The present invention provides a combined package comprising a container and a mascara applicator. The applicator includes a hollow shaft having a longitudinal axis extending from the handle. A rod having a brush affixed at one end reciprocates within the hollow shaft. The rod has a first position and a second position such that when the handle of the applicator is secured to the container the rod reciprocates to the first position extending the hinge beyond the hollow shaft such that the brush is substantially non-aligned with the longitudinal axis of the hollow shaft. Upon removal of the applicator from the container the rod reciprocates to the second position causing the hinge to retract within the hollow shaft, thereby substantially aligning the brush with the longitudinal axis of the hollow shaft. This combined package allows the user to stir the product within the container when both attaching and removing the applicator to and from the container. The combined package also permits substantially all of the product to be removed from the container as the brush sweeps about the container.

Adjustable mascara applicators are well known in the art. Typically prior art adjustable mascara applicators include a handle portion having a hollow shaft attached thereto. A rod with a brush attached at its distal end reciprocates within the hollow shaft. The reciprocal rod is pre-bent which will allow the brush to assume various positions with respect to the handle portion of the applicator as the rod is reciprocated within the hollow shaft. When the handle portion of the applicator is secured to the bottle, the axis of the brush portion is substantially aligned with the hollow shaft. To use, the user removes the applicator from the bottle and adjusts the curvature of the brush prior to applying the mascara. After completing the application step the user straightens the brush portion aligning it with the hollow shaft and inserts the applicator into the bottle until the next application.
The prior art mascara bottles are typically cylindrical having an inside diameter only slightly larger than that of the brush. Therefore, the brush is limited to a reciprocating movement within the bottle as the user removes and inserts the brush for each application. While the reciprocal prior art mascara applicators have been found convenient and easy to use they are ineffective at preventing product from globbing or building up on the interior walls of the bottle. This is caused by the lack of mixing or stirring of product within the bottle. Furthermore, it is difficult to remove substantially all of the product from the prior art cylindrical bottles as the brush is unable to contact the product resting on the bottom of the bottle.


[Problem] To reduce thermal resistance between a heating body and a radiating body.

In recent years, as electronic devices for microprocessor (CPU) and the like are made to have higher performance and to be smaller, heat generated by the electronic devices has been increasing. Accordingly, a cooling technique having a high cooling capacity for electronic devices is demanded. Generally, an electronic device is cooled down by use of a radiator part, such as a heat sink. An electronic device and a radiator part are joined with each other by a highly thermal conductive material so that thermal resistance can be reduced at the joint (gap).
Surfaces of an electronic device and a radiator part are not completely flat and have minute bumps. Accordingly, in the case of using a hard heat transfer material, such as metal, at a joint gap between the electronic device and the radiator part, joint (adhesion) between the material and the electronic device or the radiator part is insufficient. As a result, the thermal resistance at the joint is increased. Therefore, currently, a thermal grease, a phase change sheet, and the like which can fill the uneven joint gap without leaving any space therein have been widely used. However, the thermal conductivities of these heat transfer materials are lower than that of a metal material (in many cases, <<10 W/mK). Accordingly, there arises a problem of having a higher thermal resistance when the joint gap is thicker.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 8-238707 disclose a radiating sheet made of a silicone rubber substrate with an additive agent, such as a metal powder. U.S. Pat. No. 6,651,736 discloses a method of adding as a filling agent a carbon material to a binder such as grease and polymer. However, even when these methods are adopted, the thermal conductivity of a whole system is under constraint of the thermal conductivity of a substrate (binder). Accordingly, it is impossible to sufficiently reduce thermal resistance.
Japanese Patent Application Publications No. Hei 10-56114 and No. Hei 11-302545 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,847, disclose sheet-like heat transfer parts in which graphite fibers and the like are orientated perpendicularly to a joint plane. A carbon-based composite part obtained in this method exhibits high thermal conductivity in a bulk state. However, such a heat transfer part allows generation of a space in a joint part as similar to the case of using the above-described hard heat transfer material, such as metal. As a result, the thermal resistance in the entire joint gap including the space is increased.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 8-238707    [Patent Document 2] U.S. Pat. No. 6,651,736    [Patent Document 3] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 10-56114    [Patent Document 4] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 11-302545    [Patent Document 5] U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,847

Sheet having high thermal conductivity and flexibility

Abstract: [Solving Means] Provided is a sheet having a high thermal conductivity and flexibility, in which graphite layers and elastic layers are stacked alternately, and each of ends of the graphite layer in its surface direction or each of ends of a graphene protrudes from an end of the elastic layer and bends so as to cover at least a part of the end of the elastic layer. By placing a sheet of the present invention in a space (gap) between a heating body and a radiating body, thermal resistance at the gap, especially contact thermal resistance on a joint surface, can be reduced even in the case where flatness of a surface of the heating body or a surface of the radiating body is small.

International Business Machines Corporation


A system and method for allowing network users to securely administer and deploy network nodes (102). These networks (100) may comprise wired and/or wireless connections. Examples would include wired networks (104) with shared infrastructure in an office building, as well as ad-hoc multi-hopping peer-to-peer network applications for the home. The system and method provides a key (130) that allows new nodes (102) and thus new devices (124, 126, 132) to gain access to a network (100) via an existing node (122) of that network (100).

In recent years, a type of mobile communications network known as an "ad-hoc" network has been developed. In this type of network, each mobile node is capable of operating as a base station or router for the other mobile nodes, thus eliminating the need for a fixed infrastructure of base stations. As can be appreciated by one skilled in the art, network nodes transmit and receive data packet communications in a multiplexed format, such as time-division multiple access (TDMA) format, code-division multiple access (CDMA) format, or frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) format.
More sophisticated ad-hoc networks are also being developed which, in addition to enabling mobile nodes to communicate with each other as in a conventional ad-hoc network, further enable the mobile nodes to access a fixed network and thus communicate with other mobile nodes, such as those on the public switched telephone network (PSTN), and on other networks such as the Internet. Details of these advanced types of ad-hoc networks are described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,072,650 entitled "Ad Hoc Peer-to-Peer Mobile Radio Access System Interfaced to the PSTN and Cellular Networks", filed on Jun. 29, 2001, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,807,165 entitled "Time Division Protocol for an Ad-Hoc, Peer-to-Peer Radio Network Having Coordinating Channel Access to Shared Parallel Data Channels with Separate Reservation Channel", filed on Mar. 22, 2001, and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,873,839 entitled "Prioritized-Routing for an Ad-Hoc, Peer-to-Peer, Mobile Radio Access System", filed on Mar. 22, 2001, the entire content of each being incorporated herein by reference.
Ad-hoc and mesh networks, both wired and wireless, have become increasingly pervasive in various industrial and commercial markets. These types of networks are also becoming available for use in consumer markets for digital home applications, as well as many others including business offices, concerts, conventions, small businesses, and farms.
Applications in the home include next generation security systems, multi media distribution, computer networking, and home control functions. These may exist as independent networks or, more likely, over time they will be integrated into a single multi-function network. All of these networks comprise a number of nodes, and, in an integrated network of sensors, control and multimedia sections could reasonably be anticipated to include a hundred nodes or more.
The ability of a typical consumer, such as a homeowner, to deploy these nodes quickly and simply is crucial to their commercial success. Each device can be a small low cost component of the system, either stand alone, like a sensor, or an integrated part of a device like a stereo system. Commercial and military systems that exist demonstrate that such systems today are very difficult to deploy and manage, since issues such as administration and security are of great concern. Convincing consumers that these networks are easy to deploy and secure is thus paramount to their success. These issues apply similarly to users in other settings, such as small office settings and the like. A need therefore exists for a tool that will enable users, especially technically unsophisticated users, to more easily administer and deploy such nodes in networks such as ad-hoc peer-to-peer networks.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.

