An equestrian tattletale rider hand-training device including a left wrist strap releaseably connected to a right wrist strap, and the wrist straps releaseably connected to the saddle.

Currently, the equestrian riders spend much time training to improve riding skills and developing more effective aids (i.e. signals given by the rider to the horse via hands, voice and/or legs). A key aspect of proper training involves the positioning and use of the rider's hands. The position, timing, amount of pressure applied by the rider's hands to the reins, onto the bit, directly communicate commands from the rider to the horse's mouth. It is the desire and will of most equestrians to achieve a harmonious and elastic connection through an educated elastic and soft hand.
There exists a need for a training tool or device for quickly and properly training an equestrian rider with regards to the positioning and use of the rider's hands. The present invention is directed to a rider hand-training device capable of effectively and safely training the proper position and use of the rider's hands. The proper position of the hands also assists in a more effective and balanced seat and leg position, essential in horseback riding.
Further, the present invention provides a valuable tool for instructors because the student can feel instantly when mistakes are made thru resistance of the straps. The present invention should also help the overall soundness and attitude of the horse by reducing rein lamenesses.

Equestarian tattletale rider hand training device


The present invention relates to a method, a base station and an interface for handover in a wireless communication network. Handover is initiated when the signal quality falls below a predetermined value. Random access serves as an uplink procedure to enable the UE to make handover from a first base station (eNodeB) to a suitable second base station (eNodeB). In the present invention, random access parameters are exchanged between second and first base station before said first base station signals said random access parameters to said user equipment.

The technology disclosed herein relates to a method, base station, interface for handover in a wireless communication network which include at least a first base station (eNodeB) and at least one user equipment where handover initiates when the signal quality falls below a predetermined value and where random access parameters serves as an uplink procedure to enable the UE to make handover to a suitable second base station (eNodeB).
When a mobile phone is moving, it will be traveling through different cells. If the mobile phone is not engaged in a call, it will tell the network every now and then that it has moved to another cell. If the mobile phone is engaged in a call, the call of course needs to be maintained while the phone is moving. The process of replacing communication with one cellular radio station with another is called handover. When the cellular network sees the mobile phone moving closer and closer to another cell, it will initiate the handover process, during which the call will be transferred from one cellular radio station to another.
In WCDMA the handover access is done via dedicated channel. The dedicated channel uses closed loop fast power control. At the time of handover the RNC signals the initial UL DPCCH power setting parameter to the UE. This value is used by the UE to derive its initial uplink power for radio link that is to be added at the target cell. Since power control is in operation therefore uplink physical layer synchronization of the new radio link can be achieved quickly.
In the downlink of the mobile communication system LTE or E-UTRAN the modulation format is OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) for the signal bearer and the access scheme is OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access). In the uplink of LTE, a slightly different multiple access scheme called single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) is used.
The actual implementation of the technology is different between the downlink (i.e. from base station to mobile) and the uplink (i.e. mobile to the base station) as a result of the different requirements between the two directions and the equipment at either end.
One fundamental difference between UTRAN and E-UTRAN in terms of handover procedure is that in the latter system the UE during the handover access the target cell via normal RACH channel (3). In UTRAN the UE is assigned a dedicated channel during handover. This implies that in E-UTRAN it is important that the UE transmits RACH in the neighbour cell with the correct transmit power level and at the correct frame or sub-frame boundary. In order to allow UE to correctly estimate the RACH transmit power the source cell should provide power control and RACH format related parameters, which are applicable to the target cell. Furthermore these parameters should be conveyed to the UE prior to the initiation of handover.
There are two main issues in the existing system as discussed below:
In WCDMA the handover access is done via dedicated channel. The dedicated channel uses closed loop fast power control. At the time of handover the RNC signals the initial UL DPCCH power setting parameter to the UE. This value is used by the UE to derive its initial uplink power for radio link that is to be added at the target cell. Since power control is in operation therefore uplink physical layer synchronization of the new radio link can be achieved quickly.
In E-UTRAN Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) technology is used in the downlink. OFDM is a modulation scheme in which the data to be transmitted is split into several sub-streams, where each sub-stream is modulated on a separate sub-carrier. Hence in OFDMA based systems, the available bandwidth is sub-divided into several resource blocks or units where a resource block is defined in both time and frequency. According to the current assumptions, a resource block size is 180 KHz and 0.5 ms in frequency and time domains, respectively. The overall uplink and downlink transmission bandwidth can be as large as 20 MHz.
For the LTE uplink, a different concept is used for the access technique. Although still using a form of OFDMA technology, the implementation is called Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA). In essence a mobile is allocated a sub-carrier or sub-carriers for its link to the base station and it uses these to establish the uplink.
In E-UTRAN the handover access will take place via RACH, which cannot use and will not use fast power control. This means RACH transmission power during handover access should be as precise as possible. In general the handover access on RACH should use the correct setting, parameters and power levels. This requires some exchange of information related to RACH between eNode B. In the current WCDMA system no such information is exchanged. If such information is not exchanged between eNodeBs in LTE the uplink synchronization will be delayed. Secondly the collision on RACH may also increase. Thirdly the interference will increase due to increase in RACH load. Furthermore, if the serving and target cells use different RACH format then handover access to the target cell may completely fail if the UE accesses the target cell with the RACH format used in the serving cell. An alternative and straight forward solution is that prior to handover access the UE reads system information of the neighbour cells to acquire all RACH related information of the neighbour cell. The obvious disadvantage is that it will increase the handover delay and interruption time. Another problem is that it will increase complexity in the UE due to reading of neighbour cell information in RRC_CONNECTED mode.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


In a digital broadcast receiving apparatus, when a power source operation input is done by a user during execution of a starting sequence, a control part stops the execution of the starting sequence and counts the number of operations for a preset time. When the number of operations is odd, an ending sequence is executed and a power source is stopped. On the other hand, when the number of operations is even, the starting sequence is resumed from the beginning and when the power source operation input is not done again, the starting sequence is executed and completed. When the starting sequence is completed, based on a digital broadcast signal of a desired channel received by a tuner through an antenna, a video signal and a sound signal are generated and are outputted to a display unit.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a digital broadcast receiving apparatus for receiving a digital broadcast signal and outputting a video signal and a sound signal of a channel selected.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a digital broadcast receiving apparatus receives a digital broadcast signal by a tuner through an antenna, a digital broadcast signal of a channel selected by a user is extracted and is reproduced to video data and sound data by a decoder. The video data and the sound data reproduced are inputted to an encoder and are converted into a video signal and a sound signal of a predetermined format according to specifications of a display unit for displaying video and are outputted. The display unit displays video on a display screen based on the video signal inputted, and outputs sound from a speaker.
In such a digital broadcast receiving apparatus, a starting sequence of initialization, etc. of an IC provided in each block such as the decoder inside the apparatus is executed at the time of starting of the apparatus, so that it takes time to perform these processing and long latency time (ten seconds to one minute) is required as compared with an analog broadcast receiving apparatus. Further, processing such as error correction is performed in the case of decoding the digital broadcast signal of the channel selected, so that long time is further required by the time when video is outputted. Hereinafter, this time is called latency time.
A digital broadcast receiving apparatus for outputting sound or an image to a user for this latency time is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent No.3,275,878.
In the conventional digital broadcast receiving apparatus as described above, means for relieving an uncomfortable feeling of the user by outputting the image or the sound for the latency time since the starting sequence was started is provided, but an interrupt of an operation command cannot be performed on the way. For example, when a user pushes a power source operation button of a remote control unit, etc. by mistake during a power source stop of a body of the apparatus, execution of the starting sequence is started. Once the starting sequence is executed thus, a power source could not be stopped immediately even when the power source operation button is pushed again. As a result of this, once the user pushes the power source operation button, the user had to wait for the apparatus to start over a predetermined latency time and, that is, until the apparatus performs normal video reproduction after the starting of the apparatus is completed and video is outputted, the power source could not be stopped.


A system includes an electrical apparatus configured to monitor or control one or more aspects of an electrical power distribution network; and a control system including more than one electronic processor, where the electronic processors are configured to cause the control system to interact with the electrical apparatus, an interaction between the control system and the electrical apparatus including one or more of the control system providing information to the electrical apparatus and the control system receiving information from the electrical apparatus, and if some of the electronic processors are unable to cause the control system to interact with the electrical apparatus, at least one of the other electronic processors is able to cause the control system to interact with the apparatus.

Switchgear, including reclosers, may be used in an electrical power distribution network to protect the network from electrical fault conditions. Fault conditions are detected by means of the switchgear monitoring currents and voltages on power distribution network. Fault conditions include transient or steady state amplitude faults as well as frequency or phase relationship faults. Under normal operating conditions, the recloser is closed, and electrical current flows through the recloser. In response to detecting a fault condition, the recloser trips or opens to prevent current from flowing through the recloser, and then opens and closes a number of times in an attempt to clear the fault. If the fault condition persists, the recloser remains open. If the fault condition clears, the recloser closes and the distribution network resumes normal operation. Relays may be used to monitor and control current flow in the distribution network. Voltage regulators may be used to monitor and control a voltage level in the distribution network. Asset monitors may be used to monitor critical assets attached to the power distribution network.

