A method, system, and computer program are provided for quality of service using multiple flows. At a first digital device, a plurality of inter-computer flows is established between the first digital device and a computer. A plurality of inter-device flows is also established between the first digital device and a second digital device via a communication network. At least one flow metric associated with each of the inter-device flows is determined, which may include, for example, a latency metric, a loss metric, and/or a re-ordering metric. According to various embodiments, flow metrics may form a basis for categorizing the inter-device flows. One or more preferred flows are selected based on the flow metrics. Finally, a packet to be sent to the second device is directed to one of the preferred flows.

1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to quality of service in communication networks. More specifically, the present invention relates to quality of service using multiple flows.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, quality of service (QoS) refers to resource reservation control mechanisms in a communication network. Quality of service describes an ability to assign different performance levels to packets. The performance levels or priorities may be associated with certain applications, users, etc. Certain performance levels may be guaranteed for a particular flow, such as bit rate, delay, jitter, packet dropping probability, and/or bit error rate. Guaranteed performance levels may be quite important in delay sensitive applications, such as voice over internet protocol (VoIP), especially when communication network capacity is insufficient.
For IP networks, two broad approaches have been developed to implement quality of service. In the first approach, known as integrated services or "IntServ," applications that require performance guarantees make individual reservations for communication network resources. Disadvantageously, routers in the communication network accept, maintain, and tear down the individual reservations, which hinders scalability of IntServ.
The second approach to implementing quality of service is known as differentiated services or "DiffServ." In DiffServ, packets are marked according to certain performance requirements. In response, routers and switches within the communication network use various queuing strategies to tailor performance to the performance requirements. While IntServ lacks scalability, quality of service with DiffServ operates on aggregates of many flows, leaving ultimate decisions regarding flow assignments to third-parties.
Routing can also be based on quality of service. Certain routing protocols, such as a border gateway protocol (BGP), make routing decisions based on path, network policies, and/or rule sets in accordance with quality of service designations of the packets. This approach does not allow every possible path to be taken advantage of. Furthermore, users of the network may have no control over which path a given packet follows beyond choosing which service provider to send the packet.


A pre-shaped and self-blocking reinforcement parietal prosthesis for inguinal hernioplastic surgical operations around the spermatic cord, extends along a longitudinal axis and presents a first and second layers respectively provided with a first and a second holes being aligned with each other so as to define an aperture for the spermatic cord, with a first and second outer edges and with a first and second slits, which extend on opposite side with respect to the longitudinal axis and which connect the first and second holes respectively to the first and second outer edges (6, 9).

A hernia is defined as a pathology characterised by the protrusion of organs, or their parts, from their natural position through an anomalous aperture in the human tissue. Such a pathology requires a hernioplastic surgical operation during which a reinforcement parietal prosthesis is implanted in the area of the tissue affected by the hernia in order to re-establish the continuity of the tissue and to create a resistance zone. During hernioplastic inguinal surgical operations two substantial problems arise. The first problem relates to the so called relapse or the recurrence of the hernial pathology. The second problem consists in the fact that the hernioplastic operation must not damage the spermatic cord when the reinforcement parietal prosthesis is lodged around the same.
Before carrying out hernioplastic operations, the practice had been to carry out a direct suture of the damaged tissue (Bassini-Shouldice Method). With this operations there has been a very high number (25%) of relapses. To solve this problem surgical techniques have evolved thanks to the implantation of parietal prostheses made up essentially of meshes and placed onto the damaged tissue. The parietal prostheses have helped in lowering the incidence of relapses but have not completely eliminated the problem. In fact, a relapse may be attributed to many factors including the mispositioning of the prosthesis, the fixing suture for the prostheses to the human tissue which can lead to an erroneous tension distribution and the creation of dead spaces and seromas. To solve this problem surgeons have tried to use prostheses of different materials (polypropylene monofilament has proved the most ideal for this purpose), that is, biocompatible meshes with stable physico-chemical and dimensional characteristics such as high resistance to tensile stress, stable biologically, which do not induce inflammatory reaction and which permit a rapid reaction of the fibroblasts, a high capacity to adapt to muscular movements and contractions. An important characteristic turns out to be the pattern of the mesh: in this way it is possible to have a mesh with optimum qualities so as to adapt itself perfectly to the site of the implant. Initially the pattern was made manually in the operating theatre; the next step developed by the manufacturing companies was to reproduce prostheses already preshaped with accurately finished outer edges, fraying- and breaks-free and being of different sizes. The first preshaped prostheses were sutured to the human tissue: one of the disadvantages was the transmitting of tensions between the prosthesis and the human tissue. Then new prostheses and different surgical techniques were approached such as the tension free sutureless mesh and sutureless tension-free repair: this technique requires the use of a prosthesis having a single layer preshaped mesh and provided with a hole and a longitudinal slit to permit the insertion of the spermatic cord into the hole. This prosthesis is not sutured to the human tissue because it remains confined within a well defined anatomical space which constricts movements of the same. The parts of the prosthesis adjacent to the longitudinal slit can be sutured together or left free: in the first case the wings can move and damage the spermatic cord, in the second case the formation of relapses, damage to the spermatic cord and the bending of the parts of the prosthesis along the longitudinal slit are encouraged leading to the formation of dead spaces. This solution does not rule out a possible migration and deformation of the mesh in case that said parts open out if they are free or in case they bend when connected by a suture stitch; nor does it succeed either in completely resolving the problem of the risk of damage to the spermatic cord. Moreover with this solution the risk of the incidence of relapses is not completely eliminated.
To try and solve these problems there has been produced a parietal mesh of reinforcement, subject of the international patent application WO 01/85058 under the title "Double layer anatomic surgical mesh" in the name of the same applicant: it concerns a double layer mesh made up of two superimposed layers with equal coincident holes, and radial divergent slits. The layers present respective external coincident edges joined by a continuous laser welding with the exclusion of the area where there are present the two slits that create two wings initially overlapping, the function of which is to block the mesh at the spermatic cord, avoiding damaging it and without using surgical stitches between the wings. This prosthesis has been designed to be used in those surgical operations where a posterior approach is envisaged: that is the prosthesis is placed in contact with the internal face of the human tissue. Even though this prosthesis has shown itself to be particularly effective from either the point of view of implantation or from that of relapses, it does have the drawback of being particularly expensive due to the high use of materials and of skilled labour and, for this reason, it is not used for more common surgical operation where anterior access is envisaged.

Reinforcement parietal prosthesis and method of producing the same


Methods and systems for automatically generating pose estimates from uncalibrated unordered panoramas are provided. An exemplary method of automatically generating pose estimates includes receiving a plurality of uncalibrated and unordered panoramic images that include at least one interior building image, and extracting, for each panoramic image, feature points. The method includes generating a match matrix for all the panoramic images based on the one or more feature points, constructing a minimal spanning tree based on the match matrix, identifying a first and second panoramic image, based on the minimal spanning tree, wherein the second panoramic image is associated with the first panoramic image providing a navigation from the first panoramic image to the second panoramic image.

1. Field
Embodiments relate to indoor navigation and exploration.
2. Related Art
Maps provide navigation assistance but do not present a visual depiction of the environment. Recently, pictorial images such as panoramic images have been associated with outdoor map locations as a further visual aid for navigation. While this approach provides a navigation aid to locate a particular destination, e.g., a restaurant, it does not provide a user with an indoor navigation and exploration tool to explore the look and layout of the interior of an establishment. Panoramic images of indoor scenes have been captured but require manual sequencing to associate one particular panoramic image with another to provide a user a navigation tool within the interior space. More advanced approaches to indoor panoramic image capture are often limited to moving camera devices along fixed paths or require expensive external positioning systems to support navigation of the moving camera device and capture of ordered images.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Automatic pose estimation from uncalibrated unordered spherical panoramas


A system and method for setting time and date in a device (e.g., a set top box (614), or similar client device) through a network connection when a network time standard server (606, 620) (e.g., a NTP server) is unavailable (e.g., blocked or blacklisted) are provided. The system and method of the present disclosure involves sending (404) a request over a network from a device for information from an Internet address (618), receiving (406) a packet (500) from the Internet address (618) in response to the request, extracting (408) time and date information from a header (502) in the packet (500), and using the extracted time and date information to set (416) the current time and date for the device.

Any background information described herein is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art, which may be related to the present embodiments that are described below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light.
Many home entertainment devices not only include the capability to communicate with other devices in a home network but also include the ability to receive and/or process available media content from a plurality of sources, including a plurality of providers. The sources and providers may include, but are not limited to, satellite service, cable service, and free to home over the air terrestrial service. The services may operate in the same or different frequency ranges and may use the same or different transmission formats or protocols. The devices for receiving the services often include, but are not limited to, set-top boxes, gateways, televisions, home computers, tablets, mobile phones and the like. Further, many of these devices may include multiple interfaces for different types of externally provided services as well as different types of home networks. These devices may also include additional features internal to the device, such as storage elements, hard drives, compact disk or digital versatile disk drives, and the like.
Some devices, particularly those devices that are operated as auxiliary devices connected through a network (e.g., an over-the-top (OTT) device connected to a service provider network through a Wi-Fi connection or hotspot), may be restricted in terms of access to certain network servers and locations by the service provider. In some cases, the restriction may include websites or Internet addresses associated with certain device startup operations, such as a Network Time Protocol (NTP) server. As a result, these devices may not be able to establish an accurate time and date automatically.
Therefore, a need exists for techniques for setting time and date in a device without access to a time standard server, such as the NTP server.

