In an image data transmission system which is for transmitting an image data signal from a craft flying over an object zone to an earth station and which comprises a first (photoelectric) transducer (34a) for producing a first partial (electric) signal representative of a partial zone when the craft is at a first position and a second transducer (34b) for producing a second partial signal representative of the partial zone when the craft is, a first duration later, at a second position spaced apart from the first position by a first distance, a delay circuit (36-1) produces a delayed signal having a delay equal to the first duration relative to the first partial signal. A time difference detecting circuit (36-2) detects a time difference between the delayed signal and the second partial signal and produces a time difference signal. A transmission processing circuit (36-3) processes the delayed signal by the use of the time difference signal and produces a processed signal. A level difference detecting circuit (36-4) detects a level difference between the processed signal and the second partial signal and produces a level difference signal. A transmitting unit (37) transmits the delayed signal, the time difference signal, and the level difference signal collectively as the image data signal to the earth station. It is possible to reduce data quantity of the time difference signal and the level difference signal to at least one-tenth relative to that of the second partial signal.

This invention relates to an image data transmission system for transmitting an image data signal from a craft, such as a spacecraft, to an earth station in order to obtain a stereo image of an object zone which is typically on the ground surface. Such an image data transmission system is particularly useful in a remote sensing system for a planet, such as the earth.
An image data transmission system of the type described is used to remotely sense an object zone on board a craft flying over the object zone along a flying direction at a predetermined flight altitude. In a remote sensing system, it is often necessary to pick up a stereo image, such as a stereo topographic image, from the object zone by the use of an image pickup apparatus. In order to provide the stereo image, the object zone should be picked up, along the flying direction at two positions spaced apart from each other, so as to form two optical images of the object zone. As will become clear, the craft carries the image pickup apparatus comprising an optical system for producing first and second partial optical images of first and second partial zones of the object zone, which are spaced apart from each other. The image data transmission system comprises first and second photoelectric transducers for transducing the first and the second partial optical images to first and second partial electric signals, respectively. The first and the second partial electric signals are transmitted, as an image data signal, by a transmitter from the craft to an earth station.
A recent requirement is to provide the stereo topographic or a like image at a high resolution so as to make up a precise stereo topography or the like. This requirement gives rise to an increase of data quantity of the image data signal. However, the craft has a restricted data transmission rate. This means that it is necessary to carry out data compression of the first and the second partial electric signals.
A conventional image data transmission system by the use of the data compression is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,134,473 issued to Riichi Nagura, namely, the instant applicant, and assigned to the instant assignee. In brief, the image data transmission system comprises the first photoelectric transducer for producing the first partial electric signal representative of the first partial optical image of the first partial zone lying forwardly of the craft flying at a first position and the second photoelectric transducer for producing the second partial electric signal representative of the second partial optical image of the second partial zone lying directly under the craft flying, an interval of time later, at a second position spaced apart from the first position by a distance between the first and the second partial zones picked up by the first and the second photoelectric transducers when the craft is at the first position. The image data transmission system further comprises a compression unit for compressing the first and the second partial electric signals into first and second compressed signals. A delay circuits gives the first compressed signal a delay equal to the interval of time and produces a delayed signal. A subtracter calculates a difference between the delayed signal and the second compressed signal and produces a difference signal. The first compressed signal and the difference signal are transmitted by a transmitter, as the image data signal, to the earth station to obtain the stereo image of the object zone.
In the data transmission system described above, it is inevitable that the stereo image has restricted quality.

Image data transmission system capable of obtaining a high resolution stereo image with reduced transmission data


To provide a transmitting apparatus capable of suppressing the fluctuation of a common mode potential and performing high-speed, long-distance signal transmission. The transmitting apparatus has a main buffer circuit and a pre-emphasis buffer circuit 20. The pre-emphasis buffer circuit 20, which has a switch circuit 21, a first current source 22, and a second current source 23, uses the switch circuit 21 to output a current signal having the same direction as an output current of the main buffer circuit 10 during a certain time interval starting from a time point when the level of data to be transmitted changes, and brings the output terminals 201, 202 to a High-Z state during a time interval when the level is constant after a lapse of the abovementioned certain time interval. The output of the pre-emphasis buffer circuit 20 has no influence on the common mode potential of the output of the main buffer circuit but has influence only the amplitude of the current signal output to a differential transmission line. In this manner, the transmitting apparatus can suppress the fluctuation of the common mode potential and can perform high-speed, long-distance signal transmission.

LVDS, which is standardized as IEEEP1596, 3, is used for transmitting a digital signal by changing the directions of a current flowing in a pair of resistor-terminated differential transmission lines, and is generally capable of transmitting the digital signals at high speed and with low power consumption and less noise.
A transmitting apparatus that is used in LVDS has a first output terminal and a second output terminal that are connected to a pair of differential transmission lines, wherein when a digital signal to be transmitted is at an H level, a current signal flowing from the first output terminal to the second output terminal via the pair of differential transmission lines is output, and when the digital signal to be transmitted is at an L level, a current signal flowing from the second output terminal to the first output terminal via the pair of differential transmission lines is output.
Incidentally, when performing high-speed, long-distance signal transmission, a problem arises in which the bit error rate obtained at the time of reception is increased due to attenuation of the AC component of a signal in the differential transmission lines. Specifically, when the level of a digital signal to be transmitted is inverted and thereby the directions of the current signals that are output from the first output terminal and second output terminal of the transmitting apparatus are inverted, it requires time for the magnitude of the current signals to reach a predetermined value after the inversion, and, as a result, a reception error easily occurs on the receiving apparatus side.
Patent Document 1 discloses an invention for solving such problems. The transmitting apparatus of the invention disclosed in Patent Document 1 has the magnitude of a current signal exceed the predetermined value during a certain time interval after inverting the direction of the current signal that is output from the first output terminal to the second output terminal, to thereby reduce the time required for the magnitude of the current signal to reach the predetermined value after the inversion.
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-368600
The transmitting apparatus of the invention disclosed in Patent Document 1 has an active element for performing current control on a current source, and a passive element for performing voltage signal on a current sink, in order to have the magnitude of the current signal exceed the predetermined value during a certain time interval after inverting the direction of flow of the current signal. Since the transmitting apparatus performs both current control and voltage control, a problem arises in which the common mode potential fluctuates easily and EMI (electromagnetic interference) noise increases due to a phenomenon in which the current signal loops back via the differential transmission lines and terminating resistors.


A method and apparatus are disclosed for mitigating a frequency spur included with a transmitter output signal from a wireless device. For at least some embodiments, the wireless device may include an auxiliary synthesizer to generate a spur cancellation signal to be summed with the transmitter output signal to cancel or reduce the frequency spur. The auxiliary synthesizer may also generate an auxiliary clock signal to demodulate a received communication signal. In some embodiments, the transmitter output signal may be looped back to a receiver of the wireless device to determine whether the frequency spur is reduced below a threshold. Data from the receiver may be used to modify the spur cancellation signal.

Wireless devices may communicate with other devices using multiple technologies, including wireless local area network (WLAN) signals (e.g., 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 60 GHz signaling), BLUETOOTH® (BT or Bluetooth) signals, near field communication (NFC) signals and cellular signals such as long term evolution (LTE) signals. For example, a wireless device may transmit a communication signal through a transmitter to other devices and may receive a communication signal from other devices through a receiver.
Some transmitted communication signals may include one or more undesired signal components. These signal components may be undesired harmonics of clock signals present within the transmitter. These undesired harmonics are often referred to as frequency spurs. If the amplitude of a frequency spur is large enough, the wireless device may fail regulatory performance requirements or may interfere with other nearby devices.
Thus, there is a need to reduce frequency spurs within a communication signal transmitted by the wireless device.

