A method for control, analysis and simulation of research, development, manufacturing and distribution processes, in which the data relevant for describing the process are mapped in a four-dimensional coordinate space with the orthogonal coordinate axes source, sink, object or service and time and are stored in a relational database with tree structure, wherein, for logical connection of the coordinates source, sink and object or service during performance of an analysis or simulation, there are provided a transaction table, in which time-related information on inventory changes of data stored in the coordinates source, sink and object or service is recorded, and a resource table, in which time-related information on costs and capacities of the process under consideration is recorded.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a large number of methods and electronic data-processing systems for analysis/representation of management information processes and systems and to a computer-program product for implementing the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Management information systems (MIS) are an invention of the nineteen sixties. It was at that time, following the triumphs achieved in research centers, that the first attempts were made to apply this technology also for direct support of top management in strategic and leadership tasks. These attempts, as well as the second beginning in the nineteen eighties or early nineteen nineties (executive information systems (EIS)) were not rewarded with too much success.
With the advent and increasing spread of the "data warehouse" (DWH) technique, the 3rd wave of attempts to introduce MIS is now under way. This is taking place mainly under the "management cockpit" concept, on the basis of ultra-modern relational database techniques in combination with the most automated possible integration and aggregation of available on-line information about the corporation in question. This is made possible by the OLTP systems, such as SAP, that have now become widely available. Thus they make it possible to obtain a new quality of insight into and overview of even very large and possibly internationally networked corporations.
The main reason for the failure of the classical MIS technology and such beginnings/attempts in the nineteen sixties, eighties and nineties to also support management decisions and processes directly by electronic data-processing systems lies in the very inadequate degree of formalization and in the sometimes very great variance or variability of management information, processes and concepts. Heretofore management decisions and processes have been hostage to pronounced "modes" both of concepts and methods. However, technical (support) systems necessarily require a stable concept, reference and process framework in order to be able to reasonably work and be effective.
A further critical disadvantage lies in the relational database technique itself. It is merely able to represent 2-digit predicates (such as "x is_child_of y") as tables. The search complexity and search times increase exponentially with the number of relations or tables. Every introduction of a further dimension, classification or structure therefore has a considerable adverse effect on the performance of the overall system. This is a very imposing limitation precisely for very poorly structured domains, such as in management support systems. Quite particularly, these systems are characterized by what is generally an unforeseeable large number of possible structuring features that are expressly desired or needed by the customers or users.
In addition, the existing prior art generally offers no kind of help in classifying such corporations and markets logically and in a manner that will also be stable over prolonged time. In fact, no stable, universally applicable classification system has even been formulated as yet. To the contrary, the many possible structuring features are treated in largely equivalent manner by the electronic data-processing systems and their developers and suppliers. This unnecessarily increases the overall system complexity, prevents portability of results, and makes the systems slow, cumbersome and frequently also impossible to maintain.
A problem that needs to be overcome includes developing a stable, generally valid, simple but also largely universally applicable basic classification for research, development, manufacturing, distribution and other processes. Such a classification must be designed so that it can be easily implemented in an appropriate electronic data-processing support-system architecture. In addition, a suitable flow-control principle based on this (electronic data-processing) architecture must be found for this purpose. Thus it will be necessary to address the problems alluded to in the foregoing: of diversity and ambiguity (resulting from the variability of the control requirements), of the exponential increase in complexity and the associated run-time behavior of the electronic data-processing systems, and of the overall system complexity and operability of such systems from the user's viewpoint.
The inventor has described methods and processes for overcoming the problems of the prior art.

Method for control, analysis and simulation of research, development, manufacturing and distribution processes


The present invention relates to a highly efficient carbazole-based compound and to an organic electroluminescence device including the same. According to the present invention, provided are a compound for an organic electroluminescence device and an organic electroluminescence device including the compound, in which a carbazole-based phosphine oxide compound, which is a compound intended for an organic electroluminescence device, is employed to overcome the problems of conventional compounds for organic electroluminescence devices, i.e. those of instable thermal stability and low efficiency, and particularly, the compound of the present invention exhibits superior efficiency in pure-blue phosphorescent devices.

Organic electroluminescence devices have a simpler structure, various processing advantages, higher luminance, superior viewing angle, quicker response rate, and a lower operating voltage than other flat panel display devices such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs), plasma display panels (PDPs), field emission displays (FEDs), etc., and thus many attempts are being made to use them as a light source of flat panel displays such as wall-mountable TVs or of the backlight units of displays, illuminators, advertisement boards and the like.
Typically, when direct-current voltage is applied to an organic electroluminescence device, holes injected from an anode and electrons injected from a cathode recombine to form electron-hole pairs, namely, excitons, after which the excitons return to a stable ground state and the corresponding energy is transferred to a light-emitting material and is thereby converted into light.
In an effort to increase efficiency and stability of an organic electroluminescence device, since C. W. Tang et al. of Eastman Kodak Company made an organic electroluminescence device operating at low voltage by forming a tandem thin organic film between two opposite electrodes (C. W. Tang, S. A. Vanslyke, Applied Physics Letters, vol. 51, pp. 913, 1987), thorough research into organic materials for organic electroluminescence devices with multilayered thin-film structures is ongoing. The lifetime of such a tandem organic electroluminescence device is closely related to the stability of the thin film and the material. For example, when the thermal stability of the material is lowered, the material may crystallize at high temperature or even at the operating temperature, undesirably shortening the lifetime of the device.
A variety of known compounds function as the conventional host materials of organic electroluminescence devices. These include triazine-based compounds, oxadiazole-based compounds, benzimidazole-based compounds, phenyl pyridine-based compounds, and silicon-based compounds. However, such compounds are problematic because superior efficiency characteristics cannot be achieved in the organic electroluminescence devices, and host materials able to exhibit superior characteristics in blue phosphorescent devices are considerably limited. Hence, the development of novel compounds to solve such problems is required.
As a novel host material, a novel phosphine oxide-based compound has been reported. With this compound, however, it is difficult to attain high efficiency.
Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2006-0109524 discloses an arylphosphine oxide-based compound, an arylphosphine sulfide-based compound or an arylphosphine selenide-based compound and an organic electroluminescence device using the same, but is problematic because high efficiency cannot be obtained in a pure-blue phosphorescent device.
Applied Physics Letter (Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 083308, 2008) discloses a blue phosphorescent device using a phosphine oxide compound having a fluorene structure, but the quantum efficiency of the device is only about 9%, undesirably resulting in low device efficiency.
As conventional compounds having high triplet energy, a variety of carbazole-based compounds have been developed. The carbazole-based compounds have been applied to various phosphorescent devices because of high triplet energy thereof, but are problematic because electron injection characteristics may deteriorate, undesirably limiting diverse applications thereof. In the case where an aromatic structure is introduced to improve thermal stability, triplet energy may decrease, undesirably resulting in limited applications.
Accordingly, with the goal of overcoming the problems of the conventional organic material having high triplet energy, the present invention is intended to develop a novel host material, namely, a phosphine-based compound having a carbazole structure, and to apply it as the host material of a light-emitting layer of an organic electroluminescence device.

Highly efficient carbazole-based compound, and organic electroluminescence device comprising same


A method of treatment of a diseased patient in which a dose of at least one heavy metal is delivered to the patient, with a surface area which is accessible for direct contact with the patient's tissue and effects release of heavy metal ions for uptake by immuno reactive cells. The criteria to be complied with in order for the heavy metal to be effective is that the surface area is greater than the surface area of a solid sphere of the same at least one heavy metal, and that the solid sphere and dose have the same weight. In a preferred embodiment, the dose of heavy metals is delivered to the patient as very small hollow particles.

