An apparatus and a method for encrypting and decrypting data in a wireless LAN includes additional blocks for generating key sequence by a secret key and generating key sequence by ICV in order to solve disadvantages of conventional WEP apparatus and method for encrypting/decrypting data suggested by IEEE 802.11, and the key sequence by the ICV is dual-encrypted by XOR operated with the transmission data, and thereby, wiretapping and sensing from outer side can be blocked.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for encrypting and decrypting data in a wireless Local Area Network (LAN), and particularly, to a method and an apparatus for encrypting and decrypting data in a wireless LAN for compensating disadvantages of wired equivalent privacy (WEP) method used in IEEE 802.11 standard.
2. Description of the Background Art
Generally, a cryptography is a method for preventing data transmitted/received in a communication system from being wiretapped or being forged by someone. In the above method, data is encrypted before the data is transmitted, and a receiving party receives the encrypted data and decrypts it.
In applying the above cryptography, since wireless Local Area Network (LAN) has weaker security than that of wired LAN, such a place where the security system is operated does not use the wireless LAN. Therefore, reference of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 suggested an encrypting/decrypting method of wired equivalent privacy (WEP).
In the encrypting/decrypting method in the IEEE 802.11 standard, a transmitter makes a key sequence using a discretionary key and transmits the data after XOR operating the key sequence with the data which will be transmitted, and a receiver decrypts by XOR operating the same key sequence to the received data.
As described above, the WEP provides a mechanism protecting stream of wireless LAN data, and uses symmetric algorithm that the data is encrypted/decrypted using same key and algorithm. The above method will be described in more detail as follows with reference to accompanying Figures.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a data encrypting apparatus in the wireless LAN applied by the WEP according to the conventional art.
As shown therein, the encrypting apparatus comprises: a concatenating unit 110 for outputting a sequence by concatenating an initialization vector and a secret key; a random number generator 120 for generating a key sequence after being seeded the sequence; an ICV generator 160 for generating Integrity Check Value (ICV) using an integrity algorithm in order to decide integrity of data (plain text) which will be transmitted; a concatenating unit 150 concatenating the ICV sequence outputted from the ICV generator 160 and the transmission data, and then, outputting the concatenated result; an XOR operator 130 for XOR operating the key sequence generated in the random number generator 120 and the sequence outputted from the concatenating unit 150; and a concatenating unit 140 for concatenating the sequence XOR operated in the XOR operator 130 and the initialization vector and outputting it as a transmission packet form.
The encrypting method in the wireless LAN system according to the conventional art will be described in more detail as follows.
First, the concatenating unit 110 concatenates the initialization vector (IV) and a secret key. Then, the random number generator 120 generates the key sequence using the concatenated sequence as a seed.
In addition, the concatenating unit 150 concatenates the data which will be transmitted with the ICV which is used for deciding whether or not the received data (plain text) is changed in a decrypting apparatus. At that time, the ICV is generated by the integrity algorithm in the ICV generator 160, and functions as a cyclic redundancy checking (CRC).
After that, the XOR operator 130 generates concatenated data (plain text+ICV) concatenated in the concatenating unit 150 and encrypted data (that is, Ciphertext) which is encrypted by XOR operating with the key sequence generated in the random number generator 120. The encrypted data is concatenated with the initialization vector (IV), and it becomes the final transmission packet. Herein, since the initialization vector (IV) is used to make same key sequence in the decrypting apparatus, it is not encrypted. The transmission packet is shown in FIG. 2.
FIG. 2 is a detailed view showing the transmission packet in FIG. 1.
As shown therein, the transmission packet is transmitted to a channel (not shown) in a form that the initialization vector, transmission data and the ICV are concatenated. At that time, the transmission data is concatenated with the ICV and encrypted once.
The encrypted data described above can be represented as following equation (1).C=P⊙Random(secret key,IV)  equation (1)
Herein, C represents encrypted transmission data, P is original transmission data, ⊙ means XOR operation, and Random (Secret key, IV) means a function generating key sequence using the initialization vector (IV) and the secret key as seeds.
Therefore, when the finally generated transmission packet is transmitted through a channel, the decrypting apparatus constructed as FIG. 3 receives the transmission packet and decrypts the original data.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the decrypting apparatus in the wireless LAN applied by the WEP according to the conventional art.
As shown therein, the decrypting apparatus comprises: a concatenating unit 310 for concatenating a secret key including same sequence as that of the transmitted secret key with the initialization vector of the received packet; a random number generator 320 generating a key sequence after being inputted the sequence concatenated in the concatenating unit 310; an XOR operator 330 for XOR operating the encrypted data (Ciphertext) and the key sequence; a divider 340 receiving the XOR operated sequence and dividing it into the data (plain text) and the ICV; an ICV generator 350 receiving the decrypted data and generating ICV—2 based on the data; and a comparing device 360 comparing the ICV to the ICV—2, and outputting the decrypted data if the ICV and the ICV—2 are coincided with each other.
The data decrypting method in the wireless LAN applied by the WEP according to the conventional art will be described as follows.
First, the concatenating unit 310 concatenates the initialization vector of the received packet and the secret key. Then, the random generator 320 generates the key sequence using the concatenated sequence as a seed.
The XOR operator 330 XOR operates the received encrypted data and the above key sequence, and the divider 340 divides the XOR operated sequence into the data (plain text) and the ICV. At that time, the ICV generator 350 generates the ICV—2 based on the data. Then, the comparing device 360 compares the ICV—2 to the ICV, and then, decides the above data as the data transmitted from the encrypting apparatus.
Above processes are performed as inverse processes of the encrypting processes, and the processes can be identified through following equation.
That is, since C=P⊙ Random(Secret key, IV) in equation (1),
                              C          ⊙                      Random                                      (                                                Secret                                                                                key                                ,                IV                            )                                      =                                              [                          P              ⊙                              Random                                                  (                                                            Secret                                                                                key                                        ,                    IV                                    )                                                      ]                    ⊙                                                                  Random                                (                                          Secret                                                                                key                            ,              IV                        )                                                  =                                  P          ⊙                      [                          Random                                            (                                                      Secret                                                                                key                                    ,                  IV                                )                                      ]                    ⊙                                                                  Random                                (                                          Secret                                                                                key                            ,              IV                        )                          ]                                =                                  P          ⊙          0                                        =                        P
Herein, C represents encrypted receive packet, P represents original transmission data, ⊙ means XOR operation, and Random (Secret key, IV) is a function for generating key sequence using the initialization vector (IV) and the secret key as seeds.
However, according to the conventional WEP encrypting method described above, in case that two transmission data different from each other are encrypted using the same secret key and the initialization vector, sum of two transmission data P1 and P2 which are not encrypted can be identified by XOR operating the two encrypted data C1 and C2.
That is, the above process can be represented as following equation.C1=P1⊙Random(Secret key,IV)C2=P2⊙Random(Secret key,IV)C1⊙C2=[P1⊙Random(Secret key,IV)]⊙[P1⊙Random(Secret key,IV)]=P1⊙P2
At that time, P1 and P2 can be calculated easily from the sum of the two transmission data which are not encrypted (P1⊙ P2), and therefore, P1 and P2 can be obtained easily by monitoring from outer side. In order to prevent above problem, IEEE 802.11 suggests the initialization vector should be changed periodically, however, does not refer detailed method.
Also, even if the initialization vector is changed periodically, same key sequence should be used since the length of the initialization vector is limited to be 24 bits, and then, the changing type of the initialization vector can be exposed easily.
Also, IEEE 802.11 standard transmits the initialization vector without encrypting the vector, and therefore, security for the initialization vector is not made perfectly.

