy, pain-free or reduced-pain removal of a bandage. The pain problem becomes more severe as the size of the bandage increases, as is the case for splint restrainers or gauzes.
Several patents detail construction of bandages and selection of adhesives, which improve skin adhesion. Some patents address the shape of the bandage so that the edges do not readily peel off. Some patents provide a covering that prevents the wound-contacting portion of the dressing from sticking to the wound, thereby reducing pain of bandage removal. None of these patents addresses the problem of pain associated with removal of the adhesive tape that retains the bandage against the skin.
Several patents address use of release layers normally coated on the side of a bandage opposed to the adhesive coated surface, enabling the peeling of a wound adhesive tape. This release layer is applied to the backside that is opposed to the adhesive side of the polymeric tape and has nothing to do with the release of the tape from the skin. These tape release compositions are not discussed. In fact, the presence of this release layer on the skin is not useful since the tape will no longer adhere to the skin.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,140,115 to Schonfeld discloses pressure sensitive adhesive compositions for coating articles to be attached to skin. Skin damage, i.e., the stripping of tissue cells from the stratum corneum, caused by removal of a backing material which has been held in adherent contact with a skin surface by means of a pressure sensitive adhesive composition coated on the backing material, is markedly reduced by incorporation of about 4 to 20% by weight of an unreacted polyol uniformly dispersed in the water-insoluble pressure sensitive adhesive mass. Suitable polyols include polyethylene glycol and polypropylene sorbitol monolaurate. The unreacted polyol is always present in the adhesive reducing the tackiness of the adhesive and easy release of the adhesive tape is achieved at the expense of the adhesive properties.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,693,776 and 4,732,808 to Krampe et al. disclose macromer reinforced pressure sensitive skin adhesive sheet material. A skin adhesive coated sheet material is provided which is coated with a polymer that exhibits an enhanced level of initial adhesion when applied to skin but resists objectionable adhesion build up over time. The skin adhesives are comprised of a macromer reinforced acrylate copolymer, which has a creep compliance value at least about 1.2×10−5 cm2/dyne. A stable chemical complex of iodine, iodide and a pressure-sensitive adhesive is also provided wherein the adhesive has a creep compliance value of at least about 1.0×10−5 cm2/dyne measured when the adhesive composition is substantially free of iodine. The adhesive contains a monomeric acrylate or methacrylate ester of a non-tertiary alcohol, at least one ethylenically unsaturated compound copolymerizable with monomeric acrylate or methacrylate ester and a macromer. The addition of these macromer is always present in the adhesive, which degrades as a function. Easy peel of the adhesive layer does not occur until this degradation has occurred and the bandage cannot be removed without pain at any time selected by the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,412,035 to Schmitt et al. discloses pressure-sensitive adhesives. Pressure-sensitive adhesive compositions containing a crystalline polymeric additive having a molecular weight of less than 25,000 and a melting point greater than 23 degree C., preferably 30 to 60 degree C., coated on a flexible backing. The presence of the additive causes the pressure sensitive adhesive to lose adhesive strength when heated to the melting point of the additive. The base resin of the pressure sensitive adhesive is a polyacrylate or a styrene/butadiene copolymer. The additive, which is a side chain crystallizable polymer, is present in an amount ranging from 1 to 35%. Heat has to be applied to release this bandage. Application of heat to a wound is extremely painful and may, in the worst case, retard the healing process of the wound.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,917 to Carte et al. discloses an adhesive bandage or tape. A water resistant, flexible, dermal adhesive product for conformable topical application to human skin, the dermal adhesive product comprising a backing sheet having an adhesive for removably adhering the sheet to the skin, wherein the adhesive is a highly crosslinked pressure sensitive adhesive composition comprising the polymerization reaction product of about 75% to about 95% of a mixture of at least two alkyl acrylate or methacrylate esters, about 1% to about 10% ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid, and about 10% to about 20% vinyl lactam, by dry weight of solids, preferably about 80% to about 90% of a mixture of at least two alkyl acrylate or methacrylate esters, about 2% to about 5% ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid, and about 10% to about 20% vinyl lactam, by dry weight of solids. This water resistant adhesive for bandage is very effective in attaching to the skin of the user; but is difficult to peel without undue pain.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,077,589 to De Carvalho discloses adhesive tape. The adhesive tape substratum is embossed to provide an increased apparent thickness with protuberances and projections. The adhesive contacts the skin only at the apexes or extreme points of projections, leaving the remainder of the skin substratum distant. This arrangement allows free circulation of air and water vapor near to or around the non-adhered regions. The adhesive is said to be easier to peel, due to its limited contact area with the skin; but does not allow secure retention of the bandage.