The present invention relates to methods of treatment of a diseased patient in which a dose of at least one heavy metal such as a noble metal, e.g. gold, is delivered to a patient.
In the present application the term "patient" covers all kinds of "mammals" defined as warm-blooded higher vertebrates that nourish their young with milk secreted by mammary glands. In particular, this definition includes humans and other animals that are capable of producing an immune response.
When used in the present application the term "heavy metal" refers to heavy metals as defined by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Heavy Metals Protocol: " . . . those metals or, in some cases, metalloids which are stable and have a density greater than 4.5 g/cm3 and their compounds". However, for use in the present application metalloids are not contemplated and therefore not included.
The term "reticulated heavy metal" is in the present invention used for a heavy metal surface delicately wrinkled.
Heavy metals such as the noble metals gold and silver, and mercury have been used since ancient times as cures for a wide range of diseases including tuberculosis, but only within the last 50 years, a more rational basis for the therapeutic use of gold and silver has emerged. The use of gold implants originates from acupuncture where gold needles seem to have been used quite often. In the early 1970s some US veterinarians started to treat dogs suffering from hip dysplasia with gold implants, and since then several veterinary surgeons and medical doctors have implemented the technique on their patients. The authorized and scientifically well-founded use of gold in rheumatoid arthritis is mainly performed with various gold-thio compounds such as gold sodium thiomalate, commercially available from Aventis Pharma as MYOCRISIN®.
Quite early on it was suggested that gold inhibits the lysosomal enzymes of phagocytotic cells in the inflamed synovial tissue. Although knowledge of the effect of gold ions on the cellular immune response is still relatively sparse, it is recognized that gold ions are powerful inhibitors of macrophages and polymorphonuclear leucocytes, and the ability of gold-thio compounds to suppress inflammation in rheumatic joints was established a long time ago. Gold ions are believed to inhibit antigen processing and to suppress NF-kappa B binding activity and 1-kappa B-kinase activation, resulting in a reduced production of proinflammatory cytokines.
Conventional gold therapy uses rather large doses i.e. the amount of released gold ions are high and involve the whole organism. As gold ions are toxic to the kidneys treatment with gold compounds take place only at hospitals. There are evidence suggesting that very low doses of gold can have pharmacological effects. [Gold And Its Relationship To Neurological/Glandular Conditions; Douglas G. Richards, Ph.D., David L. McMillin, M.A., Eric A. Mein, M.D., Carl D. Nelson, D.C., Intern. J. Neuroscience, 2002, Vol. 112, pages 31-53]. Gold drugs used in rheumatoid arthritis are typically administered in relatively large doses and the relationship between dosage and response is not simple. Dosages as low as 10 mg/week appear according to prior art to be no different from 50 mg/week, which in turn is as effective as 150 mg/week [Speight T M, Holford N H G, (editors). Avery's Drug treatment. 4th edition. Auckland: Adis; 1997: p. 1129].
Kidney damage after treatment with gold compounds is often a typical complication. No prior evidence exists of how little a dose of a gold compounds that can still produce a therapeutic effect. Nor does the prior art discloses unambiguously in which geometrical shape pure heavy metals, such as metallic gold, are optimum applied and delivered to a patient for treatment of diseases and maladies to achieve therapeutic effects.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,606,354 discloses an implant for treatment of arthritic related pain. A carbon fiber coated with a discontinuous gold plating constitutes a self-contained, body-demanded galvanic couples that uses the body joint fluids as an electrical conductive electrolyte. This implant delivers gold ions in a very confined area and the continuous effect relies entirely upon a postulated galvanic action between gold and carbon in combination with the presence of sufficient amounts of body fluids. Another implant for treating rheumatoid arthritis is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,405,311. Electrically generated gold ions are injected in the patient's joint. This implant needs to be constantly powered by an external battery. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 3,877,461 describes a contraceptive vas deferens valve implant using a.o. a cobber coating as a spermicidal agent and a gold taping wire purely serving as an ingrowth means.
In the method according to WO 94/21288, a composition comprising a colloidal metal in combination with a substance which normally is toxic to a human and an animal capable of producing an immune response is administered to the human or animal. The colloidal metal is added solely to make the toxic substance less toxic or non-toxic to the recipient. WO 94/21288 is however silent about the use of delivering pure metallic gold to the patient. The colloidal metal suggested in WO 94/21288 is HAuCl4. However hydrogen tetrachloroaurate is not a colloidal metal as such but the chemical precursor in the general methods for producing colloidal gold, in which gold nanoparticles are produced in a liquid by reduction of HAuCl4.
Autometallographic (AMG) silver enhancement has been implemented as a tool for enhancing colloidal gold particles bound to antibodies and enzymes. [Danscher, G. (1981) Localization of gold in biological tissue. A photochemical method for light and electronmicroscopy. Histochemistry 71: 81-88; Danscher, G. and J. O. R. Nørgaard (1983) J. Histochem. Cytochem. 31/12: 1394-1398. Holgate et al. (1983) J. of Histochem. Cytochem. 31/7, 938-944]. As is clear from the above the prior art has recognized some advantages of gold treatments but still struggles with the problem of delivering a correct dose and form of heavy metals, in particular gold, to the patient in order to suppress the immuno reactive cells. To obtain suppression of the immuno reactive cells and at the same time avoid or minimize manifestation of undesirable effects it is essential that the correct dose of heavy metal is delivered in a manner and amount appropriate and sufficient for a diseased patient. The present invention now addresses the shortcomings of the prior art in a novel and unexpected way.

Medicament and method of treatment of patients with heavy metals


A self clocking comparator for clocking a charge pump providing a high voltage output including multiple gain stages and a reset circuit. The gain stages are configured to assert the compare voltage at a first voltage level in a default state when the sense voltage is greater than the reference voltage, and to assert the compare voltage to a second voltage level in a reset state when the sense voltage falls below the reference voltage. The reset circuit resets, or otherwise forces, the gain stages back to the default state in response to the compare voltage transitioning to the second voltage level. The compare voltage oscillates while the sense voltage is less than the reference voltage at a frequency based on a magnitude of a difference between the sense voltage and the reference voltage up to a predetermined maximum frequency level.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to charge pump configurations, and more particularly to a self clocking comparator for providing pump clocks to drive a charge pump.
Description of the Related Art
In order to perform useful functions at a normal chip current level (e.g., on the order of microamperes, μA), it is sometimes useful to generate a voltage larger than the highest supply voltage provided to the chip. This is especially true when the minimum specified supply voltage for the part is quite low. The supply voltage may be as low as 1 to 2 Volts (V), such as, for example, about 1.6 Volts (V). A charge pump can generate a voltage larger than the supply voltage, but it is challenging to operate one efficiently at low current levels (e.g., in the nanoampere (nA) range).
A charge pump may use switched capacitors to generate a voltage higher than the supply voltage. A digital clock is needed to control the phases of switches connecting capacitors between ground (GND, or VSS), the supply voltage (e.g., VDD), an output voltage, and/or any other potential levels. The generated voltage can be controlled either by continuously switching or pumping the capacitors and regulating the resulting voltage down to the desired level, or by only pumping as needed such as by gating a separate pump clock that controls the capacitor switching and directly using the switched capacitor output.
A comparator regulates the charge pump output by monitoring and comparing the output to a desired level and generating a digital signal. The use of the charge pump output voltage generally draws current from the developed voltage. To keep the output at the desired level, the charge pump has to be able to provide this current. The frequency that the capacitors can switch multiplied by the size of those capacitors is proportional to the current that can be provided.
The comparator has some delay so that when the inputs cross each other such that the output of the comparator is expected to change, there is some delay in time before the comparator output does, in fact, change. In the classic configuration where the comparator output gates an independent clock source, at some point the output rises above the desired level and continues rising for a period of time related to the delay through the comparator. This voltage excursion is related to the capacitor switching frequency multiplied by the size of the capacitors so it is proportional to the maximum current that can be provided by the charge pump. If the voltage excursion is too large, the charge pump output tends to oscillate back and forth causing the control loop to unstable or nearly unstable. This imposes a limit on how much delay can be tolerated in the comparator to support a given amount of current out of the charge pump. The delay requirement in the comparator determines the current that may be consumed in the comparator.

Self clocking comparator for a charge pump


In a polarization dependency type optical isolator comprising wedgelike polarizing prisms 3 and 5 and a Faraday rotator 4, the mode field diameters of an input side fiber 1 and an output side fiber 7 are the same as that of a transmission fiber and an erbium-doped fiber to be connected to them. The shape and other features of each lens are controlled so that the spot size of a parallel ray which is converted from an incident ray by an input side lens 2 is equal to the spot size of a parallel ray which is converted by an output side lens 6 when a reference beam is irradiated from the fiber 7. In a rare-earth-doped fiber optical amplifier using an optical isolator which is configured in a manner similar to this, the connecting portion of the fiber and the optical isolator can be spliced by fusion without increasing the insertion loss of the optical isolator in the forward direction and the connection loss due to a difference in the mode field diameter is reduced. Therefore, the noise figure decreases and the gain increases.

The present invention relates to an optical amplifier using the optical amplification of a rare earth-doped fiber, and relates to an optical isolator and an optical circuit which are used for the above optical amplifier.
The above optical isolator includes characteristics that a ray penetrates in the direction from the input side to the output side with little loss but scarcely penetrates in the direction from the output side to the input side and the basic structure thereof is well known.
A conventional optical amplifier is discussed in, for example, "1990 Spring national convention record, the institute of electronics, information and communication engineers C-273". In this reference an optical amplifier comprising an Er-doped fiber, a pumping light source, an optical circuit which can couple pumping light from the pumping light source and an optical signal from a transmission fiber, and optical isolators without polarization dependency which are connected to the input side end and the output side end of the Er-doped fiber respectively is disclosed. The used Er-doped fiber is an Alcodoped 1.55 .mu.m dispersion sifted fiber with an Er concentration of 66 ppm and a refractive index difference .DELTA. of 1.2%. The maximum gain at a pumping light input of 25 mW with a wavelength of 1.48 .mu.m is 27.5 dB for forward single pumping or 33.0 dB for bidirectional pumping.
To increase the pumping efficiency of the above Er-doped fiber in the above prior art, the Er doping concentration, the core diameter for doping Er, and the refractive index of the core are controlled. However, no consideration is given to connection losses at the connecting portions with the optical isolator at the input side end and the output side end of the above Er-doped fiber.
The outline of the optical fiber amplifier is indicated in, for example, M. Horiguchi; Kogaku (Optics), Vol. 19, No. 5 (May, 1990), pp. 276-282.

