A compound for organic EL includes a polymer molecule having molecules shown in the following Formulae 1 to 5 as constituent units.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an organic EL device applied to displays or display light sources, and more particularly, to a compound for organic EL desirably applied to a coat-type organic EL device and to an organic EL device using the same.
2. Related Art
Recently, the development of organic electro-luminescent devices (organic EL devices) using an organic electroluminescent element (organic EL element) which serves as a self-emission display for replacing a liquid crystal display has accelerated. With respect to such an organic EL device and a method of producing the organic EL device, JP-A-2000-323276 and JP-T-2002-536492 are examples of the related art.
A process were a host material and a light emitting dopant are used as a material of a light emitting layer is applied to a known organic EL device (organic EL apparatus) so as to assure high efficiency of light emission, a change in the color of emitted light, and a long life span. The process is frequently applied to organic EL devices including an organic material provided using deposition, but not to polymer-coat-type organic EL devices which include a layer formed using an inkjet process (liquid droplet jet process) or a spin coating process.
In connection with the meaning, the terms 'host material and light emitting dopant' have the following meanings. (1) The host material is capable of providing both holes and electrons.
The reasons (problem) why both the host material and the light emitting dopant are not frequently applied to the polymer-coat-type organic EL device are as follows.
(1) When a solution containing the host and the light emitting dopant is applied, bleeding of the light emitting dopant may occur. The reason is that, if the solution of materials having a low molecular weight is applied to the polymer and dried, the materials having a low molecular weight flow out from the surface layer during the drying.
(2) The light emitting dopant material has poor hole or electron trapping ability. When the host material is a conjugated polymer, the trapping ability is very poor. In such a conjugated polymer, it is believed that since the holes and the electrons preferentially flow through the host polymer molecule, it is difficult for the light emitting dopant to trap the holes and the electrons
(3) The development of the light emitting dopant material is time-consuming. The reason is that the system including the host and light emitting dopant is inefficient in the polymer-coat-type organic EL device field in comparison with the deposition type of EL (small-molecular-EL).

Compound for organic electroluminescence and organic electroluminescent device

Abstract: where R is an alkyl group, an aryl group, or an alkylaryl group,

Abstract: where R′ is hydrogen, an alkyl group, or an alkylaryl group.


A heat exchange reactor including a housing, a plurality of tubes mounted in the housing and configured to carry a first fluid, and a baffle having a plurality of holes receiving the tubes. The baffle is configured to guide a second fluid provided within the housing to flow in a direction generally perpendicular to the tubes. The reactor includes various configurations for minimizing adverse effects of thermal expansion of the baffle and the tubes. The reactor is configured to minimize mechanical interference between the baffle and the tubes in both an operational state and a non-operational state, for example, by shaping the holes in the baffle to take into account thermal expansion. The reactor also includes a thermal insulator along a length of the tubes at a large temperature gradient zone within the reactor. The reactor further includes a heat transfer fin in contact with only one of the tubes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to heat exchange reactors and methods of constructing heat exchange reactors.
2. Discussion of the Background
Heat exchange reactors are often employed to carry out chemical reactions where significant quantities of heat must be added or removed from a first reacting fluid to a second heat transfer fluid, which may or may not be reacting. These heat exchange reactors often bear a strong resemblance to simple heat exchangers, but are often provided with additional features such as fixed beds of catalysts, specialized flowpath designs, exotic materials and the like. Heat exchange reactors are constructed in many forms, including plate-fin and tubular arrays.
An example of a reaction conducted in heat exchange reactors is the steam reformation of hydrocarbon feedstocks to produce hydrogen-containing gas mixtures. In this process, a mixture of steam and hydrocarbon is passed through one fluid circuit while a hot fluid, usually combustion product, flows through a separate fluid circuit and transfers heat into the reacting first fluid to promote the highly endothermic steam reforming reaction. An example of a plate-fin type hydrocarbon steam reformer is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,733,347 to Lesieur. Several examples of tubular heat exchange reformers have been revealed, for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,446,594 to Buswell et al. An advanced tubular reformer configuration which offers significant advantages over other configurations is disclosed in U.S. application Ser. Nos. 09/642,008 and 09/928,437 to Lomax et al., which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
The present inventors have determined that many heat exchange reactors face a serious mechanical design challenge due to the temperature differences between the reacting first fluid and the second heat transfer fluid. These temperature differences set up thermal strains, or displacements, due to differential expansion of the material of construction of the heat exchange reactor. If free expansion is not allowed for in the configuration of the heat exchange reactor, then the unrealized strains result in thermal stresses. The thermal stresses are particularly challenging in hydrocarbon steam reformers because the temperature gradients are generally very high. Further, modem heat exchange reactors for steam reforming strive to reduce the physical size of the reactor to reduce cost and facilitate their employment in space and weight sensitive applications such as vehicles. The reduction in physical size results in an aggravation of the problem of thermal stresses by drastically-increasing the thermal gradients in the heat exchange reactor.
In tubular heat exchange reactors in general, and in the improved reactor of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/642,008 in particular, one route to achieving a more compact reactor is the provision of baffle features to induce flow of the second fluid in a direction substantially normal or perpendicular to the axis of the tubes. Such a flow arrangement is termed cross flow. By placing several baffle features along the length of the heat exchange reactor tubes, the second heat exchange fluid may be induced to flow across the tube array several times. Through optimal selection of the number and spacing of baffles, the mechanical configuration of a tubular heat exchange reactor may be optimized for factors such as physical size, second fluid pressure drop, and other important features.
The provision of features in tubular array heat exchange reactors presents formidable challenges due to the thermal gradients along the axis of the tubes. These challenges are due to the fact that thermal expansion at a given temperature is related to three factors including temperature, material of construction, and physical dimension. The thermal expansion is expressed by the relationship ΔL=αΔTLo, where α is nominally a constant determined by the material of construction (i.e., a coefficient of thermal expansion), ΔT is the variation between the temperature of interest and a reference temperature, and Lo is the initial length of the feature at the reference temperature. Because the baffles are generally planar parts of large extent normal to the tubes, the expansion of the baffles with temperature change is very large compared to the expansion of the tubes themselves, which are generally much smaller in a plane normal to the axis of the tubes.
In the advanced heat exchange steam reforming reactor of the type disclosed in U.S. application Ser. No. 09/642,008, the inventors have determined that the problems associated with thermal expansion are compounded because the array of tubes is colder at both ends than in the center. Since the tubes are joined to header plates of rigid pressure heads at both ends of the tubes, the relative expansion of the tubes in the plane normal to the longitudinal axis of the tubes is fixed by the temperature of the pressure heads. In the zone of higher temperature located in the center between the ends of the tubes, the planar parts normal to the tubes (e.g., baffles and planar fins) expand at a proportionally greater amount than the colder pressure heads. The inventors have determined that if the entire reactor is constructed of materials with similar coefficients of thermal expansion (α), then the planar features are apt to exert severe forces normal to the axis of the tubes. These forces can cause premature structural failure of the reactor unless exceptionally strong tubes are employed, which is undesirable for several reasons, including an objectionable increase in the material usage in the construction of the reactor, as well as an attendant increase in volume and weight of the reactor.

Method and apparatus for minimizing adverse effects of thermal expansion in a heat exchange reactor


Deactivation of a zeolite catalyst during its use to catalyse the oligomerisation of olefins, is often believed to be a result of the formation of high boiling polymers as by-products. These by-products can remain on the catalyst and undergo further conversion to higher molecular weight polymers, which resemble heavy tars and in some cases even have the appearance of coke-like material. These materials can coat the catalyst particles and plug pores in the catalyst, thereby causing catalyst deactivation. The invention relates to an improved method for regenerating such a catalyst.

