A technique selects a traffic engineering (TE) label switched path (LSP) from among a plurality of TE-LSPs, each of which spans multiple domains of a computer network from a head-end node of a local domain to a tail-end node of a remote domain, in order to reach one or more address prefixes within the remote domain. The inter-domain TE-LSP selection technique comprises a selection algorithm executed by the head-end node and based on predetermined TE-LSP attributes (e.g., bandwidth, cost, etc.) and/or address prefix reachability attributes (e.g., cost from a tail-end node to the prefix) to select an appropriate inter-domain TE-LSP for the reachable address prefix. The selection algorithm is embodied in one of two modes: (i) a hierarchical selection mode, or (ii) a weighted selection mode. In addition, the technique comprises a load balancing aspect that cooperates with the selection algorithm to enable the head-end node to balance traffic loads among the multiple TE-LSPs based on the results of the selection algorithm.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer networks and more particularly to selecting a traffic engineering (TE) label switched path (LSP) from a plurality of TE-LSPs that span multiple domains of a computer network.
2. Background Information
A computer network is a geographically distributed collection of nodes interconnected by communication links and segments for transporting data between end nodes, such as personal computers and workstations. Many types of networks are available, with the types ranging from local area networks (LANs) to wide area networks (WANs). LANs typically connect the nodes over dedicated private communications links located in the same general physical location, such as a building or campus. WANs, on the other hand, typically connect geographically dispersed nodes over long-distance communications links, such as common carrier telephone lines, optical lightpaths, synchronous optical networks (SONET), or synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) links. The Internet is an example of a WAN that connects disparate networks throughout the world, providing global communication between nodes on various networks. The nodes typically communicate over the network by exchanging discrete frames or packets of data according to predefined protocols, such as the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). In this context, a protocol consists of a set of rules defining how the nodes interact with each other. Computer networks may be further interconnected by an intermediate network node, such as a router, to extend the effective "size" of each network.
Since management of interconnected computer networks can prove burdensome, smaller groups of computer networks may be maintained as routing domains or autonomous systems. The networks within an autonomous system (AS) are typically coupled together by conventional "intradomain" routers configured to execute intradomain routing protocols, and are generally subject to a common authority. To improve routing scalability, a service provider (e.g., an ISP) may divide an AS into multiple "areas." It may be desirable, however, to increase the number of nodes capable of exchanging data; in this case, interdomain routers executing interdomain routing protocols are used to inter-connect nodes of the various ASes. Moreover, it may be desirable to interconnect various ASes that are operated under different administrative domains. As used herein, an AS or an area is generally referred to as a "domain," and a router that interconnects different domains together is generally referred to as a "border router."
An example of an interdomain routing protocol is the Border Gateway Protocol version 4 (BGP), which performs routing between domains (ASes) by exchanging routing and reachability information among neighboring interdomain routers of the systems. An adjacency is a relationship formed between selected neighboring (peer) routers for the purpose of exchanging routing information messages and abstracting the network topology. The routing information exchanged by BGP peer routers typically includes destination address prefixes, i.e., the portions of destination addresses used by the routing protocol to render routing ("next hop") decisions. Examples of such destination addresses include IP version 4 (IPv4) and version 6 (IPv6) addresses. BGP generally operates over a reliable transport protocol, such as TCP, to establish a TCP connection/session. The BGP protocol is well known and generally described in Request for Comments (RFC) 1771, entitled A Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGPx-4), published March 1995.
Examples of an intradomain routing protocol, or an interior gateway protocol (IGP), are the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) routing protocol and the Intermediate-System-to-Intermediate-System (ISIS) routing protocol. The OSPF and ISIS protocols are based on link-state technology and, therefore, are commonly referred to as link-state routing protocols. Link-state protocols define the manner with which routing information and network-topology information are exchanged and processed in a domain. This information is generally directed to an intradomain router's local state (e.g., the router's usable interfaces and reachable neighbors or adjacencies). The OSPF protocol is described in RFC 2328, entitled OSPF Version 2, dated April 1998 and the ISIS protocol used in the context of IP is described in RFC 1195, entitled Use of OSI ISIS for routing in TCP/IP and Dual Environments, dated December 1990, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
An intermediate network node often stores its routing information in a routing table maintained and managed by a routing information base (RIB). The routing table is a searchable data structure in which network addresses are mapped to their associated routing information. However, those skilled in the art will understand that the routing table need not be organized as a table, and alternatively may be another type of searchable data structure. Although the intermediate network node's routing table may be configured with a predetermined set of routing information, the node also may dynamically acquire ("learn") network routing information as it sends and receives data packets. When a packet is received at the intermediate network node, the packet's destination address may be used to identify a routing table entry containing routing information associated with the received packet. Among other things, the packet's routing information indicates the packet's next-hop address.
Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) Traffic Engineering has been developed to meet data networking requirements such as guaranteed available bandwidth or fast restoration. MPLS Traffic Engineering exploits modern label switching techniques to build guaranteed bandwidth end-to-end tunnels through an IP/MPLS network of label switched routers (LSRs). These tunnels are a type of label switched path (LSP) and thus are generally referred to as MPLS Traffic Engineering (TE) LSPs. Examples of MPLS TE can be found in RFC 3209, entitled RSVP-TE: Extensions to RSVP for LSP Tunnels dated December 2001, RFC 3784 entitled Intermediate-System-to-Intermediate-System (IS-IS) Extensions for Traffic Engineering (TE) dated June 2004, and RFC 3630, entitled Traffic Engineering (TE) Extensions to OSPF Version 2 dated September 2003, the contents of all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Establishment of an MPLS TE-LSP from a head-end LSR to a tail-end LSR involves computation of a path through a network of LSRs. Optimally, the computed path is the "shortest" path, as measured in some metric, that satisfies all relevant LSP Traffic Engineering constraints such as e.g., required bandwidth, availability of backup bypass tunnels for each link and node included in the path, etc. Path computation can either be performed by the head-end LSR or by some other entity operating as a path computation element (PCE). The head-end LSR (or a PCE) exploits its knowledge of network topology and resources available on each link to perform the path computation according to the LSP Traffic Engineering constraints. Various path computation methodologies are available including CSPF (constrained shortest path first). MPLS TE-LSPs can be configured within a single domain, e.g., area, level, or AS, or may also span multiple domains, e.g., areas, levels, or ASes.
One difficulty that arises in crossing domain boundaries is that path computation at the head-end LSR requires knowledge of network topology and resources across the entire network between the head-end and the tail-end LSRs. Yet service providers typically do not share this information with each other across domain borders. In particular, network topology and resource information do not generally flow across area boundaries even though a single service provider may operate all the areas or levels. Neither the head-end LSR nor any single PCE will have sufficient knowledge to compute a path. Because of this, MPLS Traffic Engineering path computation techniques are required to compute inter-domain TE-LSPs.
The use of PCEs has been adapted to create a distributed PCE architecture, in order to extend MPLS TE-LSPs across domain boundaries. An example of such a distributed architecture is described in commonly-owned copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/767,574, entitled COMPUTING INTER-AUTONOMOUS SYSTEM MPLS TRAFFIC ENGINEERING LSP PATHS, filed by Vasseur et al., on Sep. 18, 2003, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. In a distributed PCE architecture, the visibility needed to compute paths is extended between adjacent domains so that PCEs may cooperate to compute paths across multiple domains by exchanging virtual shortest path trees (VSPTs) while preserving confidentiality across domains (e.g., when applicable to ASes).
Occasionally, a head-end LSR or node will have multiple TE-LSPs into a particular "remote" domain (e.g., area or level) outside of its own "local" domain. These inter-domain TE-LSPs may terminate at either a single tail-end LSR or node of the remote domain, or at different tail-end nodes within the same remote domain, depending upon their initial setup. Knowledge of nodes or prefixes contained within the remote domain of the tail-end node can be acquired, e.g., via static or policy-based routing, which generally requires manual configuration by a system administrator with prior knowledge of the network topology. Other methods for obtaining this "reachability information" include the dynamic methods described in previously incorporated application Ser. Nos. 11/001,349 and 11/001,459, using various protocol extensions to transmit the information. A known limitation of multiple inter-domain TE-LSPs lies in the inability to efficiently select (e.g., at a head-end node in the local domain) which particular TE-LSP to use when attempting to reach a particular reachable prefix (e.g., in the remote domain), should there be a plurality of TE-LSPs available to reach a particular prefix. Current methods to select a particular TE-LSP involve the use of static or policy-based routing (manual configuration), which can be cumbersome and limited in their applicability, and in some cases (e.g., misconfiguration) can be the cause of network failure.


A method for delegating control of a vehicle feature to a wearable electronic device. The method includes the following: wireless pairing the wearable electronic device to at least one of a smart device or a vehicle controller onboard a vehicle; delegating control of the vehicle feature to the wearable electronic device using at least one of the smart device or the vehicle controller such that a wearer of the wearable electronic device can control the vehicle feature using the wearable electronic device; and operating the vehicle feature based on commands generated by the user using the wearable electronic device.

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure, which is not necessarily prior art.
Most all vehicles have as standard or optional equipment a passive entry/passive start (PEPS) key fob. When the PEPS key fob is detected as being outside of the vehicle, the person possessing the PEPS key fob can unlock the doors and trunk without using a physical key, such as by pressing a button on the door handles or trunk. When the PEPS key fob is detected as being inside the vehicle, the vehicle can be started by pressing a "start" button typically located on the dashboard. The functionality of a PEPS key fob can be delegated to a smart phone to eliminate the need to carry both a PEPS key fob and a smart phone. Wearable electronic devices are becoming more prevalent, such as in the form of activity monitors, smart watches, smart glasses, and jewelry. The present teachings provide systems and methods for delegating control of vehicle features to such wearable electronic devices.