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,368,687 to Joseph et al. discloses a low trauma adhesive article. A low trauma pressure-sensitive adhesive coated substrate comprising a sheet material, tape or laminate structure designed to adhere to skin or like surfaces. The pressure-sensitive adhesive layer of this adhesive coated substrate is a fibrous adhesive layer generally having a basis weight of from 5 to 200 g/m2 applied to a conformable backing or substrate. The fibrous adhesive layer has a textured outer face and persistent porosity between discrete adhesive fibers. Generally, the fibrous adhesive layer has a MVTR (measured by ASTM E 96-80 at 40° C.) of at least 1000 g/m2/day, preferably at least 6000 g/m2/day. The adhesive fibers comprise polyalphaolefin adhesive or acrylate pressure-sensitive adhesive. These fibers have to be bonded to the backing by means other than relying on the pressure sensitive adhesive coating applied to the fibers. The easy peel of these fibers is only due to the limited contact between the fibers and the skin surface. This limited skin contact feature also limits the adhesive property of the backing strip to the skin, preventing secure attachment of the bandage.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,566,577 to Addison et al. discloses wound dressings having low adherency. The wound dressings are of the island type, having as adhesive-coated backing sheet and an absorbent island supported on the backing sheet. The island comprises a layer of liquid absorbent material enclosed in an envelope of textured perforated ethyl methyl acrylate thermoplastic film. The film presents a ribbed or embossed perforated surface having low adherency to the wound. The film island at the rear surface of the envelope is perforated and smoothed to provide good attachment to the backing sheet with controlled water vapor transmission rate. The liquid absorbing island of the wound dressing has low adherency to the wound due to the presence of rib textured perforated thermoplastic film. The backing sheet that carries the absorbing island is adhered to skin to retain the wound dressing and no disclosure is provided for easily peeling this backing sheet from the skin with undue pain.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,743,964 to Yoshida et al. discloses a pad and adhesive bandage. A pad has an approximate-quadrangular portion and approximate-arched portions attached to both lateral sides of the approximate-quadrangular portion. All the periphery of the pad is sealed with ultrasonic treatment. L represents the length of the approximate-quadrangular portion in the direction parallel to the lateral axis, S represents the length of the approximate-quadrangular portion in the direction parallel to the vertical axis and R represents a radius of said approximate-arched portion. The geometrical relation between L, S and R satisfies following relations.
0.5S<or =L<or =4S between L and S;
0.5S<or ═R<S between S and R.
The pad prevents peeling-off from four corners thereof and intrusion of water. This is a geometrical relationship between the dimensions of the elements of the adhesive pad when exposed to moisture. This disclosure does not suggest a method or means for enabling a bandage to be peeled easily without pain.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,747,183 to Siegwart et al. discloses an adhesive bandage with improved comfort and fit. An adhesive bandage having a backing material; an adhesive applied to at least one second major surface of the backing material; and a wound contacting a pad secured to the backing by a portion of the adhesive. The bandage has a tapered portion and a non-tapered portion with rounded edges. The length of the tapered portion of the bandage ranges from about 30% to about 70% of the total length of the bandage. The adhesive to bond the wound-contacting pad includes a hot melt adhesive or styrenic block copolymers and tackifying resins, or ethylene copolymers, including ethylene vinyl acetate copolymers. The adhesive for the bandage portion includes acrylic based, dextrin based, and urethane based adhesives as well as those based on natural rubber or synthetic elastomers including amorphous polyolefins, for example, amorphous polypropylene. The comfort of the adhesive bandage is due to the geometrical shape of the adhesive ends and does not allow easy painless removal of the bandage.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,942,683 to Dunshee discloses a wound closure system and method. The system uses a flowable adhesive together with wound closure such as wound bridge. The skin paint includes 1-40% of a siloxane-containing polymer; 60-99% of an Alkane-Based Siloxane Polymer Reaction Solvent; and 0-15% of adjuvants.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,946,177 to Abe et al. discloses an adhesive composition and adhered structure, which can be thermally peeled with ease. The adhesive composition contains (i) from 55 to 95 wt. % of a tackifying polymer and (ii) from 4 to 40 wt. % of a crystalline polycaprolactone polymer based on a total weight of the composition. The tackifying polymer is cross-linked polymer that is compatible with the polycaprolactone which melts upon application of heat allowing easy peel of the adhesive. Application of heat also heats the wound in addition to heating the adhesive ends of a bandage, which is extremely painful and damaging to the wound. After peeling, the melted polycaprolactone is retained on the skin, which may cause irritation of skin.
Notwithstanding the efforts of prior art workers to construct a bandage that adheres to the skin securely in wet and dry conditions, these progressive developments have inherently resulted in bandages that are more difficult to peel of the skin especially when the user of the bandage has hair on the skin, resulting in extreme pain. Compositions and structures that decrease adhesion due to the incorporation of monomeric precursors of polymers or the geometrical approaches that limit the area of contact of the adhesive with the skin also compromise the overall adhesion of the bandage, resulting in inferior products. There remains a need in the art for a flexible bandage that adheres well to the skin and is easily removable from the skin at will without causing excessive pain to the user. This need has been exacerbated by the inherent difficulty in creating an bandage adhesive that bonds well and, at the same time, can be readily removed with minimal pain during peeling of the bandage away from the skin.