Method and apparatus for encrypting and decrypting data in wireless LAN


A device and method of forming a three-dimensional component includes filling a reservoir (26) with a volume of curable resin (30), the resin configured to undergo a first reaction to form a first product when exposed to light (42) of a first wavelength and to undergo a second reaction to form a second product when exposed to light (62) of a second wavelength. The presence of the first and second products at a common location in the resin causes a third reaction that results in a solid polymer at the common location. The method further includes directing a first light source (34) of the first wavelength into the reservoir, directing a second light source (54) of the second wavelength into the reservoir such that the first and second light sources intersect at a first predetermined location (78) within the reservoir, and allowing the third reaction to form the solid polymer at the first predetermined location.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Additive manufacturing (AM), also referred to as 3D printing, is a manufacturing technique currently used to produce prototype and low volume parts by sequential deposition and solidification of a resinous material in a spatially defined location, such that the component is gradually assembled and typically grows in one dimension. While a number of AM technologies currently exist, stereolithography (SLA) is one of the most commercially used types that makes use of ultraviolet light (UV) curable resins.
UV curable resins typically require a formulation that allows for rapid polymerization upon exposure to a specific wavelength of light, followed by immediate cessation of the curing when that one wavelength is removed. These polymerization reactions are typically based on acrylate or methacrylate functional polymers, which may be urethanes, polyesters, or polyethers. In addition to the polymer, these formulae often contain photoinitiators (PIs) that, upon absorption of UV light, undergo rapid bond cleavage to generate a catalyst and initiate polymerization. UV curing is typically rapid and can transform liquid resins to solids on the time scale of a second.
In order to 3D print with UV curing resins, the liquid resin is typically cured layer-by-layer. The desired prototype is typically generated in a CAD program, which cuts the part into a series of substantially 2-D cross-sectional layers of appropriate thickness. A UV laser is then rastered over the surface of the printing liquid, which solidifies that layer in the shape of the object's 2-D cross section. The solidified layer is then indexed down a certain distance, fresh resin is wiped over the surface, and the next 2-D layer is cured on top of the previous layer, but along the same plane as the first layer was cured. As further layers are cured, the solidified part continues to be lowered and submerged into the resin bath. When the part is complete, it is removed from the bath and rinsed to remove uncured resin. One variation on this approach uses digital light processing (DLP) systems to project a complete layer onto the surface of the bath instead of using a raster movement. Another variation involves the use of a transparent and semi-permeable window on the bottom of the bath followed by indexing the part upwards out of the bath instead of lowering the part into the bath. In all of these methods, the part is formed (i.e., the resin is solidified) only along a stationary 2-D plane within the resin and the part is indexed relative to that 2-D plane so that the next 2-D cross section of the part will align with the 2-D plane.
While useful for some applications, the typical 3-D printing processes can have some drawbacks. One such drawback can be tumbling or movement of the parts within the resin if supports are not built into the 3-D printed part. Furthermore, resin can be wasted due to washing the completed part. Some other drawbacks can be that the layer-by-layer approach can reduce part fidelity, the indexing of the part can restrict the rate of printing, the typical resins that can be used may be limited to a number of costly proprietary resins, and the durability of typical 3D printed resins can be less than desired.
These issues with 3D printing of components are addressed by the present teachings which include a fundamentally different apparatus and method of controlling the locus and rate of reaction.

3-D printing components using two-light sources to control location of solidification


A recording medium includes a first area for recording a signal including a plurality of units; and a second area for recording a contents information signal relating to a the plurality of units. The contents information signal includes relative position signals of the units and category signals indicative of the categories of the units classified in a predetermined classification manner. An reproduction apparatus includes a reading device for reading the processed signal and the contents information signal from the recording medium; an extracting device for extracting the relative position signals and the category signals from the contents information signal; an instruction device for receiving an instruction which designates the classified category; a control device for detecting the units corresponding to the category designated by the instruction by referring to the category signals and for detecting the relative position signals corresponding to the detected units; and a reproduction device for reproducing the units of the processed signal from the position detected by the control device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information recording medium, an information recording apparatus, and an information reproduction apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to an information recording medium such as an optical disk, an information recording apparatus for recording information on the recording medium, and an information reproduction apparatus for reproducing information from the recording medium in a desired way, regardless of the recording order on the recording medium.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, there are broadly prevailed, as an information recording medium for recording information such as audio information, a Compact Disk, an audio tape and a Digital Audio Tape. Further, a Laser Disk, a Video Tape, a CD-V (Compact Disk-Video) and a Video Compact Disk are also broadly known as an information recording medium on which not only audio information but video information are recorded. Using these information recording media, Recorded information may be reproduced in various patterns (random access reproduction), irrespective of the recording order of the information pieces on the recording medium. For example, in the case of CD, many songs can be reproduced in a reversed order, and only a certain song can be repeatedly reproduced. Further, recorded information may be reproduced in accordance with time information (time code) recorded on the recording medium together with recorded information.
In a case of the conventional CD, as shown in FIG. 9, an access information area 101 is formed at inner circumferential side of the source information area 102 where source information such as audio information are recorded, so that the random access reproduction can be performed. In the access information area 101, access information used for reproduction are recorded for every songs. Further, the access information area 101 is recorded with start addresses 110, 111, . . . , N indicative of the addresses of the head portions of the respective songs recorded in the source information area 102, as shown in FIG. 9. Therefore, in the case of the conventional CD, the recorded song can be reproduced only by units of the songs. Nowadays, the information recording medium is used for karaoke playing, and in the karaoke use, there are desires to repeatedly reproduce only a certain portion of a song, such as a climax part, and to reproduce only certain portions of the plural songs, such as only the introduction part of many songs. However, since address information is recorded by the units of the songs in the conventional CD, the above demands can not be satisfied.

Information recording apparatus, information recording medium, and information reproduction apparatus using contents information signal


A process for controlling an oxygenates to olefin reactor is disclosed which comprises: contacting oxygenate-containing feedstock, e.g., methanol, in a reaction zone in the presence of a molecular sieve oxygenate to olefins conversion catalyst under conditions sufficient to provide an olefins-containing effluent containing alkyl alcohol and dialkyl ether, e.g., methanol and dimethyl ether; analyzing a single gas phase of the effluent determine alkyl alcohol concentration and dialkyl ether concentration; and adjusting reactor conditions, e.g., WHSV, as a function of alkyl alcohol concentration and dialkyl ether concentration, as necessary to provide a substantially consistent effluent composition. A corresponding apparatus for carrying out the process is also provided.

Light olefins, defined herein as ethylene, propylene, butylene and mixtures thereof, serve as feeds for the production of numerous important chemicals and polymers. Typically, light olefins are produced by cracking petroleum feeds. Because of the limited supply of competitive petroleum feeds, the opportunities to produce low cost light olefins from petroleum feeds are limited. Efforts to develop light olefin production technologies based on alternative feeds have increased.
Important alternate feeds for the production of light olefins are oxygenates, such as, for example, alcohols, particularly methanol and ethanol, dimethyl ether, methyl ethyl ether, diethyl ether, dimethyl carbonate, and methyl formate. Many of these oxygenates may be produced by fermentation, or from synthesis gas derived from natural gas, petroleum liquids, carbonaceous materials, including coal, recycled plastics, municipal wastes, or any organic material. Because of the wide variety of sources, alcohol, alcohol derivatives, and other oxygenates have promise as an economical, non-petroleum source for light olefin production.
The catalysts used to promote the conversion of oxygenates to olefins are molecular sieve catalysts. Because ethylene and propylene are the most sought after products of such a reaction, research has focused on what catalysts are most selective to ethylene and/or propylene, and on methods for increasing the life and selectivity of the catalysts to ethylene and/or propylene.
The process for converting a feedstock, especially a feedstock containing one or more oxygenates, in the presence of a molecular sieve catalyst composition according to the invention, is carried out in a reaction process in a reactor, where the process is a fixed bed process, a fluidized bed process, preferably a continuous fluidized bed process, and most preferably a continuous high velocity fluidized bed process.
The reaction processes can take place in a variety of catalytic reactors such as hybrid reactors that have a dense bed or fixed bed zones and/or fast fluidized bed reaction zones coupled together, circulating fluidized bed reactors, riser reactors, and the like. Suitable conventional reactor types are described in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,076,796, U.S. Pat. No. 6,287,522 (dual riser), and Fluidization Engineering, D. Kunii and O. Levenspiel, Robert E. Krieger Publishing Company, New York, N.Y. 1977, which are all herein fully incorporated by reference.
The preferred reactor types are riser reactors generally described in Riser Reactor, Fluidization and Fluid-Particle Systems, pages 48 to 59, F. A. Zenz and D. F. Othmer, Reinhold Publishing Corporation, New York, 1960, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,166,282 (fast-fluidized bed reactor), and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/564,613 filed May 4, 2000 (multiple riser reactor), which are all herein fully incorporated by reference.
In a preferred embodiment of oxygenates to olefins conversion, a fluidized bed process or high velocity fluidized bed process is employed which includes a reactor system, a regeneration system and a recovery system.
In order to optimize operation of oxygenates conversion to light olefins, it is desirable to control various parameters associated with the oxygenate to olefins conversion reactor. Such control can enhance oxygenate conversion and/or selectivity for prime olefins, especially for ethylene and propylene.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,166,282 to Miller teaches a process for converting oxygenates to light olefins in a fast-fluidized bed reactor and further observes that oxygenate conversion processes can be sensitive to reaction variables such as temperature, catalytic activity, and space velocity.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,952,538 to Vaughn et al. discloses an optimal range of space velocities which are suitable for oxygenates to olefin conversion.
Gayubo, et al, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2000, 39, 292–300, disclose that in conversion to olefins, higher average reaction temperatures at a given coke level on the catalyst increases selectivity to ethylene.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,137,022 to Kuechler et al. discloses oxygenates to olefins conversion in the presence of silicoaluminophosphate molecular sieve-containing catalyst which maintains an optimal feedstock conversion between 80% and 99% under conditions effective to convert 100% of the feedstock when the reaction zone contains at least 33 volume percent of the silicoaluminophosphate molecular sieve.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,023,005 discloses the importance of maintaining optimal average coke levels on oxygenates to olefins conversion catalyst to effect improved lower olefin selectivity.
Infrared (IR) analysis of various process streams for the purpose of process control is known in the prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,103,934 to Hallinan et al. discloses a process control method for producing acetic acid by catalyzed carbonylation of methanol in which various reactor component concentrations, e.g., active catalyst, methyl iodide, water and methyl acetate are measured using an infrared analyzer. The concentrations are adjusted in response to the measurements taken to optimize the acetic acid reaction.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,228,650 to Moore et al. discloses controlling concentration of alkylation catalyst components HF acid, acid soluble oil (ASO) and water, by measuring a continuously flowing catalyst slip stream in an IR analyzer and using the results to vary temperature of stripping fluid in order to control ASO levels within a preferred range.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,162,644 to Choi et al. teaches controlling separation and isomerization of xylene isomer by analyzing various streams provided by the process using near IR (NIR). The analysis results are utilized for on-line monitoring, process control and process optimization for producing para-xylene.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,862,060 to Murray, Jr. discloses controlling chemical processes using compositional data, as the basis for control using NIR spectroscopy which allows for on-line measurements in real time. A calibration set of NIR spectra bounding the acceptable process space for a particular controlled property is assembled and a multivariant statistical method is applied to the calibration step to identify a small number (2–4) of the characteristics of the set governing the controlled property. Thus a complex process can be controlled in such a way as to provide a substantially invariant product composition.
Deru Qoin et al., "Quantitative Analysis of Process Streams by Online FTIR Spectrometry," Anal. Chem (1997), 69(10), 1942–1945, teaches an online method for real-time characterization of gas streams containing trimethylamine and methanol using Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectrometry with multivariate methods, e.g., partial least squares, to obtain quantitative information for process control.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,470,482 to Holt teaches controlling para-xylene purity or recovery in a moving bed para-xylene separation process. The process measures concentrations of para-xylene, meta-xylene, ortho-xylene, and ethylbenzene in various streams by NIR or mid-range FT-IR and operating variables adjusted in response.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,830 discloses control of catalyst composition in an HF alkylation unit by sampling and analyzing feedstreams using infrared spectroscopy to generate signals which are compared to reference signals in order to generate difference signals which control the flow of individual reactor feed components.
All of the foregoing references are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
Variations over time in oxygenate to olefins reactor effluent composition can cause difficulties in subsequent effluent processing required to obtain products which meet the requirements for desired end uses. Effluent stream fluctuations in composition can overload separations used to obtain polymer grade olefin streams, resulting in products which are outside the desired specification, e.g., containing unacceptably high levels of oxygenate, or highly unsaturated olefins such as diolefins and acetylenes. The present invention provides a simple and effective method for controlling oxygenates to olefins reactor systems so that a consistent reactor effluent stream can be obtained. While the extent of oxygenates conversion can be determined from many types of effluent stream analyses, it is difficult to obtain such an analysis fast enough for the results to be useful for oxygenates to olefins reactor control. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a process for controlling an oxygenates to olefin reactor which provides a substantially consistent effluent stream, by sampling the product stream to determine the extent of oxygenate conversion. In particular, it would be desirable to sample and analyze effluent samples within a time frame sufficient to provide effluent analysis results that can be used to control reactor conditions, in order to maintain a substantially consistent effluent.