Spur cancellation using auxiliary synthesizer


A method and apparatus for passing data from a first application at a first security level to a second application in a second security level higher than the first security level is disclosed. A backchannel communications link is established between the first application and the second application, and the backchannel link is used to transmit information such as an acknowledgement message from the second application to the first application.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for the transmission and reception of data, and in particular to a system and method for transmitting data from a lower security domain to a higher security domain.
2. Description of the Related Art
The dissemination and processing of data is one of the key characteristics of the information age. Data can be categorized in a number of different ways, but one of the important data classifications involves how widely the data is permitted to be disseminated. For example, it has long been the case in military-related matters that data be unclassified (for general dissemination), confidential (not generally disseminated, but no harm to national security if disseminated), secret (dissemination would harm national security), and top secret (dissemination would do grave harm to national security).
As shown in FIG. 1, only a small amount of the data needed by Department of Defense (DoD) decision makers is classified (e.g. not "unclassified"). However, most of the decision making is done in middle and higher security domains (e.g. Secret or Top Secret). The challenge then is to rapidly, reliably and with high assurance move the data from the security domains were it is created (in most cases unclassified) to the security domains were it is needed by the decision makers.
In the past data was moved between security domains via "sneaker" net in which the data was copied to some medium (i.e. paper, disk) and hand carried by a person between security domains. This was obviously slow and therefore, to no surprise, resulted in the data being somewhat obsolete when it got to where it was to be used, requiring the decision makers to make decisions with less than optimum data. It was not possible to have a common operation picture between the various security domains. It also resulted in excessive data of lower classifications having to be maintained or destroyed in the high classification domains.
While it is possible to share information between computers of different security levels, current systems for accomplishing this task are unacceptably slow. One of the reasons for the slow transfer of data is inherent to the security protocol of MLS systems. For security purposes, such systems typically enforce a one way data transfer (e.g. data is passed from the system at the lower security level to the system at the upper security level, but no data or information whatsoever is returned). Since no confirming data is provided, the sender does not know which packets were successfully transmitted and received, and multiple attempts to deliver the messages often results.
FIG. 2 illustrates another solution to this problem, as demonstrated in Coalition Warfighter Interoperability Demonstration (CWID) 2005. This system 200 comprises one or more computer system(s) providing an Internet access point 202 and plurality of domains 204A-204C of different security classifications. Each domain may include a plurality of computers, communicating via a network such as local area network (LAN). In the illustrated example, the domains 204A-204C include an unclassified domain 204A, a secret domain 204B which has a security classification or level above that of the unclassified domain 204A, and a top secret domain 204C that is characterized by a security classification or level above that of both the unclassified domain 204A and the secret domain 204B.
One or more data diode(s) 212, 214 are used to move large amounts of data segments from the lower classification domains to the higher domains. Data diodes 212, 214 are devices which provide data in one direction (here, from a lower classification domain to a higher classification domain) but do not provide any data whatsoever in the other direction (from higher classification domain to a lower classification domain). For example, data diode 212 moves data from an Internet access point 202 to the unclassified domain 204A and data diode 214 moves data from the Internet access point 202. However, data diode 212 does not permit the communication of data from the unclassified domain 204A to the Internet access point 202, nor does data diode 214 permit the communication of data from the top-secret domain 204C to the Internet Access Point 202.
The system 200 also includes a high assurance data guard/downgrader 210, which is coupled between domains 204 of different classification. When so configured, the data guard/downgrader 210 provides for bi-directional movement of smaller data segments between domains (e.g. unclassified domain 204A and the secret/top secret domains 204B and 204C).
While this system 200 facilitated the movement of data between security domains closer to near real time than sneaker net, it required one or more expensive data diode 214, 216 for each security domain pairs to be interconnected (two in the example shown in FIG. 2) and each data diode 214, 216 must be manually tuned (i.e. slowed) on installation to minimize packet loss by the data diode 214, 216 during use. Because the data diode 214, 216 is a one way communication channel, it uses User Data Protocol (UDP)-like communications that is unreliable because the receiver of the data can not communicate with the sender of the data. For this reason if, unfortunately, a data packet was missed or dropped by the high (classification) side receiver, there is no way for it to notify the low (classification) side sender, thus the high side decision maker might be working with incomplete or erroneous data.
What is needed is a system and method that reduces the cost of data sharing between security domains, while, at the same time, improving the reliability of data sharing in a Multi Level Secure (MLS)/Multiple Independent Levels of Security (MILS) environment. The system and method described herein satisfies this need.

Method and apparatus for reliable, high speed data transfers in a high assurance multiple level secure environment


A new cultivar of Gentiana plant named ‘Little Pinkie’ that is characterized by its upright, clumping plant habit, its abundant blooms and long flowering period; blooming from May to October in the Netherlands and its flowers that are a distinct purple-pink color even when the flowers are closed.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Gentiana of interspecific hybrid origin in which Gentiana scabra is one of the known species in the background of the parentage. 'Little Pinkie' represents a new Gentian, an herbaceous perennial grown for landscape use.
The new cultivar was derived from a controlled breeding program by the Inventor in Aukland, New Zealand. The Inventor made a cross between an unnamed proprietary plants in the Inventor's breeding program, reference no. 5W65 as the female parent and reference no. Pink A as the male parent. The Inventor selected 'Little Pinkie' as a single unique plant in February of 2008 amongst the seedlings that resulted from the above cross.
Asexual propagation of the new cultivar was first accomplished under the direction of the Inventor by in vitro propagation Aukland, New Zealand in April of 2008. Asexual propagation by stem cuttings and tissue culture has been determined that the characteristics of the new cultivar are stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations.

THE NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE FOR PLANT AND FOOD RESEARCH LTD.


An oil/grease separation apparatus includes an inlet section for receiving a liquid flow containing water, oil/grease and gross solids. The gross solids are separated from the liquid flow and collected in the inlet section. A water jet eductor is provided having a solids extraction port located in a lower portion of the inlet section. The water jet eductor is actuated by supplying pressurized water to create a suction to extract the accumulated solids from the inlet section. The extracted solids are directed to a separator outlet or to an alternate disposal system by suitable piping.