Disclosed herein is a method and device for identifying bold text in a digital document. The system receives image of digital document which comprises text. The system applies bounding box for each text in the image and scans predefined number of lines in each bounding box to identify width values of pixels. Thereafter, system identifies most occurring width value of pixels among the width values of pixels in each bounding box. The most occurring width value of pixels in each bounding box is identified as box width of corresponding bounding box. The system compares box width of each bounding box with threshold box width. If box width is greater than threshold box width, system identifies text of the bounding box whose box width exceeds threshold box width as bold text. The present disclosure efficiently identifies bold text in digital document based on width values of pixels with less computational power.

In day to day document/information processing, bold text in a document means the intensity of letter/word is more compared to its surrounding words and it signifies some importance. For example, in some documents such as Statement of Work (SOW), Measurement System Analysis (MSA), many important terms such as company name, contract date, contract termination date, and various clauses will be in bold. There may be a need to extract and interpret these important terms from such documents. Further for morphological analysis or semantic analysis there may be a need to extract words such as titles, section header, table header, figure names from the documents which are in bold font. There may exist a scenario wherein some white papers (or research papers) may not include table of contents. Hence there arises a need to extract words which are in bold which indicates importance of such words to generate table of contents. If the bold text is not identified, the user may have to go through the whole document to understand or reach the contents in the document which is a tedious process.
The existing solutions to extract the entities or bold text from documents such as SOW or MSA are multilevel and highly time consuming as the document text style such as font, height, width and the like may vary across the document. Further for morphological analysis of documents, bold text plays very important part in section segmentation and important information extraction for which machine learning algorithms are required. The machine learning algorithms may require a lot of training data and training time as well.
The information disclosed in this background of the disclosure section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.

Method and system for identifying bold text in a digital document


A controller in a mobile communication system includes a management unit (151) configured to manage a resource usage condition in the mobile communication system and a determination unit (152) configured to determine to which an idle state or a power saving state different from the idle state a user equipment (10) is to transition after completion of communication of a data signal depending on the resource usage condition, and the state determined by the determination unit (152) is indicated to the user equipment (10).

A mobile apparatus in a mobile communication system transitions to some power saving states (Battery Efficient states) after completion of transmission and reception of data signals in order to reduce battery power consumption. Operating states of the mobile apparatus are managed by a controller (for example, a radio network controller (RNC) in a W-CDMA system). When the mobile apparatus changes the operating state, the mobile apparatus has to receive an indication for it from the controller. After completion of transmission and reception in a dedicated channel (DCH), the mobile apparatus transmits a state transition request signal to request transition to a power saving state. In the W-CDMA system, the state transition request signal is referred to as an RRC SIGNALING CONNECTION RELEASE INDICATION. The mobile apparatus can transition to the power saving state by receiving an indication from the controller or a network (NW). The power saving state is an idle state, a PCH state (Cell_PCH/URA_PCH), a FACH (Forward Access Channel) state for use of a FACH and so on. In the mobile communication system, a function to enable the mobile apparatus to transition to any of the power saving states after releasing the dedicated channel (DCH) to save battery energy in the mobile apparatus is called a Fast Dormancy function. See 3GPP TS25.331 v8.6.0 for the function, for example.

