A cable for recording conditions in a well bore, the cable including a tube having a generally smooth outer surface and an inner surface defining an elongated, uninterrupted opening extending throughout the length of the tube, at least one fiber optic, disposed within the opening of the tube, the fiber optic extending the length of the tube, an electrical conductor disposed within the opening of the tube, the electrical conductor extending the length of the tube, and insulating material disposed within the tube, the insulating material encapsulating the fiber optic and electrical conductor so as to form a core, wherein the core is of substantially smaller diameter than the opening to permit thermal expansion of the fiber optic, the conductor and the insulating material. The size of the tube and the core may be selected such that there is an annulus between the inside surface of the tube and the outside surface of the core, the annulus providing a flowpath extending the length of the tube.

Oil, gas and geothermal wells are traditionally surveyed by electrical sensors or other tools lowered in a well bore by a cable with an inner copper conductor for powering the tools as well as providing a pathway to transmit data from the sensors. A typical cable will have an inner electrical conductor surrounded by multiple strands of steel armor. Such cables are costly, especially when built for use in corrosive environments, and they are difficult to build. Moreover, cables of known and conventional construction provide internal woven spiral interstitial paths through which gas and other corrosive elements hazardous to the environment can escape upwardly. Efforts to eliminate such leakage add further to the costs of sensing and are generally not entirely successful.
Fiber optic cable has been used in telecommunications for a number of years. Its main advantage over copper cable relates to "bandwidth" where a fiber cable can carry much more data or information. Technology has now progressed to a point where downhole sensors used in oil, gas or steam wells can generate so much information, that they can benefit from the additional bandwidth fiber optic cable can provide. A conventional copper cable is still necessary to provide a path for electricity to power down hole sensors.
In many cases, the well can also be quite deep, and the length of the down-hole instrument cable can exceed 15,000 feet. Longitudinal stresses placed on an optical fiber in such a long cable can sever or fracture the optical fiber, causing significant signal attenuation. Hence, the cable must be designed not only to resist physical damage to its outer surface from use in the well, and provide a robust fluid seal to protect the optical fiber and electrical conductors, but also to support the weight of the down-hole instrument and the cable itself.
Many wells are relatively small in diameter, on the order of 4.5 cm (1.75 in). Consequently the instrument probe and its cable designated for use in such a well are limited in their respective diameters. This can lead to practical problems when a high pressure well is involved. Such wells are capped to prevent the uncontrolled escape of high pressure well fluids and, in order to insert an instrument such as an electrical sensor in such a well, the instrument must be forced into the well through the cap. As is well known in the art, smaller instruments are easier to insert into a high pressure environment because they present less surface area against which the high pressure well fluids can act. High pressure well fluids oppose entry of the cable into the well and the cable must be made heavy enough to overcome the fluid pressure force. Also, it has been found that small differences in the diameters of down-hole instrument cables can have a tremendous impact on the ease and expense in inserting a cable and an attached instrument into the well.
As taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,626 to Schultz, et al, a well pressure of 281 kg/cm.sup.2 (4000 psi), a cable with a 1.11 cm (7/16 in (0.438)) diameter will require the addition of 295 kg (650 lbs) additional weight to overcome the force against it created by the well fluid pressure to enter the well. One common technique for adding that weight is to attach sinker bars to the cable. The diameter of the well limits the diameter of the sinker bars requiring a longitudinal distribution of the weight along the cable. In a 4.5 cm (1.75 in) diameter well, sinker bars having the standard outside diameter of 3.5 cm (1.375 in) would be used. Even if using high density tungsten weights, each bar would be 1.8 meters (6 ft) long and have a weight of 20.4 kg (45 lbs). This would result in the need for 15 sinker bars placed end to end on the cable, and at 1.8 m (6 ft) each, a total length of 27.4 m (90 ft) of sinker bars results, adding this length to the length of the instrument itself, which may be 4.5 meters (15 ft), resulting in a total length of 31.9 meters (105 ft) for the complete assembly.
The cable must be raised above the well head and inserted through a pressure gland through lubricator risers, and past the main valve. In this case with such a long length of weights, an extended crane would be required to lift the assembly of instrument, cable, and sinker bars over the main valve of the well head and the specially attached lubricator risers attached to the well head to accommodate the assembly. It has been found in some cases that the expense involved in supporting such a long length of lubricator risers rises, the need for high crane heights, and the amount of time involved in assembling and disassembling outweigh the advantage that would be provided by down-hole monitoring.
Also as shown in the '626 patent, a cable having a diameter of 0.55 cm (7/32 in (0.218)) (approximately half the cable diameter of the prior art) and in a well having the same pressure of 281 kg/cm.sup.2 (4000 psi), the weight required to overcome the fluid pressure and insert the cable into the well is only 77 kg (170 pounds), which is approximately one fourth of the weight required for a cable twice its size. Using the same tungsten weight bars as described above, only four are required and at 1.8 meters (6 ft) each, the total length of the lubricating risers needed to accommodate the weights and the instrument is 12 meters (39 ft). It is clear that small changes in cable diameter result in much larger changes in weight requirements. Hence those concerned with high pressure wells have recognized the substantial effect that cable diameter has and have recognized the need for a reduced diameter cable so that insertion into high pressure wells is facilitated and made less expensive. Another consideration in cable design is the impact of the cable length on the size of the internal cable components. In the case of a coaxial cable, the longer the cable, the larger the cable diameter must be to support needed data transmission parameters for pressure, temperature and real-time video monitoring. It has been found that optical fibers are not as sensitive as coaxial cable to long distances and have large band-widths capable of supporting both monitoring and real-time video imaging. The use of fiber optics enables use of a much smaller diameter cable.
Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) is a method of monitoring temperature along a well bore. DTS uses a fiber optic cable as the temperature sensor. The fiber optic cable is installed along the full length of a well. A laser may then be attached to the end of the fiber that protrudes from the well at the surface. A laser beam excites the atoms of the fiber. The stimulated atoms send back a light pulse whose frequency is shifted due to the temperature of the atoms along the fiber. The laser system, through systematic pulses, can monitor temperature along the entire length of the fiber. Hence, the optic fiber becomes a temperature sensor, permitting the reading of the temperature gradients and changes along the well path.
However, the fiber optic cables that have been used for this purpose can not withstand exposure to well bore fluids that can cause damage to or disintegration of the fiber. Hermetically sealed coatings have been added to provide this protection, but existing cable with such coatings are expensive to build, do not account for the differing thermal expansion properties of the components of the cables, nor are such cables effective to inhibit the release of harmful gases which may escape from the well bore because of the woven and/or braided cable used to protect the cable.
One example of a cable that has been used in DTS systems is described in the '626 patent. An optical fiber is surrounded by a protective buffer layer and a protective gel and is inserted in a thin walled stainless steel tubing. The optic cable and buffer layer is then sealed within the stainless steel tubing, and the steel tubing is then covered by a copper wire netting, or mesh. The copper mesh provides a path for the electrical current used to power a down hole logging tool and/or light source. The combination of fiber optic cable, steel tubing and wire mesh is then encapsulated in a plastic layer of polyurethane insulation.
A first layer of spring steel armor wire is helically wound around the outer surface of the polyurethane insulation, and a second layer of spring steel armor wire helically wound in the opposite direction around the outer surface of the first layer of spring steel armor. The first and second layers of spring steel armor wire protect the fiber optic cable and electrical conducting mesh from physical damage in the borehole and to add tensile strength to enable pulling the cable, and any instrumentation suspended from such cable, from the well bore.
However, this cable design has inherent problems because of the numerous separate strands comprising the mesh that serves as a protective surface for cable. Typically, when employing the cable in a well bore, any braided cable is run through several narrow flow tubes, each about 6" long, that have a small hole down the center. The inside diameter of the hole is only several thousandths of an inch larger that the outer diameter of the cable. Such a design still permits the release of oil or gas from any well under high pressure. It is therefore common practice to seal, or "pack off," this escape route by injecting a thick, heavy grease in the space between the flow tube and the cable, as well as any gaps between the strands. This grease injection process is labor intensive and unreliable.
Additionally, since the mesh of the '626 patent includes two layers of wire wound in helically opposite directions, it is extremely difficult to sealingly pack off the first layer, thus providing a possible path for harmful oil and/or gas release through the interstitial gaps of the helically woven wire. And since the outside surface of the cable is comprised of wire strands, the strands under friction, tension and tensile forces can break or become deformed, resulting in wire projections and/or bunching of wires, commonly called a "birdcage," around the cable which then binds the cable in the flow tubes, thereby significantly increasing the amount of force necessary to remove the cable from the well bore, and thereby increasing the opportunity for damage to the fiber optics in the cable. If such "birdcaged" cable is abandoned in the well bore, additional costs are incurred.