System and method for setting time and date in a device without access to network time protocol

Interdigital Madison Patent Holdings, SAS


A hand truck includes a cart base for carrying an article and two handle modules pivotally mounted thereto. When the hand truck is in a first state, the cart base is horizontally positioned and one handle module is pivoted to an upright position. When the hand truck is in a second state, the cart base is kept upright, one of the handle modules is pivoted to a spread position, and the other one of the handle modules is horizontally positioned and cooperates with the cart base to carry the article. When the hand truck is in a platform state, the cart base is horizontally positioned, and the handle modules are pivoted to a downward extending position so that the cart base is away from the ground.

A hand truck is usually utilized for transporting a relatively large amount of articles that are not convenient for a user to carry by hand. Generally, a conventional hand truck includes a frame for carrying articles, a plurality of wheels mounted to the bottom of the frame, and a handle accessible to the user for moving the hand truck. The articles to be transported are placed on the frame, and the user holds the handle to exert force and to thus move the hand truck.
Hand trucks have many types of structures for carrying differently shaped articles. For example, a hand truck including a frame having a length greater than that of a handle is suitable for carrying articles with a relatively low center of mass, and the frame is suitable for stacking many articles thereon. On the other hand, a hand truck including a handle having a length greater than that of a frame is suitable for carry an article with a relatively high center of mass, e.g., an upright refrigerator or a steel cylinder, and the handle is disposed inclinedly so that the carried articles can lean against the handle. However, each of the abovementioned kinds of hand trucks is not suitable for carrying articles suitable to be carried by the other one of the kinds of hand trucks.


A method of preventing progression of neuropathic pain is disclosed. The method includes administering to a subject an N-type voltage-sensitive calcium channel blocking compound which is characterized by its ability to (a) inhibit electrically stimulated contraction of the guinea pig ileum, and (b) bind selectively to omega conopeptide MVIIA binding sites present in neuronal tissue. Also disclosed are formulations effective to stabilize omega conotoxin peptide preparations at elevated temperatures. Novel omega conopeptides also form part of the invention.

Chronic or intractable pain, as may occur in conditions such as bone degenerative diseases, AIDS, Reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD), and cancer, is a debilitating condition which is treated with a variety of analgesic agents, and often opioid compounds, such as morphine.
Neuropathic pain is a particular type of pain that has a complex and variable etiology. It is frequently a chronic condition attributable to complete or partial transection of a nerve, trauma or injury to a nerve, nerve plexus or soft tissue, or other conditions, including cancer, AIDS and idiopathic causes. Neuropathic pain is characterized by hyperalgesia (lowered pain threshold and enhanced pain perception) and by allodynia (pain from innocuous mechanical or thermal stimuli). The condition is progressive in nature. Because the hyperesthetic component of neuropathic pain does not respond to the same pharmaceutical interventions as does more generalized and acute forms of pain, development of effective long-term treatment modalities has been problematic.
Opioid compounds (opiates) such as morphine, while effective in producing analgesia for many types of pain, are generally not effective for treating the progressive stages of neuropathic pain. Moreover, these compounds are known to induce tolerance in patients, so that increased doses are required to achieve a satisfactory analgesic effect. At high doses, these compounds produce side effects, such as respiratory depression, which can be life threatening. In addition, opioids can produce physical dependence in patients. Dependence appears to be related to the dose of opioid taken and the period of time over which it is taken by the subject. For this reason, alternate therapies for the management of chronic pain are widely sought after. In addition, compounds which serve as either a replacement for or as an adjunct to opioid treatment in order to decrease the dosage of analgesic compound required, have utility in the treatment of pain, particularly pain of the chronic, intractable type.
Although calcium blocking agents, including a number of L-type calcium channel antagonists, have been tested as adjunct therapy to morphine analgesia, positive results are attributed to direct effects on calcium availability, since calcium itself is known to attenuate the analgesic effects of certain opioid compounds (Ben-Sreti, et al., 1983). EGTA, a calcium chelating agent, is effective in increasing the analgesic effects of opioids. However, results from tests of calcium antagonists as adjunct therapy to opioids have been contradictory; some L-type calcium channel antagonists have been shown to increase the analgesic effects of opioids, while others of these compounds have been shown to decrease opioid effects (Contreras, et al., 1988).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,051,403 describes the use of omega-conopeptides having defined binding/inhibitory properties in the treatment of ischemia-related neuronal damage. U.S. Pat. No. 5,364,842 demonstrates the effectiveness of omega-conopeptide compositions in certain animal models of pain. Specifically, omega-conopeptides MVIIA and TVIA and derivatives thereof having related inhibitory and binding activities were demonstrated to produce analgesia in animal models of analgesia in which morphine is the standard positive control. U.S. Pat. No. 5,587,454 discloses that omega conopeptides also exhibit analgesic properties in certain models of analgesia, such as neuropathic pain models of analgesia, in which morphine is not expected to produce positive results.
The present invention is based on the discovery that N-type voltage-sensitive calcium channel (VSCC) blocking compounds, including omega conopeptides, are effective to prevent progression of neuropathic conditions. Also disclosed are improved routes of administration for providing relief from neuropathic pain. In addition, the present invention discloses stabilized conopeptide formulations that are particularly useful in the treatment methods of the present invention. These stabilized compositions also find use in other applications in which prolonged administration or long-term storage of solutions containing conopeptides are required.

Methods and formulations for preventing progression of neuropathic pain


A high voltage metal oxide semiconductor device comprising a substrate, an N-type epitaxial layer, an isolation structure, a gate dielectric layer, a gate, an N-type drain region, a P-type well, an N-type source region, a first N-type well and a buried N-doped region is provided. The first N-type well is disposed in the N-type epitaxial layer under the isolation structure and on one side of the gate. The first N-type well overlaps with the N-type drain region. The buried N-doped region is disposed in the substrate under the N-type epitaxial layer and connected to the first N-type well.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a high voltage metal oxide semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the dimension of metal oxide semiconductor device continues to shrink, the resulting shorter channel length leads to an increase in the operating speed of the transistor. However, other problems related to the shorter channel grouped under the so-called 'short channel effect' intensify. If the applied voltage remains unchanged but the transistor channel length is reduced, the energy of the electrons inside the channel will increase due to the acceleration by the electric field according to the basic formula: electric field=voltage/length. As a result, the chance of electrical breakdown will increase. Furthermore, the increase in the intensity of the electric field will also lead to an increase in the energy of the electrons within the channel and ultimately result in an electrical breakdown.
In high power devices, double-diffused metal oxide semiconductor (DMOS) is an important device capable of handling high input voltage. In general, the DMOS device can be categorized into lateral double-diffused MOS (LDMOS) and vertical double-diffused MOS (VDMOS).
FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a conventional LDMOS. As shown in FIG. 1, the LDMOS device mainly comprises a substrate 100, a field oxide layer 102, a gate dielectric layer 104, a gate 106, an N-type drift region 108, an N-type drain region 110, a P-type well 112 and an N-type source region 114. The substrate 100 is an N-type substrate (or a P-type substrate). The field oxide layer 102 is disposed in the substrate 100. The gate dielectric layer 104 is disposed in the substrate 100 adjacent to the field oxide layer 102. The gate 106 is disposed on the gate dielectric layer 104 and a portion of the field oxide layer 102. The N-type drift region 108 is disposed in the substrate 100 under the field oxide layer 102. The N-type drain region 110 is disposed in the substrate 100 on one side of the gate 106 close to the field oxide layer 102. The P-type well 112 is disposed in the substrate 100 on another side of the gate 106. The N-type source region 114 is disposed in the P-type well 112.
To meet the demand in high voltage applications, the N-type drain region 108 of the LDMOS device is doped lightly to reduce dopant concentration. However, this method has limited capacity for increasing the operating voltage. Moreover, the driving current will be reduced as well.
FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a conventional VDMOS device. As shown in FIG. 2, the VDMOS device mainly comprises a substrate 200, an N-type epitaxial layer 202, a gate dielectric layer 204, a gate 206, an N-type source region 208, a P-type well 210 and an insulating layer 212. The substrate 200 is an N-type substrate. The N-type epitaxial layer 202 is disposed on the substrate 200. The gate dielectric layer 204 is disposed on the N-type epitaxial layer 202. The gate 206 is disposed on the gate dielectric layer 204. The N-type source region 208 is disposed in the P-type well 210 on each side of the gate 206. The insulating layer 212 covers the gate 206.
In the VDMOS device, the variation in the equipotential between neighboring P-type wells 210 is rather large. Hence, the breakdown voltage of the VDMOS device will be reduced. In fact, the highest operating voltage is in the vicinity between 60˜100V, which is a significant limitation on power applications requiring a high operating voltage.
The conventional DMOS device, whether it is a LDMOS or a VDMOS device, has limited capacity for increasing its breakdown voltage. Furthermore, the high ON-resistance (RON) of a conventional DMOS device is also a significant problem waiting to be resolved.