Extending the life of the catalysts that are used for olefin oligomerisation, particularly, oligomerisation of C3 to C6 olefins, particularly, C3 and C4 olefins, in order to produce C8 and C10 olefins is highly desirable. The oligomerisation product may further be hydroformylated and hydrogenated to produce alcohols. C9, C10 and C12 alcohols are useful in many areas one of which is in esterification to produce plasticizer esters such as phthalates, sebaccates, cyclohexanoates, pyromellitates, and adipates. These materials are used to plasticise plastics such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
In all these oligomerisation processes regardless of the length of the run, the zeolite catalyst becomes deactivated over time usually due to the formation of deposits of carbon (known as coke) in the pores of the zeolite. This leads to a reduction in conversion of olefins to oligomers and a reduction in the selectivity of the conversion.
The H zeolites, e.g., ZSM-22 and ZSM-57, are preferred catalysts for the oligomerisation of olefins in that they have a pore structure which enables the production of olefin oligomers, particularly, octenes and nonenes having a structure suitable for hydroformylation to produce alcohols for plasticizer production. These catalysts are particularly prone to coke formation and thus require regeneration; however, they are also easily damaged under typical regeneration conditions.
There is therefore a need to optimise the regeneration of such catalysts in order to extend their life in the oligomerisation of olefins to produce feedstocks for hydroformylation to produce alcohols useful in the manufacture of plasticisers.
The coke that forms on these catalysts when they are used for olefin oligomerisation takes different forms and can be made up of light coke, heavy coke, and hard coke. Traditionally, coke is removed from catalysts by burning. However, the pore structure of ZSM-22 and ZSM-57 catalysts are susceptible to damage at the elevated temperatures that have traditionally been required to remove all the coke. For example, it has been necessary to remove hard coke from ZSM-22 by heating to temperatures around 600° C. which has been found to damage the zeolite structure. Damage to the structure starts to occur at about 510° C. and reduces the catalyst activity and selectivity in converting olefins to oligomers.
It has now been found that by control of the heating cycle and the amount of water present during the catalyst regeneration a substantial amount of the hard coke can be removed while reducing the amount of damage caused to the pore structure of the zeolite. It has also been found that it can be beneficial to retain a small amount of coke on the regenerated catalyst as a totally clean regenerated catalyst can be too delicate for subsequent oligomerisation operations.

Regeneration of oligomerisation catalysts and their use


Parallel co-ordinates associated with a business scenario represent underlying data of the business scenario. Based upon associated categorical variables, the parallel co-ordinates are divided into a plurality of segments. Each segment includes a pair of continuous variables represented as a pair of axes of the parallel co-ordinates. The pairs of axes of the parallel co-ordinates are fragmented to generate bi-variant bins. The bi-variant bines include continuous values corresponding to each fragment of the pair of axis. An associated backend database is queried to determine aggregated tuples of continuous values between each bi-variant bin of the corresponding pair of axes. Based on the aggregated tuples, a statistical visualization of the aggregated tuples between the bi-variant bins for the axes is generating. The statistical visualization includes a distribution of the tuples for the plurality of segments corresponding to the parallel co-ordinates.

A parallel co-ordinate is a method of visualizing and analyzing multivariate data. Records of data are generally plotted as a line in the parallel co-ordinate. Since records are plotted as a line, handling an enormous amount of data is a cumbersome process, when every record has to be fetched from an underlying data store and plotted as a graph of parallel co-ordinates. Also, a graph of a large group of records may become indecipherable due to a crowded plot of lines, thereby defeating the purpose of parallel co-ordinates.


In an image pickup apparatus, photosensitive devices each are allocated to particular one of pixels bidimensionally arranged on a photosensitive cell array and is divided into two photosensitive regions having substantially equal photosensitive area. Signal charges stored in the two photosensitive regions each are transferred over particular one of vertical transfer paths arranged at both sides of the photosensitive regions. The signal charges are read out in an interlace read mode such that in a first field signal charges are read out from pixels corresponding to green, and in a second field signal charges are read out from pixels corresponding to red and blue.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid-state image pickup apparatus for transforming incident light to a corresponding electric signal for picking up the image of a desired field, and more particularly to a solid-state image pickup apparatus for producing multiple fields of image signals without resorting to an overflow drain (OFD) modulation or similar control. The present invention is desirably applicable to, e.g., an electronic still camera, an image input apparatus, a movie camera or a cellular phone by way of example.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventional solid-state image pickup apparatuses include an electronic still camera of the type having a mechanical shutter and operable in an interlace read mode, which is capable of transferring a greater amount of signal charges than a progressive read mode. In order to make up for a decrease in the number of electrons ascribable to the higher density of pixels of a photosensitive cell array to cause its pixel size to decrease, a current trend with this type of image pickup apparatus is toward the configuration for producing multiple fields of image signals, so-called the multiple field configuration. The multiple field configuration involves however a problem that signal charges reserved for forming a second and a third field are stored in the photodiodes of the photosensitive array for a long period of time after the closure of the mechanical shutter. As a result, such signal charges are apt to decrease or deteriorate due to thermal saturation diffusion.
In light of the above, it is a common practice to execute OFD modulation with a method taught in, e.g., U.S. patent application publication No. US 2001/0010553 A1 for thereby increasing the amount of signal charge to remain at the end of exposure. More specifically, the above method controllably drives a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) image sensor by lowering an OFD voltage during exposure in order to increase the amount of charge to be stored, thereby canceling a decrease in the amount of stored signal charge ascribable to thermal saturation diffusion that would occur after the mechanical shutter has been closed on the elapse of exposure time. This method is generally considered to effectively accomplish the multiple field configuration.
Japanese patent laid-open publication No. 2003-32549 proposes to execute OFD modulation in a progressive read mode with a CCD image sensor, which is usable for both of an interlace read mode and a progressive read mode.
The problem with the two prior art schemes described above is that control over the OFD voltage is essential and makes control over image sensing devices sophisticated.

Image pickup apparatus including photosensitive cells each having photosensitive regions partitioned


A micro fluid chip includes a first chip and a second chip. The first chip includes a first substrate having a fluid channel and a partition wall, and a first film made of resin. The second chip includes a second substrate having a recess, and a second film made of elastomer. The second film has an elastic modulus higher than that of the first film. The first chip and the second chip are stacked in such a manner that the partition wall and the recess face each other with the first film and the second film therebetween. By setting the inner side of the recess to a negative pressure, a gap is formed between the first film and the partition wall, and thus a fluid channel is opened.

In recent years, microchannel chips have been used to accurately and speedily analyze a small amount of a material such as protein and nucleic acid. Microchannel chips advantageously allow the amount of reagents or samples to be small, and are expected to be used for various uses such as laboratory tests, food tests, and environment tests.
It has been proposed to provide a valve structure in a microchannel chip to automate the process using microchannel chips (see, for example, PTL 1).
PTL 1 discloses a microchannel chip having a micro valve of a diaphragm-valve structure in which a port of a fluid channel is opened and closed by a film. The microchannel chip disclosed in PTL 1 includes a first chip and a second chip. The first chip has a fluid channel, a fluid port that opens at a wall of the channel, and a film that covers the channel and the fluid port. The second chip includes an actuator that pushes the film toward the fluid port of the first chip. When the actuator pushes the film toward the fluid port, the fluid port is closed. On the other hand, when the pushing of the film by the actuator is released, the fluid port is opened. Such opening and closing of the fluid port enable the control of the fluid flowing in the channel. Such a microchannel chip performs various kinds of tests, reactions, and the like while retaining fluid in a predetermined region.

Fluid handling device and fluid handling method


Methods and systems for simulating motion in a virtual reality system without external motors or similar machinery are described herein. A mechanical seat may be mounted to a base such that the seat is moveable in at least two dimensions (e.g., roll and pitch). A human occupant of the seat may use a control yoke fixed in relation to the base to cause the chair to move in a direction opposite of the force exerted on the control yoke. An extended reality (XR) motion controller may be mounted in a fixed relationship to the seat. Motion may then be simulated in an XR environment by depicting acceleration that would yield a similar experience on the user's vestibular senses as gravity exerts on the user's vestibular senses based on motion of the seat.

