The invention is directed to an airbag system and, more particularly, to such a system employed as a rescue or life-saving system to enable a person to survive an avalanche, for example. In a particular embodiment, the invention relates to an airbag system utilized with a backpack to be worn by a skier, snowboarder, hiker, or snowmobiler, for example. Instead of relying upon compressed gas cartridges or cylinders to inflate the airbag(s), the invention inflates the airbag(s) with ambient air only. In a particular embodiment, air is supplied to the airbag by means of a battery-powered electrical motor.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an airbag system and, more particularly, to an airbag rescue or safety system and, even more particularly, an airbag system employed as a life-saving system to enable a person using such system to survive an avalanche, or analogous situation, such as a water rescue, e.g., as well as an airbag system for attachment to, and for recovering, equipment of the person, such as a snowmobile.
More particularly, such a system can be used when activated (either remotely or manually by the user) to maintain the user or the user's equipment buoyant during an avalanche, or analogous situation, and to maintain the user or equipment on the surface of the avalanche, or as close to the surface as possible, thereby enabling the user to survive the avalanche or to facilitate recovery of the user's equipment.
In a further particular implementation, the field of invention relates to an airbag system utilized with a harness or backpack to be worn by a skier, snowboarder, snowmobiler, hiker, or a person engaged in another activity, who risks being exposed to an avalanche or analogous situation. In this regard, the invention also relates to a system attachable to an item of gear, such as a snowmobile or other sports gear, for example, which system can be remotely activated.
2. Background Information
Currently, so-called avalanche airbags, embodied as backpack systems to be worn by a skier, include those marketed by ABS Peter Aschauer GmbH, Snowpulse S.A., and Backcountry Access, Inc. Such systems are disclosed in the following documents: U.S. Pat. No. 4,635,754; U.S. Pat. No. 6,158,380; U.S. Pat. No. 6,220,909; U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0239428; U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0112880; and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0184343.
These systems are designed to prevent burial in an avalanche and to enable the victim to survive an avalanche with the fewest possible injuries when wearing a backpack which incorporates such a system. These systems are intended to have the wearer stay on the surface of the avalanche or as close to the surface as possible.
In this regard, after activation and inflation, the inflated airbag secured to the victim increases the combined volume compared to the volume of the victim without such a system, thereby having the effect of keeping the victim at or near the surface of the flow of the snow during an avalanche. Further, sufficiently reducing the combined weight/volume ratio of the victim wearing an inflated airbag, i.e., to less than that of the snow, maintains the victim relatively buoyant and at the surface of the snow.
When activated, the ABS avalanche airbag deploys a pair of vertically elongated airbags on the sides of the back of the wearer, whereas the Snowpulse system deploys an airbag that surrounds the wearer's head. ABS claims that the unobstructed vision and freedom of movement, even with the inflated airbags, allow the wearer to escape an avalanche and make it possible to react when caught in an avalanche and to assume a protective position. The single-bag system of Snowpulse is designed to provide protection to the head and thorax of the wearer which, in addition to providing protection against burial, also protects against traumas. In either case, the system is intended to maintain the wearer at or near the surface of the avalanche and is not dependent solely on a rescue or avalanche beacon. ABS claims that 98% of all avalanche victims who activated their ABS avalanche airbag have survived, while 90% of this group were completely uninjured.
The aforementioned U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2010/0184343 of Backcountry Access, Inc. describes in detail the current related art of avalanche airbag backpacks and gives a history and general description of the construction, use, and intent of this category of equipment.
Each of the systems known in this field of technology, including the aforementioned systems of ABS, Snowpulse, and Backcountry Access, Inc., relies upon a one-time use container of compressed gas (such as air or nitrogen) to inflate the airbag(s). Some of these one-time use systems also incorporate a means of drawing in ambient air to increase the total volume of gas by means of a venturi or an ejector, but such means nevertheless require the compressed gas for drawing in the ambient air.
Despite the success and advantages offered by avalanche airbags known in the art, many problems are inherent with the use of compressed gas containers, i.e., cylinders and cartridges. For example, compressed gas systems are limited by their one-time use. Once the compressed gas is expelled, a new cylinder or cartridge must be installed or the empty one refilled prior to re-use.
In addition, due to size and weight constraints of compressed gas cylinders/cartridges, the available volume to which the airbag is inflated is limited during release of the compressed gas.
Further, systems employing compressed gas cylinders/cartridges are additionally adversely affected by the weight of such systems. This problem is acknowledged in each of the aforementioned U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0184343 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,220,909. The solution offered for these systems however, is a reduction in the amount of pressurized gas required for inflating the airbag(s), thereby enabling the use of a smaller compressed gas cylinder. The smaller cylinder, then, results in a reduction of the weight of the system.
Further, the use of compressed gas cylinders/cartridges are adversely affected by legal and safety issues related to transporting them via aircraft and other commercial vehicles. In fact, manufacturers of avalanche systems warn that tampering with such cylinders/cartridges can life-endangering.
Still further, logistical delays involved with re-filling compressed gas cylinders/cartridges present an additional inconvenience or constraint on their use.
Likewise, restrictions on shipping, mailing, transporting, importing and exporting, and certifying compressed gas cylinders/cartridges provide additional constraints and inconvenience.
Particularly in view of the one-time use of compressed gas cylinders/cartridges, their use in training and demonstration purposes is particularly limited, inasmuch as for each deployment a new or re-filled cylinder or cartridge is required.
In addition, compressed gas containers inherently give rise to potential safety issues for the known systems. For example, manipulation at the closure or at the container can trigger an explosion, creating a risk of injury and death, even for bystanders. Further, for their systems, ABS and Snowpulse explain that only original containers provided by them are to be used and that empty containers are to be refilled at their shops. An advisory for use of such containers explains that each supplied container has a sticker, giving its total weight and the date of filling, and that readiness for use can only be assured by weighing the container again and comparing it to the weight written on the sticker.
The aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 6,220,909 discloses a compressed gas system whereby the gas release grip mechanism is made detachable with respect to the compressed gas unit so as to avoid an unintentional or erroneous triggering causing inflation of the airbags. In this way, the release grip is not hooked up to the compressed gas unit—which must then be accomplished prior to use, such as during skiing or hiking—while the user is on a mountain cableway, on a train, in a restaurant, on a bus, or on a trail, e.g., prior to intended use. Of course, the user must then remember to re-connect the system before he begins skiing, snowboarding, or hiking, for example, i.e., where an avalanche condition is a possibility.


The embodiments of the application provides a polar code rate matching method and apparatus. The method includes: obtaining, by a communications device, to-be-encoded information; determining, by the communications device, a to-be-used rate matching manner based on the code rate, a code rate threshold, a target code length, and a target code length threshold, where the rate matching manner is a puncturing manner or a shortening manner; and rate matching, by the communications device based on the determined rate matching manner, a polar code of the to-be-encoded information.

In a communications system, channel encoding is usually performed to improve reliability of data transmission and ensure communication quality. The 5th Generation (5th-generation, 5G) mobile communications technology requires that a wider range of code lengths and code rates can be supported in future channel encoding of relatively low complexity. A polar (polar) code is the first channel encoding method that can "achieve" a channel capacity after strict verification. The polar code is a linear block code. A generator matrix of the polar code is GN, and an encoding process is x1N=u1NGN, where u1N=(u1, u2, . . . , uN) is a binary row vector of a length N (that is, a code length), GN=BNF2⊗(log2(N)),
            F      2        =          [                                    1                                0                                                1                                1                              ]        ,BN is an N×N transposed matrix such as a transposed matrix in a bit reversal order, F2⊗(log2(N)) is defined as a Kronecker (Kronecker) product of log2N matrices F2, and x1N is an encoded bit (also referred to as a code word). The encoded bit is obtained by multiplying u1N by the generator matrix GN, and a process of the multiplication is the encoding process.
It can be learned from the encoding process of the polar code that the code length of the polar code is an integral power of 2. However, in actual communication, a code length needs to be flexibly configured based on a resource size. Therefore, a rate matching technology is required to flexibly change the code length.
According to a reconstruction-based polar code rate matching method among related technologies, reliability of each polarized channel needs to be calculated based on different puncturing patterns, code lengths, code rates, and channel quality by using a relatively complex construction algorithm during encoding, then a location of an information bit or a constant bit is determined, and a mother polar code is punctured from the start or from the end. In this method, performance of the polar code is relatively good. In actual application, a location of an information bit needs to be indicated by using a sequence. During encoding and decoding, locations of information bits may be unified through real-time calculation or table storage. The real-time calculation greatly increases complexity at a transmit end and a receive end. In addition, the table storage causes significantly high complexity in storing a constructed sequence, because different quantities of information bits, different code lengths, and channel conditions need to be considered. Among the related technologies, there is also a technology in which rate matching is implemented through puncturing or shortening (Shorten) based on a constant constructed sequence. When a puncturing manner is used, rate matching may be implemented by using a single constructed sequence and a fixed puncturing manner, and therefore, complexity can be reduced. However, the puncturing manner is applicable only to a low code rate. When a shortening manner is used, a location of a constant bit is adjusted, so that a shortened bit is related only to a known constant bit. In this manner, a constant constructed sequence and a fixed puncturing rule may be used to obtain relatively stable performance at different code rates. However, this solution is applicable only to code rates within a specific range (a medium code rate or a high code rate), and there is a relatively large performance loss under some encoding parameters.