Method and apparatus for controlling effluent composition in oxygenates to olefins conversion


The present invention relates to an apparatus, method, software algorithm and system for evaluating plants for conditions or characteristics. In one aspect, the method can include imaging at least a portion of the plant and evaluating the image for discriminating condition(s) or characteristic(s) of interest. In one example, soybean roots are imaged and the image is evaluated to discriminate between soybean cyst nematode (SCN) cysts and the plant roots to count the number of SCN cysts for the plant. In another embodiment, a plant is illuminated by a ultra-violet radiation selected to cause photo-induced fluorescence of a target, e.g. SCN cysts. The fluorescence emitted is collected and analyzed to discriminate between the target and the remainder of the plant.

A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to evaluation or analysis of plants for pests, infestations, abnormalities, and other conditions or characteristics. One specific example would be identification and/or quantification of soybean cyst nematode infestation.
B. Problems in the Art
Soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is one of the most significant problems for soybean producers. SCN infestations can cause 20 to 40% reduction in yield. This literally translates into billions of dollars a year in lost production.
The problem is difficult because it is many times simply too expensive to treat. For example, effective fumigation of large crop areas could cost more than the loss of value from reduced production caused by SCN. One attempt to avoid or diminish the potential or actual infestation is to rotate crops from year to year. However, crop rotation is not always successful and it is many times not desirable to the farmer.
Some soybean plants appear more resistant than other varieties to SCN. Therefore, substantial resources have been directed to breeding soybean varieties with SCN resistance to address the SCN problem.
In such plant breeding programs, breeders must carefully document heritage of soybean plants, grow them, and then evaluate their resistance to SCN. Plants exhibiting desirable SCN resistance are then bred with other varieties and their progeny are evaluated for SCN resistance. Currently, this is done by pulling selected plants from breeding plots or containers maintained in environmentally controlled chambers (for example after four weeks of growth), shaking off dirt, sand or other debris from the roots, placing them on an examination surface, and manually counting SCN cysts on the root system of that plant. This count is then converted to an SCN score or rating which is given to that bred variety of soybean, and which identifies its resistance to SCN to evaluate possible use of the plant for further breeding purposes or commercialization.
As can be appreciated, this manual SCN counting process is extremely slow, cumbersome and resource intensive. Substantial numbers of plants must be counted. The time and labor costs are substantial.
Accuracy is also an issue. Human error can be a problem. Inattention or fatigue over long periods of SCN counting are inevitable.
Further, accurate counting is difficult because of the small size of SCN. Cysts are the dead female bodies of the pest and are on the order of less than one millimeter in diameter. Moreover, particularly to the human eye, there is usually not a high distinction in color contrast between SCN and root material, nitrogen fixing nodules that form in soybean roots, or sand or other small particles. It simply may not be possible to expect highly accurate counts by the human eye.
Thus, there is a real need in the art for improvement with respect to identifying and/or quantifying SCN on soybeans, and in particular, a real need to make such identification and/or quantification more efficient and economical.
It would also be advantageous to efficiently and economically identify and/or quantify other pests, infestations, conditions, or characteristics with respect to soybean plants. Still further, it would be advantageous to efficiently and economically identify and/or quantify similar or analogous things or problems with other types of plants. Many other examples exist, including, but not limited to: Heterodera glycines (soybean cyst nematode) on common bean, vetch, lespedeza, lupine and a few other 'weedy' legumes; Heterodera trifolii on clover; Heterodera avenae on cereals (like oats); Heterodera schachtii on sugar beets, crucifers and spinach; and Globodera rostochiensis on tomato and eggplant. It would also be advantageous to identify and quantitate other pathogen infections, including but not limited to corn ear mold on corn, as a further example.
C. Objects, Features or Advantages of the Invention
It is therefore a principle object, feature, or advantage of the present invention to present an apparatus, method, and system that improves upon the state of the art.
Additional objects, features or advantages of the present invention relate to methods, apparatus, and systems useful in the identification and quantification of conditions or characteristics of plants which:    a. is relatively quick;    b. is economical;    c. provides at least approximately the same order of accuracy as the state of the art;    d. is less labor intensive;    e. promotes better identification and discrimination of desired targeted locations or characteristics of a plant; and/or    f. is amenable to automation, in whole or in part.
These and others objects, features, or advantages of the present invention will become more apparent with reference to the accompanying specification and claims.

Automated plant analysis method, apparatus, and system using imaging technologies


A lock for use in a display case with sliding doors can be assembled by inserting a lock core and securing it into a lock cylinder from the front of the display case. The lock cylinder has a front, a rear end, a central opening extending from the front to the rear. It is adapted to receive the lock core from the front and has a threaded hole near the front and transverse and open to the central opening. A screw is threaded into the threaded hole such that a portion of the screw extends into the central opening blocking removal of the core from the opening.

Locks for sliding display case doors have been available in a number of configurations, but they have often been too difficult to assemble--not permitting assembly from the front of a display case without compromising security or some aspect of functionality.
In U.S. Pat. No. 1,500,297, Best describes a cylinder lock of the type for use with a standard bolt mechanism. It includes a casing for holding a core frame. The casing includes a groove, which can receive a screw to prevent the casing from turning when the key is turned. It also includes a hole through the side for receiving a screw to hold the core frame in place in the casing. The lock casing is threaded in the rear for engagement with a latch casing. The core does not slide within the casing to permit use for locking cabinet doors.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,444,034, Best, et al., describe a lock of the type having a key-removable core, which slides within a core receptacle. Cores of this type are typically secured in a lock cylinder by a screw which is installed from the rear and operates as a stop to engage with a surface at the rear of the cylinder. This can be seen below in FIGS. 7a-7c, which reproduce the manufacturer's assembly drawings for a commercial lock of this type.
There remains a need for a lock that can be easily assembled from the outside of a display case, yet once assembled is capable of locking openable doors in a closed position.