System and method for effecting the secure deployment of networks


A computer enclosure (10) includes a front panel (20) and a pivotable bracket (40). The front panel defines an opening (24) for providing access to the bracket, and a pair of screw holes (30) on opposite sides of the opening respectively. A pair of first ears (26) extends from the front panel at each side of the opening. The bracket includes a front wall (42) and a pair of side walls (44) perpendicular to the front wall. A pair of second ears (48) extends from the side walls and pivotally attached to the first ears of the front panel. A pair of locating tabs (54) extends from the front wall and each tab defines a through hole (56) therein, corresponding to and engaging at the screw holes of the front panel by bolts. The bracket is thereby secured to the front panel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer enclosure, and more particularly to a computer enclosure having a bracket which is pivotally installed thereinto in order to maximize availability of space within the enclosure.
2. Related Art
Contemporary electronic devices are being made smaller and lighter. Nevertheless, high performance is still required. Therefore, a computer enclosure needs to be able to receive more components which can enhance the computer""s performance. A bracket is generally engaged with a front panel of an enclosure, for accommodating major components such as disk drives within the enclosure.
A conventional bracket for disk drives is disclosed in Taiwan Patent Application No. 87204497. The disk drives are secured to a fixing frame. The assembly of the disk drives and the frame is attached to the bracket, with guiding grooves of the bracket engaging with the frame. Screws are then used to secure the assembly to the bracket. Unfortunately, to remove the disk drives for maintenance or repairs, a cover or side walls of the enclosure must first be removed. The operation of removal is performed while the disk drives are completely within the enclosure. Because space inside the enclosure is usually limited, other components inside the enclosure are prone to be accidentally damaged during the removal operation.
Another bracket is disclosed in Taiwan Patent Application No. 85209373. The bracket is pivotally attached to a computer enclosure. A plurality of screws is required not only between a pair of fixing plates and the bracket, but also between the bracket and the enclosure. Therefore, the procedures of assembly and disassembly are considerably inconvenient and unduly costly. Also, the fixing plates take up valuable space inside the enclosure. Furthermore, the bracket is pivoted substantially inside the enclosure, which also reduces space available for other components inside the enclosure.
An improved computer enclosure which overcomes the above-mentioned problems of the related art is strongly desired.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a computer enclosure having a bracket which is pivotally installed thereinto and which maximizes availability of space within the enclosure.
To achieve the above object, a computer enclosure in accordance with the present invention comprises a front panel and a pivotable bracket. The front panel defines an opening for providing access to the bracket, and a pair of screw holes on opposite sides of the opening respectively. A pair of first ears extends from the front panel at each side of the opening. The bracket includes a front wall and a pair of side walls perpendicular to the front wall. A pair of second ears extends from the side walls, for pivotal attachment to the first ears of the front panel. A pair of locating tabs extends from the front wall. Each tab defines a through hole therein, for extension of a bolt therethrough to engage at the corresponding screw hole of the front panel. The bracket is thereby secured to the front panel.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will be drawn from the following detailed embodiments of the present invention with attached drawings, in which:

Computer enclosure having pivotable bracket


Systems and methods for controlling a regeneration process of catalyst(s) are disclosed. The method includes receiving, via Kalman filter, initial estimation from a previous instance of time. The initial estimation includes one or more first estimated inside temperature(s) and/or first estimated outlet temperature of A/T catalyst. An output from a simulation model may be generated to calculate a mean and covariance. Sensor measurement covariance may be compared against the mean and covariance of the output to update Kalman filter gain and process covariance. A weighted average may be calculated between sensor measurements and mean of the output to generate a second estimation for the next instance of time, wherein weight is based on Kalman filter gain. The second estimation includes one or more second estimated inside temperature(s) and/or second estimated outlet temperature of A/T catalyst to control the mass flow rate in diesel engine via a closed loop control system.

The exhaust gas of diesel engines generally contain particles, e.g., coal or soluble organic substances, which causes environmental pollution. To reduce emissions of such particles, an emissions treatment device may be disposed in the exhaust system of the engine, e.g., filters and After-Treatment (A/T) catalysts (diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC), diesel particulate filters (DPF), selective catalytic reduction (SCR), ammonia oxidation catalysts (AMOx), lean NOx traps (LNT), etc.), that generally operate by physically trapping the emission products or by chemically reacting with the emission products to convert them to other forms that may be addressed more readily. In one example, a DPF may be installed in the exhaust gas flow path to trap the particles from being discharged into the atmosphere. In some instances a regeneration process may be performed on the DPF, e.g., to remove an accumulation of particles that may at least partially clog the DPF. In various instances, regeneration may be utilized for one or more of a variety of reasons, e.g., desulfation, hydrocarbon (HC) removal, deposit removal, etc.
Regeneration may be accomplished by oxidizing, e.g., burning off the accumulation trapped in the device, which typically involves increasing the temperature and/or causing combustion to occur inside the device. When the DPF is regenerating, fuel may be injected late in an expansion stroke of the engine so that the fuel does not combust in the engine, but rather is exhausted to the A/T where it may burn and produce heat for regenerating, i.e., an In-Cylinder Dosing (ICD) process. In one example, the amount of ICD fuel to inject may be based on a closed-loop control system. It should be noted that fuel may be injected in a variety of ways other than via the ICD process, e.g., an injector configured to inject fuel into the exhaust system (such as a "seventh" injector in a six-injector engine).
Generally, such a closed-loop system utilizes a temperature sensor placed at the outlet of the fuel burning catalyst. However, using a closed-loop control system with a sensor at the outlet of the catalyst, e.g., a DOC outlet and/or a DPF outlet, may be sub-optimal. For example, if the thermal mass of the fuel burning catalyst brick is large, placing a closed-loop control system on a sensor at the outlet of such brick may result in a lagging measurement that drastically reduces the stability of the controller and may result in unstable regeneration. For example, hydrocarbon or soot accumulated in the DPF may combust during regeneration, and such rapid incineration increases the temperature faster than may be sensed by the control system via the outlet temperature sensor. As the filter temperature increases, soot oxidation rates increase, resulting in the production of enough heat from the exothermic reaction to further increase the soot oxidation rate. This uncontrolled exothermic reaction during regeneration may result in temperatures that are high enough to melt, crack, or otherwise damage the DPF filter.
A control method and control device for DOC downstream temperature is disclosed in the Chinese Patent Number 108762334 B to Guopeng et al. ("the '334 patent"). The method described in the '334 patent includes dividing DOC into N blocks, calculating an outlet exhaust temperature of the N DOC according to a heat balance equation, and inputting the outlet exhaust temperature into a Kalman filter for estimating outlet exhaust temperature. While the method described in the '334 patent may be useful in some circumstances, it may experience difficulties when A/T catalysts have a higher thermal mass that results in delayed and inaccurate sensor readings. Furthermore, the '334 patent is unable to accurately predict internal virtual temperature of an A/T catalyst.
The disclosed method and system may solve one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems in the art. The scope of the current disclosure, however, is defined by the attached claims, and not by the ability to solve any specific problem.

Method and system for determining internal temperature of a mid-brick catalyst for machine control


Office workers are equipped with a telephone and a desktop computer, the latter including an email system which allows telephony applets to be included in email messages. Thus the recipient of a message which includes an applet might typically be presented with a call back button. When this button is selected, it automatically provides the recipient with a telephone connection through to the sender of the message. This is accomplished by the applet using JTAPI to interact with the appropriate telephony equipment in order to form the desired connection.