Polar code rate matching method and apparatus


A method and apparatus for storing an intrusion rule are provided. The method stores a new intrusion rule in an intrusion detection system having already stored intrusion rules, and includes: generating combinations of divisions capable of dividing the new intrusion rule into a plurality of partial intrusion rules; calculating the frequency of hash value collisions between each of the generated division combinations and the already stored intrusion rules; dividing the new intrusion rule according to the division combination which has the lowest calculated frequency of hash value collisions; and storing the divided new intrusion rule in a corresponding position of the intrusion detection system. According to the method and apparatus, the size of the storage unit occupied by the intrusion rule can be reduced, and by performing pattern matching, the performance of the intrusion detection system can be enhanced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for storing an intrusion rule, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for storing an intrusion rule which uses an optimized hash function table to implement a hash function in a high-speed hardware-based intrusion detection system for detecting network intrusions in real time, to minimize the memory use, enhance the performance and decrease the size of the intrusion detection system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Information exchange through networks is now one of the major features of modern society, and influences many aspects of life. Malicious information intrusion has increased accordingly and become a substantial threat to society as a whole. Therefore it is becoming more important to protect information systems including networks.
The object of a network intrusion detection system is to detect certain packets traveling through a network. This is because in an actual intrusion attempt, packets are transmitted through a network. The most widely used intrusion detection method is a pattern matching method based on an intrusion rule.
An intrusion rule is a set of characteristics of known intrusions. These characteristics include a variety of items, including source and destination addresses of packets, types of protocols, values of predetermined fields, and information on whether or not predetermined bytes are included. All these items indicate values or ranges within the protocol header or payload of a packet.
Accordingly, if each item of the intrusion rule is compared with a packet and examined, it can be accurately determined whether or not the packet is part of an intrusion. That is, the pattern matching method based on the intrusion rule can be said to determine whether or not a packet passing through a network is part of an intrusion by comparing and examining data of the packet which actually passes through the network with the corresponding rule defined in relation to intrusion.
An intrusion detection system to protect a high-speed network is generally based on hardware. This is because high-speed detection is required in order to detect intrusion in real time for a Gigabit or higher level network, and the performance of a software based intrusion system is limited. In order to provide a high-speed rule-based intrusion detection function in a hardware-based intrusion detection system, high speed operation of the intrusion detection system is essential.
A variety of research to speed up the intrusion detection function has been undertaken, and at present, the performance of pattern matching using a hash function is known to be good. In the pattern matching using the hash function, comparison of patterns is performed through calculation, and the complexity of the comparison itself is beneficially low.
Problems with this method are that collisions of the hash function must be prevented, and the size of the hash function table must be reduced.
If the size of the hash function table increases, the size of a memory required for pattern matching increases. In a hardware-based system, the complexity and cost of implementation increase as the memory size increases. Therefore, it has become important to reduce of the size of the hash function table and thus the size of the memory used by the pattern matching function.

Method and apparatus for storing intrusion rule

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


A structure and method for performing metal-to-metal bonding in an electrical device. For example and without limitation, various aspects of this disclosure provide a structure and method that utilize an interlocking structure configured to enhance metal-to-metal bonding.

Present methods for forming electrical connections, for example in integrated circuits, have shortcomings. For example, though soldering is popular, solder has a relatively low melting point, which places temperature limits on subsequent processing steps as well as on the finished product. Also, solder atoms tend to migrate along copper joints, thereby changing the electrical and mechanical properties of soldered joints as they age. Direct metal-to-metal (e.g., copper-to-copper (Cu—Cu) bonds, etc.) obviates the need for solder, but cost effective processes for producing such bonds on a large scale have proven elusive since high temperatures, high pressures, and long dwell times complicate, add cost to, and add delay to the assembly process.

Semiconductor product with interlocking metal-to-metal bonds and method for manufacturing thereof


A method of reducing phospholipid concentration in biological tissue. The biological tissue is immersed in an isopropyl alcohol solution for an effective period of time. After the effective period of time, the biological tissue has a phospholipid concentration that is at least 10 percent by weight less than an initial phospholipid concentration of the biological tissue.

The invention is directed to a method of increasing the quality of biological tissue. More particularly, the invention relates to increasing the quality of biological tissue by reducing phospholipid concentration in the biological tissue.
Biological prostheses or "bioprostheses" are devices derived at least partially from processed biological tissues to be used for implantation into humans. Examples of bioprostheses that are currently used or in development include heart valves, vascular grafts, ligament substitutes, pericardial patches, and others.
Even though much is now known about biological tissue, bioprostheses and the processing, assembly, and performance thereof, there are still deficiencies that need to be overcome to provide a bioprostheses that preserves the native tissue properties while optimizing tissue biomechanics, minimizing calcification, and/or rendering the treated tissue hemocompatible.
For example, after harvesting from a donor, the biological tissue must be stored under proper conditions, and in proper solutions, to preserve the native properties of the tissue prior to and during the tissue processing steps that are to be subsequently undertaken. In addition, the harvested biological tissue should be stored in a manner that mitigates or even reduces the bioburden of the harvested tissue.
Further, the primary component of biological tissues used to fabricate many bioprostheses is collagen, a term used here in a generic sense to refer to a family of related extracellular proteins. Collagen molecules assemble to form microfibrils, which in turn assemble into fibrils, resulting in collagen fibers.
The amino acids that make up the collagen molecules contain side groups that represent sites for potential chemical reaction on these molecules. Because collagenous tissues degrade rapidly upon implantation into a host recipient, it is necessary to stabilize the tissue if it is to be used for long-term clinical applications. Chemical stabilization by cross-linking collagen molecules within the tissue (also known as tissue fixation) is well-known, and glutaraldehyde is commonly used to cross-link tissue.
Unfortunately, glutaraldehyde-fixed bioprosthetic tissues tend to become calcified over time. Calcification is undesirable because it results in undesirable stiffening or degradation of the implant.
The mechanism by which calcification occurs in glutaraldehyde-fixed bioprosthetic tissue has not been fully explained, and many factors have been thought to influence the rate of calcification.
In general, the calcification phenomenon has been characterized as being due to intrinsic causes (i.e., causes inherently contained within the tissue itself) and extrinsic causes (i.e., causes from outside the tissue itself, such as infection, patient's age, existing metabolic disorders, flow disturbances, etc.).
One intrinsic cause of calcification has been shown to be the presence of phospholipids in the harvested tissues. See e.g., Cunanan et al., Tissue characterization and calcification potential of commercial bioprosthetic heart valves, Annals Thoracic Surgery, 2001; 71: S417-S421. Therefore, it is desirable to mitigate or inhibit the calcification of the tissue to increase the usable life of any bioprostheses that is implanted into a human host.
Cunanan et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,989,157, describes subjecting biological tissue to chemical fixation prior to the use of bioburden reduction solutions to extract phospholipids from the biological tissue. Cunanan indicates that the bioburden reduction solution may be a mixture of glutaraldehyde and polysorbate-80, such as is described in Nashef et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,885,005.

Phospholipid reduction in biological tissue


Processes for manufacturing purified aromatic carboxylic acids include: oxidizing a substituted aromatic compound in a reaction zone to form a crude aromatic carboxylic add; transferring a vapor phase from the reaction zone to a separation zone, the vapor phase containing water and a plurality of organic compounds including at least one oxidation by-product; withdrawing an organic-depleted water stream from the separation zone and combining at least a portion of the organic-depleted water stream with at least a portion of the crude aromatic carboxylic acid in a purification zone; and purifying the crude aromatic carboxylic acid in the purification zone.