Display case lock mechanism with front-assembled core


A pressure reduction start distance is obtained (S9) based upon a deceleration after an operation of an automatic brake. When an obstacle-to-vehicle distance between a vehicle and an obstacle ahead becomes a distance obtained by adding the pressure reduction start distance to a target stopping distance to the obstacle ahead, the reduction of the brake pressure is started (S11) to suppress a pitching vibration generated before and after the vehicle stops. When the obstacle-to-vehicle distance becomes a stopping brake start distance that is just before the target stopping distance, the brake pressure is increased (S13) so as to allow the vehicle to stop.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle driving support apparatus that prevents an occurrence of a pitching vibration before and after a vehicle stops due to an operation of an automatic braking.
2. Description of Related Art
A driving support apparatus represented by an ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control) system or a pre-crash control system conventionally often employs an onboard camera or a radar device as a unit for monitoring an environment in front of a subject vehicle. The ACC system controls a vehicle speed, following a preceding vehicle that is travelling in front of the subject vehicle. When it is determined that the subject vehicle approaches rapidly to the preceding vehicle, and a target inter-vehicle distance cannot be maintained with engine braking, the ACC system operates an automatic braking in order to bring the inter-vehicle distance back to the target inter-vehicle distance. On the other hand, the pre-crash braking system determines a possible collision with an obstacle in front of the vehicle, (hereinafter referred to as an "obstacle ahead"), including the preceding vehicle, and when it determines that the collision is unavoidable, it operates the automatic braking so as to avoid a collision.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2008-120141 describes a technique involved with an operation of an automatic braking system as described below. Specifically, when it is determined that the preceding vehicle is substantially stopped, a deceleration for allowing the subject vehicle to stop at a set position is obtained according to the distance between the subject vehicle and the preceding vehicle, and the automatic braking is operated with a braking pressure according to the deceleration.
In the technique described in JP-A No. 2008-120141, the braking pressure is set based upon the distance between the subject vehicle and the preceding vehicle. Therefore, the braking pressure is not reduced before the subject vehicle stops, whereby the front part of the subject vehicle greatly sinks down, which is called a nose dive, immediately before the subject vehicle stops. Upon the stop, a swinging-back occurs as a reaction of the nose dive. The nose dive and a pitching vibration caused by the swing-back thereof give an uncomfortable feeling to a passenger.
A possible solution for preventing the pitching vibration is to temporarily reduce the braking pressure immediately before the vehicle stops. However, in order to efficiently suppress the pitching vibration, the timing of reducing the braking pressure has to be set based upon a road condition (snowy road, icy road, dry road) and the weight of the subject vehicle.
In this case, an additional sensor is required for detecting the road condition or the weight of the vehicle, which not only makes a control complicated, but also increases the number of components, leading to a cost increase.


A backplane connector includes a number of conductive terminals, an insulating frame, a first metal shield and a second metal shield. Each conductive terminal includes a connection portion and a contact portion. The conductive terminals include differential signal terminals, a first ground terminal and a second ground terminal. The first metal shield has a first elastic arm and a second elastic arm. The second metal shield has a third elastic arm and a fourth elastic arm. The first elastic arm and the third elastic arm are in contact with two opposite side surfaces of the contact portion of the first ground terminal. The second elastic arm and the fourth elastic arm are in contact with two opposite side surfaces of the contact portion of the second ground terminal. This arrangement increases the grounding shielding area, reduces crosstalk, and improves the quality of signal transmission.

Existing backplane connectors usually include an insulating housing and a plurality of wafers assembled to the insulating housing. Each wafer includes an insulating frame, a plurality of conductive terminals insert-molded with the insulating frame, and a metal shield mounted to at least one side of the insulating frame. The conductive terminals usually include multiple pairs of differential signal terminals, a first ground terminal located on one side of each pair of differential signal terminals, and a second ground terminal located on the other side of each pair of differential signal terminals. The first ground terminal, the second ground terminal and the metal shield provide shielding for the differential signal terminals in order to reduce signal crosstalk and improve the quality of signal transmission.
However, with the continuous improvement of the signal transmission requirements of high-speed connectors, there is still room for improvement in the shielding of the differential signal terminals of the existing backplane connectors.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Backplane connector with improved shielding effect


A programmable logic device (PLD) having a programmable routing structure that employs non-static memory cells, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) cells, to control configurable circuit elements, such as pass-transistors and/or MUXes. In a representative embodiment, each DRAM cell is connected to its corresponding configurable circuit element using a buffer adapted to stabilize the output voltage generated by the cell and offset the effect of charge leakage from the cell capacitor. In addition, refresh circuitry associated with the DRAM cell periodically restores the charge in the cell capacitor using a refresh operation that is performed in the background, without disturbing the user functions of the PLD. Advantageously, a relatively large capacitance associated with a DRAM cell makes a PLD of the invention less susceptible to soft errors than a prior-art PLD that relies on SRAM cells for configuration control of its routing structure.

An FPGA is a programmable logic device having an array of configurable logic blocks (CLBs) connected together via a programmable routing structure. A typical FPGA may have tens of thousands of CLBs, each CLB having a plurality of primitive logic cells such as AND gates, lookup tables, registers, etc. The CLBs may be interconnected in a variety of ways to implement a desired logic function.
FIG. 1 schematically shows a portion of an FPGA 100 having a plurality of CLBs 102 interconnected through a routing structure 104. Routing structure 104 is programmed to provide desired connections between CLBs 102 using configurable circuit elements, e.g., pass-transistors and/or multiplexers (MUXes), that are variously coupled between different transmission lines of the routing structure. Each configurable circuit element of routing structure 104 is controlled by a corresponding static random-access memory (SRAM) block (having one or more memory cells) such that desired connections in FPGA 100 are achieved by writing appropriate data into the SRAM blocks.
For example, FIG. 1 illustratively shows a programmable connection between an AND gate in CLB 102a and an AND gate in CLB 102z implemented using two pass-transistors 112a and 112b and a MUX 114. The gate nodes of pass-transistors 112a and 112b are controlled by an SRAM cell in an SRAM block 122a and an SRAM cell in an SRAM block 122b, respectively, and the one or more select lines of MUX 114 are controlled by one or more SRAM cells in an SRAM block 124. When the corresponding cell in SRAM block 122 has a binary "one", the associated pass-transistor 112 is turned into an "on" state, thereby electrically connecting the transmission lines of routing structure 104 coupled to the source and drain of that pass-transistor. Alternatively, when that SRAM cell has a binary "zero", pass-transistor 112 is turned into an "off" state, thereby electrically isolating those lines. Similarly, when the one or more cells in SRAM block 124 have a specific appropriate binary value, MUX 114 selects its input line connected to pass-transistor 112b, thereby electrically connecting that pass-transistor to the AND gate in CLB 102z. Alternatively, when SRAM block 124 has a different binary value, MUX 114 selects a different input line, thereby electrically isolating that pass-transistor from the AND gate.
Each memory cell in SRAM blocks 122 and 124 typically has four or six transistors arranged to form a bistable circuit, wherein one circuit state corresponds to the binary "one" and the other circuit state corresponds to the binary "zero". For reliable operation of FPGA 100, the data stored in SRAM blocks 122 and 124 need to remain unchanged after the FPGA has been programmed because, as shown above, changes in the stored data may alter connections between the CLBs. These changes, in turn, might cause functional/processing errors in FPGA 100.
It is known that alpha particles present in ambient cosmic rays can cause a memory cell of an SRAM block to change its state upon a particle strike. This effect is known as a "soft error." The problem of soft errors becomes more pronounced as the transistor size, with which FPGA circuit elements are implemented, decreases. For example, one of the contributing factors is that a relatively small capacitive charge of a relatively small transistor makes the transistor more susceptible to a state change due to the effect of the electrical charge generated in the alpha-particle wake. A representative prior-art solution to soft errors is to carry out frequent memory reads to detect and correct state changes. However, disadvantageously, frequent reading of SRAM blocks reduces the voltage level of internal nodes and slows down the general speed of the FPGA operation.

Programmable logic device having a configurable DRAM with transparent refresh


Vaso-impacting implants and novel methods of making coils, stent-trievers, flow diverters and the like enable aneurysm treatment, including in the brain. Refined and variegated framing and complex coils provide for rapid electrolytic detachment, including less than 20 second embodiments. Novel enhanced mandrels, fittings and winding schemes are likewise disclosed improving the standard of care and state of the art.