Control system for an electrical apparatus


The invention provides for methods for delivering a nucleic acid into a peripheral neuron by identifying a target neuron in a dorsal root ganglion and intrathecally delivering a vector comprising the nucleic acid to the dorsal root ganglion neuron. The nucleic acid may encode a neurotrophic factor that may be used to treat a peripheral neuropathy or, in conjunction with a nerve guide conduit, to treat a transected peripheral nerve.

Nerve regeneration is a complex biological process. The degenerative processes following damage to nerves in the central and peripheral nervous system are similar in some respects but different in others. One of the largest differences is that peripheral nerves have a much greater capacity to regenerate their axons following nerve injury (Fenrich, K. et al. 2004, Can J Neurol Sci. 31(2):142).
Schmidt and Leach (2003, Annu. Rev. Biomed. Eng. 5:293) have recently reviewed a number of ways of treating nerve injuries. Current treatments for injury-induced nerve defects typically rely on donor tissues obtained from the patient. This has raised the issues of loss of function at the donor sites, formation of potentially painful neuromas, structural differences between donor and recipient nerves and a shortage of graft material for extensive repair. To circumvent these problems, synthetic nerve guide conduits (NGCs) have been developed to bridge the nerve gaps by securing the severed nerve stumps into the two ends of the conduit (U.S. Pat. No. 5,019,087). A number of devices, such as, for example, Integra Neurosciences Type I collage tube and SaluMedica's SaluBridge™ Nerve Cuff have been approved by the US Food and Drug Agency. These devices, however, are reserved for treatment of relatively short nerve defects, and in most cases the synthetic conduits do not function as well as nerve autografts (Schmidt & Leach 2003, Annu. Rev. Biomed. Eng. 5:293).
Several tissue-engineering approaches have been proposed to enhance the performance of NGCs, which include delivering neurotrophic factors within hollow tubes. Filling silicone NGCs with dialyzed plasma resulted in a three to fivefold increase in functional restitution at eight weeks compared to NGCs filled with phosphate buffered saline (Williams et al. 1987, J. Comparative Neurology 264:284). Alternatively, neurotrophic factors such as nerve growth factor (NGF), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), glial growth factor (GFG) and ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) delivered within a conduit may significantly increase the morphological and/or functional recovery of transected and repaired nerves.
NGF is the first and best-characterized nerve-derived factor and acts on a relatively limited variety of neuronal populations, including sympathetic, subpopulations of sensory neurons of peripheral nervous system and striatial and septal cholinergic neurons in the brain (Terenghi, G. 1999, J. Anat 194:1-14). In normal circumstances, NGF is present at a very low concentration but rapidly increases in the experimental nerve injury animal model. NGF is produced mainly by the target tissue and Schwann cells in the distal stump of damaged nerves and then transported in a retrograde manner to the cell soma before acting on receptors on neurons and producing the neurotrophic effects. In peripheral neuropathies, such transport within diseased nerves may be affected, being reduced or totally blocked. While delivery of NGF promotes nerve regeneration within conduits at an early stage, the promoting effect may not last after one month, probably due to the rapid decline of NGF concentrations in the conduit caused by the degradation in aqueous media at 37° C., leakage from the conduit and/or dilution by entering fluids. Furthermore, the timing of the introduction of neurotrophic factors into NGCs has a significant influence on the healing or regenerative processes: introducing various agents too early or too late may inhibit the regenerative process (U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,885).
The cell bodies of sensory neurons are located in dorsal root ganglia (DRG), nodules at the distal end of the dorsal root of each spinal nerve. Within the dural sheath and surrounded by the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF), dorsal and ventral nerve roots leave through the intervertebral foramen, where the dorsal root forms the dorsal root ganglion and thereafter joins the ventral root to form the spinal nerve root. Morphologically, a somatosensory neuron in DRG has a unipolar structure, with a connection to the central nervous system (CNS) by a long ascending axon within the spinal cord, and to the peripheral nervous system (PNS) by a second axon branch descending through the spinal nerve root and further out into a peripheral nerve. Functionally, DRG neurons are heterogeneous, signaling receptor-transduced stimuli of diverse sensory modalities that range from touch, temperature, pain to proprioception.

Method of delivery of nucleic acids to peripheral neurons

Agency for Science, Technology and Research


To automatically discover the port connections for all nodes in a network, a master node generates a predetermined optical signal and transmits the predetermined optical signal to a neighboring node, which signal identifies the port on which the master node transmitted the predetermined signal. The recipient transmits a reply signal to the predecessor node and to the master node via a control channel, which identifies a port on which the predetermined optical signal was received by the neighboring node. By successively repeating this process in a methodical manner, the master node can discover all of the port interconnections in the optical network. Also each node can discover all its port interconnections to its neighbors. Moreover, by selecting controlling the state (e.g., terminate, open) of the ports of the non-master nodes in the network, the master node can control which nodes receive the predetermined signal, thereby ensuring proper port discovery.

The present invention relates generally to methods and apparatuses for provisioning communications channels in telecommunication or computer networks, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for provisioning communications channels in a telecommunications or computer network that operates optically.
Communications networks, including optical communications networks, generally comprise many nodes at which the data stream is coupled from one incoming port to an outgoing port to route the data stream to the desired destination. An example of an optical node is an optical cross-connect or optical add-drop multiplexer.
In an optical network, in addition to the payload channels, each network node is sometimes connected to its adjacent or neighboring nodes and a master node by a control channel. Each network node may have many incoming and outgoing ports, e.g., 4, 8, 16, 64, etc. Each port is connected to a port on a neighboring node. Multiple ports one on node may be connected to the same node on their terminal side. However, each port on a node is terminated in only one other port.
When provisioning connections in any network, including optical networks, it is necessary to identify the port interconnections between adjacent nodes (e.g., ONNs) before attempting to setup channel connections, such as optical channel connections in an optical network cross-connect. Manually identifying the node interconnections and populating a port adjacency table in each node is possible, but cumbersome, even if the table is subsequently dynamically updated as and when connections are made and released. This is particularly problematic when the numbers of ports per node are large. Moreover, as data networks are ever increasing in size, manual techniques for identifying the ports will become increasingly tedious.
Currently, an automatic method for port interconnection discovery in all-optical cross-connect-based network does not exist. Although such a scheme may be feasible in an optical-electrical cross-connect-based network, in which optical-electrical-optical conversion takes place in each optical network node (ONN), techniques for automated port interconnection discovery are limited due to the lack of optical to electrical conversion in an all-optical cross-connect. Moreover, in an optical communication network, some nodes are not capable of generating an information-bearing signal that can be transmitted over one of the optical communications payload channels. This is because the node lacks the ability to convert a signal from the electrical domain to the optical domain. It is the precise ability of the node to operate completely optically that allows the node to operate at extremely high speeds. Consequently, requiring an electrical conversion in the process would unduly limit the operating speed or increase the cost. As a result, techniques for automatically provisioning nodes in an optical/electrical communications network are not possible in all-optical communications networks.
The present invention is therefore directed to the problem of developing a method and apparatus for automated port interconnection discovery in an optical network employing optical cross-connects that operate completely optically (i.e., all-optical).

Method and apparatus for automatic port interconnection discovery in an optical network


Process for producing hollow bodies comprising fibre-reinforced ceramic materials, where cores whose shape corresponds to that of the hollow spaces are produced in a first step, a green body is produced in a second step by introducing the abovementioned cores and a press moulding compound into a mould, where the press moulding compound comprises carbon fibres and/or carbon threads and pitch and/or resins, the green body is cured in a third step by heating under pressure, and then carbonised in a fourth step by heating in the absence of oxidants to form a C/C body, which latter can be infiltrated with liquid metal with retention of its shape in a fifth step, with at least partial formation of carbides, where the cores comprise a material which is non-meltable but undergoes at least sufficient shrinkage above the curing temperature of the shaping by pressing of the press moulding compound for the shrunken core to be able to be taken out from the carbonised body; hollow bodies produced by this process and also their use as brake disks, clutch disks and friction disks

In particular, the invention relates to a process for producing a porous fibre-reinforced carbon-containing shaped body which has recesses or hollow spaces and is close to the final shape, in particular a fibre-reinforced C/C body ("CFC" or "CFRC"=carbon fibre reinforced carbon) which is shaped from binder-containing fibre compositions by means of a pressing procedure using pressing cores and is converted into C/C in a subsequent thermal treatment, and also, if appropriate, to the densification of a porous fibre-reinforced carbon-containing shaped body to form a carbon-containing ceramic matrix, in particular by infiltration of the C/C body with liquid metal, so that the matrix then comprises metals and metal carbides, possibly together with residual unreacted carbon.
The term "metal" also includes silicon, for the purposes of this invention.