The present invention relates to improvements in solids handling for effluent streams containing solids. The typical effluent stream for which the present invention is suitable is the discharge from a kitchen, particularly a restaurant kitchen. Grease traps and oil/grease separators for removal of the oil/grease components from such effluents are known. For example, the Lowe Engineering Company of Lincoln Park, N.J. makes products of this type, as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,051,024; 4,268,369 and 5,030,357. In addition, Thermaco, Inc. of Asheboro, N.C., manufactures and sells oil/grease removal apparatus under the trademark BIG DIPPER. Exemplary of the patents owned by Thermaco are U.S. Pat. No. 4,235,726 to Shimko, U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,881 to Miller et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,360,555 to Batten. The disclosures of these three patents are hereby incorporated by reference. The oil/grease separation devices marketed by Thermaco use various methods for the separation and removal of oil and grease from kitchen effluents, including the gravitational separation techniques and oil-skimming methods shown in the above patents.
Typically, oil/grease separators have infeed units including a straining basket into which the solids are directed and trapped to remove them from the flow so they do not interfere with the oil/grease removal process or with subsequent reprocessing of the removed oil/grease. It is up to a restaurant employee to periodically open the unit and remove the strainer basket and dump its contents. These strainers are objectionable to handle because the solids may have strong odors and liquids may drip out of the basket. Since this is an unpleasant chore, sometimes it""s not done. If the strainer basket fills and is not emptied, the grease/oil separator unit may fail and cause the associated plumbing systems to backup.
Clearline Systems, Inc. of Asheboro, N.C. has addressed these problems with strainer baskets as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,360,555 to the present applicant by providing a grinder/pump to periodically extract accumulated solids from an oil/grease separator device. The disclosure of this patent is hereby incorporated by reference. While this grinder/pump has proved effective to periodically remove separated and accumulated solids without the problems associated with strainer baskets, such grinder/pumps have some limitations. Grinder/pumps require electric power and periodic maintenance or replacement, and their moving parts may become jammed by certain kitchen solids such as bones, silverware, or rubber gloves. If undetected, lodged solids can cause grinder/pump motors to overheat and become damaged. A safety hazard exists when persons insert their hands into the inlets of such grinder/pumps to remove lodged solids without taking proper safety precautions. Such grinder/pumps often must be removed and disassembled for servicing, typically by a manufacturer""s technician, hired plumber or electrician.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improvement in devices of this nature to eliminate the problems caused by the presence of strainer baskets and the limitations of grinder/pumps or other similar mechanical pumps.
Eductors (also known as xe2x80x9cinjectorsxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cjet pumpsxe2x80x9d, or xe2x80x9cejectorsxe2x80x9d) are known and operate by taking advantage of the so-called xe2x80x9cventuri effectxe2x80x9d wherein introduction of a pressurized motive fluid into a cavity creates a suction in the cavity. This suction in turn draws another fluid or a mixture of another fluid and suspended solids into and through the cavity together with the motive fluid. Eductors are relatively simple and inexpensive compared to mechanical pumps. Eductors have no moving parts to wear or become damaged from use, and are therefore extremely durable in operation. In addition, eductors can be easily sized to suit a wide range of pumping demands.
Such eductors have been applied to address a number of needs. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,951,878 to Astrom discloses the use of eductors to clean filtrate from a disk filter apparatus. Similarly, U.S. Patent No. 6,083,384 to Al-Ali discloses the use of eductors to retrieve spilled oil. However, eductors have not been used heretofore to address the need for an improved method for removing solids from an oil/grease separation device.
The present invention fulfills this need in the art by providing an oil/grease separation apparatus including an eductor system for extraction of accumulated solids. In a typical installation, the oil/grease separator includes a chamber having an inlet section for receiving a liquid flow containing water, oil/grease and gross solids, a downstream section for separating the oil or grease from the effluent, and an outlet section for discharge of the residual water through an outlet. The inlet section is provided with a water jet eductor having an extraction port in the lower portion of the inlet section. Gross solids entering the chamber settle in the inlet section where they are periodically removed by actuating the water jet eductor. The water jet eductor is actuated by opening a water supply valve to provide a flow of pressurized water to the eductor through a water supply line. The suction created by the water jet eductor extracts the accumulated solids from the inlet section through the extraction port.
Preferably, the inlet section has a bottom that slopes downwardly toward the extraction port of the water jet eductor to direct accumulated solids toward the extraction port. The apparatus may also include a timer which automatically opens the water supply valve to the eductor for a preset period at a preset time. Alternatively, the water supply valve may be opened by a weight-controlled switch in the inlet section when a preset weight of solids has been collected in the inlet section and closed when the solids have been depleted from the inlet section. The apparatus may also include a grease trap connected to receive the residual water exiting the chamber through the outlet and piping from the water jet eductor that bypasses the grease trap.
Preferably, the jet eductor includes an eductor pipe with a first end in communication with the solids extraction port in a lower portion of the inlet section. The second end of the eductor pipe is connected to the outlet section of the chamber. A jet nozzle is provided in the inlet section of the oil/grease separation apparatus and is positioned to direct a jet of water into the first end of the eductor pipe in the inlet section. This jet of water creates a suction in the eductor pipe which causes a mixture of water and solids accumulated in the inlet section to be extracted from the inlet section through the eductor pipe.
Alternatively, the jet eductor may include an eductor housing in the inlet section of the chamber having a first opening forming a water injection port, a second opening forming a solids intake port, and a third opening in communication with the solids extraction port. A jet nozzle located inside the housing is connected to the water injection port to receive a supply of pressurized water through a supply line and to direct a jet of water through the discharge port. A discharge pipe connects the third opening in the eductor housing to the outlet section of the chamber. The jet of water creates a suction in the housing and discharge pipe, thereby causing the mixture of water and solids accumulated in the inlet section to be extracted from the inlet section through the discharge pipe. In a preferred arrangement, the eductor housing and discharge pipe are located internal to the chamber. Alternatively, the eductor housing and discharge pipe may be external to the chamber. In this alternative installation, the solids intake port in the housing is connected to a penetration in an outer wall of the chamber in a lower portion of the inlet section.
In a typical installation, the oil/grease separation apparatus includes a chamber for receiving a liquid flow containing water, oil/grease and gross solids. The chamber has an inlet section, a downstream section and an outlet in an outlet section. The inlet section is separated from the downstream section by a weir which includes a first wall extending upwardly from the bottom of the chamber to a top above the outlet and a second wall extending downwardly from a height above the liquid level to a submerged level. The weir creates a higher static water level to be maintained in the inlet section than in the downstream section, and facilitates one-way passage of oil/grease from the inlet section to the downstream section. A water jet eductor is provided which has an extraction port in a lower portion of the inlet section for removal of accumulated solids. The inlet section includes an inlet port, a strainer separating the inlet port and the top of the first wall to inhibit the passage of solids to the downstream section, and a bottom which slopes downwardly toward the solids extraction port. An oil/grease separator is located in the downstream section for removing oil/grease from water held in the downstream section. Gross solids entering the chamber settle in the inlet section for periodic removal with some water by the water jet eductor. Oil/grease and water entering the chamber pass to the downstream section where the oil/grease is removed from the water, and the residual water exits the chamber through the outlet section.
The invention also provides an oil/grease separation method that includes the efficient removal of accumulated gross solids. The method includes introducing a liquid flow containing water, oil/grease and gross solids into a chamber having an inlet section, a downstream section and an outlet in an outlet section. The gross solids entering the inlet section are permitted to settle in the inlet section where they are periodically removed with some water by actuating a water jet eductor. Oil/grease and water are permitted to pass from the inlet section to a downstream section where the oil/grease is removed from the water. Finally, the residual water is permitted to exit the chamber through the outlet.
Preferably, permitting oil/grease and water to pass from the inlet section to the downstream section includes passing the oil/grease and water over a weir that maintains a higher static water level in the inlet section than the downstream section. The method also preferably includes straining gross solids from the liquid flow by a strainer in the inlet section to prevent passage of solids to the downstream section. Desirably, the eductor is sized so that the periodic removal of solids creates a reverse flow of water through the strainer to backwash the strainer. The periodic removal of solids may take place for preset periods at a preset times. For example, this may take place for thirty seconds every thirty minutes. Alternatively, the periodic removal of solids may take place when a preset weight of solids has been collected in the inlet section and end when the solids have been depleted from the inlet section. In a typical installation, the method may include directing the residual water exiting the chamber through the outlet section to a grease trap and directing the solids and water removed from the inlet section during the periodic removal step to bypass the grease trap.
The invention may also include a focus plate to concentrate the oil/grease atop the water and a removal means to remove the concentrated oil/grease. The focusing plate may have a ridge aligned with a line between a receiving end and an exit end of the chamber.


Methods and associated structure for flexible, easy-to-use, robust, statistical analysis of one or more factors associated with a continuous response outcome. A simple user interface provides a wide variety of statistical analysis derived from user provided data. The user provides data in a simple tabular format after which no further human intervention is required to manipulate the data. Data is automatically manipulated and transformed as required to perform the desired, selected statistical analysis. Reduction of human interaction in manipulating data to perform desired statistical analysis improves statistical analysis processes by reducing human errors introduced in data manipulation and encouraging users to perform more thorough analysis because time-saving shortcuts are no longer required.

In a number of business and scientific environments, statistical information is gathered and analyzed to identify or otherwise extract useful information from often voluminous collections of data. One common application of statistical analysis is to study processes or systems to identify the impact of different categorical (non-continuous) factors on a continuous response outcome.
For example, it may be useful to study the impact different variables have on a typical commercial measure, such as average time in line for customers of a fast food restaurant. Some of the categorical factors generally expected to effect this exemplary outcome (time in line) may include: menu type, number of checkout registers, number of order takers, number of cooks, number of on-duty managers, presence of a drive-through feature in the restaurant, presence of a playground for entertaining children, location of the restaurant, etc. The results of such statistical analysis help show an analyst which elements have a significant statistical effect on the response outcome (i.e., average time in line for customer). Conversely, the analysis helps identify which elements have no statistical fact on the observed outcome. Given such analysis, further computations may develop a mathematical model to predict future outcomes based on measures of statistically significant factors.
Current techniques and systems used for such statistical analysis are time-consuming and cumbersome to use. Though a number of automated tools can assist a user in such analysis, present techniques and systems remain heavily reliant on manual aspects of the process. Such manual processes induce numerous errors due to frequent manipulation of the data through human processes. Further, human nature tends to identify shortcut solutions for complex tasks to reduce time required for the task. Often, therefore, the analysis is incomplete as user shortcuts may eliminate relevant data from the statistical analysis process.
Previous methods and systems utilized for such statistical analysis have included graphical analysis tools where selected outcome response information is plotted or graphed for each element or for interaction between various elements. Such a graphical presentation helps a user identify significant elements through visual inspection. As noted above, these graphical analysis techniques often require significant human interaction to manipulate the data into an appropriate format for the desired graph or plot. In addition, the visual inspection of data becomes cumbersome where a significant number of elements or factors may be involved. Viewing tens or hundreds of independent elements to determine relative significance of the various elements can be overwhelming for an average person.
Another common type of tool used for such statistical analysis includes single factor interaction hypothesis test analysis tools. In such tools, the outcome response for a single factor interaction is manually calculated and a hypothesis test is performed. Such a method is cumbersome where large numbers of elements or factors are involved. Each hypothesis test requires manual interaction to initiate the process and to view the resultant test output.
Still another prior technique often utilized for such statistical analysis is a so-called general linear model in which a dummy variable is established for each element or interaction among elements. The dummy variable indicates a simple, binary presence (value 1) or absence (value 0) of the specified element. A regression analysis may then be performed to determine a coefficient and to determine significance of each element or each interaction of elements. As above, such a technique is cumbersome at best where there are large numbers of factors or elements. It becomes difficult to discern useful information regarding the elements for each response and to determine whether the data is normalized or not. The method is further deficient where statistical measurements other than the mean of the outcome response are to be tested. Numerous other useful statistical measures are not feasible in such a general linear model of statistical analysis.
These various tools known to provide assisted statistical analysis often utilize commercially available statistical engines such as MINITAB. Information regarding MINITAB is readily available at, for example, MINITAB'S website.
It is evident from the above discussion that a need exists for an improved statistical analysis tool that provides, at once, flexibility in a variety of statistical analyses to be performed, ease-of-use to encourage users to perform thorough analysis, and reduced human interaction in manipulation of data to provide desired statistical analysis.

Methods and structure for improved interactive statistical analysis


A Veronica plant particularly distinguished by many flowering stems with extremely dark blue flowers, short plant habit, healthy foliage and good mildew resistance.