Hemorrhagic stroke may occur as a result of a subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), which occurs when a blood vessel on the brain's surface ruptures, leaking blood into the space between the brain and the skull. In contrast, a cerebral hemorrhage occurs when a defective artery in the brain bursts and floods the surrounding tissue with blood. Arterial brain hemorrhage is often caused by a head injury or a burst aneurysm, which may result from high blood pressure. An artery rupturing in one part of the brain can release blood that comes in contact with arteries in other portions of the brain. Even though it is likely that a rupture in one artery could starve the brain tissue fed by that artery, it is also likely that surrounding (otherwise healthy) arteries could become constricted, depriving their cerebral structures of oxygen and nutrients. Thus, a stroke that immediately affects a relatively unimportant portion of the brain may spread to a much larger area and affect more important structures.
Currently there are two major treatment options for cerebral aneurysm therapy, in either ruptured or unruptured aneurysms. One option is surgical clipping. The goal of surgical clipping is to isolate an aneurysm from the normal circulation without blocking off any small perforating arteries nearby. Under general anesthesia, an opening is made in the skull, called a craniotomy. The brain is gently retracted to locate the aneurysm. A small clip is placed across the base, or neck, of the aneurysm to block the normal blood flow from entering. The clip works like a tiny coil-spring clothespin, in which the blades of the clip remain tightly closed until pressure is applied to open the blades. Clips are made of titanium or other metallic materials and remain on the artery permanently. The second option is neurovascular embolization, which is to isolate ruptured or rupture-prone neurovascular abnormalities including aneurysms and AVMs (arterio-venous malformations) from the cerebral circulation in order to prevent a primary or secondary hemorrhage into the intracranial space.
Cerebrovascular embolization may be accomplished through the transcatheter deployment of one or several embolizing agents in an amount sufficient to halt internal blood flow and lead to death of the lesion. Several types of embolic agents have been approved for neurovascular indications including glues, liquid embolics, occlusion balloons, platinum and stainless steel microcoils (with and without attached fibers), and polyvinyl alcohol particles. Microcoils are the most commonly employed device for embolization of neurovascular lesions, with microcoiling techniques employed in the majority of endovascular repair procedures involving cerebral aneurysms and for many cases involving permanent AVM occlusions. Neurovascular stents may be employed for the containment of embolic coils. Other devices such as flow diversion implants or flow disruptor implants are used in certain types of aneurysms.
Many cerebral aneurysms tend to form at the bifurcation of major vessels that make up the circle of Willis and lie within the subarachnoid space. Each year, approximately 40,000 people in the U.S. suffer a hemorrhagic stroke caused by a ruptured cerebral aneurysm, of which an estimated 50% die within 1 month and the remainder usually experience severe residual neurologic deficits. Most cerebral aneurysms are asymptomatic and remain undetected until an SAH occurs. An SAH is a catastrophic event due to the fact that there is little or no warning and many patients die before they are able to receive treatment. The most common symptom prior to a vessel rupture is an abrupt and sudden severe headache.
Other vascular abnormalities may benefit from treatment with delivery of vascular implants. Aortic aneurysms are commonly treated with stent grafts. A variety of stents are used for the treatment of atherosclerotic, and other diseases of the vessels of the body. Detachable balloons have been used for both aneurysm occlusion and vessel occlusion.


An injection molded resin gear 1, which is molded by injecting a resin material from a plurality of pinpoint gates 13 into a cavity 2 of a die, includes a rim 7 having teeth 8 on its outer periphery, a shaft supporting portion 5 into which a shaft 3 is to be fitted, a web 6 extending in radial directions to connect the rim 7 to the shaft supporting portion 5, and a plurality of resin flow velocity regulating grooves 11. When the resin material injected from the pin point gates 13 flows in the cavity 2 outwardly in radial directions, the uniformity of the flow velocity of the resin material passing over portions of the cavity 2 corresponding to the resin flow velocity regulating grooves 11 is improved, and the uniformity of the flow velocity of the resin material passing over a portion of the cavity 2 corresponding to an outside circumferential groove 12 is more sufficiently improved, so that the uniformity of the flow velocity of the resin material in a portion of the cavity 2 corresponding to the web 6 is improved before the resin material reaches a portion of the cavity 2 corresponding to the rim 7.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an injection molded resin gear and an injection molded resin rotating body. More specifically, the invention relates to an injection molded resin gear for use in power transmission devices for various automotive parts, industrial equipments and precision instruments, and an injection molded resin rotating body, such as an injection molded resin gear, sprocket, pulley or roller.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, automotive parts operating by driving force from a driving source, such as a motor, has many resin gears, which are formed by injection molding, in order to reduce the weight and operation noises thereof.
FIG. 17 is a longitudinal section of such an injection molded resin gear 50, and FIG. 18 is a left side view of the injection molded resin gear 50 of FIG. 17, which is viewed from the left side of FIG. 17. The injection molded resin gear 50 shown in FIGS. 17 and 18 is mold by injecting a molten resin material into a cavity, which has the same shape as that of the gear 50, from one or a plurality of (three in FIG. 18) pin point gates 51.
However, if the resin material is injected into the cavity from the three pin point gates 51 as shown in FIG. 18, parts of the resin material injected from the respective pin point gates 51 meet each other in a substantially middle portion between adjacent two of the pinpoint gates 51 as shown by arrows, to produce weld lines 53 on a web 52. If the weld lines 53 are produced on the injection molded article (the injection molded resin gear 50), there are some cases where the weld lines 53 do not only have a bad influence on the precision of tooth profile, but they also have a bad influence the strength of the gear. In particular, if the resin material to be injected is a reinforced plastic containing glass or carbon fibers, it is known that the strength of the gear is deteriorated by 40 to 60%.
Therefore, as shown in FIG. 19, there has been developed an injection molding technique for using a ring-shaped gate 54 to inject a resin material from the ring-shaped gate 54 to allow the resin material to flow in a cavity in radial directions from an inner peripheral end toward an outer periphery to prevent the occurrence of weld lines 53 shown in FIG. 18. This injection molding technique is often used for molding a gear of a fiber reinforced plastic.
However, if the ring-shaped gate 54 is used for injection molding, the amount of the resin material remaining in the ring-shaped gate 54 after injection molding is larger than that if the pin point gates 51 are used for injection molding, and the amount of wasteful resin material (resin material which is not used as a product and which is cut off from the product) is larger than that if the pin point gates 51 are used for injection molding, so that the yield of the resin material is deteriorated. As a result, the price of the product (the injection molded resin gear 50) formed by injection molding using the ring-shaped gate 54 is higher than the price of the product (the injection molded resin gear 50) formed by injection molding using the pinpoint gates 51. In particular, if an expensive resin material containing reinforced fibers is used as the resin material for injection molding, the difference in price between the products formed by injection molding using the ring-shaped gate 54 and pin point gates 51 is remarkably great.
In addition, in the case of the product (the injection molded resin gear 50) formed by using injection molding the ring-shaped gate 54, after the ring-shaped gate 54 is cut off, it is require to machine and scrape the cut scar of the ring-shaped gate 54 off, so that there is a problem in that the working cost is higher than that in the case of the product (the injection molded resin gear 50) formed by injection molding using the pin point gates 51. Furthermore, in the case of the injection molded resin gear 50 formed by injection molding using the pin point gates 51, the opening area of the pin point gates 51 is small, and the pin point gates 51 are easily removed from the product (the injection molded resin gear 50) when the die is released after injection molding. Therefore, there are advantages in that the cut scars of the pin point gates 51 are inconspicuous, so that it is not required to carry out subsequent working.
In order to eliminate such problems, as shown in FIG. 20, there has been developed a technique wherein a gear 61 molded by injecting a resin material containing reinforced fibers from a plurality of pin point gates 60 is formed with a plurality of web portions 62 and radial ribs 63, and the plurality of pin point gates 60 are arranged in every other positions between adjacent two of the radial ribs 63 for dividing and controlling the flow of a molten resin material, which is injected into a cavity from the pin point gates 60, to equalize the orientation of the resin material to improve the precision of shape and dimension (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-44701).
Also, as shown in FIGS. 21 and 22, there has been developed a technique wherein a polymeric material flow regulating mechanism 72 for reducing the differences in filling time and pressure during an injection molding process is formed inside of a tooth portion 71 in the vicinity of teeth on both sides of a gear 70 (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-132542). According to this technique, a resin material injected from pin point gates 73 reaches the polymeric material flow regulating mechanism 72 to raise its internal pressure to flow into an unfilled portion, in which pressure is low, to be filled in the polymeric material flow regulating mechanism 72 over the whole circumference thereof, and the resin material flows toward the periphery of teeth when the internal pressure is uniform. Furthermore, the polymeric material flow regulating mechanism 72 is a groove formed in the vicinity of the tooth portion 71 inside thereof, and the groove depth thereof continuously or intermittently varies.
However, the techniques disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2-44701 and 8-132542 can not sufficiently reduce the weld lines 53 which are shown in FIG. 18 and which are produced in the joining portions of parts of the resin material, which are injected from adjacent two of the pin point gates 51, on the web 52 for connecting a rim 55, on which teeth 55 are formed, to a shaft supporting portion 57 into which a shaft is fitted, so that it is not possible to satisfy the strength of the web 52 and the precision of tooth profile to such an extent that they are required on the market in recent years.

Injection molded resin gear and injection molded resin rotating body


A method, apparatus, computer program or system includes obtaining fingerprints including a piece of position information and gathered in a venue; determining a first metric based on the fingerprints indicative of a quality value of the obtained fingerprints that indicates for each piece of position information of the fingerprints whether or not the quality and/or a quantity of the obtained fingerprints with respect to the piece of position information is sufficient; determining a second metric based on the obtained fingerprints indicative of a quality value of an infrastructure of the venue, the fingerprints are gathered from one or more radio nodes of the infrastructure, and the second metric indicates for each of the pieces of position information of each of the respective fingerprints whether or not the quality of the infrastructure is sufficient; determining a third metric indicative of an evaluation of the quality of the infrastructure of the venue based on the second metric; and outputting the first metric, the second metric and/or the third metric.