Fabricating method of a high voltage metal oxide semiconductor device


An x-ray inspection system using backscatter of an x-ray beam emitted through a scan panel contiguous with, but of a material distinct from, an enclosure that contains an x-ray source by which the x-ray beam is generated. The scan panel is contoured in such a manner as to be visibly blended with a shape characterizing the enclosure. In some embodiments, the beam traverses multiple scan panels, where one or more of the scan panels may be selected for beam filtration properties. The scan panel may be disposed interior to a sliding door, and may be structured to serve as a scatter shield.

Materials within containers not readily susceptible to visual scrutiny, or, alternatively, materials that may be carried on the person of a human or on another animate subject, are routinely inspected by measurement of x-rays scattered by the materials from an irradiating x-ray beam. The characteristics of a material which might be the object of non-invasive inspection and which lend themselves to detection using the device and method taught by the invention include, but are not limited to, electron density, atomic number, mass density, linear dimensions and shape. These characteristics are unveiled by taking advantage of the various physical processes by which penetrating radiation interacts with matter. Additionally, scattered penetrating radiation may be used for imaging contents concealed within a vehicle or other container. Scattering in the backward direction may be referred to as backscatter, and is particularly implicated in the teachings of the present invention.
Penetrating radiation refers to electromagnetic radiation (or radiation of massive particles, such as neutrons) of sufficient energy per particle to penetrate materials of interest to a substantial and useful degree and include x-rays and more energetic forms of radiation. The interaction of such radiation with matter can generally be categorized as either scattering or absorption processes. Both types of process remove x-ray photons from a collimated (i.e., directional) beam; scattering processes do so by deflecting photons into new directions (usually with loss of energy), while absorption processes simply remove photons from the beam. As used herein, the term "x-ray" may be used as exemplary of penetrating radiation generally.
Description of the rudiments of various mobile inspection systems may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,764,683, issued Jun. 9, 1998, and in U.S. Pat. No. 7,099,434, issued Aug. 29, 2006, both of which incorporated herein by reference. As used in this description and in any appended claims, the term "source" is used in a broad sense to encompass the entirety of the apparatus used to generate a beam of penetrating radiation that is used to irradiate the object under inspection. The source is taken to include the generator of penetrating radiation (the "source", in the narrow sense) which may include an x-ray tube or a radio-isotope. It is, furthermore, to be understood that the term "source" as used herein and in any appended claims, and as designated generally by numeral 30 in the drawings, refers to the entirety of the apparatus used to generate beam 24, and may have internal components that include, without limitation, apertures, choppers, collimators, etc.
Scatter imaging in which the x-rays scattered by a material (typically in a generally backward direction) are employed offers several unique inspection capabilities and operational features. Scatter imaging allows images to be obtained even when the imaged object is accessible from only one side. Moreover, since the scatter signal falls off quite rapidly with increasing depth into the object, backscatter images effectively represent a "slice" of the object characteristic of the side nearest to the x-ray source, thereby reducing problems of image clutter that may confound transmission images. The Compton effect, which dominates x-ray scatter in the energy range typically employed in accordance with the present invention, dominates the interaction of x-rays with dense low-atomic-number (low-Z) materials. Narcotic drugs tend to produce the bright signatures in a backscatter image, as do organic explosives, making backscatter imaging a useful imaging modality for bomb or drug detection. Finally, alignment requirements of the x-ray beam with detectors or collimation devices are less exacting than for transmission imaging thereby enabling rapid deployment in a wide range of inspection scenarios.
Flying-spot technology makes possible the acquisition of images using detectors specifically positioned to collect the scattered x-rays. In a typical flying-spot system, a thin "pencil beam" of x-rays is rapidly and repetitively swept through a source-centered track of beam paths that are arranged to intercept the object under inspection. At the same time, the inspection system moves relative to the inspected object at a substantially constant, slower speed along a path perpendicular to the track of the swept pencil beam. (It is to be understood that whether the source or the object moves relative to a local rest frame is immaterial to the present invention as claimed.) In this way, the pencil beam is made to traverse the object in point-by-point raster fashion, and the entire object is scanned as it passes through the fan plane over a period ranging from a few seconds to a few minutes depending upon the length of the object and the relative velocity of the object and the source.
FIG. 1 depicts a prior art mobile backscatter inspection system, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,099,434, in which context embodiments of the present invention are advantageously applied. Backscatter detectors 100 are mounted on a mobile platform 10, or conveyance, typically capable of road travel, that traverses a large object to be inspected such as a vehicle or a cargo container 12. Conveyance 10 is characterized by an enclosure 14, here, the skin of a van, shown, in cutaway view, to enable depiction of other components of an inspection system. The conveyance can have many alternate embodiments, including but not limited to gasoline, diesel, electric, propane, battery, fuel-cell, or hydrogen-powered motor vehicles (including vans, trucks, or similar), tracked vehicles, sleds, trailers, cranes, or other equipment that can be put into motion, preferably self-propelled, but also including vehicles tethered and pulled such as under electric power.
Contained within enclosure 14 of conveyance 10 is a source 30 including x-ray tube 32 (shown in FIG. 2) and chopper 34. Rotating hoop 34, with aperture 38, emits a pencil beam 24 (also referred to, herein, as an "outgoing beam," or "illuminating x-ray beam," or "primary beam"), thereby enabling inspection of object 12.
Various means are known in the art for mechanically or electronically sweeping a beam of penetrating radiation, including, for example, the rotating chopper wheel 34 depicted in FIG. 2, or electronic scanning as described in detail, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,421,420, issued Jul. 16, 2002, which is incorporated herein by reference. In embodiments employing a mechanical rotating chopper wheel 34, as the chopper wheel rotates in the direction of arrow 22, outgoing beam 24 of penetrating radiation emitted from the target of x-ray tube 32 passes successively through a plurality of channels.
Detectors 100 detect penetrating radiation from source 30 that has interacted with, and scattered from, contents of the inspected object 12, are carried by conveyance 10 and are typically enclosed within enclosing body 14 and concealed from view from outside the conveyance. They may also be carried outside the conveyance for particular applications within the scope of the present invention, as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,764,683. Detectors 100 are electrically coupled to processor 40, which receives and processes scatter signals, to render images of inspected object 12 and its contents, and/or to compute material characteristics of the contents of inspected object 12.

Convertible scan panel for x-ray inspection


An apparatus for removing contaminates from industrial waste streams by thermal destruction in which contaminated waste emission gases are controllably intermixed with hydroxy gas and the mixture thus formed ignited within a combustion chamber of unique design. The temperature within the combustion chamber is maintained at no less than 3000 degrees Fahrenheit to achieve molecular disassociation of the pollutants contained within the emission gas into harmless compounds.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for the thermal destruction of waste. More particularly, the invention concerns a novel afterburner apparatus and its method of use for removing pollutants from industrial waste streams by high temperature thermal destruction using hydroxy gas.
2. Discussion of the Invention
Industries throughout the world have come under increasing regulatory pressure to limit the quantities of pollutants discharged to the surrounding environments. Of particular concern is the removal from industrial waste streams of priority pollutants such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), pesticides, heavy metals, volatile organic compounds (VOC), and PCB, to name but a few. The thrust of the present invention is to remove these priority pollutants from gaseous emissions by high temperature thermal destruction using hydroxy gas, that is, a gaseous mixture of hydrogen and oxygen.
While the use of hydroxy gas to accomplish high temperature burning is not new, the use of this gas in a closely controlled environment for the highly efficient thermal destruction of priority pollutants presents exciting, heretofore largely unexplored possibilities.

