A moving picture coding/decoding method and apparatus having a spatially scalable architecture and a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) scalable architecture together is provided. The coding method includes the steps of down sampling shape information and texture information by a predetermined ratio to construct a spatially scalable architecture including a single base layer and at least one enhancement layer; coding the shape and texture information of the base layer to generate a base layer bitstream, frequency transform coding the difference between decoded texture information and original texture information, and constructing a SNR scalable architecture based on frequency bands; and, with respect to each of the at least one enhancement layer, coding the difference between shape information upsampled from the base layer and the shape information of the enhancement layer to generate an enhancement layer bitstream, frequency transform coding the difference between the decoded texture information obtained and the texture information of the enhancement layer, and constructing a SNR scalable architecture based on frequency bands. Accordingly, various picture quality information of a different size can be provided with respect to an arbitrary shaped object through a single bitstream.

This disclosure is based on Korean Patent Application No. 98-42434 filed on Oct. 10, 1998, herein incorporated by reference;
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data coding and decoding, and more particularly, to a moving picture coding/decoding method and apparatus, in each of which a spatially scalable architecture and a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) scalable architecture are included together, for efficiently coding and transmitting video when an arbitrary shaped object continuously moves.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many coding/decoding methods which have been developed substantially relate to the coding/decoding of a quadrilateral picture of a predetermined size such as the screen of a television. Examples of these methods are a motion picture experts group (MPEG)-1, MPEG-2, H.261 and H.263.
Since most of the conventional coding methods only provide services of a quite limited hierarchical architecture, they cannot be positively adopted by an architecture in which the state of a transmission line frequently changes such as in an Internet/Intranet or a wireless network. MPEG-2 video (ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 13818-2), which is a representative conventional coding method, proposes spatially scalable coding in which two spatially scalable architectures are provided and SNR scalable coding in which two or three scalable architectures are provided, with respect to a moving picture of a quadrilateral screen shape. However, the number of scalable layers is limited so that it is difficult to create a real application area from this method. Moreover, MPEG-4 video (ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 14496-2) which provides efficient compression also proposes a coding method having a spatially scalable architecture and a temporal scalable architecture. However, a method for providing a SNR scalable architecture for a bitstream in the same spatial domain has not yet proposed, thereby limiting the quality of service.
To solve the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a moving picture coding/decoding method and apparatus for providing a SNR scalable coding function, which can variably determine picture quality in a predetermined space, as well as a spatially scalable coding function, so as to transmit data in different ways depending on the limitations of a transmission line or the receiving performance of a receiving terminal. The method and apparatus also provide scalable coding of an arbitrary shaped object as well as a quadrilateral picture, thereby providing various qualities of service.
To achieve the above object, in one embodiment, the present invention provides a method of constructing spatially and SNR scalable architectures with respect to input video data composed of the shape information and inner texture information of an object and then coding the input video data, the method including the steps of (a) down sampling the shape information and the texture information by a predetermined ratio to construct a spatially scalable architecture including a single base layer and at least one enhancement layer; (b) coding the shape and texture information of the base layer to generate a base layer bitstream, frequency transform coding the difference between decoded texture information and original texture information, and constructing a SNR scalable architecture based on frequency bands; and (c) with respect to each of the at least one enhancement layer, coding the difference between shape information upsampled from the base layer and the shape information of the enhancement layer to generate an enhancement layer bitstream, frequency transform coding the difference between the decoded texture information obtained in the step (b) and the texture information of the enhancement layer, and constructing a SNR scalable architecture based on frequency bands.
In another embodiment, the present invention provides a method of constructing spatially and SNR scalable architectures with respect to input video data composed of the shape information and inner texture information of an object and then coding the input video data, the method including the steps of (a) down sampling the shape information and the texture information to construct a spatially scalable architecture including a single base layer, which is obtained by down sampling by a first ratio, and at least one enhancement layer, which is obtained by down sampling by a second ratio that is smaller than that adopted for the base layer; (b) with respect to the shape information and texture information of the base layer, (b1) shape coding the shape information of the base layer; (b2) padding, frequency transform coding and quantizing the texture information of the base layer; (b3) collecting and variable length coding the data generated in the steps (b1) and (b2) to generate a base layer bitstream; (b4) obtaining the difference between texture information reproduced by dequantizing and inverse frequency transforming the data generated in the step (b2) and the texture information of the base layer; (b5) frequency transform coding the difference obtained in the step (b4) and classifying the results of the frequency transform coding by frequency to generate bitstreams based on frequency bands; (c) with respect to the shape and texture information of each enhancement layer, (c1) shape coding and variable length coding the difference between the shape information of the enhancement layer and shape information obtained by upsampling the shape information of the base layer to the enhancement layer, to generate an enhancement layer bitstream; (c2) obtaining the difference between the texture information of the enhancement layer and texture information obtained by upsampling the texture information reproduced in the step (b4) to the enhancement layer and padding the result of the upsampling; and (c3) frequency transform coding the difference obtained in the step (c2) and classifying the results of the frequency transform coding by frequency to generate bitstreams based on frequency bands.
To achieve the above object, the present invention also provides a method of decoding a bitstream, which has been coded in spatially and SNR scalable architectures. The method includes the steps of (a) variable length decoding the bitstream to divide it into a base layer bitstream and at least one enhancement layer bitstream; (b) shape decoding coded shape information contained in the base layer bitstream to generate base layer shape information; (c) dequantizing and inverse frequency transforming coded texture information contained in the base layer bitstream to generate base layer texture information; (d) sequentially inverse frequency transforming bitstreams selected from the SNR scalable architecture of the base layer bitstream and adding the results to the base layer texture information; and (e) with respect to at least one selected enhancement layer, sequentially repeating the steps of: (e1) upsampling the shape information of a spatial reference layer to the enhancement layer; (e2) upsampling the texture information of a SNR reference layer which falls under a spatial reference layer; (e3) shape decoding enhancement layer shape information contained in the enhancement layer bitstream and adding the result to the upsampled shape information of the lower layer; and (e4) sequentially inverse frequency transforming bitstreams selected from the SNR scalable architecture of the enhancement layer bitstream and adding the results to the upsampled texture information of the lower layer.
This method also includes the step of previously decoding a spatial reference layer identifier and a SNR reference layer identifier before the step (e1). The spatial reference layer is a layer immediately below the enhancement layer. The SNR reference layer is a SNR base layer which falls under the spatial reference layer. In another aspect, the SNR reference layer is a highest SNR layer which falls under the spatial reference layer.
Further, the present invention provides an apparatus for constructing spatially and SNR scalable architectures with respect to input video data composed of the shape information and inner texture information of an object and then coding the input video data. The apparatus includes a down sampling unit for down sampling the shape information and the texture information to construct a spatially scalable architecture including a single base layer, which is obtained by down sampling by a first ratio, and at least one enhancement layer, which is obtained by down sampling by a second ratio that is smaller than that adopted for the base layer; a base layer coder comprising a first shape coder for shape coding the shape information of the base layer; a texture coder for padding, frequency transform coding and quantizing the texture information of the base layer; a first variable length coder for collecting and variable length coding the data output from the first shape coder and the texture coder, to generate a base layer bitstream; a texture decoder for dequantizing and inverse frequency transforming the data output from the texture coder, to reproduce texture information; a first difference image generator for generating the difference between the reproduced texture information from the texture decoder and the texture information of the base layer; and a first SNR scalable architecture generator for frequency transform coding the difference generated by the first difference image generator and classifying the results of the frequency transform coding by frequency, to generate bitstreams based on frequency bands; and at least one enhancement layer coder comprising an upsampling unit for upsampling the shape information of the base layer to the enhancement layer and upsampling the texture information reproduced by the texture decoder to the enhancement layer; a second shape coder for shape coding the difference between the upsampled shape information and the shape information of the enhancement layer; a second variable length coder for variable length coding the output data of the second shape coder to generate an enhancement layer bitstream; a second difference image generator for obtaining the difference between the texture information of the enhancement layer and texture information obtained by padding the output data of the upsampling unit; and a second SNR scalable architecture generator for frequency transform coding the difference generated by the second difference image generator and classifying the results of the frequency transform coding by frequency to generate bitstreams based on frequency bands.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides an apparatus for decoding a bitstream, which has been coded in spatially and SNR scalable architectures. The apparatus includes a variable length decoder for variable length decoding the bitstream to divide it into a base layer bitstream and at least one enhancement layer bitstream; a base layer decoder comprising a first shape decoder for shape decoding coded shape information contained in the base layer bitstream to generate base layer shape information; a texture decoder for dequantizing and inverse frequency transforming coded texture information contained in the base layer bitstream to generate base layer texture information; and a first SNR scalable architecture decoder for sequentially inverse frequency transforming selected bitstreams in the SNR scalable architecture of the base layer bitstream and adding the results to the base layer texture information; and at least one enhancement layer decoder comprising an upsampling unit for upsampling the shape and texture information of a layer immediately below the enhancement layer in a spatially scalable architecture, to the enhancement layer; a second shape decoder for shape decoding enhancement layer shape information contained in the enhancement layer bitstream and adding the result to the upsampled shape information of the lower layer; and a second SNR scalable architecture decoder for sequentially inverse frequency transforming bitstreams selected from the SNR scalable architecture of the enhancement layer bitstream and adding the results to the upsampled texture information of the lower layer.