The present invention comprises a new and distinct cultivar of Veronica, botanically known as Veronica sp., and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name 'Total Eclipse'. The new cultivar was found in 2005 in Haarlem, The Netherlands as the result of open pollination between many Veronica cultivars in 2004.
The new cultivar was discovered in 2005 in Haarlem, The Netherlands and has been asexually reproduced repeatedly by vegetative cuttings in Haarlem, The Netherlands over a one year period. The present invention has been found to retain its distinctive characteristics through successive asexual propagations.


A video game set (1) displays a sighting mark on a television receiver (4). A player shoots this sighting mark by a shooting scope (5). At this time, the shift between a coordinate position of the sighting mark and a coordinate position which is shot is operated by the video game set (1) and is stored as a correction value. When the player shoots a target in a game mode, the coordinate position which is shot is corrected on the basis of the correction value stored in the video game set (1).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shooting game system and an external storage used therefor. More particularly, it relates to a shooting game system adapted as to display a target on a raster scan type display and shoot the target displayed with a shooting scope, and an external storage used therefor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Shooting game system adopted to shoot a target displayed on a television receiver with a shooting scope, such as the shooting game system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,395,045 (hereinafter referred to as first prior art) and the shooting game system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 171063/1985 (corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,813,682) (hereinafter referred to as second prior art) have been conventionally known.
In the above described first prior art, an image of a target displayed on a television receiver is detected on the side of a shooting scope, and its detection pulse is transmitted to a computer connected to the television receiver. The computer detects a coordinate position which is shot on the screen of the television receiver on the basis of the phase difference between the detection pulse received and synchronizing signals (horizontal and vertical synchronizing signals) of the television receiver.
The above described second prior art is a adapted as to display a character of a target in white and a background in black when a trigger switch of a shooting scope is depressed, and determines if there is a "hit" depending on whether or not an image of this character is detected by the shooting scope.
The first prior art is a adapted as to correct the coordinate position which is shot by the shooting scope on the screen of the television receiver when a hit determination is made. The reason for this is that an optical axis of the barrel of the shooting scope and a sighting axis of a gunsight do not exist on the same straight line, so that there occurs a shift between the optical axis and the sighting axis on the screen of the television receiver. However, this correction processing is performed using a fixed correction value. Therefore, the first prior art has the disadvantage in that no fixed correction can be made and inaccurate hit determinations are is made in cases, for example, where an angle at which a player looks into the gunsight deviates from a previously presumed angle or an angle which the optical axis of the barrel forms with the sighting axis of the gunsight deviates from a previously presumed angle due to a manufacturing error, and the distance between the television receiver and the shooting scope deviates from a previously presumed distance.
Furthermore, the first prior art also has the disadvantage in that an optical system provided for the shooting scope and an optical system provided for the computer are easily adversely affected by ambient light from the exterior (for example, due to illuminating light of a fluorescent lamp or the like or due to substantial adjustment of the luminance of the television receiver), and an error is liable to occur in detection of a light receiving signal from the target of the television receiver.
On the other hand, the second prior art has the disadvantage in that the precision of hit determination is low when a small target is shot because a coordinate position which is shot by the shooting scope can be only detected for each character.
Furthermore, the second prior art has the disadvantage in that an accurate hit judgment can not be made when an optical axis of the barrel of the shooting scope and a sighting axis of a gunsight are shifted because the coordinate position which is shot is not corrected.

Shooting game and external storage used therefor


A computer docking system (10, 10') has a computer (11, 11') provided with a guide housing (12, 12') within which a device (13, 13') is slidably inserted. In one embodiment, the device (13) carries a pair of manually-releasable spring-loaded latches (24, 25) pivotally mounted thereon about respective axes which are substantially perpendicular to the direction which the device (13) is slidably inserted into the guide housing (12) for engagement with respective hooks (36) on the computer (11). In another embodiment, the latches (51, 52) are pivotably mounted on the guide housing (12') about respective axes which are substantially parallel to the direction in which the device (13') is slidably inserted into the guide housing (12'). The guide housing (12') includes a fixed bottom portion (44) on which the latches (51, 52) are pivotably mounted, and further includes a spring-loaded movable top portion (45) receiving the device (13') and ultimately nested telescopically within the fixed bottom portion (44). In each embodiment, a substantially zero insertion force ("ZIF") is achieved between at least one flexible electrical connector (41, 57, 58) and a circuit pad (43, 60, 61) as the device (13, 13') is inserted into the guide housing (12, 12').

Main frame computers or other computer terminals have access openings for slidably receiving a portable computer, such as a notebook computer or laptop computer, for downloading data into the main frame computer or for other purposes. The notebook or laptop computer (or other device) is thereby "docked" in a docking station on the computer.
Moreover, the device could be an interchangeable hard disk drive for a desk-top or personal computer.
When the device is slidably inserted into the computer, a first rigid connector on the device is mechanically and electrically connected to a second rigid connector on the computer. One of the connectors has a plurality of pin terminals received in corresponding sockets in the other connector; and when the device is slidably removed from the computer, the pins and sockets on the respective first and second connectors are separated axially of each other.
Rather than relying on the mechanical connection between the respective rigid connectors to retain the device within the computer and preclude inadvertent jarring or lateral movement therebetween, it is very desirable for the device to be slidably inserted into the computer and to be releasably retained therein by means of a "solid" positive mechanical connection between the device and the computer.
Moreover, for high circuit density consonant with miniaturization and high product performance, it is desirable to use one or more flexible electrical connectors, each of which includes a plurality of closely-spaced circuit elements or traces suitably mounted on an elastomeric core. Typically, the traces are 3 mils wide on 7 mils centers, such that the spacing between adjacent traces is 4 mils. A complete line of high-quality flexible electrical connectors is supplied by AMP Incorporated of Harrisburg, Pa. under its registered trademark "AMPLIFLEX".
The flexible electrical connector (or connectors) are housed in a connector housing which may be mounted on a mother board in the computer. The device slidably inserted into the computer, in turn, is provided with a daughter board having at least one circuit element or pad thereon for engaging the flexible electrical connector. It is very desirable, therefore, that as the device is slidably received in the computer, that an edge of the daughter board or the circuit pad does not wipe against the flexible electrical connector, but rather that the circuit pad and flexible electrical connector are brought together with a substantially zero insertion force; otherwise, the flexible electrical connector will be inadvertently damaged.


The invention relates to a pressure sensor, the measuring cell of which is provided with at least one membrane for the protection of the pressure-sensitive element and a measuring chamber, filled with pressure medium, in which the pressure-sensitive element is housed. According to the invention, the membrane is monitored for damage, whereby at least one surface wave sensor is arranged in the chamber filled with pressure medium. On damage to the membrane occurring, process medium is mixed with the pressure medium. A substance change in the sensitive region of the surface wave sensor is thus brought about which results in a differing signal run time. Any change in run time is an indictor of damage to the pressure sensor and may be signaled as such.

Pressure sensors such as these are known from prior use and from relevant publications. Their fundamental mechanical design is described in detail in GB 2 065 893 and EP 0 143 702. According to both prior publications, irrespective of the nature of the conversion of mechanical pressure/differential-pressure signals to equivalent electrical variables, an essentially cylindrical central body is provided, which is enclosed between two identical caps, in the form of shells, using a corresponding sealing means. These caps are screwed to one another by means of a plurality of bolts which are arranged radially and are mechanically prestressed, with the mechanical prestressing of the bolts being chosen such that any pressure loss on the central body is avoided when subjected to the maximum permissible static pressure load.
On the central body side, each cap has a recess which is connected to flange connections by channels which are normally in the form of holes. The distance between the centers of these channels is predetermined by standardization on the flange connections.
The measurement mechanism is accommodated in a measurement chamber, which is separated from the process medium on both pressure supply sides by a respective separating membrane. The measurement chamber is filled with an incompressible pressure medium. If the separating membrane is damaged, aggressive process medium enters the measurement chamber, and damages the measurement mechanism. Damage such as this can be identified only with a very great deal of effort—if at all—during normal use.