Systems and methods for delegating control of vehicle features to a wearable electronic device


A symmetrical layout technique for an electrostatic discharge ESD device and a corresponding power supply network is presented. The ESD device protects an electronic circuit against an overvoltage or overcurrent and contains a first contact area to establish an electrical contact with a first supply rail, a second contact area to establish an electrical contact with a second supply rail, and a third contact area to establish an electrical contact with a third supply rail. The first and third supply rails provide a first supply voltage, and the second supply rail provides a second supply voltage. Within the ESD device, an axis of symmetry passes through the second contact area, and the first contact area and the third contact area are arranged on opposite sides with regard to the axis of symmetry. The symmetrical layout technique allows flipping the orientation of the ESD device with regard to the supply rails.

Typically, an ESD clamp circuit is coupled between two power supply rails such as e.g. power and ground and is used to protect internal circuit devices of an integrated circuit from voltage overstress. The internal circuit devices are also powered via the power supply rails and are accessible via I/O pads. Specifically, each internal circuit device may be accessible via a first I/O pad for inputting data signals and via a second I/O pad for outputting data signals. For integrated circuits with a plurality of internal circuit devices, each internal circuit device may be protected by at least one ESD clamp circuit. During an ESD strike, overcurrents and/or overvoltages may occur at the I/O pads, and corresponding discharge currents need to be discharged via the ESD clamp circuits to prevent the internal circuit devices from being damaged.
At this, the resistance of a discharge path from a first I/O pad to a second I/O pad is an important design parameter. Such a discharge path typically includes one or more ESD clamp circuits and corresponding electrical connections between the ESD clamp circuits and the I/O pads. In particular, the resistance of the discharge path should be chosen as low as possible to avoid damaging the internal circuit device. In other words, a small resistance of the discharge path is desirable to avoid a discharge current through the internal circuit device which is protected by the corresponding ESD clamp circuit(s). To this end, all ESD clamp circuits are usually connected to the two power supply rails and form parallel discharge paths in case of ESD strike events.
Moreover, as the number of internal circuit devices to be protected increases, the routing of electrical connections from the ESD clamp circuits to the respective I/O pads becomes more complicated. For example, routing design becomes challenging when the number of I/O pads exceeds e.g. 400. When designing the electrical connections through the different layers of the integrated circuit, different constraints need to be taken into account. Such constraints include e.g. minimal pitches between the electrical connections, the I/O pads, and the ESD clamp circuits. Moreover, the routing is further constrained by the orientation of the ESD clamp circuits with regard to the power supply rails, and, finally, by the design of the power supply rails themselves.

Electronic discharge device and split multi rail network with symmetrical layout design technique


Call generating apparatus connected to a call communication line by a connection unit generates a call to the communication line according to information received from a portable device mounted thereon. The connection unit disconnects the connected call connection line if the portable device is unmounted during reception of the information. A permission signal may be sent to the portable device to permit transmission of the information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system comprising a portable system storing data such as a telephone number, and an apparatus utilizing data stored in the portable device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A so-called electronic telephone directory which stores sets of telephone numbers and names has been utilized. Some electronic telephone directories output registered telephone numbers as PB tones. An operator sets an electronic telephone directory near a handset of a telephone set, and causes the electronic telephone directory to output PB tones, thereby generating a call.
However, a wrong destination is often called due to environmental noise.

System using a portable call information device


A system and related techniques detect the initiation of a user's search input and monitor that input character-by-character, to generate suggested search terms on the fly. Arbitration logic may monitor the user's keyboard of other entry of search or query terms at a Web search site or other search engine or resource, and examine that input along with stored query history or usage data on a real-time basis to predict or infer search terms which the user is attempting to transmit. Spelling corrections may likewise be made. According to embodiments, the arbitration logic and/or query history or usage data may be hosted in the user's machine, in the search service itself or in other resources. As the arbitration logic generates suggested search terms in inline fashion, those search suggestions may be presented to the user in real-time, for example by way of a wordwheel, drop-down or other dialog or interface. The user may for example choose to select one of the set of search suggestions before completing the typing or other inputting of their search data, and in embodiments may edit those suggestions in real-time as well. According to embodiments in a further regard, the user may provide configuration inputs to the automatic inline search suggestion feature, for example to turn that capability on or off on a per-session, per-search, permanent or other basis.

Web-based and other search services have proliferated in recent years. Those search pages and other resources have gradually increased in power and sophistication. One area in which search services have become more sophisticated is user search help. For example, some search services today may spell check the words or other search input received from a user after the user has hit the "enter" button or otherwise initiated active search processing on the remote server or other resource. In this manner, the search service may provide enhancements such as correcting obvious typographical errors before the user notices those errors in the returned search results, enhancing the search experience.
However, these and other search enhancements in general rely upon receipt of the search input in its entirety on the server side, before attempting to spell check or otherwise enhance the set of search inputs on the user's behalf. Therefore at least one round-trip of the search terms must take place, before any automatic help is generated. Moreover the search service itself therefore expends processing time on a set of search terms which may contain erroneous terms or other input. Other problems in search and search interface technology exist.

System and method for automatic generation of suggested inline search terms


A device for longitudinal guidance of a motor vehicle, including a driver assistance system which outputs a brake request signal to a brake control unit. The driver assistance system is designed to output a brake request signal in the form of a distance signal which specifies the distance to be traveled by the vehicle within which the vehicle is to reach a predefinable target velocity. The brake control unit has a conversion unit for converting the distance signal into a brake operation signal.

One example of such a device is an ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control) system which makes it possible to adjust the velocity of a vehicle to the velocity of a preceding vehicle, located with the help of a radar system, so that the preceding vehicle is followed at a suitable safety distance. To do so, the driver assistance system intervenes in the drive system and, if necessary, also intervenes in the brake system of the vehicle. The intervention in the brake system has conventionally been accomplished by regulating the braking deceleration to a setpoint braking deceleration calculated by the driver assistance system. When this regulation takes place in the brake control unit, the setpoint braking deceleration forms the brake request signal which is output by the driver assistance system.
ACC systems in use today are generally designed for travel at a high velocity, e.g., on a highway. However, there are efforts to expand the function range of such systems to low velocities and in particular to include a stop-and-go function in which the vehicle is automatically brakable to a standstill when the preceding vehicle stops, e.g., in a traffic jam. The problem occurring then is that inaccuracies during measuring of the actual braking deceleration have serious effects at low velocities, so that regulation becomes unstable. The non-steady transition to a standstill (stopping jolt) is a particular problem here. In vehicles having an automatic transmission, the brake must also be operated at a standstill to prevent the vehicle from rolling. However, since the actual braking deceleration is equal to zero at a standstill, the brake request signal cannot be defined at a standstill via a setpoint braking deceleration.
These problems are avoidable or at least alleviatable if the brake request signal output by the driver assistance system is not represented by a setpoint braking deceleration but instead directly by a brake pressure signal. However, since the deceleration of the vehicle achieved with a given brake pressure depends on the particular vehicle model and the condition of the brakes (temperature, moisture), in this case the driver assistance system must be adjusted to the particular vehicle model and must also be able to process a plurality of parameters related to the condition of the brake system.

Device for longitudinal guidance of a motor vehicle by intervention in the brake system


The present invention provides a transparent thermoplastic molding composition made from a transparent blend of a polycarbonate resin with a polyester resin, 0.005 to 2 weight percent, based on the weight of the composition, of a perfluoroalkylsulfonic acid salt of the formula (I): (RA—SO3−)nXn+ (I), wherein R denotes perfluorinated linear or branched carbon chain having 1 to 30 carbon atoms, A denotes a direct bond or an aromatic nucleus, n denotes an integer of 1 or 2, and X denotes a metal element selected from the first or the second column in the Periodic Table of the Elements, and 0 to 5 weight percent, based on the weight of the composition, of a glycerol monostearate. The inventive composition has a total transmittance according to ASTM D-1003 of greater than 84% and an electric resistivity according to ASTM D-257 of less than about 2.5E+06 ohm-m.