Method and apparatus for thermal destruction of waste


An electric connector includes at least one terminal pin having, at opposite ends thereof, terminals to be inserted into through-holes formed through printed circuit boards spaced away from and facing each other, and an aligner for aligning the terminal pins in a row in such a condition that the terminal pins are movable relative to the aligner, the terminal pin including a movement-limiter which restricts movement of the terminal pin in a direction of an axis thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electric connector electrically connecting two printed circuit boards spaced away from and facing each other, and further to a terminal pin employed in the electric connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known an electric connector including a plurality of bar-shaped terminal pins aligned in a row. Terminals formed at one of ends of the terminal pins are inserted into through-holes formed through a first printed circuit board, and terminals formed at the other ends of the terminals are inserted into through-holes formed through a second printed circuit board, thereby electric circuits mounted on the first and second printed circuit boards are electrically connected to each other.
FIG. 27 is a perspective view of the connector disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. H4(1992)-29196, and FIG. 28 is a cross-sectional view of the connector sandwiched between two printed circuit boards.
As illustrated in FIG. 27, the connector includes a plurality of terminal pins 101. As illustrated in FIG. 28, each of the terminal pins 101 is bent by about 90 degrees at a lower end, and is soldered onto a first printed circuit board P1 at the L-shaped lower end. Further, each of the terminal pins 101 is inserted into a female connector 102 mounted on a second printed circuit board P2.
FIG. 29 is a perspective view of the pin header disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H7(1995)-230862.
As illustrated in FIG. 29, a plurality of terminal pins 103 are supported with an upper holder 104 and a lower holder 105 each formed at upper and lower ends of board 106. The board 106 includes a plurality of projections 107 horizontally aligned at a central zone of the board 106. Each of the projections 107 is located in a space formed between the adjacent terminal pins 103 to thereby electrically insulate the adjacent terminal pins 103 from each other.
In an electric connector electrically connecting printed circuit boards to each other through terminal pins aligned in a row, a positional relation between the printed circuit boards is quite important. For instance, when printed circuit boards are connected to each other by inserting terminal pins into through-holes formed through the printed circuit boards, if a position relation between the printed circuit boards is deflected, the terminal pins might not be able to be inserted into one of the printed circuit board, even if the terminal pins can be inserted into the other printed circuit board. In particular, in the case a plurality of electric connectors is employed, there is a high possibility that the terminal pins cannot be inserted into one of the printed circuit boards.
In the above-mentioned connector disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. H4(1992)-29196, since one of the terminals of the terminal pin 101 is connected to the second printed circuit board P2 through the female connector 102, even if a positional relation between the first and second printed circuit boards P1 and P2 were slightly deflected, it is considered that the female connector 102 can absorb the deflection. However, the connector has to include the female connector 102 in order to absorb the deflection in a positional relation between the first and second printed circuit boards P1 and P2, a number of parts in the connector is not avoidable from increasing.
In the pin header disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H7(1995)-230862, though the terminal pins 103 are inserted directly into printed circuit boards, the terminal pins 103 are merely held by the upper holder 104 and the lower holder 105, and each of the projections 107 merely separates the adjacent terminal pins 103 from each other. Consequently, if a positional relation between the printed circuit boards is deflected, since positions of the terminal pins 103 and a space between the adjacent terminal pins 103 are restricted by the upper holder 104 and the lower holder 105, even if the terminal pins 103 were able to be inserted into through-holes formed through one of the printed circuit boards, the terminal pins 103 might not be able to be inserted into through-holes formed through the other printed circuit board.

Electric connector with deformable terminals


A processor which is switchable between a first execution mode (such as a scalar mode) and a second execution mode (such as a VLIW mode) is disclosed. The processor has a first processor context when in the first execution mode and a second processor context, different from the first processor context, when in the second execution mode. The processor generates an exception when the processor attempts to change from one execution mode to the other. When the processor switches to a thread of execution which is in the first execution mode, or when the processor switches to a thread of execution which was the last thread to be in the second execution mode, only the first processor context is preserved. The processor may be arranged such that the number of threads that may be in the second execution mode at any one time is less than the total number of threads that may be active on the processor at any one time.

The present invention relates to processors, and in particular to processors which are switchable between two or more different execution modes, for example scalar mode and very-long-instruction-word (VLIW) mode.
In order to meet the needs of different processing tasks, it has been proposed to provide processors which are switchable between two or more different execution modes. The two or more execution modes may have different instruction sets, which may be designed with different types of processing task in mind. For example, one instruction set may be designed for sequential execution as in a conventional processor, whereas another instruction set may be designed to allow a number of instructions to be executed in parallel. Thus, the processor typically has a first execution mode in which at least a first instruction set is supported, and a second execution mode in which at least a second instruction set is supported. The processor typically transfers from one execution mode to another by executing a special instruction or group of instructions.
Modern processors are usually designed to support multi-tasking, that is, they allow several threads of execution to be processed at what appears to the user to be the same time. This is usually achieved by switching the processor's resources rapidly between various threads under operating system control to give the illusion of simultaneous processing of the threads. Such a switch is referred to herein as a context switch. Whenever a context switch takes place, the contents of the processor's registers, flags etc. (referred to as the processor context) must be returned to that when the new thread was last executed. This is done by preserving the current processor context, by saving it in memory, and restoring the processor context for the new thread, by retrieving it from memory. In known processors, when a context switch takes place, the entire processor context is preserved and restored, since the operating system does not know which part of the processor context was used by the outgoing thread and which part will be used by the incoming thread.
In processors which are switchable between two or more different execution modes, the size of the processor context in the various modes may be different. This may result in parts of the processor context being preserved and restored unnecessarily when a context switch takes place.
For example, in processors which are able to support parallel processing, the processor context may be large, and hence a large amount of data may need to be preserved and restored on each context switch. Even if the processor did not always operate in a parallel processing mode, the processor context of the parallel processing mode would nonetheless be preserved and restored on each context switch. This may consume an undesirably large amount of processor time, and thereby reduce the rate at which tasks can be processed.


An aircraft flight control system advantageously is provided with a control rod which is spline-connected to a bearing assembly so as to permit simultaneous independent longitudinal and rotational movements of the control rod while isolating such movements from one another (e.g., so as to allow operative interconnection to an aircraft's aileron and elevator control surfaces). Thus, the control rod is moveable in longitudinal and rotational directions relative to a longitudinal axis of the control rod in response to pitch and roll command inputs, respectively. The control rod is splined operatively to the bearing assembly so as to allow for independent simultaneous longitudinal and rotational movements of the control rod relative to the longitudinal axis thereof to thereby allow the command inputs to be transferred to the aircraft's respective flight control surfaces.

It is well known that an aircraft in flight is commanded through three axes of control, namely the pitch, roll and yaw axes. Control surfaces on the aircraft structure are thus commanded by a pilot (or autopilot if so equipped) to move in appropriate directions so the aircraft attitude may be controllably adjusted relative to such axes of control to thereby allow control over the aircraft's flight path. In conventional aircraft, control of the aircraft about the yaw axis is typically accomplished through foot pedals in the aircraft cockpit which when manipulated by the pilot's feet cause an aircraft rudder to be deflected and thereby yaw the aircraft in the desired direction. Thus, pressing the right rudder pedal will cause the aircraft to yaw rightward while pressing the left rudder pedal will cause the aircraft to yaw leftward.
Movement of the aircraft about the pitch and roll axes is typically accomplished through a control yoke or wheel that is capable of being reciprocally moved forward and aft relative to the aircraft's longitudinal axis as well as being rotated rightward and leftward. Specifically, forward and aftward movement of a control yoke by the pilot will responsively cause an aircraft elevator control surface to be deflected causing downward and upward aircraft pitch changes, respectively. Rotation of the control yoke by the pilot will responsively cause the aircraft's wing-mounted ailerons to be deflected so as to cause rightward and leftward aircraft roll. Therefore, with regard to pitch and roll commands, it is necessary that the movements are separated from each other, even though the pilot command inputs are through a common structural element, the yoke or wheel. Furthermore, since it is necessary for a pilot to provide simultaneous control inputs for all three control axes in order to maintain a coordinated flight attitude, the pitch and roll control system must be capable of pantographic movements.
There are basically two types of control yoke arrangements in conventional aircraft. The first type (e.g., so-called column systems) includes an upright column which is moveable forward and aft so as to control aircraft pitch movement. A yoke is rotatably mounted to the upper end of the column so as to allow for commanded right and left aircraft roll movements in response to turning the yoke right and left, respectively.
A second type of control yoke arrangement (e.g., so-called axial systems) involves a yoke which is installed at an aft end of a yoke shaft which is aligned generally axially with respect to the aircraft. According to one conventional solution, the yoke shaft is composed of a pair or telescopic shafts with the external shaft having a circular cross-section and the internal shaft having a square cross-section. The external shaft is connected rigidly to the yoke at its aft end and includes at its opposite end a sleeve arm installed with bearings to discard rotational movement and instead only allow longitudinal movements to be transmitted to the elevator control system. The internal shaft on the other hand is supported by rollers of the external shaft so as to allow rotational movement of the external shaft to be transmitted to the aileron control quadrants.
While a variety of pitch and roll control systems are already known in the art, some improvements are still desired. For example, it would especially be desirable if an axial control system could be provided such that pitch and roll commands are separated from one another using a single control shaft connected to the yoke. Such an arrangement would thereby reduce the complexity of the control system thereby potentially leading to reduced manufacturing and/or maintenance costs. It is therefore towards fulfilling such needs that the present subject matter is directed.

Aircraft flight control systems and methods

Embraer - Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica S.A.


Systems and methods for faster public key encryption using the associated private key portion are described, including encrypting a plaintext into a ciphertext, where the encrypting uses a public key and a corresponding private key; and storing the ciphertext.