Smooth surfaced fiber optic logging cable for well bores


A fiber optic plug for connecting to a receptacle of a small format optoelectronic package or device. The fiber optic plug includes a body and ferrules attached to the body. Each ferrule has an aperture for receiving and holding an optical fiber and each ferrule has a diameter substantially equal to 1.25 mm. The aperture of each adjacent ferrule is separated by a distance of approximately 3.125 mm. The ferrules exist in a plane.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to fiber optic connectors for optoelectronic devices or optical subassemblies. The invention more particularly concerns a fiber optic plug for connecting to a receptacle of a small format optoelectronic package such as a modular high density multiple optical transmitter/receiver array.
2. Discussion of the Background
Optoelectronic devices such as optical transceivers are known in the art and include active optical devices or diode packages. One such optoelectronic device is a removable optoelectronic module as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,546,281, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. One end of the removable optoelectronic module includes two SC style ports or receptacles forming an SC duplex receptacle for receiving SC style ferrules. Often, the two SC style ferrules are either ganged together or are assembled in a common plug body so as to form an SC duplex plug. The ferrule of an SC plug has a nominal diameter of approximately 2.5 mm. When the ferrules are incorporated into a single body or are ganged together, the center-to-center distance between the two ferrules is approximately 12.5 mm. As compared to conventional copper plugs, such as RJ-45 style plugs, the size or panel profile of the SC duplex plug is large.
In order to increase the number of ports which can occupy a panel, a reduced size ferrule and plug were developed and is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,481,634 and 6,102,581, both of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference and where such a plug is known as an LC plug connector. The ferrule of the LC plug has a nominal diameter of approximately 1.25 mm. When two LC ferrules are ganged together or are incorporated into a single body the center-to-center distance of the two ferrules is approximately 6.25 mm. Thus, the number of ports located in a given linear dimension using an LC duplex plug is equivalent to the number of copper ports located in the same linear dimension using the RJ-45 plug, since the size of the profiles of the two plugs are similar.
FIG. 1 shows a plan view of a panel showing the relative size of RJ-45 ports 2, SC ports 4, and LC ports 6. Twenty-four RJ-45 and LC ports 2, 6 are shown and only twelve SC ports 4 are shown occupying similar linear lengths. The increased port density allows more data to be moved through a given port profile of networking equipment. FIG. 1 is found in a document entitled xe2x80x9cEvaluating the LC SFF Interface for Single-Mode and Multimode Applicationxe2x80x9d and is available on the internet web-page at the home of the LC Alliance (www.lcalliance.com). The above-identified document is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Other plug connectors have spacing between optical fibers which are nominally spaced center-to-center at approximately 0.75 mm. One such plug connector is known as the MT-RJ and is described in an article entitled xe2x80x9cPerformance Comparison of Small Form Factor Fiber Optic Connectorxe2x80x9d which is available on the internet web page of the LC alliance, and where the document is hereby incorporated herein by reference. The MT-RJ plug connector includes a body or single ferrule, where the body surrounds and holds two optical fibers. However, such plug connectors do not employ multiple ferrules and as a result the coupling of light into and out of a fiber in an MT-RJ or other multi-fiber single ferrule connector can not be independently optimized for each fiber. Therefore, optical plug connectors which do not incorporate a single ferrule for a single optical fiber introduce new problems, and, as such, optical plug connectors which do not incorporate a single ferrule in conjunction with a single optical fiber are not further considered.
Therefore, there is a need in the industry for an optical plug having multiple ferrules where a single ferrule is assigned to a single optical fiber and which increases the port density in a panel or device.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an optical plug connector which increases the port density in a panel or device.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a plug which mates with a receptacle of a small format optoelectronic device.
Another object of the invention is to provide a plug which is economical to manufacture.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a plug which incorporates standard parts and features.
In one form of the invention, the plug includes a body and ferrules attached to the body. Each ferrule has an aperture. Additionally, all of the ferrules exist in a plane and each ferrule has a diameter substantially equal to 1.25 mm. The aperture of each of the ferrules is separated from the aperture of an adjacent ferrule by a distance of 3.125 mm.
In another form of the invention, the plug includes a body and two ferrules attached to the body. Each ferrule has an aperture. The aperture of one ferrule is separated from the aperture of the second ferrule by a distance of 3.125 mm.
Thus, the device of the invention is superior to existing plugs. The plug of the invention increases port density in a panel or a device. Furthermore, the plug of the invention is easy to manufacture and incorporates features of commercially well received connectors. Thus, the device of the invention is smaller than prior art devices.

High density multiple fiber optic connector


A surface-mount quartz crystal oscillator has a casing substantially in the shape of a substantially rectangular parallelepiped, the casing having a recess defined therein, a pair of upper steps disposed in the recess, a lower step disposed in the recess and having electrically conductive pads thereon, a crystal blank having an end secured to one of the upper steps and an opposite end placed on the other of the upper steps, and an IC chip disposed on the bottom of the recess and electrically connected to the electrically conductive pads by wires according to wire bonding, the IC chip including a circuit, the circuit and the crystal blank jointly making up an oscillating circuit. The wires extend in a direction substantially perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the casing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surface-mount quartz crystal oscillator, and more particularly to a surface-mount crystal oscillator which is highly resistant to shock and highly productive.
2. Description of the Related Art
Surface-mount quartz crystal oscillators which have a quartz crystal unit and an oscillating circuit using the crystal unit, both housed in a surface-mount casing, are small in size and widely used as a frequency or time reference source, for example, in portable devices and the like. One application of such a surface-mount crystal oscillator is as a crystal oscillator serving as a synchronizing signal source, i.e., so-called SPXO (simple packaged crystal oscillator). Surface-mount crystal oscillators which are presently dominant in the art have planar profile dimensions of 7 mm×5 mm.
FIGS. 1A and 1B show a conventional surface-mount crystal oscillator by way of example. As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, the conventional surface-mount crystal oscillator comprises casing 1 having a substantially rectangular parallelepiped as an outer shape and planar profile dimensions of 7 mm×5 mm, for example, IC (integrated circuit) chip 2, quartz crystal blank 3, and cover 9 sealing a recess defined in casing 1. Casing 1 is made of laminated ceramic and has the recess defined therein. Casing 1 which is made of the laminated ceramic is of a four-layer structure made up of bottom wall layer 1a, first intermediate layer 1b, second intermediate layer 1c, and top wall layer 1d. Of these layers, first intermediate layer 1b, second intermediate layer 1c, and top wall layer 1d have respective substantially rectangular openings defined therein, which are progressively larger in the named order of the layers. As a result, the openings jointly serve as the recess in casing 1, providing two steps, i.e., upper steps 4a and lower steps 4b, on the inner wall of the recess. Upper steps 4a are positioned at opposite ends of the recess in a longitudinal direction of casing 1. Lower steps 4b are positioned at the opposite ends of the recess in the longitudinal direction of casing 1 and also at opposite ends of the recess in a transverse direction of casing 1, and hence extend in a frame manner in the recess. One of upper steps 4a has a central trench extending downwardly to the upper surface of corresponding lower step 4b, and is divided into two segments by the central trench. Electrically conductive pads are disposed on upper surfaces of lower steps 4b which are positioned at the opposite ends of the recess in the longitudinal direction of casing 1. Connecting electrodes, not shown, for electrical and mechanical connection to crystal blank 3 are disposed on the upper surfaces of the divided segments of upper step 4a. Although not shown, mounting terminals extend from an outer bottom surface to a side surface of casing 1, and serve to provide electrical connection to a circuit pattern on a wiring board. The mounting terminals and the electrically conductive pads disposed on lower steps 4b are electrically connected to each other by through holes or the like defined in casing 1, and the electrically conductive pads and connecting terminals on upper steps 4a are electrically connected to each other by a circuit pattern or the like disposed in the recess in casing 1.
IC chip 2 is electrically connected to crystal unit 3, and provides an oscillating circuit using crystal unit 3. IC chip 2 contains an integrated assembly of an oscillating amplifier and capacitors. Terminals 12 including a power supply terminal, ground terminal, and output terminal are mounted on opposite ends of one of principal surfaces of IC chip 2. The other principal surface of IC chip 2 is fixed to the bottom of the recess in casing 1, i.e., an upper surface of bottom wall layer 1a. Electrically conductive pads 11 on the upper surfaces of lower steps 4b and terminals 12 on IC chip 2 are connected by gold wires 5 according to a wire bonding process. Gold wires 5 extend substantially in the longitudinal direction of casing 1. IC chip 2 has a planar profile size which is typically of 1.2 mm×1.3 mm. IC chip 2 as mounted in casing 1 has its longitudinal axis aligned with the longitudinal direction of casing 1.
As shown in FIG. 1C, crystal blank 3 is of a substantially rectangular shape, for example, and comprises an AT-cut quartz crystal blank. Crystal blank 3 has a planar size of 5 mm×3 mm, for example. The AT-cut crystal blank has its resonant frequency determined by its thickness. Crystal blank 3 has a pair of excitation electrodes 6 disposed respectively on opposite principal surfaces thereof. From excitation electrodes 6, there extend respective extension electrodes 7 toward respective opposite ends of one side of crystal blank 3. In the shown example, extension electrodes 7 extend the opposite ends of one shorter side of crystal blank 3. The opposite ends of the one side of crystal blank 3 to which extension electrodes 7 extend are bonded to the upper surfaces of upper step 4a where the connecting electrodes are disposed, by electrically conductive adhesive 8. The other end of crystal blank 3, which opposes to the one side of crystal blank 3, is placed in abutment against the upper surface of upper step 4a which is not divided. Crystal blank 3 is thus held in casing 1 and electrically connected to casing 1. The end of crystal blank 3 which is bonded by electrically conductive adhesive 8 acts a fixed end, whereas the end of crystal blank 3 opposite to the fixed end as a free end.
Since IC chip 2 and electrically conductive pads 11 are connected to each other by gold wires 5 according to a winding bonding technique on longitudinally opposite ends of casing 1, and gold wires 5 extend in the longitudinal direction of casing 1, a space can easily be provided for wire bonding operation in this crystal oscillator. For example, a capillary of the wire bonding apparatus can easily be guided to lower steps 4b. As the other end, i.e., the free end, of crystal blank 3, is placed on upper step 4a, the one end, i.e., the fixed end, of crystal blank 3, can easily be bonded in position by electrically conductive adhesive 8, and the free end is prevented from vertically swinging for protection against damage to crystal blank 3 when external mechanical shocks are applied to the crystal oscillator. Therefore, the crystal oscillator can be manufactured highly efficiently and is highly resistant to shocks.
As the oscillating frequency of the surface-mount crystal oscillator goes higher, i.e., is in a range from 100 to 170 MHz, AT-cut crystal blank 3 has a much smaller thickness, and tends to be fractured. As a result, the free end of crystal blank 3 which is merely placed on upper step 4a is not sufficiently strong to prevent crystal blank 3 from being broken. It has been attempted to coat cover 9 with an insulative adhesive over the free end of crystal blank 3, forming a protrusion projecting into the recess in casing 1 to reduce the range of vertical swinging of crystal blank 3. However, forming such a protrusion on cover 9 makes the assembly process longer and more complex. In addition, because the protrusion tends to secure crystal blank 3 substantially at its opposite ends, stresses are liable to concentrate on a central region of crystal blank 3, crystal blank 3 is likely to be broken at its central region.