In recent years, XR systems which present XR environments to users have become increasingly popular. For example, a number of different video games have been developed which use XR systems. As another example, XR systems are used for movies, television shows, and music videos. As yet another example, XR systems may be used for industrial purposes, such as in a factory, or as part of 3D design software.
In XR environments provided by such XR systems, it may be desirable to simulate real-world movement and forces. For example, some XR systems allow users to walk around an XR environment, in effect translating real-world motion (including the feeling of walking on the ground) into motion in the XR environment. As another example, some XR systems allow a user to manipulate a real-world object (e.g., a video game controller, bicycle pedals) to effectuate motion in an XR environments. When possible, it may also be advantageous to simulate feedback from the XR environment back to a user. For example, a video game steering wheel input device may rumble when a user drives over rough terrain in a video game, thereby simulating the experience of the vehicle bouncing on the rough terrain. But simulating real world movement and/or feedback can present significant difficulties. In particular, tracking user motion can be difficult, and errors and/or inaccuracies can cause motion sickness and/or a lack of immersion on the part of a user. For example, even milliseconds of delay between real-world motion (as captured by, for example, sensors of an XR system) and corresponding motion in an XR environment may cause some users to become physically ill. Similarly, it can be very difficult to simulate certain types of real-world feedback, such as g-forces, as those types of feedback can be difficult to simulate without significantly large and complicated equipment.
Devices configured to improve and/or aid motion in an XR environment are typically cumbersome, expensive, and imprecise. Some XR systems use devices located around a room to track the real-world motion of a user in the room by tracking one or more devices attached to the user; however, such devices are typically imprecise and may not detect small motions by a user. Other XR systems use complex sensors to detect small motions by the user (e.g., by tracking the fingers of the user), but such devices are often expensive and imprecise. Still other XR systems attempt to track user movement by monitoring the user on a camera (e.g., a series of cameras at different angles); however, such motion tracking can be imprecise, invasive, and expensive.
One particular example of a limitation with devices improve and/or aid motion in an XR environment is that such devices typically require external motors and other machinery which can be cumbersome, expensive, and occasionally dangerous. For example, arcade machines implement large moving chairs to aid in the realism of driving games, but such systems can be quite costly and complex, which is why such systems are often relegated to arcades. In this manner, existing systems can be costly to acquire and maintain, such that many entertainment venues, educational institutions, and consumers are unlikely to be able to afford the space or the cost of purchasing such systems.
Similarly, devices configured to provide feedback from an XR environment to a user of an XR system are typically rudimentary, imprecise, and can be expensive. For example, various video game controllers may be configured to rumble (e.g., using a motor); however, such motors are typically limited in that they can only simulate certain types of touch feedback (e.g., simulating rumbling, shaking, or the like). As another example, some commercial XR systems use fans to simulate wind and/or breath from an XR environment; however, such fans are perhaps predictably limited to simulating the motion of air. As yet another example, large flight simulator devices can be moved using a series of motors to simulate g forces; however, such devices are extremely large, expensive, and require significant safety considerations.


Electrical switching apparatus such as a power circuit breaker, network protector or switch has a self-supporting operating mechanism module including a cage formed by a pair of side plates rigidly clamped in spaced relation by spacers. The cage supports all of the operating mechanism components including a helical compression close spring mounted fully between the side plates and coupled to a cam member through a rocker in a manner which maintains the forces longitudinal to the spring. The cam member has a charging cam with a charge profile for compressing the close spring and a close profile through which the spring drives the cam member to effect a controlled release of stored energy to close the contacts of the apparatus. A close prop, spring biased to an unlatched position, is latched to secure the close spring in the charged state by a latch assembly reset by a reset lever separate from the close prop which in turn is reset by rotation of the cam member during charging. An interlock prevents release of the close spring when the contacts are closed or the trip release is actuated. An indicator actuated by a driver pivoted against the cam shaft snaps from a DISCHARGED to a CHARGED indication as the close spring becomes fully charged and the driver drops into a notch created by a flat on the cam shaft. Rotating shafts are journalled solely in confronting apertures in the side plates. The cam shaft is captured between bushings seated in non-circular openings in the side plates thereby eliminating the need for any fasteners. Likewise, other parts mounted between the side plates and joined by pins having enlarged heads retained by the side plates do not need retainers. Various shafts extending between the side plates have reduced diameter ends of progressive lengths for successive insertion in one side plate to aid in assembly of the operating mechanism.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electrical switching apparatus such as power circuit breakers, network protectors and switches used in electric power circuits carrying large currents. More particularly, it relates to such apparatus which utilizes a large spring to store sufficient energy to close the contacts of the apparatus against both the sizeable magnetic repulsion forces generated by the large currents, and the force required to charge the open springs which subsequently open the contacts. Specifically, it relates to indicators which discretely snap between positions to display the charge state of the close spring and the open/closed state of the contacts.
2. Background Information
Electrical switching apparatus for opening and closing electric power circuits typically utilize an energy storage device in the form of one or more large springs to close the contacts of the device into the large currents which can be drawn in such circuits. Such electrical switching apparatus includes power circuit breakers or network protectors which provide protection and electrical switches which are used to energize and deenergize parts of the circuit or to transfer between alternative power sources. These power circuit breakers, network protectors and switches also include an open spring or springs which rapidly separate the contacts to interrupt current flowing in the power circuit. As indicated, either or both of the close spring and open spring can be a single spring or multiple springs and should be considered as either even though the singular is hereafter used for convenience.
The close spring in these power circuit breakers, network protectors and switches is incorporated into an operating mechanism which includes a cam mounted on a cam shaft and coupled to the close spring. The close spring is charged either by a manual charging handle or an electric motor which rotates the cam shaft. The amount of stored energy required dictates that many short strokes of the handle delivered through a rachet mechanism are needed to charge the spring manually. It also requires a low speed, high torque motor for automatic charging. The result is that a measurable length of time is required to charge the close spring, either manually or automatically.
For both operational and safety reasons, an indicator is provided to appraise the user of the charge state of the close spring. Typically, the indicator is pivotally mounted in a window in the front panel of the apparatus and rotates between display of CHARGED and DISCHARGED legends reflecting the charge state of the close spring. It is common for the indicator to be driven off of the charge cam shaft. As discussed, the cam shaft rotates relatively slowly during charging. Thus, the indicator rotates slowly and for a time simultaneously presents parts of both the CHARGED and DISCHARGED legends.
Typically, such electrical switching apparatus also has an indicator providing a visual indication of the open/closed state of the contacts. If the contacts should become welded closed, such as due to arcing, it is possible for the operating mechanism to be operated to the open position even through the contacts remain closed.
There is a need, therefore, for improved indicators for displaying the condition of electrical switching apparatus.
Specifically, there is a need for an improved indicator for displaying the charge state of the close spring of power circuit breakers, network protectors and switches.
In particular, there is a need for an improved indicator which unambiguously and accurately displays the close spring charge state.
There is a more specific need for such an indicator with discrete positions for displaying either the CHARGED or DISCHARGED state of the close spring.
In this regard, there is a need for an indicator which discretely snaps from display of one legend to the other and particularly in transitioning from display of the DISCHARGED indication to the CHARGED indication.
There is also a specific need for an improved indicator for displaying the open/closed state of the contacts of power circuit breakers, network protectors, and switches.
In particular, there is a need for an improved indicator which provides a fail safe display of the state of the contacts, especially should the contacts become welded closed.

Snap acting charge/discharge and open/closed indicators displaying states of electrical switching apparatus


A mouse pad includes a wireless power transmission apparatus including at least a first transmission coil and a second transmission coil and configured to wirelessly transmit power to a mouse placed on the mouse pad; and a controller configured to directly receive determination information for selecting one transmission coil among the first transmission coil and the second transmission coil according to a movement of the mouse on the mouse pad from a power supply connected to the mouse pad, and enable the second transmission coil and disable the first transmission coil when the movement of the mouse indicates the mouse is moving on the mouse pad from the first transmission coil to the second transmission coil.

Recently, with the rapid development of information and communication technology, a ubiquitous society is arising based on information and communication technology.
In order for information and communication devices to be connected anytime and anywhere, sensors equipped with a computer chip having a communication function need to be installed in all facilities in society. Therefore, the problem of supplying power to these devices and sensors is a new challenge. In addition, as a variety of portable devices, such as music players, including Bluetooth headsets and iPods, as well as mobile phones, has been rapidly increasing, charging batteries has come to require greater time and effort on the part of users. As a way to solve this problem, a wireless power transmission technology has recently attracted attention.
Wireless power transmission (wireless energy transfer) technology is a technology for wirelessly transmitting electrical energy from a transmitter to a receiver using an electromagnetic induction principle. An electric motor or a transformer that uses such an electromagnetic induction principle was already in use in the 1800s, and thereafter, a method of transferring electrical energy by radiating electromagnetic waves, such as radio waves, a laser, high-frequency waves, and microwaves, has also been attempted. Electric toothbrushes and some wireless shavers that are often used are also actually charged with the electromagnetic induction principle.
Wireless energy transfer schemes devised to date may be broadly classified into an electromagnetic induction scheme, an electromagnetic resonance scheme, and an RF transmission scheme using a short wavelength radio frequency.
Meanwhile, a mouse, which is one of input devices used in a graphic environment of a computer, is mainly used by being directly connected to a main body of the computer, but research on a wireless mouse that performs wireless communication with the computer rather than being directly connected thereto for user convenience is actively being conducted.
Unlike a mouse that is directly connected to the main body of the computer, such a wireless mouse generally requires a separate power source and includes a battery that is removably provided.
Therefore, a user who uses the wireless mouse must suffer the inconvenience of frequently replacing the battery that supplies power to the mouse.