Terephthalic acid (TA) and other aromatic carboxylic acids may be used in the manufacture of polyesters (e.g., via their reaction with ethylene glycol and/or higher alkylene glycols). Polyesters in turn may be used to make fibers, films, containers, bottles, other packaging materials, molded articles, and the like.
In commercial practice, aromatic carboxylic acids have been made by liquid phase oxidation of methyl-substituted benzene and naphthalene feedstocks in an aqueous acetic acid solvent. The positions of the methyl substituents correspond to the positions of carboxyl groups in the aromatic carboxylic acid product. Air or other sources of oxygen (e.g., typically in a gaseous state) have been used as oxidants in the presence, for example, of a bromine-promoted catalyst that contains cobalt and manganese. The oxidation is exothermic and yields aromatic carboxylic acid together with by-products, including partial or intermediate oxidation products of the aromatic feedstock, and acetic acid reaction products (e.g., methanol, methyl acetate, and methyl bromide). Water is also generated as a by-product.
Pure forms of aromatic carboxylic acids are oftentimes desirable for the manufacture of polyesters to be used in important applications (e.g., fibers and bottles). Impurities in the acids (e.g., by-products generated from oxidation of aromatic feedstocks and, more generally, various carbonyl-substituted aromatic species) are thought to cause and/or correlate with color formation in polyesters made therefrom, which in turn leads to off-color in polyester converted products. Aromatic carboxylic acids having reduced levels of impurities may be made by further oxidizing crude products from liquid phase oxidation as described above at one or more progressively lower temperatures and oxygen levels. In addition, partial oxidation products may be recovered during crystallization and converted into the desired acid product.
Pure forms of terephthalic acid and other aromatic carboxylic acids having reduced amounts of impurities—for example, purified terephthalic acid (PTA)—have been made by catalytically hydrogenating less pure forms of the acids or so-called medium purity products in solution at elevated temperature and pressure using a noble metal catalyst. Less pure forms of the acids may include crude product that contains aromatic carboxylic acid and by-products from liquid phase oxidation of the aromatic feedstock. In commercial practice, liquid phase oxidation of alkyl aromatic feed materials to crude aromatic carboxylic acid, and purification of the crude product, are oftentimes conducted in continuous integrated processes in which crude product from the liquid phase oxidation is used as a starting material for the purification.
In one conventional integrated process for manufacturing pure forms of aromatic carboxylic acids via liquid phase oxidation of aromatic hydrocarbon feed materials, a dehydration tower operated at ambient pressure produces an overhead water vapor phase that is subsequently condensed, and a portion of the resulting condensate is used as reflux to the dehydration tower. The condensate typically contains one or a plurality of organic compounds, and therefore the portion of the condensate that is not refluxed to the dehydration tower may be unsuitable for use in other parts of the process, such as in makeup water in a purification process, unless the condensate stream first undergoes additional treatment to remove organic impurities. The additional treatments add both capital and variable costs to the overall process economics.
There remains a need to reduce the costs of processes for the manufacturing purified aromatic carboxylic acids.

Process for using dehydration tower condensate as a purification makeup solvent


Techniques are disclosed for automated data management. In one example, a method maintains a set of machine-readable data definition files corresponding to a set of data assets. At least one machine-readable data definition file specifies code for implementing at least one goal state associated with at least one corresponding data asset. The at least one machine-readable data definition file is executed to effectuate the at least one goal state.

Utility computing and second-generation web frameworks brought about wide-spread problems for humans managing ever-expanding information technology (IT) infrastructure. The development of infrastructure-as-code (IaC) tools and processes allowed fewer humans to manage a massive collection of infrastructure. IaC is the process of managing and provisioning IT infrastructure associated with, for example, data centers through machine-readable definitions (scripts or declarative definitions), rather than through physical hardware configuration tools. Machine-readable definitions are data (or metadata) in a format that can be easily processed by a computer. Some computer languages for creating machine-readable data have features to improve human readability of the machine-readable data.
The IT infrastructure managed and provisioned by IaC tools and processes may comprise physical processing devices such as bare-metal servers and/or logical processing virtual devices such as virtual machines, as well as associated configuration resources. Thus, the expanding scale of infrastructure has become manageable through IaC by modeling of infrastructure with code followed by execution of the code.
However, such larger automated data centers attract massive amounts of data sets that do not have the same level of automated management as the infrastructure that the data sets reside on. It has been estimated that in less than ten years (e.g., about 2025), the projected size of the so-called datosphere will be about 163 ZB (zettabytes), and the creation of data will shift from consumer-driven to enterprise-driven. Enterprise IT departments must therefore transition from the management of petabytes of storage to zettabytes of storage. The lack of automation for such massive amounts of data will result in significant challenges for enterprises and other entities.

Automated data management via machine-readable data definition files


In a video or other screen display apparatus, a surround to the actual screen is provided whose light output is variable in order to compensate for the effect of ambient (room) illumination on apparent contrast and chroma of the displayed image. The relationship between ambient light level and the surround illumination is an inverse power function. This provides the effect of making the viewer perceive that the entire room is brighter than it actually is, resulting in a desirable change in his perception of brightness. Thereby, the chromaticity of the surround is variable to allow a match to the calibrated white point of the video display. The apparatus includes an ambient light sensor whose output signal is provided to a control system driving the illuminated surround.

It is well known that human perception of the brightness of a stimulus is significantly affected by the relative luminance of the background. This is illustrated in the familiar optical illusion of comparing a gray square surrounded by black to another gray square of the same darkness level surrounded by white. The gray square surrounded by white will appear darker than the one surrounded by black.
This same problem exists in the field of video and similar displays, for instance large screen televisions, movie theaters using electronic displays, etc. See "Considering the Surround in Device-Independent Color Imaging", Mark D. Fairchild, Color Research and Application, Vol. 20, p. 352-363 (1995) incorporated by reference herein. This points out that changes in the surround of a video display effect the perception of the display. In other words, it is known that the relative luminance of the surround has an impact on the apparent contrast of the image on the display.

Illuminated surround and method for operating same for video and other displays


A modem uses information from prior calls in a current call if the current communication line is similar to the communication line of a prior call. During modem training, the current communication line is compared to a communication line used during at least one prior call. If the characteristics are substantially similar, stored data mode information from the prior call(s) is used to design a signal constellation for use during the current call's data mode. If the number of prior calls exceeds a value, then the signal constellation may be designed using previously stored data mode information without using information from the current call's training mode. If the number of prior calls does not exceed the value, then the signal constellation may be designed using the previously stored data mode information and information from the current call's training mode.

The present invention relates generally to data communications, and more particularly to an adaptive modem.
The widespread use of data networks (e.g., the Internet) has increased the deployment of modems (modulator/demodulator). Modems are well known in the art, and generally function to modulate and demodulate digital signals so that they may be transmitted via analog communication channels. One of the most popular uses for a modem is to allow end users to connect to the Internet from their homes via the public switched telephone network (PSTN).
Upon startup, modems enter a training mode of operation during which a communication link is established with another modem device. In general, training is performed in order to determine the characteristics of the communication line (i.e., communication channel) and to optimize the subsequent data mode during which data is communicated between the modems. In a modem operating in accordance with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) V.90/V.92 standard, there are 4 training phases as follows.
During phase 1 training, the client modem obtains a dial tone, calls the remote modem, and the two modems exchange basic information such as the modem standards that are supported by the modems. If both modems support V.92, then the client modem detects whether the current communication line is the same as a previously used communication line by an analysis of the ANSpcm signal (as defined in the ITU-T V.92 standard) transmitted by the remote modem. If the communication line is the same, then the client modem may utilize a fast connection feature in which certain of the phase 3 training steps are shortened or omitted in order to speed up the initialization process.
During phase 2 training the local parameters for V.90/V.92 (e.g., symbol rate, maximum transmission power, A-law or μ-law codec) are exchanged between the client and remote modems.
Phase 3 training consists of training the modem equalizer and echo canceller, timing recovery and digital impairment learning (DIL), in order to detect and compensate for network impairments and distortions.
During phase 4 training, conventional modems estimate the training mode mean square error (MSE) and then estimate the relationship between the training mode MSE and the data mode MSE. The estimation of data mode MSE based only on training data is difficult because the relationship between the training mode MSE and the data mode MSE is unknown and different for varying communication line conditions. The conversion of the training mode MSE into an estimated data mode MSE is usually performed using a multiplication factor. The estimated data mode MSE is then used as the data mode noise level for constellation design.
As is well known, a pulse code modulation (PCM) signal constellation consists of a set of real-valued signal points which lie on an 1-dimensional grid. During the data mode, user data is encoded into constellation points and one constellation point is transmitted during each symbol period. Since the V.90/V.92 symbol rate is fixed at 8K samples per second, the more levels used in the constellation, the higher the data rate. Thus, PCM signal constellation design is an important part of the training mode for a V.90/V.92 modem because the constellation design has a significant impact on the modem data rate. More particularly, a V.90/V.92 PCM modem transmits a PCM level as a symbol signal at a rate of 8000 symbols per second. This means that every 1/8000 second the modem transmits one symbol signal representing a digital code. Mathematically, all of the possible symbol signals could be expressed in math space. In signal space, every signal has a unique point position, and any two signals have a distance between them. The greater the distance between signal points, the easier to distinguish between them, which allows for more reliable signal detection and a resultant lower bit error rate. However, there is a tradeoff, because the greater the distance between signal points, the less total available signals that can be used in the signaling constellation, and therefore the lower the data rate. Thus, determining the minimal signal distance is important to achieve a high data rate for a given communication line. Existing modems only make a rough estimate of the best minimal signal distance to achieve the best data rate in data mode because, as described above, the data rate is determined solely during the training mode without using any actual data mode information.
The above described modem training procedures are performed each time a modem is initialized. Such training procedures are time consuming and do not always result in optimized data rates for a particular communications channel.
What is needed is an improved modem training technique which can decrease required training time while at the same time improve training results.


A hydraulic control apparatus for an automatic transmission includes a forward travel engaging element, a reverse travel engaging element, a first signal electromagnetic valve, a first switching valve, and a second switching valve. The hydraulic control apparatus is structured so as to change the output state of the signal pressure of the first signal electromagnetic valve when changing from the reverse travel shift position and/or shift range to the non-travel shift position and/or shift range and when changing from the forward travel shift position and/or shift range to the non-travel shift position and/or shift range, and to enable quick draining of hydraulic pressure of the hydraulic servo of the reverse travel engaging element and hydraulic pressure of the hydraulic servo of the forward travel engaging element.