1. Field
The subject matter discussed herein relates generally to data processing and, more particularly, to systems and methods for faster public key encryption using the associated private key portion.
2. Related Background
In public key cryptography or asymmetric cryptography, a cryptosystem consists of three algorithms: one algorithm for key generation, which generates a private key maintained by the owner and a public key published by the owner to the public; one algorithm for encryption, which allows anyone who has access to the published public key to perform encryption using the public key; and one algorithm for decryption, which allows the owner having private key or "trapdoor" information to decrypt with the private key data encrypted using the public key.
In the RSA (Rivest, Shamir and Adleman) algorithm, for example, both the private key and the public key are generated using the two prime numbers. The owner knows the two prime numbers and can perform decryption using the prime numbers. The "public" (i.e., those who are provided with the public key, which is based on at least some form of composite of the two prime numbers) can perform encryption using the public key. The public cannot effectively factor the composite, and cannot perform decryption.
In certain scenarios, the party performing the encryption is also the owner of the private key. For example, the owner may want to encrypt data for transmission across a public network and/or storing at a third-party storage (e.g., cloud storage). The encrypted data can be retrieved later and decrypted by the owner.


Disclosed is an etching gas provided containing CHF2COF. The etching gas may contain, as an additive, at least one kind of gas selected from O2, O3, CO, CO2, F2, NF3, Cl2, Br2, I2, XFn (In this formula, X represents Cl, I or Br. n represents an integer satisfying 1≦n≦7.), CH4, CH3F, CH2F2, CHF3, N2, He, Ar, Ne, Kr and the like, from CH4, C2H2, C2H4, C2H6, C3H4, C3H6, C3H8, HI, HBr, HCl, CO, NO, NH3, H2 and the like, or from CH4, CH3F, CH2F2 and CHF3. This etching gas is not only excellent in etching performances such as the selection ratio to a resist and the patterning profile but also easily available and does not substantially by-produce CF4 that places a burden on the environment.

In processes for producing semiconductor thin film devices, optical devices, super steel materials and the like, there have been produced various thin films, thick films and the like by means of CVD method, sputtering method, sol-gel method, vapor deposition method and the like. Moreover, in order to form a circuit pattern, gas etching for partially removing a thin film material has been conducted on semiconductors or in fabrication of semiconductors for IC, LSI, TFT and the like.
Hitherto, perfluorocarbons (PFCs) such as CF4, C2F6, C3F8 and the like have been used as an etching gas in etching for forming circuits, in fabrication of thin film devices. However, these gases exist in the environment stably for a long period of time and therefore regarded as having high global warming potentials, so that their adverse influence on the environment has come to an issue.
For example, their GWPs known from the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report are as follows (on a 100 year scale):
CF4: 7390
C2F6: 12200
C3F8: 8830
An etching gas partially having the structure of CF3 group e.g. C2F6, C3F8 and the like generates active species exemplified by CF3 radicals, ions and the like in a deposition room (a chamber) thereby exhibiting the etching effect; however, CF3 active species are brought into contact with fluorine radicals or with fluorine active species of ions to be recombined thereto, thereby forming CF4 as a by-product.
Guidelines on the destruction of PFCs issued by Office of Fluorocarbons Control Policy, Global Environmental Issues Division of the Global Environment Bureau of the Ministry of the Environment (issued in March 2009) states that CF4 is the most undecomposable PFC in the environment and therefore it may not be sufficiently destructed under the destructing conditions similar to those for other fluorocarbons.
As a fluorine-containing etching gas having low global warming potentials and substitutable for PFC, there have been proposed COF2, CHF2OF (Patent Publication 1), CF3COF (Patent Publications 2 and 3) and the like. These publications state it is possible to reduce by-production of CF4, for example, by optimizing an etching condition for CF3COF.


The present disclosure relates to a display panel and a manufacturing method thereof, a display device. The display panel includes an array substrate and a color film substrate set oppositely, the array substrate includes multiple subpixel units arranged in an array and an orientation layer covering multiple subpixel units, each subpixel unit includes an opening area; the color film substrate is provided with support columns, orthographic projections of the support columns on the subpixel units are outside the opening areas, the orientation layer is formed with support protrusions which protrude from a surface of the orientation layer, orthographic projections of the support protrusions on the subpixel units are outside the opening areas, the support columns contact top ends of the support protrusions to prevent the support columns from contacting the surface of the orientation layer.

A liquid crystal display panel has already become a main technology in a flat panel display field due to its features such as low power consumption, a relatively low manufacturing cost and no radiation, etc. The liquid crystal display panel is formed by box-alignment of a color film substrate and an array substrate, and in order to maintain a thickness of a liquid crystal box between the color film substrate and the array substrate, the color film substrate is provided with support columns. Wherein, whether a design of the support columns is reasonable directly relates to a display quality of the display panel.

Display panel and manufacturing method thereof, display device


A safety controller provides for reliable mixed execution of standard and safety control programs held in a common memory by providing a hardware lock that is locked at times when the safety program is not executing to minimize potential corruption of the safety program by the standard program.

The present invention relates to industrial controllers used for real-time control of industrial processes, and in particular to "high reliability" or "safety" industrial controllers appropriate for use in devices intended to protect human life and health.
Industrial controllers are special-purpose computers used in controlling industrial processes. Under the direction of a stored, controlled program, an industrial controller examines a series of inputs reflecting the status of the controlled process and changes a series of outputs controlling the industrial process. The inputs and outputs may be binary, that is, on or off, or analog, providing a value within a substantially continuous range. The inputs may be obtained from sensors attached to the controlled process, and the outputs may be signals to actuators on the controlled process.
"Safety systems" are systems intended to ensure the safety of humans working in the environment of an industrial process. Such systems may include the electronics associated with emergency-stop buttons, light curtains, and other machine lockouts. Traditionally, safety systems have been implemented by a set of redundant circuits separate from the industrial control system used to control the industrial process with which the safety system is associated. Such safety systems have been "hardwired" from switches and relays including specialized "safety relays" which provide comparison of redundant signals and internal checking of fault conditions such as welded or stuck contacts.
Hard-wired safety systems using duplicate wiring have proven cumbersome in practice because of the difficulty of installing and connecting hardwired components and duplicate sets of wiring, particularly in complex control applications, and in part because of the difficulty of troubleshooting and maintaining a hard-wired system whose logic can be changed only by re-wiring.
For this reason, there has been considerable interest in developing industrial controllers that may implement safety systems using a program simulating the operation of the physical components in hard-wired safety systems. Industrial controllers are not only easier to program but may provide reduced installation costs by eliminating long runs of redundant wiring in favor of a high speed serial communication network and by providing improved troubleshooting capabilities. U.S. patent applications Ser. No. 60/373,592 filed Apr. 18, 2002; Ser. No. 10/034,387 filed Dec. 27, 2001; Ser. No. 09/667,145 filed Sep. 21, 2000; Ser. No. 09/666,438 filed Sep. 21, 2000; and Ser. No. 09/663,824 filed Sep. 18, 2000, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, describe the implementation of safety systems using industrial controller architectures, and are hereby incorporated by reference.
High reliability can be obtained in an industrial controller system by employing two industrial controllers which simultaneously execute the same control program and compare their operations to detect faults. Often a safety application will be part of a more complex control process and it would be desirable to run, on common hardware, a safety program together with a standard control program, the latter addressing portions of the process where high reliability is not required.
Such execution of standard programs and safety programs in the same controller raises the possibility that the standard programs may fail in a manner so as to corrupt either the safety program or its data, particularly in a multi-tasking environment in which both safety tasks and standard tasks share the same memory. On the other hand, wholly separate controllers for the safety tasks and the standard tasks significantly increases the cost of the control system and the complexity of its development.

Safety controller with hardware memory lock


An organic light emitting display includes a substrate, an organic light emitting device on the substrate, the organic light emitting device including a first electrode, an organic emitting layer, and a second electrode, a UV light shielding layer having at least two layers, each layer absorbing different wavelengths of UV light, and an encapsulation layer sealing the organic light emitting device.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments relate to an organic light emitting display and a method of manufacturing the same. More particularly, embodiments relate to an organic light emitting display capable of preventing electrical characteristics from deteriorating due to ultraviolet (UV) light and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
An organic light emitting display is a next generation display having a self-emission characteristic and improved view angle, contrast, response speed, and power consumption than a liquid crystal display (LCD).
The organic light emitting display includes an organic light emitting diode (OLED) coupled between scan lines and data lines by a matrix method to construct a pixel. The OLED includes an anode electrode, a cathode electrode, and an organic emitting layer formed between the anode electrode and the cathode electrode. The organic emitting layer includes a hole transport layer, an organic light emitting layer, and an electron transport layer. When a predetermined voltage is applied to the anode electrode and the cathode electrode, holes injected through the anode electrode and electrons injected through the cathode electrode are recombined in the light emitting layer, which, in turn, emits light in response thereto.
The organic material in the OLED is vulnerable to hydrogen and/or oxygen. Further, the cathode electrode is easily oxidized by moisture, deteriorating electrical and light emitting characteristics. In order to prevent the electrical and light emitting characteristics from deteriorating, a can or cup shaped container made of a metal material or a sealing substrate made of glass or plastic is provided to face a substrate on which the OLED is formed. Then, sealing is performed using a sealant, e.g., an epoxy.
However, use of such a container or sealing substrate with an OLED to be used in a thin or flexible display is impractical. Therefore, in order to seal the thin or flexible display, a thin film encapsulation technology is provided.
As an example of the thin film encapsulation, a method of alternately laminating an inorganic layer and an organic layer to form an encapsulation layer is widely used, as this satisfies a water vapor transmission (WVTR) condition of about ˜10−6 g/m2/day required by the display. However, such formation includes providing an evaporation depositing liquid monomer and curing the evaporation deposited liquid monomer using UV light to form a polymer. As a result, the UV light is incident on the organic emitting layer. When UV light is incident on the organic emitting layer, thermal damage is generated to change the characteristics of the organic emitting layer and surface characteristics between the organic emitting layer and the cathode electrode, so that the electrical characteristics (I-V) of the OLED are positively shifted and/or a leakage current is generated, increasing power consumption and reducing the life of the OLED.
FIG. 1 illustrates a graph of a change in the electrical characteristics (I-V) of the OLED as a result of incident UV light. Curve A illustrates a measurement result before the UV light is incident and curve B illustrates a measurement result after the UV light is incident. When the electrical characteristic (I-V) changes, a higher voltage is required in order to maintain the brightness (cd).