Moving picture coding/decoding method and apparatus having spatially scalable architecture and signal-to-noise ratio scalable architecture together


A semiconductor device can include a first interlayer dielectric layer disposed on a substrate, and an air gap defined in a portion of the first interlayer dielectric layer. The air gap can be formed within trenches etched into the first interlayer dielectric layer. An etch stop layer is disposed on the first interlayer dielectric layer and the air gap, and includes a hole communicating with the air gap.

As semiconductor devices become highly integrated, a gap between adjacent metal lines decreases. Meanwhile, due to high dielectric constant (k) of an insulating material used for insulating adjacent metal lines, a capacitance between the adjacent metal lines increases and an RC delay occurs, leading to degradation of device characteristics.
As semiconductor devices are scaled down, interlayer dielectric (ILD) layers for isolating adjacent metal layers become thinner, which causes interference between a top metal layer and a bottom metal layer. In addition, when a dielectric constant of the ILD layer is high, a capacitor is naturally formed between the ILD layer and the top/bottom metal layers.
In recent years, studies have been conducted on novel materials and methods for manufacturing semiconductor devices using the same in order to reduce the dielectric constant of the ILD layer interposed between the metal layers.

Method for manufacturing a semiconductor device


The negative resist compositions especially suitable for electron beam-based lithographic processes are obtained by using a polymeric component containing first silsesquioxane moieties functionalized with a first reactive group having a first crosslinking reactivity and a first dissolution rate in aqueous alkaline solutions, and second silsesquioxane moieties functionalized with a second reactive group having a second crosslinking reactivity and a second dissolution rate in aqueous alkaline solutions, said reactivities being different from one another and said dissolution rates being different from one another. These negative resists enable improved negative lithographic processes, especially in the context of mask-making and direct-write techniques using electron beam lithography. The negative resists are also useful more generally in methods of forming patterned material features and advantageously show reduced incidence of image collapse at smaller groundrules.

In the microelectronics industry as well as in other industries involving construction of microscopic structures (e.g. micromachines, magnetoresistive heads, etc.), lithography is used to obtain patterned structures of various materials such as insulators, semiconductors and/or metals in a sequence leading to the achievement of the desired structure.
Most lithographic processes (excluding so-called direct-write techniques) typically employ some type of patterned mask through which the imaging radiation is projected onto the resist material to be patterned on the substrate of interest. Typically, the mask itself is formed by a lithographic technique such as direct-write electron beam lithography or in some instances by projection UV lithography (especially deep UV—248 nm) using an appropriate resist material. Typically, the mask comprises a patterned metal layer(s) (e.g., chromium) on a quartz plate (or other transparent plate).
The introduction of chemically amplified (CA) resist for electron beam lithography has reduced the writing time dramatically for mask making, however, for low pattern density circuitry, it would still take a long time to write the images using positive resist. Therefore, it is more desirable to have negative tone system for electron beam lithography. Most traditional negative tone CA resists are using phenolic polymers as base resin. Phenolic systems are usually too high in dissolution rate in the 0.263N TMAH developer that has become standard in the industry. Other known negative resist systems are often prone to excessive microbridging.
Thus, there is a need for improved negative tone resist compositions especially suitable for electron beam lithography, as well as for lithographic processes employing such resists to create patterned material features, especially in the context of making lithographic masks.

Method for using negative tone silicon-containing resist for e-beam lithography

International Business Machines Corporation


An image pick-up apparatus is disclosed which allows a reduction in degradation of images associated with a changed image magnification due to movements in a focus direction during image pick-up operation. The image pick-up apparatus has an image pick-up controller which performs a plurality of image pick-up operations for producing a single image and performs focus adjustment operation before each of the image pick-up operations to produce a first plurality of images, and an information producer which produces information on an image magnification of each of the first plurality of images. The image-pickup apparatus also has an image producer which produces a second plurality of images based on the first plurality of images and the information on the image magnification, and an image combiner which combines the second plurality of images to produce a single image.

The present invention relates to an image pick-up apparatus, an image pick-up program and an image processing program which produce a single combined image from a plurality of picked up images.
Movements of an image pick-up apparatus undesirable in image pick-up operation include not only ones in a direction perpendicular to an optical axis but also ones in a direction along the optical direction (hereinafter referred to as a focus direction). For the movements in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis, a number of techniques have been proposed which prevent fluctuations of an image by shifting part of an image pick-up lens unit in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis.
The movements produced in the focus direction during image pick-up operation result in a blurred image. Particularly when an image is picked up at a high magnification with a macro lens, the movements in the focus direction cause significant blurring in the image.
To address the problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H10(1998)-312006 has proposed a technique in which auto-focus (AF) operation is first performed, and then, again performed during image pick-up operation, thereby preventing a blurred image due to movements in the focus direction during the image pick-up operation.
Although the technique proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H10 (1998)-312006 can prevent a blurred image due to movements in the focus direction during the image pick-up operation, the AF operation during the image pick-up operation moves a focus lens to change an image pick-up magnification (an image magnification).
When a conventional image stabilizer is used to correct image fluctuations in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis, the shutter speed is lower than the value (1/f, where f represents a focal length) at which no image fluctuations generally occur from camera shake, so that the image magnification is greatly changed due to movements in the focus direction.
A change in the image magnification during image pick-up operation produces a displacement of the image, and particularly, significant displacements are seen in the peripheral portion of an image. If the image displacements remain within an allowable range for resolution, visually recognizable blurring is not produced. However, for example when images are picked up at a high magnification or at a low shutter speed with the image stabilizer, the image pick-up operation is susceptible to movements in the focus direction. In other words, the image magnification is greatly changed, which makes it difficult to realize appropriate resolution and deteriorates the image.
Next, data provided by actual measurements is used to calculate movements in the focus direction during image pick-up operation to show how much image deterioration occurs from the movements.
The actual measurement results show that the movement in the focus direction produced in an image pick-up time of 100 msec was 0.35 mm at most. Under image pick-up conditions such as life-size shots in which the image magnification is easily changed, the change rate of image magnification is ±0.44% from the calculation in the following expression (1):
                    M        =                  f                      R            ±                          Δ                                                                                R                                                          (        1        )            where M represents the image magnification, f the focal length (80 mm), and R the object distance.
For example, when an image pick-up device such as a CCD sensor has a short side of 15.12 mm long and a long side of 22.68 mm long, the change rate of the image magnification shown above can be used to calculate an image displacement of approximately ±60 μm in the peripheral portion of the image as shown in FIG. 20. Since an allowable image displacement provided in a resolution chart is approximately ±15 μm in the image pick-up device, the image displacement of 60 μm cannot be analyzed and leads to visually recognizable blurring in the image.
FIG. 21 shows the relationship between the displacement in the peripheral portion of an image and the shutter speed for each image pick-up magnification. It can be seen from FIG. 21 that a higher image pick-up magnification causes a larger change in the image magnification and easily produces degradation of the image.

Image pick-up apparatus, image pick-up program, and image processing program


A method of and apparatus for uncuffing a bag in a case, forming the top of the bag into a neck, and taping the neck, operable on non-square rectangular cases as well as square cases of different sizes.