The present invention relates to a hydraulic pressure control device of an automatic transmission and a hybrid drive device having the hydraulic pressure control device.
There exists a hydraulic control apparatus for an automatic transmission that is mounted in a vehicle such as an automobile or the like. In the hydraulic control apparatus, when a shift position and/or shift range is changed from a non-travel shift position and/or shift range (neutral position, parking position) to a travel shift position and/or shift range (drive position, reverse position) due to a shift lever operation by the driver, clutches and brakes are engaged by supplying engagement pressures to the hydraulic servos of the clutches and the brakes that are to be engaged. On the contrary, when changing from a travel shift position and/or shift range to a non-travel shift position and/or shift range, the disengagement of the clutches and brakes is carried out by discharging (draining) the engagement pressures of the hydraulic servos of the clutches and the brakes that are to be disengaged.
In such a hydraulic control apparatus, a valve is interposed on the oil paths that supply the engagement pressures for selectively guiding and regulating the original pressures, such as the line pressure and the range pressure. Normally, when these engagement pressures are discharged, the engagement pressures are drained via such valves by reversing the flow of the oil paths that supply the engagement pressures. However, problems occur, in particular, when the viscosity of the oil is high at low temperatures. The distance of the oil paths as described above becomes a resistance, the draining slows, the disengagement of the clutches and brakes is delayed, and there is a concern that travel torque will be transferred instantaneously (what is referred to as "residual engagement") even though the shift position and/or shift range is in a non-travel shift position and/or shift range.
Such a phenomenon is particularly undesirable in the reverse travel direction. Enabling the engagement pressure of the hydraulic servos of the engaging elements that are engaged in the reverse travel shift position and/or shift range to drain quickly has thus been proposed (refer, for example, to Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2001-343067). Here, in oil paths that supply engagement pressures to the hydraulic servos, a switching valve (refer to reference numeral 61 in FIG. 5) is provided on the hydraulic servo side, and the oil path up to the hydraulic servo is communicated with a drain port by switching the switching valve by using the signal pressure of a solenoid valve (refer to reference numeral S4 in FIG. 5). The draining is more rapid than the draining via the oil path that supplies the engagement pressure, and thus a quick draining becomes possible.

Hydraulic pressure control device of an automatic transmission and hybrid drive device having the hydraulic pressure control device


A system comprising audio logic adapted to convert captured sound into an audio signal. The system also comprises transmission logic which causes noise to be added to the audio signal. The system further comprises processing logic adapted to at least partially remove the noise from the audio signal by subtracting a noise waveform from the audio signal to produce a result signal. The processing logic generates the noise waveform using power level information associated with the transmission logic. The transmission logic transmits the result signal to another electronic device.

A mobile communication device, such as a cell phone, captures audio signals (e.g., speech) using a microphone. The device then transmits the audio signals to another device (e.g., a base station) in the form of radio frequency (RF) signals. In many cases, RF signals transmitted by the mobile device interfere with sensitive circuitry included in the microphone. Such interference results in captured audio signals that are distorted with noise.


A multilayer identity card exhibits an outer color layer of a first color and an inner color layer of a second color to allow for identity cards and the like to be written on in several colors. While the outer color layer absorbs virtually no laser beam light used for writing, the second, inner color layers absorbs the laser light. This causes the material of the second color layer to be thermally broken down during the writing operation, i.e. vaporized, sublimated, exposed to a chemical or physical reaction, so that the formation of pressure and resulting eruption blasts the first layer into particles. This makes the second color layer visible. Instead of the second color layer one can also provide a transparent layer of varnish having suitable properties in order to expose a multicolor security print, for example, below this transparent layer of varnish.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data carrier, in particular an identity card, and to methods for producing such a data carrier.
Specifically, the data carriers in question here are identity cards, e.g. check cards, credit cards, entitlement cards or calling cards and the like. Such identity cards have a standardized format and generally possess a multilayer structure. One side of the card shows general information applied e.g. by pressure or photographically, e.g. the name of a credit institution, an organization or the like, and possibly a security print (guilloche pattern) that is provided on the card surface or within the card. Furthermore, the user-related information, such as the name of the card owner, the customer number, the account number, the card number or the like, is provided.
2. Description of the Related Technology
In order to write on multilayer identity cards in color, German patent document no. 30 48 733 which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 4,523,777 the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated herein, proposes to provide different colored layer areas one on top of the other. The absorption behavior and vaporization points of the various color layers may be selected so that appropriate control of a laser beam intensity allows selective removal of color layers. The outermost color layer may be removed at lower laser beam intensities than the lower color layers.
The problem with these data carriers is that, due to tolerances of the layer thicknesses and small intervals between the vaporization or sublimation points, one often requires several radiation passes to obtain the complete removal of the various layers that is absolutely necessary for a high-contrast representation. With this writing method, several removal operations are thus necessary for each removed layer, which is an obstacle for large scale production of such data carriers. The color selection is also restricted by the fact that the color layers are coordinated with the laser beam intensity in terms of the absorption behavior of the particular color and the vaporization points of the various color layers.

Multilayer data carrier and methods for writing on a multilayer data carrier

GAO Gesellschaft f. Automation v. Organ. MBH


Methods for carrying out lithography with a carbon dioxide development system are described. This invention involves methods for preferential removal of the darkfield region of conventional chemically amplified positive tone resists. The carbon dioxide development systems include one or more derivatizing agents, which may be an onium salt or a neutral compound.

In photolithography using chemically amplified resists, the area of photoresist film exposed to incident radiation undergoes a chemical transformation. For most resist systems designed for traditional aqueous base development, this transformation results in a significant increase in polarity. For these systems, traditionally termed positive tone resist systems, the exposed region is removed during development in aqueous base. Alternatively, for negative tone resists systems the exposed region becomes less polar, and/or increases in molecular weight through cross-linking reactions upon exposure to radiation making this region less soluble in the developer solution. For negative tone systems the non-exposed region is preferentially removed in the developer solution.
Aqueous solutions of tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide TMAH are typically used as the photoresist developer. In order for development in aqueous base to be effective, the base must deprotonate a certain number of Bronsted acid groups to allow the resist to become soluble. The amount of deprotonation required for photoresist solubility is known as the critical ionization level, and has been well described in the literature (see G. Willson, et al. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 20(2) March/April 2002, 537-543).
Feature sizes on microelectronic devices continue to shrink as these devices become smaller, faster and more powerful. The lithographic development of these smaller feature sizes in aqueous base can become problematic due to image collapse caused by the capillary forces and surface tension of water. Current approaches to solving this problem include IPA vapor drying and bilayer resist technology. The prevention of image collapse in supercritical CO2 dryers for MEM's and other applications is based on the absence of surface tension in supercritical CO2 to avoid surface tension and capillary forces. Each of these potential solutions for image collapse requires additional steps in the lithographic process leading to higher cost of ownership and decreased device yield.
Non-smooth edges on developed features become problematic as feature sizes get smaller (Semiconductor International; February 2005; p. 44). The roughness of a single edge is known as Line Edge Roughness (LER) and the roughness of a feature defined by two edges is known as Line Width Roughness (LWR). Current approaches to minimizing LER/LWR include modification of the photoresist, back anti-reflection coating (BARC) or etch chemistry, or use of a hardmask. All of these approaches generally result in decreased imaging and/or etch performance of the resist, or require additional process steps that increase cost of ownership and decrease device yield. Densified CO2 has the ability to penetrate and swell certain amorphous polymers. This facilitates delivery of chemistry into the swollen polymer, and can smooth out surface features. Under proper conditions, these properties can be used in lithography to smooth surfaces without affecting the critical dimensions of a feature.
Commercially available photoresists used for 248-nm lithography, 193-nm lithography, e-beam lithography, and those being developed for EUV-based lithography are not soluble in liquid or supercritical carbon dioxide in the exposed or unexposed state making CO2-based development extremely challenging. Furthermore, Bronsted bases such as TMAH are neutralized in supercritical carbon dioxide which acts as a weak acid. As such, a pH above 7 is not readily accessible in CO2 based systems. Under these conditions, the minimum level of ionization needed to dissolve exposed positive tone photoresist is not achievable.
In carbon dioxide solvent systems, low-polarity polymer species, specifically fluorinated polymers and siloxane-containing polymers are more soluble than polar polymers. This provides an obvious pathway for negative tone image development, as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,665,527 to Allen and U.S. Pat. No. 6,379,874 to Ober. However, for Allen and Ober, image transfer in the negative tone using dense CO2 utilizes non-commercial and in some cases impractical fluorinated or siloxane-containing polymers that are not proven resist systems and are unlikely to be adopted by the microelectronics industry.
Carbon dioxide based development systems that are compatible with traditional 248-nm, 193-nm, 157-nm, e-beam and EUV resists and leverage the physical properties of CO2 as a processing fluid to give reduced image collapse and decreased LER/LWR are desirable.

