A system for providing the ability to obtain consumption data from a communication device used to transmit accumulated data from the meter register. The system includes a programming port formed as part of the communication device. The programming port includes the programming coil that allows the accumulation data received from the meter register to be read by an interrogation device. Further, the programming coil allows programming information to be transferred to the communication device from the interrogation device. The system can also include a reading module coupled to the programming port of the communication device through an inductive coupling. The reading module can extend through a pit lid such that the reading module can be accessed without removing the pit lid.

The present invention generally relates to the automatic reading of utility meters. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and apparatus that allows an electronic meter register that is connected to an automatic meter reading (AMR) communication device to be read locally without requiring any additional conductive connections.
A long standing problem in the utility industry is the economic reading of the utility meters without inconvenience to the homeowner. The problem is especially acute in connection with the reading of water meters. In geographic areas that are subject to freezing temperatures, it has in the past been necessary to install the meters within the residence to prevent damage to meter when the temperature drops such that the water within the meter freezes. However, the reading of such meter installations presents a number of problems, such as the inconvenience to the homeowner as well as the inconvenience to the meter reader when the homeowner is not present at the time of the individual meter reading.
In addition, manual meter reading has a significant disadvantage in that it requires a large amount of manpower, leading to significant expense. Further, meter readers may erroneously record the numeral values of the meter register or the homeowner may not be present at the time the meter reading is to take place.
One solution to these problems in the past was to provide a remote register that is located outside of the residence, preferably on the exterior walls of the residence. The register is typically electrically connected to the device on the meter within the residence that provides pulses or other electrical signal representative of the volumetric flow of the water through the meter. Although this system addresses the problem of inconvenience to the homeowner, the solution still requires the manual reading of the meter on a periodic basis.
In order to solve the personnel requirements of physical meter reading, a large number of remote meter reading units have been developed. These meter reading units may be, for example, an automatic meter reading (AMR) unit. The meter register comprises a sensor to detect the rotational movement of components within the meter to generate an electronic count of the volume of commodity that flows through the meter. The recorded data from the meter is broadcast by a communication device of the AMR unit using an RF signal. In such types of systems, the meter measurement is broadcast from the communication device using an RF signal that can be read from a remote location. In these remote meter reading systems, the antenna of the communication device typically extends slightly above a pit lid such that the radio frequency signals generated by the antenna can be transmitted away from the meter pit. In many situations, the pit lid is formed from a metallic material, such as iron, that significantly inhibits the transmission of radio frequency signals therethrough.
In current AMR applications being developed, a radio transmission circuit including an antenna is used to transmit meter-related information over a relatively long distance, such as up to one-half mile. The use of an AMR radio to transmit meter-related information over a relatively long distance allows the meter data to be read from a remote location and eliminates the requirement of a meter reader physically interrogating the meter from a location proximate to the meter. Such an AMR system is able to transmit meter-related information from the meter to a remote location, such as a gateway node, located within the neighborhood of the meter to be read. This type of remote meter reading dramatically reduces the amount of manpower required to obtain meter readings.
Although AMR applications that utilize a radio signal communication device are useful in reducing the personnel required to obtain meter readings, many utilities express a desire for the ability to make manual, localized meter readings in addition to the readings transmitted by the communication device. Such manual readings are typically done utilizing a meter reading system, such as the TouchRead® system, including a hand-held meter reading device, such as the AutoGun™ hand-held device, both available from Sensus Metering. The TouchRead® system allows service personnel to place the hand-held interrogating device near an external reading module that typically extends through a pit lid or is accessible along the exterior of a consumer's home. The hand-held interrogating device is inductively coupled to the reading module such that information from the meter register connected to the reading module can be read by the hand-held device.
In a typical installation of an AMR communication device that also includes a manual reading module, the reading module is connected to the communication device using a wired-based conductive connection. The conductive connection between the communication device and the reading module typically requires a gel-cap splicing kit that ensures a weather tight and secure electrical connection between the wires from the communication device and the reading module. Although the gel-cap electrical connection between the communication device and the reading module functions adequately once installed, the electrical connection requires service personnel to take additional steps when installing a meter or when retrofitting an existing meter register with the AMR communication device.
Therefore, a need exists for improved method and system of providing a communication connection between the communication device and a reading module such that the reading module can be coupled to the communication device without the requirement of a conductive connection. Further, a need exists for a dependable and secure connection that allows a programming port on the communication device to be accessed from the exterior of the enclosed pit.

Inductive communications port for an automatic meter reading communication device


A wellbore perforating apparatus and method according to which a perforating gun and a sensor sub are run into a wellbore toward a downhole location at which the wellbore is to be perforated. Detonable components of the perforating gun are energized to perforate the wellbore at the downhole location. An acceleration of the perforating gun and a pressure and a temperature of the wellbore are detected using the sensor sub during a time interval encompassing the energization of the detonable components. The detected acceleration, pressure, and temperature are compared to benchmark energetic responses for both detonation and deflagration events. Based on this comparison, a decision can be made as to whether an incubation period is needed to allow a reaction of the detonable components to weaken before retrieving the perforating gun from the wellbore.

Wellbores are typically drilled using a drill string with a drill bit secured to the lower free end and then, in the situation of cased-hole wells, completed by positioning a casing string within the wellbore and cementing the casing string in position. The casing increases the integrity of the wellbore and provides a flow path between the surface and a subterranean formation for: the injection of treating chemicals into the formation to stimulate production; receiving the flow of hydrocarbons from the formation; and permitting the introduction of fluids for reservoir management or disposal purposes. Perforating has conventionally been performed by lowering a perforating gun on a carrier string down a casing string within a wellbore. Once a desired wellbore depth is reached adjacent the target formation, the gun is secured and then fired. The gun may have one or many charges that are detonated using a firing control, which firing control may be activated from the surface via wireline or by hydraulic or mechanical means. Once the firing control is activated, the charge is detonated to perforate (penetrate) the casing, the cement, and, to a short distance, the formation. This establishes the desired fluid communication between the inside of the wellbore casing and the formation.
Typical perforating guns used in service operations for perforating a formation generally include explosive perforating charges mounted in a charge tube and ballistically connected together via explosive detonating cord. However, due to time-temperature limits of the explosive perforating charges and/or the detonating cord, that is, due to said components becoming degraded or unstable over time or at certain temperatures, incomplete firing of the perforating gun may occur when a firing attempt is made, presenting both performance and safety concerns.

Assessing a downhole state of perforating explosives


A method for handling re-establishment of a radio link control entity having a transmitting side and a receiving side in a wireless communications system includes storing a plurality of control protocol data units, and reserving a poll super field in the plurality of control protocol data units when only the receiving side is re-established.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for handling re-establishment of a radio link control entity in a wireless communications system, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for timely polling status of a peer radio link control entity, and preventing waste of system resource.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The third generation (3G) mobile communications system has adopted a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) wireless air interface access method for a cellular network. WCDMA can provide high frequency spectrum utilization, universal coverage, and high quality, high speed multimedia data transmission. The WCDMA method also meets all kinds of QoS requirements simultaneously, providing diverse flexible two-way transmission services and better communication quality to reduce transmission interruption rates.
The Access Stratum (AS) of the 3G mobile communications system comprises various protocol stacks, such as Radio Resource Control (RRC), Radio Link Control (RLC), Media Access Control (MAC), Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), and Broadcast/Multicast Control (BMC). In addition, the 3G mobile communications system also provides different levels of transmission quality, and can operate in different modes according to different transmission quality requirements, such as Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), and Acknowledged Mode (AM). TM is appropriate for use in services with high requirements for real-time transmission, UM is appropriate for use in services with requirements for real-time transmission and packet sequencing, and AM is appropriate for use in services with low requirements for real-time transmission, but high requirements for data accuracy.
In AM, the RLC layer is a combination of a transmitting side and a receiving side. The transmitting side and the receiving side each process transmission and reception in the RLC layer, and both sides can share system resources. In some circumstances, the RLC layer must be re-established, e.g. when starting a re-establishment procedure. The prior art re-establishes the RLC layer by re-establishing the transmitting side or the receiving side.
Directed at operations corresponding to re-establishing the RLC layer, the related communications protocol specification discloses that if only the receiving side is re-established, the prior art will discard all control PDUs (Protocol Data Unit) except MRW SUFI (Move Receiving Window Super Field). In other words, a POLL SUFI (Poll Super Field) will be discarded. The POLL SUFI is utilized for polling status of the peer RLC entity. Therefore, when only the receiving side is re-established, the prior art cannot timely request a status report from the peer RLC entity.
Similarly, the related communications protocol specification further discloses that if only the transmitting side of the RLC entity is re-established, the prior art will discard MRW SUFI, RESET PDU, and RESET ACK PDU. In other words, the POLL SUFI will not be discard in this case, causing transmission of an unnecessary STATUS PDU or piggybacked STATUS PDU and waste of system resource.