A resource assignment method, a related device, and an apparatus. The method includes: receiving, by a terminal from a network device, a resource assignment indication used to indicate frequency domain resource assignment, where the resource assignment indication is used to indicate a plurality of first resource units assigned to the terminal and that the plurality of first resource units are categorized into one or more groups, where a quantity of first resource units in each group is a product of powers of 2, 3, and 5; and performing, by the terminal, discrete Fourier transform based on the plurality of first resource units. According to the resource assignment method, flexible resource assignment can be performed, and spectrum utilization can be improved.

Rapid development of wireless communications technologies has led to an increasing shortage of spectrum resources, which has facilitated exploration of unlicensed frequency bands. 3GPP has introduced a license assisted access (LAA) technology and an enhanced LAA (eLAA) technology in Release 13 (R-13) and R-14, respectively, that is, a non-standalone LTE/LTE-A system is deployed on unlicensed spectrums to maximize use of unlicensed spectrum resources with assistance of licensed spectrums.
However, there are many regulatory restrictions on use of unlicensed frequency bands. In one aspect, a signal transmission bandwidth (OCB) of the unlicensed frequency bands is limited. For example, in Europe, according to the provisions of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), on the 2.4 GHz frequency band and the 5 GHz frequency band, the signal transmission bandwidth is required to account for at least 80% of the channel bandwidth, and on the 60 GHz frequency band, the signal transmission bandwidth is required to account for at least 70% of the channel bandwidth. In another aspect, a signal transmission power of the unlicensed frequency bands is limited. For example, the ETSI requires a maximum power spectral density of 10 dBm/MHz for a signal on a 5150-5350 MHz frequency band.
For downlink transmission, a base station can make full use of the spectrum resources to satisfy regulatory requirements. However, for uplink transmission, the regulatory restrictions undoubtedly pose great challenges to assignment of uplink resources. In particular, when the assignment of uplink resources is required to satisfy some special requirements, the resource assignment is inflexible.

Resource assignment method, related device, and apparatus


A data communications apparatus includes a central device and a plurality of communication devices. The central device includes a plurality of central port pairs, in which each central port pair includes an input port and an output port. The plurality of communication devices is arranged in a spoke and ring configuration, in which each communication device is part of a communication spoke. Each communication spoke is in communication with a different central port pair. Each communication device is also a part of a communication ring, so that each communication device in a selected communication ring belongs to a different communication spoke.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer systems and, more specifically, to a computer system in which a root device communicates with a plurality of other devices.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In computer systems, increasing processor performance is driving the need for higher bandwidth on input-output (I/O) interfaces, memory interfaces and inter-processor interconnects. Generally, these interfaces are changing from multi-drop bidirectional parallel busses to point-to-point high speed unidirectional serial busses. The higher frequencies required to support the faster data rates can not be supported on multi-drop busses, driving topologies to point-to-point busses.
The directional turn-around penalties on high speed busses with multiple transfers in flight tend to be too extreme, resulting in a transition from shared bidirectional busses to separate unidirectional busses. The power and area expense of the electrical I/O used to drive each unidirectional high speed bus interconnect wire has driven the transition from wide parallel busses to narrow serial busses. On a wide parallel bus, a transaction can be sent in one bus clock cycle across the interface. On a serial bus, the transaction is broken into packets and driven on the bus over multiple clock cycles. The packets are reassembled at the receiving end to form the original transaction.
As serial high speed unidirectional busses become more common in computer systems, techniques must be developed to make them more efficient and reliable. Also, when serial high speed unidirectional busses develop faults or are temporarily congested, data transfer rates can be impacted.
Therefore, there is a need for a high speed unidirectional interconnect that provides both higher reliability and higher efficiency than existing topologies

Spider web interconnect topology utilizing multiple port connection

International Business Machines Corporation


To provide an aperture mechanism and an optical apparatus which are reduced in size. The aperture mechanism comprising: a driving member to be driven in accordance with an aperture operation; an aperture member having an aperture to be driven by the driving member; a first engagement section connected to one of the driving member and the aperture member; a second engagement section connected to another one of the driving member and the aperture member and engaged with the first engagement section; and a biasing member connected to at least one of the driving member and the aperture member to provide a bias in a direction in which the first engagement section and the second engagement section are facing to each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an aperture mechanism, an optical apparatus and a manufacturing method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
In the prior art, aperture devices for interchangeable lenses are known, which can improve the operational conditions and durability of an aperture narrow-down lever, for instance, from Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 2,559,958.
In recent years, however, there has been a trend to make cameras more compact, and it has been desired to reduce the size of their aperture mechanisms.

Aperture mechanism, optical apparatus and manufacturing method thereof


A language recognition system, method and program product for recognizing language based input from computer users on a network of connected computers. Each computer includes at least one user based language model trained for a corresponding user for automatic speech recognition, handwriting recognition, machine translation, gesture recognition or other similar actions that require interpretation of user activities. Network computer users are clustered into classes of similar users according to user similarities such as, nationality, profession, sex, age, etc. User characteristics are collected by sensors and from databases and, then, distributed over the network during user activities. Language models with similarities among similar users on the network are identified. The language models include a language model domain, with similar language models being clustered according to their domains. Language models identified as similar are modified in response to user production activities. After modification of one language model, other identified similar language models are compared and adapted. Also, user data, including information about user activities and language model data, is transmitted over the network to other similar users. Language models are adapted only in response to similar user activities, when these activities are recorded and transmitted over the network. Language models are given a global context based on similar users that are connected together over the network.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to language recognition and more particularly to language recognition by multiple connected computer systems connected together over a network.
2. Background Description
Speech recognition systems for voice dictation, typically, try to improve word recognition accuracy by using what is referred to, normally, as a xe2x80x9clocal contextxe2x80x9d for word recognition. Local context based word recognition uses n preceding and m succeeding words, normally referred to as xe2x80x9cn-tuples,xe2x80x9d to identify a particular spoken word. The local context recognition model selects the most likely word based on the statistical probability of the specific n-tuples. However, these prior speech recognition systems still make inappropriate recognition errors because they lack global context for the spoken words.
For example in dictating a review of a conference paper, prior art speech recognition systems have recognized xe2x80x9cin terms of validityxe2x80x9d as xe2x80x9cin terms of the lead Dave.xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cValidityxe2x80x9d has a global context because it is commonly discussed in conference paper reviews. However, xe2x80x9cthe lead Davexe2x80x9d is nonsensical in this context and so, has no global context.
Thus, there is a need for improved methods and systems for language recognition.
It is a purpose of the invention to improve language recognition by computers;
It is yet another purpose of the invention to expand the context base for language recognition.
The present invention is a language recognition system, method and program product for recognizing language based input from computer users connected together over a network of computers. Each computer includes at least one user based language model trained for a corresponding user. The language models may be used by users in automatic speech recognition, handwriting recognition, machine translation, gesture recognition or other similar actions that require interpretation of user activities. Computer users on a network of computers are clustered into classes of similar users. Users that are connected over the network are clustered according to their characteristic similarities such as, nationality, profession, sex, age, or any other characteristics that may influence user language model selection. Characteristics of users are collected by sensors and from databases and, then, distributed over the network during user activities. Language models with similarities among similar users on the network are identified.
The language models include a language model domain, with similar language models being clustered according to their domains. Language models identified as similar are modified in response to user production activities. After modification of one language model, other identified similar language models are compared and adapted. Also, user data, including information about user activities and user language model data, is transmitted over the network to other similar users. Language models are adapted only in response to similar user activities, when these activities are recorded and transmitted over the network. Language models are given a global context based on similar users that are connected together over the network.

Language model adaptation via network of similar users

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention provides an interface for a computer system that can drive several different display systems. The interface of the present invention consists of power signals, ground signals, sense signals, programmable signals, and a few miscellaneous signals. The sense signals are driven by each display system that is designed to operate with the interface of the present invention. Each display system drives the sense signals with a code that uniquely identifies the display system. The interface is self-configuring such that the computer system reads the unique code output on the sense signals and correspondingly outputs the proper display information on the programmable signals to drive the display system connected to the interface.

To enhance the flexibility of a computer system, it is desirable to design a computer system such that additional peripherals can easily be added. However, portable computer systems are often difficult to expand since their small size precludes the use of many common expansion buses. Therefore, it is desirable to create expandable external ports on portable computer systems.
Most computer systems include a display unit for displaying information to a user. In prior art portable computer systems, the display unit is usually an integrated part of the computer system. However, to provide additional flexibility, it would be desirable to provide an external port capable of driving several different types of displays.