Compositions and methods for image development of conventional chemically amplified photoresists


An optical system having an iris controlled in real time and a control method of amount of light thereof. The optical system includes a light source, a light modulator modulating a light emitted from the light source to a certain image, a driving part controlling the light modulator to produce the certain image and outputting luminance information of the certain image, a projector projecting the certain image, a screen on which the projected image is formed, a projection iris controlling an amount of light projected from the light modulator onto the screen, and a iris controller receiving the luminance information of the certain image from the driving part and controlling the projection iris corresponding to the luminance information of the certain image. Since the opening range of the iris is controlled in real time, the contrast ratio (C/R) is improved.

1. Field of The Invention
The present invention generally relates to an optical system for enlarging and projecting a small-scale image onto a screen. More particularly, the present invention relates to an optical system for adjusting a contrast ratio by controlling an iris in real time.
2. Description of The Related Art
Complying with the demand for larger screens and higher definition of an image display device, an image projection device is rapidly prevalent which enlarges and projects a small-scale image onto a large screen using an optical system. In particular, a rear projection device, which projects an image signal from a rear side of the screen, has come into wide use in a form of a projection television.
The general rear projection device includes a light source, a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel or a digital micromirror device (DMD) panel which is a display element for generating an image by use of light emitted from the light source, a projection optical system enlarging and projecting the image produced in the panel to a certain magnification, and a screen.
The image projection device focuses the light from the light source onto the DMD panel without yielding light loss, and projects the light illuminated from the DMD panel of the projection optical system with vividness and without distortion. A critical performance measure of the image projection device is a contrast ratio (C/R) representing the light intensity difference between the brightest white and the darkest black. A higher C/R represents a better image reproduction on the screen. The C/R is acquired using the following Equation.C/R=white luminance/black luminance  [Equation 1]
The conventional optical system cannot partially increase or decrease the amount of the light since its iris has a limited opening range (area). In addition, since the amount of light reflected from the surface of the digital light processing (DLP) projection device is received as it is, the C/R does not increase more than a certain value but is maintained with some constancy.
Even if the opening range of the iris is variable, the C/R increases only by adjusting the amount of light with respect to a specific image reproduction. The increase of the C/R requires the higher C/R of the projection optical system or the DMD panel, which is limited. Also, it is infeasible to continuously increase the C/R since the conventional iris cannot adjust the amount of light in association with the change in the image reproduction.
The conventional optical system has a disadvantage in that the amount of light is not effectively controlled since the position of the iris is restricted within the optical system.

Optical system with iris controlled in real time


Vaccines effective against PRRSV include at least one portion of PRRSV ORF1. Such vaccines, upon administration, provoke an immune response in PRRSV-susceptible animals. Moreover, compositions in accordance with the present invention provide immune response up to and including protective immunity against PRRSV as well as reduce the severity of PRRSV and/or incidence of PRRSV. Selected portions of ORF1 can be used singularly, in combination with one another, in combination with other PRRSV ORFs, and in combination with other PRRSV vaccines.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is broadly concerned with vaccines for porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS). More particularly, the invention is concerned with the prevention of PRRS in swine by the administration of a vaccine comprising DNA subunits of PRRS virus (PRRSV). Still more particularly, the invention pertains to the use of open reading frame 1 (ORF1) in a DNA subunit vaccine which provides protective immunity against PRRSV to swine. Even more particularly, the invention pertains to the use of selected portions of ORF1 both alone and in combination with other portions of the PRRSV genome or in combination with other vaccines against PRRSV.
2. Description of the Prior Art
PRRS is a major disease in the swine industry worldwide. PRRS is caused by PRRSV infection. Currently, there are modified-live vaccines (MLV) available that, when used correctly, provide swine with protection against the clinical disease resulting from PRRSV infection. PRRS MLV vaccines require replication in the vaccinated animal in order to insure that an efficacious immune response is induced (for example, see Meng, X. J., Heterogeneity of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus: Implications for Current Vaccine Efficacy and Future Vaccine Development; 74 Vet. Micro., 309-329 (2000)). However, such replication presents problems in that the PRRS MLV can persist in the animal for several weeks after vaccination and can also be shed to other PRRSV-negative swine. The shedding of PRRS MLV from vaccinated animals can be a problem in some swine herds that do not have good biosecurity measures in place to prevent shedding of PRRSV MLV from vaccinated animals to a PRRSV-naive population. Although millions of PRRS MLV doses have been used without issue, there are also sporadic reports in the literature as to the ability of the PRRS MLV to revert to a more virulent, wild-type strain of PRRSV. Attempts to solve the problems of PRRS MLV shed and possible reversion to virulence have also been tried by utilization of a vaccine comprised of inactivated PRRS virus (i.e. PRRS KV). However, research has shown that despite the fact that PRRS KV can induce a strong humoral response in vaccinated swine, it is not effective in preventing PRRS-associated disease.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a method of vaccination and vaccine that could induce the protective immune response, without the problems associated with PRRS MLV. Preferably, administration of the vaccine would not actively replicate in the vaccinated animal and would induce a strong humoral and cell-mediated immune response.


A laser beam generating device which, by addition of a simplified structure, can enlarge the spectral width of the laser light and lower the coherence to a moderate value. The laser light generating device includes a first laser light source 31, a second laser light source 32, phase modulation units 34, 35 for phase-modulating the beams from the light sources with a sole frequency component or plural frequency components, and an additive frequency generating unit 33 for producing a light beam of the shorter wavelength based on the wavelength of the light phase-modulated by the phase modulation units 34, 30. The fundamental wavelength laser light generated by the first laser light source 31 is phase-modulated by the phase modulation unit 34 based on a pre-set modulation amplitude and the modulation frequency so as to be enlarged in spectral width before being incident on the additive frequency generating unit 33. The additive frequency generating unit 33 generates an additive frequency based on the laser light beams from the light sources for conversion to short wavelengths and for enlarging the spectral width. The result is that the distance of coherence of the outgoing laser light is shortened for removing the speckle noise.

Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a laser light emitting device operating as a light source for the laser light which for which a moderately wide spectral width is required.
Heretofore, attempts have been made for utilizing a high output laser in a variety of industrial fields by exploiting monochromaticity (narrow spectral band) of the laser light. In particular, the laser light excited by a laser light source employing neodymium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) oscillating at a longitudinal single mode by a Q-switching method, referred to hereinafter simply as a Nd:YAG switch laser, and the laser light obtained on wavelength conversion of this laser light, exhibit high peak intensity, so that such laser light is expected to be used in a number of industrial fields.
Such Q-switch laser oscillates in general in longitudinal multiple mode oscillation. If the line width (spectra width) of the frequency components is broader, the problem of chromatic aberration is raised. Although it is attempted to excite the laser light in a sole wavelength using an injection seed technique, the oscillation spectral width becomes excessively narrow to produce inconveniences in utilization.
The laser light having high monochromaticity, that is with a narrow spectral width, has high coherence and is susceptible to noise produced by the interference pattern (speckle noise) caused by interference of the laser light itself with irregular phase relation with diffused light, such as stray light having different propagation distances. Conversely, the laser light with low monochromaticity, exhibits low coherence, however, it has a broad spectral width and is susceptible to chromatic aberration.
The laser light is used in, for example, a laser beacon device. This laser beacon device is investigated as means for improving resolution of an optical system employed in observation of heavenly bodies or in intersatellite light communication, as described in "Laser Beacon Adaptive Optics", Physics news, pp.14 to Jun. 19, 1993.
The laser beacon device radiates a laser light into air and emits light from sodium atoms in atmosphere by resonant absorption. The laser beacon device operates for detecting atmospheric disturbances by detecting the light emitted by the sodium atoms on the ground surface, while operating for correcting the atmospheric disturbances using an adaptive optical system for improving resolution of a telescope.
The sodium atoms emit light on resonant absorption of the laser light of a wavelength in the vicinity of 589 nm. For realizing high efficiency resonant excitation of sodium atoms, a high output laser light source, correctly coincident with the absorption spectrum of sodium atoms in both the frequency and frequency width, is required.
As a high-output light source having a wavelength of 589 nm, there has so far been proposed a laser light source comprised of a first laser light source 101 having a Nd:YAGQ switch laser generating a fundamental wavelength laser light of a wavelength of 1319 nm narrowed in frequency using an injection seed technique, a second laser light source 102 having a Nd:YAGQ switch laser generating a fundamental wavelength laser light of a wavelength of 1064 nm similarly narrowed in frequency and an LBO crystal 103 for generating an additive frequency laser light from the fundamental wavelength laser light with the wavelength of 1319 nm and the fundamental wavelength laser light with the wavelength of 1064 nm.
The injection seed technique, used in the first laser light source 101 and in the second laser light source 102, excites the laser light by oscillation in a sole wavelength for correctly coinciding the wavelength of the laser light after additive frequency generation with the absorption wavelength of sodium atoms.
The absorption frequency width of sodium atoms, subjected to the Doppler effect, is on the order of 3 GHz. Since the laser light with the wavelength of 589 nm, obtained by a high output light source shown in FIG. 1, is narrowed in frequency by injection seed in each light source, the laser light obtained by the high output light source exhibits high frequency stability. The spectral width of the basic wavelength laser light, obtained by the high output laser light source, is narrowed up to approximately 25 MHz, which is the line width of a transform limited pulse, and which is only 1/120 of the absorption frequency width of sodium atoms. Therefore, the resonance efficiency between the laser light and the sodium atoms is low.
The laser light is also applied to, for example, a laser image display device.
In the above laser image display device, if a laser light beam with a narrow spectral width is used, the speckle noise tends to be produced because of the high coherence of such laser light. Such speckle noise generates granular speckles in the laser image display device, thus significantly deteriorating the picture quality.
Thus, in the application of the laser light, it is crucial that the spectral width of the laser light be controlled to a moderate value for obviating problems produced in connection with chromatic aberration and speckled noise.
Several methods for broadening the spectral width of the laser light has so far been proposed. For example, it may be envisaged to oscillate the laser light in longitudinal multiple mode or to use the laser light oscillated in longitudinal multiple mode from the outset. In this case, the spectral width tends to be broadened excessively to raise the problem in connection with chromatic aberration. In addition, the structure of the laser light generating device itself needs to be changed, thus lowering the light emitting efficiency. That is, it has been difficult to increase the spectral width moderately to a desired value.
Furthermore, the laser light beam obtained on wavelength conversion on additive frequency mixing of two or more sorts of laser light beams oscillated in longitudinal multiple modes is unstable in intensity.
For removing the speckle noise, attempts have been made in improving the laser light projection system. For example, it has been proposed in JP Patent Kokai Publication JP-A-55-65940 (1980) that, in a laser image display device, a screen or a laser light source is oscillated mechanically. This, however, is infeasible if the screen size is larger.
Thus it is difficult to control the spectral width of the laser light to a desirable value to remove the speckled noise.