This invention relates to a method of and apparatus for closing bags, more particularly to a method of and apparatus for closing the tops of open-mouth bags packed in boxes or cases.
The invention is especially directed to a method of and apparatus for closing the tops of bags serving as liners in rectangular boxes or cases which have top closure flaps hinged to the four sides, the top portion of the bag in the case being turned inside out (everted) and cuffed down on the outside of the flaps, the bag or liner having been filled with product and the flaps extending tip at the four sides. The method involves uncuffing the bag, i.e. turning its cuffed top portion outside in so that it extends upwardly from the case, gathering the upwardly extending top portion, and then closing the latter, as by taping, the apparatus being operable to carry out the method, and the method and apparatus involving improvements on the method and apparatus shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,813,207 and 4,912,913.
The method and apparatus shown in said U.S. patents are generally limited to handling square cases, and a principal object of the present invention is to provide an improved method and apparatus capable of handling rectangular cases other than square cases, i.e. cases having four sides, two opposite sides of which are shorter than the other two, the shorter sides being referred to as the ends of the case, and for handling cases of different sizes. Generally, the cases have what are referred to as major closure flaps hinged to the upper edges of the two sides (the long sides) of the case, and what are referred to as minor closure flaps hinged to the upper edges of the ends of the case, these flaps being closed down on top of the case after the bag or liner therein has had its top formed into a neck and the neck closed, as by taping it, and the neck tucked down into the case.
In general, the method of this invention involves closing the top of a bag containing product in a rectangular case having two opposite sides and two opposite ends and side closure flaps and end closure flaps hinged to the top of the sides and ends, respectively, the flaps extending up at the sides and ends, the top of the bag being turned down inside out on the outside of the f laps forming a cuff. The method comprises conveying cases with the bags therein in a predetermined path one after another to an uncuffing station and holding each case at said station, uncuffing the bag and disposing the top of the bag to extend upward above the closure flaps with the top having portions extending up at the sides of the case and portions extending up at the ends of the case, and with the bag mouth open, and bringing the side portions of the top together to flatten the top generally in a vertical plane lying generally centrally between the sides of the case. The case is then conveyed farther forward in said path with the flattened top portion moving forward endwise generally in said plane, the flattened top portion is compacted endwise to form it into a neck for the bag, and a closure is applied to the neck to hold it compacted.
In general, apparatus of this invention comprises means for conveying cases with the bags therein in a predetermined path one after another to an uncuffing station and holding each case at said station, means at said uncuffing station for uncuffing the bag and disposing the top of the bag to extend upward above the closure flaps with the top having portions extending up at the sides of the case and portions extending up at the ends of the case, and with the bag mouth open, and means for bringing the side portions of the top together to flatten the top generally in a vertical plane lying generally centrally between the sides of the case. The conveyor is then operable to convey the case farther forward in said path with the flattened top portion moving forward endwise generally in said plane. The apparatus further comprises means for compacting said flattened top portion endwise to form it into a neck for the bag; and means for applying a closure to the neck to hold it closed.
Other objects and features will be in part apparent and in part pointed out hereinafter.


A power module for the control of electric motors is described which displays an integrated design and provides the following functional units: A power unit with a circuit arrangement on the upper side of a substrate with power semiconductor components. A cooling unit with a cooling medium flowing through it, which has a heat sink with structured surface formed as an insert section onto which the underside of the substrate is directly fitted. A control unit with semiconductor components arranged on a carrier, which is arranged in parallel to and at a given distance from the substrate of the power unit. Contact pins between the substrate of the power unit and the carrier of the control unit for the connection and contacting of the circuit arrangement of the power unit with the semiconductor components on the control unit. A housing body, which encloses the power unit and the control unit. Two conductor bars which are led parallel to the substrate of the power unit and the carrier of the control unit and out through the housing body for the power supply to the circuit arrangement of the power unit. Connecting bars, which are led out of the housing body and connected to the circuit arrangement of the power unit and/or the semiconductor components of the control unit, for the application of control signals for the control of the power module and/or to tap off output signals from the power module.

Power modules for the control of electric motors are used in many ways, for example to control the speed and performance of the electric motors. They normally consist of a power unit which has a circuit arrangement with semiconductor components, in particular integrated circuits (ICs) as circuit breakers, their own housing and connections for the power supply, for outputs (output voltage) and inputs (controls). They also normally have a separate heat sink to which the power unit is fitted for heat dissipation purposes, of the circuit breakers especially, as well as a separate control unit for the control of the power unit. Evaluation of the output voltage from the power module is normally carried out by a separate processing unit.
In the manufacture of the power module the power unit is usually manufactured first as a standard sub-assembly wherein the semiconductor components for the circuit arrangement are fitted to a substrate. The substrate is then soldered onto a carrier plate and the housing and connections are then fitted. This power unit is then screwed to the separate heat sink by its carrier plate (usually via an interface such as a heat conducting paste) as a standard sub-assembly. The circuit arrangement for the control unit, which is fitted to a suitable substrate (e.g. a PCB) separately from the power unit, is connected to the power unit (normally with a screwed connection). Because of the need for rugged feed lines (due to the design) between power unit and voltage supply as well as between the power unit and the control unit an additional compensation unit is needed for EMC purposes with a great number of semiconductor elements (coils and capacitors). The heat sink itself often also has to be connected to another cooling unit (liquid cooler) to dissipate the heat.
This sort of power module construction brings with it the following disadvantages:
The thermal resistance is conditional upon the internal construction of the power unit (substrate, carrier plate), the interface between the power unit and the heat sink and the separately-mounted cooling unit, such that poor heat transfer takes place, particularly between the semiconductor components (circuit breakers) of the power unit and the heat sink. PA1 Due to the separate construction method of the individually-manufactured components and functional units of the power module and the necessary line connections between the functional units a greater surface area/volume and weight is required, which involves higher costs. PA1 An increased amount of circuitry (multiplicity of semiconductor components, surface area requirement, costs) is necessary for the compensation unit. PA1 The connection between the heat sink and the additional cooling unit is costly and can often only be achieved with poor thermal contact. PA1 The semiconductor components for the circuit arrangement of the power unit are fitted to a suitable substrate and this substrate is directly fitted onto a heat sink with an optimized surface made of a material with good heat-conducting properties and is connected to this by soldering (for example with soft solder). PA1 The heat sink is designed as an insert section and can be integrated directly into the (complete) cooling unit of the power module. PA1 The control unit is fitted on a carrier in parallel in a separate plane at a given distance from the substrate which carries the circuit arrangement of the power unit, wherein the semiconductor components of the control unit can be arranged on one or both sides of the carrier and make contact with the circuit arrangement of the power unit through vertically-arranged contact pins (connecting bars or ties). As an option, if the semiconductor components of the control unit are only fitted to the top side of the carrier, a metallic plate can be fitted to the underside of the carrier, which faces the substrate, as an additional carrier for the purposes of EMC screening and increasing the mechanical strength (for example for use in motor vehicles). PA1 In another plane in parallel to and at a given distance from the control unit carrier (above the carrier) or on the same level as the control unit further functional units can be provided to implement additional functions (for example current measurement and signal processing) PA1 Compact design with low surface area/volume requirement and low cost. PA1 An improvement in heat transfer between the semiconductor components of the power unit and the heat sink through direct cooling of the semiconductors and the integration of the heat sink into the cooling unit. PA1 An increase in the reliability and service life of the semiconductor components of the power unit and thereby the power module. PA1 Due to the symmetric and minimal lengths of the connecting lines only a minimum amount of circuitry is necessary for the compensation unit to correct leakage inductance.

Power module for the control of electric motors


The disclosure relates to the field of vehicle energy recovery devices, and particularly discloses a vehicle shock absorber capable of generating electricity which includes a shock absorber body, a piston rod and a bearing spring. The shock absorber body includes an inner cylinder and an outer cylinder, and an oil storage chamber communicated with an inner cavity of the inner cylinder is formed between the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder. Both ends of the bearing spring are respectively connected to an upper end of the piston rod and the outer cylinder. A bottom end of the piston rod is connected to a piston in sliding fit with the inner cylinder, and a coil is sealedly disposed in the piston. Opposite sides inside the oil storage chamber are each provided with a permanent magnet with an opposite magnetic pole, and the coil is connected to an electrode lead.

At present, urban air pollution is very serious, and automobile exhaust emissions are the main cause of air pollution. Studying zero emission and less emissions of automobiles has become a major issue to solve urban environmental protection problems. The development of electric vehicles is one of the effective measures to solve the problem of air pollution. In recent years, with the continuous development of science and technology, various types of electric vehicles have emerged one after another, but most of them are in a state of embarrassment because of the unsatisfactory endurance mileage, incomplete charging facilities, long charging time and high battery replacement cost. The main problem is that due to the limitation of battery technology, the endurance mileage of electric vehicles is short, and energy cannot be replenished in time during long-distance driving, which are the main considerations of some users when choosing whether to purchase electric vehicles, resulting in that electric vehicles still cannot be popularized in a large range at this stage.
On the other hand, during the driving of the vehicle, wheels will vibrate due to the contact with the ground. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a shock absorber to suppress the shock when the spring is rebounded after shock absorption and the impact from the road surface, so as to improve the driving comfort of the vehicle, thereby improving the comfort of the driver and passengers. However, the existing vehicle shock absorber uses the damping effect of hydraulic oil to consume vibration energy, cannot achieve the recovery and reuse of the vibration energy, and cannot convert this part of energy into the energy of the electric vehicle.

Vehicle shock absorber capable of generating electricity

Guangzhou Ocean Hydraulic Elements Co, , Ltd


In dual connectivity, a UE is served by cells are operated in different eNBs with one eNB designated as the master eNB (MeNB) and the other as a secondary eNB (SeNB). A random access procedure is described by which a UE connected to an MeNB may attempt to acquire access to an SeNB cell. The procedure may utilize the backhaul connection between the SeNB and the MeNB so that the random access response may be transmitted over an MeNB cell.