Indoor positioning requires novel systems and solutions that are specifically developed and deployed for this purpose. The "traditional" positioning technologies, which are mainly used outdoors, for instance satellite and cellular positioning technologies, cannot deliver such performance indoors that would enable seamless and equal navigation experience in both environments.
The required positioning accuracy (within 2 to 3 meters), coverage (˜100%) and floor detection are challenging to achieve with satisfactory performance levels with the systems and signals that were not designed and specified for the indoor use cases in the first place. Satellite-based radio navigation signals simply do not penetrate through the walls and roofs for the adequate signal reception and the cellular signals have too narrow bandwidth for accurate ranging by default.
Several indoor-dedicated solutions have already been developed and commercially deployed during the past years, for instance solutions based on pseudolites (GPS-like short-range beacons), ultra-sound positioning, BTLE signals (e.g. High-Accuracy Indoor Positioning, HAIP) and Wi-Fi fingerprinting. What is typical to these solutions is that they require either deployment of totally new infrastructure (beacons, tags to name but a few non-limiting examples) or manual exhaustive radio surveying of the buildings including all the floors, spaces and rooms. This is rather expensive and will take a considerable amount of time to build the coverage to the commercially expected level, which in some cases narrowed the potential market segment only to very thin customer base, for instance for health care or dedicated enterprise solutions. Also, the diversity of these technologies makes it difficult to build a globally scalable indoor positioning solution, and the integration and testing will become complex if a large number of technologies needs to be supported in the consumer devices, such as smartphones.
For an indoor positioning solution to be commercially successful, that is, i) being globally scalable, ii) having low maintenance and deployment costs, and iii) offering acceptable end-user experience, the solution needs to be based on an existing infrastructure in the buildings and on existing capabilities in the consumer devices. This leads to an evident conclusion that the indoor positioning needs to be based on Wi-Fi- and/or Bluetooth (BT)-technologies that are already supported in every smartphone, tablet, laptop and even in the majority of feature phones. It is, thus, required to find a solution that uses the Wi-Fi- and BT-radio signals in such a way that makes it possible to achieve 2 to 3 meter horizontal positioning accuracy, close to 100% floor detection with the ability to quickly build the global coverage for this approach.
Further, a novel approach for radio-based indoor positioning that models for instance the Wi-Fi-radio environment (or any similar radio e.g. Bluetooth) from observed Received Signal Strength (RSS)-measurements as two-dimensional radiomaps and is hereby able to capture the dynamics of the indoor radio propagation environment in a compressable and highly accurate way. This makes it possible to achieve unprecedented horizontal positioning accuracy with the Wi-Fi signals only within the coverage of the created radiomaps and also gives highly reliable floor detection.
To setup indoor positing in a building, the radio environment in the building needs to be surveyed. This phase is called "radiomapping". In the radiomapping phase samples containing geolocation (like latitude, longitude, altitude; or x, y, floor) and radio measurements (Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth radio node identities and signal strengths). Having these samples allows understanding how the radio signals behave in the building. This understanding is called a "radiomap". The radiomap enables localization capability to devices when they observe varying radio signals, the signals can be compared to the radiomap resulting in the location information.
The radio samples for the radiomap may be collected with separate tools or crowd-sourced from the user devices. While automated crowd-sourcing can enable indoor localization in large amount of buildings, manual data collection using special tools may be the best option, when the highest accuracy is desired.

Metric for evaluating indoor positioning systems


An improved machine for cutting material into at least narrow strips includes parallel, rotating cutting shafts having a plurality of cutting wheels thereon. The cutting wheels are separated by spacer-comber elements which provide a comber surface in alignment with a cutting wheel on the other shaft. A cutting wheel comber is mounted between adjacent spacer-comber elements and includes a concave surface to partially encircle the cutting wheel therebetween. The cutting wheel comber has a discharge end toward the discharge side of the machine with a rounded portion. The regions along the concave surface is separated by different distances from the cutting wheel to prevent the retention and collections of the narrow strips of material at the backsides of the cutting wheels.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a machine which is capable of cutting any one of numerous sizes of disposable containers such as plastic bottles and/or metal cans into small pieces and to such a machine which is configured to insure that the small pieces are directed below the cutting area of the machine for collection and disposition. A similar configuration is employed on an improved machine which is capable of cutting paper material into strips of paper to insure that the strips do not collect in a region behind the cutting wheels.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,923,126, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety herein, discloses a machine which is capable of cutting into small pieces the thin wall material of a plurality of disposable containers such as plastic bottles and metal cans. The cutting section of the machine includes a pair of parallel shafts mounted for rotation in opposite directions about the center axes thereof. Each of the shafts rigidly supports a plurality of overlapping cutting wheels for rotation therewith. Each cutting wheel has a plurality of identical cutting teeth with each tooth having an apex at the maximum diameter and a root at a root diameter of the cutting wheel. Each cutting tooth has a leading surface and a trailing surface which meet at the apex to form a straight edge at the maximum diameter which is parallel to the center axis of the shaft. The leading surface and the trailing surface respectively lie in planes which are parallel with the center axis of the shaft and extend toward the same side thereof to cause the straight edge of the apex to circumfrentially lead a remainder of the leading surface during rotation of the cutting wheel.
The basic cutting wheel configuration has been found to effectively and reliably produce the small pieces of the containers as disclosed therein. Generally, the embodiment in U.S. Pat. No. 4,923,126 is configured to cause most of the small pieces to be ejected downwardly from the cutting area between the cutting wheels. A dispersing section below the cutting area is intended to disperse the small pieces throughout a collecting section therebelow. The small pieces are received within a container in the collecting section and eventually removed for further disposition. However, it has been found that suctioning or vacuuming means disposed in the lower area of the machine is preferred in order to transport the small pieces to a larger container remote from the machine itself. In either case, it is clearly desirable that all of the small pieces produced in the cutting section be discharged from the cutting area and to be prevented from collecting around the cutting wheels or the cutting shafts.
As further discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,923,126, such machines are typically utilized for the cutting of disposable containers employed in the soft drink industry. As a result, there have been continuing problems with the cutting of such disposable containers which have not typically existed in the operation of other types of cutting machines found in the prior art. The soft drink liquid remaining in the disposable containers has been found, in a short time of operation, to completely engulf the interior of the container cutting machine. The liquid is extremely corrosive and the sugary substance can cause even greater problems when heated. The friction created by the rotating cutting wheels can produce a build up of solid, corrosive by-products that can seriously reduce the effectiveness and even the life of the machine. Additionally, because the soft drink liquid is deposited on many of the small pieces produced by the cutting machine, the small pieces also become sticky and tend to collect in the area of the cutting wheels to present significant problems with continued and effective operation of the machine. As a result, it is desirable for the cutting section to be configured to prevent the collection of such corrosive and destructive pieces therein.
In order to determine an effective way for preventing the collection of such small pieces in the cutting section of the machine, it is appropriate to analyze the types of combing means which have been employed in other cutting or shredding machines which were not specifically adapted for the cutting and shredding of containers found in the soft drink industry.
One group of such devices disclosed in prior art patents includes some form of combing means located at the backside of the spacer element between the cutting wheels. These spacer combers prevent the collection of pieces or strips of material between the cutting wheels at the backside thereof. Various cutting machines including such combing configurations are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,931,935; British Patent Nos. 1,558,423 and 2,059,904; German Patentschrift No. 249,359; German Auslegeshrift No. 1,291,606; and German Offenlegungsschrift Nos. 2,526,650; 2,723,281; 3,231,341; and 3,313,231.
All of the devices disclosed in these patents are characterized by the inclusion of some type of separate or integrally formed annular spacer ring between adjacent cutting wheels or discs on one shaft. The annular spacer ring tends to serve as a rotating comber for the aligned cutting wheel or disc on the other shaft. As a result, the pieces or strips of material are maintained in close proximity with the cutting wheel or disc by which they are formed. The spacer ring rotates in the direction of movement through the cutting area to facilitate the formation of the pieces or strips and their passage through the cutting area of the machine.
The devices disclosed therein are also characterized by the inclusion of a fixed "combing" means or "scraping" device which tends to prevent the collection of any material around the rotating spacer ring. The location of the fixed combing means at the lower or rear region of each spacer ring would prevent the collection of the strip or piece material at the backside of the spacer ring remote from the cutting area. However, as will be seen, the general shape and form of such combing means may not be satisfactory for the "combing" or "scraping" of the small pieces formed from soft drink containers because of the soft drink liquid tending to form and collect thereon.
Another group of cutting or shredding machines also includes additional means for preventing the collection of small pieces of material at the remote side of the cutting wheels themselves rather than simply at the remote or backside of the spacer ring. Such cutting or shredding machines are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,068,805 and 4,702,422; French Patent No. 45,173; and Japanese Patent Nos. 55-136597 and 63-232860. All of these machines apparently incorporate a solid comber block or backing member which occupies the space within the housing at the backside of both the rotating cutting wheels and the spacer rings therebetween. U.S. Pat. No. 4,693,428 discloses a particle-type shredding mechanism with a stacked array of spacer and cutting wheel combers. Such configurations will again tend to prevent most of the pieces or strips from being carried about the interior of the machine with the rotating cutting discs and spacers. To a greater or lesser degree, each of these prior art comber configurations will tend to prevent the collection of such pieces or strips in the region remote from the cutting area. However, as will be seen later, the particular configurations of the prior art combing devices aligned with the cutting discs and with the spacer rings do not entirely prevent the undesired collection of the type of small pieces produced by the cutting of plastic bottles and/or metal cans found in the soft drink industry.
While the preferred configuration was particularly adapted for preventing the undesired collection of small pieces produced by the cutting of plastic bottles and/or metal cans found in the soft drink industry, it has also been determined that a similar configuration of cutting wheel combers could be employed in a conventional paper shredding machine to provide an improved machine for cutting such paper material. Although the paper shredding machine includes a different comber-spacer configuration between the cutting wheels, the preferred cutting wheel comber which partially encircles the remote side of the cutting wheels employed in such paper shredders would also advantageously prevent the collection of paper at the remote side of the cutting wheels.
All of the U.S. and foreign patents discussed hereinabove are incorporated by reference as if included in their entirety herein.