Organic light emitting display and method of manufacturing the same


A method for forming fine concavo-convex patterns by using a relief formation material 3 having a relief formation layer 2 composed of a resin having thermoplasticity and a relief pattern sheet 6 having on a surface thereof fine concavo-convex patterns 5, wherein a photothermal conversion layer 7 is formed in the relief formation material 3 or the relief pattern sheet 6; the photothermal conversion layer 7 is irradiated with light 8 to make the photothermal conversion layer 7 generate heat in the state that the relief formation layer 2 is brought into contact with the fine concavo-convex patterns 5; and the fine concavo-convex patterns 5 are formed on the relief formation layer 2.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for forming fine concavo-convex patterns in which relief holograms and diffraction lattices are recorded, a method for producing an optical diffraction structure composed of fine concavo-convex patterns, and a method for copying an optical diffraction structure.
2. Description of Related Art
Relief holograms and diffraction lattices are for recording interference fringes formed by interfering laser beams in form of fine concavo-convex patterns. The fine concavo-convex patterns are composed of several hundred to thousand fine projections in every 1 mm length.
In the case of copying the fine concavo-convex patterns, a copying forme is produced from a master hologram in which the interference fringes of laser beams are directly recorded and the concavo-convex patterns of the copying forme are transferred to a resin material to copy the fine concavo-convex patterns by mass production.
In a conventional case of forming a copying forme from a master hologram, it has been known to employ a method for producing diffraction patterns of phase diffraction lattices, phase holograms and the like by stamping the patterns in a thermoplastic resin with a casting die (a mother die) by pressure and heat. However, since formation of such plane patterns involves formations of a large number of phase diffraction lattices by repeating stamping many times in the thermoplastic resin and accordingly raised parts are generated in the boundary regions between the parts which are heated and pressurized and parts which are neither heated nor pressurized, it becomes difficult to arrange the patterns without any joining parts. Further, since the casting die is made of a metal, it has a high heat capacity and therefore, there occurs a problem that the previously stamped and neighboring patterns are forcibly eliminated in the peripheral region where stamping is carried out newly.
There is a method for forming fine concavo-convex patterns sharp in the stamping circumferential region without any raised parts to be obstacles by stamping a predetermined region in a simple manner so as to solve the above-mentioned disadvantages (reference to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-20723).
This method for forming a fine concavo-convex pattern is a method for forming concavo-convex patterns by stamping a predetermined surface area of a casting die having fine concavo-convex patterns to a thermoplastic resin and is carried out by heating approximately point-like generatrices of the thermoplastic resin at the focal point of an irradiation source by using the irradiation source and thus stamping the fine concavo-convex patterns of the casting die only to the generatrices so as to form the surface patterns in form of an assembly of a plurality of generatrices.
Particularly, a transparent substrate is fixed on a pressing plate and a material (a plastic layer colored by a colloidal carbon) which is thermoplastic and absorbs light beam is set on the opposed side of the plate and a no heat generation type casting die (made of a nickel alloy) is placed on the opposite to the plastic layer and a pressing force is generated in a dotted region between the casting die and the plastic layer by using a stamp having projected faces only in the focal point region. Further, an irradiation source comprising laser, an optical modulator, and a lens system is set in the opposed side to the side of the casting die in relation to the plate.
When laser beam (radiant ray) is beamed to the plastic layer for forming an image at the focal point, the plastic layer absorbs the radiant ray and is heated at the focal point region. Simultaneously with the heating by beaming radiant ray, pressure for stamping is applied by the stamp, so that point-like generatrix parts in the focal point region of the plastic layer are heated to the thermoplastic temperature and these parts are deformed plastically corresponding to the fine structure of the casting die and even after cooling, the fine structure is fixed and thus predetermined fine concavo-convex patterns are formed.
Also, as a method for forming an optical diffraction structure provided with the three-dimensional impression of a holographic image as well as the brightness and clearness of a diffraction lattice, there is a well-known technique for obtaining one optical diffraction structure in which interference fringes for forming the diffraction lattices and holographic images coexist by carrying out exposure and development of photographic images and diffraction lattices on a dry plate through a mask pattern (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 59-99475).
Further, production methods involving directly drawing lattice patterns of diffraction lattices and interference fringes of holographic images simulated using a computer by electron beam (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 6-337315 and 11-24539) have been known in these years.

Method for forming fine concavo-convex patterns, method for producing optical diffraction structure, and method for copying optical diffraction structure


A nuclear power plant controlling system is provided in which the thermal limit can be brought close to the full limit of operation restrictions by automatic control. The system includes a thermal limit monitor, including a receiver configured to receive a first signal, a prospective time deriving unit configured to derive a prospective time for the first signal to arrive at the full limit, a judging unit configured to judge a remaining time to the prospective time, a compensating unit configured to compensate the first signal based on a second signal, a first transmitter configured to transmit a first instruction to vary a rate factor of the first and second signals by synchronizing the compensation, and a second transmitter configured to transmit a second instruction to hold the first or second signal after arriving at the full limit or at a threshold that is just before the full limit.

In the boil water type nuclear power plant, the thermal limit such as the minimum critical power ratio and maximum linear heat generation ratio which is an indicator of the soundness of fuel is operated and managed so as not to exceed the full limit. These thermal limits calculated by the power distribution based on reactor physics are made to be observable object substitute for the surface temperature of the fuel since it is difficult to measure directly.
These thermal limits are calculated by numerical analysis from distribution of a nuclear reaction cross section, and are calculated with the cycle of several minutes-1 hour by the reactor core performance calculation system with advanced operation throughput.
In advanced boiling water reactor power plant, in order to attain and adjust the target reactor power, it is automatically controlled that the drawing out/insertion operation of a control rod and the increase/decrease operation of a core flow.
Thus, it is necessary for the automatic control of the reactor power to observe the thermal limit continuously, but it is difficult because the calculation of the power distribution is required several minutes as mentioned above.
For this reason, the simple information made by an easy operation with the signal which real-time received from the sensor arranged inside the nuclear reactor is observed continuously instead of the direct observation of the thermal limit.
When the simple information arrives at a full limit which is the operation restrictions set up beforehand, the suspend instruction for automation is outputted and then the automatic control for the control rod and the core flow is suspended (for example, Patent Literature 1).


By providing a radiator configuration circuit and a feeding circuit each having a simple structure, a ground radiation antenna having a more simplified fabrication process as well as a remarkably reduced fabrication cost is provided herein. Additionally, a ground radiation antenna having an excellent radiation performance, even when one side of a mobile communication terminal is covered with a conductive substance, such as an LCD panel, is also provided herein.