The present invention relates to communication systems, and in particular to the integration of computer email and telephony systems.
Modern office systems are equipped with two main forms of communications, namely the telephone and computer email. The telephone provides for real-time direct human-to-human contact, whilst email provides indirect contact in elapsed time. Thus email is a less spontaneous and perhaps more cumbersome interface than the telephone, but it avoids the need for the simultaneous availability of both parties and provides a readily stored record of the message exchange. Both telephony and email therefore have their relative strengths and weaknesses, and so can be used in complementary fashion, depending on the communication needs of a particular situation.
Of course, in recent years telephone networks and computer networks have developed significantly to offer many more facilities; for example, telephone networks can be used to FAX documents, whilst it is possible to embed audio data files in multimedia email messages. It is now also possible to use computer networks such as the Internet to provide very cost-effective audio connections, so-called Internet telephony (see for example the article xe2x80x9cDial 1-800-Internetxe2x80x9d in Byte Magazine, February 1996, p83-88, and the article xe2x80x9cNattering Onxe2x80x9d, in New Scientist, Mar. 2, 1996, p38-40).
Despite the increasing impact of Internet telephony however, the heavy usage of conventional telephony is unlikely to reduce much in the foreseeable future. This is due to the vast investment which has already been made in the infrastructure of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to provide simple, reliable, and ubiquitous communications, combined with the availability of increasingly complex services on top of the PSTN such as voice mail, conferencing, etc. Note that many business locations also have sophisticated telephony switches or private branch exchanges (PBXs) which support more advanced features, such as callback requests, call forwarding, and so on.
There have previously been attempts to integrate telephony and computer services. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,266 describes a unified messaging system which allows a user to access both their email and their telephone voice messages from a computer system. Typically in the latter case the voice message might either be transmitted to the computer system as an audio file, or the user""s telephone can be controlled to provide a call into the voice messaging system.
It is also known in specialized environments such as call centers to coordinate operations of the telephone and desktop computer of a customer agent. For example, the Callpath family of products available from IBM allows information about an incoming call (eg the calling or called number), which is passed into the call centre switch by the PSTN, to be sent to the desktop computer of an agent at the same time as the call itself is directed to the extension of that agent (see for example the manual IBM CallPath Call coordinator for OS/2 and Windows, reference number GC22-0074-02, 3rd edition 1994).
Call centers are also being developed to take account of the increasing prominence of the Internet and more particularly the World Wide Web as a customer interface. Thus EP-A-740445 describes a Web server from which a customer can access various pages over the Internet using a browser in known fashion. A xe2x80x9cCall Mexe2x80x9d button is provided for inclusion in a Web page. Responsive to the customer selecting this button, they are presented with an html form (xe2x80x9chtmlxe2x80x9d=hypertext markup language), into which they can enter their phone number and desired callback time. This form is then returned to the Web server, which extracts the call information and passes an appropriate call request to an Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) system, which in turn then places the desired call to the customer over the conventional telephone network.
An extension of this approach is the xe2x80x9cInternet Voice Buttonxe2x80x9d described at http://www.nortel.com/pcn/voicebutton, which allows a customer to select between receiving a call over the conventional telephone network, or instead over the Internet. Note that technically this latter option is actually the somewhat simpler of the two options, given that both the Web page and the audio data are being transferred over the same network using the same protocol (TCP/IP).
Another somewhat similar system is described in a White Paper by Lucent Technologies entitled xe2x80x9cInternet Call Centrexe2x80x9d and dated Dec. 15, 1997. As described in this document a Web Server can download a Java call control applet to start an Internet telephone call on the customer""s machine into the call centre. Note that a server in the call centre acts as an interface between the Internet and the call centre telephony system, so that the call centre agents in fact use their conventional telephone extensions (rather than Internet telephones).
In view of the above art, it will be seen therefore that much of the focus on computer telephony coordination has centered around relatively specialized applications, such as Web access to call centers. There has been comparatively little attention paid to the possibility of a broader and more flexible integration. Consequently most people still regard their telephone and their desktop computer in a typical office environment as providing essentially independent methods of communication.
Accordingly, the invention provides a method of integrating computer and telephony messaging comprising the steps of:
creating an email message on a first computer system, said step of creating the email message including the step of embedding within said email message an applet for performing a telephony function;
transmitting said email message to a second computer system;
opening said email message on said second computer system, said step of opening said email message including the step of launching said applet;
and performing the telephony function of the applet.
Thus telephony functionality can now be effectively embedded into an email message, so that the two primary forms of office communication, namely email and the telephone, can be utilized in a far more integrated and effective manner than has hitherto been possible.
In order to support the telephony function of the applet, the applet may access local telephony software on the second computer system, or possibly telephony software associated with the first computer system (ie the telephony server local to the first computer system). In the latter case, there are security implications, and the method preferably further comprises the step of authenticating that the applet originated from the first computer, prior to the applet accessing telephony software on the first computer system. This can be achieved for example by a use of a digital signature, so that the receiving system can confirm the applet as xe2x80x9ctrustedxe2x80x9d, thereby enabling it to perform a wider range of activities than would otherwise be permitted.
In the preferred embodiment, the applet accesses said telephony software on the first or second computer system via a standard interface. This ensures platform independence of the approach described herein, which is important given that by its very nature email may be directed to a wide range of receiving systems. The preferred standard interface is the Java telephone interface (JTAPI). An additional benefit of JTAPI is that it allows a wide range of configurations of the underlying telephony support software, for example encompassing setting up the telephony connection from the either first or second computer system as discussed above.
Typical examples of the application of the present invention are for the telephony function of said applet to set up a telephone connection between the sender and recipient of the email message, thereby effectively functioning as a call-back, or to connect the recipient of the email message to a conference call. Generally this functionality is offered to the recipient of the email message via one or more control buttons, whereby activation of the relevant button(s) causes the applet to form the requested telephone connection.
The invention further provides an email system including:
means for creating an email message;
means for embedding within said email message an applet for performing a telephony function; and
means for transmitting said email message.
The invention further provides an email system including:
means for receiving an email message;
means for launching an applet for performing a telephony function contained within said email message; and
means responsive to said applet for implementing said telephony function.
The invention further provides an email system including:
means for creating and transmitting email messages;
means for receiving email messages;
means for embedding within said email messages for transmission an applet for performing a telephony function;
means for launching an applet for performing a telephony function contained within a received email message; and
means responsive to said launched applet for implementing said telephony function.
The email systems are typically implemented using computer program products, which are provided to customers either on a computer readable optical or magnetic storage medium or via some form of computer network, for installation on their computer systems.
The invention further provides a method of integrating computer and telephony messaging comprising the steps of:
creating an email message on a first computer system, said step of creating the email message including the step of embedding within said email message an executable component for performing a telephony function;
transmitting said email message to a second computer system;
opening said email message on said second computer system, said step of opening said email message including the step of launching said executable component;
and performing the telephony function of the executable component.
The above functionality can also be supplied as a computer program product, for example as program code encoded on a computer readable medium such as a floppy disk, CD ROM, tape, and so on, or alternatively as program code made available for download over a network.

International Business Machines Corporation


In an infrared radiation source containing hot-pressed molybdenum disilicide reinforced with silicon carbide whiskers as the illuminant thereof, terminal portions of the illuminant having a protective dense silica film of 5 to 20 .mu.m in thickness formed on the surface thereof which portions are to be heated at a temperature of 400 to 800.degree. C. are either set to have a current density of at most 12 A/mm.sup.2 or disposed in dry air having a relative humidity at 25.degree. C. of at most 30% (absolute humidity: 0.00588). As a result, the low-temperature oxidation phenomenon that would otherwise be developed in the terminal portions of the illuminant is suppressed. Thus, there can be obtained an infrared radiation source containing an illuminant made of molybdenum disilicide reinforced with silicon carbide whiskers and having a long serviceable life span.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an infrared radiation source wherein hot-pressed molybdenum disilicide reinforced with silicon carbide whiskers is used as the illuminant thereof, or a heating source wherein hot-pressed molybdenum disilicide reinforced with silicon carbide whiskers is used as the heating element thereof, and particularly to an infrared radiation source or heating source, which is prevented from low-temperature oxidation of terminal portions of the illuminant or heating element during use of the infrared radiation source or heating source to prolong the life span of the infrared radiation source or heating source, and which is applied to an infrared analyzer, a heater in an industrial furnace, or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Utilization of a molybdenum disilicide illuminant in a radiation source in a gas analyzer using infrared radiation has been attempted by making much of an advantage that a high luminance can be secured by heating it up to a high temperature. Since molybdenum disilicide has a low resistivity of 0.0003 .OMEGA..multidot.cm, however, a large electric current is necessary for heating molybdenum disilicide up to a high temperature, thus resulting in a large power consumption. Molybdenum disilicide also involves a practical problem that the shape of an illuminant or heating element made thereof cannot be retained because of its creep deformation at high temperatures.
A heating element capable of reducing the power consumption thereof to a low level, which is produced by forming molybdenum disilicide into a fine wire to thereby increase the apparent resistance thereof, has been proposed according to a technology of solving one of the foregoing problems in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 296,833/1993.
On the other hand, a technology of molybdenum disilicide composite reinforced with silicon carbide whiskers is disclosed as a method of suppressing the creep deformation of molybdenum disilicide at high temperatures in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 198,680/1996.
Meanwhile, a DC power source is usually used as a power source for supplying electricity to an illuminant in an infrared gas analyzer because it is important to generate a stable amount of infrared radiation. The inventors of the present invention have found out that, in many cases where an illuminant made of molybdenum disilicide reinforced with silicon carbide whiskers is heated up to and kept at a temperature necessary for infrared analysis, e.g., 1,300.degree. C., by supplying DC electricity to the illuminant, oxidation of a terminal portion thereof connected with the positive electrode of a direct current source and heated in the temperature range of 400 to 800.degree. C. not directly involved in infrared radiation emission, particularly at around 500.degree. C., preferentially proceeds to lose the function of flowing electricity in this portion, whereby the serviceable life span of a radiation source comprising the illuminant is completed.
An infrared radiation source in particular is desired to have a life span of at least 10,000 hours.
In view of this, any radiation source made of molybdenum disilicide capable of providing a high luminance while satisfying such a long life span, if obtained, is believed to serve to improve the precision of an infrared gas analyzer and hence to greatly contribute to analytical chemistry.
Molybdenum disilicide also is generally used as a heating element for an industrial furnace wherein a ceramic or the like is fired in the air. In this case as well, the heating element is often fractured because low-temperature oxidation of molybdenum disilicide, which is peculiar to molybdenum disilicide, proceeds in the low temperature range of at most 1,000.degree. C., particularly in a temperature range of around 500.degree. C. In order to prevent such low-temperature oxidation, the heating element made of molybdenum disilicide is usually preliminarily subjected to a pre-oxidation treatment at a high temperature of at least 1,000.degree. C. for formation of a dense silica film on the surface thereof, after which it is used. However, the low-temperature oxidation mentioned above occurs predominantly at a terminal portion of the illuminant on the positive electrode's side, although the protective silica film is formed on the surface by means of a pre-oxidation technique which is prevalently done for the heating element of an industrial furnace. This low-temperature oxidation leads to a fracture of the protective silica film and further proceeds inward.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an infrared radiation source comprising an illuminant made of molybdenum disilicide reinforced with silicon carbide whiskers and having a long life span as well as a heating source comprising a heating element made of molybdenum disilicide reinforced with silicon carbide whiskers and having a long life span by suppressing the low-temperature oxidation phenomenon thereof which proceeds in a terminal portion thereof where it is connected with the positive terminal of a DC power source.
As described hereinabove, molybdenum disilicide can be used as a heat-resistant material in an atmosphere of air up to a high temperature of 1,800.degree. C. since the protective silica film can exhibit an excellent oxidation resistance in the atmospheric environment. When it is used in the low-temperature range of less than 1,000.degree. C., particularly in a temperature range of around 500.degree. C., low-temperature oxidation peculiar to molybdenum disilicide proceeds to fracture molybdenum disilicide. In view of the above, a method wherein molybdenum disilicide is preliminarily subjected to a pre-oxidation treatment at a high temperature of at least 1,000.degree. C. to form a dense silica film on the surface thereof has hitherto been employed with a view to preventing low-temperature oxidation of molybdenum disilicide. However, a long life span of molybdenum disilicide cannot be secured only by this method.
Specifically, when the infrared radiation source comprising the illuminant made of molybdenum disilicide reinforced with silicon carbide whiskers is used, the illuminant is self-heated up to a necessary radiation source temperature by means of a DC power source. In this case, a terminal portion of the illuminant on the positive electrode's side thereof, the temperature of which portion stays as low as around 500.degree. C., undergoes rapid progress of low-temperature oxidation despite the existence of the dense silica film on the surface thereof, whereby the serviceable life span of the radiation source is greatly affected. Thus, there is a need of taking a measure for prolonging the life span of an infrared radiation source comprising an illuminant.
The low-temperature oxidation behavior is also in relation with the relative density to theoretical of the material and the state of a silica film formed on the surface thereof. This behavior further differs from season to season. Since the rate of low-temperature oxidation is faster in summer than in winter, there has also been a suggestion that moisture in the air may be another factor in greatly affecting low-temperature oxidation.