Dual connectivity refers to the ability of a mobile terminal to communicate simultaneously with two base stations using different carrier frequencies. The advantages of dual connectivity include a reduction in the number of failures in performing handovers of a terminal from one base station to another, a reduction in the amount of signaling required from the network in performing handovers, and enhanced user throughput.
In LTE (Long Term Evolution) cellular systems, as set forth in the specifications of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a mobile terminal is referred to as user equipment (UE) and a base station is referred to as an evolved Node B (eNB). The UE initially acquires uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) resources from the eNB for transmitting and receiving data by performing a random access (RA) procedure using the physical random access channel (PRACH). The PRACH is a specific set of time-frequency resources allocated by eNB for use by UEs in performing the RA procedure. If periodic scheduling request (SR) resources are not allocated to the UE by the network, the random access process is also used by the UE to acquire uplink resources for all subsequent data transmission. The RA procedure is also used if the UE loses time synchronization with the eNB. The primary concern of the present disclosure is the manner in which random access procedures is performed by a mobile terminal in a dual connectivity context.

Random access procedure for dual connectivity


A silicone gel encapsulated integrated circuit (12) is placed in a container, the container being partially filled with a silicone elastomer (16) which is much more rugged than the gel. After the elastomer (16) hardens, it completely covers the gel encapsulation (14) and protects it and the integrated circuit device from the effects of rough handling. The gel, however, gives all of the protection from the external environment that it would in the absence of the elastomer encapsulation.

Hybrid integrated circuits are electronic devices in which one or more semiconductor chips, usually silicon chips, are connected to a bonding pad region of a circuit pattern on a ceramic substrate. (Semiconductor chips are also known as monolithic integrated circuits, or ICs, while hybrid integrated circuits are known as HICs). The semiconductor chips must be protected from the external environment and, for this reason, they are sometimes encapsulated by silicone resin gels. See, for example, the papers, "Electrical Performance and Reaction Kinetics of Silicone Gels," C. P. Wong, Journal of Material Research, Vol. 5, No. 4, April 1990, pp. 799-800, and "Understanding the Use of Silicone Gels for Non-Hermetic Plastic Packaging," C. P. Wong et al., IEEE Transactions on Components, Hybrids, and Manufacturing Technology, Vol. 2, No. 4, December 1989, pp. 421-425. Such gels are capable of withstanding extremes of temperature, humidity, and electrical bias but are somewhat susceptible to the effects of rough handling; that is, a gel may rip or tear if impacted by the corner of a rigid object.

Method for encapsulating integrated circuit


A method and apparatus for prioritizing a listing of information providers according to a fee value and availability status indicated for the information providers, and providing a set of one or more information provider identifiers that satisfy a request for a type of information provider that has been received from a user over the Internet. The set of information provider identifiers are ranked according to their associated fee values and availability status. A set of one or more files are generated to display the set of information provider identifiers. The set of files are transmitted to the user, and the user is provided access to an information provider identified by one of the set of information provider identifiers.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of accessing information online. More specifically, the invention relates to providing access to information providers online.
2. Background of the Invention
Information providers, such as therapists, computer technicians, tax advisors, etc., have increasingly been delivering their services through the Internet and telephone. Information providers can advertise their services online for viewing by Internet users. In addition, users can search for information providers with conventional search engines.
Once the user finds a desired information provider and selects the information provider, the user can contact that person for services delivered immediately through the Internet or telephone. For example, a customer selects a therapist from a list of therapists displayed online. The selected therapist is offering an instant consultation fee of $1 per minute or $50 for a full one-hour session. The therapist's advertisement displays an indicator of real-time availability—such as a green light—that indicates that this therapist is ready to perform the consultation at the present time. The customer can contact the therapist by clicking an on-screen button that initiates a telephone call or video chat session. The customer can then receive the consultation and pay the therapist automatically online.
In such an online system, the information provider signals to the customer when the information provider is ready to deliver services. Otherwise, a customer may initiate contact while the therapist is not available. The information provider manages the online indicator of his/her availability, informing the system when he/she is ready to communicate with customers. For example, when the therapist is out to lunch, he/she uses the online system to change the availability indicator from green to red, informing everyone that this information provider is no longer available at the present time.
Search engines typically provide advertisers with the ability to place advertisements according to specific keywords. A seller of antique vases, for instance, will pay the search engine to display his/her advertisement when a customer searches on the keyword "vases." In order to sell keyword advertising most efficiently, search engines will typically use a bidding system, in which advertisers bid in order to have their advertisements appear more prominently, or higher in an ordered list, than competing advertisers. Other bidding systems take into account the popularity of certain advertisers among customers, and factor in this popularity as well as bid amounts into the ranking of advertisers.
These bidding systems, however, fail when it comes to displaying information providers rather than advertisements for objects or web sites. This is because information providers are human and are not always available to provide services—they may be busy with another customer or out to lunch. If a search engine were to use a typical bidding system in order to display information providers, the top bidders, and therefore the top service advertisements, are likely to be unavailable information providers. This would be a dead-end result for the customer.
Therefore, a need exists for a combination of a bidding mechanism and an additional criteria to determine the order that information provider advertisements are to be displayed.

Method and apparatus for prioritizing a listing of information providers


In vitro and in vivo methods of removing carbon monoxide from hemoglobin in blood or animal tissue are described. Methods of treating carboxyhemoglobinemia (carbon monoxide poisoning) in a subject are also described. The methods include administering natural or artificial oxygen carriers that are in their reduced form. Methods of producing a reduced oxygen carrier are further described. Methods of treating cyanide poisoning or hydrogen sulfide poisoning with oxygen carriers are also described.

Inhalation exposure to carbon monoxide represents a major cause of environmental poisoning. Individuals can be exposed to carbon monoxide in the air under a variety of different circumstances, such as house fires, generators or outdoor barbeque grills used indoors, or during suicide attempts in closed spaces. Carbon monoxide binds to hemoglobin and to hemoproteins in cells, in particular the enzymes of the respiratory transport chain. The accumulation of carbon monoxide bound to hemoglobin and other hemoproteins impairs oxygen delivery and oxygen utilization for oxidative phosphorylation. This ultimately results in severe hypoxic and ischemic injury to vital organs such as the brain and the heart. Individuals who accumulate greater than 10% carbon carboxyhemoglobin in their blood are at risk for brain injury and neurocognitive dysfunction. Patients with very high carboxyhemoglobin levels typically suffer from irreversible brain injury, respiratory failure and/or cardiovascular collapse.
Despite the availability of methods to rapidly diagnose carbon monoxide poisoning with standard arterial and venous blood gas analysis and co-oximetry, and despite an awareness of risk factors for carbon monoxide poisoning, there are currently no available antidotes for this toxic exposure. The current therapy is to give 100% oxygen by face mask, and when possible to expose patients to hyperbaric oxygen. The mechanism behind hyperbaric oxygen therapy is the oxygen will increase the rate of release of the carbon monoxide from hemoglobin and from tissues and accelerate the natural clearance of carbon monoxide. However, this therapy has only a modest effect on carbon monoxide clearance rates, and based on the complexity of hyperbaric oxygen facilities, this therapy is not available in the field and is often associated with significant treatment delays and transportation costs.

Reduced oxygen carriers and their use for the treatment of carboxyhemoglobinemia

University of Pittsburgh—Of the Commonwealth System ofHigher Education


Systems, methods, and software described herein provide encryption configurations to application containers. In one example, a method of operating a management system to provide VPN configurations to application containers in an application container environment includes identifying two application containers in the application container environment for secure communication, and identifying a VPN configuration for the two application containers. The method further includes configuring the two application containers for secure communication by transferring the VPN configuration to security layers within each of the two application containers.

An increasing number of data security threats exist in the modern computerized society. These threats may include viruses or other malware that attacks the local computer of the end user, or sophisticated cyber attacks to gather data and other information from the cloud or server based infrastructure. This server based infrastructure includes physical and virtual computing devices that are used to provide a variety of services to user computing systems, such as data storage, cloud processing, web sites and services, amongst other possible services. To protect applications and services, various antivirus, encryption, and firewall implementations may be used across an array of operating systems, such as Linux and Microsoft Windows.
Further, in some security implementations, a virtual private network (VPN) may be provided between two communicating systems. A VPN extends a private network across a public network, such as the internet, and enables a computer to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if it is directly connected to the private network. The advantages to a VPN are many and include, adding additional security as if the connecting devices were connected across a private network, advanced management allowing an administrator or other management service to control the data and systems that connect to the VPN, amongst a variety of other benefits.
In addition to the protective measures discussed above, segregation methods have also been pursued to limit the interaction between systems and applications. These segregation methods include whole system virtualization, which includes a full operating system and one or more applications, as well as application containers that are used to reduce dependencies on other cooperating applications. However, separating the applications into different virtual machines or application containers can add complexity to the security configurations for each of the executing applications.