Method and related apparatus for handling re-establishment of radio link control entity in a wireless communications system


A method for integrated audio-visual localizing and tracking of at least one object. The method includes the steps of capturing and transmitting an image of a video scene using a camera at an instant of time, identifying an object contained in the image having a preselected visual feature, and estimating a location of the object by determining an angular orientation relative to the image plane of the camera of an imaginary line extending from an optical center of the camera to a point on the image plane of the camera representing a portion of the object. The method further includes the steps of converting acoustic waves from an audio source into audio signals using at least two microphones at substantially the same time, identifying the audio source by determining a locus of points representing an estimate of the location of the audio source on the basis of the audio signals. An improved estimate of the location of the object is computed by determining the location of a region of intersection between the imaginary line and the locus.

Single-modality systems for localizing and tracking moving objects based only on either audio or visual cues are known. These single-modality systems are not suitable for multimedia applications such as, for example, teleconferencing, multimedia kiosks and interactive games where accurate localizing and tracking of an object or audio-visual source, typically a person, is important.
For example, in Rashid, R. F., "Towards A System For The Interpretation Of Moving Light Displays", 2 IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 574-581 (1980), a method is described for interpreting moving light displays (MLD). In general, Rashid teaches segmenting out from MLD images individual points corresponding to moving people. The individual points are grouped together to form clusters based on, inter alia, the positions and velocities of the individual points; the formed clusters represent individual objects. Tracking is performed by matching points between consecutive frames based on the relative distances between the location of points in the current frame and the location of predicted points in a previous frame. The predicted position is based on the average velocity of the point in the previous frame and the relative distance, which is calculated using a Euclidean function.
The technique described by Rashid has several drawbacks. Specifically, the MLD system requires several frames before a good object separation is obtained, and no criteria is provided for determining when satisfactory object separation has occurred. In addition, no mechanism is provided for propagating the generated clusters to prior and subsequent frames for continuity in the motion representation.
In another camera-only tracking system described by Rossi, M. and Bozzoli, A., in "Tracking And Counting Moving People", Proceedings Of The Second IEEE International Conference On Image Processing, 212-16 (1994), a vertically mounted camera is employed for tracking and counting moving people. This system operates under the assumption that people enter a scene along either the top or bottom of the image where alerting zones are positioned for detecting people moving into the scene. A major drawback of this system, however, is that in reality people can also appear in a scene, inter alia, from behind another object or from behind an already-identified person. In other words, people may be wholly or partially occluded upon initially entering a scene and such persons would not be identified by this system. The problem of identifying occluded persons is also present in the system described by Rohr, K., in "Towards Model Based Recognition Of Human Movements In Image Sequences", 59 Computer Vision, Graphics And Image Processing: Image Understanding, 94-115 (1994).
In addition, the systems described by Smith, S. M., and Brady, J. M., in "A Scene Segmenter: Visual Tracking of Moving Vehicles", 7 Engineering Applications Of Artificial Intelligence 191-204 (1994); and in "ASSET-2: Real-Time Motion Segmentation And Shape Tracking", 17 IEEE Transactions On Pattern Analysis And Machine Intelligence, 814-20 (1995), are designed specifically for tracking objects such as moving vehicles, and accordingly identify features representing corners or abrupt changes on the boundaries of the vehicles. This approach utilizes the fact and requires that the tracked objects are rigid and, thus, permits the use of constant velocity or constant acceleration models. This technique is clearly unsuitable for the tracking of people.
Localization systems based only on microphones are also inadequate as these systems are highly susceptible to multipath interference in a reverberative environment wherein the microphones receive both the direct-path acoustic waves (directly from the audio source) as well as indirect-path acoustic waves echoing or reverberating off of large surfaces. This problem is further exacerbated if multiple speakers talk simultaneously.
Prior art multimedia conferencing systems employing a single camera and a plurality of microphones are also known. However, in these systems, the microphones are merely used to guide the field of view of a camera toward the speaker seated at a conference table or otherwise predeterminedly positioned relative to the microphones.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,264,928 to Schober discloses a conference video system having a microphone disposed at each of the conference seats arranged in row, and an automatically adjustable mirror disposed above these seats for aiming the camera's field of view toward the speaker. The system utilizes the time two adjacent microphones receive a speaker's voice to generate the requisite control signals used for driving a servomotor to position the mirror. This system, however, does not localize or track a plurality of speakers who may speak simultaneously and move about.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,686,957 to Baker discloses an automatic, voice-directional video camera image steering system for teleconferencing. The system uses a video camera with a hemispheric lens disposed at the center of the conference table to capture a panoramic but distorted video scene around the table. To determine the direction of a speaker relative to the camera lens, the system employs an array of microphones disposed on the table and around the hemispheric lens. An audio detection circuit connected to the microphones provides information concerning the general direction of the speaker so that the system can select and display the appropriate image segment containing the speaker in the proper viewing aspect ratio using view-warping techniques. Manual camera movement or automated mechanical camera movement such as, for example, panning and zooming is thereby eliminated. However, this system, like that of Schober, also does not track or localize a speaker.
It is therefore desirable to provide a robust localization and tracking method and system which overcomes the aforementioned deficiencies of the prior art systems through the integrated use of audio and visual cues and which localizes and tracks a plurality of objects, typically people, some of whom may at times move outside a camera's field of view, speak at the same time or during a period of silence.

Audio-visual object localization and tracking system and method therefor


A toy vehicle which allows a child to ride thereon, the vehicle having a seat for the child and an opening in the floor of the vehicle forward of the seat to allow the child to extend his feet therethrough to contact the ground and thereby propel the vehicle, the vehicle having a sliding floor panel which can alternately be positioned to cover or to expose the floor opening, the vehicle also having a set of operable parts which simulate automotive parts, including the engine, spark plugs, air filter, coolant cap and oil dipstick, on which maintenance can be performed by a vehicle owner.

Numerous examples of toy vehicles, such as automobiles, trucks, ambulances, racing cars and the like can be found in the art. The primary purpose of these toys is to provide means for children to entertain themselves. Some of these toy vehicles are designed to be ridden by the children. They can be propelled by pushing the toy or by pushing pedals which in turn drive the toy. These toys which a child pushes by placing his or her feet on the ground while sitting on the toy and pushing with his or her legs can be dangerous because other children may push the toy while the rider's feet are on the ground, causing the rider's feet to be caught under the toy and injured.
These riding toys do not have any means to prevent children from being injured in this manner. The invention addresses this danger by providing a movable floor panel which provides a surface on which a child can rest his or her feet while riding the toy and being pushed by someone else, yet slides out of the way to allow the child to push the toy with his or her own legs and feet.
Toy vehicles generally are not designed to serve an educational purpose, even though there is an increasing focus on this function. For example, some dolls are designed to teach infants how to dress themselves and some electronic toys are designed to teach children to associate animals with the sounds they make or to learn addition or spelling. Toy vehicles found in the prior art, however, are only intended to amuse children, and not to teach them.
Although toy vehicles exercise children's imaginations and sometimes their bodies, they do not attempt to teach children in the same sense as "educational" toys. The invention fills this gap by introducing operational elements of vehicles, such as the engine, spark plugs, air filter, coolant cap and oil dipstick, and by providing toy tools with which children can pretend to work on these parts of the toy vehicle. The invention thereby teaches children some of the basic elements of vehicle maintenance and gives them some familiarity with vehicle operation which allows them to grow into responsible vehicle owners and drivers as adults.


A hierarchical gateway system for use in a message delivery system is disclosed, in which each tier of gateways in the hierarchy includes means for transforming incoming messages in a manner required by downstream end-user devices. The hierarchical gateway system has the advantage of being scalable and extensible while avoiding transmission bottlenecks as the number of end-user device types, and their differing system requirements, increase. The invention is operable in the context of a notification server architecture, as well as the Web.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to communication systems and methods, and more particularly to the communication of messages to one or more devices in an environment in which the devices require that content sent to them be specialized (or transformed) in one or more ways.
2. Description of the Prior Art With
With the proliferation of different types of communication devices comes the need for communication systems that can adapt message content and format to the specific capabilities of a wide array of different end-user devices. This process of adapting a message to the special needs of a target device is known as "transcoding". One system for transcoding is described in U.S. application Ser. No. 09/511,977, filed Feb. 24, 2000 (the "prior application," incorporated herein by reference). As these end-user devices become more pervasive, the demand on network resources for transcoding of messages from the format submitted to the system to a format within the capabilities of the receiving device will become greater and greater. In many cases the receiving device may be one of many different types of devices within a broad class (e.g., PDA's) with each specific type having its own characteristics that differ more or less from those of the other devices within the class and from devices in other classes. Communication systems must be prepared to handle the transcoding of messages for an ever-growing number of different device types while avoiding transmission bottlenecks and limits on scalability.
The present invention improves upon the prior art by providing a hierarchical gateway transcoding technique, for use in systems such as those described in the prior application.