Mouse pad comprising wireless power transmission apparatus and mouse


A waterway for a boat amusement ride comprising first and second water troughs connected by a basin such that water flowing in the waterway changes direction through a sharp turning angle in flowing from the basin inlet to the basin outlet. Vanes in the basin cause a boat buoyantly supported and propelled by the water flow to move laterally such that the end of the boat first entering the basin leaves the basin behind the end of the boat last entering the basin, the orientation of the boat thereby being reversed as it passes through the basin. Optional elements for moving the boat laterally include water jets directed by nozzles on sidewalls of the basin and a rotating pushing member for engaging the last entering boat end. The pushing member may also be actuated laterally while abutting the last entering boat end.

There are conventional boat amusement rides that utilize a continuous waterway having a fixed and predetermined course and along which a plurality of passenger-carrying boats are buoyantly supported and propelled by water flowing in the waterway. Passengers generally board and leave the boats at a loading station, and the boats are stopped at the loading station for this purpose.
The water flow is typically provided by pumping water along the channels or troughs forming the waterway. To increase the excitement of the ride, it is also desirable to reverse the front and back orientation of the boat. Past efforts for reversing the orientation of the boat have involved turntables and similar mechanical means that have proven to be slow and inefficient. Such inefficiency decreases the number of passengers per unit time that can be handled by the ride and therefore increases the waiting time. Many passengers may forego the pleasure of a ride rather than wait in a long line to board a boat. Since ride capacity is a determinant of economic feasibility of the ride system, any increase is desirable.


A statistical formulation estimates two-dimensional human pose from single images. This is based on a Markov network and on inferring pose parameters from cues such as appearance, shape, edge, and color. A data-driven belief propagation Monte Carlo algorithm performs efficient Bayesian inferencing within a rigorous statistical framework. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the method in estimating human pose from single images.

Inferring human pose from a single image is an aspect of applications such as motion analysis and visual tracking, and is arguably one of the most difficult problems in computer vision. Recent approaches have yielded some favorable results. A description of this can be found in Efficient Matching of Pictorial Structures, P. Felzenszwalb and D. Huttenlocher, IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, volume 2, pages 2066–2073, 2000, and also in Proposal Maps Driven MCMC for Estimating Human Body Pose in Static Images, M. W. Lee and I. Cohen, Proc. IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, volume 2, pages 334–341, 2004, and also in Recovering Human Body Configurations: Combining Segmentation and Recognition, G. Mori, X. Ren, A. Efros, and J. Malik, Proc. IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, volume 2, pages 326–333, 2004, all of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
For convenience, these approaches may be categorized as deterministic and statistical. Deterministic methods apply deterministic optimization, and the objective function is the matching error between the model and the image data or between the image data and the exemplar set. Descriptions of these concepts can be found in Felzenszwalb and Huttenlocher, which was referenced above, and in Estimating Anthropometry and Pose From a Single Uncalibrated Image, C. Barrn and I. Kakadiaris, Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 81(3):269–284, 3 2001, and also in Fast Pose Estimation with Parameter-Sensitive Hashing, G. Shakhnarovich, P. Viola, and T. Darrell, Proc. IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision, volume 2, pages 750–757, 2003, both of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety. An alternative statistical approach builds detectors for different body parts and ranks the assembled configuration based on human-coded criteria. A description of this can be found in G. Mori, et al., which was referenced above.
Despite some success, many challenging issues remain in achieving robust and efficient pose estimation. First, an optimization problem of high dimensionality must be solved, and, consequently, the computation is intractable unless certain assumptions are explicitly made. Such assumptions may regard the background, characteristics of the human subjects, clothing, distance, etc., in order to make the application domain manageable by the proposed algorithms. Accordingly, the application domains have generally been limited to uncluttered backgrounds or to the human body with fixed scale. Descriptions of these concepts can be found in Barrn and Kakadiaris, Felzenszwalb and Huttenlocher, and Mori, et al., which were referenced above. Second, the set of exemplars must be sufficiently large to cover the parameter space necessary to achieve satisfactory estimation results. However, this also results in high computational complexity, as described in Shakhnarovich, which was referenced above. Third, it is difficult to build robust body part detectors except those for faces due to the large appearance variation caused by clothing. A description of this can be found in Rapid Object Detection Using a Boosted Cascade of Simple Features, P. Viola and M. Jones, Proc. IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, volume 1, pages 511–518, 2001, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, and in Mori, et al., which was referenced above.
A merit of the statistical formulation for posture estimation is that prior knowledge of human body parts (e.g., appearance, shape, edge and color) can be exploited and integrated into a rigorous probabilistic framework for efficient inference. Ioffe and Forsyth proposed an algorithm that sequentially draws samples of body parts and makes the best prediction by matching the assembled configurations with image observations. A description of this can be found in Finding People by Sampling, Proc. IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision, pages 1092–1097, 1999, which in incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. However, this approach is best applied to estimating human pose in images without clothing or cluttered background, since the method relies solely on edge cues. Sigal et al. applied a non-parametric belief propagation algorithm for inferring the 3-D human pose as the first step of a human tracking algorithm. Background subtraction and images from multiple views facilitated human pose estimation and tracking. Descriptions of these concepts can be found in Attractive People: Assembling Loose-Limbed Models Using Nonparametric Belief Propagation, L. Sigal, M. Isard, B. Sigelman, and M. Black, Advances in Neural Information Processing System 16, MIT Press, 2004, and in PAMPAS: Real-Valued Graphical Models for Computer Vision, M. Isard, Proc. IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, pages 613–620, 2003, which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
Lee and Cohen applied the Data Driven Markov Chain Monte Carlo (DDMCMC) algorithm to estimate 3-D human pose from single images, wherein the MCMC algorithm traversed the pose parameter space. However, it is unclear how the detailed balance condition and convergence within the Markov chain were ensured. Most importantly, the problem of inferring 3-D body pose from single two-dimensional (2-D) images is intrinsically ill-posed as a consequence of depth ambiguity. Descriptions of these concepts can be found in Lee and Cohen, which was referenced above, and in Image Segmentation by Data-Driven Markov Chain Monte Carlo, Z. Tu and S.-C. Zhu, IEEE Transaction on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 24(5):657–673, 2002, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Based on the above, there is a need for an improved system and method for inferring human pose from single images that manages complexity and eliminates the need for inordinate assumptions, and that provide reliable results.

Human pose estimation with data driven belief propagation


Methods and systems are disclosed that enhance the ability of a test generator to automatically deal with address translation in a processor design, and without need for creating specific code. A model of the address translation mechanism of a design-under-test is represented as a directed acyclic graph and then converted into a constraint satisfaction problem. The problem is solved by a CSP engine, and the solution used to generate test cases for execution. Using the model, testing knowledge can be propagated to models applicable to many different designs to produce extensive coverage of address translation mechanisms.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to testing of a hardware design. More particularly, this invention relates to verification of address translation mechanisms in a hardware design.
2. Description of the Related Art
Most modern architectures provide a virtual address space for their applications. An operating system maps these virtual addresses to actual hardware resources, such as memory, disk, and I/O ports, using address translation mechanisms. Supporting a separate virtual address space allows the application to be oblivious to the memory organization. The application may ignore actual memory sizes as well as the details of memory allocation by the operating system.
Address translation mechanisms also play a part in memory protection and caching by maintaining related properties for basic translated memory units (e.g., pages or segments). The translation is mostly carried out using hardware mechanisms, such as translation tables and control registers. The operating system maintains these resources through software, but the translation itself is carried out by the hardware.
An ever-growing demand for better performance requires address translation mechanisms to become more complex in new hardware designs, thereby increasing the risk of design flaws or bugs. Indeed, a significant percentage of such design flaws stems, more or less directly, from address translation mechanisms. Moreover, the complexity of these mechanisms causes the flaws to be difficult to find.
Simulation-based techniques, which continue to be a cornerstone of functional verification, are implemented through the running of test cases. In the past, relatively low design complexity enabled exclusive reliance on deterministic tests that were developed manually. Current practices foster the use of automatic random stimuli generators to add quantity and randomness into the process. In order to stress the verified design, and to ensure good test coverage, the generator needs to have knowledge of the properties of a design-under-test.
The need for a test generation solution applicable to various architectures has led to a model-based test generation scheme, in which knowledge about the design-under-test is kept separate from the test generation engine. The generator is partitioned into a generic, architecture-independent engine and a model that describes the design-under-test.
During the past decade, model-based random test program generators have become popular in architectural design verification and software testing. An example of such a random test generator is the IBM tool, "Genesys", which is disclosed in the document Model-Based Test Generation for Process Design Verification, Y. Lichtenstein et al., in Sixth Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence Conference, August 1994, pp. 83–94.
The general approach to random test program generation is further discussed in the documents Test Program Generation for Functional Verification of PowerPC Processors in IBM, A. Aharon, D. Goodman, M. Levinger, Y. Lichtenstein, Y. Malka, C. Metzger, M. Molcho, and G. Shurek, in 32nd Design Automation Conference, pages 279–285, 1995.
Another conventional test generator, AVPGEN, is disclosed in the document AVPGEN—A Generator for Architecture Verification Test Cases, A. Chandra, et al., IEEE Trans. Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Syst. 3, No. 2, 188–200 (June 1995).
A test generator, adapted for testing hardware processor design, is disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,006,028, which is herein incorporated by reference. The generator is directed to storing data representing the processor instruction set and modeling semantic entities associated with each instruction in a declarative model or specification.
In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/847,309, (Publication No. US 2003/0014734 A1), entitled Technique Using Persistent Foci For Finite State Machine Based Software Test Generation, of common assignee herewith and herein incorporated by reference, an automated method of software testing is disclosed in which a software program is represented as a finite state machine model, and transitions between stages are represented as directed edges between states.
The development and maintenance of test generators such as the above, when targeted at address translation mechanisms, has proved to be difficult and expensive. The model-based approach, including a comprehensive and declarative specification of a design mechanism, has apparently never been successfully applied to the realm of address translation. Instead, for every new processor design that a test generator is required to support, a developer must write code to handle the specific translation mechanism being verified.