A volatile substance dispenser including an inner open-top container for receiving and holding a heat source, such as a candle, and an outer open-top container for receiving and holding a gel containing a vaporizable or diffusable substance that passes from the gel into the surrounding atmosphere after exposure to the thermal energy from the lighted heat source, e.g. candle. The inner container can be glass, ceramic, earthenware or metal, preferably glass with a roughened outer surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a dispensing device which provides a controlled release of a perfumed volatilizable substance, such as perfumed oil, insecticide, insect repellents, fumigant, sanitizer or the like, in a binder with assistance from a lighted heat source, such as a lighted candle.
2. Background of Invention
At the present time, candles generally serve as an auxiliary light source during power failures or as some type of novelty device. In either of these cases, only the light from the candle is utilized, not the heat generated by the candle. Thus, there is an unfulfilled market for dispensers which utilize the heat from a candle to serve as further functions other than that of providing light.
The use of devices for dispensing volatile substances is known. The prior art discloses, for example, a combination night light and liquid fragrance vaporizer wherein an electric lamp provides a heat source for vaporizing the active component. Further, it is also known that a plug-in device causing a heating element to assist the dissipation of a volatile substance. However, these devices have limitations such as being complicated and dependent on an electrical outlet for the sources of activation and hence are restricted to a limited area of use. The present invention relates to a volatile substance dispenser wherein a burnable substance such as a candle provides a heat source for vaporizing the volatilizable substance.
Scented candles are popular and their use is increasing. However, their construction imposes considerable limitations and disadvantages on the perfume component. For example, the perfume has to be constructed in such a way that is soluble in the candle material. It is well known that fragrance materials have a limited solubility in wax and hence often the fragrance level in a candle is restricted to a 5-10% range. Furthermore, the wax and perfume must be mixed at elevated temperatures and kept at those temperatures for a considerable length of time during the manufacturing causing thermal degradation and loss of perfume. Even more critical is the unwanted loss of perfume during the burning of the candle whereby a large portion of perfumes is pyrolyzed. The present invention overcomes all these disadvantages by separating the perfume component from the candle yet still exploiting the positive heat energy of the candle to vaporize the perfume.
An object of the invention is to provide a portable volatile substance dispenser that can be utilized at any desired location within a building or elsewhere.
Another object of the invention is to provide an inexpensive and refillable volatile substance dispenser.
A further object of the invention is to provide a volatile substance dispenser utilizing a burnable substance such as a candle as a heat source to vaporize a volatilizable substance.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a burning candle heated volatile substance dispenser wherein the user can control the burn time and the amount of the volatile substance as required.
Other objects, aspects as well as the several advantages will be apparent to those skilled in art upon reading the specification and the appended claims.


A pump impeller for a centrifugal pump. The impeller is defined by a shroud rotatable about an axis of rotation. At least two pump vanes extend axially from the shroud, each of the vanes configured as a blunted tear drop shape and having an inside wall and an outside wall, the leading edges of which are interconnected by a blunt wall. The trailing edges of the inside and outside walls merge together. A substantially constant width flow channel is defined between the blunted wall of one vane and a confronting surface defined by an inside wall of the other vane. The vanes are tapered in the axial directions by inclining the inside wall of each vane radially outwardly.

Centrifugal pumps often use multiple vane impellers to pump fluid such as water from an inlet to an outlet. Pump impellers are currently available which have two or more vanes. In order to pass solids through the pump, it is often desirable to utilize a two or three vane impeller. It has been found that existing two and three vane impellers may operate at reduced efficiencies and/or can be unacceptably noisy especially when run at higher speeds in order to generate higher head pressures.
In the most recognized standard two vane impeller design for solids handling the two vanes are normally relatively perpendicular to the shroud. Each vane usually has a constant width of, for example 0.38 inch. In order to pass the required solids the distance between an inlet leading edge of one vane and a trailing edge at the O.D. of the other vane (the space between the two vanes) may be too far apart for "normal/good" hydraulic design. Due to this spacing, the flow transition from an inside surface of the vane to an outside or working side of the vane in the suction region is unstable, especially at flows to the right or left of the "best efficiency point" (BEP). As the flow enters the working side of the vane it dumps into a "void" (open area) that causes the flow to recirculate back to the underside side of the vane. It is believed that these factors reduce the hydraulic efficiency and cause cavitation/noise.


When the output from an internal combustion engine is reduced using a combination of a throttle valve control device, a fuel cut control device and an ignition retard control device, the starting point of operation of the ignition retard control device in a control region of condition for an excessive slipping of the driving wheel is provided between the starting region of operation of the throttle valve control device and the starting region of operation of the fuel cut control device. This permits the fuel cut control device to have a high responsiveness to a sudden variation in excessive slipping and no exhaust heat to be discharged, and also permits the throttle valve control device to become lower in responsiveness after the excessive slipping has been substantially converged but to have a small variation in fuel-air ratio. The ignition retard control device starts operation only when the excessive slipping cannot be suppressed by the throttle valve control device. Therefore, the use of the ignition retard control device which relatively easily permits an increase in the temperature of an exhaust gas can be restrained to the minimum.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of the present invention is driving-wheel slip control systems of the type having a throttle valve control means, a fuel cut control means and an ignition retard control means each for controlling the output of an internal combustion engine, wherein when an excessive slipping of a driving wheel driven by the internal combustion engine has been detected, the output from the internal combustion engine is reduced by use of at least one of the throttle valve control means, the fuel cut control means and the ignition retard control means.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a conventionally known system for reducing the output from the internal combustion engine to prevent an excessive slipping of the driving wheel, which uses a combination of a fuel supply amount control means and an ignition retard control means (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 263243/88).
A catalyst mounted in an exhaust pipe for the purpose of cleaning an exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine is heated by a redox reaction with the exhaust gas. In the prior art driving-wheel slip control system, the increase in temperature of the catalyst is considerable when the supplying and cutting operations of fuel are repeated. In addition, when an ignition retard control is conducted, the exhaust gas itself is heated to a high temperature and hence, the heating of the catalyst is promoted. Especially, when a vehicle is in an accelerated slipping state, the flow rate of the exhaust gas increases and for this reason, the catalyst is further heated to a higher temperature, resulting in a precipitated deterioration of the performance of the catalyst.


An apparatus and method is disclosed for determining polysilicon conductor width for 3-dimensional field effect transistors (FinFETs). Two or more resistors are constructed using a topology in which polysilicon conductors are formed over a plurality of silicon “fins”. A first resistor has a first line width. A second resistor has a second line width. The second line width is slightly different than the first line width. Advantageously, the first line width is equal to the nominal design width used to make FET gates in the particular semiconductor technology. Resistance measurements of the resistors and subsequent calculations using the resistance measurements are used to determine the actual polysilicon conductor width produced by the semiconductor process. A composite test structure not only allows calculation of the polysilicon conductor width, but provides proof that differences in the widths used in the calculations do not introduce objectionable etching characteristics of the polysilicon conductors.