Optical isolator, optical circuit, and rare-earth-doped fiber optical amplifier


A mattress border has two transverse stitched seams spaced apart lengthwise thereof. A strap has its two opposite end regions held in the two seams respectively.

This invention relates to a handle structure for a mattress.
A conventional mattress, whether of twin, double, queen or king size, is generally parallelepipedal in form and has top and bottom surfaces and a peripheral wall. The top and bottom and the peripheral wall of the mattress are made of fabric known as tick. A decorative tape is used to bind the seams joining the wall to the top and bottom of the mattress.
It is conventional to attach handles to the wall of the mattress to facilitate lifting and turning of the mattress. A common form of handle is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,248,328 and comprises a flexible cord having a tubular ferrule at each end, each ferrule being provided with a projecting finger or barb. Two grommets are fitted in the mattress wall, about five inches apart and are linked by a backing bar of steel or tough synthetic polymer material. The tubular ferrules are inserted through the grommets respectively and are held in position by the barbs, which hook behind the grommets. The backing bar serves to protect the mattress wall from damage by the barb.
For many years, inner spring and foam mattresses were manufactured with a standard thickness of approximately seven inches. Recently, however, mattresses that are substantially thicker than seven inches, even up to about sixteen inches in thickness, have been manufactured in order to capture the luxury market, which is driven by demand for greater comfort and superior back support. Since the structure of the newer thicker mattress is the same as that of the older standard mattresses, the newer mattress contains much more material and accordingly the newer mattress is much heavier than the older standard mattress. Further, some mattresses are now made of a latex material and a mattress made of latex material can be substantially heavier than an innerspring or foam mattress of the same size and thickness.
The conventional type of handle, as described in U.S. Pat. 2,248,328 functions well with a mattress of the standard thickness and of conventional (innerspring or foam) construction but it may become detached from the wall of a heavier mattress when the mattress is lifted or turned. Further, the cord of the conventional handle tends to dig into the hand of the person lifting or turning the mattress, and in the case of a heavier mattress, this may cause discomfort and even injury.
In order to alleviate the problems of the conventional handle, it has been proposed that a mattress handle should be made from a strip of fabric having two end regions by which the strap is sewn securely to the mattress wall. In a particular instance of this type of handle, the end regions of the strap are square in configuration and each end region is sewn to the mattress wall along all four sides of the square, along the two diagonals and along a line midway between the upper and lower sides of the square. This type of handle, and its manner of attachment, overcome the disadvantages of the conventional handle. However, it has proven impractical to automate the operation by which the handle is placed on the mattress wall and the end regions of the handle are sewn to the mattress wall and therefore it is necessary for an operator to position the strap and guide the sewing machine head along the desired path. Consequently, it is expensive and time consuming to attach the handle to the mattress wall by sewing in accordance with the pattern described above.


A stabilization seal is used with existing cannulas for forming a gas-tight seal with tissue in a body wall. The stabilization seal includes a cylindrical inflatable elongate tube having a graduated wall-thickness that is thicker in a central region and thinner in a distal-end region. The tube includes a sealing cuff, having an inflation port, for sealing around a cannula. Application of inflation pressure greatly expands the distal-end region while the central region expands slightly. Another embodiment of a stabilization seal includes an inflatable thread that is used with a cannula having a helical channel on its outer surface. An inflatable tube is wound into the channel. A distal end of the tube includes a gas-tight seal and a proximal end of the tube includes an inflation port. In the uninflated condition the nested tube is flush with the channel. Inflating the tube enlarges the cannula assembly.

This invention relates generally to trocar systems including cannulas and, more specifically, to trocars having a cannula stabilization seal.
Trocar systems have been of particular advantage in facilitating less invasive surgery across a body wall and within a body cavity. This is particularly true in abdominal surgery where trocars have provided a working channel across the abdominal wall to facilitate the use of instruments within the abdominal cavity.
Trocar systems typically include a cannula, which provides the working channel, and an obturator that is used to place the cannula across a body wall, such as the abdominal wall. The obturator is inserted into the working channel of the cannula and pushed through the body wall with a penetration force of sufficient magnitude to result in penetration of the body wall. Once the cannula has traversed the body wall, the obturator can be removed.
With the cannula in place in the body wall, various instruments may be inserted through the cannula into the body cavity. One or more cannulas may be used during a procedure. During the procedure, the surgeon manipulates the instruments in the cannulas, sometimes using more than one instrument at a time. The manipulation of an instrument by a surgeon may cause frictional forces between the instrument and the cannula in which the instrument is inserted. These frictional forces may result in movement of the cannula in an inward or outward direction within the body wall. If the cannula is not fixed in place, there is a potential that proximal or distal motions of the instruments through the cannula may cause the cannula to slip out of the body wall or to protrude further into the body cavity, possibly leading to injury to the patient.
The surfaces of the cannula associated with a trocar are generally smooth. The smoothness of a cannula surface makes placement of the cannula through a body wall relatively easy and safe. However, a smooth cannula may not have desired retention characteristics once the cannula has been placed through a body wall. This may present problems as instruments and specimens are removed from a body cavity through the cannula and the associated seal systems of the trocar. It is highly desirable for a cannula to remain fixed in the most appropriate position once placed.
Many solutions to the issue of trocar-cannula fixation or stabilization have been formed. These include an inflatable balloon attached to the distal portion of a cannula, raised threads or rings associated with the outer surface of the cannula, mechanically deployable enlarging portions arranged at the distal end of a cannula and suture loops or hooks associated with the proximal end of the trocar. These solutions have provided some degree of fixation or stabilization. However, there remains a need for a fixation or stabilization device that may be used with a variety of trocar-cannulas and addresses the additional requirements associated with developing laparoscopic surgical procedures and techniques. More particularly, the cannula must provide retention means to prevent the cannula from slipping out of the body cavity and provide sufficient sealing force to provide a gas-tight seal against adjacent tissue in the body wall.


Images representing search results are displayed on a screen of a computer system. The search results are responsive to a search in a database initiated by a user by entering a keyword or keywords via an input device. The images are displayed in such a way that an image corresponding to the highest matching value is the largest is size, while remaining matches are represented by images in direct proportion to their relevance to the keyword. In addition, the relevance of an image is indicated by its proximity to the keyword displayed on the screen: the closer the displayed image to the keyword, the more relevant the match represented by that image is to that keyword. This display operation is equivalent to two simultaneous searches with boolean operators "OR" and "AND". A graphical squeegee may be dragged across images representing search results in order to filter the results based on a keyword. The squeegee is displayed as a vertical bar and is associated with a keyword. As the squeegee is moved across the screen, images relevant to the keyword are moved while remaining images are not moved.

The invention is related to a Graphical User Interface (GUI) and, in particular, a method for graphically displaying on a computer screen results of a search conducted on the Internet, local and remote databases of content providers, etc.
It is widely known that search engines, i.e., computer programs written to perform searches of databases, mainly use three boolean operators "AND", "OR" and "NOT". A typical search request might be "word X AND word Y" where both words must occur in a document to designate a particular document as being of relevance to a user.
There are several problems with these types of search requests. Unless the user enters the desired Boolean operator, the search engine must use a default operator, such as "AND" for example. Furthermore, the user generally cannot use both of the Boolean operators "AND" and "OR" in the same search. In this case, two separate searches are required to be performed to obtain the desired results.
In addition in the prior art, after the request has been entered by the user, the search engine examines multiple documents on the Internet, for example, for the entered keywords. A full text search, a document title search, a document abstract search, etc. may be executed. Depending on the search engine algorithm, which in many cases is proprietary, a list of results is then produced which the search engine determined, according to its algorithm, to be relevant to the user request.
A typical list of search results from the Internet is shown in FIG. 1. The documents are listed in descending order based on their relevancy values. Unless the user carefully examines these figures for each "hit" buried in the list of search results, he or she may be unaware of the large difference in relevancy values between the second and third "hits" in FIG. 1, for example. Furthermore, a list of "hits" in descending order generally indicates that one "hit" is more relevant than the other "hit", because one "hit" is numbered 3 and the other is numbered 4. Yet this is not the case with typical search engines 15 as is apparent from FIG. 1. The two "hits" labeled 102 and 104 in FIG. 1 have the same relevancy but are displayed sequentially, possibly confusing and misleading the user about the search results.

Method for filtering search results with a graphical squeegee


An aeration-type rotary dryer injects air into or onto a flow of materials a rotating cylinder. The air is supplied to an air duct (21) axially passing through the cylinder (10) from the outlet box (11) to the inlet box (12). The axial duct (21) is composed of a plurality of longitudinally, successively connected tubular members (22, 23, 24) each nearer to the inlet box being smaller in diameter than other. The most inlet-sided member (24), located in a central opening (32) of an inlet partition (31) of the cylinder, has the smallest diameter, so that the inlet partition has the central opening reduced and its threshold height increased. This results that the materials are prevented from returning to the inlet box out of the cylinder. The most outlet-sided member (22), located in a central opening (34) of an outlet partition (33) of the cylinder, has the largest diameter, so that a void space in the central opening (34) may be too small to exhaust air. There is a remedy that air exhausts through the outlet partition (33) composed of a plurality of louvers (35) which are disposed at regular intervals on the inner periphery of the cylinder. This allows the dryer to double an amount of exhaust air as well as a drying capacity as compared with the conventional non-aeration type rotary dryer having the same size cylinder.