Mobile communication system, controller and method


A wheel mount assembly for mounting a drive wheel to a frame of a wheelchair is provided. The assembly includes a camber body attachable to an axle of one of the drive wheels and operable to pivotably couple about the frame through a range of camber angles; a spacer operable to set a desired camber angle, the spacer contacting the camber body at the desired camber angle; and a clamp operable to secure the camber body and the spacer to the frame at the camber angle. Optionally, a transverse member, extending between the drive wheels, may engage a portion of the frame such that the clamp is prevented from pivoting through the camber angles of each respective camber body. Again, optionally, the wheel mount assembly may be clamped to the frame at a multitude of positions, thus facilitating adjustment of the center of gravity of the wheelchair.

Wheel mount assemblies in general are well known in the art for use with many different types of wheeled devices. Such wheel mount assemblies are commonly employed for mounting the rear wheels on a typical wheelchair. Each wheel mount assembly typically incorporates a number of adjustments that allow the wheelchair occupant to customize the wheelchair to his or her body proportions, body mechanics, and driving conditions. Frequently, the rear wheels of the wheelchair are cambered, or angled with respect to a vertical plane. A wheelchair with a large camber angle has more responsive turning, which is typically beneficial in sports applications. A wheelchair with a little to no camber angle has a smaller overall width and thus greater manoeuvrability in tight confines. Often the wheels can be adjusted so that their camber angle can be changed from 0 degrees to 12 degrees, or sometimes substantially more, where the top of the wheel is closer to the chair than the bottom of the wheel.
Some wheelchairs provide the ability to adjust the fore/aft position of the rear wheel with respect to the wheelchair frame. Such adjustment is known as a "center-of-gravity" adjustment. Shifting the rear wheels rearward produces a more stable wheelchair that is less likely to tip backwards. Shifting the rear wheels forward makes the wheelchair easier to balance on the rear wheels. This helps with manoeuvrability over obstacles, such as curbs, where the wheelchair occupant must lift the front casters off the ground in order to traverse the obstacles.
When an adjustment is made to the rear wheel camber angle the rear height of the wheelchair may also change, which may in turn cause the rear wheels to toe-in or toe-out. That is to say, the rear wheels become misaligned with respect to the frame. This misalignment is undesirable because it increases rolling friction. If the act of decreasing the camber angle raises the rear wheel height, the rear wheels may toe-in. Conversely, increasing the rear wheel camber angle typically lowers the rear wheel height, which may cause the rear wheels to toe-out. To correct toe-in or toe-out, the mounting hardware that attaches the rear wheels to the wheelchair frame must allow the axles of the rear wheel to rotate in order to re-align the camber angle with respect to a vertical sagittal plane. Alternatively, the height of either the rear wheels or the front caster wheels may be changed to adjust the toe-in or toe-out of the drive wheels as well as to keep the main pivot axis of each of the caster wheels vertical.
With some conventional wheelchairs that offer adjustable camber (although note that in many wheelchairs the camber angle is fixed), the camber adjustment takes the user a significant amount of time. Adjusting the camber often requires removing quite a number of parts and adding or subtracting washers or other spacers to achieve the proper angle. Alternatively adjusting the camber may entail needing different camber inserts each with fixed angles. Even when done by a trained technician, the process may still take considerable time.
In some wheelchairs that provide easier means of changing camber angle and center gravity adjustment, often the result is an overly flexible wheelchair frame. A wheelchair that lacks rigidity or is overly flexible typically has reduced performance, may feel cumbersome or un-safe, and may be more prone to breakage.
While many wheelchairs provide wheel camber angle, toe-in, toe-out, and center of gravity adjustability, there is a need for a lightweight, user-friendly adjustment design that minimizes parts, complexity, and adjustment difficulty while at the same time providing adequate rigidity and performance.


The invention relates to a system and method for adjusting a characteristic of a data transmission in order to maintain a rate of transmission. For the method, it comprises: monitoring for initiation of the data transmission to the device; identifying characteristics of the device relating to the data transmission that affect the ability of the device to process the transmission; automatically adjusting the transmission rate according to a preset transmission rate progression established for the communication network; and adjusting characteristics of the data transmission to allow the characteristics of data transmission to conform to the characteristics of the device while maintaining the transmission rate for the device.