Molybdenum disilicide ceramic composite infrared radiation source or heating source


An apparatus comprises a processing platform implementing a data set discovery engine and a data set valuation engine. The data set discovery engine is configured to generate data set similarity measures each relating a corresponding one of a plurality of data sets to one or more other ones of the plurality of data sets. The data set valuation engine is coupled to the data set discovery engine and configured to generate valuation measures for respective ones of at least a subset of the plurality of data sets based at least in part on respective ones of the data set similarity measures generated by the data set discovery engine. For example, the data set valuation engine may generate the valuation measure for a given data set as a function of valuation measures previously generated for respective other data sets determined to exhibit at least a threshold similarity to the given data set.

Conventional techniques for information processing include document-oriented data processing tools such as Lucene. Other types of data processing tools are configured to utilize Java-based graph databases. However, these and other conventional tools are unduly limited in terms of the similarity measures that can be supported. For example, in some cases, such tools are restricted to use with particular frequency-based similarity measures. In addition, these and other conventional tools fail to support queries around, for example, suitability of data for particular purposes, goals, or roles in analytic processes. Yet another drawback of conventional tools is that such tools fail to provide functionality for automated valuation of data sets.

Automated assignment of data set value via semantic matching


An apparatus and method for recognizing a driving field of a vehicle are provided. The apparatus includes a sensor that is configured to sense a location of a vehicle driving on a road and sense whether an object is adjacent to the vehicle. In addition, a controller is configured to detect whether the object is present and a lane of the road on which the vehicle is being driven is changed to detect a final lane candidate group on which the vehicle is positioned. The final lane candidate group is then displayed by the controller.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for recognizing a driving field of a vehicle, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method that recognize a driving field of a vehicle, to extract locations of road lanes, other vehicles, and a guard rail, adjacent to a vehicle using a global positioning system (GPS), an image sensor, and a radar sensor to detect a driving field of the vehicle.
Description of the Prior Art
In general, while a vehicle drives, a driving field (e.g., the area along the path on which the vehicle is traveling) of the vehicle is estimated using a global positioning system (GPS) installed in a navigation device for guidance for stopping on a road shoulder, accurate guidance for entrance and exit onto interchange (IC)/junction (JC), and accurate guidance for a path to a destination, or is estimated using sensors installed within the vehicle, such as an image recognition sensor, a radar sensor, or the like.
In particular, when a driving field of a vehicle is estimated using a GPS, it may be difficult to estimate an accurate lane of a road on which the vehicle drives due to errors of the GPS. In addition, when a driving field of a vehicle is estimated using a sensor such as an image recognition sensor, a radar sensor, or the like, it may be difficult to estimate a road lane on which numerous vehicles are present and to estimate a lane while the vehicle is being driven on an intermediate lane on a road with having a plurality of lanes.

Apparatus and method for recognizing driving field of vehicle


Stand for banners and the like including a foot part, taking up a cylinder on which a banner can be rolled up on and drawn out from and a device for achieving a rolling up movement for the rolling up of the banner. The rolling up device includes a driving device coupled to the cylinder for rolling up the banner, the driving device comprising a rubber string which at the pulling out of the banner is would up on a drum that is conical and with the string fastened in the wider end so that at a rolled up banner the string runs out from the wider end of the conical drive rollers so that the torque that is achieved by the string is sufficient for the rolling up of the banner's complete rolling up in spite of the rubber string in this position having its minimum tension force.

Stand for banners and the like, including a foot part, comprising a cylinder on which the banner can be rolled up on or be rolled off from respectively, and a device for the driving of an up-rolling movement rolling up the banner. Banner stands of this kind are in particular used at exhibitions and the like since they are quick and easy to put up and take down. In order to hold up the banner this is in the upper end fastened in a strip that in turn is held up by a demountable pole that is fastened in the foot part.
Even if these banner stands facilitate the mounting and demounting of more or less temporary put up banners they still have drawbacks. One such, drawback is the frequently insufficient rolling up of the upper end of the banner at demounting. An other drawback is the exchange of banner, which frequently is circumstantial. In particular it has shown itself difficult to solve both these problems in one and the same device.


In accordance with the present invention, a portion of a packetized data stream is copied from a data network without interfering with the flow of the data in the network. A known test signal is then substituted for the information contained in each copied packet to prepare a pseudo-media packet stream. The known test signal is encoded and packetized using the same methods used for the copied data stream. The pseudo-media signal is then recovered from the pseudo-media stream using the same depacketizing and decoding methods to be used on the copied packetized data stream. The recovered signal is an accurate representation of the state of the media stream since it has gone through the same packetization/depacketization and encoding/decoding procedures and includes all of the same faults of the copied data stream. The subjective quality of the recovered signal is then measured providing an accurate measure of the subjective quality of the copied media stream.

1. Field of the Invention
A system and method are disclosed for the non-intrusive determination of the subjective quality of a packetized real-time media data stream in a packet-switching network without interrupting the flow of the media stream or adding a known test signal in the packet-switching network.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, packet-switching networks have been used increasingly for transport of real-time media such as, for example, voice and video media signals that are transmitted either real-time or delayed. The signals begin as either analog or digital signals. A specific example is the increasing use of the Internet for carrying voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) calls. In a VoIP call, a digitally encoded voice signal is packetized into an Internet Protocol (IP) packet stream that is transmitted over the Internet to a destination device. At the destination device, the digitally encoded voice signal is extracted from VoIP packet payloads in the packet stream and then decoded into a signal that is played-out in real-time to the user at the destination.
When a packetized real-time media stream is transmitted across a packet-switching network, the packet stream may be corrupted by a number of network impairments. Examples of network impairments include packet-discarding at routers due to packet bit errors, packet-dropping at interface buffers due to traffic congestion, packet-duplication, packet-delay in time beyond its hard or soft real-time deadline at its destination, packet-misrouting, and loss of packet-sequence. These impairments generally degrade the quality of the media signal that is eventually received at the destination.
Due to network impairments that may be encountered in the transmission of real-time media over a packet-switching network, it is important to be able to measure and monitor the quality-of-service (QoS) that is being provided by the network. Typical network QoS measures include, for example, end-to-end packet delay, end-to-end packet delay jitter, packet corruption, and packet loss. To monitor such network QoS measures, one can deploy commercially available monitoring systems.
Although measurement and monitoring of network QoS provides valuable information regarding the ability of a network to properly support transmission of real-time media signals, such measures do not directly reflect the media signal subjective quality that is actually perceived by an end-user. This is the case since subjective quality of a real-time media signal, as perceived by the end-user, is difficult to quantify in terms of the network QoS measures. To deal with this general problem, objective methods have been developed for estimating subjective quality of media signals. For example, perceptual speech quality measurement, PSQM, is a means for objectively assessing the quality of speech that has been degraded by a telephony network. It has a high correlation to subjective quality across a range of distortion types, and is used to test networks that are subject to different coding types and transmission errors. PSQM is used primarily to test networks that have speech compression, digital speech interpolation, and packetization. PSQM of this type has been recommended by the International Telecommunication Union in its telephone recommendations. An example of an objective method for voice signals is ITU-T recommendation P.861.
To estimate the subjective quality of a VoIP call that traverses a packet-switching network, FIG. 1 depicts the basic approach of PSQM that has been adopted. In an objective method a known artificial voice signal 10 is transmitted across the network 12. An artificial voice signal for use in PSQM may be stored in a commonly used file format such as, for example, a wave (.WAV) file. The process of transmitting a known signal to evaluate the degradation in quality after it has traversed a network may be termed an active method since a known test signal is actually injected into and transmitted across the network.
PSQM uses a psychoacoustic model 14 that aims to mimic the perception of sound in real life, and was originally developed to test compressor/decompressors (codecs). A Codec is a software component that translates video or audio between its uncompressed form and the compressed form in which it is stored. The algorithm functions by comparing signal 10 after it has been through a coder 16 and decoder 18.
PSQM provides an output 20 in the range of 0 to 6.5, where values close to 0 indicate very good speech quality, and values close to 6.5 indicate poor speech quality. At the destination, a quality measure or score (e.g. mean opinion score (MOS)) is computed 22 based on the received signal and the known artificial voice signal that was transmitted and is output 24. Although PSQM does not have a direct correlation to MOS, the subjective quality is nevertheless inferred from the objective quality. That is, if a person listens to a speech sample that has a PSQM value of 2, that person would think the quality was worse than a speech sample having a PSQM value of 1. PSQM values can be roughly translated in MOS values.
Accordingly, there is a need for an accurate subjective measurement algorithm for determining the mean opinion score and quality of VoIP packets.