The prior art aeration-type rotary dryer is known by U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,759. The dryer has inlet and outlet boxes, a rotary cylinder having opposite open end portions rotatably and air-tightly fitted in the inlet and outlet boxes, a means for rotating the cylinder, a feeder provided in the inlet box, an air duct having a uniform diameter and axially extending in the cylinder, a hot-air source supplying the axial duct with the hot air, a plurality of radial pipes branched from the duct, an exhaust and a discharge port each provided in the outlet box. The rotary cylinder is provided at its opposite ends with inlet and outlet partitions in the form of a hollow circular plate. The inlet partition is formed with a central opening through which pass the chute of the feeder and the air duct. The outlet partition is also formed with a central opening through which the used air and the treated materials are discharged to the outlet box.
The moist materials form a flow when fed into the cylinder. The flow would overflow to the inlet box if its depth is larger than the radial width or threshold height of the inlet partition. This means that the dryer is sometimes limited in capacity by the radial width of the inlet partition. The conventional aeration-type dryer requires the inlet partition thereof to have a relatively large central opening to receive the chute of the feeder and the air duct of a relatively large diameter, so that the inlet partition inevitably has a relatively small radial width or relatively low threshold. Therefore, it is limited to enlarge the radial width of the inlet partition in order to increase the feeding speed.
The materials, when treated, leave the cylinder to the outlet box through the central opening in the outlet partition threshold plate. The used air also exhausts from the same opening. The dryer can not have a larger capacity without increasing an amount of the exhaust air that is defined by an effective area of the opening in the outlet threshold. If the opening were diametrically enlarged to increase the amount of an exhaust air, the radial width or height of the threshold would become too low to keep the materials in the cylinder for a desired time, resulting in that the dryer would discharge the materials insufficiently treated. Besides, the dryer has another disadvantage that the outlet partition prevents lumps in the materials from discharging to the outlet box, because the radial width or threshold of the outlet partition is too high for the lumps to get over the outlet partition. The dryer has the radial pipes extending near to the surface or into the inside of the flow of materials to inject hot air to the materials from the outer ends of the pipes. However, it is not easy to always provide the radial pipes with outer ends thereof disposed at optimum positions to blow the hot air to the flow of materials. The reason for this is that the radial pipes are not angularly adjustable but fixed while the flow of materials has such a surface that is partially differently inclined in response to the physical properties of the materials as well as the rotational speed of the cylinder.
The present invention is intended to solve the problems as described above. It is therefore an object of the invention is to provide an aeration-type rotary dryer having a chargeable capacity increased by the use of an inlet partition with a small central opening.
It is another object of the invention to provide an aeration rotary dryer having an exhaust to be increased without enlarging a central opening in an outlet partition.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an aeration-type rotary dryer enabling to discharge lumps contained in materials without trouble.
It is still another object of the invention to provide an aeration-type rotary dryer having an air duct composed of successively connected tubular members of which the upstream is larger in diameter than the downstream, in order to adjust an amount of air injected from radial pipes branched from each tubular member.


A drive arrangement for a motor vehicle functional part includes: a housing, in which a drive motor, a gear mechanism and an adjustor are provided at least partially; a drive shaft configured to transfer the adjustor via the gear mechanism from a closed position into an open position and vice versa; and a wrap spring arrangement comprising two wrap spring members, which act in opposite directions. The wrap spring arrangement is arranged on a gear mechanism output side, in a region of the adjustor.

Drive arrangements are used in the automotive field in a versatile way. Here, the terms closed position and open position are used by way of example. They also comprise positions, such as a retracted position and an extended position and also a folded-in position and a folded-out position. One example of a drive arrangement of this type can be found in German patent specification 34 34 905 C2. Here, a drive motor which is configured as an electric motor acts via a drive shaft and a gear mechanism arrangement on an adjusting member which is configured as a drum, in order to actuate a window pane. In order then to provide a rotational direction locking means in a simple way, a wrap spring arrangement, consisting of a first wrap spring member and a second wrap spring member which act in opposite directions, is provided on the drive shaft. Wrap spring members of this type are well known and can bring about a type of freewheel of the associated shaft in the one direction here and locking of the associated shaft in the other direction.
It is a disadvantage of the above-described drive arrangement, however, that the gear mechanism arrangement, for example consisting of a plurality of gearwheels, causes a play. Said play is perceived as disruptive by the user and gives him/her the impression of a product which has not been produced with sufficient quality.

Drive arrangement for a motor vehicle functional part

Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche Aktiengesellschaft


A method, a data network arrangement and a computer program product by which a comparator can be implemented in a data network. The user of the comparator stores his evaluation of the properties included in the targets to be evaluated in a database in the server in the data network using a graphic one- or two-dimensional evaluation frame. In the comparator the comparator user's evaluations are compared to property evaluations given by a reference user. When calculating the total accuracy percentage of the comparison the evaluations given by the comparator user are weighted with a weighting coefficient, which is obtained by normalizing first the importance evaluations of all the properties given by the reference user and by using the normalized importance evaluation of a certain property as the weighting coefficient for this property.

The invention relates to a comparator, a comparison method utilised therein and a data network arrangement for implementing the comparison of the properties of a comparison target utilising a user's data processing device and a graphic comparison tool in the comparator. The invention also relates to a computer program to be utilised in the comparator.
The comparing of two or more comparison targets can be implemented by utilising a data network. The comparison target may for example be a product, a service, a travel destination, a person etc. The purpose of the comparison is to produce a final result, on the basis of which a target can be presented to a person performing the comparison from several possible comparison targets, which target best corresponds to the needs and desires of the person performing the comparison with regards to the properties used in the comparison, which describe the comparison target.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,693,743 presents a data collection and presentation method functioning in a data network, where a stepless two-dimensional data collection and presentation manner is utilised for collecting opinions and presenting the results of the inquiry. The presented manner is known as a fourfold model. In the method according to the publication the operation is based on collecting evaluation data with the aid of a data network from persons selected by the person administrating the inquiry, the so-called inquiry creator, in two or more dimensions. The evaluation results of each evaluator are normalised per respondent, so that the average of the evaluation points of the evaluator entered into the fourfold is set in the origin and the dispersion (standard deviation or some other value describing dispersion) in a set standard value for each person performing the evaluation. With the described method the given responses can be scaled so that the evaluator's order of importance of different properties of the evaluation target are detected from the inquiry results, even if the responses given by some evaluator of the properties being evaluated were to be concentrated close together. Additionally the order of importance given to the properties by a single evaluator can be scaled with the responses given by other participants in the inquiry. The scaled result can also be called a normalised result.
The two-dimensional inquiry frame, the fourfold, has been used also in a so-called comparator, which can be used for example via the Internet. Reference responses given by a so-called reference user have been entered into the comparator, which reference responses illustrate as realistically as possible certain selected properties of the comparison target. The actual user of the comparator responds to the same questions as the reference user, whereby a conclusion can be made with the aid of the inquiry regarding how congruent the opinion of the actual user and the opinion of the reference user are regarding the evaluated properties of a certain evaluation target.
One application of the comparator is a so-called election machine, by using which a private person can compare his own opinions against the opinions of the persons nominated in the election.
The comparator can comprise several different two-dimensional question fourfolds and/or one-dimensional evaluation lines.
A single question fourfold of the comparator consists of two properties to be examined, which are set perpendicularly against each other in the displayed fourfold. With the aid of the question fourfold the properties to be compared are in some way related to each other. Each property is in the question fourfold described for example with numerical values 0-100%. Any values can naturally be selected as the numerical values of the end points, for example −10 and +10. Alternatively the properties to be compared can be described with word pairs, e.g. disagreeagree, badgood or unimportantimportant.
In the examples in FIGS. 1a-1c the numerical value 0% of the horizontal axis of the fourfolds is situated in the left edge of the question fourfold and the numerical value 100% in the right edge of the question fourfold. Correspondingly the numerical value 0% of the vertical axis of the question fourfold is situated in the lower edge of the question fourfold and the numerical value 100% in the top edge of the question fourfold. What corresponds to a numerical value of 0% or 100% for each property is based on the definition made by the creator of the comparison procedure.
A person using the two-dimensional comparator, either a reference user of an actual user, sees two properties of the comparison target, one on the horizontal axis and one on the vertical axis. Generally the ends of the axes of the question fourfold describe opposite pairs of the same property. By using the two opposite pairs included in the question fourfold the comparator user can give his own evaluation of both examined properties by placing one evaluation point in a selected spot in the fourfold.
In addition to the two-dimensional fourfold the comparator can advantageously utilise also a one-dimensional evaluation line. The ends of the evaluation line in some way represent opposite pairs of the compared property.
FIG. 1a shows a principled model of a question fourfold 1 to be utilised in the comparator. The user of the question fourfold steplessly moves a response cursor 2 to a desired spot in the question fourfold 1. This stepless aiming possibility has been illustrated with four arrows pointing out from the cursor 2. When the response cursor 2 is according to the user in a spot, which corresponds to his opinion or evaluation with regards to the two properties shown in the fourfold, the user locks the response cursor 2 with a function related to the data processing device he uses.
FIGS. 1b and 1c show examples of the above-mentioned comparator and possible comparison fourfolds 7a therein. In FIG. 1b the evaluation of the user is locked in spot 4 in the comparison fourfold 7a. This evaluation can be graphically compared to a corresponding evaluation 3 given by the reference user of the examined property. In the example in FIG. 1b the evaluations by the user and the reference user of the evaluated property are in every way almost opposite.
FIG. 1c shows a situation, where the users opinion 5 and the reference user's opinion 3 are congruent in one dimension (on the horizontal axis). In relation to the second axis (the vertical axis) there is a clear difference in the opinions. The graphic presentation according to the comparison fourfold 7a can illustratively present the comparison results of the inquired properties.
FIG. 1d shows a one-dimensional evaluation line 8 and an opinion/evaluation 6 presented by a user about an evaluation statement presented in connection with some property. In the example in FIG. 1d the left end of the line illustrates a situation, where the user agrees with the presented statement regarding an examined property. The right end of FIG. 1d illustrates a situation, where the user completely disagrees with the presented statement. The corresponding statement is also presented to the reference user/users of the comparator. By proceeding thus it is possible to calculate an accuracy percentage between the user and different reference users.
In the above-described examples the congruency between the reference user's and the actual user's evaluation can be expressed mathematically also with the following expression:
                              A          =                                    [                              1                -                                                      |                                                                  X                        K                                            -                                              X                        E                                                              |                                    N                                            ]                        *            100                          ,                            (        1        )            in which:                N is an integer number, with which the axis of the question fourfold 1 (or the evaluation line 8) is divided into equally large parts (N is advantageously a number between 100 and 1000)        XK is the value of the user's response point between 0 and N        XE is the value of the reference user's response point between 0 and N and        A is the congruency of the reference user's and respondent's points expressed as an accuracy percentage for one axis of the question fourfold or evaluation line.
The total percentage S of correlation of the reference user's and actual user's responses is obtained with the equation:
                              S          =                                    ∑                              j                =                1                            n                                                                                A                j                            n                                      ,                            (        2        )            in which:                S is the congruency percentage of all the responses,        Aj is the congruency of axis j as an accuracy percentage and        n is the total number of axes included in the utilised fourfolds and/or evaluation lines.
The comparator uses the equations (1) and (2) to calculate the congruency of evaluations given by the user and reference user regarding a certain comparison target. If necessary, the comparator calculates a corresponding congruency percentage illustrating the congruency for all comparison targets selected by the user.