Method and apparatus for providing extensible scalable transcoding of multimedia content

International Business Machines Corporation


A method for counting, by ranges of size, particles flowing through a particle sensor including the steps of flowing a particle through the sensor, thereby producing a voltage pulse which is sampled over a period of time. Sampling yields a plurality of voltage values which includes a latest value and a former value. The latest value is compared with the former value and when less than the former value, the method finds, in a table of threshold voltages, the size range for the particle. A counting bin corresponding to the size range for the particle is then incremented. The former value may be the value immediately preceding the latest value or it may be several "counts" prior to such latest value. The new particle sensor has an inlet, sensing volume, exhaust port, light collection system and an electronic system coupled to the light collection system. The electronic system is programmed to count particles, by size, in any of several unique ways. Depending upon the embodiment, the method and sensor offer improved discrimination to help avoid counting floaters, false peaks and the like.

Counters and sensors are used to detect light scattered by particles entrained in a stream of fluid, e.g., in an air stream. In general, such counters and sensors have a very-small-diameter, highly intense laser beam. The air stream and any particle entrained therein is drawn through the light beam. In the vernacular of the industry, the small spatial region formed by the intersection of the air stream and the laser beam is called the "sensor volume" or the "view volume."
When light strikes the particle, it is scattered. Reflectors direct the scattered light to a photodetector which emits an electrical current pulse, the amplitude of which is generally proportional to the intensity of the light impinging upon it. And, of course, light intensity is a measure of particle size.
Some types of sensors flow air along an enclosed transparent tube; others "project" the air and accompanying particles at a particular flow rate (often measured in cubic feet per minute) from one tube across an open space to another tube. In sensors of the latter type, there is no tube wall (however transparent such wall may be) to impair light scattering and collecting. In other words, the particle is briefly illuminated by a light beam as it "flies" through an open space.
Among other uses, particle counters incorporating particle sensors are used to obtain a measure of air quality by providing information as to the number and size of particles present in some specified volume of air, e.g., a cubic meter of air. Even work environments which appear to human observation to be clean--business offices, manufacturing facilities and the like--are likely to have substantial numbers of airborne particles. While such particles are not usually troublesome to the human occupants, they can create substantial problems in certain types of manufacturing operations.
For example, semiconductors and integrated chips are made in what are known as "clean rooms," the air in which is very well filtered. In fact, clean rooms are usually very slightly pressurized using extremely clean air so that particle-bearing air from the surrounding environs does not seep in. And the trend in the semiconductor and integrated chip manufacturing industry is toward progressively smaller products.
A small foreign particle which migrates into such a product during manufacture can cause premature failure or outright product rejection even before it is shipped to a customer. This continuing "miniaturization" requires corresponding improvements in clean-room environments (and in the related measuring instruments) to help assure that the number and size of airborne particles are reduced below previously-acceptable levels.
Factories making semiconductors and integrated chips are not the only sites at which particle sensors may be used. Makers of pharmaceutical products have applications for such sensors to help exclude foreign matter from medicines and drugs.
Particles which are of concern in clean room and pharmaceutical working environments range in size from a few microns down to so-called "submicron," i.e., 0.1 micron or even smaller. (To give an idea of relative size, it is said that a particle 10 microns in size is about as small as can be seen with the unaided human eye.)
And when operating a particle sensor in such environments, it is preferred to measure the number of particles of each of several different size ranges which pass through the sensor per unit time. The computerized part of the sensor is configured with "bins," i.e., counting registers which add a count based upon data for each of several sizes of particles. For example, the computerized bins may be configured to respectively count particles 0.1 to 0.2 microns in size, particles from 0.2 to 0.3 microns, particles from 0.3 to 0.4 microns and so forth.
Known particle sensors use both analog and digital techniques to determine certain aspects of particles passing through them. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,047,963 (Kosaka) discloses an apparatus configured for blood cell analysis. Data regarding the cell nucleus (rather than the entire cell which, compared to particles of concern in clean room analysis, is quite large) is processed using a digital signal processor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,984,889 (Sommer) discloses a particle size measuring system which uses analog pulses from a photodetector. Such pulses result when a particle passes through the system. It is understood that only the peak amplitude of an analog input pulse is digitized and registered in a computer or the like to increment "counts" of particles of differing sizes. U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,252 (Hollenbeck) discloses a particulate counter which digitizes an analog output. A comparator compares the signal to a threshold voltage value and if the threshold is exceeded (which is interpreted to represent detection of a particle), a sampler performs over 200 samples of the A/D converter output. The single maximum sample is selected and the lesser samples are disregarded.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,424,558 (Borden et al.) also mentions using digital signal processing to perform particle analysis but there is scant information as to how this is done. The Borden et al. apparatus is capable of a type of dynamic tuning, i.e., adjustments to bandwidth and gain to accommodate different types of signal pulses.
While these and other known particle sensors have been generally satisfactory for their intended purposes, they are not without disadvantages. For example, it is highly preferred to be able to distinguish a particle which is to be sized and counted from some sort of "floater," i.e., a vagrant speck of material which passes through the light beam. Such a speck may have simply stuffed off of a tube or housing wall. Some counters, like that of the Hollenbeck patent, count signal peaks or crossings of a photodiode output voltage which exceeds some threshold voltage. In a counter of this type, a floater may produce several false counts.
Another disadvantage of known approaches is evident in the Borden et al. apparatus. Such apparatus cannot be dynamically reconfigured (reconfigured while in operation) to change the value and number of thresholds which define the particle size bins. For greatest flexibility in operation, this would be a desirable feature.
A new particle sensor which addresses disadvantages of known sensors would be an important advance in this field of technology.

Particle sensor and related method offering improved particle discrimination


A control circuit for a dual port cache tag memory is used to reset a snoop valid bit for an entry addressed through one of the dual ports. This port snoops a main memory bus, and a cache tag hit which occurs during a write operation to the main memory bus indicates that the snoop valid bit for the addressed entry should be reset. In order to avoid errors in resetting the snoop valid bit, which errors can occur due to signal propagation delay, the control circuit resets the snoop valid bit only after a preselected internal delay period.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to integrated circuit memory devices, and more specifically to a circuit and method for preventing incorrect writing of data in a dual port cache tag memory which utilizes a snoop valid bit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One type of memory used in computer systems is a cache memory. This is a relatively small, fast memory which resides in the system between the central processor and main system memory. Cache memories include data memory fields for storing data cached from system memory, and tag memory fields for storing the addresses corresponding to the data stored in the data cache.
Some cache tag memory devices, such as that described in the application entitled DUAL-PORT CACHE TAG MEMORY, cited above, have two ports which can access a memory array asynchronously. In devices designed specifically for use as cache tag memories, one of the data ports can write data to a single bit of an entry in the array. This bit is known in the art as a "snoop valid bit", and is used to indicate that the contents of a local processor cache memory have been invalidated by processing occurring elsewhere in the computer system. When another processor or other device in the system writes data to a memory location stored in a local processor cache, that entry is no longer current. The entry is therefore marked invalid by resetting the snoop valid bit for that entry to zero.
In designs such as used by the above-cited application, the snoop valid bit for an entry can be reset to 0 only by the port which snoops the main memory bus, and once reset cannot be set to a value of 1 again until that entry is later reloaded with a new value. Thus, invalidation of an entry is an irreversible act. If invalidation occurs incorrectly, valid cache entries will be marked as invalid, causing a cache miss the next time such entries are referenced.
When cache tag memory chips are connected to provide wider entries as described in the cited application, a signal indicating a match must be communicated between the chips. If this signal is delayed in reaching the snoop bit invalidation circuitry due to parasitic capacitances, the snoop valid bit could be erroneously reset to 0.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a control circuit for dual port cache tag memories which ensures that a snoop valid bit is not erroneously reset to 0. It would be further desirable for such a control circuit to be simple to construct, and not add complexity to a memory cycle for the memory.

Control circuit for resetting a snoop valid bit in a dual port cache tag memory


In one embodiment, a method and system for receiving in a set-top-box a signal including a conditionally accessible content and encoded based on a first audio/video encoding standard (AVES); conditionally accessing the content of the signal in set-top-box based on predetermined access criteria; transmitting the content to a device external to the set-top-box; transcoding the content by the device from the first audio/video encoding standard to a second AVES; and providing the transcoded content to the set-top-box. In another embodiment, an apparatus including a set-top-box including a conditional accessing logic to access the content of a signal; and a set-top-box housing including an opening to allow interfacing between set-top-box and a transcoder system, the transcoder system to receive the content from the set-top-box via the opening, to transcode the content from a first AVES to a second AVES, and to provide the transcoded content to set-top-box via the opening.