Passive system and method for measuring the subjective quality of real-time media streams in a packet-switching network


A hockey puck has a generally cylindrical body having an upper face, a lower face and a circumferential wall with a generally spherical puck element secured centrally within the body and being rotatable with respect to the puck body. In a preferred embodiment, the generally spherical puck element has a weight greater than that of the body and a diameter greater than the distance between the upper face and lower face. The generally spherical puck element is secured within an inner member which in turn has a ring disposed radially outwardly thereof and secured to the inner member. The puck is structurally designed to have the generally spherical puck element have translational and rotational kinetic energy while the body will have translational or translational and rotational kinetic energy. This results an enhanced ability to maintain the puck on the desired path despite roughness of the surface on which it is moving or certain types of impact with other objects.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved hockey puck which is adapted to move more truly on the designated path despite irregularities in the surface over which it is moving and, more specifically, it is designed to have mechanically interacting components which, as a result of relative degrees of freedom of movement and mass distribution, as well as dimensions, facilitate true movement responsive to impact.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has been known in connection with the game of ice hockey to use a hard rubber puck which preferably is chilled immediately prior to use and has a height substantially less than the diameter. Similar pucks as well as hollow resinous pucks and even hollow balls have been used in connection with hockey played on surfaces other than ice. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,516,098.
As employed herein, the term "ice hockey puck" shall refer to any puck which is intended to be used in playing the game of ice hockey or practicing the same on natural, non-uniform ice, such as ponds, lakes, streams and rivers or man-made ice.
As employed herein, the term "hockey puck" shall mean "ice hockey pucks," as well as pucks intended for use on surfaces other than ice, such as those employed in street hockey, playground hockey, indoor hockey and other generally cylindrical pucks adapted for use on surfaces other than ice. The term "non-ice hockey pucks" shall mean a hockey puck designed for use on surfaces other than ice.
It is characteristic of the traditional hockey pucks that in use what was once the upper surface may become the lower surface as the puck is flipped over during play or dropped to initiate play as in a face-off. Also, such pucks may, on occasion, roll on their circumferential wall.
An ideal hockey puck slides across the ice or other surface in a designated path which is generally a straight line. In some instances, skilled players intentionally cause the puck to move in a curved path. As a result of irregularities in the path, such as the build-up of ice or the creation of recesses in the ice as a result of players on ice skates, as well as cracks or other irregularities on non-ice surfaces, a conventional puck may have a tendency to be diverted from its intended path. This is partially attributable to the nature of the surface, the contact between the puck and the ice or other support surface and due to the fact that the puck is a continuous generally cylindrical object.
If a conventional puck hits an obstruction at a position other than the puck's center of gravity a moment is created thereby causing the puck to translate and/or rotate away from the intended path. Such impact can also cause it to roll on edge.
When a conventional puck is hit with a hockey stick and the puck is subjected to responsive movement, the puck may contain purely translational kinetic energy, purely rotational kinetic energy or a combination of both rotational kinetic energy and translational kinetic energy. In most situations, it is only the translational movement in a generally straight line that is desired, which means that only translational kinetic energy is desired. There may, in some instances, be situations where a skilled player may intentionally effect rotation so as to apply spin or "English" which would aid in establishing a non-linear motion to avoid an obstacle, such as another player.
In conventional pucks which have substantially uniform distribution of mass and a generally rigid body the dissipation of kinetic energy can occur from friction between the puck and the underlying surface over which it is moving. This frictional retardation can be reduced by choosing to make the puck of a different material or design. For example, the puck can contact the underlying surface on the entire face or at only discrete locations on the face with the latter serving to minimize the contact area and thereby minimize dissipation of energy through friction. Also, dissipation of energy can occur when the puck hits an obstruction, such as another hockey stick, a player, the dasher boards from a generally perpendicular direction or portions of the goal. The amount of energy transferred from the puck to the obstruction is a function of the mass of the puck and the obstruction, the velocity of the puck and the angle of impact between the puck and obstruction.
Numerous means have been known to attempt to reduce the adverse effect of irregularities in the underlying surface and friction between the puck and the underlying surface. It has been known in connection with a street hockey puck to provide puck faces which are concave so as to have only the outer periphery of the puck touch the underlying ground. One known puck of this type is that designated the Mylek Lazer Puk. It has also been known to attempt to minimize the contact through the use of multiple knobs or spheres around the periphery of the puck faces.
It has been known to provide a puck design which has a hollow cavity within which is disposed a metal disk in order to resist the pucks rolling on edge. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,275,410. It has also been known to suggest the use of a puck having three or four sphere-like surfaces projecting from a face thereof. Such pucks have been known under the trade designation Sun Hockey. One of the problems with pucks with multiple spheres, such as the Sun Hockey Puck, is they tend to collect dirt in the socket housing the spheres, thus, creating resistance to rolling movement of the spheres. U.S. Pat. No. 5,149,096 discloses an ice hockey puck having projections which are said to enhance stability and reduce the snow plowing effect. See, also, U.S. Pat. No. 5,531,442 which discloses three balls projecting from both sides of the puck.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,111,419 discloses the use of a plurality of headed pins on the periphery of a practice hockey puck which is tethered to a hockey stick. See, also, U.S. Pat. No. 5,346,214 which discloses a hard rubber puck having knob-like protrusions on the puck faces to facilitate smooth movement on the ice. See, also, U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,072 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,274, as well as U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,820 which is said to have projections which reduce the coefficient of friction.
It has been known to suggest a practice hockey puck wherein the weight of the puck may be altered by providing removable material inside the puck. See, U.S. Pat. No. 5,284,343.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,801,144 discloses a puck having three spherical balls which project from both faces of the puck.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,518,237 discloses a hockey puck composed of a polymer and being of generally ring-shape with a central web and containing a filler material. This is said to facilitate riding over a rough surface with a minimized tendency to turn over completely or turn on its side.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,366,219 discloses a puck having ground-engaging runners projecting from the opposed faces to minimize contact with the surface over which the puck is passing. See, also U.S. Pat. No. 5,568,923 which relates to a roller hockey puck and has a plurality of roller wheel assemblies projecting therefrom and U.S. Pat. No. 5,518,238 which has a plurality of roller members.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,153,253 also discloses the concept of introducing weights into the puck interior.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,754,973 discloses a puck of alternating harder and softer materials so as to minimize injury as a result of a player being hit by a puck. See, also, U.S. Pat. No. 5,275,410.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,251 discloses puck faces which are composed of a special material for use on hard non-ice surfaces.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,520 discloses alternating disks which are so assembled and configurated as to be said to resist the tendency to bounce or flip over during use. U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,966 discloses a puck having surface disks on its faces so as to reduce the tendency of the puck to roll.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,801 discloses a street hockey puck wherein an internal weight is provided within a puck body composed from an assembly of components.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,997,164 is made from an assembly of components including a resilient member which is said to resist injury due to impact with the puck.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,298 discloses a combination roller ball and puck. The interior chamber is adapted to be filled with a powder-like material when desired.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,472,193 is said to provide a gyroscopically stabilized hockey puck. This puck has a hub which is mounted through appropriate bearings to establish relative rotation with respect to the face plates. The outer peripheral surface projects beyond the face plates so the puck can tilt without tripping on the surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,360 discloses a street hockey puck consisting a toroidal core formed of rigid steel surrounded by a helically wound outer sidewall structure composed of spring steel rod.
In spite of the foregoing disclosures, there remains a very real and substantial need for an improved puck which will facilitate effective, accurate sustained translational movement of the puck and resistance to departure from the desired path of travel as a result of irregularities in the surface over which it travels or contact with other objects including players.

Hockey puck with centrally disposed spherical element


In a semiconductor device, a semiconductor substrate may include a plurality of first conductive pads. An insulating isolation layer may be on the semiconductor substrate so as to separate the first conductive pads. A package substrate may include a plurality of second conductive pads. A conductive adhesive layer may connect the first conductive pads and the second conductive pads.

1. Field
Example embodiments relate to a semiconductor device and/or a method of fabricating the same, and for example, to an assembled and packaged semiconductor device and/or a method of assembling and packaging the same.
2. Description of Related Art
A plurality of semiconductor devices may be formed simultaneously using a semiconductor substrate, and/or the plurality of semiconductor devices may be assembled and packaged to come out as products. For example, a conventional semiconductor package may use wire bonding. Wires may be bonded to connect semiconductor chips and a package substrate. However, a reliability of the wire bonding may be deteriorated as a size of the semiconductor chips decreases.
A conventional wafer level package may use redistributed patterns. However, a conventional method of forming redistributed patterns on a semiconductor substrate may increase fabrication costs, and/or may be difficult to employ in assembling and packaging processes. Because the semiconductor chip may be exposed to the outside, the semiconductor chip may be vulnerable to external impacts.