Comparison method and comparator for graphic comparison of targets


One embodiment of this invention describes a method and apparatus for the use of Machine Learning to efficiently detect, identify, prevent, and predict cyber-attacks on Low Power and Low Complexity Sensor 100 (FIG. 1) networks that have low data transmission requirements, something that all current Machine Learning techniques are unable to accomplish due to numerous restrictions when applied to Low Power and Low Complexity Sensors. Low Power and Low Complexity Sensors are frequently found in various Internet of Things (IOT) network architectures. The IOT is a network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances, and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and connectivity which enables them to connect and exchange data, providing more direct integration of the physical world into computer-based systems. However, this should not restrict the applicability of any potential embodiment of this invention as described in this patent application.

Today malware Cyber-attacks constantly overwhelm computer systems making it desirable to be able to identify and prevent malware attacks in real time. Unfortunately the current state of the art requires the maintenance of large libraries of discovered malware programs, necessitating fast computing hardware, while also employing large bandwidth digital communications in order to continually update the system and the attack targets. The updates frequently occur long after the malware has already had its desired impact. Such an arcane scheme cannot be used with Low Power and Low Complexity Sensors due to their inherent limited computing resources, low bandwidth communications links and the sheer number of such units, numbering in the billions based on some estimates [REF. 1]. Due to these limitations Low Power and Low Complexity Sensors are extremely vulnerable to cyber-attacks and currently do not receive the required level of protection despite the fact they will and do control many crucial aspects of modern society.
Machine Learning technology promises a possible solution to the cyber-attack malware dilemma [REF. 2], [REF. 3], [REF. 4]. One implementation of Machine Learning is as Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technology, a connectionist system (i.e. interconnected networks) functioning as a computing system, this technology is inspired by living neural networks (e.g. the human brain). An ANN is comprised of Machine Learning computational models that, without being programmed with any task-specific rules, can learn capabilities such as image recognition, constructing sentences in human/computer languages, and even creating entire stories, narratives and music.
Based upon contemporary Machine Learning research it could potentially be a solution to the currently massive processing power required for malware identification, and prevention in today's networks and more specifically for Low Power and Low Complexity Sensor networks. It is lamentable that Machine Learning's current state of the art anti-malware methods are not real time. Machine Learning has proven unpredictable with respect to system delay and message delivery due to the rapidity of new malware releases as well as the many different methods of attacking systems either through software, operating systems, and/or hardware [REF. 5].
Furthermore new cyber-attacks are continually released daily. Hackers and cyber-terrorists quickly modify malware by means of mutating the source-code, designing advanced persistent threats, obfuscating the code, and creating polymorphs. These mutations, Advanced Persistent Threats [REF. 13], obfuscations, and polymorphs [REF. 12] may be classified simply as Evolving Malware Threats. Any delay in updating Machine Learning malware libraries and the latest malwares will have impacted all vulnerable systems by the time current Machine Learning systems are able to learn to identify these new attacks. Hence existing Machine Learning systems cannot provide real time protection. In practice it has been found that it is impossible for users and devices to detect and react to the malicious attacks until other devices have already been compromised and an anti-hack response has been learned, engineered and deployed.
Today's Machine Learning methods applied to cybersecurity exhibit several major limitations with regard to speed and flexibility especially in adapting to new malwares, the time required to process infected data, plus the frequent retraining required:                a) State of the art methods rely on starting the process by quarantining all incoming files and then analyzing them non-real time. The fact that these methods do not filter/screen the data means that false positives will be analyzed, potentially diluting the effectiveness of the technique as well as wasting valuable time pursuing cases that will not lead to a successful conclusion. Given the trillions of messages transmitted daily, it is a computing impossibility to keep pace.        b) Machine Learning systems use expensive computing intensive platforms to continually compare potentially malware infected messages to newly released malware, which means that realistically it is impossible to keep pace with new malware.        c) Machine Learning systems today are not scalable due to the quarantining delays and computing power required.
Today there are 3 primary representative Machine Learning anti-malware models available; other derivative concepts also exist but none are real-time:                a) U.S. Pat. No. 9,853,996 B2, [REF. 6] describes a method to Machine Learn from quarantined Email, HTML, and meta-data by learning their API. These messages are scanned and inspected non-real time, using a centralized rules-base to ensure that the messages do not attempt to access restricted data or upload data into restricted systems.        This method is very slow, not real time and not scalable due to the significant data processing requirements. This scheme operates by cross-correlating large databases of individual user profiles with their historic activity compared to known irregular/misbehavior in the network. User profiles are used to search a database of computer logons and emails to identify irregular or misbehaving logons or emails activities. Extensive manual profile building must be performed by the company Information Technology (IT) department to characterize multiple characteristics of devices and users. e.g. operating system, computer model, IP address, MAC address, time of day (TOD), server addresses, passwords, etc. Once an email or file is detected as abnormal, the mail, file and/or executable is moved to a quarantine area, and activated to observe malware indicators as the program executes real-time. However meanwhile neither the sending nor receiving party know the message's status. This solution is not appropriate for detecting cyber-attacks of large IOT networks.        b) Application Programming Interface (API) Learning is a Machine Learning method to learn quarantined malware APIs by recording their step-wise execution steps. The Machine Learning system attempts to predict if a quarantined executable is malicious based on a short snapshot of its behavioral data [REF. 7]. An ensemble of Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) is able to predict whether an executable is malicious or benign. This provides a possible step towards IOT security by the fact that malicious behavior is predicted during execution rather than detecting the malware post-execution and having to repair the damage. However, this is still not suitable for use in a large IOT network and would fail when presented with the potentially billions of messages found in such a network due to the long delays required to quarantine, activate, and analyze. This approach also requires frequent retraining of the system for it to remain current/up-to-date with new malwares as they appear; this necessitates significant and ongoing human management and configuration of the Machine Learning system.        c) Viral Image Learning is a Machine Learning method [REF. 8] in which all incoming files are first quarantined and converted into greyscale images. Each image is then compared to a library of known greyscale malware images, and a probability match is then calculated using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) Machine Learning tools. CNN is normally used for image recognition such as for autonomous cars or facial recognition rather than examining the content of a data file for malware. The penalty for using CNN is again in terms of delay in delivering the data, as well as the enormous costs associated with converting all files to greyscale and then comparing it to the virtually unlimited number of malware images which need to be updated daily. This approach also requires frequent retraining of the system for it to remain current/up-to-date with new malwares as they appear, again necessitating significant and ongoing human management and configuration of the Machine Learning system as with the API Machine Learning method described previously. Thus the Viral Image Learning method is difficult to scale for commercial applications with a high volume of data messages.
The invention described herein addresses all of the above current art Machine Learning restrictions making it applicable to Low Power and Low Complexity Sensors and other network types, by:                a) Providing a method to filter suspected malware prior to it entering the system. Pre-filtering messages to reduce the volume eliminates the typical Machine Learning system delays, which routinely require significant time to examine and release messages from quarantine. In this embodiment the filtering technique is based upon encryption methods outlined in U.S. Pat. No. 10,367,794, included here by reference. A person skilled in the art could apply other methods to filter suspicious messages without requiring any changes to subsequent steps elaborated in this invention.        b) Training the system with data using but not limited to historic malware source-code, history of malware authors, and known locations of sources of malware attacks.        c) Identifying malware in its received form, this invention learns and identifies the patterns of the received malware faster than:                    1) Quarantining and matching entire malware programs as is typical with current Machine Learning methods that need to identify specific malware code or match entire malware executables.            2) Quarantining and observing the malware execution real time, in order to learn the malware's Application Program Interface (API).                        d) Not requiring disassembly and/or decompiling binaries in order to match to actual malware machine-language or high-level code.        e) Not attempting to identify malware in machine-language or high-level code that has mutated or been obfuscated.        f) Not requiring additional hardware in order to scale to meet the processing and programmer maintenance requirements.        g) Combining news and current information with what the system has learned about various malware and its attack vectors in order to predict future malware mutations and attacks.
A further understanding of the nature and the advantages of particular embodiments disclosed herein may be realized by reference to the remaining portions of the patent application description and the attached drawings.