Multi-precision multiplication methods include storing a first operand and a second operand as a first array and a second array of n words. A first weighted sum is determined from multiple subproducts of corresponding words of the first operand and the second operand. The methods may further include iteratively determining a next weighted sum from a previous weighted sum and a recursively calculated intermediate product. The disclosed methods can be used in a variety of different applications (e.g., cryptography) and can be implemented in a number of software or hardware environments.

Performing mathematical operations on large numbers can be a time-consuming and resource-intensive process. One method of handling large numbers involves dividing the numbers into smaller divisions, or words, having a fixed length. Numbers divided in this manner are termed "multi-precision" numbers. In the field of digital circuits, for instance, the binary representation of a large number can be stored in multiple words, wherein each word has a fixed length of n bits depending on the word size supported by the associated hardware or software. Although adding and subtracting multi-precision numbers can be performed relatively efficiently, multi-precision multiplication is much more complex and creates a significant bottleneck in applications using multi-precision arithmetic.
One application that requires multi-precision arithmetic is cryptography. Many public-key algorithms, including the Diffie-Hellman key exchange algorithm, elliptic curve cryptography, and the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA), involve the multi-precision multiplication of large numbers. For example, elliptic curve systems perform multi-precision arithmetic on 128- to 256-bit numbers, while systems based on exponentiation employ 1024- to 2048-bit numbers.
In order to improve the performance of these and other cryptographic systems, it is desirable to improve the efficiency of the multi-precision multiplication algorithm. Any improvements, even if relatively small, can result in a significant increase in the overall performance of the application, because the multiplication algorithm can be called many times during normal operation.

Multiplication of multi-precision numbers having a size of a power of two

The State of Oregon Acting by and Through the State Board of Higher Education on Behalf of Oregon State University


A food condiment dispenser is provided for dispensing fluid condiment materials, such as ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise. The dispenser includes a tubular body with a spherical plunger element connected to a spreader paddle member disposed within a tubular body. Upon external manipulation of the tubular body, the spherical plunger and spreader paddle arrangement is urged toward a dispenser nozzle for release of condiment filling contained therein. The sanitary spreader paddle simultaneously protrudes from within the tubular body as condiment filling is being evacuated. As a result, the user may evacuate the entire volume of condiment filling within the dispenser as well as spread the deposited condiment filling on a food article to be eaten.

The present invention relates generally to a condiment dispenser device. More specifically, the present invention relates to a single portion food condiment dispenser for dispensing condiments such as ketchup, mustard, and the like.
There have been many attempts in the general dispenser art to provide an apparatus capable of evacuating the entire volume of material contained in the dispensing tube. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,521,795 issued to Langhjeh et al teaches a full discharge dispensing container having a plunger element to assist in urging the material out of the tube. Langhjeh et al employs various types of nozzles to assist in the dispensing of pastes, such as toothpaste. U.S. Pat. No. 5,137,177 issued to Willis discloses a dispensing tube employing a spherical plunger ball and a tube with circumferential ridges for incremented movement of the plunger ball. Both of these prior art devices are designed for pastes and creams, such as toothpaste. Each require complex nozzle arrangements, particularly Langhjeh et al, and provide no means for spreading the material once dispensed.
In the food industry, particularly the fast food industry, it has been well known to employ a tube-like plastic member for housing condiment items such as ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise. Typically, prior art condiment dispensers include a tubular member for housing the food condiment which is subsequently crimped at the tube's two opposing ends employing known methods. Upon use, one of the crimped ends of the tubular package is severed permitting the food condiment to exit. The user must squeeze the package to urge the food condiment out of the package and onto the food article, such as a hamburger, to be eaten. To insure that the entire volume of the food condiment is evacuated from the tube, the user often pinches the tube and slides his fingers along the length of the tube to urge the condiment out of the tube. Many times, two hands are required to accomplish this; one hand holds the tube while the other hand slides along the length of the tube to urge the material out. Such action requires the food article to be placed on a table, the user's lap, or the like, so the food condiment can be applied thereon. However, many instances arise where the food condiment must be applied with one hand while the other hand holds the food article. In such a situation, the food condiment is dispensed in an inefficient and uncleanly manner. Moreover, in this situation, it is unlikely that the entire volume of food condiment will be urged out of the tube. As a result, a tremendous amount of food condiment is wasted and thrown away.
Prior art food condiment dispensers, which are readily available at fast food restaurants, are extremely unsanitary. Even though the food condiment is packaged in a sanitary and air-tight manner, the method of dispensing and applying the food condiment to the food article destroys the sanitary state of the food condiment. With a prior art condiment dispenser, the food condiment may be applied to any desired location in any configuration by the user. However, it is often necessary for the user to spread the food condiment on the surface of the food article to obtain a preferred even coating of the food condiment on the food article. To accomplish this, the food condiment tube dispenser itself is often used to spread the food condiment evenly on the food article. Such a use is unsanitary due to the likelihood that the outer surface of the dispenser is dirty due to handling by employees and storage in uncleanly containers. As a result, prior art condiment dispensers are inadequate for providing a completely sanitary food condiment dispenser which is capable of dispensing and spreading the entire volume of the food condiment contained therein.