Semiconductor device having conductive adhesive layer and method of fabricating the same


A liquid crystal display device having a direct backlight which uses a high-bright light source achieves both of a high efficiency and thin uniformity. In a liquid crystal display device which includes a liquid crystal panel, and a backlight unit which is arranged on a side of the liquid crystal panel opposite to a display screen of the liquid crystal panel, the backlight unit includes a housing, a plurality of light sources arranged in the inside of the housing, and a diffusion plate which is arranged between the plurality of light sources and the liquid crystal panel, the diffusion plate includes a plurality of light blocking regions at positions corresponding to the plurality of respective light sources, and the light blocking region at a center portion of the housing and the light blocking region at an edge portion of the housing exhibits transmissivities different from each other.

The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device, and more particularly to a technique which is effectively applicable to a direct backlight used in a liquid crystal display device.
A TFT (Thin Film Transistor)-method liquid crystal display module has been popularly used as a display device of a liquid crystal television receiver set, a personal computer or the like.
The liquid crystal display module is constituted of a liquid crystal panel which arranges a drain driver and a gate driver on a periphery thereof and a backlight which radiates light to the liquid crystal panel.
The backlight is roughly classified into the side-light backlight and a direct backlight. Recently, along with remarkable spreading of liquid crystal television receiver sets, large sizing and the acquisition of large screen have been in progress with respect to a liquid crystal display module used in a liquid crystal television receiver set or the like. In such a large-sized and large-screen liquid crystal display module, the direct backlight which can acquire high brightness is adopted.
As a light source of the direct backlight, a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) has been dominantly used. Although the CCFL exhibits a long life time, a tube diameter of the CCFL is small and hence, along with the progress of large-sizing of a screen, it becomes difficult to adopt the CCFL as the light source. Accordingly, recently, to sufficiently cope with the large-sized large-screen liquid crystal display module, there exists a demand for the application of a hot cathode fluorescent lamp (HCFL).
The HCFL possesses a large tube diameter compared to the CCFL and exhibits high brightness and hence, the HCFL can realize a backlight for a large screen with the number smaller than the number of the CCFL. However, since the number of the HCFL is small, there arises a drawback on brightness irregularities.
As means which can efficiently reduce the brightness irregularities when the number of fluorescent lamps is small, there has been proposed a technique which arranges the fluorescent lamps non-uniformly to achieve the brightness distribution in which the center of the screen exhibits high brightness and a peripheral portion of the screen exhibits the low brightness.
Further, as another means to overcome the brightness irregularities of fluorescent lamps, there has been known an example which uses a light curtain (see following patent document 1).
[Patent Document 1] JP-A-2005-117023

Liquid crystal display device with a backlight unit having a diffusion plate


A driveshaft assembly for a downhole motor comprises a housing and a driveshaft rotatably disposed within the housing. The driveshaft has a central axis and a first end. Further, the driveshaft assembly comprises a driveshaft adapter having a first end coupled to the first end of the driveshaft with a universal joint. The first end of the driveshaft adapter includes a counterbore. The first end of the driveshaft and the universal joint are disposed in the counterbore. Still further, the driveshaft assembly comprises an end cap disposed about the driveshaft and coaxially coupled to the adapter. Moreover, the driveshaft assembly comprises a seal boot disposed about the driveshaft and adapted to restrict fluid flow through a annular gap positioned between the driveshaft and the end cap. The driveshaft assembly also comprises a locking assembly adapted to restrict the end cap from moving axially relative to the adapter.

Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to downhole motors used for drilling oil and gas wells. More particularly, invention relates to means for retaining a seal boot on a universal joint housing for a driveshaft of a downhole motor.
Background of the Technology
In drilling a borehole (or wellbore) into the earth, such as for the recovery of hydrocarbons or minerals from a subsurface formation, it is conventional practice to connect a drill bit onto the lower end of a "drill string", then rotate the drill string so that the drill bit progresses downward into the earth to create the desired borehole. A typical drill string is made up from an assembly of drill pipe sections connected end-to-end, plus a "bottom hole assembly" (BHA) disposed between the lower end of the drillstring and the drill bit. The BHA is typically made up of sub-components such as drill collars, stabilizers, reamers and/or other drilling tools and accessories, selected to suit the particular requirements of the well being drilled.
In borehole drilling operations, the drill string and bit are rotated by means of either a "rotary table" or a "top drive" associated with a drilling rig erected at the ground surface over the borehole (or in offshore drilling operations, on a seabed-supported drilling platform or suitably-adapted floating vessel). During the drilling process, a drilling fluid, commonly referred to as "drilling mud," "drilling fluid," or simply "mud", is pumped under pressure downward from the surface through the drill string, out nozzles in the face of the drill bit into the wellbore, and then upward back to the surface through the annulus between the drill string and the wellbore. The drilling fluid carries borehole cuttings to the surface, cools the drill bit, and forms a protective cake on the borehole wall to help stabilize and seal the borehole wall, as well as other beneficial functions. At surface the drilling fluid is treated, by removing borehole cuttings, amongst other possible treatments, then re-circulated by pumping it back downhole under pressure through the drill string.
As an alternative to rotation by a rotary table or top drive alone, a drill bit can also be rotated using a "downhole motor" incorporated into the drill string immediately above the drill bit. The technique of drilling by rotating the drill bit with a downhole motor without rotating the drill string is commonly referred to as "slide" drilling. It is common in certain types of well-drilling operations to use both slide drilling and drill string rotation, at different stages of the operation. The use of downhole motors has generally increased in recent years due, at least in part, to their employment in the drilling of wellbores directionally, since downhole motors provide some advantages in such applications.
The downhole motor, which may also be referred to as a mud motor or progressive displacement motor (PDM), converts hydraulic energy of a fluid such as drilling mud into mechanical energy in the form of rotational speed and torque output, which may be harnessed for a variety of applications such as downhole drilling. A typical downhole motor includes a hydraulic drive section, a drive shaft assembly, and a bearing assembly. The hydraulic drive section, also known as a power section or rotor-stator assembly, includes a helical rotor rotatably disposed within a stator, the driveshaft assembly includes a driveshaft rotatably disposed within a driveshaft housing, and the bearing assembly includes a mandrel rotatably supported within a housing. The lower end of the rotor is connected to the upper end of the driveshaft, the lower end of the driveshaft is connected to the upper end of the mandrel, and the lower end of the mandrel is coupled to a drill bit. During drilling operations, the high pressure drilling fluid is pumped under pressure down the drillstring and between the rotor and stator, causing the rotor to rotate relative to the stator. Rotation of the rotor drives the rotation of the driveshaft, the mandrel, and the drill bit.
The driveshaft assembly generally functions to transfer torque from the eccentrically-rotating rotor to the concentrically-rotating bearing assembly mandrel and drill bit. The motor may also be configured such that the longitudinal axis of the power section is skewed or oriented at an acute angle relative to the longitudinal axis of the bearing section and drill bit. The driveshaft of the driveshaft assembly typically includes universal joints at its upper and lower ends to accommodate the misalignment of axes during operation while allowing transfer of torque from the power section to the bearing assembly and drill bit. The universal joints are usually axially received within upper and lower adapters. The upper adapter connects to the rotor of the power section, and the lower adapter connects to the mandrel of the bearing assembly. A threaded end cap or sleeve is typically employed at each universal joint to retain an elastomeric seal boot that encases and seals the components of the universal joint from drilling mud, and maintains the position of the universal joints and driveshaft ends within the driveshaft adapters.
During downhole operations, it is critical that the end caps remain threadably secured to the adapters. Specifically, if an end cap loosens and disengages from an adapter, (a) the components of the universal joint may separate from the adapter, potentially disabling the ability to transfer torque from the power section to the drill bit, and further, (b) the seal boot will cease to function and components of the universal joint will become undesirably exposed to the drilling fluid, potentially leading to universal joint failure.
In most conventional driveshaft assemblies, application of a thread-locking compound to the mating threads of the end caps and adaptors, followed by the application of makeup torque to the threaded end caps is employed to prevent unthreading and loosening of the end caps from the adapters. Due to the relatively short axial length of typical end caps, the typical means to apply the necessary makeup torque is through the use of a pipe wrench connected to an overhead crane with a load cell that measures the torque applied to the end cap as the connection is made up. This approach occasionally fails, and further, introduces safety hazards and difficulties during servicing. For example, the pipe wrench is susceptible to fracturing under the excessive torque loads required in some cases, potentially causing pieces of the pipe wrench to be dangerously projected across the shop floor at high velocities. Moreover, the pinching loads applied to the end caps as the pipe wrench bites into the cap may overstress and/or deform the cap. Thread-locking compound also increases the difficulty in servicing the driveshaft assembly, particularly during disassembly, where the end cap-adapter threaded connection must first be heated to liquefy the hardened thread-locking compound to permit subsequent unthreading of the end cap and the adapter. Still further, even with the use of thread-locking compound, high vibrations and harsh downhole conditions can occasionally lead to unthreading of the caps and adapters.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for devices, systems, and methods for securing an end cap to a driveshaft assembly adapter. Such devices, systems, and methods would be particularly well received if they restricted and/or prevented disengagement of the end cap and the adapter during downhole operations, maintained the position of the protective seal boot, and were relatively cheap and simple to employ.