Method and apparatus for producing a machine learning system for malware prediction in low complexity sensor networks

Abstract: A further understanding of the nature and the advantages of the particular embodiments disclosed herein may be realized by referencing the remaining portions to the specification.


A multilayer ceramic capacitor may have low equivalent series inductance (ESL), in which via electrodes are opposed to each other diagonally and be off-centered from positions corresponding to center points of external electrodes, so that a distance between the via electrodes is significantly reduced and a current path is reduced.

The present disclosure relates to a multilayer ceramic capacitor.
A multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC), a multilayer chip electronic component, is a chip-type condenser mounted on printed circuit boards of various electronic products including display devices such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs), plasma display panels (PDPs), and the like, computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular phones, and the like, to charge and discharge electricity.
Multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) may be used as components of various electronic devices due to advantages thereof such as a small size, high capacitance, ease of mounting, and the like.
Recently, as performance of portable smart devices such as smartphones, tablet personal computers (PCs), or the like, has improved, a driving speed of an application processor (AP) used for calculations has increased.
When the driving speed of the AP is increased as described above, high frequency current should be rapidly supplied to the AP.
The multilayer ceramic capacitor serves to supply current to the AP.
Therefore, in order to rapidly supply high frequency current as described above, a multilayer ceramic capacitor having low equivalent series inductance (ESL) should be used, or a multilayer ceramic capacitor should be embedded in aboard to maximally decrease a distance between the multilayer ceramic capacitor and the AP.
However, in the case of using a low ESL multilayer ceramic capacitor, structural problems may occur. Recently, research into a multilayer ceramic capacitor to be embedded in a board has been actively conducted.


A region of interest is selected in an input image, such as a digital or analog image form a mammography apparatus. Display parameters for the input image or a part thereof are determined as a function of the region of interest. The image or a part thereof is displayed using the determined parameters. Choosing display parameters as a function of the region of interest optimizes the display of the possible region of interest without any adjustment by the operator.

This invention relates to the display of an image, particularly a digital image, and more particularly, an image of an object, such as a human body, and still more particularly, to display parameter adjustment of digital images of parts of the body. This invention applies to a radiographic apparatus, and more particularly, to mammography.
A mammography apparatus is used for examining the breasts of a patient using X-rays. The image is acquired using means for receiving an image by, for example, a photographic or by means for digital sensing. GE Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLC, has commercially available a digital mammography under the trade name Sensographe 2000D. The images acquired in this apparatus are displayed on a screen for the operator's attention and inspection. For presenting digital images on the screen, one of the methods employed in this apparatus comprises adjusting contrast and brightness of the image display. For this purpose, a gray level histogram is calculated on the acquired image. Using the calculated histogram, a mean gray level and a gray level range are determined for the display. This determination is done using a look-up table to identify between image gray levels provided by the acquired image and gray scale levels in the displayed image. Adjusting gray levels varies the contrast and brightness of the image displayed on the screen. This method is disclosed in FR 2,786,589.
This apparatus additionally allows part of the image to be magnified on the screen using a soft magnification function. In this case, image contrast and brightness are not modified for displaying the magnified part of the image on the screen.
The operator may be interested in a specific part of the image. This can apply when the soft magnification function is used or again when the operator is using a spot-type compression paddle. The paddle is a device fitted in a ring at one end, allowing compression of a part of the breast to be examined. In this case, the image contrast and brightness are, overall, suited to the complete image but does not allow suitable presentation of the image in the region of interest.

Method and apparatus for displaying images of an object


A load cell for weighing purposes which incorporates viscous damping inside a chamber in the body of the load cell. Specifically, symmetrical load cells have a central member which is where the load or weight is applied. This member is deflected under load as is common to all load cells, creating a distance change between said member and the static or fixed part of the load cell and in which the fixed part is used for mounting on a base holding the load cell. A round cavity or a cylinder space built into the static part accepts a piston which in turn is rigidly connected to the deflected part. Thus, upon loading, the piston has a slight movement relative to the cylinder. If a viscous fluid is then placed in the cavity such that the piston is immersed in it, a viscous damping will be achieved; its intensity depending on the fluid's viscosity, the geometry of the piston and cylinder, and on the load cell characteristics.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of load cells, which are transducers for measuring forces or weights, and in particular, to applications where viscous damping of the load cell is called for because fast settling time or filtering out vibrations is necessary.
2. Description of The Prior Art
Load cells have been used with viscous damping devices and are generally of three types: (1) Standard dashpot arrangements in which a piston moves within a cylinder where the piston generally fits the inside of the cylinder with a very small radial gap. In this way, the small radial gap prevents any leakage flow between the piston and cylinder while the piston also contains a controlled narrow passage through which fluid flows from one side of the piston when the latter moves and in which the passage flow provides the viscous damping; (2) Another method is the one disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,232,062 and according to which the gap between a piston and a cylinder is of no importance and hence can be quite wide; (3) The third method uses the shear of the fluid between two parallel and close plates moving in parallel to one another.
In all of the known prior art, the damping device is external to the load cell and is added to a conventional load cell. It is therefore the object of the present invention to disclose an integral arrangement of a damping device inside the body of the load cell, thus forming a dedicated damped load cell.


A bus driving system includes n bus wires having data signal wires and control signal wires, (n-1) switching circuits constituting driver circuits at a transmitting end, a precharge circuitry for precharging (n-2) bus wires and (n-1)-th bus wire with a control circuit for redistributing wire capacitances of transmission lines formed by the bus wires, and a predischarge circuitry for predischarging n-th bus wire. The switching circuits control conduction and non-conduction between (n-2) bus wires, (n-1)-th bus wire and n-th bus wire, wherein the (n-2) switching circuits respond to (n-2) bit signals and a control signal, while the (n-1)-th switching circuit responds to the control signal. The signal from the transmitting end is detected by a detection circuit at a receiving end via the transmission lines.