Standard interface system between different LCD panels and a common frame buffer output


A P-type impurity is doped by oblique ion implantation into N-type impurity diffusion layers formed respectively on both sides of a gate electrode of a Pch MOS transistor, thereby canceling the impurity of at least a portion of an N-type region overlapped by the gate electrode, to thereby suppress a rise in the threshold voltage of the P-channel type MIS transistor due to the N-type impurity diffusion layer and suppress fluctuations in the amount of current that can be made to flow and the current-driving capacity.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the structures of a high withstand voltage MIS transistor and a complementary transistor, and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Related Arts
Conventionally, explaining by using a P channel MOS type transistor as shown in FIG. 1 as an example, there exists a so-called "offset/gate structure transistor" in which the drain thereof is divided into two regions, one being a high impurity concentration (P.sup.+) region 7 and the other being an offset region 6 having a lower impurity concentration (P.sup.-) than that of the region 7, thereby suppressing the field concentration at a gate edge portion 9 and enhancing the drain voltage-withstand characteristic.
However, the above-mentioned offset/gate-structure element incurs the problem that while in operation, the offset region 6 acts as a high resistance component, thereby decreasing current-driving capacity.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. H42-12465 discloses a so-called duplex-offset structure transistor which is constructed as follows. As shown in FIG. 2, the offset region 6 and the drain region 7 of the conventional offset/gate structure transistor are surrounded by a diffusion layer region 10 of the same conductivity type as that of the substrate so as to enable the formation of an offset region 6 by a high impurity concentration diffusion layer. This offset region 6 is thereby made to have a lower resistance, which results in improvement of the current-driving capacity.
Further, in a CMOS type transistor, as the miniaturization thereof proceeds, the short-channel effect or hot-carrier effect thereof becomes large, and therefore consideration needs to be given to this problem. Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. S62-217666 discloses as one countermeasure thereagainst a method for manufacturing a MOS type semiconductor device which involves the step of surrounding the source/drain layers of a P-type channel MOS transistor and N-type channel MOS transistor with N-type impurity layers to thereby simultaneously decrease the above-mentioned effects.
Meanwhile, in recent years, there has been a tendency to decrease the level of the drive voltage in view of the demand for power consumption reduction. This means that there is an attempt to drive transistors which have hitherto been made to operate, usually, with a drain voltage of 5V with a drain voltage of, for example, 3V or 2.5V.
However, it has been discovered that in cases where a MOS transistor such as that disclosed in the above publication is driven with the above-mentioned low voltage, the threshold voltage level largely varies. To explain by using the FIG. 2 shown P channel type offset/gate structure transistor as an example, as illustrated in FIG. 5, a threshold voltage Vth level difference of approximately 1V is produced between when the drain voltage V.sub.D =-5V and when the drain voltage V.sub.D =-0.1V. When the threshold voltage level varies as mentioned above, since the drain current I.sub.D .varies.(V.sub.G -Vth) where V.sub.G represents the gate voltage, the amount of the current which can be made to flow with the driving voltage largely varies depending upon variations in the threshold voltage level, or the transconductance thereof varies, with the result that the current-driving capacity varies. This raises the problem of limitation of the degree of freedom of circuit-designs.

MIS type semiconductor device and method for manufacturing same


In an electronic conference system, a speaker's equipment acquires information regarding the audience's equipment from the audience's equipment, produces presentation data for transmission suitable for the audience's equipment, by applying a prescribed processing to the presentation data according to the information regarding the audience's equipment, and transmits the presentation data for transmission to the audience's equipment, such that the presentation data can be displayed correctly even at the audience's equipments which have display capabilities different from that of the speaker's equipment.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic conference system capable of displaying presentation data in synchronization at a plurality of information processing equipments connected through a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an electronic conference system capable of supporting the presentation utilizing a network, there is a presentation conference function of the Microsoft PowerPoint 97 developed by the Microsoft Corporation. In this system, when a communication link between an information processing equipment utilized by a speaker (which will be referred to as a "speaker's equipment" hereafter) and information processing equipments utilized by the audience (which will be referred to as "audience's equipments" hereafter) is established, the presentation data are distributed from the speaker's equipment to each audience's equipment and a first page slide of the presentation data is displayed at each audience's equipment. Thereafter, when the speaker changes slides by using the speaker's equipment, a new slide is displayed at each audience's equipment.
By using this presentation conference function, it is possible to display the presentation data in synchronization among a plurality of information processing equipments connected through a network.
However, in this system, there has been a problem that the presentation data cannot be displayed correctly at the audience's equipments when the display capabilities of the speaker's equipment and the audience's equipments are different. For example, such a problem arises when the audience's equipments are not provided with fonts for characters contained in the presentation data.

Electronic conference system using presentation data processing based on audience equipment information


One or more derived timers based on a source timer are provided to accommodate a plurality of periodic tasks while maintaining the high resolution of the source timer. To accommodate a number of periodic tasks, a number of derived timers can be selected utilizing a novel method based on the number of periodic tasks that are most time-critical, the number of tasks that are less time-critical, and the number of tasks that can be performed during the source timer interval. The interval and start time for each derived timer is selected based the source timer and number of the derived timer. After establishing the derived timers, the most time-critical tasks can be assigned to the source timer and the less time-critical tasks arranged amongst the derived timers.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to timers and derived timers.
2. Description of the Related Art
In real-time systems, timers are frequently used in the performance of periodic jobs or tasks such as status polling, performance monitoring, and statistics collection, to name but a few examples. Timers can be used to calculate the amount of traffic at a node or port in a storage area network. Timers may be used to determine the status of a device connected to a port of a switch in such a network. The types and numbers of tasks and systems in which they are used are endless. Nevertheless, a common problem for many applications is that the maximum duration for each instance of such tasks is typically constrained to some fixed amount of time. Consider a task to poll the status of a pin for example. The amount of time between issuing a command to poll the pin status and receiving a result can be constrained to some maximum duration. If the result is not received within this maximum constrained amount of time, the system can fail the task and take appropriate action such as re-issuing the command, etc. So long as the interval or resolution of the timer is larger than the maximum duration for the task, the timer will not be overrun. If the timer interval is shorter than the maximum task duration, however, the timer will be overrun because the task cannot complete within the prescribed time period. One solution is to increase the timer interval.
Increasing a timer interval, however, may have negative effects on task-processing in many practical real-time systems. In many systems, there are a multitude of applications having many jobs or tasks that must be done periodically using a timer. Increasing the interval of the timer leads to coarser and coarser timer resolution. Many real-time tasks have hard time limits. If the timer resolution becomes too coarse to meet the hard time limit for such a job, the job will fail. For example, a job may collect statistical or performance information at short time intervals to provide real-time statistical and performance updates (e.g. traffic load at a port of a storage area network switch). If the system's timer interval is increased to avoid overrun for some other task, the real-time updates may no longer be possible.
Thus, a tradeoff exists between avoiding timer overrun and avoiding the failure of jobs having hard time limits. If the interval of a timer is X, and the maximum duration of each task is Y, the number of tasks that can be executed is constrained to less than (X/Y). If the maximum duration of each job Y increases, the interval of the timer X must be increased to ensure that all jobs complete within the timer interval. At some point, however, the timer resolution may become so coarse that jobs having a hard time limit will fail.
Such problems can be exacerbated in systems where a single processor handles tasks for multiple devices such as multiple ports of a storage switch with different port speeds. Various tasks associated with each port may require a timer interval of varying resolution. For example, calculating the data transferred at a slower port may not need as short an interval as calculating the data transferred at a faster port. Numerous other examples of timer resolution conflicts amongst tasks in such environments will be apparent.
Accordingly, there is a need for timing techniques for multiple tasks having different timer resolution requirements that avoid timer overrun and provide hard time limits for needed tasks.

Systems and methods for assigning tasks to derived timers of various resolutions in real-time systems to maximize timer usage


A dry mix-type, drywall panel joint compound is produced which comprises (a) a fine plaster which is applied to a joint formed between adjacent drywall panels in the plastic state to form a hardened material, (b) a material which imparts internal strength and workability to the joint compound, (c) a material for retaining water and inhibits shrinkage of the joint compound within the joint formed between adjacent drywall panels, and (d) a set time control agent. The more preferred joint compound formulation of this invention includes (a) stucco, (b) methyl cellulose, and (c) perlite. A longer set time version of the subject dry mix-type, drywall panel joint compound can also be provided which comprises, in addition to (a)-(d), (e) at least one water absorption agent, (f) at least one shrinkage and cracking inhibitor, (g) at least one adhesive strengthening agent, and (h) an alkaline material for raising the pH of material. The more preferred longer set time joint compound formulation comprises (e) mica, (f) bentonite clay, (g) vinyl acetate and/or vinyl alcohol, and (h) calcium hydroxide.