JP 2008-115253 describes an antistatic polycarbonate resin composition that is said to be excellent in thermal stability and transparency. The polycarbonate composition contains a phosphonium salt and an antioxidant or a phosphite and an antioxidant.
JP 2008-115250 provides an antistatic property polycarbonate resin composition which is said to be excellent in thermal stability and transparency. The polycarbonate resin contains a diglycerol fatty acid ester a phosphite and an antioxidant.
JP 2008-081708 describes an antistatic polycarbonate resin composition made of (A) the polycarbonate resin of 100 pts. wt., (B) a phosphonium salt of a specified organic sulfonic acid as the antistatic agent of 0.1-20 pts. wt. and (C) a specified UV absorber of 0.01-0.8 pts. wt. Molded articles made from the composition are said to have transparency, less initial discoloring and are also said to be superior in antistatic property and light fastness.
JP 2007-277337 discloses a composition which is said to consist of 100 pts. wt. of an aromatic polycarbonate resin (component A) consisting of a specific repeating unit and 5-100 pts. wt. of a polyetherester (component B) consisting of (B1) an aromatic dicarboxylic acid not having a sulfonate group and/or its ester, (B2) an aromatic dicarboxylic acid containing a sulfonate group and/or its ester, (B3) a 2-10C glycol and (B4) a poly(alkylene oxide) glycol. The resulting polycarbonate resin composition is said to have excellent heat resistance and lasting antistatic property.
JP 2007-153932 describes a polycarbonate resin composition made of a polycarbonate resin and a boric acid ester of a polyhydric alcohol fatty acid ester and/or its salt.
JP 2007-063361 provides antistatic polycarbonate resin composition made of 100 pts. wt. polycarbonate resin (component A), 0.01-4 pts. wt. low-molecular-weight sulfonic acid salt (component B), and 0.001-1 pt. wt. phosphoric ester (component C). The antistatic polycarbonate resin composition is also said to further contain 0.01-5 pts. wt. polyetherester having a sulfonic acid salt group and/or a polyester having sulfonic acid salt group (component D), a hindered phenolic antioxidant, a phosphorous ester antioxidant, and an ultraviolet absorber. Molded articles made from the composition are said to be particularly suitable as a transparent member for vehicles.
U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2007/049703 describes a substantially transparent antistatic, impact resistant, molding composition and articles made from this composition. The composition includes a miscible mixture of a polycarbonate resin and a cycloaliphatic polyester resin, and an antistatic polymeric material wherein the mixture of the polycarbonate and the cycloaliphatic polyester resin is present in suitable proportions for substantially matching the index of refraction of the antistatic polymeric material, thereby enabling the composition, and any articles made from the composition, to be substantially transparent. The composition is said to be useful in a variety of articles in the electrical and electronic equipment, electronic packaging, and healthcare fields, as well as others.
JP 2006-257177 provides an antistatic polycarbonate resin composition said to have excellent transparency made of, based on 100 pts. wt. of a polycarbonate resin (A), 0.1-7 pts. wt. of an antistatic agent (B) and 0.1-5 pts. wt. of a polycaprolactone (C).
KR 2004-056713 describes an opaque polycarbonate resin composition prepared by formulating 100 parts of a base resin comprising 40-80% of a polycarbonate resin and 20-60% of an acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene resin, 5-20 parts of an antistatic carbon black, and 0.3-1.0 part of a heat stabilizer. The compositions are said to have excellent antistatic property, tensile strength and impact strength. The compositions are limited to only opaque products in black color.
JP 2005-272663 describes an antistatic polycarbonate resin composition prepared by formulating 100 pts. wt. polycarbonate resin (A) with 0.5 to 5 pts. wt. antistatic agent (B) containing a specified phosphonium salt as the active component and 0.0001 to 1.0 pt. wt. specified imide lithium salt (C). The resulting composition is said to provide an antistatic polycarbonate resin composition excellent in heat resistance and transparency.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,220,792 discloses a water resistant permanent antistatic thermoplastic composition contains about 100 parts by weight of a thermoplastic polymer, such as polycarbonate or a blend thereof, about 0.1 to about 10 parts by weight of an antistatic agent, and about 0.1 to about 10 parts by weight of a polysiloxane-polyether copolymer.
JP 2005-146225 provides an antistatic polycarbonate resin composition comprises 100 pts. wt. of a polycarbonate resin (A) and, incorporated therewith, 0.1-7 pts. wt. of an antistat (B) containing, as an effective ingredient, a phosphonium salt and 0.0001-0.1 pt. wt. of a perfluoroalkane sulfonic acid metal salt (C). The resulting composition is said to be excellent in heat resistance and transparency.
JP 2004-083831 describes a polycarbonate resin is characterized by containing (A) 95-99.9 mass % polycarbonate resin and (B) 0.1-5 mass % perfluoroimide metal salt. The resulting transparent polycarbonate resin composition is said to have flame retardant property, without attaching dusts and exhibiting a continued anti-static performance.
JP 2003-176404 provides an antistatic polycarbonate resin composition made of (A) 100 parts wt. of a polycarbonate resin (component a), (B) 0.05-5 parts wt. of a specific benzenesulfonate phosphonium salt (component b) and (C) 0.001-0.8 part wt. of a specific aromatic sulfonic acid metal salt (component c). The resulting composition is said to have excellent antistatic performances and durability of the antistatic performances after dry-heat treatment and further excellent transparency in high-temperature/high-humidity conditions (wet-heat treatment) without lowering transparency, hue and molding heat resistance of a molding.
JP 2003-055544 describes a polycarbonate resin composition made of 100 pts. wt. of a polycarbonate resin and 0.1-100 pts. wt. of an inorganic electro-conductive substance. The resulting composition is said to be excellent in electroconductivity and antistatic properties, and given good appearance molded products without any adverse effect on the intrinsic merits of polycarbonate resins such as mechanical strength, heat resistance, dimensional stability.
U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2003/031844 describes a multi-layer structure of at least two thermoplastic layers in which at least one layer contains one or more antistatic compounds. The antistatic compounds are selected from perfluoroalkyl sulfonic acid salts, e.g., perfluoroalkyl sulfonic ammonium acid salts, perfluoroalkyl sulfonic phosphonium acid salts and perfluoroalkyl sulfonic sulfonium acid salts. The multi-layer structure may be selected from films, solid sheets and multi-walled sheets.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,360,658 provides antistatic extruded polycarbonate sheets produced from thermoplastic polycarbonates, polyalkylene terephthalates and carbon black, as well as processes for the production of such sheets.
JP 49-011949 provides an antistatic polycarbonate composition containing 0.1-5 phr fatty acid monoglyceride. However, the reported haze value was high.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,914,092 provides an agent suitable for imparting antistatic properties to plastics is disclosed. The incorporation of small amounts of organic salt of perfluoroalkylsulfonic acid in plastic resins, notably thermoplastic resins was found to be effective for this purpose.
One of the problems inherent in the art is that thermoplastics are electrical insulators. Including conducting materials, such as copper, into plastics can increase electrical conductivity. However, metal fillers will render opacity in a transparent matrix. To alleviate this problem, therefore, a need exists in the art for clear thermoplastics which have improved electrical conductivity without negatively affected clarity.

Transparent thermoplastic composition with improved electrical conductivity in the melt


A film holder includes a base, a cover, and a flattening mechanism. The base has a film panel for receiving a film and a plurality of sliding slots formed at its two opposite sides. The cover is mounted on the base and is slidable on the base in a first direction, and at least one side of the cover is provided with a recess. The flattening mechanism is fit on the recess to flatten the film on the base by the slide of the cover in the first direction after the cover is mounted on the base. The flattening mechanism includes a sliding rod, at least one resilient member, a contact plate, and a plurality of cylindrical parts formed on the bottom of the sliding rod.

(a) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a film holder and, more particularly, to a film holder having a flattening mechanism capable of flattening the film received in the film holder.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Due to the advancement in scanner technology, the function of scanning films is built in a typical scanner. When a user scans a film by such scanner, the film is usually mounted on a film holder, and then they are together inserted into the scanner to perform scanning. However, since the film is inherently curved with uneven surfaces which may cause the scanned image to be out of focus, it must be pulled flat when placed on the film holder.
FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram illustrating a conventional film holder, and FIG. 2 shows a partial enlarged view C of FIG. 1. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the film holder includes a base 202 and a cover 203. The cover 203 includes a flexible arm 220 whose front end mounts a rubber contact plate 222.
The operating principle of the conventional film holder is described below. After the cover 203 is pivotally connected to the base 202, the friction effect occurred as the rubber contact plate 222 touching the film F may distort the flexible arm 220 to result in the displacement that allows for pulling the film F flat. Though the conventional design may flatten the film, its disadvantage lies in that the range of the displacement that allows for pulling the film flat is determined by the length of the flexible arm 220. In that case, the displacement is not enough to pull the film flat as the flexible arm 220 is too short; while sufficient friction effect is fail to be provided and the film scanning may be obstructed by the flexible arm 220 as the flexible arm 220 is too long.
Hence, according to the conventional design, the film, particularly with large size, may not be completely flattened to cause the scanned image to be out of focus


A plurality of video cameras provide video signals to a video switcher of a video controller. The video switcher selects a video signal of one of the video cameras as the output video based upon a camera control code sent to the video switcher by a timing controller of the video controller. A video synchronization separator of the video controller reads the vertical synchronization interval and the horizontal synchronization pulse from the output video signal and sends those synchronization signals to the timing control. The timing controller generates a vertical drive signal having a plurality of vertical drive pulses that are timed with the vertical synchronization intervals from the video synchronization separator. The timing controller also generates a horizontal drive signal having horizontal drive pulses that are timed with the horizontal synchronization pulses from the video synchronization separator.

The present invention relates to video camera systems, and more particularly, to synchronizing video signals of two or more video cameras.
A video camera transmits fields or frames of video which comprise lines of video. Each field of video is synchronized to one of a series of vertical synchronization intervals. Each line of video is synchronized to one of a series of horizontal synchronization pulses. The video camera uses an oscillator to generate the vertical synchronization intervals and the horizontal synchronization pulses.
Because each video camera uses a different oscillator, the vertical synchronization pulse and the horizontal synchronization intervals in each camera will be at a different frequency. A minor difference in the frequency of the vertical synchronization intervals or and the horizontal synchronization pulses of various video cameras can cause a disruption in the video picture when multiplexing between the various video cameras. Therefore, there is a need for systems which synchronize the vertical synchronization intervals and the horizontal synchronization pulses of more than one camera.