Retention means for a seal boot used in a universal joint in a downhole motor driveshaft assembly


An image coding method includes: selectively adding a motion vector of each of one or more associated blocks to a list; selecting a motion vector from the list as a selected motion vector; and coding a current block to be coded or a motion vector of the current block using the selected motion vector, and for each of the associated blocks, when a specific block that is one of the associated block and the current block is coded with reference to another picture that temporally matches a specific picture including the specific block, the motion vector of the associated block is not scaled and is added to the list at the time of adding the motion vector to the list.

Generally, when coding moving pictures, an image coding apparatus compresses the quantity of information by reducing redundancy of the moving pictures in spatial and temporal directions. At this time, the image coding apparatus uses intra prediction (referred to also as intra-picture prediction) as a method of reducing the redundancy in the spatial direction. As a method of reducing the redundancy in the temporal direction, the image coding apparatus uses inter prediction (referred to also as inter-picture prediction) as a method of reducing the redundancy in the temporal direction.
For example, when coding a current picture in the inter prediction, the image coding apparatus uses, as a reference picture, a coded picture located before or after the current picture in display order. The image coding apparatus then derives a motion vector through motion estimation. Using the motion vector, the image coding apparatus then performs motion compensation to generate prediction image data. Subsequently, the image coding apparatus codes a difference between the generated prediction image data and the image data of the current picture, thereby removing the redundancy in the temporal direction.
Furthermore, in the motion estimation, the image coding apparatus calculates a difference between a current block to be coded in the current picture and a block in the reference picture. At this time, the image coding apparatus determines, as a reference block, one of the blocks in the reference picture with which the difference is smallest. Using the current block and the reference block, the image coding apparatus then estimates a motion vector.
The image coding apparatus of H.264 that is an already-standardized moving picture coding scheme (Non Patent Literature 1) uses three types of pictures: I-picture, P-picture, and B-picture, to reduce the quantity of information.
The H.264 image coding apparatus codes an I-picture using intra prediction. The image coding apparatus codes a P-picture using inter prediction. When coding a P-picture, the image coding apparatus refers to one coded picture located before or after the P-picture in display order. In other words, the image coding apparatus codes a P-picture using uni-directional prediction.
The image coding apparatus codes a B-picture using inter prediction. When coding a B-picture, the image coding apparatus refers to two coded pictures located before or after the B-picture in display order. In other words, the image coding apparatus codes a B-picture using bi-directional prediction.
It is to be noted that the bi-directional prediction may only represent predicting image data with reference to one reference picture located in each of before and after the B-picture. Furthermore, the bi-directional prediction may include predicting image data with reference to two reference pictures located in one of before and after the B-picture. In the latter case, the bi-direction prediction may be represented as bi-prediction.
In addition, a discussion has been made on using a motion vector predictor designation mode or a merge mode at the time of coding the motion vector of the current block in the B picture or the P picture (Non Patent Literature 2).

Image coding method, image decoding method, image coding apparatus, and image decoding apparatus

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CORPORATION OF AMERICA


There is provided a method of manufacturing an organic EL display including an insulating substrate, a power supply terminal, a plurality of pixels arrayed on the substrate and each including an organic EL element and a pixel circuit, and an organic planarizing film covering the pixel circuits and interposed between the organic EL elements and the substrate, including selecting a pixel which can be recognized as a dark spot and/or a bright spot from the pixels, and irradiating, of the pixel circuit included in the selected pixel, a portion located between the organic planarizing film and the substrate with an energy beam through the substrate to electrically disconnect the organic EL element included in the selected pixel from the power supply terminal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an organic EL (Electroluminescent) display.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, displays using organic EL elements have been developed. In an organic EL element, a light-emitting layer is sandwiched between a pair of electrodes. The organic EL element emits light at a luminance corresponding to a driving current which flows between the electrodes.
In the manufacturing process of an organic EL display, when a low-molecular organic substance is used as a material of a light-emitting layer, vacuum deposition is used to form the light-emitting layer. Alternatively, when a polymeric organic substance is used as a material of a light-emitting layer, a method is employed in which a film is formed by applying a solution containing a polymeric organic substance and dried.
In either case, an anode and a cathode may short-circuit due to partial absence in a light-emitting layer. As a result, the organic EL element is recognized as a dark spot. Even without any short circuit between an anode and a cathode, if the characteristic of an organic EL element deviates from those of other organic EL elements, the former organic EL element is recognized as a dark spot or a bright spot.
Such a luminance shift can also occur due to another factor when active matrix driving is executed by arranging a drive transistor for each pixel. For example, if the characteristic of the drive transistor for a pixel deviates from those of the drive transistors for other pixels, the former pixel is recognized as a dark spot or a bright spot.
Of the above-described luminance shifts, the dark spot is difficult to be recognized as compared to the bright spot. The bright spot can be made more unnoticeable by changing it to a dark spot. This can be done by, e.g., fusing the interconnection which connects the drain of the drive transistor included in the bright spot pixel to the anode of the organic EL element by irradiating the interconnection with the second harmonic of a YAG laser.
For the dark spot generated by the short circuit between the anode and the cathode, it is effective to employ a structure in which the each anode is constituted by a plurality of conductive layers spaced apart from each other and the conductive layers are connected to the drain of the drive transistor through interconnections, respectively. More specifically, according to this structure, when disconnecting only the interconnection, which connects the conductive layer short-circuited with the cathode to the drain of the drive transistor, by fusion using laser beam irradiation, the conductive layer short-circuited with the cathode can be insulated from the remaining conductive layers included in the same pixel. Hence, the pixel can be suppressed from being recognized as a dark spot.
The cathode is formed as a common electrode. For this reason, it cannot be confirmed by using transmitted illumination whether the interconnection has been disconnected by fusion using laser beam irradiation. To confirm it, reflected illumination is used. However, it is difficult to distinguish reflection by the interconnection surface made of a metal from that by the cathode surface.
To disconnect a metal by fusion, very large energy is necessary because of its high reflectance, or viscosity or fluidity in a melted state. Hence, when the interconnection is disconnected by fusion using laser beam irradiation, its peripheral portion is readily damaged. For example, the insulating layer between the interconnection and the cathode may break so that they may short-circuit. Alternatively, an interconnection which should not be disconnected may also be disconnected by fusion.

Method of manufacturing organic EL display

Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co., Ltd.


System utilization related to memory usage can be monitored by storing host memory usage information in the corresponding host physical memory. However, retrieving this information can be a high overhead operation because it involves engaging with the operating system of each host. Moreover, storing memory usage information in the host physical memories can pose a security risk if they also store privileged data. Network interfaces according to the present disclosure provide unobtrusive and secure support for monitoring of network and other system resources such as regions of memory within host physical memories. Implementations according to the present disclosure include a plurality of memory region counters stored on a network interface. Each memory region counter corresponds to one of the memory regions located in a physical memory of a host coupled to the network interface. Each of the counters includes a system utilization metric associated with its corresponding memory region.

Distributed computing systems commonly suffer from a performance pathology known as hotspotting, in which a load imbalance affects specific nodes and not others. The affected nodes become "hot", which generally means that their individual utilizations are too high and their service times begin to suffer. In extreme cases, the affected nodes may fail entirely.

Unobtrusive support for third-party traffic monitoring


A drilling tool having a pilot bit on an end of a main shaft is surrounded by outer shafts having mills on their ends. The bit and mills employ cutters with PDC. The pilot bit rotates in a direction opposite the direction of rotation of the mills. A transmission for rotating a main shaft, on which the pilot bit is mounted, and several secondary shafts, on which the mills are respectively mounted, is carried within a housing using diamond thrust and radial bearings. Power is applied to the main shaft and transmitted to the secondary shafts through diamond hardened gears. Drilling fluid is used to cool and lubricate the bearings and gears.