This invention relates generally to certain gypsum-based, dry mix-type joint compounds, to compositions employing these dry mix-type joint compounds, to methods for applying the subject compositions in filling and finishing the joint formed between adjacent drywall panels.
As described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,079,042, drywall or gypsum board is used in the form of panels for interior walls of buildings, and has largely replaced plaster in both commercial and residential construction. Thus, commercial drywall panels which are 4'.times.8', 4'.times.9' or 10'.times.12' in size, but can be up to 8'.times.24', are nailed to wood studs with their longer dimension positioned horizontally.
U.S Pat. No. 5,041,333 discloses a continuous process for the producing of exemplary drywall panels or gypsum board. These boards are of variable yet predictable density, wherein a fibrous form of stucco produced from gypsum crystals of fibers is combined with standard calcined gypsum and formed into the board. The density of the resultant board varies inversely with the content of fibrous stucco. The process yields lightweight board suitable as standard wallboards and inorganic insulating boards.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,126,599 discloses a water-resistant shaped gypsum panel comprising (A) calcium sulfate dihydrate formed by hardening of calcium sulfate capable of hydration reaction, (B) a calcium type filler for filling up spaces among crystalline particles of said calcium sulfate dihydrate and (C) a water-insoluble or hardly water-soluble salt of a polybasic acid having a second stage dissociation constant of 10.sup.-3 to 10.sup.-10, especially 10.sup.-4 to 10.sup.-9, as measured at 25 deg. C.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,174,230 discloses a gypsum composition comprising: (A) a lightweight spherical gypsum and (B) at least one binder selected from the group consisting of a water-soluble organic polymer, a water-dispersible organic polymer, a water-soluble inorganic compound, a water-dispersion medium colloid forming inorganic compound, a water-hardenable compound and a mixture thereof. This gypsum composition provides a gypsum molded product which is lightweight and, at the same time, has great mechanical strength.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,350,533 discloses a rapid reaction of high alumina cement, gypsum, lime and water produces hydraulic cementitious compositions in which the only significant factor contributing to strength during the very early stages of hydration (i.e., a few minutes to a few hours) is the formation of an amount of ettringite equal to from about 40% to about 60% of the weight the paste of water, the high alumina cement, the gypsum source, and the lime source. A substantially impermeable concrete having a 4-hour compressive strength of about 8000 p.s.i. may be produced from the cement powder of this invention.
U.S Pat. No. 4,560,413 discloses a hardened cement material having enhanced flexural strength, heat resistance, and water resistance prepared from a cement composition. The cement composition comprises 100 parts by weight of a hydraulic cement material containing .gamma.-dicalcium silicate (.gamma.-C.sub.2 S), preferably in an amount of 1% by weight or more, and 1 to 20 parts by weight of a water-dispersible polymeric material. The cement composition is mixed with 5 to 25 parts by weight of water by a molding procedure and by a heat-hardening procedure at a temperature of 40 degrees C. to 180 degrees C. while controlling the relative humidly to 20% to % and/or applying a pressure of 5 to 15 atmospheres.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,853 discloses a flame-retarding sealing compounds based on hydraulic binders. The sealing compounds include hydraulic binders such as gypsum, dehydratable aluminum fillers and melamines.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,746,365 this invention relates to improved aluminous cement/gypsum compositions that contain polymer latex emulsions or compounds to produce self-curing, crack-free, fast-setting, high early strength, high bonding, water resistant, durable, cementitious mixtures for finishing, coating, plastering, stucco, rigid insulation protection, topping, resurfacing, patching, mortaring, tile grouting, concrete, and the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,846,889 discloses a polymer blend useful in thin-bed mortar compositions comprising a water-soluble cellulose ether and a water-insoluble, but water-dispersible, polymer. The water insoluble, but water-dispersible polymer can include an unneutralized polyacrylic acid that is lightly crosslinked or methylcellulose with a viscosity from about 50 cps to about 150,000 cpa, provided the polymeric blend containing methylcellulose is employed in a medium that has a pH of about 12 or greater, although a pH of less than 12 is workable, but is dependent upon the methoxyl content of the methylcellulose. The polymeric blend extends the working time of the composition in which it is employed.
The joint between the adjacent horizontal edges of two adjacent gypsum or drywall panels located one above the other must be filled with an appropriate joint compound in order to hide the joint between the two panels and to develop a flat wall surface from the floor to the ceiling. Gypsum-based dry mix type joint compounds have been used successfully in Europe for many years to fill and finish such joints. This is contrary to the North American practice of using paper or fiberglass tape on all drywall seams and angles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,079,024 discloses a system for finishing the joint between abutting panels of drywall by applying a joint compound comprising mostly gypsum plaster together with (a) fillers such as limestone, mica, and perlite, (b) binders such as clay, natural starch, synthetic starch, CMC and vinyl binders, and (c) a small amount of acrylic monofilament fibers which are about 4 mm to 10 mm longer.
However, it has determined that the joint compound manufactured by the assignee of U.S. Pat. No. 5,079,024, Solid Products, Inc., under hot and dry atmospheric conditions will shrink substantially, and will exhibit substantially reduced flexural strength.
Accordingly, a need remains for dry mix-type joint compounds and compositions therefrom which, when applied in a drywall panel joint, exhibit high flexural strength, minimum shrinkage, and substantially no visible cracking under very hot and dry surrounding atmospheric conditions.

Dry mix-type joint compounds, compositions therefrom and methods for filling drywall joints with same


A system for extending the effective distance of digital subscriber line service is provided. The system includes a central office terminal having a data interface and a plurality of line units. The system further includes at least one communication link, coupled to one of the plurality of line units, that carries signals using digital subscriber line service and at least one remote access multiplexer, coupled to the at least one communication link. The at least one remote access multiplexer includes a plurality of ports that are adapted to provide digital subscriber line service. The remote access multiplexer is adapted to multiplex signals between the plurality of ports and the at least one communication link. Further, the at least one remote access multiplexer is located at a distance from the central office terminal so as to provide digital subscriber line service to user terminals that are located more than 12 kilofeet from the central office terminal.

Broadband penetration rates among residential customers are fast approaching 20% of all on-line subscribers and demand for high-speed Internet access is growing. Competition for these lucrative high-margin customers is fierce and also growing. Although asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is the primary choice of most customers for their broadband services, slow ADSL roll-outs by service providers and limitations of today's digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) technology have left large gaps in the ADSL deployment strategies of many local telephone companies. These gaps are quickly being filled by cable operators eager to capture high-margin revenues that broadband service offerings attract, not to mention the growing opportunity for cable operators to offer bundled voice and data services and gain a toe-hold in the voice services market.
Two significant gaps in most local telephone companies ADSL service offerings are an inability to serve DAML (digitally added main line) customers and residential/small business customers that live beyond the 12,000 ft ADSL serving area. These two segments represent over 20% of the total ADSL market and neither segment can get ADSL service using traditional ADSL equipment.
DAMLs are devices that local telephone companies deploy to residences needing multiple plain old telephone service (POTS) lines, when there is a shortage of copper loops. For more than a decade, digital added main lines (DAMLs/AMLs) have provided carriers with a simple solution for copper pair relief of voice services. Although DAMLs provide multiple POTS lines over an existing copper pair, DAMLs do not support ADSL service delivery. Today, the two to three million customers that are currently served with DAML/AML devices are among the heaviest home users of telecommunication services. To further exacerbate this situation, recent studies show that nearly 75% of all multi-line residential customers are interested in ADSL-based service. With the majority of multi-line households desiring broadband services local telephone companies are not able to meet the needs of these premium customers. Currently, carriers are forced to not offer ADSL to this large segment of premium customers because carriers cannot justify the high cost of placing new cable to deliver ADSL to these customers. Many of these customers are looking to cable operators to meet their need for high-speed Internet access. The resulting situation has left many local telephone companies frustrated for they have a ready-made ADSL subscriber base but cannot satisfy the demand without enormous outside cable plant upgrades. Local telephone companies need a solution that will enable them to compete effectively with cable operators for this lucrative market segment.
The second major gap in most local telephone ADSL service deployments is the 20% of residential subscribers that live beyond 12,000 ft from a central office (CO) or remote Digital Loop Carrier (DLC) location. Poor loop quality and other technical limitations of Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) equipment installed by local telephone companies limits many asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) deployments to 12,000 ft to 15,000 ft from a central office (CO) or digital loop carrier (DLC) remote. Some of the technical limitations of DSLAMS include:                DSLAMs/Remote DSLAMs are practical only to about 12,000 ft from a CO or DLC.        A DSLAM/Remote DSLAM is limited to offering only one voice circuit with every ADSL interface.        DSLAMs/Remote DSLAMs cannot serve multiple POTS lines and ADSL to a single home without a costly upgrade to a voice over a digital subscriber line—DSLAM, voice-gateway and locally powered integrated access device.
Residential customers located beyond 12,000 ft of a typical 18,000 ft carrier serving area (CSA), however, comprise about 20 percent of the total ADSL market and are among the heaviest users of telecommunication services. Cable operators are aggressively targeting these "long reach" customers with cable modems that offer significantly higher bandwidth than ADSL service at the same distances. Local telephone companies need a solution that will enable them to compete effectively with cable operators for delivery of high-speed Internet access to these hard to reach customers.
Unfortunately for many local telephone companies, DAML-based and long-reach customers are beginning to purchase data service from cable operators. Regrettably, that lost business may be difficult to recover. Even more unwelcome is the fact that the cable companies will, sooner or later, be offering voice services.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for improvements in the provision of asymmetric digital subscriber line services.


An apparatus for heating and setting elements of a stent. The apparatus is a mandrel having a central core cylinder with an outer surface including a plurality of raised forms and gaps in-between the raised forms. The mandrel also includes a first and second outer cylinder, each having a curved radial end with a cut-out design similar to the shape of the plurality of raised forms. Once a stent is placed on the central core cylinder, the first and second outer cylinders are positioned on the central core cylinder such that the curved radial ends of the first and second outer cylinders align with the plurality of raised forms, shaping the stent.