Modeling language and method for address translation design mechanisms in test generation

International Business Machines Corporation


In accordance with one aspect of saving audio source identifiers for soundtracks in a gaming system, an audio track is obtained from an audio source and the audio track is saved so that a copy of the audio track is available when the audio source is no longer accessible to a game console. The audio track is at least part of a user-created soundtrack and/or a user-selected soundtrack. The identifier of the audio source is also saved, and when a database containing meta data associated with the audio track is available, the meta data associated with the audio track is obtained from the database, based at least in part on the identifier saved on the storage device, and the obtained meta data is stored.

Gaming systems currently available on the market are capable of playing game discs, music CDs, and movie DVDs from a disc drive. For example, the Playstation® 2 gaming system from Sony Corporation provides the ability to play games, music, and video titles from a disc inserted in the console. Certain gaming systems also provide a modem or other mechanism for establishing an online connection to facilitate online gaming.
Current gaming systems play games that typically include a game soundtrack. The game soundtrack is stored on a disc along with the game (i.e., a game disc). This game soundtrack includes music that is created by or selected by the game developer. If the user of the gaming system dislikes the game soundtrack or grows tired of the same soundtrack being played repeatedly, some gaming systems allow the user to launch the game from the game disc, and then replace the game disc with an audio CD that is played by the gaming system while the game is executed. However, if the game requires additional information from the game disc (e.g., when changing from one level to another), the user must remove the audio CD and re-insert the game disc. After the additional information has been retrieved from the game disc, the game disc can be removed from the gaming system and replaced with the audio CD. This switching of discs disrupts the gaming experience and is a nuisance to the user.
An additional problem that some gaming systems have is that such soundtracks frequently do not display user-friendly information. For example, the titles of songs in a soundtrack are often not displayed to the user. This lack of display of information is cumbersome to the user as it makes it more difficult for the user to identify which songs are in which soundtracks.
The saving of audio source identifiers for soundtracks in a gaming system described herein reduces these and other problems.

Saving audio source identifiers for soundtracks in a gaming system


A building control system is provided that receives information from devices of different subsystems. A trigger causes a zone controller to store the information in a database. The stored data is used to generate customized reports based on sequences or sets of related events. The information from multiple subsystems is consolidated, analyzed, and patterns of behavior are determined. The trigger also causes execution of control actions throughout the building spanning the multiple subsystems, devices, and areas based on the information. An access control subsystem and a non-access control subsystem of the building control system are linked using a common network such that a change in the state of an access control device can affect the state of a non-access control device and a change in the state of a non-access control device can affect the state of an access control device.

Computer software-based controllers are often used in building automation systems to monitor and control building facilities. However, the operation and control of various functions relating to building facilities (such as lighting, HVAC, fire protection, security, utility metering, access control and the like) often are not integrated. Separate and distinct systems are generally utilized to perform such functions within a building. In many instances, these dedicated systems, which are used to perform different building functions, operate in an independent fashion and often do not effectively coordinate information with one another. The history of modification, creation, and communication of software objects, including the binary input objects, binary output objects, file objects, and command objects in existing systems disappears after their use. Even if a "trend log object" has been established to memorize a partial history of an object, this structure lacks the capability to follow sequences of varied system responses to a common trigger.


Digestion of cellulosic biomass solids may be complicated by release of lignin therefrom. Methods for digesting cellulosic biomass solids may comprise: providing cellulosic biomass solids in a digestion solvent; at least partially converting the cellulosic biomass solids into a phenolics liquid phase comprising lignin, an aqueous phase comprising an alcoholic component derived from the cellulosic biomass solids, and an optional light organics phase; and separating the phenolics liquid phase from the aqueous phase.