A mobile communications base station has a service quality detection unit that monitors and measures communication qualities of wireless terminals currently located in the service area, and a packet classification unit that classifies packets addressed to the wireless terminals into two or more groups based on the measured communication qualities. The base station also has a buffering delay measuring unit that measures buffering delay of the packets for each of the groups. A transmission priority detection unit of the base station determines the order of priority for transmitting the packets based on the measured buffering delay in comparison with a prescribed threshold value. A resource allocation unit of the base station allocates the radio resources to the packets based on the order of priority to transmit the packets to the associated wireless terminals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a radio communications system for carrying out packet transmission, and more particularly, to a technique of allocation of radio resources to a downlink packet, in compliance with the service quality of the wireless terminal.
2. Description of Related Art
It is indispensable for a wireless communications system aiming to realize multimedia services to appropriately control packet transmission, taking into account the quality of services (QoS) that differs among applications. In addition, it is expected in the future wireless communications systems that information will be transmitted as packets through the network having wireless links. One technique for supporting a wide variety of service qualities required in a packet wireless communications system is to classify the packets in accordance with the service qualities required by the respective wireless terminals, and to determine the transmission priority for the packets based on the classification.
One known classification method is to set the packet transmission rate to one of the prescribed rates, such as CBR (constant bit rate), VBR (variable bit rate), or ABR (available bit rate) in the ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode). Another technique is to use the Diffserv architecture proposed by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). Under the Diffserv architecture, the traffic type is roughly classified into EF (expedited Forwarding), AF (assured forwarding) 1, AF2, AF3, AF4, and BE (best effort). A DSCP (Diffserv code point) value representing the identifier of the QoS class is assigned to each of the traffic types. Based on this classification, a packet is grouped into one of the traffic types in accordance with the service quality required for that packet.
FIG. 1 is a table defining the relation between the traffic types and the transmission priority under the Diffserv architecture. The top priority in data transmission is given to the EF (expedited forwarding) class. The EF class is used for the packet requiring real-time transmission, such as voice. The AF class has the priority next to the EF class, and weighted by four different factors. AF4 class is used for the packet containing video data that requires real-time transmission, such as video conference or streaming. AF1 through AF3 are applied to packets that do not contain data requiring real-time transmission. BE class is at the same priority level as the router that does not support the Diffserv architecture. The BE class is used to the packets containing data that do not require real-time transmission.
An identifier representing the QoS is written in advance in the prescribed field of the header of a packet or a cell. Based on this identifier, a packet transmission control apparatus classifies the packet in accordance with the required service quality, and carries out transmission priority control when forwarding the packet to the destination. For example, since in the Diffserv architecture the top priority is given to the EF class, a packet of the EF traffic type is treated with the top priority.
However, the above-described method may not exhibit its effect efficiently, depending on the environment, if it is applied to radio communications as it is. In other words, even though the packet transmission control apparatus classifies the packets into groups and controls the order of transmission priority based on the required service qualities, a receiver or destination equipment may not receive the exact service quality that the destination equipment requires.
FIG. 2 illustrates an example of the radio communication system. The mobile communications system shown in FIG. 2 includes a base station 504, which functions as a packet transmission control apparatus, and three wireless terminals 501, 502, and 503, which function as receivers or destination equipment. The wireless terminals 501 and 502 are installed with an application corresponding to traffic type AF4, and wireless terminal 503 is installed with an application corresponding to traffic type AF3 in the Diffserv architecture.
The base station 504 has FIFO (First-In First Out) transmission buffers for the respective traffic types. When receiving a packet, the base station 504 stores the packet in the associated transmission buffer corresponding to the traffic type of the addressed terminal one by one in order of arrival. Then, the base station 504 assigns radio resourced to the packet stored in the buffer and transmits it to the destination.
However, under the radio communication environment, the locations (or the circumstances) of the wireless terminals differ from one other, while each location moves frequently as time passes. In addition, the transmission conditions, such as path conditions or interference, often change. Accordingly, the quantity of radio resources required for the packet transmission also fluctuates as time passes.
For example, it is assumed that the radio resource to be allocated is transmission power of the base station 504, and that the transmission power is allocated to AF3 and AF4 classes so that the transmission ratio, that is, the ratio of the number of packets of AF3 to the number of packets of AF4, becomes four to two (4/2).
As illustrated in FIG. 3, the transmission buffer for AF4 class stores packets A-1 through A-3 addressed to wireless terminal 501, which correspond to two AF4-class fields, and packets B-1 through B-4 addressed to wireless terminal 502, which also correspond to two AF4-class fields. The packets are stored in order of arrival of the packets. In this example, AF4 packets are received at the base station 504 in order of A-1, B-1, B-2, A-2, B-3, A-3, B-4. On the other hand, the transmission buffer for AF3 class stores packets C-1 through C-4, which correspond to two AF3-class fields. The arrival order of these AF3 packets is C-1, C-2, C-3, and C-4. The vertical length of the packets shown in FIG. 3 represents the transmission power required to transmit these packets to the destinations.
Based on the transmission ratio and the arrival order, the base station 504 tries to assign transmission power to packets A-1, B-1, B-2, A-2, C-1, and C-2, simultaneously. However, as illustrated in FIG. 4, the required transmission power levels simultaneously assigned to these packets exceeds the maximum transmission power level of the base station 504. A portion of the packets (in this example, packet C-2) cannot receive the necessary power, and consequently, transmission delay occurs, whereby the predetermined transmission ratio cannot be maintained. In other words, the required service quality cannot be satisfied. For this reason, it becomes important for priority transmission control to allocate radio resources in a reliable manner, taking into account changes in transmission paths, interference, and other factors under the radio communications environment.
In addition, since the radio resources, such as time slots, frequency bands, spreading codes, or transmission power, are limited, it is also important to use the finite radio resources efficiently.

Allocation of radio resources to packets in accordance with service qualities under radio communication environment


A lead for delivering electrical stimulation pulses to pace the cardiac muscle and for sensing electrical signals occurring in the cardiac muscle is disclosed which as a rigid helix disposed at the extreme distal end thereof which rigid helix may be operated by the implanting physical to extend the tip of the rigid helix from a stored position within the distal end of the lead to a deployed position projecting from the distal end of the lead. The rigid helix pierces and engages the heart tissue to anchor the lead in place within the heart. The tip of the rigid helix has an axial bore therein which is filled with a therapeutic medication such as a steroid or steroid-based drug for inhibiting inflammation and promoting tissue growth. After the tip of the helical screw is disposed in the heart tissue, the therapeutic medication will be slowly eluted into the surrounding tissue, thereby minimizing the trauma of implantation and assisting in the anchoring of the lead.

Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a screw-in type myocardial pacemaker lead, and in particular to such a lead having a steroid or steroid-based drug stored therein and means for dispensing the drug into tissue surrounding the distal end of the lead after implantation.
Various types of pacemaking leads and cardiopulmonary catheter structures are known in the art which include means for introducing a drug into the area surrounding tissue adjacent a distal end of the lead or catheter.
Catheters for drug delivery to an in vivo site with the catheter having a distal end designed to penetrate the heart wall, so that the distal end may be disposed within the heart, are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,680,544, to Shinnick et al., and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,568,660, to Crites et al. Such catheters are primarily for use in emergency situations for introducing an externally administered drug into direct contact with the cardiac muscle, such as upon the occurrence of complete loss of cardiac output. As such, they do not include structure for storing the drug.
A combination pacing lead and drug delivery structure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,360,031, to White. The lead disclosed in White has conventional electrical conductors for delivering pacing pulses to the heart, and also contains a channel, concentric with the conductor, through which a drug can be dispensed which exits through holes at the extreme distal end of the lead. The drug is contained within an implanted bladder, remote from the distal end of the lead, which can be filled by a percutaneous syringe.
Pacing leads which are anchored in the heart by means of tines at a distal end thereof which engage the trabeculae, and which have a cavity at the distal end of the lead in which a drug to counter undesirable interactions between the lead and tissue is contained, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,251, to Stokes, and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,506,680, also to Stokes. Tined leads having tips consisting of porous or molecular sieve-forming material, with a drug being stored in and dispensed from the tip, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,662, to Heil, Jr. et al.; in U.S. Pat. No. 4,606,118, to Cannon et al.; and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,577,642, to Stokes.
An epicardial lead is disclosed in U.S. Statutory Invention Registration No. H356, to Stokes et al., which lead has a barbed electrode tip with an axial bore therein. The bore, which terminates short of the tip, may have an inflammation-preventing drug stored therein. The drug is dispensed to surrounding tissue via a plurality of radial openings in the electrode, and is not dispensed directly at the electrode tip. Another epicardial drug eluting lead is described in the article "Preliminary Studies on a New Steroid Eluting Epicardial Electrode," Stokes, PACE, Vol. 11, pp. 1797-1803 (Nov. 1988), in the form of a helical screw-in electrode, with the lead having steroid contained in solid form located in the housing at the distal end of the lead. It is necessary for fluid to migrate into the distal end of the electrode through a porous channel to dissolve the steroid to permit the steroid to diffuse into the electrode-tissue interface.
An endocardial screw-in lead is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,109, to Mayer et al., which lead has having a biocompatible covering which is soluble in body fluids surrounding the fixation helix. The covering is for the purpose of shielding the helix during insertion of the lead, so that a mechanism does not have to be used to extend the helix from the distal end of the lead after insertion. Although the covering dissolves in body fluids after implantation, the covering material is not intended to therapeutically interact with the tissue.
A further screw-in pacemaker lead is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,661, to Heil, Jr. et al., which has a chamber open to the distal end of the lead with a matrix impregnated with a therapeutic drug being retained in the chamber.