Pressure transponder with surface acoustic wave sensor


A valve train device is provided for swinging a rocker arm, which is pivotally disposed on a rocker arm support shaft. The device comprises a drive device for driving the rocker arm, an intermediate member disposed between the drive device and the rocker arm and configured to transfer movement of the drive device to the rocker arm, and a displacement device. The displacement device is configured to displace a contact point between the rocker arm and the intermediate member to continuously adjust at least one of the valve opening duration and valve lift.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an engine valve train device for continuously controlling an opening duration or a lift of a valve.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, engine valve train devices for continuously controlling an opening duration and a lift of a valve have been in practical use. For example, there has been proposed such a valve train device in JP-A-Sho59-500002, in which, to open and close intake and exhaust valves by cam shafts via rocker arms, a swinging member for each valve is disposed and swung by the camshaft, an intermediate roller is interposed between a swing cam face of the swinging member and the rocker arm, and the valve opening duration and the valve lift can be continuously changed by displacing the intermediate roller.
Now, in such conventional valve train devices, the shorter the valve opening duration, the smaller the lever ratio of the rocker arm, and, in contrary, the longer the valve opening duration, the larger the lever ratio of the rocker arm. Due to the larger lever-ratio for a longer valve opening duration, a distal end of the rocker arm presses against the valve, and the intermediate roller presses against the intermediate portion of the rocker arm. As a result, it is difficult to secure rigidity of the entire valve opening/closing device. In particular, accuracy of control over the valve opening duration and the valve lift is apt to reduce during operation at high engine speeds. Further, due to a smaller lever-ratio for a shorter valve opening duration, it is difficult to secure the valve lift for a shorter valve opening duration, which is disadvantageous for reduction of pumping loss and improvement of combustibility. Thus, controllability of valve opening and closing timing is also apt to worsen.


The present invention is directed to a system in method implemented in a data storage system that provides a status corresponding to a command initiated by a host server to the host server within a guaranteed maximum command response time. In one aspect, the system and method of the present invention accomplish this by associating a time stamp with the command before it is distributed to a number of data storage devices to be executed. The progress of the command""s execution is monitored at an interval less than the maximum command response time. If the present invention determines that the command will not complete within the maximum command response time, the system method of the present invention sends a corresponding status to the host server.

The present invention relates generally to device controllers. More particularly, the invention relates to a system, apparatus, and method for a device controller in a data storage system to guarantee that a status corresponding to a command initiated by a host system is sent to the host system within a maximum command response time.
Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) I/O subsystem 10 coupled to a host system 20 by host peripheral bus 30. SCSI (including SCSI-1, SCSI-2, and SCSI-3) is an ANSI standard device-independent input/output (xe2x80x9cI/Oxe2x80x9d) interface. In SCSI I/O subsystem 10, SCSI bus 50 connects device controller 40 to one or more disk storage devices in disk drive array 60, including, for example, disk drive 60, disk drive 70, disk drive 80, disk drive 90, and disk drive 100. The operation of SCSI buses is known. Disk drives may be arranged into one or more well known Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) storage subsystems.
For purposes of this disclosure a xe2x80x9cdisk drivexe2x80x9d is any non-volatile, randomly accessible, rewritable SCSI mass storage device which has the ability of detecting its own storage failures. It includes both rotating magnetic and optical disks and solid-state disks, for nonvolatile electronic storage elements, for example, PROMS, EPROMs, and EEPROMS. SCSI refers to the command and communication protocol, which may for example be implemented on wire (copper) or fibre channel physical links or loops.
Device controller 40 (hereinafter often referred to as xe2x80x9ccontroller 40xe2x80x9d) is connected to host system 20, for example, a general-purpose computer, over host peripheral bus 30. Controller 40 controls I/O communications between host system 20 and disk drive array 60. Host System 20 may communicate with a plurality of controllers 40, and each controller may communicate with a plurality of disk drives or disk drive arrays 60. For example, controller 40 distributes SCSI commands initiated from host system 20 to at least a subset of the disk storage devices in disk drive array 60. The subset may be one, two, more than two, or all of the disk drives in disk drive array 60. Such SCSI commands include, for example, write data requests and read data requests. SCSI commands are well known in the art and a more detailed description of SCSI commands can be found in xe2x80x9cThe SCSI Bus and IDE Interface,xe2x80x9d Addison Wesley, second edition, Chap. 11, 1998, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Host peripheral bus 30 can be any type of peripheral bus, including but not limited to a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture, SCSI bus, Fibre Channel loop, Universal Serial Bus (USB), and the like.
According to SCSI standards, after a SCSI device, for example, disk drive 70, disk drive 80, disk drive 90, and/or disk drive 100, receives a SCSI command from a device controller, the SCSI device will execute the SCSI command and return SCSI command completion information to the device controller. Such completion information includes a corresponding SCSI status code that reports whether execution of the command was successful, whether an error occurred, or other information, such as for example busy status. In particular, standard SCSI status codes include the following statuses: good status, check condition status, condition met status, busy status, reservation conflict status, command terminated status, and the like. The meaning of these statuses can be found in Freidhelm and Schmidt, xe2x80x9cThe SCSI Bus and IDE Interface,xe2x80x9d Table 11.6, pg. 114, 1998, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
For each SCSI command that controller 40 receives from host system 20, controller 40 creates and executes a corresponding xe2x80x9cinput/output processxe2x80x9d (xe2x80x9cI/O processxe2x80x9d) in its memory (not shown). Conventional implementations of such I/O processes are known. However, for purposes of explanation, an I/O process performs a series of steps to either store or retrieve information from one or more physical SCSI devices, such as the disk drives described above, that are addressable by a device controller. The progress of an I/O process typically begins when it is created by a device controller in response to sending a SCSI command to one or more SCSI devices, and typically ends after SCSI command completion information has been returned to the host system. SCSI command completion information is typically returned to the system after controller 40 receives completion information from each SCSI device that is executing the SCSI command that the particular I/O process managing.
Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown an example of conventional I/O process data structure 200 defined in memory (not shown) in controller 40. For each I/O process that controller 40 creates, controller 40 also creates a corresponding conventional I/O process data structure 200. I/O process data structure 200 contains all required information necessary for controller 40 to track the progress of the corresponding I/O process. We will now discuss the conventional elements of I/O process data structure 200.
Command descriptor block (xe2x80x9cCDBxe2x80x9d) 210 is a standard SCSI command descriptor block that contains a SCSI command proper and any parameters that are associated with the SCSI command. According to SCSI standards, host transfer block 220 contains information used by controller 40 to facilitate data transfers and/or status code transfers to and from a SCSI command initiating host system. Host ID 221 is typically a SCSI ID identifying the initiating host system. SCSI IDs are known. However, for purposes of explanation, a unique SCSI ID identifies each SCSI device on a SCSI bus, including the host server itself. SCSI IDs are generally set manually by changing a switch, or ajumper on each SCSI device. Some devices may be capable of automatically detecting and assigning an available SCSI device ID.
Ending status 222 is used by controller 40 to store a final status result of the execution of the SCSI command that is referenced in command descriptor block 210. Ending status 222 is sent by controller 40 to host server 20 upon completion of the SCSI command. Ending status 222 can assume similar values to those assumed by SCSI status codes, as discussed in great detail above.
Disk transfer block 230 is used by controller 40 to store information corresponding to data transfers, if any, with SCSI disk drives. Such information includes, for example disk ID 231, for identifying the SCSI ID of the SCSI disk drive that is transferring data.
Next, disk command descriptor block (CDB) 233 is used by controller 40 to store the SCSI command proper (including any SCSI command parameters). The contents of CDB 233 are not necessarily the same as the contents of CDB 210, but are related to the particular RAID algorithm that is being used to distribute data across the disk storage devices. Finally, disk status 232 is used by controller 40 to store a SCSI status code returned by the SCSI device that is executing the SCSI command proper. Because a device controller may use more than one SCSI device to execute a SCSI command, disk transfer block 230 is commonly implemented as a linked list data structure. Linked list data structures and the operation of linked list data structures are known, and for that reason are not described here in detail.
Data cache block 240 is used by controller 40 to store information to manage a local data cache to facilitate data transfers between a host system and one or more SCSI disk drives. Cache transfer operations are known and will not be described in greater detail here.
To assist in tracking the progress of a corresponding SCSI command, each I/O process typically uses a respective separate I/O process data structure 200. Such progress begins from the time that the SCSI command is distributed to one or more disk storage devices for execution, to the time that completion information is received from each disk storage device that was executing the SCSI command and that completion information is returned to the host system. After each disk storage device that was executing the SCSI command returns such completion information, controller 40 typically sends the completion information to the host system and subsequently deletes to the corresponding I/O process and returns an ending SCSI status to the SCSI command initiating host system. Ending SCSI statuses, as discussed above with respect to ending status 222 (see FIG. 2) can assume number of values, including, for example, xe2x80x9ccommand completexe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cservice delivery or target failurexe2x80x9d, and xe2x80x9cbusyxe2x80x9d.
A significant problem with conventional data storage systems generally, and SCSI I/O subsystems more particularly, is that such subsystems can not guarantee that a status corresponding to a command initiated by a host system will be sent to the host system within a maximum command response time. This problem is especially significant with respect to a host server that is executing time critical applications and/or applications that require hardware fault tolerance, where such statuses can be used by the applications to facilitate the diagnosis of hardware errors and hardware failures.
For example, telephony applications implement voice message services that require hardware fault tolerance in the case of physical data storage device failures, such that access to voice message data is available to a consumer at all times. Such telephony applications could use the information contained in a status sent within a maximum command response time to reconfigure the data storage devices in a more timely manner, and thereby decrease any potential impact of the failed storage components.
Thus, there is a need for a system and method that guarantees that a status corresponding to a command initiated by a host system is sent to the host system within a maximum command response time and which overcomes the other limitations of conventional systems.
The present invention is directed to a system and method implemented in a data storage system. The data storage system is comprised of a device controller connected to a number of data storage devices, such as, for example, disk drives. The data storage system is operatively connected to a host system, for example, a general-purpose computer. The general-purpose computer initiates commands directed to the data storage system and in particular to the device controller which distributes each command for execution to a number of the data storage devices.
The method of the present invention includes a procedure that guarantees the host system, such as a server, that a status corresponding to a command initiated by the host server will be sent to it by the device controller within a maximum command response time. The procedure begins with the device controller associating a time stamp with a command from the host system. The time stamp represents the time that the command was received by the controller from the host system. Next, the procedure sets a first predetermined time interval to the value of the maximum command response time.
Next, the procedure sets a second predetermined time interval to a value less than the first predetermined time interval. The second predetermined time interval is used by a procedure executing in memory on the device controller to monitor the progress of the command as it executes. Finally, if the procedure determines that the command has not completed before expiration of the second predetermined time interval from the time stamp, the procedure will send a status to the host computer, and thereby provides the host computer with a guaranteed maximum command response time.
Apparatus, system, and computer program product implementing the inventive method and procedure are also provided.