Wireless handheld mobile communication devices perform a variety of functions to enable mobile users to stay organized and in contact with others in a communication network through e-mail, schedulers and address books. More sophisticated electronic devices have relatively large and bright colour displays and have the ability to receive relatively high-bandwidth data transmission streams, such as video streams, from sources that are linked to the network.
Video transmission links require a certain effective frame rate to be received at a device in order to generate a fluid moving image on the display of the device. Maintaining the effective frame rate to a wireless device can be difficult, given the variable nature of transmission rates to wireless devices.
There is a need for a system and method which addresses deficiencies in the prior art.

System and method for adjusting transmission data rates to a device in a communication network


A chassis is provided having a heat conductive side wall together with a flat heat conductive tab member extending therefrom, together with a planar heat sink for supporting a heat generating electrical device, the heat sink having a pair of flat, parallel, resilient prongs and including first and second flat inner surfaces facing each other and separated from each other by a distance slightly greater than the thickness of the tab to form a clearance gap, together with a pair of wedge clamps for squeezing said prongs together to produce a good thermal contact between the prongs and the tab member. A narrow slot is formed within the heat sink for enhancing the resiliency of the prongs to enable easy actuation of the clamps.

The use of standard electronic modules in future electronic systems places stringent requirements on the thermal interfacing of these units to their ultimate heat sink. As presently configured, the modules are thermally coupled to the chassis side walls containing the heat transfer surfaces through engaging tab extensions, and pressure created by standard type wedge clamps. This technique is satisfactory in designs where the heat flux at the mating surfaces is under 10 watts/in.sup.2. Control of the machine finish on each surface to better than 32 micro inch and flatness variations of under 0.001 inch per inch per surface together with proper dimensional tolerancing of parts result in acceptable temperature gradients across these interfaces. An expression defining this gradiant for surfaces described above and with pressures in excess of 30 psi is: EQU .DELTA.T=0.5.phi.
where .phi.=flux, watts/in.sup.2
and PA1 .DELTA.T=interface delta, .degree.C.
On one type of interface, a 20 watt module results in an interface delta of only 5.degree. C. (each tab area is 1 in.sup.2). However, the introduction of higher power modules such as low voltage power supply units creates flux densities at tab interfaces which far exceed 10 watts/in.sup.2. For these units, it is necessary to increase the number of tabs or the engaging surface area to limit the gradient. A typical arrangement is shown in FIG. 1, where the module heat Q passes internally to the engaging tabs on each end and into the finned heat exchanger walls. The temperature gradient across the interface with this type configuration is an unacceptable 21.degree. C. based on a 100 watt module heat dissipation and an interface area of 1.2 in.sup.2 (0.22.times.5.5") at each end.


An arrangement device includes an acquisition unit, a specifying unit, and a determination unit. The acquisition unit acquires information representing the number of times of communication between queries executed in a plurality of devices in which the plurality of queries are arranged, the query being used for performing processes when data meets set conditions. The specifying unit specifies a set of queries based on the number of times of communication that is represented by the information acquired by the acquisition unit. The determination unit determines to arrange the set of queries specified by the specifying unit in a same device.