System and method for synchronization of multiple video cameras


A battery housing includes a contact cage forming a longitudinal cylindrical enclosure having a lateral opening. A leaf spring is included having first and second compressible ends, in which the first end is received by the contact cage through the lateral opening. A longitudinal insulating cup is also included having opposing cylindrical openings, in which the second compressible end of the leaf spring is received by the insulating cup through one of the cylindrical openings. The leaf spring forms a positive terminal in the battery housing and is held in position by the contact cage and the insulating cup.

Many electrical devices require one or more batteries to operate. One such electrical device is a night vision device which allows military and law enforcement personnel to conduct operation in low light or at night. Another example of a device containing a battery is a digital camera.
An example of a conventional device including a single battery housing is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The battery housing includes a 1.5 volt AA battery which provides sufficient power to operate an image intensifier of a night vision goggle system. FIG. 1 shows a single battery housing assembly 300, which includes an on/off switch 216, electronics assembly 206, and a battery cap assembly 310. Fastener posts 204A, 204B, 204C and 204D enable the single battery housing assembly to be connected to a monocular housing assembly. FIG. 1 also shows a lanyard 205 coupled to a lanyard retention post 319. Lanyard 205 has loops 209 and 210 at respective ends. Loop 209 may be placed under post 319. A portion of the lanyard between loops 209 and 210 may be placed in groove 208 of post 204D. When the monocular housing assembly (not shown) is connected to single battery housing assembly 300 with fasteners in posts 204A, 204B, 204C and 204D, lanyard 205 may be clamped into groove 208. When battery cap assembly 310 is removed, lanyard 205 and battery cap assembly 310 may not be misplaced because lanyard 205 is captured by groove 208.
FIG. 2 shows an assembled battery sleeve assembly 600. When the components of the battery sleeve assembly are assembled, positive connector 631 of a leaf spring (not shown) protrudes from spring insulator 640 through hole 645 and negative connector 658 projects from the outer surface of battery sleeve 610. Negative connector 658 and positive connector 631 make appropriate connections with a flex circuit of the monocular night vision device and with the negative and positive terminals of a battery inside the battery assembly. Positive connector 631 and negative connector 658 are aligned parallel to the longitudinal axis of battery assembly housing 600.
Battery sleeve 610 has an open end 650. Battery sleeve 610 may be a single conducting cylinder that is machined into multiple segments. Segment 652, which may comprise about 10% of the total length of battery sleeve 610, is externally threaded and forms open end 650. The external threads of segment 652 interface with internal threads on battery cap assembly 310. Immediately adjacent to segment 652 is shown o-ring groove 655. When battery cap assembly 310 threads onto the external threads of segment 652, battery cap assembly 310 extends over segment 652 and interfaces with o-ring groove 655 to form an environmental seal which prevents the battery housing assembly from being impacted by any type of moisture including salt water, sand and dust.
Referring next to FIGS. 3A, 3B and 3C, once the battery sleeve assembly 600 is assembled, it is inserted into an injection mold tool which creates battery housing 700 around the assembly by an overmolding process. During the overmolding process, a liquid high temperature, conductive plastic glows into the injection mold tooling, wraps around the battery sleeve assembly, and fills all voids in the injection mold tooling cavity.
At the conclusion of the mold-around process, battery sleeve assembly housing 600 is inside battery housing 700 and forms the battery housing/sleeve assembly. At the completion of the mold-around process, end 650 and segment 652 of battery sleeve assembly 600 protrude from opening 706 (see FIG. 3C) in battery housing 700, and end portion 640 is inside battery housing 700 and cannot be seen outside the battery housing. The inside of battery housing 700 may have two breakthroughs 702, 704, so that positive connector 631 may protrude from breakthrough 704 and negative connector 658 may protrude from breakthrough 702. The protruding connectors are shown in FIG. 3A. After the overmolding process has been completed, a separate adhesive seal is applied around positive connector 631 and/or around negative connector 658. The adhesive seal creates an environmental seal between spring insulator 640 and positive connector 631.
A disadvantage of the battery sleeve shown in FIG. 2 is that battery sleeve assembly 600 is a machined part that includes an integral ground post, or negative terminal 658, that requires additional machining time. It also includes an end cap portion 640 that must be pressed onto battery sleeve 610. Once pressed onto battery sleeve 610, the whole sleeve assembly 600 is overmolded in battery housing 700. In addition, the inside of end cap 640 includes a positive contact spring (not shown) and an insulating washer (not shown), which are also overmolded in the same process.
The machined end cap 640 and the machined long battery sleeve 610 with milled contact post 658 require a larger rod of metal and greater machining time. This results in additional costs. The overmolding process requires hand loading of the battery sleeve assembly 600 into the mold and requires costly inspection during the molding process.
Another disadvantage is that the end cap portion 640, which conventionally is made of aluminum, requires expensive complicated multiple pieces and a contact cap for forming the positive terminal. Furthermore, the negative terminal 658, because it is an integral part of sleeve 610, requires a difficult soldering process to a wire (not shown). The integral negative terminal 658 acts as a large heat sink for sleeve 610, which pulls down the temperature of the solder iron.
As will be explained the present invention overcomes the aforementioned disadvantages by providing a battery housing that has a reduced number of parts, does not require overmolding, does not require an end cap made of metal, and does not require an integral negative battery terminal.

Battery housing with reverse polarity protection


A method for calculating a distance to an object is provided. In this method, whether luminances received by at least one light receiving elements of a plurality of light receiving elements are equal to or higher than a predetermined value is determined. When luminances received by at least one light receiving elements are equal to or higher than a predetermined value, whether the luminances change in a time-series manner or not is determined. When the luminances change in a time-series manner, information is acquired from the time-series change. Then, a size of a light receiving region is detected based on a ratio of a light receiving element having received luminance with a predetermined value or more to the plurality of light receiving element. Based on the size of the light receiving region and the acquired information, the distance to the object is calculated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for measuring a distance to an object.
2. Description of the Related Art
A distance measurement apparatus has been known as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. S63-266382 that measures a distance to an arbitrary target (measurement object) based on a difference between a time at which laser light is irradiated to the target and a time at which the reflected light is received. By combining this distance measurement apparatus with a compass, a direction measurement apparatus can be structured that measures a direction of the target seen from a measurement point. A position measurement apparatus is also known as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-77291 that measures, based on electric waves from a plurality of GPS satellites on a geosynchronous orbit, a position on earth (latitude, longitude, and altitude).
The above known techniques have the following problems. Specifically, the distance measurement apparatus uses laser light that is hazardous to a human body (because laser light may damage optic nerves) and thus has a problem in safety. The position measurement apparatus using GPS satellites cannot be used in a place to which an electric wave cannot reach (e.g., indoor).


A radio transmitter with IQ-modulator error compensation includes a homodyne observation receiver (42) producing a first real baseband (S5) signal from a real radio frequency signal (S2). A real-value extracting element (44) and a down-sampler (46) convert a complex baseband signal (S1) into a second real baseband signal. An adapter (40) determines parameters controlling an IQ-error compensator (12) by minimizing the error between the two real baseband signals. In a preferred embodiment he transmitter also includes a phase shifter (56) providing three different phase shifts to compensate for the fact that the homodyne observation receiver produces a real and not a complex signal.

The up-conversion from baseband to radio frequency (RF) in radio transmitters can be performed as a single step "direct conversion" using an analog IQ-modulator architecture or as a multiple step "digital intermediate frequency" conversion using both digital and analog mixers. Generally the IQ-modulator architecture is preferable, since it gives better performance and is less complex. However, this also requires a simple and effective way of correcting for the so-called IQ-errors generated by the IQ-modulator.
Conventionally the IQ-errors are compensated in an IQ-error compensator, the parameters of which are determined by an adapter using the baseband signal and a signal from a so-called observation receiver. This observation receiver converts the radio frequency (RF) signal from the power amplifier to baseband in two steps. In the first step an analog mixer converts it to intermediate frequency, where it is digitized. The digitized intermediate frequency signal is then digitally converted to an IQ-signal at baseband by a digital mixer. A drawback of the known method, however, is that several analog local oscillators have to be used, one for the IQ-modulator and one for the observation receiver. In addition to the increased costs, this approach leads to a complicated cancellation of the phase noise of the transmitter and observation receiver local oscillators. There is also a risk for leakage from the observation receiver local oscillator.


An assembly including a substantially transparent front panel and a partially translucent screen with a partially reflective front surface positioned to face a rear side of the front panel and spaced apart therefrom by a predetermined distance. A first image is defined on the rear side for reflection by the front surface to provide a virtual image thereof. A back wall is positioned behind the screen and displays a second image on an exposed surface thereof facing the rear surface of the screen. The exposed surface is spaced apart from the front surface of the screen by the predetermined distance. The virtual image is located substantially in the plane of the exposed surface so that the virtual image appears to be positioned behind the screen.

Various types of flame simulating assemblies are known. Often, a flame simulating assembly is designed to be included in an electric fireplace, to simulate a fire in a real fireplace. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,965,707 (Butterfield) discloses a simulated flame system for an electric fireplace in which a light source is combined with billowing ribbons to simulate flames. The effect resulting tends to resemble flames from a coal fuel source more than flames from a wood fuel source. The flames for burning wooden logs tend to be more active and extend higher above the fuel source.
Known flame simulating assemblies have certain advantages over actual fireplaces, in which a combustible fuel (usually wood or coal, or natural gas) can be burned. Among other things, electric flame simulating assemblies can be used in an interior room (such as in a condominium building or a hotel) from which access to a chimney (i.e., for an actual fireplace) would be difficult. Also, and in particular, known flame simulating assemblies usually occupy less space than actual fireplaces.
The relatively narrow configurations of known flame simulating assemblies is one of their advantages, as noted above. However, known flame simulating assemblies typically have somewhat less depth (i.e., distance from front to back) than ordinary fireplaces. Due to this, the overall effect presented by these flame simulating assemblies is often not as realistic as may be desirable. This is because the relatively smaller depth of the typical flame simulating assembly, as compared to the usual depth of a real fireplace, tends to undermine the overall simulation effect sought with the typical flame simulating assembly.
There is therefore a need for an improved flame simulating assembly adapted for displaying an image of flames.