This application relates to heating and setting mandrels for use in manufacturing and more particularly, a mandrel for heating and setting a stent having limb elements which provide for improved expansion characteristics.
The term stent generally refers to a prosthesis, which can be introduced into a corporeal lumen and expanded to support that lumen or attach a conduit to the inner surface of that lumen. Self-expanding stents are generally known in the art. During use, the self-expanding stent is compressed into a reduced size having an outer diameter substantially smaller than the stent in its expanded shape. The stent is held in its compressed state during its passage through the patient's vascular system until reaching the target treatment site, whereupon the compressed self-expanding stent may be deployed. While in its compressed state, stress is stored in the bends of the stent limbs. During deployment, the stresses in the stent limbs cause the stent to expand radially from its initially compressed state. Once in place, the radial extremities of the stent bear against the inside walls of the passageway, thereby allowing normal blood flow.
The processes of manufacturing self-expanding stents are also known in the art insofar as heat treating a stent upon a mandrel for purposes of setting a particular stent shape. Additionally, shape memorization processes utilizing mandrels are stent specific as each stent-type embody different design requirements. Previous attempts at heat treating simply involve mounting a stent upon a mandrel and exposing it to heat with little attention being paid to the shape that is set, other than the diameter, during the heating process. Because these previous attempts fail to control the shape of the stent limbs created during the heating process, a less effective final stent is produced.
Most stents known in the art change diameter through the deformation of a small percentage of a length of the limbs defining the stent. Usually, this deformation occurs only at, or near, curved apices formed in stent limbs. The length of the limb that deforms and the magnitude of the deformation has a bearing on three important and interrelated characteristics of the stent: 1) the minimum diameter to which the stent can be compressed; 2) the radial stiffness or energy required to compress the stent; and 3) the maximum value of stress/strain experienced by the stent. Many other factors are also determinative of these characteristics including stent material, resting diameter, stent length, etc.; however, these other factors are assumed to be generally constant for a given stent design.
A stent having curved limb members can improve the above mentioned characteristics of the stent by spreading the deformation energy over a majority of the length of the stent limbs. This is in contrast to other stent designs that concentrate the deformation at or near the apices in the stent limb.
For example, to maximize radial stiffness and to minimize a compressed diameter of a stent, limb elements defining the stent each can embody two curves of constant radius and opposite direction which meet at an inflection point. When such a stent is compressed, the two curved sections assume a nearly straight profile, the advantage of which is that the entire length of the curved portions store deformation energy and function to urge the stent radially outward.
In the event a stent having curved limb members is to be manufactured, in order to set a desired expanded configuration the stent is expanded over a cylindrical mandrel and heated. However, merely expanding the stent over a mandrel without additional controls or constraints, rarely results in limb elements having the desired profile. To wit, the end of the limbs may be provided with a smaller than desired radius of curvature whereas the portion of the limbs near an inflection point may have a much larger than desired radius of curvature. This results in producing a stent that embodies limbs which do not store stress in an optimal manner. Therefore, an expansion mandrel for heating and setting a stent which facilitates the production of a desired stent profile as well as aids in evenly dispersing stresses along limb elements defining the stent during manufacturing was developed, and is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,279,368 B1 to Escano et al. It would be beneficial to have an improved mandrel that makes the process of loading a stent onto a mandrel easier.
As is known, stents are currently expanded on a mandrel through multiple shape setting steps, and at some point before the last expansion, an additional ring is placed on the stent to help protrude hooks from the stent. This process is very slow and prone to damaging the stent. Therefore, an alternative process is needed to make the hook-setting step easier, faster, and less susceptible to damage.
The present invention satisfies these and other needs.

Nitinol frame heating and setting mandrel


The present system provides a task manager that extracts information relating to tasks from a task oriented email. The system then integrates the task within the system by connecting the email programs, the task management programs, and a database, to automatically send emails and provide links to documents all related to completion of the task. Methods are provided that allow users of the system to efficiently interface with the system to complete and archive tasks.

The present invention is related to email and task processing, and more particularly to providing fully integrated and expanded email and task management system and methods.
Different varieties of task management systems and email software programs are used in office environments. Email programs provide communications between workers while task management programs allow individual workers to manage their assigned tasks. Even if both types of programs are contained in one software package, they are disjointed and do not offer a sufficiently integrated functionality.
Tasks to be completed are often not explicitly sent out or specified as tasks, but are received as part of an email and new tasks are then created manually in a task management system by a worker. Task fulfillment often requires information received in additional emails or might be impacted by the information in incoming emails. In complex tasks, often more than one email is relevant and has to be considered when executing a task.
For the person working on a task many problems commonly arise. If tasks are kept independently of emails, the user has to manually search for and open all related emails whenever working on a task. Relevant information is easy to be missed. Email programs do not provide functionality such as internally linking emails that relate to one task to be accessed in the task management system. Updates on a task that are sent out via email might not be considered or recognized as relevant by a task management system.
Usually to fulfill a task, several documents (emails, web pages, files, etc,) are required. These documents are often collected and opened by the user fulfilling the task every time the individual works on it. Attachments to tasks in MS Outlook for example are possible, but these are local documents. If changes are made to the original documents, they are not updated globally so other individuals are not aware of the current status of the task.
When a task is completed, often participants that should receive a notification are missed or documents are not attached. Finally, archiving of completed tasks is not often done or does not include all the necessary documents.
Therefore existing email and task management programs do not provide adequate solutions and integrations for today's office environment.


An optical switch includes a pump source, a pump director, and a pump-dependent attenuator. The pump-dependent attenuator passes optical signals when it is supplied with pump energy at a pumping wavelength and attenuates optical signals when it is not supplied with pump energy. The pump source generates pump energy for the pump-dependent attenuator, and the pump director optically manipulates the delivery of pump energy to the pump-dependent attenuator. In a preferred embodiment, the pump-dependent attenuator is an erbium-doped fiber (EDF), the pump source is a laser diode, and the pump director is a tunable fiber Bragg grating (FBG). The EDF is located along an optical signal transmission path between an input waveguide and an output waveguide. The tunable FBG is located along a transmission path between the laser diode and the EDF. To operate the switch, pump energy at a pumping wavelength is generated by the laser diode and transmitted toward the tunable FBG. To turn on the switch, the FBG is tuned off of the pumping wavelength of the EDF, thereby passing pump energy to the EDF, and to turn off the switch, the FBG is tuned onto the pumping wavelength of the EDF, thereby blocking pump energy to the EDF. An adjustable bandpass filter may also be used as the pump director. The optical switch can also be applied to various optical systems, such as a 1.times.N switch, add/drop multiplexers, broadcast/multicast switches, and wavelength-selectable lasers.

Lightwave networks are increasingly being used to transfer information around the world. Lightwave networks include a number of stations, or nodes, that are interconnected by stretches of waveguides, typically optical fibers. Inside an optical fiber, pulses of light are transferred over long distances. In order to maintain the power of optical signals as they propagate through long stretches of optical fiber and/or other hardware devices, optical amplifiers are added in various locations in an optical network to maintain the energy level required for reliable optical communication.
In optical communications systems, a common optical amplifier is an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA). An EDFA is a segment of optical fiber integrated into the optical path to transfer optical energy to a passing signal when the EDFA is contacted by a pump source, which is typically a 980 nanometer or a 1480 nanometer laser pump source. The laser pump excites the EDFA, which in turn transfers optical energy to the passing signal, creating an amplified signal or, at a minimum, passing the sign attenuation. When pump energy is not applied to an EDFA, the EDFA may attenuate a passing optical signal by as much as 50 dB. The term pump energy used in conjunction with an EDFA or erbium-doped fiber (EDF) refers to the power associated with the pump wavelength of the EDFA or EDF.
Optical switches have been developed that incorporate the amplifying characteristics of EDFAs. FIG. 1 illustrates an optical switch utilizing an EDFA, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,655,036, entitled "Branching Unit for Telecommunications Optical Cable Systems," issued to Webb. An optical attenuator 10 is combined with an EDFA 12 along an optical path to function as a switch to selectively prevent optical signals from propagating from an input fiber 14 to an output fiber 16. In order to allow optical signals to pass from the input fiber to the output fiber of the switch, the EDFA is powered by a laser pump 18. That is, the optical switch is controlled by turning the laser pump on and off, as needed. The laser pump is electronically turned on and/or off by a pump laser on/off circuit 20.
A disadvantage of the Webb system is the requirement of direct control of the pump laser output power to effectuate a switching event in a single switch. In addition, an optical switch requiring pump output power control has limited scalability. Both limitations may cause problems when rapid on/off switching is needed.
In addition to optical amplifiers, other optical devices such as wavelength stabilized lasers, wavelength division multiplexers, demultiplexers, and gain equalizers are used in lightwave communications systems. In many of the devices, fiber Bragg gratings (FBG) are used to reflect narrow bands of light energy in order to achieve a desired result. An FBG reliably reflects light energy by means of periodic changes or perturbations along the core of an optical waveguide. The perturbations create changes in the refractive index of the core of the waveguide. At each change, a portion of the optical energy is reflected, inducing interference in a constructive manner. The degree of change in refractive index along the core of an optical fiber, the grating period, and length of the FBG are factors that determine the range of wavelengths that will be reflected, as well as the efficiency of reflection.
FBGs are effective devices for filtering narrow wavelength bands of light energy in optical fibers. In addition, an FBG can be easily adjusted or tuned, in place, to cause the FBG to reflect a different wavelength. Tuning of an FBG's wavelength band of reflectivity typically involves thermally or mechanically changing the periodicity of the periodic perturbations of the FBG.
In contrast to FBGs, bandpass filters such as Fabry-Perot filters are used in optical fibers to reliably reflect a wide wavelength band of optical energy, while allowing a narrow wavelength band of optical energy to pass. Bandpass filters are also adjustable with respect to the passing wavelength band.
As lightwave network technology continues to develop, more advanced optical switches are needed to create new and improved optical devices. The narrow wavelength band filtering properties of FBGs may be utilized to create the advanced optical switches. Although the switch disclosed by Webb works well for its intended purpose, in order to create new and improved optical devices, what is needed is an optical switch that does not require direct control over pump laser output power. In addition what is needed is an optical switch that can be scaled up to create useful optical devices.