As a device receiving an RF signal existing in the air inside a user terminal or transmitting a signal existing inside the user terminal to the outside, an antenna corresponds to an essential device used in wireless communication. Recently, as mobile communication terminals have become more compact and light-weight, the antenna has also been required to become slimmer. Additionally, as the amount of data being wirelessly transmitted/received has increased, antennae having more enhanced performance are also being required.
Accordingly, an antenna using ground radiation, which is included in the user terminal itself, has been proposed in order to meet such requirements. More specifically, when the antenna is configured by using a ground of the terminal itself as a portion of a radiator, the size of the radiator, which occupies the largest space within the antenna, may be reduced, thereby contributing to realizing a compact size of the antenna.
As described above, European Patent No. 1962372 corresponds to a prior art technology, which is related to a ground radiation antenna using the ground of the user terminal itself as the radiator. This patent proposes a technology for designing an antenna using a ground of a user terminal, when a body of the user terminal, such as a folder type user terminal, is configured to be divided into two sub-bodies, and when each body is configured to be connected to one another through an electrical element, such as an FPCB.
According to this patent, in a folder type user terminal having a body, which is divided into two sub-bodies, a capacitor for tuning a resonance frequency is inserted in an electric conductor for performing inductive coupling between the two sub-bodies.
Therefore, the above-described antenna shall only be used in a user terminal (e.g., folder type user terminal) being configured of two sub-bodies, and, since the electric conductor for inductive coupling is decided to have a constant length, there lie many problems in that the structure is not simple, and that the scope of devices that can be applied is also very limited.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary structural view of a related art ground radiation antenna. Referring to FIG. 1, the related art ground radiation antenna (10) is equipped with a radiation structure (11) for helping (or aiding) ground radiation, as shown in FIG. 1. More specifically, the radiation structure (11) corresponds to a complex structure consisting of a dielectric substance and conduction lines. And, in order to manufacture such a complex structure, a considerable amount of fabrication cost and complex fabrication process have been required. Additionally, in addition to the radiation structure (11), the ground radiation antenna is also configured of an inductor and capacitor (12a, 12b, 12c) for impedance matching and radiation performance control.
Therefore, although the related art ground radiation antenna uses the ground as its radiator, it still requires a separate radiation structure having a complex structure. And, in order to implement such a radiation structure, a considerable amount of fabrication cost has been required. Moreover, as the radiation structure of the antenna becomes more complex, there have been limitations in creating slimmer user terminals.
Most particularly, the related art ground radiation antenna is disadvantageous in that the essential phenomenon of ground radiation was not fully nor well understood, and, accordingly, due to an unnecessarily complex structure for implementing such ground radiation, the fabrication cost has increased, and the fabrication process has become complicated.

Ground antenna and ground radiator using capacitor


In a method of manufacturing a toner in which toner particles are obtained by mixing resin particles and at least a colorant with each other to be coagulated, and heating an obtained coagulated product, binder resin is granulated into fine particles by a granulating method including a coarse particle preparing step, a slurry preparing step, a pulverizing step, a cooling step, and a depressurizing step. Slurry containing coarse particles of binder resin obtained by way of the coarse particle preparing step and the slurry preparing step is made to pass under heat and pressure through a pressure-resistant nozzle whereby the coarse particles of binder resin are pulverized into resin particles. By providing the cooling step and the depressurizing step immediately after the pulverizing step, the resin particles are prevented from coarsening.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a toner, as well as a toner.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus comprises an image forming process mechanism including: a photoreceptor; a charging section for charging a photoreceptor surface; an exposing section for irradiating with signal light the photoreceptor surface being charged, to form thereon an electrostatic latent image corresponding to image information; a developing section for supplying a toner contained in a developer to the electrostatic latent image formed on the photoreceptor surface, to form thereon a toner image; a transfer section provided with a transfer roller for transferring the toner image from the photoreceptor surface to a recording medium; a fixing section provided with a fixing roller for fixing the toner image onto the recording medium; and a cleaning section for cleaning the photoreceptor surface from which the toner image has been transferred. In the electrophotographic image forming apparatus, an image is formed by developing the electrostatic latent image by use of a one-component developer containing a toner or a two-component developer containing toner and carrier as a developer.
Through the electrophotographic image forming apparatus, an image of favorable image quality can be formed at high speed and low cost. This promotes the use of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus in a copier, a printer, a facsimile, or the like machine, resulting in a remarkable spread thereof in recent years. Simultaneously, the image forming apparatus has faced up to more demanding requirements. Among such requirements, particular attentions are directed to enhancement in definition and resolution, stabilization of image quality, and an increase in image forming speed, regarding an image being formed by the image forming apparatus. In order to fulfill these demands, a two-way approach is indispensable in view of both the image forming process and the developer. Regarding the enhancement in definition and resolution of the image, the reduction in diameter of toner particles is one of problems to be solved from the aspect of the developer. This is based on the perspective such that it is important to authentically reproduce the electrostatic latent image. As a method for obtaining a diameter-reduced toner, there has been developed a wet method in which a toner is manufactured in an organic solvent, water, or a combined solvent of organic solvent and water. A toner manufactured by the wet method is referred to as a chemical toner. Among the wet methods, a favorable method for obtaining a diameter-reduced toner exhibiting a narrow particle size distribution is an emulsification coagulation method in which resin particles and particles of other toner raw materials are coagulated and thus-obtained coagulated product is heated to manufacture a toner (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 2001-228651, for example). However, resin represented by polyester, which is excellent in low-temperature fixing property and transparency and which is widely used as binder resin for toner, is hard to be granulated into fine particles. In order to granulate such resin into fine particles, it is necessary to use a detrimental organic solvent or a large amount of surfactant. The use of detrimental organic solvent should be avoided in consideration of environmental preservation, safety of operator, and the like. Further, the use of a large amount of surfactant makes it difficult to remove the surfactant after the manufacture of toner. Accordingly, in order to manufacture a diameter-reduced toner using polyester as binder resin by the emulsification coagulation method, polyester needs to be granulated into fine particles at the outset.
As a method of granulating the binder resin used for a toner into fine particles, there has been proposed a method including: a heating step of heating resin to a temperature of 100° C. or more at which a viscosity of the resin falls in an emulsifiable area of 100 Pa·s or less; and an emulsifying step of producing fine molten particles of the resin by giving a shearing force to an admixture of the resin heated at the heating step and a water-based solvent (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 2004-189765, for example). According to an example of JP-A 2004-189765, there is obtained a water-based emulsion containing polyester particles of which volumetric average particle diameter is 1 μm or 800 nm. However, this is just a result obtained in a laboratory. If the method of JP-A 2004-189765 is applied to an industrial production of larger scale, it is very difficult to obtain a toner having a volumetric average particle diameter of 1 μm or less. Moreover, the particle diameter of resin particle obtained by the method is the volumetric average particle diameter and therefore, in practice, resin particles having a particle diameter exceeding 1 μm are contained. In the case where the resin particle having a particle diameter exceeding 1 μm is contained, a toner having a particle diameter exceeding 6.5 μm may possibly be generated in manufacture of toner according to the emulsification coagulation method.
Meanwhile, there has been proposed an emulsifying/dispersing apparatus comprising: an emulsifying/dispersing section for emulsifying/dispersing in a liquid serving as a matrix an emulsifying material which is granulated into fine particles; a leading passage for supplying a later-described multistage depressurization section with the pressurized emulsified liquid obtained by the emulsifying/dispersing section; a heat exchanging section disposed on the leading passage; and a multistage depressurization section for allowing the emulsified liquid supplied from the leading passage to have a reduced pressure causing no bubbling even if it is released to atmosphere, and then discharging the emulsified liquid (refer to International Publication WO03/059497, for example). In the emulsifying/dispersing apparatus, the emulsifying material is dispersed in a liquid under pressure, thereby preparing the emulsified liquid in which the emulsifying material is evenly dispersed. Next, the pressure on the emulsified liquid is reduced in a stepwise manner so that the final pressure is at a level causing no bubbling. By so doing, particles of the emulsifying material dispersed in the emulsified liquid are prevented from coarsening. The emulsifying/dispersing apparatus thus aims to obtain an emulsified liquid in which particles of emulsifying material having a uniform particle diameter are dispersed. By use of this emulsifying/dispersing apparatus which has the multistage depressurization section, a large shearing force can be given by the emulsifying/dispersing section, so that an emulsion of water/oil, for example, can be easily manufactured. However, on attempts to obtain a toner particle by use of this apparatus only, it is difficult to control the particle diameter, so that a desired toner particle with a reduced diameter cannot be obtained. Further, WO03/059497 has no disclosure about application of this emulsifying/dispersing apparatus to a manufacture of toner particles.


A system and method for designing an HVAC system using a database to manage values of properties corresponding to design elements. Elements include substantially all physical components and connections available for creating an HVAC system design. A user interface represents design elements arbitrarily selectable by a user and connectable to one another in a schematic to establish the HVAC system design. The system may provide, automatically, default values corresponding to the properties corresponding to the design elements. A user may select arbitrarily, from the design elements, an arbitrary number of selected design elements to be interconnected in the HVAC system design. A user may place and interconnect each arbitrary design element, while the system calculates, automatically, values of properties characterizing the arbitrary design elements; validating correctness of the interconnections and properties, calculating performance parameters, and providing drawings.