Communication tunneling in application container environments


The kernel is a shared environment. Accordingly, many different kernel-mode drivers utilize services provided by the kernel. Furthermore, when shimming of drivers is necessary, it is desirable to support shim reuse amongst drivers with similar problems or issues, rather than generating a customized shim for each driver. To facilitate kernel-mode shimming and shim reuse, context information needs to be retrieved and maintained so that shims can identify particular driver calls and preserve driver specific linkage information. The present invention accomplishes the forgoing by employing an intermediate structure, a content component, between a client or driver call and a common shared shim to provide the shim with contextual information.

Shimming is a technique that allows additional functionality to be inserted between an application programming interface (API) client (e.g., an application, driver) and an API service (e.g., supplied by an operating system). An API client application may be written to use a collection of externally provided services (APIs), which provide some well-described functionality. These API services reside external to the client program, for example, contained in a dynamically linked library (DLL).
One of the major benefits provided by external API services is that a client application can be built without including the API service code directly in the client application. In particular, such a scheme provides a way for applications to declare their usage of a particular API service, but defer binding to that API until the application is actually loaded for execution. This allows application code to be separated from the API service code and allows for modularity in the construction of the application run-time environment. External API services are said to be "imported" into client applications and have "load-time binding" to applications. Accordingly, an application declares its intent to use imported API services and in response, the compiler can implicitly generate a "stub" entry in the applications import address table (IAT). The IAT containing import stubs can be generated by the compiler. These IAT stubs identify the name of the import API and the external service or DLL that corresponds with the API. When the application is loaded or otherwise made ready for execution, load-time binding will be performed and the IAT stubs will be updated to reference the correct API services.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional system 100 for linking an application 110 and an API service provider 120. Application 110 comprises a code section 112 and an IAT 114. In the code section 112, there is a call to import a procedure, here Foo. IAT 114 contains a pointer to the address of the Foo procedure in the API service provider 120. Conventional user-mode application shimming techniques are based on manipulating the IAT table entries to effect the insertion of functionality. This can be accomplished by changing the imported API's entry in the application's IAT to point to shim code rather than the original API service code.
FIG. 2 illustrates a conventional user-mode utilization of a shim 130 between the application 110 and the API service provider 120. The shim 130 can be written to provide a "value added" benefit to the API service or it can completely replace the API service functionality and never call the original API service provider 120. User-mode applications run in a process which is essentially owned by the application. Accordingly, there is only one client, the application, in the process. This is not true for a system process where kernel-mode drivers execute. In a system process, API service providers, such as an operating system kernel, are called by a multitude of different and substantially unique drivers.
Turning briefly to FIG. 3, an exemplary system driver interaction is illustrated. Driver X 310 has code 312 which utilizes IAT 314 to import or link to Foo Procedure 332 operating system kernel 330. Driver Y 320 has code 322 that employs IAT 324 to import or link to VerifierFoo Procedure 334 in system kernel 330, which then calls Foo Procedure 332 also in the kernel 330. Both drivers were written to invoke Foo Procedure or API 332, but Driver X's linkage is different from that of Driver Y's linkage. Driver Y has had its Foo import shimmed by a built in shim, namely VerifierFoo, while Driver X is directly linked to the original Foo API in the kernel.
One important goal of shim developers is reusability. Thus, a good shim framework should support reuse of shims when possible. If a shim, which provides some extended service or fix is created then it is desirable that that shim be applied to all applications expressing the problem, for instance, that the shim was designed to correct. For example, if Shim X fixes problem X and applications A, B, and C have problem X, then it would be desirable to have Shim X be able to fix applications A, B, and C without any changes to Shim X. However, providing such a common shim has not been possible up to this point, due in part by the fact that different drivers often have different linkage configurations, such as Driver X and Driver Y supra. Moreover, conventional user-mode shims and shimming systems can retain only one linkage configuration, namely the most recent, while other linkage configurations associated with previously shimmed drivers is lost. Further complicating the problem is the fact that existing infrastructures for imported APIs or services do not readily provide any contextual information with respect to which driver is utilizing the API or service.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a shim system and method that can determine and maintain a plurality of linkage configurations, context, unique to each application or driver to be shimmed.

Driver-specific context for kernel-mode shimming


An apparatus and method for controlling an internal combustion engine can perform exact timing control for ignition timing, fuel injection timing and the like in an inexpensive manner. A crank angle sensing means 20 generates a crank angle signal .theta. comprising a series of successive pulses in synchronization with the rotation of the engine. A cylinder pressure sensor 21 senses an internal pressure in at least one of cylinders of the engine and generates a corresponding cylinder pressure signal P. A pressure peak detecting means 42 detects a peak in the internal pressure in the at least one cylinder during an engine cranking cycle. A reference position setter 43 sets as a reference position the crank angle signal at the instant when the pressure peak in the at least one cylinder is detected. A control timing setter 44 includes a position counter for counting the number of pulses in the crank angle signal. The counter is reset in response to an occurrence to the reference position. The control timing setter is operable to set a control time Ta corresponding to a control timing for each of the cylinders on the basis of a counted value of the counter. With this arrangement, the crank angle sensing means 20 generates no reference signal and hence can be simplified.

This invention relates to an apparatus and method for controlling the operation of an internal combustion engine, and more particularly, it relates to such an engine control apparatus and method in which operational timing such as ignition timing of a plurality of cylinders of the engine can be controlled based on a reference position signal indicative of predetermined crankshaft angles.
In general, in an internal combustion engine having a plurality of cylinders with a crankshaft and a camshaft operatively connected therewith, a signal generator generates a reference position signal in synchronization with the rotation of the engine, based on which signal operational timing of the engine such as ignition timing, fuel injection timing and the like is determined. It is necessary that the reference position signal exactly indicate predetermined reference positions corresponding to predetermined crank angles.
FIG. 4 illustrates in block form the general arrangement of a known engine control apparatus. In this figure, the known engine control apparatus includes a signal generator 1, a sensor means 2 and a control unit 3, as will be described below in detail. The signal generator 1 generates, in synchronization with the rotation of an engine crankshaft, a crank angle signal .theta. comprising a series of successive pulses and indicative of the rotational position of the crankshaft as well as a reference signal T indicative of a reference position corresponding to a predetermined crank angle of each cylinder. The sensor means 2 includes a plurality of sensors such as an intake air sensor for sensing the amount or flow rate of intake air and generating a corresponding output signal representative of the engine load, a rotational speed sensor for sensing the rotational speed or the number of revolutions per minute of the engine, a temperature sensor for sensing the temperature of intake air, pressure sensors each mounted in a corresponding cylinder for sensing the internal pressure therein, and the like. The control unit 3 in the form of a microcomputer is connected to receive the output signals T, .theta. from the signal generator and the output signal D from the sensor means 2 and determines, based these signals, control timing such as ignition timing for each cylinder to thereby calculate a control time Ta corresponding to the thus determined ignition timing for each cylinder.
Specifically, the control unit 3 includes a reference position setting means 31 for generating a reference position signal T.theta. based on the reference signal T and the crank angle signal .theta., and an ignition timing setting means 32 for determining a control time Ta for each cylinder based on the crank angle signal .theta., the reference position signal T.theta., and the engine operating condition signal D.
The ignition timing setting means 32 includes a position counter for counting the number of pulses in the crank angle signal .theta. until it is reset in response to an occurrence of a reference position of each cylinder for setting a control time Ta from a predetermined reference position to an ignition timing.
FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the signal generator 1. The illustrated signal generator 1 includes a rotating disk 10 which is mounted on a camshaft 9 operatively connected with an unillustrated engine crankshaft for synchronized rotation therewith. The rotating disk 10 has a plurality of circumferentially extending slits 12 disposed at a predetermined pitch, as well as four radial slits disposed apart from each other at equal circumferential intervals. A first pair of light emitter 15 and light receiver 16 are disposed on the opposite sides of the rotating disk 10 in axially aligned relation with each other on a circle on which the circumferential slits 11 lie, in such a manner that during rotation of the disk 10, the circumferential slits 11 pass between the opposed first light emitter 15 and light receiver 16. Similarly, a second pair of light emitter 17 and light receiver 18 are disposed on the opposite sides of the rotating disk 10 in axial alignment with each other in a manner such that during rotation of the disk 10, the radial slits 12 pass between the opposed second light emitter 17 and the second light receiver 18. In the illustrated example, the number of radial slits 12 is four, which corresponds to a four-cylinder engine. When one of the slits 11 becomes aligned with the first light emitter 15 and the first light receiver 16 during rotation of the disk 10, light emitted from the first light emitter 15 passes through the now aligned slit 11 to reach the opposed second light receiver 16 which thereby generates an electric output signal in the form of a crank angle signal .theta.. Similarly, when one of the slits 12 becomes aligned with the second light emitter 17 and the second light receiver 18 during rotation of the disk 10, light emitted from the second light emitter 17 passes through the now aligned slit 12 to reach the opposed second light receiver 18 which thereby generates an electric output signal in the form of a reference signal T.
FIG. 6 illustrates waveforms of the crank angle signal .theta. and the reference signal T generated by the signal generator 1. The pitch or interval between adjacent pulses in the crank angle signal .theta. is set, for example, to about 0.5 degrees, whereas pulses in the reference signal T are sequentially generated at reference positions of cylinders #1, #3, #4 and #2. Accordingly, the rotating disk 10 must be mounted on the camshaft 9 in a precise manner so that each of the slits 12 exactly corresponds to the reference position of a corresponding cylinder, as shown in FIG. 5.
The operation of the known engine control apparatus as described and illustrated in FIG. 4 will now be described in detail with particular reference to FIGS. 5 and 6. As shown in FIG. 6, the signal generator 1 generates, in synchronization with the rotation of the unillustrated crankshaft, a reference signal T and a crank angle signal .theta. which are input to the control unit 3, whereupon the reference position setting means 31 in the control unit 3 generates a reference position signal T.theta. with a crank angle signal .theta., at which the reference signal T rises, being made as a reference position.
The position counter in the ignition timing setting means 32 counts the number of pulses in the crank angle signal .theta. until it is reset when the reference position indicated by the reference position signal T.theta. occurs. The ignition timing setting means 32 determines an optimal ignition timing (i.e., a corresponding crank angle) for each cylinder based on the counted value of the position counter and the engine operating conditions D, and then calculates a control time Ta from the reference position to the thus determined ignition timing. Although at this time, the ignition timing setting means 32 normally calculates the optimal ignition timing based on a preset map which is predetermined in accordance with the engine operating conditions D, a peak position of a cylinder pressure signal contained in the engine operating condition signal D is fed back to the ignition timing setting means 32 so that it is determined, based the cylinder pressure signal, whether ignition has actually taken place at an optimal instant.
With the known engine control apparatus as described above in which the reference position signal T.theta. is determined on the basis of the two different kinds of pulse signals T, .theta. generated by the signal generator 1, two separate sensing systems corresponding, respectively, to the first and second slits 11, 12 are required, thus adding to the cost of manufacture. Moreover, in cases where the rotating disk 10 has to be mounted on the engine crankshaft, it becomes difficult to properly dispose the photocouplers 15 through 18 since a very limited space is usually available around the crankshaft in an engine room of a vehicle. Moreover, in order for the signal generator to generate the reference signal T with a high degree of preciseness, highly precise mounting of the rotating disk 10 with respect to a rotating shaft such as a camshaft, an engine crankshaft and the like is also required.