1. Field of the Invention
The current invention generally relates to semiconductor products. More specifically, the present invention relates to making electrical resistance measurements that allow accurate measurement of the width of polysilicon conductors used in making FET (field effect transistor) gates in a FinFET semiconductor process.
2. Description of the Related Art
Field Effect Transistors (FETs) have been the dominant semiconductor technology used to make Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) chips, microprocessor chips, Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) chips, and the like for many years. In particular, Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology has dominated the semiconductor process industry for a number of years.
Technology advances have scaled FETs on semiconductor chips to increasingly small dimensions, allowing power per logic gate to be dramatically reduced, and further allowing a very large number of FETs to be fabricated on a single semiconductor chip. Scaling of FETs is currently running into limits. Gate oxides have become thin enough that leakage occurs through the gate oxides. Further scaling of gate oxide thickness will bring an exponential increase in leakage. Power dissipated by leakage currents has become a significant portion of total chip power, and an exponential increase in leakage results in unacceptable power dissipation for many types of chips.
Silicon on Insulator (SOI) processes have reduced FET source and drain capacitances, resulting in an improved power/performance ratio for CMOS chips fabricated in an SOI process. However, conventional SOI processes are reaching fundamental limits, resulting in undesirable effects such as the leakage effects mentioned above. Therefore, innovative new ways to make CMOS devices are being created. Associated apparatus and methods are also needed to test the innovative devices at various steps in the process of making them.
A conventional SOI FET is shown in FIG. 1A. A P− substrate 3 is provided. A buried oxide (BOX) 2 is created in the P− substrate using means such as oxygen implanting. Circuit elements are formed in a silicon layer above buried oxide 2, for example forming source 5, drain 6, and body 7. Source 5 and drain 6 are doped N+ for N channel Field Effect Transistors (NFETs) and P+ for P channel Field Effect Transistors (PFETs). Body 7 is typically P− doped for NFETs and N− doped for PFETs. Oxide 4 is a thin dielectric layer of oxide (or other suitable material). Gate 8 is typically formed of polysilicon. A wide variety of process techniques are used to improve such conventional FETs. For example, often the polysilicon gate 8, source 5, and drain 6 have silicide formed on them to enhance conductivity. Fundamentally, however, the polysilicon gate is planar and maintains a substantially uniform thickness and width throughout a length of the polysilicon shape of the gate. This uniform thickness and width of the polysilicon shape allows easy determination of the actual width of the gate on a semiconductor chip. Since the polysilicon width serves as a mask when implanting source/drain regions such as source 5 and drain 6, the polysilicon width determines the effective length of the FET produced by the polysilicon width. Process engineers find it useful to place a test structure on a semiconductor chip that allows easy determination of the particular polysilicon width (effective length of the FET) that can be used at various stages in the processing of the semiconductor chip.
FIG. 1B shows a prior art figure of a structure often placed on a semiconductor chip that allows easy determination of the width of a particular polysilicon conductor in a particular chip as fabricated. Note that polysilicon conductor width, like any process parameter, varies from one batch of semiconductor chips being made to another. Polysilicon conductor 12 is used to make a first resistor RA having a first contact 11A and a second contact 11B. Polysilicon conductor 12 is further used to make a second resistor RB, having a first contact 11B and a second contact 11C. Contact 11B is conveniently used for both the second contact of Resistor RA and the first contact of resistor RB in the example structure. Resistor RB comprises one or more fingers 13, each designed to be Leff units wide (arbitrary units). Leff is used to denote a desired channel length for FETs on the semiconductor chip. Other choices than the desired channel lengths for FETs on the semiconductor chip are possible, but typically the channel length is used. Polysilicon conductor width is the primary determinant of FET channel lengths on a semiconductor chip.
Resistor RA is simply a rectangle of polysilicon having a width "W" and a length "L". The Sheet resistance of polysilicon conductor 12 is Rs ohms/square. Therefore,RA=Rs*L/W  (1)
Similarly, resistor RB is designed with a length of L (other lengths are possible, but L is a convenient dimension for resistor RB as well as resistor RA. Resistor RB, in the illustrative FIG. 1B is shown to have six fingers 13 connected in parallel, each having a width of "Leff". Therefore,RB=⅙*Rs*L/Leff  (2)
Rs is "unknown" (without measurement of further test structures to determine the sheet resistivity of the polysilicon), but is the same for both resistors RA and RB on any particular semiconductor chip. Resistors RA and RB are readily measured for resistance values by suitable resistance measurements through contacts 11A, 11B, and 11C.Rs=RA*W/L (rearranging (1))  (3)Leff=Rs*L/(6*RB); (rearranging (2)); then, using Rs from (3) in (4),  (4)Leff=RA*W/(6*RB)  (5)
Note that the use of L1 for both resistors RA and RB conveniently eliminated L in the final equation. W still remains, and varies slightly from semiconductor chip to another semiconductor chip due to process variations, but W is made large enough that the process variations in W for a particular chip will have an insignificant effect on the determination of Leff.
Although only six fingers 13 are shown in FIG. 1B, such test structures have been constructed with differing (and usually many more than six) numbers of fingers 13.
The test structure and method of Leff determination described work very well when the polysilicon line has a substantially constant thickness.
Prior art FIGS. 2A and 2B show isometric views of a FinFET. A tall, thin fin 20 (referenced in FIG. 2B) of silicon material suitable for doping as source and drain regions rises from an oxide 19. Polysilicon gate 18 is a polysilicon conductor that surrounds fin 20 on three sides. In regions where the silicon material is doped P−, source 15 and drain 16 are subsequently doped to become N+ regions, with the P− region under gate 18 serving as a body 17 of the FinFET (body 17 shown in FIG. 2B). A thin gate oxide 14 separates polysilicon gate 18 from body 17. FinFETs have significant advantages, being "three dimensional" FETs, the gate can induce conducting channels on three sides, increasing current flow through a conducting FET, and making it less necessary that the gate oxide 14 be as thin as gate oxide 4 shown in FIG. 1A.
FIG. 2C shows an illustrative side view of polysilicon gate 18 as it goes over the tall, thin fin 20 at body 17. Although the polysilicon gate 18 has a thickness T1 when over a relatively wide region of oxide 19, gate 18 is much thinner at T2 and T3. The nonuniform thickness of polysilicon gate 18 as it goes over the "fins" renders the prior art test structure and method described above relatively ineffective in determining a channel length of a FinFET.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and apparatus that allow easy and accurate determination of channel length of a FinFET using resistance measurements.

Polysilicon conductor width measurement for 3-dimensional FETs

International Business Machines Corporation


A dual-frequency CW processing unit (12) calculates an observation-point orientation of an observation point. An FMCW processing unit (11) calculates at least a power spectrum of a beat signal, which has been generated based on radar waves that have come from the calculated observation-point orientation, in terms of an up-modulation time interval and a down-modulation time interval (termed orientation power spectrum hereinafter). The FMCW processing unit (11) shifts the orientation power spectra of the up- and down-modulation time intervals to positive and negative directions, respectively, by an amount corresponding to a Doppler shift frequency. The FMCW processing unit (11) calculates a differential power spectrum by differentiating the orientation power spectra of the shifted up- and down-modulation time intervals, and detects a peak frequency where intensity is maximum.

As disclosed in Patent Literature 1, for example, there have been known moving object detection devices which offset the transmission frequency spectrum between a frequency-increasing period and a frequency-decreasing period, and detect a moving object based on the frequency spectrum obtained by calculating a difference between the two offset frequency spectra.


A management tool that streamlines the server allocation and provisioning processes within a data center is provided. The system, method, and computer program product divide the server provisioning and allocation into two separate tasks. Provisioning a server is accomplished by generating a fully configured, bootable system image, complete with network address assignments, virtual LAN (VLAN) configuration, load balancing configuration, and the like. System images are stored in a storage repository and are accessible to more than one server. Allocation is accomplished using a switching mechanism which matches each server with an appropriate system image based upon current configuration or requirements of the data center. Thus, real-time provisioning and allocation of servers in the form of automated responses to changing conditions within the data center is possible. The ability to instantly re-provision servers, safely and securely switch under-utilized server capacity to more productive tasks, and improve server utilization is also provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer resource management systems and methods, and more particularly to systems and methods that provide dynamic, load-based allocation and provisioning of servers within data centers.
2. Related Art
In today's computing environment, it is common for an entity (e.g., a corporation) to operate a data center to provide a variety of applications and services for its customer end users and internal operations. Such data centers typically include a collection of servers, storage elements (i.e., any device designed and built primarily for the purpose of persistent data storage and delivery), and a communications infrastructure (i.e., a network) that provides physical connections among the data center's elements and a management layer that organizes these connections, storage elements and servers.
Each application or service to be executed within the data center often requires one or more servers provisioned with the correct operating system, middleware, application software, data and configuration information. Currently, provisioning and allocating a server are essentially one task—installing the necessary software onto the hard drive of the server and configuring it for use within the specific application and operating environment.
More specifically, the provisioning process for a traditional server involves installing and configuring software on the server's directly attached storage device or dedicated storage area network (SAN) device. This is a time consuming, mostly manual operation that can take days to complete and fully verify for a large, complex application. It is also a destructive process that requires irreversible changes to the server's disk drive such that any previous installation will be overwritten. If the new installation fails, there may be no easy way to recover the previous working system. The time, effort, expense and risk associated with provisioning servers make it infeasible to re-provision a server to meet short-term requirements. Thus, in practice, each server typically is statically allocated to a specific application.
Several commercial tools have been introduced that streamline this process when installing a large number of servers. These tools employ "push provisioning" to copy a system image over the network to the local hard drive of each server. This approach is useful in maintaining a common system image across a server pool, but does not facilitate rapid re-provisioning of servers because it consumes significant network bandwidth and is destructive of previous installations. Re-provisioning a single server can fully saturate a 100 Mbps local area network (LAN) for several minutes. Re-provisioning a pool of servers can take several hours.
As mentioned above, because of the time, effort, expense and risk associated with provisioning servers, each server in the data center typically is statically allocated to a specific application. Consequently, long-term capacity projections are used to plan server capacity in advance of need to ensure that the data center has sufficient number of servers to meet the peak capacity requirements for each application. Most of the time, however, an application does not experience peak demand and its servers run well below their capacity. This wastes power and physical (i.e., rack) space, as well as increases administrative burden.
Therefore, given the above, what is needed is a system, method, and computer program product for dynamic server allocation and provisioning. The system, method, and computer program product should divide the server provisioning and allocation into two separate tasks. Provisioning a server should be accomplished by generating a fully configured, bootable system image (root file system, kernel, applications, data, etc.), complete with network address assignments, virtual LAN (VLAN) configuration, load balancing configuration, and the like. The system images should be stored in a storage repository such that they are accessible to more than one server. The allocation process should be accomplished using a switching mechanism that can match each server with an appropriate system image based upon the current configuration or requirements of the data center. Thus, the system, method, and computer program product should be able to provide real-time provisioning and allocation of servers in the form of automated responses to changing conditions within the data center.

System and method for dynamic server allocation and provisioning