A number of substances of commercial significance may be produced from natural sources, including biomass. Cellulosic biomass may be particularly advantageous in this regard due to the versatility of the abundant carbohydrates found therein in various forms. As used herein, the term "cellulosic biomass" refers to a living or recently living biological material that contains cellulose. The lignocellulosic material found in the cell walls of higher plants is the world's largest source of carbohydrates. Materials commonly produced from cellulosic biomass may include, for example, paper and pulpwood via partial digestion, and bioethanol by fermentation.
Plant cell walls are divided into two sections: primary cell walls and secondary cell walls. The primary cell wall provides structural support for expanding cells and contains three major polysaccharides (cellulose, pectin, and hemicellulose) and one group of glycoproteins. The secondary cell wall, which is produced after the cell has finished growing, also contains polysaccharides and is strengthened through polymeric lignin that is covalently crosslinked to hemicellulose. Hemicellulose and pectin are typically found in abundance, but cellulose is the predominant polysaccharide and the most abundant source of carbohydrates. The complex mixture of constituents that is co-present with the cellulose can make its processing difficult, as discussed hereinafter. Lignin, in particular, may be an especially difficult constituent to deal with.
Significant attention has been placed on developing fossil fuel alternatives derived from renewable resources. Cellulosic biomass has garnered particular attention in this regard due to its abundance and the versatility of the various constituents found therein, particularly cellulose and other carbohydrates. Despite promise and intense interest, the development and implementation of bio-based fuel technology has been slow. Existing technologies have heretofore produced fuels having a low energy density (e.g., bioethanol) and/or that are not fully compatible with existing engine designs and transportation infrastructure (e.g., methanol, biodiesel, Fischer-Tropsch diesel, hydrogen, and methane). Moreover, conventional bio-based processes have produced intermediates in dilute aqueous solutions (>50% water by weight) that are difficult to further process. Energy- and cost-efficient processes for processing cellulosic biomass into fuel blends having similar compositions to fossil fuels would be highly desirable to address the foregoing issues and others.
When converting cellulosic biomass into fuel blends and other materials, cellulose and other complex carbohydrates therein can be extracted and transformed into simpler organic molecules, which can be further reformed thereafter. Fermentation is one process whereby complex carbohydrates from cellulosic biomass may be converted into a more usable form. However, fermentation processes are typically slow, require large volume reactors and high dilution conditions, and produce an initial reaction product having a low energy density (ethanol). Digestion is another way in which cellulose and other complex carbohydrates may be converted into a more usable form. Digestion processes can break down cellulose and other complex carbohydrates within cellulosic biomass into simpler, soluble carbohydrates that are suitable for further transformation through downstream reforming reactions. As used herein, the term "soluble carbohydrates" refers to monosaccharides or polysaccharides that become solubilized in a digestion process. Although the underlying chemistry is understood behind digesting cellulose and other complex carbohydrates and further transforming simple carbohydrates into organic compounds reminiscent of those present in fossil fuels, high-yield and energy-efficient digestion processes suitable for converting cellulosic biomass into fuel blends have yet to be developed. In this regard, the most basic requirement associated with converting cellulosic biomass into fuel blends using digestion and other processes is that the energy input needed to bring about the conversion should not be greater than the available energy output of the product fuel blends. This basic requirement leads to a number of secondary issues that collectively present an immense engineering challenge that has not been solved heretofore.
The issues associated with converting cellulosic biomass into fuel blends in an energy- and cost-efficient manner using digestion are not only complex, but they are entirely different than those that are encountered in the digestion processes commonly used in the paper and pulpwood industry. Since the intent of cellulosic biomass digestion in the paper and pulpwood industry is to retain a solid material (e.g., wood pulp), incomplete digestion is usually performed at low temperatures (e.g., less than about 100° C.) for a fairly short period of time. In contrast, digestion processes suitable for converting cellulosic biomass into fuel blends and other materials are ideally configured to maximize yields by solubilizing as much of the original cellulosic biomass charge as possible in a high-throughput manner. Paper and pulpwood digestion processes also typically remove lignin from the raw cellulosic biomass prior to pulp formation. Although digestion processes used in connection with forming fuel blends and other materials may likewise remove lignin prior to digestion, these extra process steps may impact the energy efficiency and cost of the biomass conversion process. The presence of lignin during high-conversion cellulosic biomass digestion may be particularly problematic.
Production of soluble carbohydrates for use in fuel blends and other materials via routine modification of paper and pulpwood digestion processes is not believed to be economically feasible for a number of reasons. Simply running the digestion processes of the paper and pulpwood industry for a longer period of time to produce more soluble carbohydrates is undesirable from a throughput standpoint. Use of digestion promoters such as strong alkalis, strong acids, or sulfites to accelerate the digestion rate can increase process costs and complexity due to post-processing separation steps and the possible need to protect downstream components from these agents. Accelerating the digestion rate by increasing the digestion temperature can actually reduce yields due to thermal degradation of soluble carbohydrates that can occur at elevated digestion temperatures, particularly over extended periods of time. Once produced by digestion, soluble carbohydrates are very reactive and can rapidly degrade to produce caramelans and other heavy ends degradation products, especially under higher temperature conditions, such as above about 150° C. Use of higher digestion temperatures can also be undesirable from an energy efficiency standpoint. Any of these difficulties can defeat the economic viability of fuel blends derived from cellulosic biomass.
One way in which soluble carbohydrates can be protected from thermal degradation is through subjecting them to one or more catalytic reduction reactions, which may include hydrogenation and/or hydrogenolysis reactions. Stabilizing soluble carbohydrates through conducting one or more catalytic reduction reactions may allow digestion of cellulosic biomass to take place at higher temperatures than would otherwise be possible without unduly sacrificing yields. Depending on the reaction conditions and catalyst used, reaction products formed as a result of conducting one or more catalytic reduction reactions on soluble carbohydrates may comprise one or more alcohol functional groups, particularly including triols, diols, monohydric alcohols, and any combination thereof, some of which may also include a residual carbonyl functionality (e.g., an aldehyde or a ketone). Such reaction products are more thermally stable than soluble carbohydrates and may be readily transformable into fuel blends and other materials through conducting one or more downstream reforming reactions. In addition, the foregoing types of reaction products are good solvents in which a hydrothermal digestion may be performed, thereby promoting solubilization of soluble carbohydrates as their reaction products. Although a digestion solvent may also promote solubilization of lignin, this material may still be difficult to effectively process due to its poor solubility and precipitation propensity.
A particularly effective manner in which soluble carbohydrates may be formed and converted into more stable compounds is through conducting the hydrothermal digestion of cellulosic biomass in the presence of molecular hydrogen and a slurry catalyst capable of activating the molecular hydrogen (also referred to herein as a "hydrogen-activating catalyst" or "hydrocatalytic catalyst"). That is, in such approaches (termed "in situ catalytic reduction reaction processes" herein), the hydrothermal digestion of cellulosic biomass and the catalytic reduction of soluble carbohydrates produced therefrom may take place in the same vessel. As used herein, the term "slurry catalyst" will refer to a catalyst comprising fluidly mobile catalyst particles that can be at least partially suspended in a fluid phase via gas flow, liquid flow, mechanical agitation, or any combination thereof. If the slurry catalyst is sufficiently well distributed in the cellulosic biomass, soluble carbohydrates formed during hydrothermal digestion may be intercepted and converted into more stable compounds before they have had an opportunity to significantly degrade, even under thermal conditions that otherwise promote their degradation. Without adequate catalyst distribution being realized, soluble carbohydrates produced by in situ catalytic reduction reaction processes may still degrade before they have had an opportunity to encounter a catalytic site and undergo a stabilizing reaction. In situ catalytic reduction reaction processes may also be particularly advantageous from an energy efficiency standpoint, since hydrothermal digestion of cellulosic biomass is an endothermic process, whereas catalytic reduction reactions are exothermic. Thus, the excess heat generated by the in situ catalytic reduction reaction(s) may be utilized to drive the hydrothermal digestion with little opportunity for heat transfer loss to occur, thereby lowering the amount of additional heat energy input needed to conduct the digestion.
Another issue associated with the processing of cellulosic biomass into fuel blends and other materials is created by the need for high conversion percentages of a cellulosic biomass charge into soluble carbohydrates. Specifically, as cellulosic biomass solids are digested, their size gradually decreases to the point that they can become fluidly mobile. As used herein, cellulosic biomass solids that are fluidly mobile, particularly cellulosic biomass solids that are about 3 mm in size or less, will be referred to as "cellulosic biomass fines." Cellulosic biomass fines can be transported out of a digestion zone of a system for converting cellulosic biomass and into one or more zones where solids are unwanted and can be detrimental. For example, cellulosic biomass fines have the potential to plug catalyst beds, transfer lines, valving, and the like. Furthermore, although small in size, cellulosic biomass fines may represent a non-trivial fraction of the cellulosic biomass charge, and if they are not further converted into soluble carbohydrates, the ability to attain a satisfactory conversion percentage may be impacted. Since the digestion processes of the paper and pulpwood industry are run at relatively low cellulosic biomass conversion percentages, smaller amounts of cellulosic biomass fines are believed to be generated and have a lesser impact on those digestion processes.
In addition to the desired carbohydrates, other substances may be present within cellulosic biomass that can be especially problematic to deal with in an energy- and cost-efficient manner. Sulfur- and/or nitrogen-containing amino acids or other catalyst poisons may be present in cellulosic biomass. If not removed, these catalyst poisons can impact the catalytic reduction reaction(s) used to stabilize soluble carbohydrates, thereby resulting in process downtime for catalyst regeneration and/or replacement and reducing the overall energy efficiency when restarting the process. This issue is particularly significant for in situ catalytic reduction reaction processes, where there is minimal opportunity to address the presence of catalyst poisons, at least without significantly increasing process complexity and cost. As mentioned above, lignin can also be particularly problematic to deal with if it is not removed prior to beginning digestion. During cellulosic biomass processing, the significant quantities of lignin present in cellulosic biomass may lead to fouling of processing equipment, potentially leading to costly system down time. The significant lignin quantities can also lead to realization of a relatively low conversion of the cellulosic biomass into useable substances per unit weight of feedstock.
As evidenced by the foregoing, the efficient conversion of cellulosic biomass into fuel blends and other materials is a complex problem that presents immense engineering challenges. The present disclosure addresses these challenges and provides related advantages as well.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods and systems for processing lignin during hydrothermal digestion of cellulosic biomass solids


"A system and method for modification of the visual characteristics of digital 3D objects includes a shading buffer wherein parameters relating to the visual characteristics of a rendered 3D object are stored. When a texture applied to the 3D object is selected for modification, a pre-rendering step is performed and a shading buffer constructed. The shading buffer includes pre-computed components of the visual characteristic information for each rendered pixel of the displayed 3D object, these components are independent of the texture selected for modification. When the texture is modified, by indicating one or more pixels on the 3D object to which the texture is applied, re-rendering of those pixels is accomplished by evaluating a simple combination of the corresponding pre-computed components in the shading buffer and the modification effected to the selected texture to obtain new final values to render the pixels. By pre-computing and arranging the components in the shading buffer, the computational requirements for re-rendering the modified portions of the 3D object are reduced, allowing real time re-rendering in many circumstances."