Transmitting of data from a content provider to subscribers in a protected format, such as radio and television programs transmitted in encrypted or scrambled form from a television or radio station via cable or satellite, is in widespread use today. Generally, the protected data has to be decoded at the receiving station, such as a cable or satellite set-top-box, prior to its display or playback to a user. One form of such decoding is performed via the insertion of a cable or satellite card into an open slot of the set-top-box. The inserted card includes one or more access keys which can be used to decode the protected data so that its content can be retrieved for viewing or listening.
A growing problem in the foregoing approach is an increasing number of proposed and legacy audio-video (AV) encoding standards. This increasing number of AV encoding standards will likely create compatibility problems for a given set-top-box, which needs to accommodate AV encoding of programs transmitted by the content provider and AV decoding of such programs for display by a viewer's television. For example, the content provider may use an encoding standard of Motion Picture Expert Group 4 (MPEG 4), while the set-top box is adapted to decompress content formatted in accordance with an MPEG 2 standard.
Currently, an externally inserted cable or satellite card would be used to perform both the decoding of the received program and the transcoding of the received program from one encoding standard to another, such as from MPEG 4 to MPEG 2. Due to the relative expense of providing the viewers with externally inserted cable and satellite cards, however, makers of set-top-box are in the process of incorporating the card's functionality into the set-top-box. While this approach may prove effective for the decoding functionality of the cable and satellite cards, it greatly reduces the programmability of a set-top box in accommodating different encoding standards through transcoding operations, so to be compatible with both formats of content delivered by the content provider and processed by the viewer's display device.
Accordingly, there will be a need for providing set-top-boxes which do not use traditional external cards for decoding a received program, but with the ability to transcode received programs into formats compatible with the display device on which the program is to be shown.

System and method for transcoding signal content


A blood outlet manifold is provided for a membrane-type blood oxygenator made of a plurality of micro-porous fibers. The fibers have first and second ends wound into a generally cylindrical bundle. The blood outlet manifold comprises a generally cylindrical vessel having a first annular wall dimensioned to snugly overly an exterior surface of the oxygenator fiber bundle. The vessel further has a flared portion including a second annular wall radially spaced from an end portion of the exterior surface of the oxygenator fiber bundle adjacent to the second ends of the fibers. An annular blood collection chamber is defined between the exterior surface of the oxygenator fiber bundle and the second annular wall for receiving blood flowing radially outwardly from around the fibers of the oxygenator fiber bundle. A seal is provided between the end portion of the oxygenator fiber bundle and the second annular wall. A blood outlet nozzle extends from the flared portion of the vessel and has a hollow interior communicating with the blood collection chamber.

The present invention relates to surgical support apparatus, and more particularly, to a component of an improved blood oxygenator used to maintain a patient's blood at a predetermined temperature while replacing carbon dioxide in the blood with oxygen.
Blood oxygenators are well known in the medical field. Typically they are disposable components of so-called "heart-lung machines." These machines mechanically pump a patient's blood and oxygenate the blood during major surgery such as a heart bypass operation. A typical commercially available blood oxygenator includes a heat exchanger and a membrane-type oxygenator. The patient's blood is continuously pumped through the heat exchanger. A suitable heat transfer fluid such as water is also pumped through the heat exchanger separated from the blood but in heat transfer relationship therewith. The water is either heated or cooled externally of the blood oxygenator to maintain the patient's blood at a predetermined desired temperature. The membrane oxygenator comprises a so-called "bundle" of thousands of tiny hollow fibers made of a special polymer material having microscopic pores. Blood exiting the heat exchanger flows around the outside surfaces of these fibers. At the same time an oxygen-rich gas mixture, sometimes including anesthetic agents, flows through the hollow fibers. Due to the relatively high concentration of carbon dioxide in the blood arriving from the patient, carbon dioxide from the blood diffuses through the microscopic pores in the fibers and into the gas mixture. Due to the relatively low concentration of oxygen in the blood arriving from the patient, oxygen from the gas mixture diffuses through the microscopic pores in the fibers into the blood. The oxygen content of the blood is raised, and its carbon dioxide content is reduced. The blood is also heated or cooled before being returned to the patient.
A blood oxygenator must have a sufficient volumetric flow rate to allow proper temperature control and oxygenation. However, blood is typically in short supply and is very expensive. Therefore, it is desirable to minimize the volume of blood contained within the oxygenator, preferably to less than five hundred cubic centimeters. The cells and platelets in human blood are delicate and can be traumatized if subjected to excessive shear forces. Therefore, the blood flow velocity inside a blood oxygenator must not be excessive. In addition, the configuration and geometry of the inlet nozzle, manifolds and outlet nozzle of the blood flow path for a given blood flow rate must not create re-circulations (eddies) or stagnant areas that can lead to clotting.
After the blood has flowed around the fibers of the membrane oxygenator, it must be collected and routed outside the blood oxygenator in a uniform and efficient manner. This requires an optimally configured outlet manifold that couples to an outlet nozzle sized for connection to the standard flexible tubing that conveys the blood back to the patient.

Outlet manifold for blood oxygenator apparatus


A method is provided for forming a recyclable plastic container component with an integral preform. A preform is placed within a mold recess. The mold is closed to capture the preform, thereby forming a flow passage with a shape corresponding to contours of the container component. Plastic is injected into the flow passage under pressure. The injected plastic bonds to an edge portion of the preform. The molded component is then cooled and removed from the mold.

This invention provides a plastic container component and a method of forming a plastic container component. In particular, the method of this invention is capable of forming a plastic cover having a rigid body for locking to a container and a flexible pouring spout for emptying container contents without removing the cover.

Method of forming a plastic container component and the plastic container component formed by the method


A wireless remote cooking thermometer system includes a first unit positionable at a first location adjacent food being cooked, the first unit including a radio frequency transmitter adapted to transmit temperature readings for the food being cooked, and a temperature sensor connectable to the first unit for providing temperature readings to the first unit. The system also includes a second unit including a radio frequency receiver adapted to receive the temperature readings transmitted by the radio frequency transmitter and a visual display for displaying the received temperature readings, wherein the second unit is movable to a second location remote from the first location while maintaining radio contact with the first unit. The system includes a microprocessor operative to calibrate a taste preference and a choice preference associated with the food being cooked.

The present invention generally relates to food preparation and more specifically relates to thermometers used to ensure that food, such as meat, is adequately cooked.
The accurate and reliable measurement of temperatures is particularly important in the food preparation industry. Cooking to exact temperature ranges is critical in gourmet cooking and to avoid undercooking food items. As a result, a number of devices have been developed to accurately measure the temperature of food items being cooked.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,000,845 to Tymkewicz et al. discloses a temperature sensing and indicating device including a housing and an arm that is retractable and extendable into and out of the housing so that the length of the arm can be varied in a predetermined manner. A probe having a temperature sensor therein is enclosed by the arm so that varying the external length of the arm exposes varying lengths of the probe, whereby the exposed length of the probe is inserted into a medium so that the temperature sensor senses the temperature of the medium and converts the temperature sensed into a signal. Using a microprocessor, the signal is conditioned and converted for controlling a visual display that provides a visual indication of the temperature sensed. The visual indication includes a digital numeric display and an analog display.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,089,322 discloses a temperature telemetering device that is typically used with household cooking ranges, ovens, microwave ovens and the like. The device includes a probe having an internal cavity that receives a temperature expansive material such as wax. The cavity is in communication with a displaceable member such as a piston that is responsive to the pressure of the temperature expansive material and is mechanically linked to a latch mechanism that inhibits the operation of a sonic or ultra-sonic signal generator. The assembly is interconnected by adjustment means permitting a variable space between the latch mechanism and the displaceable member, whereby the trigger temperature mechanism can be adjusted.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,983,783 to Archer, discloses an electronic chef's fork which displays indicia such as food type and degree of doneness for a selected food type and temperature, and which includes control areas by which a user selects a meat type. The electronic chef's fork includes operational circuitry that enables a user to select among an array of food type options and to designate a degree of doneness for the selected food types. A prompt message is provided to indicate the degree of doneness attained for the selected food type when the device is inserted into food.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,966,125 discloses a barbecue kettle including a bowl and a cover with the bowl having a food support grid adjacent and an upper rim and a charcoal grid below the food grid along with a cover holder adjacent the rim of the bowl. The cover has a removable thermometer that can sense the internal temperature of the kettle and can also be used as a food thermometer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,719 discloses a food-handling device which a retractable boom mounted temperature probe. The tool has a probe mounted on a manually retractable boom, the probe being extendable over various sites of the food being checked. The boom is pivotally attached to the elongated arm of a spatula and, by a scissor-like action, is raised out of and lowered into the food. The tool is provided with a temperature indicator in the form of a digital readout.
In spite of the above advances, there remains a need for a temperature monitoring system that enables an operator to move away from a cooking location, while maintaining continuous temperature monitoring contact with the cooking location. There is also a need for a temperature monitoring system which is mobile so that the system can be used at a plurality of cooking sites.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Wireless remote cooking thermometer system


Apparatus and methods for measuring radiation in a borehole environment using a YAlO3:Ce (YAP) scintillation crystal. Borehole instruments are disclosed which employ a gamma ray detector comprising a YAP scintillator coupled to a light sensing means such as a photomultiplier tube. One instrument embodiment combines a YAP scintillation detector and a source of pulsed neutrons. Borehole environs are irradiated with neutrons, and induced gamma radiation is measured using a YAP scintillation detector. Response of the detector is used to determine characteristics of the borehole environs. Mechanical and physical properties of YAP are utilized to obtain improved measurements. The relatively short light decay constant of YAP minimized pulse pile-up in the detector when measurements require that the detector be operated during a neutron pulse.