1. The Field of the Invention
This invention relates to software and computer systems and, more particularly, to novel systems and methods for design modeling of fluid and energy handling systems.
2. The Background Art
The need to condition the environment in which people live has existed as long as sun, rain, and winter storms. The solutions have been many and varied, depending on the availability of shelter, fuels, cooling materials, insulation, fans, and so forth. In more recent history, refrigeration systems, heating systems, and their various combinations have taken advantage of new thermodynamic cycles and a wide variety of working fluids.
Nevertheless, much of the process of designing systems for heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) is an iterative process of design and analysis. Moreover, a change in a parameter may affect the performance of many other parameters, or limit the applicability of other equipment, configurations, or analyses. Also, the methods used for design and analysis will often require considerable familiarity with both engineering principles and available manufactured equipment. Much of the design process is beyond the intuitive sense of an individual. Documentation is likewise esoteric and non-intuitive.
What is needed is a system for rapidly designing, analyzing, and redesigning HVAC systems. It would be an advancement in the art to rely on an object oriented programming system and intuitive, visual icons. It would be a further advance in the art to provide automatic calculation of interface information, thus keeping the specifications and performance parameters consistent among associated components.
There are many stages involved in the design and implementation of an HVAC system. The first stage is to design a building that an HVAC system will serve. A loads program is used to calculate airflow and heating requirements for the building, based on established codes. An HVAC system must then be designed, using available components. A control system must be designed to control the HVAC system. And finally, all the components of the system must be purchased and installed. This process requires that each step use the output of a previous step. Often, the data used by one step must be manually extracted from the output data of a preceding step. The extracted data may then need to be manually converted to a computer readable form.
What is needed is a system capable of integrating the many steps of the design process, enabling each step to automatically extract needed information from the preceding step. Such a system would enable for information to be entered into a computer once, rather than at each stage of the design process.

Heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning design apparatus and method


A method that accepts a data file, iteratively tests different information units as record delimiters and field delimiters, and chooses as the data files record delimiter, R, and field delimiter, F, the information units that result in the lowest generalized entropy that is computed on fields created by use of the chosen delimiter pair R,F.

This relates to data files and, more particularly, to large files.
At times one is faced with some large file whose structure is known only to the extent that it consists of records, that the records are separated by some (unknown) record delimiter, that each record comprises fields, and that the fields are separated by some (unknown) field delimiter. These files, which are often produced by databases and information processing systems, are called relational tables.
Modern information systems routinely generate and store massive relational tables. In the context of IP networks, for example, this includes a wealth of different types of collected data, including traffic (e.g., packet of low level traces), control (e.g., router forwarding tables, BGP and OSPF updates) and management (e.g., fault, SNMP traps) data. It is beneficial to process this type of data into forms that enhance data storage, access, and transmission. In particular, good compression can help to significantly reduce both storage and transmission costs.
Relational data files are typically presented in record-major order, meaning that data appears as a sequence of bytes in the order of records, each of which consists of fields ordered from left to right. On the other hand, in applications such as data compression, faster access of field data, and so on, it is beneficial to think of the data in field-major order. That is, to reorganize the data by first field, second field, etc.
To perform such a reorganization of data, it is required to know what information unit (e.g., character) constitutes the record delimiter, and what information unit constitutes the field delimiter. Unfortunately, in applications such as data compression and data structure discovery, one is often presented with a data file without any extra information. Thus, there is a need to develop techniques for identifying the record and field delimiters when a given data file is believed to be relational in nature.
Current techniques to detect delimiters are predominantly manual, requiring human scanning of the raw data for patterns, and combing the scanning with knowledge of what is typically used as delimiters. Such approaches are not effective for handling large volumes of data, so there is a pressing need for tools and techniques to automate the structure-extraction process.

Automatic detection of separators for compression


A method and an apparatus for adapting feature data in a convolutional neural network. The method includes selecting a plurality of consecutive layers; determining an expected number of subdata blocks and a layout position, width and height of each subdata block in an output feature data of a last layer; determining, for each current layer, a layout position, width, and height of each subdata block of an input feature data for the current layer according to the layout position, width, and height of each subdata block of the output feature data for the current layer; determining an actual position of each subdata block of the input feature data for a first layer in the input feature data for the first layer; and obtaining the expected number of subdata blocks of the input feature data for the first layer according to the actual position, width and height of each subdata block of the input feature data for the first layer.

Deep learning technology based on convolutional neural network has already been widely used in various fields such as image recognition, video analysis, natural language processing, auxiliary driving and the like. It is expected that operations in a convolutional neural network may be efficiently performed by using hardware such as a general purpose central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), or a dedicated accelerator, and the like.
Data accessing speed is a critical factor affecting the efficiency of operation. In light of this, a high speed memory such as a cache or an on-chip memory may be provided to a processor (e.g., CPU, GPU, or dedicated accelerator) to buffer at least a portion of the data. However, due to limitations from aspects such as costs, the capacity of the high speed memory is usually too limited to buffer all data (e.g., feature data) for layers of the convolutional neural network, resulting in a huge data transportation between the high speed memory and other memories with relatively lower access speed (e.g., a random access memory coupled to the processor via a bus, or a storage coupled to a processor or a computing device including the processor via an interface or a data line, such as a hard disk).

Method and apparatus for adapting feature data in a convolutional neural network

Nanjing Horizon Robotics Technology Co., Ltd.


This system stores data blocks each comprising one or more data elements. It comprises a plurality of queues serving to interlink the data blocks in order to transfer them selectively to individual outlets that may belong to separate destinations and a management logic for these queues. There is a queue specific to each outgoing destination. A queue management logic comprises data block selection (OSQRCL) acting when a queued data block must be assigned to an individual outlet, which comprise (OQSC, OQPS, OQIC) identifying a queue of an outgoing destination to which this outlet belongs, by obtaining the address of a data block and assigning the selected data to the outlet in question (YJS) by initiating the transfer of this data block to this individual outlet (NCO).

Such a storage system, in conjunction with inlets associated with the buffer memory, constitutes a data switching device in which the data received by the inlets is stored in the buffer memory for subsequent forwarding to the outlets, according to selection indications. These selection indications may more generally denote an outgoing destination; they can accompany the data received by the inlets, or be included in this data and will serve to direct its transfer to at least one outlet of a selected outgoing destination. This switching device will be of use in communication networks. But the storage system of the invention, as such, can find many other applications, whenever data structured in data blocks comprising one or more data elements must be made available to multiple outlets belonging to separate destinations. In an expert system, for example, such a storage system can serve to store data to be processed and to submit this data to multiple processors. Several processors accomplishing a particular process in parallel will then be equivalent to an outgoing destination.
In a known embodiment, described in Applicant's commonly assigned U.S. patent application entitled COMMUNICATION SWITCHING ELEMENT AND METHOD FOR TRANSMITTING VARIABLE LENGTH CELLS filed on Aug. 9, 1990 under Ser. No. 565,310 and corresponding to International application. The storage system comprises one queue for each outlet. The function of the queue management logic (or system) is to add the identity of each data block (or cell) stored in the buffer memory, when it is to be transferred to an outgoing destination, to a queue of a selected outlet belonging to a destination, the process being repeated for one or more selected destinations. One outlet of those which belong to a particular outgoing direction is selected for example at random.
The advantage of such a solution lies in its apparent simplicity. When an outlet becomes available it simply serves its own outlet queue which transfers to it the identity of a data block in the buffer memory which is addressed to it.
However, each outlet must deal with the transfers for which it is asked by its queue, that is which have previously been assigned to it, without regard for its present situation which may be unfavorable with respect to such traffic (overload, failure, under maintenance, etc). In addition, queue entry takes no account of the traffic load already assigned to an outlet nor does it take into account, in this traffic load, of the different lengths of the data blocks assigned to it. It follows that this solution inherently places an unequal load on the different outlets belonging to a particular outgoing destination.
To overcome this disadvantage, different known solutions consist in adding, for each outlet, a device for measuring the cumulative queuing time relative to this outlet or, in other words, the accumulated quantity of information waiting for this outlet, that is the total number of data elements representing the queued variable length data blocks. Then the traffic is spread equally over the outlets by a circuit for selecting the outlet out of a group of outlets, the cumulative queuing time measuring circuit of which indicates a value lower than those of the other outlets of this group.
In addition, it is often necessary for the choice of outlet from a group of outlets to introduce a decorrelation to the outgoing traffic (that is for the choice to be made without regard to the previous flow of traffic over the outlets). Taken in isolation, this requirement is simple to satisfy, by introducing the effect of a source of random signals in the choice of one of the outlets of the group. However, the use of this arrangement becomes more expensive or slower in the case of a point-to-multipoint cell transfer; in such a case, the identity of the cell must be written in a number of queues, one for each outlet selected to receive a copy of the cell addressed to one of the several selected destination outlet groups. In this case a random selection circuit is required for each group of outlets, to proceed in parallel and without additional delay, or else it is necessary to proceed serially in time for the different groups of selected outlets, which increases execution time.
The problem becomes much more complicated when the two preceding requirements (distributing the traffic equally over the different outlets in each group and random choice of outlets to decorrelate outgoing traffic) must be satisfied simultaneously. The basic algorithms described previously for these two requirements considered in isolation are contradictory. They cannot be logically combined in a simple way to satisfy these requirements at the actual moment of outgoing transfer of the data blocks to the selected outlets (reading of the queues), whereas the selection operation is performed when the identity of the data block is written in one (or more) outlet queues. The implementation of a solution combining the algorithms required to satisfy these two requirements, including the case of point-to-multipoint transfer, by selecting an outlet in each group of destination outlets, before writing the identity of the data block in the outlet queue involves very considerable complexity and is therefore very expensive.

Temporary information storage system comprising a buffer memory storing data structured in fixed or variable length data blocks