Systems which provide for the modification of visual characteristics of digital objects are well known. As used herein, the terms "paint system" and "paint" are intended to comprise any system or method by which a user may modify the visual characteristics of a digital 3D object and can include, without limitation, modifying existing textures, or applying new textures, moving (translating) textures, etc.
Digital paint systems range from the ubiquitous two dimensional Paintbrush program in Microsoft Windows 3.1 to high-end 3D digital paint systems such as SoftImage 3D which includes a 3D paint module, amongst others. 3D digital paint systems allow an artist to paint or otherwise modify the visual characteristics of a 3D object, which has been previously defined, to obtain a 3D object which has a desired visual appearance when it is rendered.
3D paint systems may apply a single color to a 3D object to, for example, paint a portion of a surface of the object a solid color. When rendered, even though a single solid color has been applied to the object, the colors on the displayed 3D object can vary due to changes in lighting, surface geometry of the object, etc. In a more interesting case, the 3D paint system may provide more advanced modification techniques such as the ability to apply or modify textures on the 3D object. For example, a texture which replicates a wood grain could be applied to one or more surfaces of the 3D object so that the rendered object appears to have been made of wood.
Textures can comprise a wide range of visual characteristics including photographic or other images, patterns such as woodgrain or marble, or effects which have no counterpart in the physical world such as reflection or refraction maps. Further, multiple textures can be composited onto the 3D object and the paint system can provide for the user to paint onto a texture which has been applied to the object. In fact, a texture can comprise a solid, single color and thus the above-described application of a single solid color to a 3D object is a trivial case of the application of a texture.
A discussion of the application of textures to 3D objects is given in "Direct WYSIWYG Painting & Texturing on 3D Shapes", Hanrahan & Haeberli, ACM Computer Graphics, Volume 24, Number 4, August 1990, pp.215-223, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
To provide the desired visual feedback to the artist during the process of applying or modifying a texture, it is desired that the display of the 3D object be updated, substantially in real time, as the modification operation is performed. However, due to the computational complexity involved in rendering 3D objects, which can include calculating the effects of the object geometry, lighting, the user's point of view and a variety of composited textures, prior art 3D systems have typically required special purpose computer systems or additional hardware such as expensive graphics accelerators in order to provide an acceptable response time to the user, i.e.--substantially real time rendering and display of the result of the modification operation.
Previous attempts have been made to mitigate the requirement for special purpose hardware. For example, somewhat improved techniques of texture application are discussed in "Efficient Techniques for Interactive Texture Placement", Litwinowicz and Miller, ACM Computer Graphics Proceedings, Annual Conference Series, 1994, pp.119-122, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. However, even with these techniques, unless special equipment is employed, the response time of the 3D paint system is slower than is desired.

System and method for modification of the visual characteristics of digital 3D objects


An improved protection mechanism to protect from unintended execution of critical tasks operates, in one example embodiment, by receiving a request to start a task by a first process. The first process informs a second process of running an algorithm to verify the legitimacy of the received request to determine the need to start the task. The second process stores the information regarding the starting the algorithm by the first process. The first process runs the algorithm to verify the legitimacy of the received request, and conveys an outcome of the verification to the second process. The second process enables the start of the task by the first process based on the outcome of the verification and a checking of the stored information and the first process starts the task.

Given the broad spectrum of usage of microcomputers in controlling subsystems of mission critical systems, it is of utmost importance that the interface between the microcomputers and system elements implementing critical functions remain safe during fault conditions within the microcomputer. Such fault conditions may occur in either hardware or software part of the microcomputers. One such example is an unintended execution of otherwise normal software code due to incorrect state information such as program counter value, corrupt stack pointer or stack contents.
One class of mission critical systems is implantable cardiac rhythm management systems, in which electrical therapy is delivered to the heart. The same therapy sequences that are life sustaining may be life threatening if delivered with inappropriate timing. The decision to deliver electrical therapy generally involves the execution of complex algorithms that must be correctly executed to insure the appropriateness of delivered therapy. In the event of fault conditions that compromise the ability of the system to correctly execute such an algorithm, it is critical that inappropriate therapy be blocked, and that the system operation be restored as quickly as possible.
Generally hardware and software locks are used to protect such system critical functions from inadvertent actuation. It is generally desired that such protection mechanisms be effective and efficient in requiring minimum hardware and software to provide satisfactory protection. Furthermore, it is desirable that the latency to actuation be well controlled and that the interval of time during which a critical task is accessible be short and well defined. Protection mechanisms that are effective in preventing unintended unlocking of actuation due to random processor actions are straightforward. They are generally a unique, necessary, and sufficient sequence of a software code (interacting with hardware), which is sufficiently unlikely to have been replicated either by localized or by non-localized random processor action.
Generally the method employed by mechanisms protecting against inappropriate therapy activation involves providing some degree of complexity in the interface to the hardware that activates the therapy. This can be illustrated, for example, with an interface to a microcomputer, that requires more than one bit be set in the input/output space before activation of the critical therapy can occur. Requiring a specific order or time sequence for setting the bits further restricts possible inadvertent activation, as does placing the bits at different input/output locations. With an interface of sufficient complexity, it is extremely unlikely that random activations of the interface by a malfunctioning subsystem or subsystems will result in therapy delivery.
This protection mechanism can generally be enhanced by placing a time limit on unlocking an actuation of a particular critical task, such that the likelihood of random actuation of that task in combination with the specific code to unlock that task within the requisite time period is even more unlikely. It is important to note that there is a limit to the efficacy of a software code sequence in preventing unintended random unlocking of actuation. To illustrate, assume that the unlocking software sequence is sufficiently improbable that only one occurrence of it exists in a device memory, and that occurrence is an intended key that unlocks the critical task. Further assume that this code fragment is protected from being "run over" by a runaway processor and/or by software reset opcodes that precede it in memory. Under these assumptions, the only single random event that can cause execution of the fragment is if the instruction pointer is somehow pointed exactly at unlocking. This is not altogether an improbable event though the probability of its occurring is generally on the order of 2−16 or greater. Generally, however, such hardware locks are fairly easy to circumvent and by themselves afford little to no protection against unintended execution. Therefore, there is a need for an improved mechanism to protect from an unintended execution of critical tasks.

Hardware/software lock for secure linkage between algorithmic decision process and critical system function execution


A cooking fuel device includes a fuel container and a wick supporting member positioned at the top of the container. The wick supporting member substantially closes the fuel container and contains at least one aperture to communicate with the interior of the container. A wick formed from a piled fabric includes a burn portion and a fuel feed portion. The fuel feed portion extends through the aperture into the fuel in the container. A cover having a central aperture is positioned over the top of the container to define the burn area on the wick. A peelable lid is adhesively attached to the cover and the wick which when removed will raise the pile on the wick.