The present invention generally relates to a LSI (Large Scale Integrated) circuit and more particularly to a bus driving system or circuit for a microprocessor.
In general, in the microprocessor, the data transfer among function blocks is effected via a bus or buses. FIG. 3A of the accompanying drawings shows, by way of example, a bus structure used heretofore and FIG. 3B shows a timing chart for illustrating operation of the same. In the following, operation of this bus structure will be reviewed briefly.
In the beginning, it must be pointed out that FIGS. 3A and 3B show only those components which are required for the operation involved in transmission of n-bit data DOUT-1, DOUT-2, . . . , DOUT-N (where n represents a positive integer) from a function block A to a function block B via bus wires as well as reception or detection of the data as data DIN-1, DIN-2, . . . , DIN-N in a function block B. Referring to the figures, n bus wires DB-1, DB-2, . . . , DB-n which constitute an n-bit bus are precharged to a supply voltage level VCC at a time point t0. When an activation signal EN is changed over to a high level VCC in the function block A at a time point t1, n-channel MOSFETs MN-i are turned on with the bus wires DB-i being switched to a low level 0V in case the bit signals DOUT-i (i=1, 2, . . . , n) are at the low level 0V. On the other hand, when the bit signals DOUT-i are at the high level VCC (supply voltage level), the n-channel MOSFETs MN-i are maintained in the non-conducting state (off-state) with the bus wires remaining at the high level VCC. Thus, n bit-signals DOUT-1, DOUT-2, . . . , DOUT-n make appearance at the n-bit bus wires DB-1, DB-2, . . . , DB-n, respectively. When a control signal CK for the function block B assumes the high level VCC at a time point t2, the signals on the bus wires DB-1, DB-2, . . . , DB-n are fetched by flip-flops FF-1, FF-2, . . . , FF-n, respectively, to be thus received as the data DIN-1, DIN-2, . . . , DIN-n, respectively. When the precharge signal PRE becomes high (VCC) at a time point t3, the bus wires DB-1, DB-2, DB-n are precharged, whereby the bus is set to the state ready for the succeeding operation cycle which is started at a time point t4. Parenthetically, the function block A and the function block B may be regarded as conventional logic blocks such as register files, execution logic units or the like.
The bus structure known heretofore suffers a problem that a large power is consumed for charge and discharge of wiring capacitances because voltages on a number of bus wires are caused swing to the full extent during each operation cycle.
For simplification of discussion, it is now assumed that the frequency at which the high level VCC are outputted to the bus wires is equal to that of the low level 0V. Then, in the hitherto known bus structure (FIG. 3A) which includes n bus wires DB-1, DB-2, . . . , DB-n (where n represents a positive integer), there makes appearance stochastically the low level 0V at the n/2 bus wires. The voltages at these n/2 bus wires are caused to make full swing from the high level VCC to the low level 0V and then to the high level VCC during one operation cycle, as can be seen from FIG. 3B. Refer to the signal waveform DOUT-i for the bus wire DB-i (FIG. 3B). In this manner, in the case of the bus driving circuit known heretofore, voltages of many bus wires (n/2 on an average) make full swing, which involves high power consumption due to charge and discharge of the wiring capacitances.
In the recent years, the performance of the microprocessor is increasingly enhanced. In reality, microprocessors having an internal bus of a large bit-width such as a 32-bit bus or a 64-bit bus is realized (e.g. refer to ISSCC DIGEST OF TECHNICAL PAPERS, pp. 106-107, February 1992). In the bus driving circuit for these high-performance microprocessors, the problem concerning the power consumption of the bus system becomes serious because the power consumption is in proportion to the bit-width (n) of the bus.
Another problem of the bus structure known heretofore can be seen in that signals on the neighboring bus wires are superposed on the inherent bus signal as the noise through the medium of inter-wire capacitances, thus giving rise to degradation of the noise margin and hence erroneous operation of the bus system. This problem will be elucidated below by reference to FIGS. 24A and 24B of the accompanying drawings.
Referring to FIG. 24A, switches S-1, S-2 and S-3 schematically represent the n-channel MOSFETs MN-1, MN-2 and MN-3, respectively, in the bus structure shown in FIG. 3A. It is assumed that the bus wires DB-1, DB-2 and DB-3 are physically juxtaposed in the order as illustrated. It is again assumed that the switches S-1 and S-3 are turned on with the switch S-2 being held in the off-state after the associated bus wires have been precharged. In that case, the signal on the bus wire DB-2 should intrinsically be held at the high level VCC. However, noise brought about when the signals on the neighboring bus wires DB-1 and DB-3 shift from the high level VCC to the low level 0V is superposed onto the signal of the bus wire DB-2 through the medium of the inter-wire capacitance. As a consequence, the potential on the bus wire DB-2 is pulled down to a level lower than the high level VCC. This crosstalk noise becomes more remarkable as the inter-wire capacitance of the bus increases, to thereby degrade the margin for noise (or noise margin). In an extreme case, the potential at the bus wire DB-2 may be pulled down to the level below a logical threshold value of the CMOS (Complementary metal-Oxide Semiconductor) circuit to be erroneously detected as the low-level signal.

Bus driving system and integrated circuit device using the same


Systems and processes are disclosed for operating a digital assistant in a media environment. In an exemplary embodiment, a user can interact with a digital assistant of a media device while content is displayed by the media device. In one approach, a plurality of exemplary natural language requests can be displayed in response to detecting a user input of a first input type. The plurality of exemplary natural language requests can be contextually-related to the displayed content. In another approach, a user request can be received in response to detecting a user input of a second input type. A task that at least partially satisfies the user request can be performed. The performed task can depend on the nature of the user request and the content being displayed by the media device. In particular, the user request can be satisfied while reducing disruption to user consumption of media content.

Intelligent automated assistants (or digital assistants) can provide an intuitive interface between users and electronic devices. These assistants can allow users to interact with devices or systems using natural language in spoken and/or text forms. For example, a user can access the services of an electronic device by providing a spoken user input in natural language form to a virtual assistant associated with the electronic device. The virtual assistant can perform natural language processing on the spoken user input to infer the user's intent and operationalize the user's intent into tasks. The tasks can then be performed by executing one or more functions of the electronic device, and, in some examples, a relevant output can be returned to the user in natural language form.
Integrating digital assistants in a media environment (e.g., televisions, television set-top boxes, cable boxes, gaming devices, streaming media devices, digital video recorders, etc.) can be desirable to assist users with tasks related to media consumption. For example, a digital assistant can be utilized to assist with finding desirable media content to consume. However, user interactions with a digital assistant may include audio and visual output, which can disrupt the consumption of media content. It can thus be challenging to integrate digital assistants in a media environment in a manner such that sufficient assistance is provided to the user while disruptions to the consumption of media content are minimized.

Intelligent automated assistant in a media environment


The present invention is directed towards systems and methods for identifying advertisements responsive to one or more historical queries generated by a given user. The method of the present invention comprises annotating a profile for a user with information associated with one or more historical queries generated by the user. The profile associated with the user is retrieved, the profile indicating one or more historical queries previously generated by the user. One or more advertisements are identified as responsive to a selected historical query maintained in the profile of the user. The one or more advertisements previously displayed to the user in response to the selected historical query are identified. The one or more advertisements identified as not previously displayed to the user are thereafter displayed.

The World Wide Web may be thought of as a distributed data store comprising billions of data content items through the Internet. Search engines are commonly used to search the content items available on computer networks, such as the World Wide Web, to enable users to locate content items of interest. A typical search engine is capable of accessing the plurality of web pages, hypertext documents, and other content items from the Internet or other network through use of a crawler.
To use search engine, a user of a client device typically enters one or more search terms or keywords comprising a query. The search engine thereafter identifies one or more content items responsive to the one or more search terms or keywords comprising a received query. The content items identified by the search engine may be combined to form a result set that is displayed to the user with which the query originated.
The content items identified by a search engine as responsive to a query received from a user may include one or more advertisements. Advertisements are commonly used on the Internet to promote various products and services. Advertisements may comprise banner ads, links to web pages, images, video, text, etc. The various advertisements used to promote products on the Internet may be displayed according to a variety of formats, such as in conjunction with a ranked result set in response to a query, embedded in a web page, a pop-up, etc. The advertisements displayed to a user of a client device may be selected, directly or indirectly redirecting the user to a website providing the advertised product or service.
Advertisements identified as responsive to a query received from a given user are typically maintained in one or more data stores, such as databases or servers, and are associated with one or more keywords. A search engine may perform a search of one or more data stores to identify the one or more advertisements associated with one or more keywords that match or are similar to the one or more terms comprising a given user query.
Current techniques for selecting advertisements responsive to a given query require the advertisements to exist at the time a given query is received. If a search engine is unable to identify advertisements responsive to a given query at the time the query is received, the user with which the query originated may not be presented with an advertisement, even though advertisements responsive to the query may become available hours, days, weeks, or months after the query was received.
Current techniques for selecting advertisements responsive to user queries thus fail to provide advertisements that may be responsive to queries that were previously generated by users. In order to overcome shortcomings associated with existing techniques for selecting advertisements responsive to user queries, the present invention provides systems and methods for identifying advertisements that are responsive to queries previously generated by a given user.

System and method for identifying advertisements responsive to historical user queries


A device configured to receive a resource reservation request that identifies a user and a resource. The device is further configured to generate a resource allocation that includes an association between the user, location information for the resource, a resource identifier for the resource, and a token value. The device is further configured to associate the resource allocation with a time interval indicating a deadline for using the resource allocation. The device is further configured to receive a reservation verification request from a network device. The device is further configured to determine the location information for the network device is within a predetermined distance from the location information for the resource, to determine the resource identifier matches the resource identifier for the resource, and to determine a current time is within the time interval. The device is further configured to generate resource allocation instructions authorizing access to the resource.

Existing computer systems may be configured to allocate resources (e.g. hardware resources and/or software resources) within a network. For example, a computer system may allocate a set of resources to a network device so that the network device can perform some tasks. Managing and allocating a system's resources poses a technical challenge because systems have a limited number of resources that can be allocated. Existing computer systems lack the ability to reserve and allocate resources for future use by a user. In some instances, a user may request more resources than they need. In this case, the requested resources will be unavailable to other network devices, which limits a system's ability to provide support and resources for other network devices. In addition, any overconsumption of resources reduces the system's ability to provide services to its users and reduces the throughput of the system which degrades the overall performance of the system.