1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure is related to radiation measurements using scintillation type radiation detectors, and more specifically related to apparatus and methods for measuring radiation in a borehole environment using a YAlO3:Ce (YAP) scintillation crystal.
2. Background of the Art
Scintillation type radiation detectors have been used for decades in a wide variety of applications. Radiation absorbed by a scintillation crystal emits a pulse of light or "scintillates". The intensity of light is a function of energy deposited within the crystal by the absorbed radiation. A measure of light intensity can, therefore, be related to the energy of radiation absorbed by the scintillator. A measure of the number of scintillations per unit time can be related to the intensity of radiation absorbed by the scintillation crystal.
In fabricating a scintillation type radiation detector, a scintillation crystal is optically coupled to a light sensitive device that responds to the number and to the intensity of scintillations produced within the crystal. Phomultiplier tubes (PMT) are commonly used as light sensitive devices. A PMT converts scintillations from the coupled crystal into electrical pulses. A pulse is typically generated for each scintillation. The magnitude of the pulse is proportional to the intensity of the scintillation. A count per unit time of pulses can, therefore, be related to the intensity of radiation impinging upon the crystal. Measures of magnitudes of the pulses can, therefore, be related to corresponding energies of the radiation absorbed by the crystal. Alternately, scintillation crystals can be optically coupled to other types of light sensitive devices such as photodiodes, and intensity and energy of impinging radiation can be determined from electrical outputs of these devices.
The scintillation process is not instantaneous and, in fact, the scintillation emission intensity follows an exponential decay. Thallium activated sodium iodide, or NaI(Tl), is a commonly used material in scintillation type gamma radiation detectors. The decay constant of a scintillation produced within a NaI(Tl) crystal by impinging gamma radiation is about 230 nanoseconds (ns). If the intensity of radiation impinging upon the crystal is sufficiently intense to generate a subsequent scintillation pulse before the previous scintillation pulse has decayed to a negligible level, the scintillation pulses will essentially "sum" within the crystal. This is commonly referred to as pulse "pile-up". As an example, two pulses of equal intensity (induced by two gamma rays of equal energy) which pile-up within a detector system will produce a single electrical pulse output with a magnitude greater than a pulse that would be produced by a single gamma ray. Since pulse magnitude is related to radiation energy, pulse pile-up typically results in an erroneous radiation energy measurement. Furthermore, since the pulses "sum" as a single rather than a multiple radiation detector events, pulse pile-up results in erroneous radiation intensity measurements in high intensity gamma ray fluxes. It is, therefore, highly desirable to utilize a scintillation crystal with a minimum light decay constant when measuring energy and intensity of high intensity gamma radiation fluxes. As an example, there is a class of borehole instruments that employs a source of pulsed neutrons and one or more scintillation detectors. Certain measurements, such as inelastic scatter gamma ray measurements, require that the one or more detectors be operated during the neutron burst. This exposes the one or more detectors to extremely high fluxes of gamma ray and other types of radiation. The light decay constant of the scintillation material is, therefore, a critical design parameter in this type of instrumentation. Many measurement systems using scintillation type gamma ray detectors are also exposed to neutron fluxes. As in the example above, a large variety of borehole instruments used to measure properties of earth formation penetrated by the borehole employ one or more scintillation gamma ray detectors and a neutron source. The neutron source, whether pulsed or continuous, induces gamma radiation within the formation through several types of reactions including inelastic scatter and thermal capture. This induced gamma radiation is sensed by the one or more scintillation detectors and is used to determine formation and borehole parameters of interest. The scintillation detectors are also exposed to neutrons from the source, and especially to thermal neutrons generated in the borehole environs. These neutrons can produce radiation-emitting isotopes within the scintillation crystal. This is commonly referred to as crystal "activation". Consider, as an example a scintillation detector comprising a NaI(Tl) crystal. The thermal neutron capture cross sections for the primary elemental constituents sodium (Na) and iodine (I) are 0.43 barns and 6.15 barns, respectively. Thermal neutrons impinging upon the NaI(Tl) detector produce 24Na and 128I within the scintillator through the 23Na(n,γ)24Na and 127I(n,γ)128I reactions, respectively. Both 24Na and 128I decay through beta emission with 128 I also decaying through electron capture. There is often gamma emission subsequent to the beta decay or electron capture. These radiations are generated within the NaI(Tl) crystal, and both the gamma and beta radiation induce scintillations within the crystal. These activation induced radiations are considered as "noise" in the measurement of formation properties using gamma radiation induced within the formation and borehole. It is, therefore, highly desirable to use a scintillation crystal with primary elemental constituents that do not readily "activate" when used in a system which also utilizes a neutron source.
There are other considerations in selecting a scintillation crystal for borehole applications. The borehole environment is typically harsh in that pressures and temperatures are typically high. Borehole instruments are subjected to shock and vibrations as the instrument is typically conveyed within the borehole. Crystals such as NaI(Tl) are highly susceptible to shock induced cleavage, which typically worsens with constant vibration. Cleavage, in turn, results in deteriorating energy resolution and efficiency. As mentioned previously, temperature is usually elevated within a borehole, and typically varies with depth. In particular, variations in temperature can adversely affect crystal scintillation properties of a crystal which, in turn, can adversely affect subsequent radiation energy and intensity measurements. Some scintillation crystals, such as NaI(Tl), are hygroscopic. This requires that the crystal be encased in a hermetically sealed container, which increases the overall dimensions of the crystal package for a given active crystal volume. This increase in size, or the resulting necessity to reduce the active volume of the crystal, can be a critical design factor in borehole instrument fabrication. Inherent crystal gamma ray resolution properties and overall efficiency properties are also factors in borehole logging instrument design.
Other scintillation crystals have been used in borehole applications. Typically, these scintillation materials exhibit advantages over NaI(Tl) in some areas, but exhibit disadvantages in other areas. On such material is bismuth germinate (BGO), with properties well documented in the literature.
The scintillation material cerium activated yttrium aluminum perovskite or YAlO3:Ce (YAP) has a density of 5.55 grams per cubic centimeter (g/cm3), an effective Z of 36, a light decay constant of 27 ns, light output of 45% of NaI at 25° C., 18,000 photons/MeV, emission peak of 350 nanometer (nm), and an index of refraction of 1.94. Thermal neutron cross sections for the major constituents of the crystal yttrium, aluminum and oxygen are 1.28 barns, 0.230 barns and 0.00019 barns, respectively. The activity produced by thermal neutron capture in yttruim is relatively long-lived so that decay radiation is negligible compared to that observed from iodine activation in NaI crystals.
YAP has been used in the prior art in a number of non-borehole scintillation detector applications, and especially in the field of medical imaging. Typical prior art applications are summarized below.
A gamma ray camera system comprising an array of YAP(Ce) scintillation crystals optically coupled to a position sensitive photomultiplier tube is disclosed in "YAP Multi-Crystal Gamma Camera Prototype", K. Blazek et al, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. 42, No. 5, October 1995. The multiple scintillation crystals are optically isolated from one another.
A scintillator detector with multiple YAP crystals and other types of crystals is disclosed in "Blue Enhanced Large Area Avalanche Photodiodes in Scintillation Detection with LSO, YAP and LuAP Crystals", M. Moszynski et al, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. 44, No. 3, June 1997. Scintillator crystals are optically coupled to large area avalanche photodiodes.
A high resolution positron emission tomograph (TierPET) for imaging small laboratory animals is discloses in "Recent Results of the TierPET Scanner", S. Weber et al, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. 47, No. 4, August 2000. The system is based on an array of YAP crystals. 20×20 arrays of 2×2×15 mm polished YAP crystals are optically coupled to a position sensitive PMT.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,504 to John B. Czirr discloses the use of a YAP scintillator in a borehole instrument to monitor output of a neutron source that is also disposed within the borehole instrument. Since the YAP scintillator is used in a neutron source monitor system, the instrument is designed to maximize the response of the YAP scintillator to the neutron source and, conversely, to minimize the response of the YAP scintillator to the borehole environs.
None of the above cited references discloses a system that is suitable for operation within a borehole to measure properties of the borehole environs.