Apparatus and method for controlling an internal combustion engine


In a memory system an interface circuit includes an interface to a memory array, and to a data signal. The circuit includes loopback circuitry to enable loopback of received data signals without having to access the data from the memory array. The circuit can be part of a memory device, a register device, or a data buffer. The circuit interfaces to a memory array of a memory device, and performs loopback functions for a host controller that can test the operation of the interface.

Processor throughput performance continues to increase with not just faster clock speeds that allow more operations per second, but with increasing numbers of parallel cores performing operations. The increased ability of a processor to perform more operations per second puts pressure on the interfaces to get instructions and data in and out of the processor with higher throughput to utilize the processor's performance capabilities. One primary exchange for the processor is with memory, which stores data used for the execution of operations, and stores the operation results. One mechanism to continue to exchange data between the processor and the memory is to increase the clock speed of the signaling used to exchange the data.
However, at data rates greater than approximately 3200 MT/s (mega-transfers per second), signal degradation due to inter symbol interference (ISI) is expected to increase. Additionally, the data eye at memory device connectors to the data bus is expected to be closed with non-point to point, single-loading configurations. The data eye refers to average phase of the rising and falling edges of signals sent across the signal lines interconnecting the devices. The data eye should have a consistent gap where transitioning of the input/output (I/O) signaling does not occur. Closure of the data eye refers to a scenario where the timing and voltage margins are tight enough that certain interference conditions can cause inconsistency in the signaling, making the average time of rising edges so close to the average time of falling edges to be too close to correctly sample and distinguish a signal bit. Thus, the data eye can be said to be "collapsed" when signaling transitioning occurs within the space that should not have signal transitioning. Since the memory channel data bus is expected to be very reflective due to the many impedance mismatched points that exist along the memory subsystem, ISI due to reflections is expected to increase.
Traditional methods of training or characterizing an I/O interface involve sending data from the host to the memory, and then reading the data back. Traditional testing or training involved the host or a host component, such as a memory controller, issuing write commands for the data to be sent, which the memory device would then store in the memory array. The host would then issue subsequent read commands for the data, which would then have to be retrieved from the memory array. Such a loopback procedure involves significant delays each time the memory array is accessed. Additionally, such a conventional approach may require refresh of the data in the memory array.
The loopback process would typically be iterated multiple times with different phase settings (based on different settings for voltages, currents, termination, phase compensation (e.g., delay locked loops), and other settings, or a combination) until signaling settings are determined that can meet an expected bit error rate (BER). BER goals may be on the order of 10−16 or 10−18 or better. Given such error rates, it has become impractical to generate and store the required amount of data in a memory to generate the required meaningful statistical data to determine the settings needed to meet the performance requirements. Thus, traditional methods of characterizing the receiver using the data eye or the input eye mask are insufficient for upcoming signaling targets.
Descriptions of certain details and implementations follow, including non-limiting descriptions of the figures, which may depict some or all examples, and well as other potential implementations.

Input/output (I/O) loopback function for I/O signaling testing


Security-state-reporting and data-control functionality introduced into a computer system to monitor and report the security state of the computer system and to store and make selectively available, for processes executing within a computer system, security-state-associated data. The hardware element includes two control registers, a current-security-state control register (“CSS”) and a current-data-bank control register (“CDB”). When the CSS is read, the CSS reports the current security state of the computer system, with security states represented as unsigned integers starting from a highest security level of 0 and decreasing with unsigned integers of increasing magnitudes. The CDB controls access to one or more data-register banks, positioning a data-register window to allow access only to those data-register-bank registers associated with the currently reported security state.