A method and device for processing image data for a document includes the steps of reading RGB image data for the document; dividing the document image data into a plurality of blocks including a prescribed pixel matrix; calculating an average value information and a gradation range index for each of the blocks; converting the data for each pixel of each of the blocks into coded image data based on the average value information and the gradation range index so that the coded image data defines each pixel with fewer gradation levels than the original image data; storing in a memory unit the gradation range index and coded data, which were obtained for each block through the converting step; forming letter distribution histograms for a primary scanning direction and a secondary scanning direction for each block determined to belong to a letter image; identifying a direction in which letters of the document are aligned based on a number of change points in the histogram for the primary scanning direction and a number of change points in the histogram for the secondary scanning direction; decoding the coded data for each of the blocks based on the respective average value information and gradation range index in the memory unit for the block; and forming an image on copy paper based on the decoded data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to an image processing device that compresses and codes image information using the GBTC (Generalized Block Truncation Coding) method.
2. Description of the Related Art
The GBTC method has been proposed in recent years as a method to compress and expand document image data. Under the GBTC method, the document image data is divided into blocks, each of which has a prescribed number of pixels, and data compression is carried out for each block. Specifically, the data for each pixel in the block is quantized into fewer gradation levels using average value information LA and gradation range index LD calculated from the image data for the block. In other words, the image data for each pixel is converted into coded data .PHI.ij obtained through said quantization and the amount of information consequently becomes compressed. Average value information LA is obtained by dividing into two equal parts the sum of average value Q1 of image data values equal to or lower than parameter P1 and average value Q4 of image data values equal to or larger than parameter P2 (P1<P2), said parameters being determined depending on the image data for the block. Gradation range index LD is the difference between average value Q4 and average value Q1.
FIG. 1 is a drawing to explain the general flow of the coding process using the GBTC method. First, as shown in FIG. 1(a), the document image data is divided into blocks each comprising 4.times.4 pixels. Image data is then extracted from each block. The extracted image data for each block is coded using the GBTC method. Image data for a pixel has a data amount of one byte (=8 bits=256 gradations). In this GBTC coding process, the data for the 16 pixels of the block (1 [8 bits].times.16 bytes=128 bits) is coded (compressed) into one-byte for a gradation range index LD, one-byte for an average value information LA and four-bytes of coded data. The four-bytes of coded data is obtained by classifying and allocating data for each pixel into one of four levels (quantization). In other words, the entire block ends up having four-bytes of coded data because each of the 16 pixels has 2-bits of coded data.
Consequently, the image data for one block (16 bytes) is coded into six-bytes of (48-bits) data. In other words, the amount of image data is compressed to three-eighths of what it was prior to compression.
FIG. 1(c) indicates that the amount of compressed, i.e., coded, image data for one block is equivalent to image data for six pixels prior to compression. The coded data is decoded by calculating, based on gradation range index LD and average value information LA, and image data (1 byte) that corresponds to the coded data (2 bits).
The image data for each of the 16 pixels Xij (i, j=1, 2, 3, 4) in the 4.times.4 pixel block is converted through the decoding process into one of four levels of data (1 byte) out of the 256 gradations. Here, the decoded data clearly includes an error in comparison with the original image data. However, this error is negligible due to the nature of human vision. In other words, there is little image deterioration as far as regular images are concerned.
Parameters Q1 and Q4 can be obtained from gradation range index LD and average value information LA included in the coded data. In other words, a letter image comprising black areas equal to or smaller than parameter P1 and white areas equal to or larger than parameter P2 can be reproduced from the coded data.
In the JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) method in which data obtained through DCT (discrete cosine transform) conversion of image data is converted into Huffman codes, the rate of data compression varies depending on the type of the document. In other words, with some documents, higher data compression takes place in the JPEG method than in the GBTC method, but with others, there are cases where very little compression is possible using the JPEG method. Therefore, it is difficult to set the capacity of the image processing device's built-in memory using the JPEG method. On the other hand, using the GBTC method, data compression is available at a constant compression rate at all times. Therefore, it is easy to set the capacity of the image processing device's built-in memory using the GBTC method.
In an image processing device in which coding is performed using the JPEG method, DCT conversion of the document image data takes place with a block comprising a certain pixel matrix as one unit. Unlike average value information LA, gradation range index LD and coded data .PHI.ij that can be obtained through the GBTC coding process, the DCT-converted data is not data that reflects the average value or gradation range of the data for pixels comprising the block. Therefore, even if the DCT-converted data is processed, the density and color balance of the reproduced image cannot be changed. Therefore, in order to identity the type and orientation of the document and edit and process the image that is to be reproduced on copy paper based on the result of said identification, these processes needed to be performed prior to coding of the image data or after the decoding process.
One of the image identification processes performed by the image processing device is identification of the orientation of the document. In this process to identify the orientation of the document, the orientation of the document is identified and the image is rotated such that the copy output is oriented correctly. For example, in the device disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Hei 4-229763, the orientation of the letter images is identified, based on which identification of the orientation of the document is performed. However, in this device, the process to identify the letter image is complex and time-consuming. Moreover, a large amount of memory is needed in order to store reference letters. This makes the device an unrealistic system, and poses problems in practical use.
In addition to the device described above, a device that determines the orientation of the image based on the locations of commas and periods has been proposed. Since this device, unlike the device described above that identifies the orientation of a letter image, does not require letter pattern matching, it is relatively more realistic, but because identification of commas and periods is performed using special circuits and software, it takes longer to perform processing. Further, a device that determines the orientation of the image based on the distribution of blank areas of the document has also been proposed. While the method of identification of the orientation based on the distribution of blank areas of the document is very easy, where both a letter image and a photographic image exist in the document image and where columnization and tabs are used in the letter image, the shapes of the blank areas are complex, and as a result the device is unable to perform accurate identification of the orientation of the image.
In a digital full-color copy machine, etc. in which coding via the JPEG method takes place, a memory with a large capacity is needed for the orientation identification process in order to store the image data prior to coding or after decoding. In addition, since the orientation identification process is carried out with regard to the image data saved in the large memory described above, there is a practical problem that a long calculation time is required.


Provided is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) using one or more cysteine or derivatives thereof as linkers to couple one or more drugs at the limited binding sites of an antibody, making it possible to produce an ADC product with high drug payload, or to choose a drug with less toxicity, thereby obtaining an ADC product with wide therapeutic window. In addition, since a plurality of drugs may be coupled to one binding site, the ADC products obtained by the method of the present disclosure have better uniformity in the case of same DAR value. Moreover, the amount of antibody required for production may be greatly reduced, thereby lowering the cost. Compared with the antibody-drug conjugates coupled only one drug, the antibody-drug conjugates produced by the method of the present disclosure have the same inhibition or killing effect on tumor cells while using fewer drugs for coupling to the same site.

Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) refers to a class of biological drugs that an active drug is linked with an antibody via a chemical linker. ADCs are like a precision-guided weapon system, in which the active drug is used as an ammunition to accurately kill diseased cells under the guidance of the antibody. Therefore, ADCs combine the dual advantages of high potency of cytotoxic drugs and high targeting of antibodies. By the end of July 2019, only six antibody-conjugated drugs have been approved worldwide (Table 1).
TABLE 1Marketed antibody-drug conjugatesTime toGeneric name of drugsCompaniesmarketIndicationBrentuximab vedotinSeattle,2011Hodgkin'sTakedalymphomaTrastuzumabGenentech2013Breast canceremtansineInotuzumabPfizer2017Acute lymphoblasticozogamicinleukemiaGemtuzumabPfizer2017Acute myeloidozogamicinleukemiaMoxetumomabAstraZeneca2018Hairy cell leukemiapasudotoxPolatuzumabGenentech2019Diffuse large B cellvedotin-piiqlymphoma
Due to the non-uniqueness of the selected binding sites on the antibody and the complexity of the ligation reaction, the actual resulting ADC product is an ADC mixture containing different amounts of antibodies linked with different amounts of drugs at different sites. The heterogeneity of the ADC drug production makes it a great challenge to the production and quality control of drugs. When considering product uniformity, there is an important indicator, that is, DAR value (drug-to-antibody ratio), which is the average number of drugs that can be carried by a unit number of antibody. If the DAR value is too small, the drug molecules carried by antibody are too little, which may affect the overall drug efficacy. However, if the average DAR value is too high, the antibody is loaded with too many drug molecules, which leads the ADC as a whole unstable, change the pharmacokinetic parameters, and may increase the plasma clearance, shorten half-life, and increase systemic drug toxicity.
At present, there are three classical coupling methods for ADCs, one is amide coupling, the other one is thiol coupling, and the third one is cross-linking.
Amide coupling is to couple a drug to a lysine (Lys) residue of an antibody via a linker. The first generation of the ADC drug Mylotarg adopts such a way of amide coupling. There are nearly one hundred lysine in IgG, the coupling may happen on nearly 40 exposed lysine residues on the light chain and heavy chain of the antibody, and each antibody may be coupled with a number of drug molecules at different amounts via lysine coupling. Therefore, the ADCs obtained by amide coupling are highly heterogeneous, and the product has extremely poor uniformity, which seriously affects the PK/PD and therapeutic window of the drug (see http://www.sohu.com/a/277791166_464404).
In thiol coupling, an interchain disulfide bond of an antibody is first broken to form a free cysteine (Cys) residue, which is further coupled with a linker-drug complex capable of matching cysteine residue. Since there are only 4 pairs of interchain disulfide bonds in IgG, 8 free cysteine residues may be formed after all interchain disulfide bonds have been broken, thus the average DAR of ADCs obtained by monothiol coupling is 0-8. Although thiol coupling may give better control to the number of drugs on each antibody, the breakage of the interchain disulfide bond greatly reduces the stability of the antibody.
Cross-linking is a new type of coupling which is developed on the basis of thiol coupling. Like thiol coupling, an interchain disulfide bond of the antibody is first broken to form two free residues, which are further coupled simultaneously. Since there are only 4 pairs of interchain disulfide bonds on one antibody, there are 8 free cysteine residues after the interchain disulfide bonds are all broken, thus the ADCs formed by bridge coupling have an average DAR of 0-4. Compared with thiol coupling, bridge coupling may give better control to the homogeneity of the product, and can greatly provide stability of the antibody after coupling. However, the DAR of the bridge coupling is up to 4, that is, up to 4 drugs may be coupled to one antibody. The number of antigens on the surface of tumor cells is limited, and the antigen expression level required for effective ADC activity varies depending on the characteristics of different antigens. ADC requires at least 1×104 antigens/cell to ensure the delivery of a lethal amount of cytotoxic drug. Ideally, the antigen targeted by the antibody of the ADC should be evenly expressed on the surface of the tumor cells with a high copy number (>105/cell). Tumor cells usually have a limited number of antigens on their surface (approximately 5,000 to 106 antigens/cell), while ADCs have an average DAR of 3.5-4 (e.g., Brentuximab vedotin has an average DAR of 4 and Trastuzumab emtansine has an average DAR of 3.5), which makes the amount of drug delivered to tumor cells is very low, giving a less effect on tumor cells. This is considered to be one of the main reasons of clinical failure of ADCs.
Based on the limited number of antigens on the surface of tumor cells, in order to ensure that a limited number of drugs carried by antibodies can effectively kill tumor cells, small molecules with particularly strong toxicity are often used in clinic. At present, the small molecules used in ADCs mainly include classes of auristatin, maytansine, calicheamicin, doxorubicin, etc. These small molecules have a stronger killing effect on cancer cells as compared with traditional chemotherapy drugs. Typically, killing of target cells may be achieved by an dose of four to six molecules on average. However, once these highly toxic small molecule drugs are off-targeted in the body, they are fatal to the patient. In addition, since these small molecules are particularly toxic (e.g., DM1 has an IC50 of about 10−11 mol/L for many cells, DM4 has an IC50 of about 10−12 mol/L (Ref. 1: Widdison W C, Wilhelm S D, Cavangh E E, et al. Semisynthetic maytansine analogues for the targeted treatment of cancer [J]. J Med Chem, 2006, 49: 4392-4408; Ref. 2: Lambert J M. Antibody-maytansinoid conjugates: a new strategy for the treatment of Cancer [J]. Drugs Future, 2010, 35: 471-480.), and MMAE has an IC50 about 10−11-10−9 mol/L). If there are conditions such as off-target and early drug release, there will be a very big risks for the patients. The FDA has conducted a pooled analysis of 20 investigational new drugs (INDs) and found that the toxicity of ADC drugs in animals is mainly hematopoietic toxicity, hepatotoxicity and reproductive toxicity, and some of them also have skin toxicity and nephrotoxicity, wherein the hematopoietic toxicity, hepatotoxicity and reproductive toxicity are directly related to small molecule cytotoxic drugs (Ref. 3: Saber H, Leighton J K. An FDA oncology analysis of antibody-drug conjugates [J]. Regul Toxicol Pharmacol, 2015, 71(3): 444-452). However, if a small molecule drug with low toxicity is used, the amount of small molecule drug as payload is often too low, so that the generated drug effect is too low, leading to clinical failure.

Antibody-drug conjugates and uses thereof


A process for producing aluminum-filled contact holes in a wafer is disclosed. The process uses a coating installation that includes a plurality of vacuum-processing chambers that are coupled to one another via at least one transfer chamber with an associated handler for transferring the wafers. The preferred process including forming the contact holes and depositing a barrier layer. The wafer is cooled to ambient temperature. A cold aluminum PVD coating process can then be carried out in a PVD-aluminum ESC chamber. After the wafer is heated (e.g., to a temperature of less than about 450° C.), a hot aluminum PVD deposition process is carried out in the PVD-aluminum ESC chamber.

Semiconductor arrangements formed in a wafer, such as for example memory devices, logic device, processors and others, generally have a plurality of metallization levels that are electrically connected to one another via metal contacts. Lithography processes in combination with subsequent RIE (Reactive Ion Etching) or similar processes are used to produce metal contacts of this type. Therefore, the lithography processes produce etching masks on the substrate, so that contact holes can then be etched into the substrate through the etching masks by means of RIE, extending down as far as the next metallization level.
In principle, it is possible for the contact holes to be completely filled with tungsten by means of an M-CVD (modified chemical vapor deposition) process. However, this requires prior deposition of TiN, and then a polishing step (CMP) after the tungsten CVD process. Drawbacks of filling the contact holes with tungsten are the relatively high contact resistance and the technological outlay.
It would be more advantageous for the contact holes to be filled with aluminum. Aluminum contacts of this type would have a significantly lower contact resistance. Various processes have been proposed and used in practice for the production of aluminum contacts of this type.
By way of example, this has been done by Lee, et al. (J. M. Lee, B. H. Kim, J. Y. Yun, M. B. Lee, G. H. Choi, Y. W. Park, H. K. Shin, S. I. Lee, J. T. Moon, "A Noble Metallization Process Using Preferential Metal Deposition (PMD)—Aluminum with Methylpyrroridine Alane (MPA)," Proceedings of the International Interconnect Conference, Jun. 4–6, 2001) by depositing a very thin PVD (physical vapor deposition) layer of MPA at the surface (not in the contact hole). A subsequent CVD aluminum layer then grows only in the contact hole. Finally, the contact hole is filled using a PVD reflow process at moderate temperatures.
Since the CVD-Al layer, which is in this case required to flow, is not on a planar surface, its height is not increased by the roughness of the reflow aluminum. The drawback of this process, however, is that it is a very complex procedure that requires various process steps that take place very slowly.
Another process is described by Yun, et al. (J. H. Yun, K. Y. Kim, S. G. Jin, K. R. Yoon, S. H. Lee, I. C. Ryu, S. K. Park, "Submicron Via-Hole Filling using Al Low-Pressure Seed Process," Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. Vol. 40 (2001) pp. 5105–5108, Part I, No. 8, August 2001). This process uses a commercially available coating installation produced by Applied Materials with the process intended for the installation to fill contact holes in a wafer with aluminum.
In this case, a 400 nm thick aluminum nucleation layer is deposited in vacuo in a separate chamber (long throw technique) while the wafer is on a cooled electrostatic chuck (ESC). The actual filling process is then carried out at temperatures of 450° C. in a further aluminum PVD chamber in vacuo after a heating time of 120 s, with a very low deposition rate at a sputtering power of 2 kW. This means that the filling of the contact holes (vias) with aluminum is carried out in two steps in different vacuum chambers, with a handler being used to transfer the wafers from chamber to chamber.
A handler is to be understood as meaning a device for transferring wafers from a magazine of a loading station (e.g., a FOUP or Front Opening Unified Pod) into a chamber and from the latter into further chambers and ultimately back into a further magazine of the loading station. This handler is arranged in an evacuable transfer chamber located between the processing chambers.
The drawback in this case is that two different aluminum coating chambers are required, with the associated increase in time required to transfer the wafers and the need for the required process parameters in the corresponding chamber to be reset after each transfer, as well as the very slow aluminum flow process.

Process for producing aluminum-filled contact holes


This invention relates to a ternary blend of 20 to 50 wt. % of random propylene copolymer of approximately 2% ethylene, 10 to 40 wt. % ethylene/propylene rubber, and 20 to 50 wt. % high density polyethylene for use as a molded article.