System and method with guaranteed maximum command response time

International Business Machines Corporation


A process and a device for the continuous chipping of timbers of different length. To increase the chipping performance, in the execution of the sawing cut or directly thereafter, at least one supporting element for supporting the leading end face of a long timber pack and the posterior end face of a short timber pack is directed into the sawing plane. Directly adjoining the short timber pack, a just sawn-off short timber pack, together with the supporting element enclosed between them, is conveyed forward by one advancement cycle in the same direction. The supporting element, following the conclusion of the advancement cycle, is conveyed back into the directing-in area of the sawing plane, and each short timber pack is supportingly transported, free from any structural distortion, up to the chipping tool.

The invention relates to a process for the continuous chipping of timbers of different length and shape, in particular of round timbers, which are piled essentially in longitudinal alignment one on top of the other and side by side in an at least approximately grain-parallel arrangement and are thus advanced in cycles. The timbers are compiled into a long timber pack of specific cross section, in the longitudinal direction, are cross-cut after each advancement cycle by a pack length corresponding to the advancement distance and corresponding, at the same time, to the usable chipping length to form, in each case, equal-length short timber packs. The timbers are subjected on both sides of the sawing plane to perpendicular compression forces, the short timber packs thus formed being conveyed forward in continuous succession transversely to their grain alignment, being therein supported, at least on their underside and the two end sides, and eventually being chipped parallel to the grain.
The invention further relates to a device for the continuous chipping of timbers of different length and shape, the device having a timber feed channel for receiving the timbers which are piled essentially in longitudinal alignment one on top of the other and side by side in an at least approximately grain-parallel arrangement and thus compiled into a long timber pack of specific cross section. The device includes advancement elements for the cyclical advancement of this long timber pack past a cut-off device; pressure mechanisms, disposed on both sides of the sawing plane and exerting perpendicular compression forces upon the long timber pack; and a chipping conveyor, the width of which corresponds to the length of the short timber pack or to the usable length of a chipping tool. The device supports the short timber packs, at least on their underside and their two end sides, and, transversely to their grain direction, feeds the chipping tool for grain-parallel chipping.
German Auslegeschrift 2 135 930 describes a process and a device for chipping waste timber of different length and diameter. According to this document, the pieces of timber are piled essentially in longitudinal alignment one on top of the other and side by side in an at least approximately grain-parallel arrangement and are thus compiled into a specific cross-sectional unit. The pieces of timber are next advanced in cycles in the longitudinal direction and, af ter each advancement cycle, cross-cut by a part-length corresponding to the distance of advancement. The sawn-off short timber pack is compressed, approximately vertically to its longitudinal alignment, into a block which, following the conclusion of the pressing operation, is fed to the chipping machine in continuous succession to the preceding short timber pack and transversely to its longitudinal alignment.
The previously known plant operates as follows: the pieces of timber of different length, thickness and shape, made up of waste timber, are laid side by side and one on top of the other into the timber supply channel, such that their cross section is essentially filled. The long timber pack which is thus formed is advanced in cycles and hence pushed past the cut-off device, which can be conf igured as a band saw, chain saw or circular saw, or even indeed as hydraulically-actuated shearing tools. In this case, there is sawn off from the advanced long timber pack a short timber pack, the length of which corresponds to the working length of a block chipper cutter connected downstream. In the cross-cutting procedure, the timber is already vre-compressed, by means of a prepress, in its spatial arrangement one to the other, and is secured during the cross-cutting procedure. This sawn-off short timber pack is then compressed, in a press chamber connected downstream of the cut-off device and aligned with the timber feed channel, by a press ram to the extent that a cohesive, compact block is produced from approximately grain-parallel waste pieces. This block is then pushed by means of a pushing ram into a chipper shaft and hence into the "effective" range of conveyor chains which circulate there. The block, due to its heavy precompression, is intended not to fall apart. In the chipper shaft, the block thus follows straight on from the preceding block, so that a compact column of timber is produced which, under the influence of a continuously operating chain advancement, is advanced constantly towards the cutter block of the chipper and is evenly chipped.
If, in the case of this previously known plant, the cut-off block is not to fall apart on its further transportation, very high compression forces must be applied. In this case, the specific weight of the timber is increased and its grain structure at least partially destroyed. For round timbers, a device of this type is therefore unsuitable.
In the case of the previously known plant, it is another disadvantage that, following the cutting operation, the block located in the press chamber first has to be pushed out of the press chamber bef ore a further advancement cycle of the long timber pack can be effected. The recovery of the kicker arm entails a corresponding time loss. It is a further disadvantage that, in the cyclical advancement of the long timber pack, small timber sections or butt end slices which are lying in front of the forward-traveling long timber are able to come to rest transversely or, indeed, tilt forward. The filling volume in the press chamber is thereby reduced. A plurality of residual pieces are ground more or less vertically to the grain instead of being chipped parallel to the grain, as a result of which the energy requirement and the share of unwanted fine material are considerably increased.

Process and device for the continuous chipping of long timbers


This optical receiving device for discriminating and recovering a data signal, which results from converting an optical signal input through a dispersion equalizer into an electrical signal and amplifying it to a pre-determined amplitude, by using a clock and data recovery circuit for discriminating a data signal at the decision point controlled to achieve the optimum position controls the dispersion characteristics of a dispersion equalizer so that the error count in the recovered data signal by using a clock and data recovery circuit will be minimized by controlling the eye pattern of the data signal which has been amplified to a pre-determined amplitude.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical receiving device, a waveform optimization method for optical data signals, and a waveform optimization program for optical data signals. More particularly, the present invention relates to an optical receiving device that is designed to minimize waveform deterioration in optical data signals, a waveform optimization method for optical data signals, and a waveform optimization program for optical data signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recent optical transmission systems incorporating optical amplifiers and the technology of WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) have more factors that may cause a deterioration in optical receive waveform than conventional optical transmission systems.
One example of factors that may cause a deterioration in optical receive waveform is the accumulation of noise, resulting from ASE (amplified spontaneous emission) from optical fiber amplifiers. Other examples are the dispersion and non-linear effects of optical fibers, whose influence has become more significant as optical signal power within optical fibers has increased. In WDM, such an increase in waveform deterioration is often caused by crosstalk interference from adjacent channels.
In the past, this problem was alleviated through provisions on the receiving device side by, for example, optimizing decision threshold positions in a CDR (clock and data recovery circuit). In order to further improve receiving sensitivity, however, these provisions are not sufficient, but the compensation of waveform deterioration itself must be addressed.
In an optical transmission system, the optical receive waveform of a signal has quite a large eye opening, which is an area where optical input data signals can be discriminated accurately between 1 and 0, immediately after the signal is sent out, as shown in FIG. 35. After a transmission over a distance of 600 km, however, the eye opening in the optical receive waveform is very small, as shown in FIG. 36.
The discrimination circuit of an optical receiving device is required to perform optimum discrimination in the presence of such deterioration in optical receive waveform. The optimum value for a decision threshold position, at which 1 or 0 is discriminated, also varies with light receiving power, because the eye opening in an optical receive waveform varies with light receiving power. As far as conventional optical transmission lines are concerned, the issue of the light receiving power is negligible in practical use. The decision threshold position can be chosen from a relatively broad range without causing the deterioration of optical receive waveform, and thus the decision threshold position could be fixed at any value pre-determined as appropriate by the manufacturer before shipment.
As described above, it is necessary to compensate waveform deterioration directly in order to improve receiving sensitivity in the presence of the waveform deterioration resulting from the dispersion of optical fibers, one of the factors for waveform deterioration.
Furthermore, for a typical optical transmission system incorporating an optical amplifier and WDM, it is difficult to maintain the quality of a transmission line by using a conventional discrimination circuit with a fixed decision threshold position. This is because the increased number of factors that are responsible for deterioration in optical receive waveform as described above causes a discrimination circuit to inherently suffer from a curve (floor) in error rate characteristic (see the upper diagram of FIG. 37).