The present invention is related to computer-system security. A large effort is currently underway in the computing industry to provide secure computer systems to facilitate electronic commerce, storage of confidential information in commercial and governmental institutions, secure communications, and for facilitating construction of highly available, tamper-proof computer systems. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a number of important components within a single-processor computer-hardware platform. The hardware platform 101 includes a processor 103, random-access memory 105, and non-volatile data storage, such as a hard disk drive 107. The processor stores and retrieves data from memory 105 via a high-speed system bus 109. The high-speed system bus is interconnected to one or more lower-speed peripheral busses 111 via a system controller 113. A non-volatile data-storage controller 115 is connected to the peripheral bus 111 as well as to an input/output ("I/O") bus 117 which is connected to the non-volatile data-storage device 107. Additional I/O controllers, such as I/O controller 119, maybe connected to the one or more peripheral busses 111.
During operation, computer programs migrate from the mass-storage device or devices 107 to system memory 105, from where they are executed by the processor 103. Computer programs may also be received by an I/O controller from external devices and moved to system memory 105, from where they are executed by the processor 103. Initially, following power on of the computer system, the processor 103 may begin to execute instructions for a boot program stored in a small, non-volatile memory, such as a flash memory or other read-only memory constituting one or more integrated circuits. The manufacturer of a computer system may use various security techniques, such as digital signatures or other cryptography techniques, to ensure that only trusted, verified boot programs are executed by the processor. At a certain point during the boot process, the small boot program stored within a read-only memory device must begin to verify and then execute larger programs stored on one or more mass-storage devices, such as mass-storage device 107. Again, various security techniques, including cryptography techniques, can be used to continue a chain of trust by which each next-to-be-executed program is first verified by programs already loaded and executed. By this means, the computer system can be brought to life, in stages, following power-on or reset, in a secure fashion.
FIG. 2 is a flow-control diagram that illustrates a fundamental problem in secure computing. Following power on or reset, as described above, the computer system reads a trusted boot program from a read-only memory device and executes that trusted boot program in the initial stages of the boot process in step 202. Next, in step 204, the initially loaded boot program begins to control the hardware system to locate and move other trusted programs from one or more mass-storage devices into system memory for execution. As discussed above, this process may be continued to slowly build up a constellation of core executable programs necessary for operation of the computer system. Finally, a secure kernel may be fully loaded, following which one or more operating systems are loaded and launched, resulting in a useable, fully functioning computer system, with the secure kernel providing a secure interface through which one or more operating systems access system resources. In general, the operating system needs also to be secure, although an operating system may not need to be computationally verified, as necessary for secure kernels.
Although the above-described secure boot process is generally undertaken to bring the system to a fully functional and secure state, there are situations when it is desirable to launch programs that are not secure. For example, a system administrator may desire to boot the system up to a minimal level of functionality, and to then run a suite of diagnostics or administrative tools that are not secure, and then reboot the system. However, the ability to run unsecured programs necessitates that secure programs be provided insecure-state-sensing or insecure-state-sensing-and-disabling mechanisms, so that, for example, a secure boot is not continued or launched following execution of unsecured programs or routines. Otherwise, the carefully constructed chain of trust established by secure boot procedures may be thwarted.
Returning to FIG. 2, at some point during system initialization, an administrator may choose to load and execute untrusted, or, in other words, non-verified software programs, as shown in step 206. The system administrator should then perform a hard reset and reboot the system. However, a secure computer system cannot depend on human users to properly execute security procedures, because human users can easily forget to do so. Assuming that the system is not reset and rebooted following running of untrusted software, in step 206, then later, as shown in step 208, a secure boot program, operating system, or other secure program may be invoked or continued, but should not carry out operations that would expose secure data or invoke secure routines when the computer system is currently insecure. In certain sophisticated systems, rather than a binary differential between an absolutely secure state and an insecure state, a computer system may reside in a number of states associated with increasing security levels, from as insecure state through various partially secure states up to a secure state. For example, a system that has booted a third-party operating system may not be absolutely secure, but may be more secure than a system that has run one or more third-party application programs, or that has exchanged data with external devices via a communications medium. Should the program, in step 208, be constructed to employ security-state-sensing-and-disabling mechanisms, when the program undertakes some secure action, such as storing encryption keys, the security-state-sensing-and-disabling mechanisms may detect and prevent continued execution or operations that would result in compromising secure data. Additional software programs may run, as shown in step 210. Somewhat later, the same program that ran in step 208, or another, similar program, may run, in step 212, and may need to again be protected from carrying out operations that could compromise or expose secure data, or subsequent secure operation of the computer system. For example, the computer program running in step 212 may need to retrieve stored encryption keys, without fear that, by doing so, the program may expose the encryption keys to eavesdropping software agents or other malicious, untrusted processes running within the computer system. In general, the security state may only decrease in security following initialization.
Thus, a central problem in secure computing, as illustrated in FIG. 2, is the problem of reliably detecting insecure or partially secure states of a computer system at various points in time and preventing security-assuming operations from being carried out in insecure states, or, to be more exact, in states less secure than the security level assumed by a program for carrying out the operations. The problem is not trivial. In general, once any non-trusted software is executed, it is difficult for subsequent processes to determine the security state of a computer system without relying on some independent, trusted processing entity that can monitor the security state of the computer system. FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate one technique for monitoring the security state of the computer system currently promulgated by the trusted computing organization. As shown in FIG. 3, a trusted processing component provided by the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance ("TCPA"), called the trusted platform module ("TPM") 302, is added to the computer system. The TPM is an independent security-state monitor that provides, among other things, a simple interface to allow software processes to securely encrypt and decrypt data without risk of exposing encryption keys to malicious processes.
FIG. 4 illustrates the basic interface provided by a TPM. As shown in FIG. 4, the TPM 302 includes a processor 402, internal memory that stores security-state information representing the security state of the computer system 404, and internal memory 406 that stores private encryption keys used by the TPM to support the interface provided by the TPM to external processes. That interface includes three basic operations, illustrated in FIG. 4. First, an external process may transmit a current-state request 408 to the TPM and receive a response that includes an encapsulation of the current security state of the computer system 410. An external process may transmit a seal request 412, containing data that the external process wishes to protect 414, to the TPM which encrypts the data and returns to the external process a response 416 that includes the encrypted data 418. An external process may transmit an unseal request 420, containing encrypted data 424 previously encrypted by the TPM, to the TPM and receive a response 426 that includes the corresponding decrypted, or plain-text data 428. Thus, the TPM serves as a trusted data security device and security-state monitoring device. The TPM constantly monitors the state of the computer system by receiving metrics from components of the computer system and determining a current security state of the computer system by processing received metrics. Various types of metrics may be employed, including the contents of system memory, various hardware registers, and other components of the current, dynamic state of the computer system.
While the TPM can monitor the security state of a computer system, and report the current security state, the TPM provides for essentially 2160 possible security states, and even slight changes to the computational state of the computer system may lead to the TPM assigning a new security state to the computer system, depending, of course, on whether any of the slight changes impact the values of the metrics employed by the TPM to compute the current security state. Each time the security state changes, it may be difficult or impossible for secure data associated with a previous, more secure state to ever again be accessed. The TPM device is complex and adds expense to computer systems, and there are currently no provisions in the TPM standard for directly exporting security-state signals to other hardware components of a secure computer system, such as the system firmware refresh circuitry.
For all of these reasons, designers, manufacturers, and users of secure computer systems have recognized the need for a relatively simple, inexpensive, but reliable and computationally secure hardware entity and associated methodology for sensing the current security state of a computer system and preventing programs and routines executing on the computer system from carrying out operations incompatible with the current security state.

Method and system for securing a computer system

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A device to blend wet paint on walls, floors and the like surfaces to create a decorative faux effect comprising a rectangular aluminum plate having side clamps for holding an applicator pad material over a sponge removably attached to the bottom surface of the plate by hook and loop fastening material. The device has a handle which can be either a cantilever steel arm with a plastic grip or a C-shaped handle having both ends attached to the plate. The pad material can be either a fluffy wool, leather, a velvet cloth, a plastic sheet, a terry cloth, a denim cloth, or carpet fabric.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to wall decoration tools. More specifically, the invention is a lightweight paint blending tool for applying a faux paint finish to a wall or other surface. The device has two different sizes, a rectangular aluminum base with side clamps for holding a fluffy pad on a sponge base, and a full or half handle.
2. Description of the Related Art
The related art of interest describes various painting hand tools, but none discloses the present invention. There is a need for smoothing and creating decorative patterns of fresh paint on planar or even outwardly curved surfaces. The related art will be discussed in the order of perceived relevance to the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,866,206 issued on Feb. 2, 1999, for Barbara Jennings-Tolchiner describes decorative faux painting apparatus and methods of use comprising paint brushes, tapes, and a rectangular plastic handled tool having a plastic planar body with wool having its skin wrapped around the body, but the method of securing is not disclosed. No other equivalent pad materials have been disclosed. It has been found that this plastic device is fragile and readily broken in use. The device is distinguishable for its fragile structure and lack of a sponge backing and clamps.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,817,178 issued on Jun. 18, 1974, for Dean C. Hagen describes tools for ornamenting walls and ceilings comprising an aluminum or magnesium plate stock xe2x85x9 inch thick and 8.5 inches square attached to a backing plate having a screwed on full handle and a hook at the end for attaching a chain for ceiling coating of a cement mixture. Various foam and dense pads of polyurethane and the like of different densities and pattern shapes are used. The tools are distinguishable for the patterned pads and the chain hook.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,919,975 issued on Apr. 24, 1990, for Evan W. Jones describes an applicator device for producing a painted marbleized paint finish comprising a fluffy material boot cover with a tie string to attach to the circular domed head portion having a cylindrical handle. The tool is distinguishable for its distinctive boot cover and holder.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,414 issued on Jun. 21, 1977, for James T. McGuire describes a wall decorating paint applying device comprising of a one-piece rectangular cellulose sponge body having a relieved, design defining, paint imprinting face with a finger grippable, sponge handle portion. The device is distinguishable for its sponge body and handle.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,449,856 issued on Mar. 27, 1923, for Charles G. Hampson describes a stippling tool for paper and fabrics comprising a rectangular rubber sponge glued to a back support having a peripheral retaining bead. A full handle is attached to the back support. The tool is distinguishable for its simplified sponge and beaded back support with a handle.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,952,028 issued on Sep. 13, 1960, for Roy F. Robbins describes a rectangular cement and plastering trowel comprising a full handle on a rectangular metal base or guard having a finishing float of sponge rubber attached by adhesive. The trowel is distinguishable for being limited to the handle, metal base and sponge rubber.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,761,109 issued on Jun. 3, 1930, for Leo S. Dietz describes a plasterer""s float device comprising a rectangular sponge rubber block having a smooth face rubber cemented to a stiff back piece having a full handle fastened by screws. The back piece can be hard rubber, fibre, wood or metal. The device is distinguishable for being limited to a handle, back piece and rubber sponge.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,551,105 issued on May 1, 1951, for Leslie J. Eiden et al. describes a plastering tool comprising a full handle connected to a foraminous sheet between two layers of sponge rubber by posts and pins in the handle""s standards. The tool is distinguishable for requiring a foraminous metal core in the sponge rubber for attachment of the handle.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singularly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus, a device to blend paint on walls solving the aforementioned problems is desired.
The present invention is a lightweight paint blending tool for smoothing decorative faux, e.g., marbled, wet paint on walls and the like. The device has a rectangular aluminum base with side clamps for holding an applicator pad over a sponge, and a handle attached to the base. A first embodiment is drawn to a large size tool having a partial handle with an open end. A second embodiment is drawn to a smaller size tool having a full handle. The tool has hook and loop patches attached to the aluminum base which releasably mate with a rough, fibrous backing material backing on the sponge for releasably attaching the sponge to the base. The side clamps on the upper surface of the base clamp a sheet of applicator material selected from the group consisting of wool, terry cloth, carpet fabric, leather, velvet, plastic, and denim cloth. Freshly painted surfaces are slapped with the device to blend the colors together for a softer faux and more subtle effect. The sponge decreases the painful effect on one""s wrist after hours of slapping wet paint surfaces.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the invention to provide a tool for blending decorative faux paint on freshly painted walls.
It is another object of the invention to provide a faux paint blending tool having a sponge pad under a lightweight base covered by a wet paint applicator element to enable less painful effort by the painter.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a tool having side clamps for attaching the applicator element to the faux paint blending tool.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a tool utilizing a wet paint faux creating applicator element selected from the group consisting of wool, terry cloth, carpet fabric, leather, velvet, plastic, and denim cloth.
It is an object of the invention to provide improved elements and arrangements thereof for the purposes described which is inexpensive, dependable and fully effective in accomplishing its intended purposes.
These and other objects of the present invention will become readily apparent upon further review of the following specification and drawings.