Method and apparatus for measuring radiation in a borehole


A vacuum pump having a rotary shaft that is rotated by a drive source has a main pump and a sub pump. The main pump includes a pump chamber and a gas transferring body that is located in the pump chamber. The main pump is driven by the drive source through the rotary shaft for transferring gas to an exhaust space. The sub pump is connected to the exhaust space for partially exhausting the gas from the exhaust space. The sub pump is driven by the same drive source. The displacement volume of the sub pump is smaller than that of the main pump.

The present invention relates to a vacuum pump that drives a gas transferring body in a pump chamber by rotation of a rotary shaft so as to transfer gas to generate vacuum action.
In a screw type vacuum pump disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 10-184576, an exhaust unit having a smaller displacement volume than the vacuum pump is connected to an exhaust region of the vacuum pump. The exhaust unit lowers pressure in the exhaust region of the vacuum pump. Namely, the exhaust unit prevents gas in the exhaust region from flowing back to a closed space in the vacuum pump. This prevention reduces a power loss of the vacuum pump so that power consumption is reduced on the vacuum pump.
An unwanted feature is that the exhaust unit is driven by an additional drive source that differs from a drive source of the vacuum pump. Since the additional drive source is provided for driving the exhaust unit, the size of the vacuum pump becomes relatively large. In addition, manufacturing costs for the vacuum pump increase. Therefore, there is a need for a vacuum pump that reduces power consumption without increasing the size of the vacuum pump and the manufacturing costs.


A polymer composition for use in forming a stent is described. The composition  includes a monomer of an aliphatic ester of acrylic acid which has a glass transition temperature less than 25° C. and a second monomer that copolymerizes with the first monomer and which has a glass transition temperature greater than 25° C. The components in the composition are mixed in amounts suitable to give a copolymer having a glass transition temperature less than 25° C., or in case of block copolymers, having at least one glass transition temperature less than 25° C. A stent including polymer members formed from the described composition is also disclosed.

Endoluminal stents, particularly endovascular stents, are of considerable interest in the medical profession, especially to vascular surgeons. Such stents are presently used as a post-angioplasty adjunct to maintain the angioplasty-treated blood vessel in an open condition. Examples of endoluminal stents in the art include pressure-expandable stents which radially expand using a balloon angioplasty catheter, such as the Palmaz stent in U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,665; or self-expanding stents which radially expand due to the inherent spring tension of a wire material, such as the stent described by Gianturco in U.S. Pat. No. 4,580,568. Self-expanding stents which expand upon application of a stimulus, such as Nitinol stents or shape-memory polymer stents that expand when exposed to an increase in temperature, have also been described (Froix, U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,952).
In some applications it is desirable to cover the stent with a biocompatible material, since the stents themselves are often thrombogenic and the open nature of the stents can result in growth of tissue through the stent and into the lumen causing occlusion. It has also been desirable in some applications, and in particular for applications employing a metal stent, to provide a means for delivery of a therapeutic agent at the site of stent placement. One approach to meeting these desires has been to provide a polymer sleeve or sheath over the metal stent.
For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,674,241 to Bley et al. is described an expandable support stent having an expandable polymer layer coupled to the support stent. The expandable polymer layer is hydrophilic and expands upon hydration.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,707,385 to Williams an expandable membrane having a drug reservoir is described. The membrane is mounted on the outer surface of a stent and the membrane-covered stent is delivered intraluminally to an injured or diseased site using a balloon-inflatable catheter.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,928 to Scott et al. discloses a sheath which encompasses a stent. The sheath serves as a local drug delivery device to prevent thrombosis and/or restenosis.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,637,113 to Tartaglia et al. there is described an expandable stent structural member having a planar sheet of polymeric material attached to the outside of the structural stent member.
However, the polymer-stent combinations described heretofore in the art have a variety of shortcomings. For example, some polymer sheaths covering a metal support stent result in a significant reduction of flexibility and tractability of the stent, making deployment into a peripheral vascular network difficult. The reduction in flexibility and tractability also makes access past tortuous portions of a vessel difficult or impossible. Polymer membranes that are thick enough to carry a sufficient drug load can require a large balloon pressure to expand the stent and the coextensive polymer membrane into its open state. Large balloon pressures are undesirable for safety reasons. Thick polymer members also increase the profile of the overall stent limiting access to distal portions of the vessel. Additionally, many of the polymer membranes and sheaths axially shorten with radial expansion, leaving the ends of the metal stent uncovered.
There are other problems associated with polymer sleeves described in the art. Because the polymer sleeves are expanded to fit into a lumen, they are often made from a material having some elasticity. The polymer sleeve needs sufficient elasticity for expansion and for a snug fit about the support stent prior to expansion, but should exert little restoring force after expansion. Many polymer sleeves after expansion exert a recovery force on the support stent, preventing the stent from remaining in its fully expanded state, and in the worst cases, can cause the support stent to collapse. Most often the recovery force exerted by the polymer sleeve or member causes the stent to partially recoil, thereby causing obstruction in the vessel lumen and setting up conditions that lead to thrombosis. On the other hand, if the polymer sleeve has insufficient elasticity, the sleeve can drape or sag through openings in the support stent after expansion in a lumen. This disrupts blood flow in the lumen and in severe cases reduces flow to a dangerous level or actually block blood flow altogether.
Also described in the art are polymer sleeves having no elasticity but which are wrapped or folded along the long axis of a support stent. Sufficient polymer material is wrapped about the support stent to allow for expansion from the small stent diameter during placement to the large expanded diameter after deployment. One problem associated with such polymer sleeves is in determining the amount of material needed to provide a uniform covering about the vessel lumen after expansion. To do this with any accuracy, the inner diameter of the target site lumen must be known, which is not always the case. Further, these polymer sleeves, because they are multiply wrapped about the support stent, often bunch-up during tracking to reach the target site, particularly when vessels having a smaller diameter than the target vessel must be navigated.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a polymer member designed to be carried on a support stent which overcomes these and other shortcomings.

Polymer compositions for intraluminal stent


In a Diesel engine with variably actuated valves, the cam controlling each inlet valve is shaped to provoke the opening of the respective inlet valve during the engine's normal exhaust phase and thus realize exhaust gas recirculation within the engine, due to the fact that during the normal exhaust phase, part of the exhaust gas passes from the cylinder into the inlet port, from where it returns to the cylinder during the next induction phase, while part of the exhaust gas that had previously passed into the exhaust port returns to the cylinder during the induction phase due to the additional opening of the exhaust valve, in consequence of which the exhaust gas charges that return to the cylinder are subjected to further combustion in the next engine cycle.

The present invention relates to multi-cylinder Diesel engines of the type employing variably actuated valves.
In American patent U.S. Pat. No. 6,237,551, the Applicant has already proposed an engine of this type including:                two inlet valves and two exhaust valves for each cylinder, each equipped with respective elastic means of return that push the valve towards its closed position, for controlling the respective inlet and exhaust ports,        at least one camshaft for operating the inlet and exhaust valves of the engine's cylinders via respective valve lifters, each inlet valve and the two exhaust valves being controlled by a respective cam of the said camshaft,        in which each of the said valve lifters commands the respective inlet or exhaust valve against the action of the said elastic means of return via the interposition of hydraulic means including a pressurized fluid chamber.        the pressurized fluid chamber associated with each inlet valve or with the two exhaust valves being suitable for connection via a solenoid valve to a discharge channel, for the purposes of decoupling the valve from its respective valve lifter and provoking rapid closure of the valve under the effect of the elastic means of return,        electronic means of control for controlling each solenoid valve for varying the time and travel of the respective inlet or exhaust valve according to one or more of the engine's operating parameters,        in which each cam on the engine camshaft has a profile such that it tends to provoke the opening of the respective inlet valve or respective exhaust valves that it controls, not only during the conventional opening phase of the engine's normal operating cycle, but also in certain additional phases of the cycle,        in which the said electronic means of control are capable of provoking the opening of each solenoid valve to maintain the respective inlet valve or the respective exhaust valves closed during the above-mentioned conventional phase and/or during one or more of the said additional phases in which the respective cam would tend to provoke the opening of the valve, in consequence of which the engine can be made to selectively run according to different modes of operation controlled by the said solenoid valves, and        in which the profile of the cam controlling the exhaust valves is such as to cause an additional opening phase of the exhaust valves substantially during the final part of the induction phase, thereby realizing an operating cycle of the so-called "post-charging" type, where, due to excess pressure in the inlet port, the opening of the exhaust valves during the final part of the induction phase causes fresh air to first flow directly from the inlet port to the exhaust port, while successively, following the increase in pressure in the exhaust port, part of the air returns from the exhaust port, entering the cylinder by exploiting the excess pressure in the exhaust port, thereby improving cylinder replenishment.