A positioning arrangement has a positioning element formed of a closed-cell foam, preferably a positioning mat, the positioning element has a seating surface for an examination subject to be examined with computed tomography and has an underside provided with a recess into which a reference member can be introduced. The recess has a holder for the reference member that holds the reference member introduced into the recess with a positive fit in a defined position relative to the seating surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a positioning arrangement of the type having a seating surface for an examination subject to be examined in a computed tomography apparatus, and which has a recess into which a reference member can be introduced.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Such positioning arrangements are employed for the implementation of osteo-examinations wherein the aim is to determine the density values of the bone material of a patient on the basis of a reference member formed of a defined material. For these examinations, the reference member must assume a defined position relative to the patient; namely, it must be positioned relative to the longitudinal axis of the patient so that it produces an image in the examination of a diagnostically relevant region of the patient. Second, it must exhibit a defined spacing from the body surface of the patient.
In this context, U.S. Pat. No. 4,233,507 discloses that reference members be fixed in a positioning plate serving for the positioning of the patient. It is difficult if not impossible to replace reference members in this case. This publication also discloses that reference members be arranged in a removable part of the positioning plate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,335 discloses the use of a positioning pillow or cushion containing reference members, these being arranged between the patient and a positioning plate serving for the positioning of the patient. It is difficult to assure an exact positioning of the reference members relative to the patient in this case.
U. S. Pat. No. 4,870,666 discloses a positioning means of the type initially described that is fashioned as a cushion that can be placed on a positioning plate, the upper side of the positioning plate being provided with a recess for the acceptance of reference members.
A positioning mat that can be placed on a positioning plate is also known that has a receptacle that is covered with a glued-on foil at the underside of the positioning plate. The reference members are placed into this receptacle proceeding from above, i.e. proceeding from the seating surface of the positioning mat.
Additional cushions or spacers of expanded cellular material are required with this positioning mat in order to be able to correctly position the reference member relative to the patient; one cushion maintains the correct position of the reference member in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the patient, and another cushion assures the correct spacing of the reference member from the body surface of the patient.
This known arrangement also has a number of serious disadvantages. The clearance for the reference member is open toward the patient, so that body fluids can penetrate, these being difficult to remove. In particular, the corners cannot be disinfected in a satisfactory manner. The reference body, which is freely exposed at the top, presses against the patient""s back. Additional cushions of expanded cellular material are required in order to position the reference member in the correct position relative to the patient, these being easily lost in routine clinical work. During storage, the reference member easily falls out of the positioning mat. Lastly, the glued location between positioning mat and foil frequently tears.
An object of the present invention is to provide a positioning arrangement of the type initially described which can be dependably handled.
This object is inventively achieved in a positioning arrangement having a positioning element seating surface for an examination subject to be examined in a computed tomography procedure, this positioning procedure being provided with a recess at its underside into which a reference member can be introduced.
The seating surface can be smooth since, in the inventive positioning arrangement, the recess (preferably adapted in shape to the reference member) is provided at the underside of the positioning means facing away from the seating surface. Differing from known positioners, no contaminants can collect in the mounting region for the reference member. Contaminants can be easily removed and it is easy to disinfect the seating surface.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the recess has a holder for the reference body that places the reference body introduced into the recess into a defined position relative to the seating surface. The correct position of the reference body relative to the seating surface, and thus relative to the patient is assured by the recess being adapted in shape to the reference member and being provided with this holder, without requiring additional cushions of expanded cellular material for the correct positioning of the reference member.
In one version of the invention, the reference member is held with a positive fit in the recess, so that the reference member can remain in the recess when the positioning arrangement is in storage. It is thus assured that the reference is always present when the positioning arrangement is employed and cannot be lost.
In an embodiment of the press fit, the reference member can be introduced into the recess with plastic deformation of the positioning element, so that it can in turn be removed asa needed, for example in order to replace it with a different reference member.
All materials that exhibit an adequately low X-ray absorption and do not promote the formation of artifacts in the images are suitable as material for the positioning arrangement. The formation of the positioning arrangement as a mat composed of a closed-cell foam, for example PE foam as distributed under the name EVAZOTE 50, is preferred.
The reference member preferably has an oblong shape and the recess is disposed in the positioning element so that the longitudinal axis of the reference member proceeds substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the positioning element. Given human patients, a parallel attitude of the reference member relative to the spinal column is then established.
In order to make the position of the reference member visible, and thus facilitate its relative position to the region of the patient that is to be simultaneously scanned with the reference member, the seating surfacexe2x80x94in one version of the inventionxe2x80x94is provided the markings indicating the axial position of the reference member. These markings are preferably fashioned such that they do not tend to become contaminated and are easy to clean.
The positioning arrangement is preferably provided as an overlay for a positioning plate and can be provided with fasteners, for example Velcro(copyright) bands, for fastening to the positioning plate.
In an especially preferred embodiment of the invention, the positioning arrangement is displaceable in the direction of the longitudinal axis relative to the positioning plate in order to be able to adapt the position of the reference member to different patient sizes.
When the positioning arrangement is provided as an overlay for a positioning plate, in a version of the invention the positioning arrangement is provided with at least one oblong projection that overlaps a limiting edge of the positioning plate. A contamination of the positioning plate is thus largely prevented. Repositioning of the patient is facilitated when the material of the positioning means is resilient, since this avoids the patient having to be transported over a hard edge of the positioning plate.

Patient positioning for conducting a medical examination


Aspects disclosed herein describe a keeper circuit that adapts to variations in the fabrication process used to manufacture a dynamic circuit. The different characteristics of the circuit elements may cause a keeper circuit to behave in an unintended manner. In one example, a logical state of the dynamic circuit may be erroneously changed because of a strong (i.e., leaky) NMOS transistor in a pull down or discharge path. An adaptive keeper circuit, however, is designed to prevent such unintended behavior regardless of any change in the characteristics of the circuit elements in the dynamic circuit. The adaptive keeper circuit matches the behavior of the pull down path and prevents the pull down path from erroneously changing the logical state stored by the dynamic circuit.

Advances in technology have resulted in smaller and more powerful personal computing devices. For example, there currently exist a variety of portable personal computing devices, including wireless computing devices, such as mobile phones, smart phones, netbooks and laptops that are small, lightweight, and easily carried by users. More specifically, such devices may communicate voice and data packets over wireless networks. Many such devices incorporate additional features to provide enhanced functionality for end users. For example, a smart phone can also include a digital still camera, a digital video camera, a digital recorder, and an audio file player. Each of these portable personal computing devices may include a variety of different integrated circuits for performing the various functions.
The integrated circuits may include dynamic circuits which use a clock to perform a pre-charge phase and an evaluate phase. During the pre-charge phase (or setup phase), the dynamic circuit resets a logical state node to a predetermined logical state (conventionally, a logical one). During the evaluation phase, the logical state stored in the dynamic circuit is evaluated. In one example, the pre-charge phase is performed when the clock is low and the evaluation phase is performed when the clock is high.
The performance and functionality of the dynamic circuit may be affected by variations in the fabrication process used to manufacture the dynamic circuit. For example, variations in the fabrication process may change the leakage current or strength of NMOS and PMOS transistors in the dynamic circuit, which alters its performance. In some cases, the variations in the fabrication process can cause the dynamic circuit to erroneously change its logical state.