A fire-resistant safe is made with internal and external shells that are filled with insulation material. Hollow reinforcements interconnecting the two shells are formed as cone-shaped recesses in the internal shell having truncated bottom portions attached to the external shell. The insulation is made of a water-bearing material and the recesses are made of a resin material that melts at a temperature in excess of the boiling point of water. Funnels are formed in the external shell for adding the insulation material in a liquid state. An escutcheon for covering the funnels is anchored to the insulation material by stakes that are embedded in the insulation material before the material hardens into place.

Fire-resistant storage containers, also referred to as fire-resistant safes, are generally constructed with internal and external shells that encapsulate spaces filled with insulation material. The internal shells form inner surfaces of the safes, and the external shells form outer surfaces of the safes. Together, the internal and external shells form a shuttering for molding the insulation material in place within the shells. The insulation material is generally made of a mixture that solidifies in the mold but retains a large amount of water within the solidified mass of material.
The internal and external shells are often fabricated from steel sheets, but can also be made as integral double-walled shells that are blow molded from a resin material. Several patents commonly assigned herewith describe the double-walled shells, blow molding processes for making the double-walled shells, and apparatus specially designed for carrying out the blow molding processes. These patents include: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,770,839 and 4,846,662 to Legge; U.S. Pat. No. 4,948,357 to Legge et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,290 to Brush, Jr., et al.; and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,898,707 and 4,993,582 to Arp. All of these patents are hereby incorporated by reference.
Separate double-walled shells of resin material are used to form a body of the safes having an opening for receiving contents and a closure (e.g., door, cover, drawer head) for closing the opening in the safe body. The respective double-walled resin shells of the safe body and the closure are both filled with insulation material. Although the resin material is combustible and the external shells of the safe body and the closure burn away in a fire, thereby exposing the insulation material, resin material between the body and the closure only partly melts away, leaving a seal around the opening between the body and the closure. The resin seal resists the conduction of heat and the passage of hot gases into the safes.
Several other advantages also accrue from use of resin material to form the internal and external shells of fire-resistant safes. For example, the resin shells provide a good vapor barrier to retard evaporation of water from the insulation material in both the safe body and the closure. Also, the resin material is lightweight, but resists abrasion and can be molded to a wide variety of shapes and textures.
However, when used as shutters for holding the insulation material in place while the insulation material cures and solidifies, the internal and external shells of resin material tend to bow apart, creating variations in the volume of insulation material required to fill the shells. Accordingly, it has been necessary to overfill the shells to prevent gaps from forming between the solidified insulation material and the resin shells.
Each of the double-walled shells of resin material is molded with a pair of funnels that are used to help fill the shells with the insulation material. Initially, the funnels are molded as closed projections but, thereafter, are cut open by a sawing operation at a predetermined height above the shells. One of the funnels (the larger of the two) guides insulation material into the shells. The other funnel allows air to escape from the shells while the shells are being filled. Air gaps between the insulation material and the resin shells are prevented by overfilling the shells so that the insulation material rises a considerable height (i.e., two centimeters or more) within the funnels.
The insulation material within the double-walled shells can be initially cured at elevated temperatures. This significantly reduces the total amount of time required to cure the insulation material. While curing, the double-walled shells of the safe body and the closure are braced together to maintain a tolerance for flatness of the respective external shells. The bracing is not removed until the insulation material is sufficiently cured to hold its desired shape.
After the insulation material has cured to a solid state, a second sawing operation is used to trim the funnels filled with insulation material to a limited height (i.e., less than one centimeter) above the double-walled shells. Following this, holes are drilled through the resin shells and insulation material for attaching a latching mechanism, and other holes are drilled through the insulation material within the funnels for attaching escutcheon plates covering the latching mechanisms and the funnels.
The sawing and drilling operations through both the resin material and the solidified insulation material are especially difficult because of the different cutting characteristics of the two materials. Accordingly, it is not possible to use tooling that is especially suited for cutting either material. The operations are also messy and time consuming. In addition, speed nuts or other fasteners for anchoring the escutcheon plates are clearly visible against the internal shells.

Hollow reinforcements for fire-resistant safes

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A connector assembly which has a housing and a cover. The housing has a connector mating face and a cover mating face. The cover is removably attached to the housing. The cover has a wire receiving cavity with an opening at the end of the cavity. One or more receptacle carrier receiving cavities extend through respective openings on either side of the housing, thereby allowing one or more receptacle carriers to be inserted into the respective receptacle receiving cavities through the respective openings on either side of the housing. The cover can be positioned on the housing in different orientations.

Connector assemblies having a lever are known in the industry. Generally, an electrical connector assembly of this type comprises a plug connector that is matable with a pin header, which has a shroud surrounding an array of printed circuit board pins. A rack and pinion and a lever are used to supply a mechanical advantage when the two electrical connectors are mated or unmated. The rack is located on the plug connector, which typically would include terminals attached to wires. The teeth forming the pinion are located on the lever so that the rack and pinion teeth intermesh as the lever is rotated about a pivot pin. Rotation of the lever mates or unmates the two electrical connectors. Connectors of this type are shown in DE 8714016 U, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,322,448, 6,247,966 and 6,736,655.
However, the prior art connectors as configured are difficult to manipulate, particularly if a large number of circuits or terminals are involved. Connectors that receive carriers or compounds which house the terminals allow for insertion of the carriers in only one direction. Therefore, as the number of circuits or terminals terminated increase, the carriers can become very long, making insertion of the carrier and wires into the connector very difficult and also making the connectors and the carriers difficult to mold. Additionally, the prior art connectors have openings in covers which allow the wires to be routed or dressed in only one direction. Particularly in compartment with little space, the manipulation of the wires into the correct orientation can be difficult.
Another problem with prior art is that the connectors are generally manufactured with the lever mounted on the housing. As the housing has many shoulders, surfaces and cavities, the manufacture of the housing is made difficult due to the complexity of the mold required to form the housing. Therefore, including additional lever mounting members on the housing further increases the complexity of the mold and the housing.
It is, therefore, desirable to provide a connector assembly which overcomes the disadvantages described, including providing a connector assembly which can easily be manufactured and assembled and which can be used in confined spaces.

Connector assembly with receptacle carriers


A processor may detect a risk on a local machine. The processor may determine that the risk warrants a heightened-level remediation. The processor may connect the local machine to a cloud-based desktop environment. The processor may perform the heightened-level remediation on the local machine. The processor may merge data from the cloud-based desktop environment to the local machine in response to the heightened-level remediation being performed.

The present disclosure relates generally to the field of cybersecurity, and more specifically to transitioning a user into a secure cloud-based desktop environment while remediation is performed on a local machine.
When a computing system is infected and the system needs remediation, quarantine, or reimaging, there is a loss of productivity for the user while waiting for issues to be remediated. Additionally, delays in detecting and responding to a risk can have significant consequences to the computing system and productivity of the user.