Multi-cylinder diesel engine with variably actuated valves


A method, apparatus, and program product facilitate the automation of an oil & gas process, e.g., a drilling process, through the use of a dynamic phase machine incorporating multiple autonomous agents.

Automating an industrial process is often difficult and complex, and often requires substantial efforts to optimize the process for a particular application. Industrial processes, in particular, often incorporate multiple equipment, machines and associated control systems, and often there is very little integration of these systems to facilitate the overall control of the process by a limited number of individuals or entities.
For example, in the oil & gas industry, drilling processes often require the interaction of and control over multiple control systems and equipment involved in drilling a well bore. A hoist system is used to support a drill string with a drill bit and multiple lengths of drill pipe, and a top drive system is used to rotate the drill pipe, and consequently, the drill bit. A mud circulation system driven by a mud pump circulates drilling fluid or mud down the well bore to lubricate and cool the drill bit and carry away drill cuttings, and in many instances, the drilling fluid drives a down hole bit motor to further rotate and/or steer the drill bit. An autodriller is often used to coordinate some of these operations; however, in conventional drilling rigs, much of the drilling process still involves a substantial amount of manual control and coordination of the individual systems and sub-systems in a drilling rig, often requiring the efforts of multiple personnel.
Furthermore, it has been found that due to variances between different applications, systems, sub-systems, equipment, sensors, machinery, and even variances in well bores and subsurface topology, no single algorithm is capable of managing or optimizing the entire drilling process for all possible applications.
Therefore, a substantial need continues to exist in the art for an improved manner of automating industrial and oil & gas processes, and in particular, drilling processes.

Dynamic phase machine automation of oil and gas processes


A cold spark fire electronic eruptive apparatus characterized in that the erupting apparatus is comprised of an ejecting unit, an activation unit, a power unit, and a storage unit, wherein, the storage unit stores a cold fireworks material for discharge, the power unit is connected to the storage unit and also is connected with a heating unit, the power unit transmitting the cold fireworks material in the storage unit to the heating unit, and the heating unit activating the cold fireworks raw material, sending it to the air removal unit for eruption.

Fireworks have been a tradition through time, often used in stage performances, for celebrations, and at venues. As fireworks are normally discharged through gunpowder, the resulting explosions release intense smoke, heat, and an irritating smell. The smoke and other byproducts are pollutants to the environment and create safety issues. In recent years, such safety issues have become more apparent, resulting in stricter safety guidelines for firework performances.
Traditional pyrotechnics and fireworks require heating of gunpowder and operate at extreme levels of heat. The explosion required to discharge such pyrotechnics operates as a fire hazard and expels intense smoke, carcinogens, and noxious smells into the immediate environment. As a result of these side effects, traditional pyrotechnics are generally regulated to outdoor environments or large arenas for the sake of audience safety and to reduce the risk of fire.
Cold pyrotechnics, also known in the industry as non-pyrotechnics or cold fireworks, on the other hand, implement a relatively cool chemical reaction, as opposed to a gunpowder explosion, to discharge sparks. In the field of pyrotechnics, such cold pyrotechnics are considered much safer than traditional pyrotechnics, and are regularly implemented indoors due to their low fire risk and minimized smoke discharge.
Various devices for discharging such cold pyrotechnics include the device disclosed in Chinese patent CN2872289, which is a motor-driven device for producing an oscillating or rotating cold fireworks spout, the device disclosed in Chinese patent CN205784897, which is a cold fireworks device further incorporating a materials storage unit, and the device disclosed in Chinese patent CN105854317, which is a cold fireworks device further incorporating a cutting mechanism and a blower mechanism.
All three of the above patents disclose devices capable of discharging cold pyrotechnics with good display effects, though they comprise overly complex structures that increase weight and reduce cost efficiency. The increased weight and complexity of the designs also is not amenable to the portability and installation of the devices, and the third design is incapable of creating a waterfall (downward eruption) effect required in many venues or situations.
Therefore, there is an urgent need to increase firework safety, and a need in the art for a cold firework device that is conveniently transported and installed, and may emit cold fireworks in any orientation.


A device includes one or more registers and circuitry. The circuitry subjects a key having a number of bits to a first function which takes a selection value into account, generating a result having a number of bits which is twice the number of bits of the key, and stores the result in the one or more registers. In response to a call for the key, the circuitry subjects the result stored in the one or more registers to a second function which takes the selection value into account to generate a response having a same value as the key.

Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to electronic circuits and, more specifically, to data processing units implementing encryption or decryption algorithms. The present disclosure more specifically relates to mechanisms for protecting the content of registers against unidirectional disturbances of bits that it contains.
Discussion of the Related Art
When a processing unit (typically, a cryptoprocessor) is used to implement an encryption algorithm, it is desired to check that the manipulated key has not been modified (incidentally or willfully), either during its transfer to the cryptoprocessor from an external circuit, or once in this cryptoprocessor while it is contained in a specific register thereof. Attacks aiming at disturbing the state of a bit of a register of the cryptoprocessor generally are attacks using a laser pointed on one of the bits of the register containing the key to disturb its value.
To counter a modification during the transfer, a solution is to reload the key in the cryptoprocessor as often as possible, generally on each new encryption, or periodically. However, the key register of the cryptoprocessor remains sensitive to laser attacks.
To check the integrity of the key once it is in the cryptoprocessor, the simplest would be to read this key to control it outside of the cryptoprocessor. However, to protect the key against possible hacking attempts, the temporary storage element (register) which contains the key is generally only accessible in read mode from outside of the cryptoprocessor. The integrity check then amounts to checking the consistency of results obtained by two separate calculations using the key contained in the cryptoprocessor. These two calculations are either two encryptions of a same message with the key, or an encryption followed by a decryption.
It has already been provided to check the consistency between two executions of the same algorithm, respectively with the key and with the key complemented to one. Such a solution is described in document USA-2009/0285398.
A difficulty lies in the fact that the results of an integrity check mechanism may provide information to the attacker as to the value of the bits of the key. For example, it is assumed that a successful attack causes a switching of a bit to state 1. If the attacked bit is at state 0, it will switch values. If the attacked bit is at state 1, its value remains unchanged. In this latter case, the checking mechanism is unable to notice the attack. Now, the attacker knows that he has attacked the corresponding bit. According to whether an attack detection bit switches state or not, the attacker can thus know whether the attacked bit was in a state 0 or 1. In other words, if one of the bits of the key is modified and the old and new values of this bit are the same, the checking mechanism is unable to notice it, be the checking direct (by rereading) or indirect (by two distinct calculations). This makes the key vulnerable to an attack or disturbance known as a unidirectional disturbance, which comprises forcing a bit of the key to a single one of the possible values. For example, the attacked bit is forced to zero whatever its initial state (1 or 0). The forcing of a bit to a single one of the two states may enable an attacker to determine the value of this bit according to whether his attack is or not detected (if it is not detected, then the actual bit of the key has the forced value—if it is detected, the actual bit of the key has the other state). By repeating this attack on each bit of the key, the value of said key can be obtained.
Further, a unidirectional attack may be performed simultaneously on several bits of a register, for example by using several laser beams directed towards several cells of the register.
It should be noted that the laser beam attack targets registers used in the calculations. The countermeasures are thus relative to the registers used for these calculations which, according to the algorithm using this register, may contain only a portion of the message and/or of the key.
An additional issue is to provide a countermeasure or protection mechanism which is simple to implement and which requires no modification of the hardware structure of the cryptoprocessor.
US 2008/0056488 discloses a cryptographic module with two registers respectively retaining a first data related to key data and a second data without dependency on the first data.
WO 2005/124506 discloses a cryptographic architecture with masking instructions against DPA attacks and provides toggling the polarity of some bits while maintaining the equal probability of having a 0 or 1 values.

Protection of registers against unilateral disturbances


This disclosure describes a computer implemented method for receiving authentication credentials identifying a user; identifying computing systems for which the user is authorized access to; and transmitting tokens granting access to the identified computing systems. In some embodiments, no two tokens of the transmitted tokens grants access to the same one of the identified computing systems. The user typically has access to a management tool configured to manage the transmission of the received tokens to the corresponding computing systems, thereby granting the user the ability to have seamless access to any of the computing systems associated with the user's authenticated identity.

Administrators often find themselves managing multiple computing systems and/or networks that can be distributed geographically and/or virtually. In order to avoid a situation in which a bad actor that has gained some level of access to one of the multiple computing systems is able to infiltrate the rest of the computing systems, the administrators are generally asked to maintain large lists of sign-on credentials in order to securely authenticate themselves as administrators to each of the multiple computing systems. This can become quickly unmanageable where the administrators are asked to monitor or administrate over hundreds of computing systems. For this reason, a mechanism for providing the administrators a secure but less burdensome way to access the multiple systems without compromising security is desirable.