In a motor vehicle power train including a fuel injected internal combustion engine and a hydraulic automatic transmission, an improved engine fueling control strategy for maintaining proper engine RPM in the presence of an automatic transmission Park or Neutral (P/N) to Drive or Reverse (D/R) range shifting. Communication between the Engine and Transmission Control Modules enables precise anticipation of rapid engine intake manifold absolute pressure (MAP) increases associated with P/N to D/R range shifting. Additional fuel is injected immediately preceding the MAP increase in order to maintain the proper engine air/fuel ratio necessary to prevent RPM sags and engine stalls during the clutch engagement. Once the clutch engagement is complete, the additional fuel is progressively eliminated.

When a motor vehicle equipped with a fuel-injected internal combustion engine and an automatic transmission is range-shifted from Park or Neutral (P/N) to Drive or Reverse (D/R) during engine idle, the sudden load on the engine output shaft produces a temporary error in the engine air/fuel (A/F) ratio. This error, in turn, may cause a significant engine speed (RPM) sag or even a stall.
Speed/density fuel injection systems, regulated by an onboard vehicle Engine Control Module (ECM), rely on intake manifold absolute pressure (MAP) and crankshaft rotational speed measurements to calculate the required amount of fuel to inject. FIG. 1 illustrates a typical cylinder intake valve timing event chart for a double-fired fuel-injected engine rotating at a typical idle speed of 800 RPM.
The chart is broken up into intervals of 12.5 msec, which corresponds to the loop time of the ECM fueling program. For convenience, the timing chart interval labeling begins at 0 msec. Each reference pulse corresponds to 180 degrees of crankshaft rotation. MAP is measured at the trailing edge of each reference pulse, while fuel is injected at the trailing edge of alternate reference pulses. The MAP measurement used for fuel calculation for the intake valve event shown occurs at 0 msec. The MAP measurements at 37.5 and 75 msec (not shown) occur too late to be used for fuel calculation for the intake valve event shown at 50 msec.
The ECM performs fuel calculations every 12.5 msec, regardless of engine RPM. Fuel is injected at 37.5 msec based upon the most recent fuel calculation, which took place at 25 msec. Fuel calculations made at 7.5 msec and beyond (not shown) occur too late to be used for fuel injection for the intake valve event shown.
The intake valve event begins at 50 msec and is approximately 50 msec in duration. Once it has ended, no more fuel can be added to that particular cylinder for the upcoming combustion event. An intake valve event for a particular cylinder occurs every 150 msec in a four cylinder engine at 800 RPM.
As can be seen from FIG. 1, 100 msec elapse from the time of the MAP measurement used for fuel calculation to the end of the intake valve event. Any increase in MAP during this time will force additional air into the cylinder without being compensated with the proper amount of fuel, producing an incorrect A/F ratio. This problem is the result of controlling an event-based device (internal combustion engine) with a time-based control system (ECM).
A P/N to D/R range shift applies an additional load to the engine and causes a rapid increase in MAP, requiring additional fuel to maintain the proper A/F ratio for preventing any disruption of engine RPM. Time-based measurements are unable to accurately detect rapid increases in MAP. A/F ratios based upon MAP measurements taken during range shifting will result in an insufficient amount of injected fuel, producing a lean A/F ratio which will further result in RPM sag or an engine stall. This effect is pronounced in control strategies which attempt to run the engine as lean as possible prior to catalytic converter warm-up.

Engine idle fuel control during transmission range shifting


A method of forming a sole assembly of an article of footwear that includes an interior space that receives a foot of a wearer is disclosed. The article of footwear also includes an exterior surface. The method includes providing a first portion of the sole assembly. The first portion includes a first surface that at least partially defines the interior space. The first portion also includes a first chamber surface that opposes the first surface. Moreover, the method includes providing a second portion of the sole assembly. The second portion includes a second surface that at least partially defines the exterior surface of the article of footwear. The second portion also includes a second chamber surface that opposes the second surface. The method further includes operably securing the first portion to the second portion such that the first chamber surface and the second chamber surface cooperate to at least partially define a substantially sealed chamber within the sole assembly.

Articles of footwear can include an upper, a midsole, and an outsole. The upper can include layers or sections of material that wrap about a substantial portion of the superior, anterior, posterior, medial and lateral portions of the wearer's foot. The upper can also include laces, straps, or the like for securing the footwear to the wearer's foot. The outsole can be a unitary piece of relatively high-friction material that provides traction for the footwear. Also, the midsole can include foam that is disposed between the outsole and the upper for providing cushioned support for the wearer.
In some cases, footwear can additionally include a bladder that contains a fluid, such as a gas or gel. The bladder can be embedded within the midsole, and weight of the wearer and other loading on the bladder can cause the fluid to displace within the bladder. As such, the bladder can resiliently deform and conform to the wearer's foot in order to provide better support and comfort than some midsoles made entirely out of foam. Also, the bladder can dampen or attenuate shock loads or other loads during jumping, running, and other activities to provide better cushioning.
Although conventional footwear with bladders have been adequate for their intended purposes, they do suffer from certain disadvantages. For instance, manufacturing of the footwear can be significantly expensive and complicated. For instance, the bladder itself increases the part count of the footwear. Also, the bladder is typically manufactured separately from the rest of the sole assembly, and then the bladder is assembled into the sole assembly. As such, the bladder can increase part costs and manufacturing costs.
Furthermore, sole assemblies that include fluid-filled bladders can significantly increase the weight of the sole structure, which can hinder the wearer's running, jumping, or other movements. Even further, such sole assemblies can be difficult to recycle because the assembly includes multiple parts as discussed above.

Sole assembly with plural portions that cooperatively define chamber


A turbine airfoil includes an internal cooling circuit between opposite pressure and suction sidewalls. The pressure sidewall includes a row of outlet slots for the circuit separated by converging partitions. Each slot includes an inlet, throat, and diverging outlet. Each of the partitions includes a step in a converging sidewall thereof for increasing divergence of the slots to diffuse coolant discharged therethrough.

The present invention relates generally to gas turbine engines, and, more specifically, to turbine airfoil cooling.
In a gas turbine engine air is pressurized in a compressor and mixed with fuel in a combustor for generating hot combustion gases. The hot gases are channeled through various stages of a turbine which extract energy therefrom for powering the compressor and producing work, such as powering an upstream fan in a typical aircraft turbofan engine application.
The turbine stages include stationary turbine nozzles having a row of hollow vanes which channel the combustion gases into a corresponding row of rotor blades extending radially outwardly from a supporting rotor disk. The vanes and blades have corresponding airfoil configurations, and are hollow with corresponding cooling circuits therein. Since the heat loads from the combustion gases vary over the pressure and suction sides of the vanes and blades, the cooling circuits therein are correspondingly different for best using the limited cooling air available.
The cooling air is typically compressor discharge air which is diverted from the combustion process and therefore decreases overall efficiency of the engine. The amount of cooling air must be minimized for maximizing the efficiency of the engine, but sufficient cooling air must nevertheless be used for adequately cooling the turbine airfoils for maximizing their useful life during operation.
Each airfoil includes a generally concave pressure sidewall, and an opposite, generally convex suction sidewall extending longitudinally or radially in span and axially in chord between leading and trailing edges. For a turbine blade, the airfoil span extends from a root at the radially inner platform to a radially outer tip spaced from a surrounding turbine shroud. For a turbine vane, the airfoil extends from a root integral with a radially inner band to a radially outer tip integral with an outer band.
Each turbine airfoil also initially increases in thickness aft of the leading edge and then decreases in thickness to a relatively thin or sharp trailing edge where the pressure and suction sidewalls join together. The wider portion of the airfoil has sufficient internal space for accommodating various forms of internal cooling circuits and turbulators for enhancing heat transfer cooling inside the airfoil, whereas the relatively thin trailing edge has correspondingly limited internal cooling space.
Each airfoil typically includes various rows of film cooling holes extending through the sidewalls thereof which discharge the spent cooling air from the internal circuits. The film cooling holes are typically inclined in the aft direction toward the trailing edge and create a thin film of cooling air over the external surface of the airfoil that provides a thermally insulating air blanket for additional protection against the hot combustion gases which flow over the airfoil surfaces during operation.
The thin trailing edge is typically protected by a row of trailing edge cooling slots which breach the pressure sidewall immediately upstream of the trailing edge for discharging film cooling air thereover. Each trailing edge outlet slot has an exposed outlet aperture in the pressure side which begins at a breakout lip and is bounded in the radial direction by exposed lands at the aft ends of axial partitions which define the outlet slots.
The axial partitions are integrally formed with the pressure and suction sides of the airfoil and themselves must be cooled by the air discharged through the outlet slots defined thereby. The partitions typically converge in the aft direction toward the trailing edge so that the outlet slots diverge toward the trailing edge with a shallow divergence angle that promotes diffusion of the discharged cooling air with little if any flow separation from the sides of the partitions.
Aerodynamic and cooling performance of the trailing edge outlet slots is directly related to the specific configuration of the outlet slots and the intervening partitions. The flow area of the outlet slots regulates the flow of cooling air discharged through the slots, and the geometry of the slots affects cooling performance thereof.
The row of trailing edge outlet slots typically extends for the full radial span of the trailing edge for providing cooling completely therealong. The divergence or diffusion angle of the outlet slots is typically limited to about 7.5 degrees for maximizing diffusion efficiency without effecting undesirable flow separation of the discharged cooling air which would degrade performance and cooling effectiveness of the discharged air.
Accordingly, these geometrical constraints on discharge flow area and divergence angle determine the number and pitch spacing of the outlet slots along the trailing edge.
The portions of the thin trailing edge directly under the individual outlet slots are effectively cooled by the discharged cooling air, with the discharged air also being distributed over the intervening exposed lands at the aft end of the partitions. However, those lands are nevertheless solid portions of the pressure sidewall integrally formed with the suction sidewall and must rely for cooling on the air discharged from the adjacent trailing edge outlets.
Notwithstanding the small size of the these outlet lands and the substantial cooling performance of the trailing edge outlet slots, the thin trailing edges of turbine airfoils nevertheless typically limit the life of those airfoils due to the high operating temperature thereof in the hostile environment of a gas turbine engine.
Accordingly, it is desired to provide a turbine airfoil having improved trailing edge cooling for improving airfoil durability and engine performance.