As a technique for processing many data entries that are collected every moment from various sources in a parallel manner, there is CEP (complex event processing). In the complex event processing, an event is detected from received data, and processing relating to the detected event is performed. There is a case where the complex event processing is called ESP (event stream processing). In description presented below, the ESP is assumed to be included in the technical scope of the CEP.
In a CEP system that performs the complex event processing, there is a case where a large amount of received data is temporarily processed. In such a case, the processing load of a device that processes the received data in the CEP system increases, and accordingly, the processing performance decreases.
Thus, for example, in the CEP system, by using a technique enabling flexible resource allocation such as a cloud technique, the processing is distributed to a plurality of servers or VMs (virtual machines) in accordance with a variation in the processing load. As such distribution of the processing, for example, a transaction requesting sentence called a query and data accompanied with the query that are arranged in a server or a virtual machine having a high processing load are moved to another server or another virtual machine as processing elements, whereby the distribution of processing is performed.
In addition, there is a technique in which queries of which the processing order is adjacent to each other, in other words, queries that are adjacent to each other in a query graph are distributed to the same device based on the query graph that includes information such as a processing order set in the query.
As for the related techniques, see: U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0049187; U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0319687; Mehul A. Shah, Joseph M. Hellerstein, Sirish Chandrasekaran and Michael J. Franklin, "Flux: An Adaptive Partitioning Operator for Continuous Query Systems," ICDE, 2003; Ying Xing, "Load Distribution for Distributed Stream Processing," EDBT, 2004 WORKSHOPS; and Ying Xing, Stan Zdonik, Jeong-Hyon Hwang, "Dynamic Load Distribution in the Borealis Stream Processor," ICDE, 2005, for example.
However, according to the above-described technique, there is a problem in that it is difficult to suppress an increase in communication between devices. Hereinafter, a specific example will be described. First, an example of the above-described technique for distributing processing will be described.
FIGS. 35A and 35B are diagrams for illustrating examples of the above-described technique for distributing the processing. FIG. 35A illustrates an example of a query graph that illustrates the connection relation of queries. The query graph of the example illustrated in FIG. 35A represents that query Q2 is executed using an execution result of query Q1. In addition, the query graph of the example illustrated in FIG. 35A represents that query Q3 is executed using an execution result of query Q2. Furthermore, in the examples illustrated in FIGS. 35A and 35B, queries Q1 and Q3 are arranged in a server 90, and query Q2 is arranged in a server 91. In the examples illustrated in FIGS. 35A and 35B, the server 90 transmits the execution result of query Q1 to the server 91 in which query Q2 is arranged. In addition, in the examples illustrated in FIGS. 35A and 35B, the server 91 transmits the execution result of query Q2 to the server 90 in which query Q3 is arranged. In this way, in the examples illustrated in FIGS. 35A and 35B, when queries Q1 to Q3 are executed, the transmission of an execution result between the servers 90 and 91 is performed twice.
Next, an example of a technique for arranging the above-described queries that are adjacent to each other in the same device will be described. FIGS. 36A and 36B are diagrams that illustrate an example of a technique for arranging the above-described queries adjacent to each other in the same device. FIG. 36A illustrates an example of a query graph that illustrates the connection relation between queries. The query graph of the example illustrated in FIG. 36A illustrates that queries Q2 and Q3 are executed using an execution result of query Q1. In addition, the query graph of the example illustrated in FIG. 36A illustrates that query Q3 is executed using an execution result of query Q2. Furthermore, in the examples illustrated in FIGS. 36A and 36B, queries Q1 and Q2 are arranged in a server 90, and query Q3 is arranged in a server 91 in accordance with the adjacency relation of queries that is represented by the query graph. Here, it is assumed that the number of times of transmitting a processing result from the device in which query Q1 is arranged to the device in which query Q3 is arranged is more than that of transmitting a processing result from the device in which query Q1 is arranged to the device in which query Q2 is arranged. In such a case, in the examples illustrated in FIGS. 36A and 36B, since queries Q1 and Q2 are arranged in the same server 90, the server 90 does not transmit an execution result between queries Q1 and Q2. However, in the examples illustrated in FIGS. 36A and 36B, the server 90 transmits the execution result of query Q1 to the server 91 in which query Q3 is arranged. As above, in the examples illustrated in FIGS. 36A and 36B, when queries Q1 to Q3 are executed, execution results are transmitted between the servers 90 and 91.
Therefore, according to the above-described technique, it is difficult to suppress an increase in communication between the devices.

Apparatus and method for arranging query


An offshore vessel suitable for laying a pipeline on the seabed, having a pipeline-laying installation of the S-lay type. The offshore vessel has one or more connecting stations disposed on a working deck. The connecting stations are for connecting pipeline sections in a substantially horizontal orientation. A stinger engages on a first side of a hull secured to offshore vessel at an engagement point and protrudes outside the hull, and forms a downwardly directed support for pipeline moving towards the seabed. A hoisting crane is disposed on the first side of the hull, comprising a substantially hollow vertical column comprising a top, a foot, and a body disposed between the foot and the body.

There exists a need for an offshore vessel that has a hoisting crane that has a movable winch support, which is movable relative to a substantially hollow vertical column.
There further exists a need, for an offshore vessel with a hoisting crane that has a movable winch support that maintains a substantially constant orientation between a jib and the winch support.
There further exists a need, for an offshore vessel that has a stinger for supporting a pipeline toward a seabed.
Yet an additional need exists, for an offshore vessel that has a stinger that can act as a counter weight for a hoisting crane during load-lifting operations.
The present embodiments meet these needs.
The present embodiments are detailed below with reference to the listed Figures.