Optical receiving device, waveform optimization method for optical data signals, and waveform optimization program for optical data signals


In some embodiments, a method can include capturing images of produce. The method can further include generating simulated images of produce based on the images of produce. The method can further include associating each image of produce from the images of produce and each simulated image of produce from the simulated images of produce with a category indicator, an organic type indicator, and a bag type indicator, to generate a training set. The method can further include training a machine leaning model using the training set such that when the machine learning model is executed, the machine learning model receives an image and generates a predicted category indicator of the image, a predicted organic type indicator of the image, and a predicted bag type indicator of the image.

Recognition of produce can be useful in various industries. For example, recognition of produce can be used in grocery store checkouts, agriculture industry, nutrition studies, storage, customs, security, theft prevention, and/or the like. Known methods for recognition of produce, however, are often performed manually and can be labor-intensive. Thus, a need exists for apparatus and methods for produce recognition.

Methods and apparatus for recognizing produce category, organic type, and bag type in an image using a concurrent neural network model


There is provided a highly reliable semiconductor light emitting device even in using for street lamps or traffic signals, which can be used in place of electric lamps or fluorescent lamps by protecting from surges such as static electricity or the like. A plurality of light emitting units (1) are formed, by forming a semiconductor lamination portion by laminating semiconductor layers on a substrate so as to form a light emitting layer, by electrically separating the semiconductor lamination portion into a plurality, and by providing a pair of electrodes (19) and (20). The light emitting units (1) are respectively connected in series and/or in parallel with wiring films (3). An inductor (8) absorbing surges is connected, in series, to the plurality of light emitting units (1) connected in series between electrode pads (4a) and (4b) connected to an external power source. For an example, the inductor (8) is formed by arranging the plurality of light emitting units (1) in a whirl shape.

Being accompanied with developing blue light emitting diodes (LEDs), the LEDs are recently used for light sources of displays or traffic signals and furthermore become to be used in place of incandescent lamps or fluorescent lamps. As it is preferable that the LEDs can be operated simply with AC driving of 100 V or the like in case that the LEDs are used in place of the incandescent lamps or the fluorescent lamps, as shown, for example, in FIG. 8, a structure in which the LEDs connected in series and/or parallel are connected to an alternative current power source 71 is known well. Here, S represents a switch (cf. for example PATENT DOCUMENT 1).
PATENT DOCUMENT 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI10-083701 (FIG. 3)


A method of handling a location reporting procedure comprises performing, by a first proximity service (ProSe) function entity, a registration procedure for a proximity service with a first communication device; and performing, by the first ProSe function entity, the location reporting procedure for the proximity service between the first communication device and a second communication device; and transmitting, by the first ProSe function entity, a cancel location reporting message to a Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) Location Platform (SLP) server to cancel the location reporting procedure for the first communication device registered to the first ProSe function entity, when a timer of the proximity request message expires.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method used in a wireless communication system and related communication device, and more particularly, to a method of handling a location reporting procedure and related communication device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A long-term evolution (LTE) system supporting the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Rel-8 standard and/or the 3GPP Rel-9 standard are developed by the 3GPP as a successor of the universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) for further enhancing performance of the UMTS to satisfy increasing needs of users. The LTE system includes a new radio interface and a new radio network architecture that provides high data rate, low latency, packet optimization, and improved system capacity and coverage. In the LTE system, a radio access network known as an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) includes multiple evolved Node-Bs (eNBs) for communicating with multiple user equipments (UEs), and for communicating with a core network including a mobility management entity (MME), a serving gateway, etc., for Non-Access Stratum (NAS) control.
A LTE-advanced (LTE-A) system, as its name implies, is an evolution of the LTE system. The LTE-A system targets faster switching between power states, improves performance at the coverage edge of an eNB, and includes advanced techniques, such as carrier aggregation (CA), coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmissions/reception, uplink (UL) multiple-input multiple-output (UL-MIMO), etc. For a UE and an eNB to communicate with each other in the LTE-A system, the UE and the eNB must support standards developed for the LTE-A system, such as the 3GPP Rel-10 standard or later versions.
Device-to-device (D2D) communication may be realized, after an initialization (e.g., connection establishment and/or peer discovery) is performed (e.g., assisted by an eNB). Then, two UEs may communicate (e.g., transmitting and/or receiving packets) with each other directly according to the D2D communication, and the eNB does not need to forward the packets transmitted between the communication devices. According to the D2D communication, the UEs may communicate with each other via UL resources (e.g., UL subframes configured by the eNB). In general, the D2D communication may also be seen as a D2D service (i.e., proximity service (ProSe)). In addition, a D2D subframe, D2D transmission, D2D communication and D2D discovery can be termed as a sidelink subframe, sidelink transmission, sidelink communication and sidelink discovery, respectively.
A UE needs to perform a discovery procedure (e.g., evolved packet core (EPC)-level ProSe discovery) which includes a location reporting procedure to perform the proximity service. In certain situations, the location reporting procedure does not need to be completed, e.g., when UEs are unlikely to enter proximity within a time window, and unnecessary overhead is transmitted between network entities if the location reporting procedure is not cancelled. According to the 3GPP standard, the location reporting procedure can only be cancelled by the UE, and flexibility and efficiency of the operation of the D2D communication is thus limited. For example, the UE may not know when the location reporting procedure should be cancelled, or the UE is unable to cancel the location reporting procedure. In addition, a timer included in a proximity request message is used for indicating a time period during which the proximity request message is valid. However, it is not clear how the EPC network can process an expired proximity request message, when the timer expires.
Furthermore, it is unknown how an EPC network can handle an EPC assisted WLAN direct communication, if one of the UEs involving in a ProSe discovery procedure detaches from the EPC network or a timer of the ProSe discovery procedure expires.
Thus, a method for solving the above problems is needed.

Method of handling location reporting procedure and related communication device


A device (100) having a first housing (101) and a second housing (102) may be selectively opened with a multi-axis coupling mechanism (500). The multi-axis coupling mechanism (500) works as an opening mechanism that is configured to cause the first housing (101) and the second housing (102) to rotate angularly about an opening axis (105) due to a preloaded tensioning device (401). The first housing (101) and second housing (102) are held in a closed position by retaining devices. The multi-axis coupling mechanism (500) is actuated when the first housing (101) is rotated about an actuation axis (106) that, in one embodiment, is substantially perpendicular to the opening axis (105). Opposing members may be employed to assist the multi-axis opening mechanism (500) during initial actuation.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to hinged portable devices, and more particularly to a hinged portable electronic device, wherein the hinge is capable of actuation by a rotational motion of a device housing.
2. Background Art
Portable electronic devices, such as mobile telephones, smart phones, personal digital assistants, and gaming devices are becoming ever more popular. By some estimates, there are nearly two billion mobile telephones in use around the world today. These electronic devices generally come in different styles, two of which include the "candy bar" and "hinged" configurations. A candy bar style device is generally rectangular in shape with both keypad and display visible and accessible at all times. A hinged style device generally includes a mechanical hinge between the two halves of the device, and is foldable. Consumers sometimes prefer a hinged device because, when closed, the device is generally smaller than its candy bar counterpart. Additionally, the keypad and display are protected when the hinged device is closed.
Users of hinged devices generally prefer to use a hinged device that is operable with one hand. In other words, they desire a hinged device where the hinge can be opened with a single hand. In the case of a mobile telephone, such an automatic opening mechanism allows a user to open the phone and answer a call while the other hand is occupied. The problem with this desire for automatic opening is that consumers also want feature packed devices that are easily carried in a pocket. Adding an automatic opening feature consumes valuable real estate within the device that is generally needed for other features, such as cameras, transceivers, displays, and other devices.
There is thus a need for an improved hinged device having a hinge that can be actuated with a single hand.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.

Hinged device with rotational hinge actuation


Described are a method and system for controlling the operation of personal mobile electronic devices disposed about a user. Each device is adapted to receive command according to a common wireless protocol. A voice signal is generated in response to a voice command spoken by the user. Command data are generated for one of the devices in response to the voice signal. The command data are transmitted through a wireless link to the respective device to control an operation of the device. There is no need for each device to have independent voice recognition capability. Instead, the burden of voice recognition is managed by the wearable command module that communicates with all the controlled devices through wireless links.