There is a continuing need in the field of cooking and food warming fuel containers and burners to provide products which will produce an effective temperature level for an extended period of time. Further, these cooking fuel containers and burners should utilize a fuel that is classified as non-flammable. Non-flammable fuels are desirable since this type of fuel provides for a greater level of safety during usage and transportation. It is preferred that the cooking fuel container and burner produce a temperature in an oven, chafing dish or buffet server of at least about 160.degree. F., and preferably at least about 180.degree. C., throughout the majority of its full burn time. The burn time for a cooking fuel container and burner should be at least about three hours, and preferably at least about four hours. A cooking fuel container and burner which will produce a cooking temperature of at least about 180.degree. F. or greater and have a burn time of at least four hours will provide sufficient heat to chafing dishes and buffet servers for a sufficient period of time so that the cooking fuel containers do not have to be changed during a serving session. This is important since the cooking fuel containers when the fuel supply is just depleted are still fairly hot. They must be handled carefully. If the same cooking fuel container and burner can be used throughout an event, the need to change the cooking fuel containers is negated with the problem of having to handle a hot cooking fuel container obviated. A container of this type is more highly useful to the restauranteur.
The present cooking fuel container and burner is of a simplified design, yet produces a cooking temperature in a chafing dish or buffet server of greater than 180.degree. F. with a total burn time of at least about four hours. This cooking fuel container and burner is very efficient in the burning of the container fuel. Further, the cooking fuel container and burner can be shipped and stored without the wick becoming so saturated with the fuel that the container and burner is difficult to ignite. The present wick is unique in that besides providing for the effective delivery of the cooking fuel to the burning surface it also provides an easily lighted burning surface. In addition to overcoming the problems of providing a sufficiently high burn temperature for a sufficiently long period of time, this cooking fuel container and burner also overcomes the problem of the ignition of the essentially flat wick surface. This easy ignition is accomplished without the use of any ignitor materials or ignition pads. The net result is a cooking fuel container and burner which is simple in design, easy to construct, quick and easy to ignite and one which has a sufficiently long burn time and burn temperature to effectively cook and/or heat foods during a normal serving session.
Various cooking fuel containers and burners have been disclosed in the prior art. One such cooking fuel container and burner is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,604,053. This food warming cartridge, as it is designated, consists of a cylindrical container with a top cover seamed onto the container and closing the top opening of the container. In a central portion of this container and top cover there is a square or rectangular region to expose a flat wick, the two ends of which extend downward into the fuel which is contained in the food warming cartridge. The mode of operation of this food warming cartridge is that the fuel is fed up to the burning surface where it is burned to provide the desired heat. One problem with this design is that it does not provide for insulating the fuel containing region of the cartridge from the heat that is produced from the burning of the fuel. In this cartridge, some of the heat from the burning fuel will be transmitted to the cover with the heat in turn transmitted to the region that contains the fuel. The result is a heating of this region of the cartridge with a pressure produced within the fuel containing region which causes a pumping of the fuel up the wick which results in an uneven burn temperature and an inconsistent burn time from cartridge to cartridge.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,611,986 discloses a disposable liquid fuel burner. This liquid fuel burner is illustrative of a typical center wick burner. In this design, a wick extends downwardly through the top cover of a cylindrical fuel container. This wick extends upwardly through the top cover to a distance above the top cover. In this type of a liquid fuel burner, the burn surface is elevated a distance above the top cover above the burner. This results in less heat being transferred from the wick to the top of the container and thus into the region of the container which contains the liquid fuel. Pumping of the fuel up the wick is thus not a problem. This is an effective burner for liquid fuels, however, since it is comprised of a single central wick, it tends to produce a small diameter flame and thus a localized heating. It is preferred that the fuel burn surface be of as large an area as possible in order to provide for a more even heating of buffet trays and chafing dishes. Also, typically fuel burners of this type do not have a substantially constant burn temperature throughout the full burn time.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,858 discloses a liquid fuel burner which does provide for an enlarged burn surface area. However, this liquid fuel burner is quite complex in its structure. This liquid fuel burner consists of a cylindrical container which has a top closure. Within this top closure is an opening to provide for an enlarged burning surface. Within the container portion there is a wick which passes upwardly from the fuel region up into a wick region. This wick is of a single strand which passes upwardly through the center of a wick supporting table and overlays this wick supporting table. Overlaying this wick is a non-combustible fiber bat. Overlaying this non-combustible fiber bat is a bat of plastic foam. This bat of plastic foam serves as an ignitor for the fiber bat. In operation, the wick conveys the liquid fuel up to the fiber bat. The fiber bat becomes saturated with the liquid fuel as does the polymeric foam bat that overlays the fiber bat. In usage, the plastic foam bat is ignited. This plastic foam bat burns away and in most instances will effectively light the fiber bat. The fiber bat then provides the burning surface for the liquid fuel. This is a fairly complex structure for a liquid fuel burner.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,896,653 discloses a further type of a cooking fuel can and burner. This is of a center wick structure and is directed to the usefulness of a central recessed area and the use of peripheral air vents. A drawback of this type of a cooking fuel product is the lack of a constant heat profile from just after ignition until just before the depletion of the fuel. This type of cooking fuel container will produce a lower heat level upon ignition followed by an increasing level of heat production during the burning of the fuel and tapering to a lower burn temperature at the end of the burning period. In addition, this type of a center wick structure does not provide for the advantages of a burn surface which has an enlarged burn surface region.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,139 discloses a liquid fuel container which has a wick which extends upwardly upon the removal of a lid. This structure provides for an easier igniting of the wick and will result in less heat transfer to the cooking fuel container. However, this liquid fuel container suffers from the same problems as other center wick burners. That is, it provides for a localized heating of the buffet server or chafing dish. Further, this type of a cooking fuel containers does not provide for the essentially constant flame temperature throughout the burning of the contained fuel.
The present cooking fuel container and burner overcomes the various problems and deficiencies of the prior art devices. It is less complicated in design and structure. It provides a wick surface that is easily ignited. There is also provided a temperature in a chafing dish or buffet server of about 180.degree. F. The burn time will be a period of time of greater than about three hours, and preferably greater than about four hours. These are all significant and important advantages.


A continuous process for pre-contacting coordination polymerization catalyst components with each other before they are introduced into a polymerization reactor at 130 degrees Fahrenheit to 200 degrees Fahrenheit, where the activated coordination catalyst is contacted with at least one monomer to produce amorphous poly alpha olefin (APAO), the process involving blending a Ziegler-Natta pro-catalyst with a liquid carrier forming a Ziegler-Natta pro-catalyst slurry and flowing a co-catalyst mixture into the Ziegler-Natta pro-catalyst slurry continuously in a pre-contacting device, forming an activated Ziegler-Natta catalyst; continuously injecting the activated Ziegler-Natta catalyst into the heated polymerization reactor while simultaneously, and continuously, injecting propylene monomer and any other alpha-olefin monomers, and hydrogen gas for molecular weight control, initiating an exothermic reaction forming a monomer-polymer-catalyst slurry then continuously stirring the monomer-polymer-catalyst slurry forming an amorphous poly alpha olefin with a saturated backbone.

A need exists for a process for pre-contacting Ziegler-Natta catalyst components prior to being introduced into the reactor, where they are contacted with the monomer(s), to produce amorphous poly alpha olefin (APAO).
A further need exists to achieve the optimum formation of the alkylated and activated. Ziegler-Natta catalyst through a continuous process of pre-contacting Ziegler-Natta catalyst components prior to being introduced into the reactor where they are contacted with the monomer(s), to produce amorphous poly alpha olefin (APAO).
This process for pre-contacting catalyst components will also apply for the pre-contacting of metallocene pro-catalysts with methyl aluminoxane co-catalysts with the same expected process improvements by the formation of an activated coordination polymerization catalyst system.
The present embodiments meet these needs.
The present embodiments are detailed below with reference to the listed Figures.

Process for pre-contacting catalyst components ex-reactor to produce amorphous poly alpha-olefins


A hydridable alloy material represented by the formula AB.sub.5 for the negative electrode of a nickel-hydride storage cell. A represents La.sub.(1-x-y-z) Ce.sub.x Nd.sub.y Pr.sub.z, where 0.ltoreq.x.ltoreq.0.784, 0.ltoreq.z.ltoreq.1, 0.1.ltoreq.x+z, 0<y+z, x+y+z.ltoreq.1, and 0.ltoreq.y.ltoreq.0.205-1.17x+2.39x.sup.2 -1.57x.sup.3 -z(0.23-0.65x+1.18x.sup.2)+z.sup.2 (0.18-0.54x), and B represents Ni partially substituted by Mn, Al and Co.

In certain applications, nickel-cadmium storage cells are being replaced by nickel-hydride storage cells. Sealed nickel-hydride storage cells are alkaline storage cells having an aqueous electrolyte. The reagent, which is constituted by hydrogen, is stored in the mass of the hydridable alloy which is capable of absorbing large quantities thereof. Depending on whether the storage cell is being charged or discharged, such an alloy must be capable of taking up hydrogen and of restoring it at sufficient speed under normal operating conditions. Its electrochemical capacity must also be higher than that of cadmium, it must withstand corrosion in potassium hydroxide, and it must not be toxic.
Currently, the main alloys used are hydridable alloys of the AB.sub.5 type, derived from LaNi.sub.5. The compound LaNi.sub.5 has a reversible solid-gas hydrogen absorption capacity equivalent to 370 mAh/g. However, its plateau pressure, which is about 2 bars, is too high for it to be used in the negative electrode of a storage cell, for which the plateau pressure must lie in the range 0.01 bars to 1 bar. Furthermore, that alloy has insufficient resistance to corrosion in potassium hydroxide.
To reduce the cost of LaNi.sub.5 type alloys, lanthanum is generally replaced by misch metal, designated by Mm, whose composition is typically: EQU La.sub.0.25 to 0.35 Ce.sub.0.45 to 0.55 Nd.sub.0.10 to 0.20 Pr.sub.0.03 to 0.07.
By partially substituting nickel with aluminum and manganese, it is possible to lower the plateau pressure, and by partially substituting nickel with cobalt, it is possible to improve the resistance to corrosion of the alloy.
An alloy of the MmB.sub.5 type, based on misch metal Mm and satisfying the formula MmNi.sub.3.5 Mn.sub.0.5 Al.sub.0.3 Co.sub.0.7, is described in Japanese Patent Application JP-61 233 969. A storage cell implementing an electrode whose alloy has the above composition does not have the capacity that might be expected.

Hydridable material for the negative electrode of a nickel-hydride storage cell