Laser light emitting device, laser beacon device and laser imager display device


A wheel examining system for examining a two-axle or three-axle vehicle is provided. The wheel examining system includes a wheel examining apparatus for examining a wheel in particular as to its alignment. A wheel guide apparatus is provided for guiding a wheel into a predetermined examining site. The wheel guide apparatus includes a plurality of rollers arranged in different levels and orientations so that the wheel may be smoothly and properly guided into the examining site. A three-axle vehicle examining system includes three different examining sections one of which may be shifted in a transverse direction to determine a discrepancy in alignment of three axles. A wheel examining apparatus includes a roller clamp unit which includes left-hand contact rollers and right-hand contact rollers which may be brought into the opposite sides of a wheel. A pair of left-hand and right-hand angle detectors are provided in association with the left-hand and right-hand contact rollers to thereby detect the orientations of the opposite sides of a wheel independently. A floating support structure constructed by using a plurality of linear motion guide units is also provided.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a wheel examining apparatus for examining a wheel, in particular its alignment, such as the degree of inclination of a wheel, of a vehicle, such as an automobile, truck or trailer, and, in particular to a wheel examining apparatus for examining a wheel having a double wheel or double tire structure comprised of a pair of sub-wheels combined side-by-side for supporting a heavy load.
2. Description the Prior Art
A wheel examining apparatus for examining the alignment or mounting condition of a wheel of an automobile, bus, truck, trailer or the like has been used. Various conditions are set in a wheel mounted on a vehicle and in particular the so-called inclination angles, such as toe angles, camber angles and caster angles are set in a wheel regarding its running performance. These inclination angles are examined once as one item of examination of a vehicle before the vehicle is shipped after manufacture, and they are also examined when a maintenance operation, such as exchange of wheels, is to be carried out for a vehicle after a period of use. In order for a vehicle to have an excellent running performance, it is important that these inclination angles be properly set and maintained. In addition, as a dynamic characteristic of a wheel, or a characteristic of a wheel while the wheel is in rotation, such parameters as wobbling of a wheel to the left and to the right and steered angle of a wheel are important. Since the running performance of a vehicle can be significantly affected by such a dynamic characteristic of wheels, it is quite important that the dynamic characteristic of a wheel can be measured at high accuracy. Moreover, there are those vehicles which use the so-called double wheel or double tire comprised of a pair of sub-wheels fixedly mounted side-by-side so as to increase the ability to support a heavier load. Since the stability of such a heavy duty vehicle is extremely important from the view point of safety in driving, it is also important that examination of such a double tire can be carried out properly and accurately.
Japanese Pat. Laid-open Pub. Nos. 51-83301 and 54-49701 disclose techniques for measuring the toe angle and/or camber angle of a wheel while the wheel is maintained in rotation. However, according to the teachings of these prior art techniques, although a wheel to be examined is supported on a pair of rollers to keep the wheels in rotation, either of the side surfaces of the wheel is not supported or a contact roller is brought into rolling contact with one side surface of the wheel to take measurements and the geometrical center of a wheel as an object to be measured is not located or determined by clamping the wheel from both sides, so that accurate measurements cannot be taken. On the other hand, Japanese Pat. Appln. Nos. 58-109235 and 59-9502 and Pat. Laid-open Pub. No. 61-41913 corresponding in content to U.S. Pat. No. 4,567,667, disclose techniques for locating or determining the geometrical center of a wheel supported on a floating table by clamping the wheel from both sides. However, according to these techniques, since the wheel supported on the floating table is static and non-rotating, there is no way to measure the dynamic characteristic of the wheel.
Japanese Pat. Laid-open Pub. No. 63-286742 corresponding to Japan Pat. Appln. 62-121128 and in content to U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,560 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,962,664 a divisional thereof discloses a wheel examining apparatus capable of measuring the dynamic characteristic of a wheel while keeping the wheel in rotation under the condition of clamping the wheel from both sides. According to the teachings of this prior art reference, since a wheel is supported on a pair of rollers and the wheel is clamped by rollers at its opposite side surfaces, the dynamic measurement of a wheel can be carried out. However, the apparatus disclosed in this reference is suited mainly for examination of a wheel mounted on a four-wheel vehicle having two axles. Accordingly, the apparatus of the above-described prior art reference is not always satisfactory, in particular, for heavy load vehicles, such as larger-sized automobiles, trucks, buses and trailers, which normally have three or more axles and/or the so-called double wheel comprised of a pair of sub-wheels mounted side-by-side. For example, there are needs for improvements in a wheel guiding apparatus for guiding a wheel to a predetermined location of a wheel examining apparatus, improvements in examination of wheel alignment in a multi-axle vehicle having three or more axles, and improvements inaccuracy in measuring the inclination angle of each of the component wheels in a double wheel system and in examination of a wheel of a vehicle suited for carrying heavy loads.


A method for canceling feedback in an acoustic system including a microphone, a signal path, a speaker and means for detecting presence of feedback between the speaker and the microphone, the method including providing an LMS algorithm for processing the signal; where the LMS algorithm operates with a predetermined adaptation speed when feedback is not present; where the LMS algorithm operates an adaptation speed faster than the predetermined adaptation speed when feedback is present, and where the means for detecting the presence of feedback is used to control the adaptation speed selection o the LMS algorithm, where the feedback detection means comprises bandwidth detection means for determining the presence of a feedback signal.

The present invention is based on algorithms previously proposed in the literature. The invention concerns a number of algorithm modifications which overcome some of the limitations of other systems used for feedback reduction in hearing aids.
The invention relates to a feedback cancellation algorithm which does not need an artificial noise signal in order to estimate the feedback transfer function. The input signal received from the environment, or the feedback oscillation signal, is used to drive the estimation process. In this fashion, the hearing aid user does not listen to an added noise signal, and a higher sound quality is possible. However, it is well known that such 'no noise' algorithms can have audible side effects under certain circumstances, especially when environmental signals with long autocorrelation functions are present at the microphone.
The autocorrelation function for a signal describes the average correlation between two signal values which are separated by a time difference "Lag". In loose terms, the autocorrelation function describes how "predictable" a signal value is, given the other samples in the signal. Some signals, for example periodic signals, are highly predictable and, correspondingly, the autocorrelation function does not vanish even for large values of Lag. Other signals, such as white noise, are generally not predictable, and their autocorrelation function quickly vanishes for increasing values of Lag. For signals with a long autocorrelation function, a future sample value can be predicted with a high degree of confidence, given the past samples. In other words, new samples of the signal do not provide much new information. Careful analysis of feedback cancellation systems that signals with long autocorrelation may drive the adaptive system to produce poor estimates of the feedback path.
It is the objective of the present invention to provide a method and a hearing aid for feedback cancellation, which improves the result of the feedback cancellation by having fewer audible side effects and thereby gives an improved user comfort.