Polypropylene exhibits several desirable properties, for example, relatively low density excellent resistance to deformation at higher temperatures and resistance to aqueous and nonaqueous liquids. Polypropylene also has a less favorable characteristics such as inadequate impact strength at temperatures below room temperature especially below 0.degree. C. Adequate impact strength, however, is required and is of importance in many uses such as, (for example), freight containers, suitcases, automobiles parts and similar applications. Polyethylene of high density of which such molded articles are often made, possesses satisfactorily high impact strength at low temperatures, but a lower resistance to deformations at high temperatures. Ethylene propylene copolymers, saturated as well as unsaturated, exhibit good mechanical properties, high ageing resistance, high ozone resistance as well as impact resistance at low temperatures, such that the copolymers are also excellently suited for use where the product is exposed to weathering. Due to the elastomeric properties of these copolymers, it is popular to combine such copolymers with harder polymers. Many attempts have been made to combine the properties of polypropylene and/or polyethylene and/or ethylene propylene copolymers by the production of binary or ternary blends or molding compositions. Mixtures of polypropylene and polyethylene are known, however, these mixtures exhibit an impact strength which is hardly improved over polypropylene itself. Also, blends of isotactic polypropylene and ethylene propylene elastomers, which are cross-linked or partially cross-linked by vulcanizing agents, require improvement with respect to tensile strength, tear propagation, and hardness values attainable.
Blends of polyethylene with EPDM terpolymers of ethylene, propylene and nonconjugated diene are known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,919,358 and exhibit high tear strengths. The blends do not show sufficient heat resistance due to the low melting temperature polyethylene. Ternary molding compositions are also described in British Pat. No. 1,154,447. These crystalline polypropylene, polyethylene and ethylene propylene block copolymer ternary blends exhibit a tensile strength of only 10 N/mm.sup.2 and are not flexible at temperatures below 30.degree. C.
Various polyolefin ternary blends have still been used in various industrial applications because of the balance achieved among several properties, for example, between rigidity and impact resistance. In particular, ternary blends known as thermoplastic elastomers (TPE's) are used where rigidity and impact resistance are important. Typically a thermoplastic elastomer is a blended product of a hard segment of crystalline polypropylene or crystalline polyethylene and a soft segment of an olefin elastomer such as ethylene propylene rubber (EPR), ethylene/propylene/diene terpolymer (EPDM), polyisobutylene or polybutadiene. The TPE may also be subject to partial cross-linking in order to improve physical properties. In recent years however, the required merits of the blend such as good moldability, appearance of the molded articles i.e. high gloss, paintability, thermal resistance, low temperature impact resistance and the property that the deformation caused by impact is easily restored have become more important. The conventional TPE's have not always met these requirements.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,748,206 to Nogiwa discloses quaternary blends of polypropylene, ethylene propylene rubber, Ultra Low Density Polyethylene (ULDPE) and Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE) or Medium Density Polyethylene (MDPE) and addresses some of these issues. However, the inclusion of 5 to 30 wt. % MDPE and 5 to 50 wt. % ULDPE is limiting. Spielau et al. in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,319,004 and 4,319,005 disclose ternary blends of 38 to 48 wt. % non-amorphous ethylene propylene copolymer (at least 65 wt. % ethylene), polyethylene, preferably High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and 3 to 30 wt. % non-amorphous propylene homopolymer or (polypropylene copolymer up to 12 wt. % ethylene).
Further Kobayashi et al (U.S. Pat. No. 4,822,855) disclose a blend of 30 to 70 parts polyethylene, 30 to 70 parts of random propylene copolymer of up to 12 wt. % ethylene and 70 to 200 parts ethylene propylene rubber. Kobayashi, however, uses very low density polyethylene (VLDPE) with a density between 0.86 to 0.91 g/cm.sup.3.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,990,554 discloses a blend of (a) 75 to 97 wt % of a blend of (1) 90-65 parts crystalline polypropylene (2) an ethylene copolymer (7 or less percent by weight ethylene) and/or propylene homopolymer and (3) 10-35 parts polyethylene and (b) 25-3 wt % filler.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,948,840 discloses a blend of (1) 10-70 parts by weight of propylene (2) 20-60 parts of EPR (3) 10-30 parts semi crystalline, low density, essentially linear ethylene propylene copolymer and (4) 3-15 parts 1,2 polybutadiene and a peroxide crosslinking agent.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,88,775 discloses 50-96 wt % impact modified polypropylene polymer, 2-45 wt % of HDPE homopolymer, 2-45 wt % LLDPE and 0-30 wt % EPR or EPDM.
There still exist a need in the art to develop a rubber toughened thermoplastic olefin for use in molded applications that has a higher MFR which leads to easier moldability.
Indeed, many compositions with ethylene/propylene rubber in them would have very good physical properties if they could be molded. However, the increase in ethylene/propylene rubber proportion in these blends tends to increase viscosity, i.e., decrease the overall melt flow ratio of the mixture. Thus, a high amount of ethylene propylene rubber makes a TPE blend difficult if not impossible to process. Thus, there still exists a need in the art to develop a rubber toughened thermoplastic olefin for use in molded applications that can be more easily molded.

Thermoplastic olefins with low viscosity


A bolt-on mounting assembly for mounting a saw head having a base member and a generally vertical member extending from the base member to a tractor having first and second lift arms comprising a mounting lug, structure for securing the mounting lug to the saw head, structure for receiving the first lift arm of said tractor, and structure for securing the first lift arm to said structure for receiving the first lift arm.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an adjustable mounting assembly for mounting a saw head to a tractor. The adjustable mounting assembly allows the saw head to be easily mounted to several different types of tractors and allows the saw head to be mounted to a particular tractor in a number of different initial positions.
2. Background Art
Saw heads containing circular saw blades for cutting down trees are mounted on the front end of tractors, e.g., rubber tire feller bunchers and crawler type feller bunchers. The saw heads have mounting brackets welded onto a base of the saw head.
Attached to the front of the rubber tired feller buncher are right and left lift arms and a central link member. The orientation of the distal ends of the lift arms and link member dictates the size and placement of the mounting brackets on the saw head. The relative position of the distal ends of the lift arms and the distal end of the central link member are different for each manufacturer's tractor.
To mount a saw head to the tractor, the distal end of each of the boom or lift arms is placed between and secured to the mounting brackets and a distal end of the central link member is placed between and secured between flanges on a central vertical member of the saw head.
When the proper size mounting brackets are welded in proper position on a saw head to make the saw head ready for mounting to a particular manufacturer's tractor, the saw head cannot be mounted to a different manufacturer's tractor. To use the saw head on a different tractor, different size mounting brackets must be used and they must be properly positioned on the saw head. In order to do this, the initial mounting brackets must be cut off and the new mounting brackets must be welded on to the saw head in proper position to fit the particular dimensional requirements of the new tractor's arms.
Furthermore, with the welded-on mounting brackets, the saw head can be mounted to the machine in only one initial position with respect to the ground. In order to optimize performance of the saw, it is desired to keep the saw blade horizontal at all times while cutting. The tilt capability of tractors is limited and is not enough to keep the saw blade horizontal on steeply inclined or declined terrain.

Mounting assembly for mounting a saw head to a tractor


A resource provisioning service allows users to provision multiple, different network resources in an atomic manner and with a single call to a resource provisioning service. In some instances, the multiple, different network resources comprise individual types of resources that form a portion of one or more cloud-computing platforms. For instance, one or more entities may host and operate a cloud-computing platform that includes different types of network resources, such a storage service, a load balancing service, a compute service, a security service, or any other similar or different type of network-accessible service.

Large-scale, network-based computing represents a paradigm shift from traditional client-server computing relationships. With large-scale, network-based computing platforms (e.g., data centers), customers are able leverage shared resources on-demand by renting resources that are owned by third parties and that reside "in the cloud." With these resources, customers of the platform are able to launch and maintain large applications without actually owning or servicing the underlying infrastructure necessary for these applications. As such, network-based computing platforms have expanded the class of individuals and companies able to effectively compete in the realm of computing applications. Despite these advances, these individuals and companies may still experience difficulty in working with hosts of these network-based computing platforms for the purpose of provisioning the desired resources.


An interface device for performing mode transformation in optical waveguides includes an optical waveguide core for propagating light of a particular wavelength or a plurality of wavelengths. The optical waveguide core terminates in a subwavelength grating configured to change the propagation mode of the light. The subwavelength grating has a pitch sufficiently less than the wavelength of the light to frustrate diffraction. The device can thus serve as an optical coupler between different propagating media, or as an anti-reflective or high reflectivity device.