Mechanism of common authentication for both supervisor and guest clusters


A receiving apparatus includes a base-band conversion circuit, a synchronizing circuit/code generator and a demodulator. The base-band conversion circuit converts a received signal into a base-band signal. The synchronizing circuit/code generator detects a spread code included in the received signal to generate a plurality of spread codes in synchronization with the spread code included in the received signal. The demodulator uses the plurality of spread codes supplied by the synchronizing circuit/code generator to demodulate the base-band signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a receiving apparatus for receiving a spread spectrum signal, specifically a multi-code spread spectrum signal.
2. Related Background Art
A spread spectrum communication system employing a direct sequence spread method is a method of generating, from a base-band signal of a digital signal to be transmitted, a base-band signal having a significantly wide band width with respect to original data. This is accomplished by using a spread code sequence, such as a pseudo noise code (a PN code). Furthermore, modulation, such as PSK (Phase Shift Keying) or FSK (Frequency Shift Keying), is performed to convert the base-band signal into an RF (Radio Frequency) signal so as to transmit the RF signal. A receiver unit uses the same spread code as that used in a transmitter unit to perform a despread operation to perform correlation with the received signal so as to convert the received signal into a narrow-band signal having a band width that corresponds to the original data. Then, a normal data demodulation is performed so that the original data is reproduced.
Since the spread spectrum communication system employs a significantly wide transmission band width with respect to the information band width as described above, the foregoing system cannot realize an unsatisfactorily low transmission speed as compared with a typical narrow band width modulation system if the transmission band width is within a certain condition. To overcome the foregoing problem, a multi-code method has been employed. The foregoing method includes the steps of converting a high-speed information signal into low-speed parallel data, spread-modulating the parallel data in different spread code sequences so as to add data, and converting the data into an RF signal that is then transmitted, so that high speed data transmission is realized under a predetermined condition of the transmission band width without deterioration in the spread rate in the spread modulation.
FIG. 31 shows the structure of a transmission mechanism adapted to the foregoing method. Supplied data is converted into n parallel data items by a serial-parallel converter 301. Each converted data is, by a multiplier group consisting of n multipliers 302-1 to 302-n, multiplied by n different spread code outputs from a spread-code generator 303 so as to be converted into wide band spread signals over n channels. Then, the outputs from the respective multipliers are added by an adder 304 so as to be provided to a high-frequency transmitter stage 305. The added wide spread base-band signals are, by the high-frequency transmitter stage 305, converted into a transmission frequency signal having an appropriate central frequency so as to be transmitted by a transmission antenna 306.
FIG. 32 shows the structure of a receiver. The signal received by an antenna 401 is appropriately filtered and amplified by a high-frequency signal processor 402 so as to be converted into a signal having an intermediate frequency. The intermediate-frequency signal is distributed to n channels connected in parallel to correspond to the spread codes. In each channel, the correlation of the input signal with outputs from spread code generator group 404-1 to 404-n is detected in correlator group 403-1 to 403-n so as to be despread, the spread code generator group 404-1 to 404-n corresponding to the channels of the correlator group 403-1 to 403-n. Synchronization of the despread signal is established at each channel in synchronizing circuit group 405-1 to 405-n so that the code phases and clocks of the spread code generators are made to coincide with one another. The despread signals are also demodulated in demodulator group 406-1 to 406-n so that data is reproduced. Then, reproduced data is converted into serial data in serializer 407 so that the original information is reproduced.
However, since the correlator at each demodulation channel acts as the intermediate frequency stage, the conventional structure suffers from a problem in that the size of the circuit cannot be reduced.


An anamorphic converter, which is disposed at an image side of an image-forming optical system, includes a first lens unit having one of positive and negative optical power, a second lens unit including an anamorphic lens, and a third lens unit having positive optical power, positioned in order from an object side to the image side. The second lens unit is removable from the position between the first lens unit and the third lens unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an anamorphic converter disposed at an image side of an image-forming optical system to convert an aspect ratio of an image. In addition, the present invention also relates to a lens system and a shooting system including the anamorphic converter and used in a television camera, a video camera, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various devices for recording/reproducing images with converted aspect ratios have been suggested. In particular, in a typical picture recording/reproducing system of the cinemascope-format with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 used for motion pictures, an image is optically reduced in the horizontal direction with an anamorphic lens before the image is recorded on film, and then the image on the film is optically enlarged in the horizontal direction with the anamorphic lens when the image is projected onto a screen. In addition, various front converters disposed at an object side of image-forming optical systems have been suggested for use as anamorphic converters. Examples of front converters are disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 48-24048 (see line 34 in the left column to line 32 in the right column of page 2 and FIG. 1), Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-13916 (see lines 10 to 16 in the lower right column of page 2 and FIG. 1), Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-25407 (see line 14 in the upper left column to line 6 in the upper right column of page 4 and FIG. 1), Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-188271 (see paragraphs 0023 to 0025 and FIG. 1), Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-188272 (see paragraphs 0022 to 0023 and FIG. 1), Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-82691 (see paragraphs 0013 to 0015 and FIGS. 1(A) and 1(B)), and Japanese Patent No. 2817074 (see paragraph 0012 and FIGS. 1 to 3).
In addition, rear converters disposed at the image side of image-forming optical systems have also been suggested. An example of a rear converter is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3021985 (see paragraphs 0016 to 0017 and FIGS. 1 to 3).
Recently, image quality has improved in the field of video technology and digital cinema systems in which motion pictures shot with high-definition television (HDTV) systems have become popular. In the digital cinema systems, imaging devices with an aspect ratio of 16:9 (1.78:1) are generally used. Accordingly, there are demands for anamorphic converters with which pixels of the imaging devices can be effectively used and the image quality can be improved so that the digital cinema systems can be used for shooting motion pictures with the cinemascope-format with the aspect ratio of 2.35:1.
In addition, there are other various formats for motion pictures such as American vista with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and European vista with an aspect ratio of 1.66:1.
In anamorphic converters for digital cinemas, it is preferable that desired aspect-ratio conversion be performed and shading of light from an object not to occur. In addition, preferably, an effective image plane of the image-forming optical system is efficiently used, reduction in the amount of peripheral light is small, and high optical performance is obtained at the entire zoom/focus area. It is also important that the above-described various aspect ratios are obtainable.
As described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2-13916 and 6-82691 and Japanese Patent No. 2817074, front converters are advantageous in that they have simple structures and shading can be prevented irrespective of the conversion magnification by setting a suitable effective diameter. However, astigmatism varies during focusing. Although systems for correcting the astigmatism during focusing are suggested in Japanese Patent Publication No. 48-24048 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 3-25407, 5-188271, and 5-188272, a correcting unit included in the converter must be driven in association with the focusing performed by the image-forming optical system, and a complex mechanism is necessary.
In addition, since the size is increased to obtain a sufficient field angle and an F-number, a plurality of large converters having different magnifications must be prepared for obtaining different aspect ratios.
In comparison, rear converters are advantageous in that astigmatism does not vary during focusing.

Anamorphic converter, lens system, and shooting system


A stabilized float drum is shown having interlocking side and end walls and an upper compartment filled with a flotation medium such as closed cell foam and a lower member with a selected number and size of holes in the surfaces thereof to admit water which then acts as a stabilizing force when the float is subjected to upsetting wave action or eccentric loads. The degree of stabilization or damping is controlled by the relative size of the lower member and the size, placement and number of holes.. Various baffle members are shown which provide varying degrees of resistance to unwanted displacement of floating docks.

For many years floating docks have been constructed utilizing sealed containers of air such as barrels and more recently blocks of foam such as styrofoam. Because of damage to and from wildlife, foam floats now generally consist of blocks of closed cell foam encapsulated within a plastic skin or covering to provide the desired flotation. Such air or foam blocks have been economical and easy to use as modular blocks in dock building but have generally resulted in relatively unstable platforms particularly when several people attempt to stand along one edge of an elongated dock. The tipping or tilting of the dock, especially narrower ones has been a persistent problem.
One attempt to solve this problem in a floating dock is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,948 to Rytand. Rytand shows spaced apart longitudinal beams or stringers forming elongated chambers in which he places foam blocks so as to fill the upper two thirds of the chamber. The lower one third of the chambers are allow to fill with water by seepage when the dock is installed. The water tends to act as ballast. The longitudinal beams tend to limit longitudinal deflection and the ballast tends to limit lateral tipping. This construction however is cumbersome to make and handle, especially out of the water, and is limited in the sizes and shapes that can be easily and economically made.
Another attempt to stabilize a floating dock structure is shown in NY State Department of Environmental Conservation Dwg "Town of Bethlehem" dated November 1996. Here a flat butterfly plate has been mounted across the width of a dock with a number of holes formed therein. The performance of this butterfly plate is unknown but it would appear to offer some improvement in stability of the dock structure.