The use of personal mobile electronic devices that can be carried on a person has increased dramatically in recent years. Such devices include cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), handheld computers, broadcast systems, music and video playback devices, sophisticated digital watches and calculators. A personal mobile device can be transported by the user by attaching the device to clothing or articles worn by the user or carrying the device within the clothing. For example, some personal mobile devices can be carried in a shirt pocket, clipped to a belt, or otherwise attached to or included in apparel or other items worn by the user. Other personal mobile devices can be secured to the body using a wristband, armband, headset clip and the like.
User interaction with personal mobile devices can be improved by providing voice recognition capability. The user speaks a voice command which is recognized by the device and results in the activation of a particular device feature or operation. Devices that provide voice recognition capability are typically larger in size than similar devices without such capabilities due to the size of the embedded microphone and voice recognition unit. Consequently, it can be impractical for a user to carry multiple personal mobile devices each having its own voice recognition capability. Furthermore, the cost to the user for including a microphone and voice recognition unit in each device can be substantial.
The location of a personal mobile electronic device about the body can limit its ability to receive voice commands without distortion. For instance, a device not disposed in the front hemisphere about a user's head (i.e., near the mouth), such as a device secured to a belt or disposed in a pocket, may receive muffled or distorted speech. Moreover, as the distance between the device and the user's mouth increases, background noise can degrade the ability of the device to interpret voice commands spoken by the user. For example, the device can have difficulty differentiating between casual conversation in the same area as the user, and the user himself. If the device does not recognize a voice command, the device may not respond or an improper device feature or operation may be activated, causing delays, confusing operations, and causing user frustration.
What is needed are a method and system that allow a user to control personal mobile electronic devices disposed proximate to the body that are not subject to the problems described above. The present invention satisfies this need and provides additional advantages.

Centralized voice recognition unit for wireless control of personal mobile electronic devices

International Business Machines Corporation


A roll stamper for forming an information recording medium substrate has a stamper member having a pattern corresponding to a pre-format for an information recording medium formed in its obverse surface, fixation members fixed to both end portions of a reverse surface of the stamper so as to be integral with the stamper member, and fit grooves formed in a circumferential surface of a specular roll base parallel to the axis of the specular roll base. The fixation members are fitted in the fit grooves, and the stamper member is fixed on the circumferential surface of the specular roll base. The roll stamper also includes a mechanism for applying a tensile force to the stamper member. This roll stamper is used in an apparatus having an extruder for melting and extruding a resin to form a resin sheet and a specular roll facing the roll stamper to continuously form the information recording medium substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a roll stamper used to continuously manufacture a substrate for a high-density information recording medium such as an optical disk or optical card by transferring a pre-format pattern to a substrate surface, and to an apparatus for forming the high-density information recording medium substrate by using the stamper.
2. Related Background Art
For example, an injection molding method, a compression molding method and an extrusion molding method are known as methods for manufacturing the substrate for a high-density optical recording medium such as an optical disk or optical card.
When the injection molding method or compression method is used, strict conditions are set with respect to the temperature and the pressure of a molten resin and the precision of dies and so on to achieve the desired flatness and smoothness of the substrate, to limit a warp of the substrate and to prevent inclusion of air bubbles in the molten resin, and a large-scale molding machine is therefore required, resulting in an increase in manufacturing cost. In the case of injection molding, it is difficult to manufacture a substrate having a small thickness of 0.4 mm or less and a small double refraction index. In the case of compression molding and injection molding, the productivity is low because molded sheets are separately formed one after another.
An information recording medium substrate may be manufactured by extrusion molding in such a manner that a sheet of a molten resin extruded from an extruder is pressed by a roll stamper to form the substrate while transferring a pre-format pattern for providing a pre-format signal, a tracking signal and the like. Such an extrusion molding process is therefore advantageous in terms of mass production of a substrate and has recently been studied as a method for forming an information recording medium substrate.
Roll stampers to be used to form an information recording medium substrate by extrusion molding as described above have conventionally been manufactured by the following methods:
(1) a method in which a pre-format pattern is directly formed in a circumferential surface of a roll base having the circumferential surface polished to form a specular surface (hereinafter referred to as "specular roll base");
(2) a method in which a flexible stamper having a pre-format pattern previously formed on its surface is uniformly bonded to a specular circumferential surface of a specular roll with an adhesive; and
(3) a method in which a flexible stamper having a pre-format pattern previously formed on its surface is fixed to a specular circumferential surface of a specular roll with screws.
In the case of method (1), if a defect is caused in only one portion of the pre-format pattern, the whole roll stamper must be exchanged, and the molding efficiency is therefore low. In the roll stamper manufactured by method (2), the adhesive is changed in quality with time by the heat of the extruded resin sheet or the heat of the roll so that the bonding force is reduced and the stamper may easily come off the specular roll. Therefore, the life of the roll stamper is very short. Moreover, air bubbles are liable to be generated in the adhesive. Unnecessary irregularities in the stamper surface caused by the air bubbles are transferred to the substrate, so that the pattern may not be formed accurately and there is a problem in resulting transfer failure. In the case of the roll stamper manufactured by method (3), it is difficult to limit the gap between the flexible stamper and the roll base, and therefore non-uniformity in the temperature on the stamper surface tends to occur, thereby resulting in molding failure. A method is therefore needed which enables a flexible stamper to be securely fixed on a specular roll base so that the stamper surface (reverse surface) on which no pre-format pattern is formed is brought into close contact with the circumferential surface of the specular roll base while occurrence of a strain in the stamper is prevented.

Roll stamper and apparatus for forming a substrate for information recording medium


Systems and methods for hosting managed code controls within unmanged hosts, such as MICROSOFT Word and Excel. There are two components to the hosting architecture, a wrapper control that implements various interfaces and a container control that hosts the managed code control. A design-time implementation allows for a designer to drag and drop managed code controls onto documents that run in a design component process. A runtime component allows managed code controls to run within hosts under security permissions specified by a policy.

Prior to the release of MICROSOFT.NET technologies, MICROSOFT ACTIVEX controls were a preferred technology for creating reusable components. One use of ACTIVEX controls is document hosting. Applications (such as MICROSOFT Excel and MICROSOFT Word) provided a design-time environment that allows end users to add ACTIVEX controls to a document, and through user interface elements (such as a property browser), define the behavior and attributes of the control. The applications also provided a runtime environment whereby the control would execute. In addition, many applications provide a scripting language (e.g., MICROSOFT VISUAL BASIC for Applications) which enables the end user to add code that would govern the ACTIVEX control's behavior at runtime. By supporting ACTIVEX controls, applications enabled a rich level of component use and customization by end users.
Unfortunately, the promise of ACTIVEX controls as reusable and customizable components on the document did not materialize. First, the controls themselves are extremely difficult and time consuming to develop. Second, the powerful customization that they offered is extremely susceptible to abuse. Documents containing ACTIVEX controls typically run the controls on load, which means that the mere act of opening a document makes end users vulnerable both to malicious controls and "good" controls being used in unintended and/or malicious ways.
With the advent of .NET, the WINDOWS Forms (WinForms) form package became available, which provides a way to create controls in managed code. Managed code is code that has its execution managed by the .NET Framework Common Language Runtime. WinForms controls can be easily created either from scratch or by extending an existing control. Because the controls are written in managed code, they run within constraints of the .NET Development Platform (NDP) security model, which makes them far less susceptible to abuse.
However, while WinForms controls eliminate the two disadvantages of their ACTIVEX counterparts, they cannot easily be hosted in unmanaged hosts (e.g., documents). The basic problem is that WinForms controls were designed to be hosted in Windows Forms, not on documents. WinForms controls expose the ACTIVEX interfaces that would enable them to be hosted in an ACTIVEX container, however, not all interfaces are provided. Most notably, IDataObject is missing, which means that WinForms controls cannot be cut, copied, or pasted. In addition, some of the existing implementation does not follow the rules of ACTIVEX. For example, WinForms controls do not support scaling. At runtime, the expected behavior is for such controls to deactivate if scaling is attempted. WinForms controls do not do this which results in poor behavior when hosts attempt to scale them.
In addition, the ACTIVEX implementation exposed by WinForms ensures that the control will be run immediately when a document is loaded. This is undesirable behavior because, as noted above, it means that opening a document may cause arbitrary code to run. Even though that code will run within the context of security policy, there is no guarantee that the user will be fully protected from all possible harm that could befall them, particularly if the user has granted full trust to any controls that are already installed on their machine.
Therefore, there is a need for a system of improving upon the WinForms ACTIVEX implementation, adding back the missing ACTIVEX implementation, and providing a mechanism for instantiating the managed control which occurs independently of document load and therefore can be accomplished in a secure way. The present invention provides solutions to this and other limitations in the prior art.

Winforms control hosting in unmanaged applications