Embodiments of the invention provide for faster and more efficient data processing, and can utilize multiple authorizations and tokens having domain restrictions. The different authorizations may be related, and a related transaction indicator as well as reference data may be included in authorization requests made after an initial authorization.

In recent years, payment tokens have been used in place of primary account numbers (PANs). While payment tokens can functions like PANs, they are not PANs. For example, instead of having ubiquitous properties, tokens are intentionally restricted. These restrictions are known as domain restrictions. The purpose of domain restrictions is to protect both the consumer and merchant from fraudulent and inappropriate purchases. Tokens are issued with domain restrictions based on the nature of the token requestor. In many cases, the token requestor will not be a merchant, but will be a mobile communication device with an issuer or third party wallet application. This means that some tokens are only able to operate in select channels. For instance, a token may be limited to an environment where the card data is stored such as a secure element or in a database. A token stored with these kind of domain restrictions cannot be used in another channel. Cryptography is the method used to protect card data and tokens and acts as proof of the interaction between the consumer and a merchant.
Because tokens are format preserving, meaning that they look and act like a PAN, a merchant that accepts the token may not be aware that domain restrictions may be applied to their transactions. This creates an inconsistency between PANs and tokens.
Embodiments of the invention address this and other problems, individually and collectively.

Token processing utilizing multiple authorizations


A case has a front surface facing an image sensing area, a concave formed on the front surface, and an opening on the bottom of the concave. The case accommodates an area image sensor to image-sense the image sensing area through the opening, and an illumination device to illuminate the entire image sensing area. There are provided a photoelectric converting unit converting an output of the area image sensor into an electric image signal, and an output unit outputs an image signal converted by the photoelectric converting unit to an image processing device. The case also accommodates a lens to form an image of the image sensing area on the area image sensor with a depth of field so as to the image processing device obtain a resolution to enable analysis of a code symbol included in the image signal. A lens side limit position of the depth of field corresponds with the position of the front surface of the case.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a code symbol reading apparatus, and more particularly, to a code symbol reading apparatus for infallibly and easily reading a code symbol of a commercial product in a wide range including peripheral positions of the apparatus.
2. Discussion of Related Art
As a code symbol reading apparatus which optically reads an image of a code symbol such as a barcode attached to a product and obtains a product code from the read image, an apparatus using an area image sensor such as a CCD image sensor is known. This code symbol reading apparatus extracts image information of a barcode as a subject from image data obtained with the CCD image sensor, analyzes the obtained image information and obtains code information of the barcode, i.e., a product code.
FIG. 4A is a cross-sectional view schematically showing the structure of a conventional code symbol reading apparatus. The code symbol reading apparatus 200 has an approximately rectangular parallelepiped case 210 formed with a front cover member 211 which is provided on the image sensing area F side where a product is placed and which has an image sensing opening 213, and a back cover member 212 which is engaged with the front cover member 211 and which is provided on the side opposite to the image sensing area side.
An image sensing device 220 to take image of the image sensing area F, an illumination board 230 to illuminate the image sensing area F and an image processing board 240 are provided in the case 210. The image sensing device 220 image-senses a barcode attached to a product, and the image processing board 240 analyzes image data of the image-sensed barcode and outputs product data.
The image sensing device 220 has an image sensing board 221 including a CCD image sensor (not shown) as an area image sensor and a driving circuit (not shown) for the CCD image sensor, and an lens 222 to form an image of the image sensing area F on the CCD image sensor. The illumination board 239 is provided with an image sensing opening 232 of the lens 222 in its central portion. Plural LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) 231 to emit illumination light to the image sensing area F are provided around the opening 232. The image processing board 240 extracts a barcode portion from image data of a product outputted from the image sensing board 221, analyses the barcode data and obtains a product code.
In this code symbol reading apparatus 200, a front surface 211a is provided in a position closest to the image sensing area F side in the front cover member 211 of the case. A plate type transparent cover 250 is provided so as to cover the opening 213 on the rear side of the front surface 211a. The image sensing opening 232 of the lens 222 is provided on the illumination board 230, and the LEDs 231 are provided so as to be positioned inside the opening 213 on the image sensing area F side. Light from the LEDs 231 is emitted on an illumination area I including the image sensing area F.
A barcode of a product placed in the image sensing area F is image-sensed with the image sensing device 220. Then the image processing board 240 extracts image data of the barcode from image data of the product obtained with the image sensing device 220, then analyses the image data and obtains a product code.
As a code symbol reading apparatus having such area image sensor, Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2005-025311 discloses a barcode reader having plural LEDs to emit illumination light on a barcode symbol and a CCD on which reflected light from the barcode symbol is image-formed via a light receiving lens. In the barcode reader, the respective LED emitting portions are covered with LED caps for light diffusion. The respective LED caps have a diffusion characteristic to diffuse the light emitted from the respective LEDs so as to form a uniform illumination distribution surface on the barcode symbol.
In many cases, in the conventional code symbol reading apparatus, for the purpose of cost reduction, the lens 222 is a fixed focus lens. In this case, in accordance with barcode position in the image sensing area F, an image obtained by image sensing may become a so-called "out-of-focus" image. From a viewpoint of resolution, as shown in FIG. 4B, in such blurred image, the resolution is a maximum in a focus position P1 of the lens, and becomes lower in the vicinity of the focus position.
Upon analysis of code symbol image by the image processing board 240, when image data as the subject of processing is in a resolution equal to or lower than a predetermined value d, analysis cannot be performed and a product code cannot be outputted. Accordingly, the barcode reading range is a predetermined area (depth of field A1) between a lens side limit Pc1 and a limit Pf1 opposite to the lens side positioned with the focus position P1 therebetween. Generally, as the depth of field A1, the focal distance of the lens 222 or the like is selected such that a product can be easily placed. That is, the depth of field A1 is selected for the optimum placement of product in the focus position P1.
In an area out of the depth of field A1, an outer area B1 of the limit Pf1 opposite to the lens side and an inner area C1 from the inside of the lens side limit Pc1 to the surface of the front cover member 211, as the resolution of image data is low, the barcode of a product placed in these areas cannot be read. On the lens side limit Pc1 side, the lens side limit Pc1 of the depth of filed A1 is away from the case 210. When a product is placed in a position closer to the case 210 than the lens side limit Pc1, the barcode of the product cannot be analyzed.
When a barcode attached to the product cannot be read with such code symbol reading apparatus, an operator places the product in the image sensing area of the code symbol reading apparatus again to perform barcode reading. However, in the conventional code symbol reading apparatus, the depth of field A1 of the image sensing device in the image sensing area is not clear. Accordingly, in some cases the operator cannot place the product in the depth of field A1 of the image sensing device again, and reading cannot be performed.
As long as the apparatus can infallibly perform barcode reading when the product is placed in a position close to the case of the code symbol reading apparatus in such retry, barcode reading can be performed only by allowing the operator to place the product in a position in close vicinity to the code symbol reading apparatus. Accordingly, a code symbol reading apparatus which infallibly performs barcode reading when a product is placed in a position close to the case of the apparatus is needed.