Feedback cancellation using bandwidth detection


An antistatic transport package for LCD cells. A case includes a body and a cover with cushioning members mounted on the inner surfaces thereof. Protective film surrounds the LCD cells in the case. The antistatic transport package also uses replaceable film in the body, enclosing the protective film and the LCD cells, preventing contamination.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transport package, and in particular to an antistatic transport package for LCD cells.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, liquid crystal display (LCD) cells comprise partially completed LCD panels, or glass substrates enclosing liquid crystal molecules therebetween without surface mounting control chips or assembly frame of conventional LCD panels. After fabrication, LCD cells have to be packed in boxes for transport to subsequent assembly facilities by air, land, or sea transports for following fabricating steps.
In FIG. 1, the conventional package 10 for LCD cells 1 comprises inner and outer boxes 12, 16. The inner box 12 has a plurality of spacers 124 with equal intervals 122 to position the LCD cells 1. After LCD cells 1 are vertically placed into the inner box 12 and the cover 14 is closed, the inner box 12 is placed into the outer box 16 and the cover 18 closes. Because the inner box is made of resilient polystyrene plastic and the outer box of polypropylene, LCD cells therein are protected from contaminants, electrostatic charges and damage from impact during transport. However, the profile of the conventional transport package is large and occupies much space during transport, complicating storage and transport and increasing costs. There is, thus, a need for a compact and reliable transport package for LCD cells.

Antistatic transport package for LCD cells


A drink holder assembly includes a drink holder which is mountable above a tray, such as an airline table tray mounted on the back of an airline chair. Typically, a support extends downwardly from the drink holder and a mounting mechanism connected to the support removably mounts the drink holder on the tray. A reading light is preferably mounted on the drink holder to provide light directed toward the tray. The assembly may include another light so that the assembly serves as a flashlight useful for emergency purposes. The assembly is collapsible to fit within a purse or briefcase. The drink holder may be spaced sufficiently above the tray to accommodate a laptop computer seated on the tray.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to a portable drink holder. More particularly, the invention relates generally to a collapsible and portable drink holder which is mountable on an airline tray table or the like. Specifically, the invention relates to such a drink holder having an internal reading light and/or emergency light.
2. Background Information
As is well known, commercial airlines utilize tray tables which are mounted on the rear of the seats within aircraft. Similarly, some trains, buses and other vehicles use such tray tables. Among various configurations are tray tables which may be stowed in recesses in the rear of the seat or may fit within arm rests. Some tray tables are removable while others are permanently attached to the seat. The primary purpose of such tray tables is to provide a stowable table on which passengers (airline or otherwise) place food and drink. Obviously, these tray tables are also used to support various other items such as books, magazines, laptop computers and so forth. These tray tables are relatively small and thus can accommodate only a relatively small number of items thereon. This limited amount of space makes it difficult for the passenger to use the tray table to support the reading material or the like along with drink containers. Thus, there is a need in the art for a drink holder for supporting drink containers separate from the tray table so that the tray table may be used for other purposes without interference from drink containers seated thereon. The present invention solves this and other problems in the art.

Portable drink holder with internal reader light


A hybrid inspection system of the present invention is an inspection system including a first inspection device (1) for inspecting a sample (11) based on X-ray measurement data obtained by irradiating the sample (11) with X-rays, and a second inspection device (2) for inspecting the sample (11) by a measuring method using no X-rays. The X-ray measurement data obtained by the first inspection device or an analysis result of the X-ray measurement data is output to the second inspection device (2). In the second inspection device (2), the structure of the sample (11) is analyzed by using the X-ray measurement data input from the first inspection device (1) or the analysis result of the X-ray measurement data.

The shape of an electronic element such as semiconductor or the like which is manufactured by laminating multiple thin films on a substrate according to a lithography technique varies depending on states such as the film thickness, density, crystallinity, etc. of a thin film to be formed, and a lithography processing condition. Therefore, an inspection device capable of accurately measuring the shape of a processed element has been needed. The shape of this type of processed element is called as CD (Critical Dimension) as an important numerical value to be managed in a semiconductor process.
A transmission electron microscope (TEM) and a scanning electron microscope (SEM) are known as an inspection device for observing the shape of an element as described above by preparing a sliced sample. However, since these inspection devices destroy the sample, there are disadvantages that the sample cannot be measured on an in-line basis during a semiconductor manufacturing process, total inspection cannot be performed, a measurement result cannot be fed back to a previous step, the measurement result cannot be fed forward to a subsequent step, etc.
On the other hand, an inspection device using a scanning electron microscope (CD-SEM: Critical Dimension-Scanning Electron Microscope), an inspection device using an optical method (OCD: Optical Critical Dimension), an inspection device using an atomic force microscope (CD-AFM: Critical Dimension Atomic Force Microscope) and the like have been proposed as inspection devices for non-destructively measuring the shapes of elements as described above on an in-line basis during a semiconductor manufacturing process.
Furthermore, an X-ray nano shape measuring apparatus (CD-SAXS: Critical Dimension Small Angle X-ray Scattering) using X-ray small angle scattering has been proposed as an inspection device for accurately determining a repeated pattern shape using X-rays. For example, Patent Documents 1 and 2 disclose prior arts of CD-SAXS.


An object of the present invention is to provide a diamond-coated hard material having a high bonding strength to a substrate and a diamond-coated throwaway insert capable of cutting various light alloys such as Al-Si alloys at a high cutting rate for a long time. This object can effectively be attained by a diamond-coated hard material comprising a sintered body consisting of Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 as a predominant component, at least a part of the sintered body having a sintered surface at least a part of which is coated with diamond and a diamond-coated throwaway insert having a diamond- or diamond-like carbon-coated layer with a thickness of 0.1 to 200 .mu.m, deposited from gaseous phase, on the surface of a substrate consisting of Si.sub.3 N.sub.4, as a predominant component, in which the surface state of the substrate is maintained as sintered and a part or whole of the sintered surface is coated with the diamond- or diamond-like carbon-coated layer.

Diamond having many excellent properties for example very high hardness, chemical stability, high heat conductivity, high sound wave propagation speed, etc. has widely been used as hard materials utilizing these properties or diamond or diamond-like carbon coated hard materials, illustrative of which are as follows:
1 single crystal diamond, sintered diamonds or diamond-coated cutting tools such as throwaway inserts, drills, microdrills, endmills, etc., which are capable of cutting Al, Cu, various practically used light metals or alloys thereof at a high rate and obtaining well finished surfaces, because of hardly reacting with these metals or alloys.
2 various wear resistance tools such as bonding tools capable of working for a long time with a high dimensional precision, because of high wear resistance.
3 various machine parts such as radiating plates.
4 various vibration plates such as speakers.
5 various electronic parts.
In the production of artificial diamond, there are methods of forming diamond coating layers from gaseous phase, for example, microwave plasma CVD method, RF-plasma CVD method, EA-CVD method, induction field microwave plasma CVD method, RF hot plasma CVD method, DC plasma CVD method, DC plasma jet method, filament hot CVD method, combustion method and like. These methods are useful for the production of diamond-coated hard materials.
As a surface-coated tool, there have widely been used surface-coated throwaway inserts in which a monolayer or multilayer consisting of carbides, nitrides and carbonitrides of Ti, Hf or Zr or oxide of Al is formed on the surface of a cemented carbide substrate by PVD or CVD method.
Diamond has a very high hardness and chemical stability and hardly reacts with Al, Cu, practically used light metals, etc. as described above. Thus, when diamond is applied to a cutting tool and subjected to cutting of such light metals or alloys thereof at a high rate, the surface of a workpiece is well finished. Accordingly, single crystal diamond, sintered diamond cutting tools or diamond-coated cutting tools have widely been put to practical use.
Since many of the diamond-coated tools are lacking in bonding strength of the diamond-coated layer to a substrate, the diamond-coated layer is stripped to shorten the life in many eases. The reason therefor is given below:
1) Since diamond is a very stable material and does not form compounds with all materials, it is considered that a diamond-coated layer and substrate are bonded by an intermolecular force. The intermolecular force provides a lower bonding strength to a substrate as compared with a coated layer bonded through formation of a chemical compound.
2) The thermal expansion coefficients of diamond and a substrate are so different that a residual stress is caused in a diamond-coated layer and the bonding strength between them is decreased.
At the boundary between a substrate and a diamond-coated layer, the intermolecular force is increased with the increase of the contacted area thereof and the bonding strength of the diamond-coated layer to the substrate is thus increased. The higher is the nuclei-generating density of diamond on the surface of the substrate, the larger is the contacted area of the substrate and the diamond-coated layer.
Thus, there has been proposed a method comprising subjecting the surface of a substrate to etching to remove metals having bad influences upon formation of the diamond coating layer on the substrate surface and thereby increasing the formation density of diamond nuclei on the substrate surface (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 201475/1989, etching the surface of a cemented carbide with an acid solution to remove Co metal component and to suppress graphitization of the diamond nuclei; Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 124573/1986, subjecting the surface of a substrate to a scratching treatment with diamond grains or a diamond wheel and thereby improving the nuclei forming density on the surface of the substrate), etc. However, the resulting bonding strength is not sufficient.
As described above, diamond is chemically stable and does not form intermediate compounds with all materials. When a diamond-coated hard material having an excellent bonding strength is prepared, therefore, such a condition must be provided that a diamond coating layer and a substrate are bonded by a strong physical strength.
As a substrate having substantially the same heat expansion coefficient as diamond, a sintered body containing Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 as a predominant component or a sintered body containing SiC as a predominant component has been proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 291493/1986. According to these proposals, the stripping phenomenon of the diamond-coated layer due to the thermal residual stress can be solved, but there still remains a problem of the surface treatment and under the situation, a diamond-coated layer having a sufficient bonding strength to a substrate has not been obtained.