Resource allocating and scheduling for a network


For introducing a weakened line into a component 10, which is rigid per se and does not conform to a supporting mold or a receiving means in correspondence with the true shape, especially into an injection-molded part such as an instrument panel of an automobile, a device is provided comprising a multi-axis machine tool with a CNC-control suited for processing base-oriented programs, and a receiving means 11 for the component 10 to be processed, distance sensors 13 for the CNC-control being assigned to the receiving means to detect the actual three-dimensional position of the component.

In automobiles the protection of passengers in case of an impact by means of so-called airbag systems has meanwhile become a standard feature. It is common practice to introduce a recess into the dashboard or the instrument panel, respectively, in front of the co-driver, into which the device for the airbag is placed. For optical reasons it is common that the airbag devices are mounted invisibly. For this purpose, a material weakening is provided for the airbag of the co-driver from the rear side in the region of the instrument panel, which supports the airbag device, which weakening is sufficient to make the visible surface tear open and thereby release the airbag in the case of an accident.
The introduction of material weakenings is already known from the prior art, wherein, in the case of multi-layered instrument panels, the uppermost skin is weakened while the layers of the multipart instrument panel provided underneath the same are completely broken through. However, if the instrument panel is made of one single piece, no satisfactory solution has yet been found with respect to the introduction of a necessary weakening. In the production of injection-molded instrument panels, attempts to provide a weakening already in the injection-molded part, into which extremely thin-walled regions are introduced, have failed. This is, above all, due to the fact that the weakened regions become inevitably visible because the pressure ratios and flow behaviors in the region of extremely thin-walled spots differ to such an extent that flow marks and flow lines make the visible surface unattractive.
Previous attempts to produce a weakening in the injection-molded instrument panels from the rear side in a subsequent working cycle by means of milling a groove or a slot have not brought about any useful results, however, since the injection-molded part does not rest closely enough against the supporting mold or support. The aforementioned visible surface of the instrument panel reliably adjusts to the reference surface of a vacuum-supplied receptacle as a soft, conformable skin under the force of the air pressure. Given a rigid injection-molded part a reliable contact cannot be assumed, however, due to the molded-in stress. Accordingly, the above-mentioned, previously common processing methods fail.
An additional aspect in view of the safety is that weakened lines have to be introduced into instrument panels with a small tolerance so as to preserve a so-called residual wall thickness. The residual wall thickness is tolerated such that, on the one hand, a secure tear-out takes place in case of an accident while, on the other hand, this weakening cannot result in a visible line or even in an unintended tear-out beyond the service life of the vehicle. Accordingly, usual residual wall thickness amount to approximately 0.5 mm, and usual tolerances for these residual wall thicknesses range in the order of +/−0.03 mm. In accordance with this, it is important for the high-precision introduction of weakened lines particularly into an instrument panel of an automobile, that an exact control of the length and form of the processing tool is performed, that the tolerance of the involved axes and constructional units of the machines is observed with respect to the tool, and that the position of the support carrying the work piece or component or molded part, respectively, is taken into account.

Method and device for introducing weakened lines into a component rigid per se


A shooting target assembly includes a frame having a curved edge, where a plurality of catch mechanisms are positioned along the curved edge, a first target arm having a first end and a second end, and a second target arm having a first end and a second end. The first end of the first target arm is connected to a first target that is positioned above the curved edge. The second end of the first target arm is pivotally connected to a rear portion of the frame at a first pivot point. The first end of the second target arm is connected to a second target that is positioned above the curved edge, and the second end of the second target arm is pivotally connected to the rear portion of the frame at a second pivot point. Each of the plurality of catch mechanisms is configured to engage the first target arm or the second target arm.

Shooting targets are typically used by marksmen to improve their aim and precision. Most targets include scoring rings with a bulls-eye representing the center of the target. As such, where a bullet impacted a target can be ascertained from where the mark is on the target.
In addition to individual-use scenarios, shooting targets may also be used in competitive shooting situations involving two or more participants. While the participants can compare targets to see which participant has better aim or precision, it may be desirable to also measure a participant's speed in addition to aim and precision.
The shooting target assembly described in this disclosure is generally directed to a competitive shooting game for two players or two teams of players that measures not only the players' aim and shooting precision, but also their quickness.


A method for identifying particular disorders of the eyes is disclosed. Initially, an image of the eyes in digital format is taken by a reflex photometer and the image provided to a computer programmed to run a plurality of algorithms that are associated with each type of disorder. Results of the algorithms are plotted in a format so that any of the eye disorders associated with the algorithms are readily apparent.

Normal binocular visual perception requires a degree high degree of similarity in the presentation of images formed by the right and left eyes and presented to the visual centers of the brain to generate a single visual perception. In order to compare the similarity of optical quality and other ocular characteristics of the right and left eyes with the technique of the present invention, It is a necessity to predetermine certain ocular and optical characteristics of a monocular state of each of the eyes. Such determinations include (1) the individual alignment of the right and left eye to a fixation target, (2) the individual ocular refractive status of the right and left eye and (3) other elements contained in the wavefront that are found to correlate with or predispose to, ocular-optical impediments to successful visual integration of the right and left visual image to produce normal single vision. Such impediments result in or are associated with Amblyopia, Strabismus, Binocular Balance and some reading difficulties.
Amblyopia is a neurological disease resulting in Central Nervous System (brain) neuro-pathologic changes that are related either as a cause or result of some underlying abnormality in the monocular and binocular state. Most modern thought is that individual difference between the two eyes, either in alignment or refractive power or a combination of the two, results in an inability of the two eyes to generate individual right and left images that can be converted into a single mental perception by the brain's visual centers. In the case of misalignment, the eyes are pointing in different directions and the images generated by the eyes cannot be blended together into a single perception. In the case of anisometropia (optical refractive powers of the eyes being different), the images are of different optical size, with one eye more out of focus as compared to the other eye. As a result, the differently-sized images cannot be fused into a single visual image. Frequently, both of these situations are found in Amblyopia. Determining abnormalities in the right and left eye and binocular relationships that result in dissimilarity of image formation frequently predict presence of the amblyopic condition. Another aspect that is less appreciated is that an abnormal neural state affects changes in the eyes by some type of reverse bio-feedback mechanism going from the brain to the eyes. This abnormal neural-feedback to the eyes could result in an abnormality of development or innervation of the extra-ocular muscles. Neurologic innervation, neural disease processes such as optic neuritis occurring during times of visual development, can account for developmental abnormalities of ocular development and or optical configuration of the eyes, all or part of which may result in some of those extreme ocular abnormalities associated with an amblyopic condition.
Evaluation of binocularity of a subject by a trained clinician is generally a subjective process. In the simplest format, such an evaluation is made simply by observing whether both pupils of a subject are centered in the eye fissure, i.e. there is an equal amount of white on both sides of the iris of both eyes while the subject is gazing at a fixed point. In addition, there are several other methods of determining more precisely the presence of binocular cooperation, or integration of the images into a single mental visual perception. Some of these methods include the "Cover/Cover/Uncover" Test of fixation and alignment, or the Stereoscopic Vision and certain Electro-physiologic measurements of visual response found in brain waves in response to a visual stimulus. However, such evaluations are generally dependent on cooperation of the subject and skill of the clinician. For instance, getting a pre-verbal child to gaze at a fixed point to determine individual fixation may be a problem in itself.
A number of devices have been constructed to optically evaluate Wavefront aberrations. In these devices, monocular refractive characteristics of optical power are used to identify and extract location, degree and kind of optical degradation existing within the pupillary aperture. Such knowledge permits precise remedial corneal contouring in order to correct the refractive error. However, these devices do nothing with respect to identification of problems related to visual integration of separate images from the right and left eye into a single mental perception.
Applicants method additionally permits a mathematical description that when plotted, results in a visual "profile" of a disease process found in broad groups of persons suffering with similar ocular states or diseases. This is accomplished by mathematically summing the individual algorithmic parameters of a particular person with those corresponding parameters of other like persons with similar diseases. Once accomplished and entered into a spread sheet, any or all of a number of statistical techniques may be utilized to generate statements concerning these group parameters of disease or inherent optical-ocular condition. In this manner, any ocular Wavefront image of an individual may be expressed statistically as possessing some degree of probability of being contained in some known and statistically defined disease grouping. All eye conditions and diseases, such as Amblyopia, Strabismus, Refraction, Cataracts and Retinal diseases, along with certain medical conditions that present an ophthalmic manifestation such as diabetes, hypertension, brain tumor and others may be approached in like fashion.
It is one object of this invention to extract a plurality of statistical relationships from a digital image of eyes of a subject, and to determine binocular status of the eyes from these relationships. It is another object of this invention to present such statistical relationships in a manner to allow a clinician to identify eye problems associated with binocularity. Other objects will become clear upon a reading of the following specification.

Method for determining binocular balance and disorders of binocularity of an individual or clinical groups of individuals