The invention relates generally to a tool for forming bores in relatively hard materials, and in particular to a rotary drill bit for use in oil, gas, and mining exploration that can maintain low impact and cool operating conditions which facilitates the drilling of harder and more abrasive formations.
Oil and gas field drilling and mining in general employ drills bits having hard and durable cutting contact surfaces. One such cutting and wear insert material used is polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC). PDC is an extremely hard and wear resistant material.
PDC cutters are known to have the lowest rates of wear when used in cooler operating conditions. Wear rates are low when the operational temperatures are maintained below about 700 degrees Celsius. At about 700 degrees Celsius, thermal damage to the diamond layer begins, resulting in loss of wear resistance. Above the critical temperature, the rate of wear of the cutter can be as much as fifty times greater than its rate at cooler conditions.
In conventional PDC drag bits, the velocity of a cutter on a drill bit, when measured relative to the material being cut, depends on its distance from the center of rotation of the drill bit. The further away the cutter is from the axis of rotation of the bit, the greater the velocity of the cutter. Thus, increasing the diameter of a drill bit results in greater velocity for the outside cutters. With greater velocity, there is greater friction, and thus greater heat generated during drilling. At some point, the heat will be sufficient to cause wear rates to accelerate, thus reducing the life of the outside cutters. Heating is particularly a concern for PDC cutters, as PDC tends to break down at elevated temperatures, resulting in a loss of wear resistance and increased breakage due to impact.
Furthermore, when more force is applied, more heat is generated. As harder rock requires more force for cutter penetration, wear rates will naturally be higher in such formations. The critical point at which the wear rate begins to accelerate is a function of rock hardness and bit rotational speed. In softer rocks, accelerated wear rates do not occur until higher rotational speeds are used. Whereas in harder rocks, acceleration of the wear rate occurs at much lower rotational speeds.
Another cause of wear to PDC cutters is breakage from impact.When drilling with conventional PDC drag bits, weight and torque are applied to a drill string. PDC cutters are driven into the formation by applied weight. Torque rotates the bit, dragging its PDC cutters through the formation. Dragging generates chips that are removed, thereby forming the hole. This drilling action causes a reverse, corresponding torque to the drill string. Because of the length of the drill string, the torque tends to wind it like a torsion spring. When conditions are not stable, this tends not to be a problem. But should the bit release from the formation, the drill string will unwind and rotate backward. The resulting load on the drill bit, when it hits against the formation can cause impact damage to the cutters. Furthermore, under typical drilling conditions, a drill string is rotated at 90 to 150 rpm. At these higher speeds, drill strings can tend to vibrate, sometimes severely. Vibration can damage a drill bit, including the cutters, as well as the drill pipe, MWD equipment, and other components in the drilling system.
Contributing to impact loads on PDC cutters is a phenomenon known as xe2x80x9cbit whirl.xe2x80x9d This complex motion of the drill bit is thought to be the result of a combination of causes, such as lateral forces from drill string vibration, heterogeneous rock formations, bit design, and other factors in combination with a radial cutting ability of PDC bits. When a drill bit begins to whirl, PDC cutters on the bit are subjected to large impact loads as the bit bounces against the rock. The cutters can lose large chips of PDC from impact rather than from gradual abrasion of the cutter, which thereby shortens bit life.
PDC cutters thus maintain the longest useful life when used under low impact and cool operating conditions, and in these conditions, they are able to cut extremely hard and abrasive materials with long life. Thus, the usefulness of such drill bits in hard formations tends to limited to low rotational speeds, and thus relatively slow rates of penetration in typical oil well drilling.
The invention is directed generally to an improved drilling tool and method for drilling. The invention, as defined by the appended claims, has various aspects and advantages that are described below with reference to an example of a drilling tool that embodies the invention.
This exemplary drilling tool includes several features that singularly and collectively can be used to reduce the adverse thermal and/or impact effects on cutters, extending the life of the cutters without affecting drilling performance, and thus also better enabling PDC cutters to be used in hard rock formations and other situations in which they typically have not been used due to such effects. Briefly, this exemplary drilling tool reduces the surface speed of outer cutters, thus reducing thermal stress on the cutters without reducing drilling effectiveness. Furthermore, the drillstring may be rotated at lower rotational speeds, producing less reactive torque, and keeping the drilling tool on a straighter path, thereby tending to reduce vibration, torque on the drill string and xe2x80x9cwhirlxe2x80x9d. To reduce complexity and improve reliability, the exemplary drilling tool utilizes abrasion-resistant bearing and gear surfaces, capable of carrying relatively large loads, thus avoiding the need for sealed bearings and gears and permitting use of drilling fluid for cooling and lubrication.


Video image data is acquired from synchronized cameras having overlapping views of objects moving past the cameras through a scene image in a linear array and with a determined speed. Processing units generate one or more object detections associated with confidence scores within frames of the camera video stream data. The confidence scores are modified as a function of constraint contexts including a cross-frame constraint that is defined by other confidence scores of other object detection decisions from the video data that are acquired by the same camera at different times; a cross-view constraint defined by other confidence scores of other object detections in the video data from another camera with an overlapping field-of-view; and a cross-object constraint defined by a sequential context of a linear array of the objects, spatial attributes of the objects and the determined speed of the movement of the objects relative to the cameras.

Automated systems may use video analytic systems and processes to distinguish objects of interest that are visible within the video data from other visual elements, and to thereby enable detection and observation of said objects in processed video data input. Such information processing systems may receive images or image frame data captured by video cameras or other image capturing devices, wherein the images or frames are processed or analyzed by an object detection system in the information processing system to identify objects within the images.
The image data for the identified objects may also be analyzed for attributes of the objects, including defects or irregularities associated with the objects. For example, object detection systems may identify objects of interest such as a railroad track and its components (e.g., ties, tie plates, anchors, joint bars, etc.) and use a variety of automated processes to attempt to determine and report if defects or irregularities exist with respect to said objects such as, but not limited to, missing ties, missing spikes, damaged joint bars, damaged rails, etc. Automatic vision-based rail inspection systems may provide more efficiency and reliable performance than human inspectors when provided high quality images as input. However, such systems may perform poorly, missing or falsely reporting defects, due to image problems that may prevent object identification, such as occlusion and poor lighting conditions.

Multisensor evidence integration and optimization in object inspection


A piston seal has formed on one side of the piston body upon which oil pressure works are a tapered surface portion which extends in a direction away from a piston sliding wall and a parallel surface portion. A lip-like seal is formed of a seal base portion which is, in cross section, approximately triangular to fill a space defined between the tapered surface portion and the piston sliding wall, and a lip portion which is formed integrally with the seal base portion. Q indicates the exertion line of a force which presses the lip portion against the piston sliding wall. T is a normal line which extends from the tapered surface portion towards the piston sliding wall. In order to prevent the lines Q and T from intersecting with each other within the bore, the seal base portion is arranged to lie apart from the lip portion in relation to the axial direction of the bore. Such arrangement produces a distribution of contact force exerted from the piston sliding wall upon the lip-like seal, the distribution having two contact reaction force peak values one of which is caused by the lip portion and the other of which is caused by the seal base portion.

The present invention relates to a lip-like seal for creating liquid-tight sealing between a fluid pressure slid (operated) piston body and a piston sliding wall.
A lip-like seal is known in the art. The lip-like seal has a lip portion. The lip portion diagonally extends from an outer peripheral portion of an end of a piston body on the fluid pressure applied side towards a piston sliding wall. For example, there is shown in Japanese Utility Model Registration Publication Gazette No. 1-34744 and in Japanese Utility Model Application Laying Open Gazette No. 1-69973 such a lip-like seal.
For the case of conventional lip-like seals, a lip portion a is merely arranged to extend towards a piston sliding wall b, as shown in FIG. 9. The problem with such arrangement is that the fitting of a piston body c into a bore d results in producing an unwanted distribution of contact reaction force occurring between the lip portion a and the piston sliding wall b. As shown more specifically in FIG. 10, the resulting distribution is a bell-shaped or a single-peaked distribution having only one peak value p. Such single-peaked distribution has the drawback that a drop in lip portion durability and the occurrence of various damage or the like to lip portions may directly lead to deterioration in sealing action.
Bearing in mind the above-described problems with the prior art sealing techniques, the present invention was made. It is therefore a general object of this invention to improve the action of sealing without causing a drop in lip portion durability.


Approaches for post-synthesis insertion of debug cores include a programmed processor inputting data that identify signals of a synthesized circuit design to be probed and determining whether or not debug cores and interfaces needed to probe the signals are absent from the circuit design. The programmed processor creates, in response to determining that the debug cores and interfaces are absent, the debug cores and interfaces in the circuit design. The programmed processor couples the debug cores and interfaces to the signals in the circuit design and synthesizes the debug cores and interfaces created in the circuit design to create a modified circuit design. The method includes generating a circuit definition from the modified circuit design by the programmed processor, and implementing a circuit that operates according to the circuit definition.

Debugging a circuit design after the design has been implemented as an operable circuit can be difficult and time-consuming. Being unaware of an error in a circuit design during the design phase, a designer will not know which signals will need to be probed if an error is discovered once the circuit is implemented and operable. In addition, the target device on which a circuit design is implemented can further complicate debugging. For example, system-on-chip (SoC) platforms can make debugging a circuit design even more difficult because the interfaces needed to access the desired signals of the circuit design may be slow in operation or complex to integrate with the circuit design.


A device can include a processor; memory operatively coupled to the processor; a keyboard housing that includes a keyboard accessible to the processor and an extractable extension; and a display housing that includes a display operatively coupled to the processor and a keyboard housing recess, where, in a compact orientation, the keyboard housing seats in the keyboard housing recess and where, in an extended orientation, the keyboard housing and the extractable extension extend to form a base that supports the display housing at a viewing angle with respect to the base.

An information handling device with a form factor such as that of a tablet may be used in a hand-held manner. However, at times, a user may desire to use such a device with a keyboard where, ergonomically, input via the keyboard is easier when the device is supported at an appropriate viewing angle (e.g., to allow for coordination of input via the keyboard and information rendered to a display).