Diamond-coated hard material, throwaway insert and a process for the production thereof


A method to generate linkage indicative data for a linkage indicative diagram, representing a linkage at least between two information resources being interrelated with each other, in a printing apparatus, is provided. The method includes collecting at least two pieces of primary linkage information respectively identifying the at least two information resources and subsidiary linkage information included in each of the at least two plurality of information resources, storing the collected subsidiary linkage information in association with corresponding one of the at least two pieces of primary linkage information in a storage, judging whether each of the at least two pieces of primary linkage information stored in the storage is included in the subsidiary linkage information, determining the linkage between the at least two information resources, and creating the linkage indicative data to represent the linkage indicative diagram.

1. Technical Field
An aspect of the present invention relates to a method to generate data indicative of a linkage structure of interrelated information resources, a printing apparatus to print the linkage information, and a computer usable medium therefor.
2. Related Art
When information resources which are interrelated with one another are used, a linkage structure of the resources can present beneficial information to a user. Linkage indicative data to indicate the linkage structure can be generated by a computer program. FIG. 10 illustrates interrelated information resources A, B, and C. When a URL (uniform resource locator) indicating a location of the information resource A is specified by the user, the information resource A is searched to obtain URLs which indicate locations of the other information resources B and C. When the information resource A is searched through, next, the linked information resources B, C, are further searched for a URL which is not yet obtained. For example, according to the present example shown in FIG. 10, the information resource B is searched through, and a URL which indicates a location of an information resource D is obtained. A computer program to perform such a linkage searching and obtaining operation is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication 2005-4322.
FIG. 11 illustrates linkage information concerning the URL obtained in the linkage searching operation as described above. When the interrelated information resources are searched through and the URLs included in the information resources are obtained, the URLs are organized to make the linkage information as shown in FIG. 11. FIG. 12 illustrates a linkage indicative tree to present the linkage information generated in the above-referenced program to be displayed on a screen. According to the above-referenced program, contents of an information resource included in a specific area of the linkage indicative tree specified by a user can be printed on a recording medium. Further, the linkage indicative tree indicating the linkage structure of the interrelated information resources can be printed.

Method to generate linkage indicative data, computer usable medium therefor, and printing apparatus


A ratchet wrench having a lamp circuit assembly mounted in a stepped longitudinal center through hole defined within a ratchet unit thereof, the lamp circuit assembly including a lamp holder, a battery cell, a metal spring connected between the lamp holder and the battery cell, a switch fastened to the ratchet unit by a screw joint, and a metal contact plate turned with the switch to close/open the circuit of the battery cell so as to turn on/off the lamp holder.

The present invention relates to a ratchet wrench, and more particularly to such a ratchet wrench which has a lamp circuit assembly installed in the ratchet unit thereof, and controlled to emit light by rotating a switch.
A variety of ratchet wrench have been disclosed, and have appeared on the market. These ratchet wrenches are functional, however, they are not practical for use in a dark place. When using a ratchet wrench in a drak place, a flash light is required to provide illumination. However, it is inconvenient to operate a ratchet wrench with one hand when the other hand holding a flash light.
It is one object of the present invention to provide a ratchet wrench which has a lamp circuit assembly installed in the ratchet unit thereof for providing illumination during the operation of the ratchet wrench. It is another object of the present invention to provide a ratchet wrench with a lamp circuit assembly which is controlled to emit light by rotating a switch is fastened to the ratchet unit by a screw joint.


The present invention discloses a novel cell surface marker and antigenic portions thereof; antibodies reactive with said marker; polynucleotides encoding said marker and antigenic portions thereof; methods of diagnosis and treatment using said polynucleotides and antibodies.

The present invention relates generally to a novel antigen and to novel hybridoma cell lines, and more specifically to monoclonal cell lines producing monoclonal antibodies reactive with the novel antigen, which antigen can be found, inter alia, on human pancreatic cancer cells.
Cancer currently constitutes the second most common cause of death in the United States. Carcinomas of the pancreas are the eighth most prevalent form of cancer and fourth among the most common causes of cancer deaths in this country. The incidence of pancreatic cancer has been increasing steadily in the past twenty years in most industrialized countries, exhibiting the characteristics of a growing epidemiological problem.
The prognosis for pancreatic carcinoma is, at present, very poor, it displays the lowest five-year survival rate among all cancers. Such prognosis results primarily from delayed diagnosis, due in part to the fact that the early symptoms are shared with other more common abdominal ailments. The diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is often dependent on exploratory surgery, inevitably performed after the disease has advanced considerably.
Substantial efforts have been directed to developing tools useful for early diagnosis of pancreatic and other carcinomas. Nonetheless, a definitive diagnosis is often dependent on exploratory surgery which is inevitably performed after the disease has advanced past the point when early treatment may be effected. One promising method for early diagnosis of various forms of cancer is the identification of specific biochemical moieties, termed antigens present on the surface of cancerous cells. Antibodies which will specifically recognize and bind to the antigens present on the surfaces of cancer cells potentially provide powerful tools for the diagnosis and treatment of the particular malignancy. Tumor specific cell surface antigens have previously been identified for certain melanomas, lymphomas malignancies of the colon and reproductive tract.
There thus exists a great and long-felt need for a cell surface marker which is present on the surface of neoplastic cells, including those of the pancreas, and for antibodies which specifically recognize such a cell surface marker. Such markers and corresponding antibodies would be useful not only in the early detection of pancreatic and other cancers, but in their treatment as well. The present invention satisfies these needs and provides related advantages as well.
Secondly, the interaction of cells with the extracellular matrix is important for the formation, maintenance, and repair of tissues as well as other biological processes such as the metastasis of cancer cells. This cellular adhesion is mediated, in part, by a family of cell surface receptors called integrins (Hynes, (1987) Cell 48:549-554; Ruoslahti and Pierschbacher, (1987) Science 238:491-497; Buck and Horwitz, (1987) Ann. Rev. Cell Biol. 3:179-205). These receptors form a link between the extracellular matrix and the cytoskeleton and may transmit signals from the extracellular to the intracellular environment which affect cell behavior.
Cell adhesion is critical to many biological processes, including embryonal development, tissue repair, immune response, and malignant transformation. (Ekblom, P., et al. (1986) Ann. Rev. Cell. Biol. 2:27 47; Yamada, K. M. (1983) Ann. Rev. Biochem. 52:761-799; Edelman, G. M. (1983) Science 219:450-457.) Several laboratories have recently done biochemical characterization of adhesion receptors for extracellular matrix and plasma proteins such as fibronectin and vitronectin as well as leukocyte adhesion receptors. (Tamkun, J. W., et al. (1986) Cell 46:271-282; Damsky, C. H., et al. (1981) J. Cell. Biol. 89:173-184; Pytela, R., et al. (1985) Cell 40:191-198; Fitzgerald, L. A., et al. (1987) J. Biol. Chem. 262:3936-3939; Giancotti, F. G. (1985) Exp. Cell Res. 156:182-190; Springer, T. A. (1985) Nature 314:540-542.)
These adhesion receptor proteins have been shown to be structurally homologous to each other. (Charo, I. F. (1986) Proc. Nat'l Acad. Sci. USA 83:8351-8355; Suzuki, S. (1986) Proc. Nat'l Acad. Sci. USA 83:8416-8418; Kishimoto, T. K. (1987) Cell 48:681-690; Takada, Y. (1987) Nature 326:607-609.) These related molecules have now been organized into a protein superfamily, designated "/integrins", after the chicken fibronectin/laminin receptor. (Hynes, R. O. (1987) Cell 48:549-554.)
Integrins are heterodimers comprised of .alpha.- and .beta.-subunits that are noncovalently associated, transmembrane glycoproteins. At least 11 .alpha.-chains (Ruoslahti and Giancotti, (1989) Cancer Cells 1:119-126) and 6 .beta.-chains (Sheppard et al , (1990) J. Biol. Chem. 265:11502-11507) have been recognized in humans. Each .alpha.-subunit tends to associate with only one type of .beta.-subunit, but there are several exceptions to this rule (Hemler et al., (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264:6529-6535; Sonnenberg et al., (1988) Nature 336:487-489; Kennel et al., (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264:15515-15521; Cheresh et al., (1989) Cell 57:59-69; Holzmann et al., (1989) Cell 56:37-46; Freed et al., (1989) EMBO 8:2955-2965).
There thus has been a great and long-felt need for an understanding of cell surface markers, such as integrins or cell adhesion receptors, which are present on neoplastic cells, not only those of the pancreas, and for antibodies which specifically recognize such markers. To understand the marker at a molecular level would provide for a refinement in the early detection of cancers or other pathologies involving cell adhesion disorders, such as epithelial disorders, as well as in their treatment. The present invention satisfies these needs and provides additional advantages as well.

Method of diagnosing the presence of abnormal epithelial tissue using monoclonal antibodies to the A.sub.6 B.sub.4 cell surface protein