Semiconductor devices are prepared by growth of epitaxial layers on a substrate from metalorganic compounds of the formula MR.sub.3, R being an alkyl group, or its amine adduct. The metalorganic compound was prepared by reacting a Grignard reagent with a metal halide in an amine solvent.

This invention concerns semiconductor devices and their production.
While there is a considerable interest in InP/InGaAs devices grown by chemical beam epitaxy (CBE), particularly in the area of selective growth, the GaAs/AlGaAs material system is less well established. With the exception of very encouraging data for heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT's) and high eletron mobility transistors (HEMTS's) the quality of AlGaAs alloys grown by CBE have generally been inferior to those grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) or molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The degradation of material quality results from unintentional moieties of group III metal alkyls and also unintentional oxygen incorporation. Much effort has, therefore, gone into the development of new precursors which reduce unintentional impurity incorporation in epitaxial AlGaAs layers.
A direct correlation has been established between oxygen concentrations unintentionally incorporated into AlGaAs grown by CBE and trace quantities of diethylether detected by in-situ modulated beam mass spectrometry (MBMS) in the group III metalorganic precursors. The trace ether is residual from the synthesis of the metal trialkyl MR.sub.3, which involves the alkylation of the metal trihalide by a Grignard reagent RMgX carried out in an ether solvent. Subsequent purification processes are then performed to remove the oxygen containing ether solvent and other impurities from the metalorganic precursor. However, these processes are never entirely successful.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,464,233 describes the formation of dimethylmagnesium by reacting a Grignard reagent with a metal halide using electrolysis, having tetra(n-butyl) ammonium percholate as an ionizable support electrolyte and a solvent such as an aliphatic ether, cyclic aliphatic mono- or poly- ether or a non-cyclic ether. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,604,473 discloses a method of producing a trialkylgallium compound by reacting a gallium trihalide with a Grignard reagent in the presence of an ether.
Trimethylindium compounds with nitrogen-containing Lewis-bases have also been prepared using Lewis-base solvents, such as diethyl ether (see Journal of the Chemical Society, Dalton Transactions vol. 1. 1998, USA; Foster et al: "synthesis and thermal properties of trimethylindium with nitrogen-containing Lewis bases") and the interaction of, for example, ethers and amines with trimethylalane adducts is discussed in Inorganic Chemistry vol. 7, no. 6., Jun. 3, 1986, USA pages 1047-1051; C. H. Henrickson et al.
Alternative methods for producing metalorganic precursors for use in the deposition of epitaxial layers have been described in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,812,586 and EP0460598.

Formation of a metalorganic compound for growing epitaxial semiconductor layers

The Secretary of State for Defence in Her Britannic Majesty's Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland of Defence Evaluation and Research Agency


An apparatus and method for sharing a secret comprising the steps of generating a first random matrix, generating a first projection matrix from the first random matrix, and determining a first remainder matrix from the first projection matrix and the first secret matrix. The first secret matrix may be determined using the remainder matrix and a plurality of distributed vector shares.

In today's world, information and audio-visual content is transmitted over various mediums by a multitude of content providers. The mediums include standard over-the-air broadcasts systems, cable broadcast systems, satellite broadcast systems, and the Internet. Moreover, the sensitive financial information demands for secure and reliable storages and transmission.
Cryptography systems permit the protection of information and content which is sensitive, or intended only for a select audience. For example, a provider of satellite radio broadcasts may encrypt its transmission so that only authorized receivers may play the transmitted content.
One existing cryptography system which utilizes a technique known as 'secret sharing' is referenced as 'threshold cryptography.' A (k, n) threshold secret sharing scheme is one type of secret sharing system. A 'secret sharing' technique, developed by Adi Shamir, discusses the (k, n) threshold secret sharing technique using a polynomial function of the (k−1)th power to construct 'n' shares from a shared secret value. The technique satisfies following the two information entropy requirements: i) any 'k' or more shares can be used to reconstruct the secret, and ii) any k−1 or less shares could not reveal any information about the secret (See, E. D. Kamin, J. W. Greene, and M. E. Hellman, "On secret sharing systems," IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, vol. IT-29, no. 1, pp. 35-41, January 1983; A. Shamir, "How to share a secret," Communications of the ACM, Vo. 22, No. 11, pp. 612-613, November 1979). Threshold cryptography uses the secret sharing technique to divide an encryption key into 'n' shares, such that any 'k' shares can be used to reconstruct the key.
Van Dijk et al. and Jackson et. al. have proposed extending the 'secret sharing' concept to share multiple secret(s) by using linear coding (See M. Van Dijk, "A linear construction of perfect secret sharing schemes", in Advances in Cryptology—(EUROCRYPT '94): Workshop on the Theory and Application of Cryptographic Techniques Advances in Cryptology, A. De Santis, Ed., IACR. Perugia, Italy: Springer-Verlag, May 1994, pp. 23-35; W. A. Jackson and K. M. Martin, "Geometric secret sharing schemes and their duals", Designs, Codes and Cryptography, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 83-95, January 1994).
However, existing methods and systems for sharing multiple secrets suffer from large information overhead requirements.
Thus, there is presently a need for a system and method for sharing multiple secrets which has low information overhead, but yet maintains a high level of security.

Secret sharing technique with low overhead information content

Temple University of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education


Simultaneous dense WDM operation in both the 1310 nm and 1550 nm transparency windows of silica-based optical fiber, is enabled by a fiber design providing for nulled dispersion within a critically positioned wavelength range. Design provides for values of dispersion in both windows sufficiently low for desired per-channel bit rate, and, at the same time, sufficiently high to maintain effects of non-linear dispersion within tolerable limits for WDM operation. Fiber fabrication and system design are described.

A number of noteworthy developments have come into confluence to result in state-of-the-art optical fiber communication systems. Wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) systems provide for per-channel bit rates of 2.5 Gb/sec with four channels of 100 GHz separation which, together, constitute a spectral band sufficiently narrow to permit simultaneous amplification of the entire WDM channel set by individual erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA). Several amplifier spans, each of 100 km and greater length, are combined to require terminals only at distances of 500 km or more.
While some analog operation persists, new system design emphasizes digital transmission, so that capacity is ordinarily discussed in terms of bit rates. It has been recognized that a primary limitation on capacity is spreading of individual bits, caused by chromatic dispersion, i.e., differing wavelength-dependent group velocities for different wavelength components of the spectrum making up the pulse. The dispersion limit on bit-rate, or alternatively on distance between terminals (spans), corresponds with a degree of spreading sufficient to result in overlap between successive bit positions. Chromatic dispersion is lessened by use of laser sources of minimal spectral emission bandwidth. From the fiber standpoint, the fact that the natural material dispersion null point of silica--the basic material of which optical fiber is made--occurs within its 1310 nm transparency window, resulted in emphasis on operation at such a system wavelength.
At this stage, 1310 nm operating systems were loss-limited, so that decreased fiber attenuation would permit increased span length. It was known that the 1550 nm window offered decreased loss, but that significant dispersion at wavelengths in that region would now result in systems that were dispersion-limited, in turn preventing any advantage in span length due to reduced loss for contemplated bit rates, and signaling study of means to lessen dispersion. The desire for operation in the 1550 nm window was satisfied by a new fiber design--"dispersion-shifted fiber" (DSF). This fiber depends upon the combination of two opposite influences--on the combination of "waveguide dispersion" with the naturally occurring silica "material dispersion". Appropriate fiber design increased the magnitude of the waveguide dispersion to offset the positive dependence of the material dispersion at the greater wavelength--so as to "shift" the dispersion null point from 1310 nm to 1550 nm. The objective was attained, DSF replaced unshifted fiber (USF) for sophisticated, long-haul systems.
The desire to increase capacity was largely directed to WDM operation, with its multiple-channel operation, now in the lower-loss 1550 nm window. At the same time, a competing effort looked to the possibility of simultaneous operation in both windows, as a means of increasing capacity. Recognizing the significance of chromatic dispersion as the primary limitation on bit-rate, and in recognition of the universally-acclaimed success of DSF which enabled operation at 1550 nm by nulling dispersion at that wavelength, the effort took the form of attempting to null the dispersion simultaneously at both wavelengths. The result was the dispersion flattened fiber (DFF), which, analogous to DSF, depended on crossover between waveguide dispersion and material dispersion--but now required two crossovers, one within each window.
Emergence of the EDFA, with its passband in the 1550 nm window, increased the importance of moving system operation to this region. That amplifier, with its passband of sufficient width for simultaneously amplifying member channels of a WDM set, offered the first practical WDM operation. (By all reports, this amplifier continues to be preferred, although study has made significant inroads on alternative rare-earth doped devices and also on amplifiers based on Raman effect. See Elec. Lett., Vol. 32, No. 23, pp. 2164-2165 (Nov. 7, 1996).)
The next phase was truly remarkable, effectively ending dominance of DSF, and with it, the DFF with its promise of dual-window operation.
TrueWave.RTM. fiber is one commercial name given the "Non-Zero Dispersion" fiber (NZF) which has largely replaced DSF for state-of-the-art use. U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,516, first teaches that DSF precludes expected high-capacity WDM operation by reason of the very same nulled chromatic dispersion recommending it for highest-capacity single-channel operation. It then identifies four-wave mixing (4 WM) as the primary reason for failure of WDM to meet capacity expectations in DSF systems. 4 WM, a non-linear effect, is due to interaction between pulses of adjoining channels, which, in introducing sum and difference signals, reduces power level of the two interacting channels. It is of particular consequence for usual systems, providing for constant channel-to-channel spacing (for "evenly spaced" channels), in which wavelengths of such spurious signals coincide with carrier wavelengths of other channels of the WDM set, resulting in superimposition and reduced signal-to-noise ratio. It then proposes substitution of NZF with its small but critical range of chromatic dispersion. Intended for long-haul operation at a system wavelength of 1550 nm, the specified dispersion at that system wavelength, is shown to be sufficiently low as between components of a pulse spectrum so as to permit contemplated per-channel bit rates, while at the same time introducing sufficient dispersion to result in periodic phase cancellation between channels of the WDM set, and to lessen the magnitude of transferred signals due to 4 WM. (4 WM requires simultaneous presence of bits in interacting member channels--the attained magnitude of the growing spurious signal increasing for increasing time in phase. Dispersion as between channels limits interaction times, and accordingly sets a limit on the cumulative magnitude of the spurious 4 WM signals.)
The art has continued to progress. With emphasis on broadened transmission bandwidth, amplification is, to lesser extent, satisfied by the traditional EDFA. Raman amplification or, alternatively, amplification based on rare earth dopant, but using praseodymium in lieu of erbium (e.g., the praseodymium-doped fluoride fiber amplifier), shows promise of satisfying the desire for WDM operation within the 1310 nm window. Other alternatives have been investigated--as an example, erbium-doped fluoride glass shows evidence of improved gain flattening over the amplification band in the 1550 nm window.
It is widely recognized that advantages of long haul optical communication systems might continue to be of value for transmission over shorter distances. The trend toward "all optical networking" is expected to result in replacement of copper for local access and in metropolitan systems. Needs in such systems would be served by very large WDM sets--perhaps a hundred or more channels--perhaps before such large capacity is seen in long haul systems.