The capability to modify properties of waveguide modes in optical waveguides is a fundamental prerequisite for making optical waveguide devices for many applications areas of integrated optics, photonics, and optoelectronics. One such area is the coupling of light between compact planar waveguides and the outside macroscopic world. A low efficiency of this coupling is a major practical problem in the design and fabrication of integrated microphotonic devices. Various proposals have been made to address this problem, but the coupling still remains a challenge particularly for waveguides of sub-micrometer dimensions made in high index contrast (HIC) materials such as III-V semiconductors, silicon oxynitride, and silicon-on-insulator (SOI). Very compact planar waveguide devices can be made in these materials. In SOI waveguides, light is highly confined in the silicon core which can have cross-sections on the order of 200 nm×200 nm or less, and bending radii can be reduced to a few micrometers. Beside the potential for chip size reduction, the benefit of integration of the mainstream microelectronic technology with photonics has been the main driving force in the emerging field of silicon photonics with significant recent improvements in fabrication technology and many novel structures and devices reported, including modulators, lasers, and arrayed waveguide gratings (AWGs).
Due to the large mode effective index and mode size disparities, the optical coupling between an optical fiber and a high index contrast waveguide with a small cross-section is largely inefficient. In order to match a large optical fiber mode to a HIC waveguide mode with an area typically two orders of magnitude smaller, in plane and out-of-plane mode size transforming structures need to be used.
Various techniques are known for mode manipulation in planar waveguide devices. Mode size transforming structures in both the in-plane and out-of-plane directions are conceptually simple, but the out-of-plane tapering requires complex fabrication techniques such as gray-scale lithography, which is not yet a standard technique in the industry. Grating couplers [G. A. Masanovic et al., Dual grating-assisted directional coupling between fibers and thin semiconductor waveguides, IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 15, 1395, 2003] have been demonstrated, but their fabrication is demanding, and polarization and wavelength sensitivity is typically large. An interesting approach is to use an inversely tapered waveguide that adiabatically narrows down to a width of about 100 nm or less as the waveguide approaches the facet facing the fiber [V. R. Almeida et al., Nanotaper for compact mode conversion, Opt. Lett. 28, 1302, 2003]. The waveguide effective index is reduced by narrowing the waveguide width, which causes the mode to expand and to eventually match that of the fiber. However, drawbacks of this technique are problems with fabrication reproducibility of the thin taper tip and polarization dependent loss (PDL). As well, this method is mainly suitable for channel waveguides of sub-micrometer size. An alternative approach is to use a coupler with a planar graded-index (GRIN) lens [A. Delage et al., Monolithically integrated asymmetric graded and step-index couplers for microphotonic waveguides, Optics Express 14, 148, 2006]. The structure acts as an asymmetric GRIN lens that is the planar analogue of the conventional cylindrical GRIN lens. The GRIN coupler can be made very compact, about 15 μm in length. However, a reproducible growth of thick GRIN layers requires a material growth development that may add to the fabrication complexity and device cost.
Other forms of mode transformers have also been proposed. Long-period grating couplers have been demonstrated [Z. Weissman and A. Hardy, 2-D mode tapering via tapered channel waveguide segmentation, Electron. Lett. 28, 1514, 1992] for low index contrast waveguides such as those made in a silica-on-silicon platform, but their application in HIC waveguides is hindered by the reflection and diffraction losses incurred at the boundaries of different segments. Such couplers are also comparatively large, i.e. a few hundred micrometer long. To reduce the reflection loss, a non-periodic irregular lateral tapering has been proposed [M. M. Spühler et al., A very short planar silica spot-size converter using a nonperiodic segmented waveguide, J. Lightwave Technol. 16, 1680, 1998]. Still, such mode transformers are quite large (>100 μm in length), the coupling loss reduction is rather modest (˜2 dB) and insufficient for most practical devices.
Thus, it will be appreciated that the ability to manipulate modes in optical waveguides is an essential prerequisite for making integrated waveguide structures and devices. In this invention, a general mechanism is disclosed that can control the waveguide mode propagation in a prescribed manner with little or no detrimental effects such as loss penalty or higher order mode conversion.
A specific example where the need for an efficient mode transformation is essential are junctions between waveguides fabricated from different materials, for example using deposition, growth, or heteroepitaxy, as it is often used when joining together waveguides with different functionalities, for example active (lasers, modulators, photodetectors) and passive waveguide structures. The waveguide effective mode index mismatch at such junctions results in insertion loss and return loss penalties and also in higher order mode excitation. The latter needs to be avoided in devices that rely on single-mode operation, as is the case for most state-of-the-art photonic waveguide devices.
Another important factor affecting the coupling of waveguides to the outside world is the reflectivity of the waveguide facets. Facets are typically formed either by etching or by cleaving with or without a successive polishing step. The reflectivity of the thus fabricated facet is determined by the materials that comprise the waveguide and by the waveguide geometry. Very often, however, there is a need to be able to control the reflectivity of the facets in order to achieve certain device functionalities or to improve device performance. A typical example is the need for low or high reflectivity facets for distributed feedback lasers, optical amplifiers or external cavity semiconductor lasers.
Currently, changing the reflectivity of waveguide facets is done by coating the facet with a single layer or a multilayer of dielectric or metallic films. This process has to be performed at the chip level after the actual formation of the facets by the cleaving or etching process. If a facet with high reflectivity is required for a device this can only be achieved by the deposition of metals or complex multilayer structures comprised of different materials. In addition to the complexity of fabrication these coatings can also introduce additional thermal and mechanical problems to devices.

Interface device for performing mode transformation in optical waveguides


A system of manufacturing a custom set of pre-manufactured upper and lower dentures is provided. In one form, a set of master upper and lower dentures is created. The master upper and lower dentures are used to create reusable upper and lower dental matrices, respectively. These re-usable upper and lower dental matrices are repeatedly used to manufacture upper and lower pre-manufactured or standard sized dentures, respectively. Optionally, a dental patient can have these upper and lower pre-manufactured dentures custom fit or relined to fit the dental patient's mouth to form upper reline and/or lower reline pre-manufactured dentures. The dental patient can have custom fit dentures in two visits with the dentist, even two visits in the same day.

One method of manufacturing a custom set of dentures includes multiple visits between a patient and a dentist. The dentist typically sends the dentures multiple times at various stages in the manufacturing process to a dental laboratory for a technician to work on the dentures. For example, a dentist may take an impression of gums of a patient with a stock tray and send the impression to a technician for fabrication of custom trays from the impressions. Next, the dentist would receive the custom trays from the dental laboratory and take another impression of the arch or gums and send this impression to the dental laboratory. The technician at the laboratory constructs a base plate with bite rims and sends it back to the dentist for the dentist to determine the upper and lower bite relation. Then the dentist sends the base plate and bite rim back to the dental laboratory to set prosthetic teeth in wax. Typically after the dentist has fitted the dentures in the patient's mouth to check the bite and prosthetic teeth arrangement, the dentist would again send the dentures to a dental laboratory to process and finish. After processing and finishing the dentures, the dentures are sent back to the dentist for delivery to the patient. The time required for multiple visits between the patient and dentist and the time for labor on the custom dentures at the dental laboratory can be substantial and costly. Additionally, custom dentures can be costly since each set of dentures is custom made for a particular patient using that patient's arch to form the impressions and trays.
The present invention provides improvements for dentures and methods of manufacturing dentures.


A communication network includes network equipments coupled to a management system. A diagnostic device for the network determines the causes of problems occurring in the network via one or more diagnostic models and adapts the diagnostic models as a function of data provided by the management system that is representative of the composition of the network.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of managed communication networks and more particularly diagnostic devices for determining the cause of problems occurring within such networks.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Problems occurring in managed communication networks can have many different causes. The main causes include, for example, power outages, broken connections, breakdowns or malfunctions of network equipments (or the components constituting them), and the integration of a new or old version of a network equipment (or a component constituting it) that is not entirely compatible with the remainder of the network.
In the present context, the expression "network equipment" refers to a combination of hardware and software.
A certain number of diagnostic devices (or tools) have been proposed for determining the causes of problems. Certain of these devices use techniques based on programming in object-oriented languages and/or rules-based languages, possibly managed by a rules engine. This applies in particular to the event correlation expert (ECXpert) device, devices from ILOG that use a programmable rules engine for diagnosis, Network Node Manager® version 6.4 devices, Network Node Manager Extended Topology® version 2.0 devices from Hewlett Packard, the Fault Detective for Data Communications (FDDC)® device from Agilent, and the TAC® device from CISCO.
ALCATEL also offers a diagnostic device based on Bayesian probabilistic theory and used to define rules for refining hypotheses on the basis of concepts of additional evidence and background information, which lead to numbers each representing the probability that a hypothesis is true and used to construct Bayesian networks (also known as Bayesian diagrams) defining test operations associated with statistical or probabilistic weights.
The main drawback of the above diagnostic devices is that they use static diagnostic models, i.e. models whose characteristics are fixed when they are designed and therefore cannot be adapted (or in the best case scenario only very partially adapted) to evolution of the resources of most networks, as much from the point of view of the hardware (or the versions thereof) as from the point of view of the software (or the versions thereof), or to evolution of the traffic in the network. This is a result of the fact that the diagnostic models are constructed from a knowledge base that is based on expert knowledge and that is rarely adapted to all the specific hardware and software and/or to all the combinations of hardware and/or software, and which additionally is at best representative of only what is known in the art at the time it was designed.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,076,083 proposes a solution for adapting diagnostic models, but merely as a function of experience acquired in their use. This solution is therefore unable to take account of the evolution of the managed communication network, and is therefore inadequate.
It is, of course, always possible to design new diagnostic models adapted to each evolution of the network, but this is particularly costly and necessitates a certain design time during which new causes of problems occurring within a network cannot be diagnosed correctly.
The object of the invention is to improve on the situation of there being no prior art diagnostic device that is entirely satisfactory.

Diagnostic device using adaptive diagnostic models, for use in a communication network


Implementations detailed herein include description of a computer-implemented method. In an implementation, the method at least includes receiving an application instance configuration, an application of the application instance to utilize a portion of an attached accelerator during execution of a machine learning model and the application instance configuration including: an indication of the central processing unit (CPU) capability to be used, an arithmetic precision of the machine learning model to be used, an indication of the accelerator capability to be used, a storage location of the application, and an indication of an amount of random access memory to use.

As deep learning becomes more prevalent across a range of applications, customers find it challenging and expensive to run in production. Today, customers use GPUs to improve the performance and efficiency of running interference workloads but find it difficult to do so without overprovisioning capacity, which can be wasteful and expensive. The cost of running deep learning inference makes up a significant portion of the overall application infrastructure, and any inefficiency in running these workloads at scale can be cost prohibitive.

Attached accelerator based inference service


A camera flash comprises a flash light source providing light, a and a condenser lens element. The reflector is located adjacent to one side of the flash light source and has a trough with a reflective surface oriented towards the flash light source. The reflective surface partially encloses the flash light source and extends no more than 2 millimeters beyond the flash light source towards the target surface.

Prior art camera flash units that are integral to cameras have a flash light source 6, a reflector 3, and a refractive lens element 8 (see FIG. 1) to direct light rays generated by the flash light source towards a target surface. Such a flash unit is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,160,192. In conventional camera flash units of the above described type, the reflector has a cup like cross-section that is approximately 7 to 10 millimeters deep. The distance between the light source 6 and the refractive lens element 8 is about 4 millimeters.
There exists a strong demand for compact cameras. Compact cameras require smaller camera flash units than the prior art camera flash units.