An offset estimator (e.g., a time delay, a spatial image offset, etc.) makes use of a transform approach (e.g., using Fast Fourier Transforms). The sparse nature of a cross-correlation is exploited by limiting the computation required in either or both of the forward and inverse transforms. For example, only a subset of the transform values (e.g., a regular subsampling of the values) is used. In some examples, an inverse transform yields a time aliased version of the cross-correlation. Further processing then identifies the most likely offset of the original signals by considering offsets that are consistent with the aliased output.

This invention relates to fast transform based offset determination.
In a number of applications, it is necessary to estimate an offset, for example a time delay, between a two signals, x=(x0, . . . , xN−1) and y=(y0, . . . , yN−1), which may represent two noisy instances of a common signal with different delays. A well-known approach to determining the relative delay of the signals is to form a cross-correlation of the signals as the convolution of time-reversed version of one of the signals x−N=(xN−1, . . . , x0) and the other signal to find z=x−Ny=(z0, . . . , zN−1) and determine the index i of the value zi that is largest. It is also well known that the signal z can be determined using a Fourier Transform approach as z=−1((x)*(y)) where ( ) is the N point Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), recognizing that the DFT approach computes a circular convolution, and therefore the signals x and y should be suitably padded with zeros.
Although presented above with a one-dimensional signal, essentially the same approach may be used for multidimensional data (e.g., images) in which an offset for each dimension is determined.
One application in which such delays are computed in a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, in which the signals represent a pseudo-noise reference signal and a reception of the same pseudo-noise signal transmitted from a satellite.
There is a need to reduce the computation required to determine a time offset, for example, to reduce the computation resources (e.g., processor speed, power, time) needed to implement the computation.

Fast transform based offset determination


An apparatus and a method for determining the type of an optical disk are provided. Firstly, an RF signal of the optical disk in an optical disk drive is read out. Next, a bandpass signal is extracted from the RF signal by a bandpass filter whose central frequency is a wobble frequency. Then, whether the bandpass signal corresponds to a wobble signal is determined. If so, the optical disk is a recordable optical disk; otherwise, the optical disk is a read-only optical disk.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to an optical disk apparatus, and more particularly to an apparatus and a method for determining the type of an optical disk.
2. Description of the Related Art
The optical disk is capable of storing a large amount of data and features the function of data storage; therefore, various types of optical disks are invented to meet users' various needs of data storage.
Currently, the optical disks can be categorized into the read-only optical disks and the recordable optical disks. Examples of read-only optical disks include CD-ROM disks, DVD-ROM disks, and so on. Examples of recordable optical disks include CD-R disks, CD-RW disks, DVD-R/RW disks, DVD+R/RW disks and so on. Normally, after an optical disk is placed into an optical disk drive, the optical disk drive has to determine the type of the optical disk for further processing such as adjusting the read/write power or adjusting the optimum rate of rotation.
Normally, the type of an optical disk may be determined according to the surface reflectivity of the optical disk because various types of optical disks are made of different materials. However, due to the large variety of the dye used in the recordable optical disk and the big difference existing on the surface reflectivity of read-only optical disks made of various materials, it is difficult to determine the type of an optical disk according to the surface reflectivity of the optical disk.

Apparatus and method for determining type of an optical disk


A display device includes a plurality of gate lines arranged substantially parallel to each other in a first direction; a plurality of charge share gate lines arranged substantially parallel to each other in the first direction; a plurality of data lines arranged substantially parallel to each other in a second direction, wherein the second direction is substantially perpendicular to the first direction; and a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix form in along the first direction and the second direction and each of the plurality of pixels which includes a first switching element and a second switching element, wherein the a first gate line of the plurality of gate lines is electrically connected to the first switching element included in one individual pixel of the plurality of pixels, and the a second gate line of the plurality of gate lines is electrically connected to the second switching element included in the individual pixel of the plurality of pixels.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a display device.
(2) Description of the Related Art
An active matrix type display device generally includes a row driving circuit and a column driving circuit to drive pixels arranged in a matrix, i.e., in row and column directions. Different types of active matrix type display devices include a liquid crystal display ("LCD"), a plasma display panel ("PDP"), an organic light emitting diode display device ("OLED"), and various other types of display devices.
Among the various kinds of active matrix type devices, a viewing angle is an important factor in determining quality of a display device. To widen the viewing angle of the LCD, a liquid crystal material, a pixel-structure, and a driving method to realize a wide viewing angle have been developed. To realize a wide viewing angle, one pixel is typically divided into at least two sub-pixels, and each sub-pixel is applied with different data voltages such that liquid crystal molecules included in each sub-pixel are arranged in different directions from each other. In this case, if each sub-pixel included in one pixel is connected to different data column wiring or is connected to different gate row wiring to apply the different data voltages to each sub-pixel, respectively, the number of gate wires in the gate wiring and data wires in the data wiring included in the LCD is increased such that an aperture ratio of each pixel is decreased, and the number of driving circuits is increased, and thereby manufacturing costs of the LCD are increased. Therefore, a display device realizing a wide viewing angle without increasing the number of driving wires is needed.

Display device having plurality of charge share gate lines


Presented herein are systems and methods for pixel reordering and selection. A decoded frame is stored in a frame buffer with a particular pixel order and byte order. A pixel feeder fetches portions of the decoded frame and stores portions of the frame in a double buffer with the same pixel order and byte order. An endian swizzle converts the byte ordering to a predetermined format, as needed. Reordering logic changes the pixel order to a predetermined order. Selection logic selects luma and chroma pixels from fetched pixels and provides the luma pixels to a luma pixel register, chroma Cr pixels to a chroma Cr pixel register, and chroma Cb pixels to a chroma Cb pixel register.

A video decoder receives encoded video data and decodes and/or decompresses the video data. The decoded video data comprises a series of pictures. A display device displays the pictures. The pictures comprise a two-dimensional grid of pixels. The display device displays the pixels of each frame in real time at a constant rate. In contrast, the rate of decoding can vary considerably for different video data. Accordingly, the video decoder writes the decoded pictures in a frame buffer.
Among other things, a display engine is synchronized with the display device and provides the appropriate pixels to the display device for display. The display engine provides the appropriate pixels from the frame buffer to the display device. The location of the appropriate pixels in the frame buffer is dependent on the manner that the video decoder writes the pictures to the frame buffer.
Characteristics that characterize the manner that the video decoder writes the picture to the frame buffer include the packing of luma and chroma pixels, the linearity that the frame is stored, and the spatial relationship between the luma and chroma pixels. The foregoing characteristics are usually determined by the original format of the source video data.
The luma and chroma pixels of a picture can either be stored together or separately. The chroma pixels include chroma red difference pixels Cr, and chroma blue difference pixels Cb. In macroblock format, the luma Y pixels are stored in one array, while both chroma pixels Cr/Cb are stored together in another array. In planar format, the luma pixels Y are stored in one array, the chroma Cr pixels are stored in a second array, and the chroma Cb pixels are stored in a third array. In packed YUV format, the luma pixels and both the chroma Cr/Cb pixels are stored together in a single array.
In the packed YUV format, each alternating luma Y pixel is co-located with chroma pixels Cr&Cb in horizontal direction. A picture in the packed YUV format can be divided into units of four pixels, each of the units capable of being stored in a 32-bit word. The four pixels comprise adjacent luma Y pixels and the chroma pixels Cr/Cb co-located with one of the luma Y pixels. The luma Y pixels and the chroma pixels Cr/Cb can be packed in any one of several pixel orders. Examples of pixel orders that the luma Y pixels and chroma pixels Cr/Cb can be packed include, Cb0/Y0/Cr0/Y1, Cr0/Y0/Cb0/Y1, Y0/Cb0/Y1/Cr0, and Y0/Cr0/Y1/Cb0. Additionally, in big endian order, the four bytes are stored in a 32-bit dword as byte0/byte1/byte2/byte3. In little endian order, the four bytes are stored as byte3/byte2/byte1/byte0. Whether bytes are stored in big endian byte order or little endian byte order depends on the hardware characteristics of the frame buffer memory.
The video decoder does not necessarily store the picture in a linear manner. In planar and packed YUV formats, the video decoder stores pictures in linear format i.e., left to right and top to bottom order in the memory. However, in MPEG, DV25, and TM5, pictures are stored in the frame buffer in a macroblock format. In the macroblock format, the pixels of the picture are divided into two dimensional blocks. The video decoder stores the two dimensional blocks in consecutive memory locations.
Additionally, the spatial relationship of chroma pixels to luma pixels can differ among the many standards. Standards defining the spatial relationship of the chroma pixels to luma pixels include MPEG 4:2:0, MPEG 4:2:2, DV-25 4:2:0, and DV-25 4:1:1 to name a few. Where the standards for the display and the decoded video data differ, chroma pixels for the display can be interpolated from two or more chroma pixels in the decoded video data. The standard for the decoded video data is heavily dependent on the format of the source video data.
Conventionally, after each horizontal synchronization pulse, the host processor calculates the address of the first pixels of a line and the parameters for chroma format conversion. The host processor then programs the display engine with the foregoing.
Programming the display engine at each horizontal synchronization pulse consumes considerable bandwidth from the host processor.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with embodiments presented in the remainder of the present application with references to the drawings.