Dual window WDM optical fiber communication


The present disclosure relates to a method and system for determining estimated time of arrival. The method includes receiving a service request including a departure location and a destination from a terminal device; determining a route based on the departure location and the destination; determining a first feature associated with the route; determining a transfer learning model; determining a second feature based on the first feature and the transfer learning model; and determining an estimated time of arrival based on the second feature.

On-demand transportation services utilizing Internet technology, such as online taxi-calling services, have become increasingly popular because of their convenience. In an on-demand transportation service, after determining a departure location and a destination, a service requester may want to know an estimated time of arrival (ETA) and/or an estimated price. Based on the ETA and/or the estimated price, the service requester can decide whether to send the service request or not. It may be desirable to have a system and method that can provide more accurate ETA and/or the estimated price for the service requester.

Systems and methods for determining estimated time of arrival

BEIJING DIDI INFINITY TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT CO., LTD.


Estimating in-situ stress of an interval having drilling response data is described. Estimating involves obtaining drilling response data of a data rich interval with available data. Estimating relative rock strength as a composite value that includes in-situ stress and rock strength. Estimating a Poisson's ratio from the relative rock strength. Generating a stress model that includes uniaxial strain model using the Poisson's ratio. Verifying the stress model with the available data. Applying the stress models in a non-data rich interval.

In-situ stress of the earth's crust is regarded as one of the most important parameters used in engineering design of oil and gas operations. For example, wellbore failure can occur when the stress concentrated around a borehole exceeds strength of the rock. Certain operational activities (e.g., depletion or injection) can alter initial in-situ stress state of a reservoir. These stress changes can cause slip on pre-existing faults, which can be helpful to enhance effective permeability and higher fluid production from the reservoir. However, enhanced permeability along a large fault may cause uncontrolled fluid escape outside the reservoir. Thus, efficient recovery of hydrocarbons can hinge on an accurate understanding of mechanisms of stress in the earth's crust and their dynamics with reference to oil field operation.
Conventional estimation of in-situ stress typically involves analyzing openhole logs and image data, which are collected at data rich interval at reservoir depth. These approaches often use analytical solutions for in-situ stress estimation based on elastic assumptions. These solutions generally require two parameters (i.e., Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio) to define elastic properties of the rock. The parameters can be determined by sonic and density logs or lab measurements. However, these stress estimation approaches cannot be used or struggle in cases where sonic and image data is lacking. Data scarcity can be very common in overburden section of a well, in development wells due to production constraints, and in unconventional wells due to budgetary constraints.

Rock strength and in-situ stresses from drilling response


The present invention provides a primer for footwear constituting members, wherein the primer includes an acid-modified polyolefin resin and a medium; the acid-modified polyolefin resin is a copolymer including an olefin unit and an unsaturated carboxylic acid unit; the copolymer includes as the olefin unit, a propylene unit (A) and an olefin unit (B) other than the propylene unit; the mass ratio (A/B) between the propylene unit (A) and the olefin unit (B) other than the propylene unit is 60/40 to 95/5; and the content of the unsaturated carboxylic acid unit is 0.1 to 10 parts by mass in relation to 100 parts by mass of the total amount of (A) and (B).

In the production of footwear, a technique to allow a plurality of members different in chemical properties or mechanical properties from each other to adhere to each other is important. In particular, in the production of sports shoes undergoing strong stress during use, a technique allowing the constitutional members of sports shoes to strongly adhere to each other is required. As an adhesion technique developing such strong adhesiveness, there has hitherto been a method in which the individual constitutional members are, if necessary, beforehand subjected to treatments such as degreasing, buffing and primer coating, then coated with an adhesive, and allowed to adhere to each other through the intermediary of the adhesive. Among these treatments before the coating of the adhesive, the primer coating assumes a significant role with respect to the adhesiveness between the footwear constituting members and the adhesive, and plays an important role as the adhesion technique for footwear.
Sports shoes are always required to achieve high functionalization in, for example, various performances such as cushioning property, lightweighting and design. In order to cope with the need for such high functionalization, novel materials have been proposed day after day for the constitutional members of footwear. Naturally, when such novel materials are used for the constitutional members of footwear, a high level adhesion technique is required. However, even when such novel materials are proposed, no sufficient adhesiveness is obtained by using conventional primers, and hence practical use of such novel materials is sometimes impossible. In other words, novel materials simultaneously require primers compatible therewith.
For the purpose of being adapted to such novel materials, primers for footwear have been proposed in Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2.

Primer for footwear constituting members, method for producing same, footwear constituting member, and footwear


A method for automatically determining a potential transmission region, comprising: acquiring multiple binary indications for a direct line of sight between a transmitter and an airborne vehicle respective of multiple geo-positions of the airborne vehicle; acquiring each of the multiple geo-positions respective of each of the multiple binary indications for the direct line of sight; for each one of the acquired geo-positions, determining a layer of access respective of topographical data for the geographical region and the acquired geo-position, as a subset of the geographical region that includes at least one potential point defining a potential line of sight between the transmitter and the airborne vehicle, thereby determining multiple layers of access; determining an intersection of the multiple layers of access; and determining, from the intersection, the potential transmission region respective of the transmitter and the geo-positions of the airborne vehicle.

Detection systems for mobile objects, such as armored vehicles and the like, typically employ one or more sensors to detect a transmission directed towards the vehicle, such as a fired projectile, or a transmission by a tracking device, and the like. Such sensors may comprise receivers for detecting visual signals, acoustic signals, RADAR signals, and the like. On detecting one or more transmissions directed at the vehicle, these systems might issue a warning to the driver of the vehicle. Additionally, such systems might apply topographical data to compute for the vehicle an alternative route that is outside the transmitting range of the detected transmission.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,163,949B2 to Andersson, entitled "Dynamic Route Planner", and U.S. Pat. No. 9,255,808 B2 to Andersson, entitled "Route Planning System and Method for Minimizing Exposure to Threats", are directed to systems and methods for determining one or more alternative routes for a vehicle, responsive to detecting a shot fired at the vehicle. Based on the firing history, the system may issue a warning, and redirect the vehicle to the alternative route.

Transmission detection using line of sight