A semiconductor memory device comprising: a memory cell array in which memory cells each containing a variable resistive element and a rectifier element connected in series are arranged at intersections of a plurality of first wirings and a plurality of second wirings; and a control circuit for selectively driving said first wirings and said second wirings; wherein said control circuit applies a first voltage to said selected first wiring, and changes said first voltage based on the position of said selected memory cell within said memory cell array to apply a second voltage to said selected second wiring, so that a predetermined potential difference is applied to a selected memory cell arranged at the intersection between said selected first wiring and said selected second wiring.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device for nonvolatilely writing data in accordance with application of a voltage to a variable resistive element.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, attention has been focused on a variable resistive memory as a succeeding candidate of a flash memory. Herein, the variable resistive memory devices include a variable resistive memory (ReRAM: Resistive RAM) in a narrow sense that nonvolatilely stores the resistance value state of a transition metal oxide element as the recording layer, and a phase change memory (PCRAM: Phase Change RAM) that utilizes the resistance value information in a crystalline state (conductor) and an amorphous state (insulator) using a chalcogenide element as the recording layer.
It is well known that the variable resistive elements of the variable resistive memory have two kinds of operation modes. One of the modes is called a bipolar type of setting a high-resistance state and a low-resistance state by switching the polarity of applied voltage. The other is called a unipolar type of setting the high-resistance state and the low-resistance state by controlling the voltage value and the voltage application time without switching the polarity of applied voltage. To realize a high density memory cell array, the unipolar type is preferred. In the case of the unipolar type, a cell array can be configured by disposing a variable resistive element and a rectifier element such as a diode at each intersection of word lines and bit lines without using a transistor. Further, a large capacity of memory can be realized by laminating and arranging such memory cell array in three dimensions without increasing the cell array area (refer to JP-A-2005-522045).
In performing a set operation of writing data, a reset operation of erasing data and a read operation of reading data in the memory cell array provided on a semiconductor substrate, a certain processing time is required. Particularly, the reset operation has a longer voltage application time required and takes a longer time for processing than the set operation. To increase the speed of the processing of the variable resistive memory device in the reset operation, it is required to increase the number of memory cells to make the reset operation in parallel within the memory cell array. However, as the number of memory cells to make the reset operation is greater, a voltage drop due to a parasitic resistance of the wiring within the memory cell array increases. Due to this voltage drop, it is not possible to apply sufficient voltage and current to the memory cells, whereby there is a risk that the reset operation is not performed for the desired memory cell.


The invention generally relates to a design structure of a circuit design, and more particularly to a design structure of a delamination sensor for use with low-k materials. A delamination sensor includes at least one first sensor formed in a layered semiconductor structure and a second sensor formed in the layered semiconductor structure. The at least one first sensor is structured and arranged to detect a defect, and the second sensor is structured and arranged to identify an interface where the defect exists.

Semiconductor device manufacturing methods often employ back end of line (BEOL) processes to add interconnect wiring to integrated circuit (IC) devices. For example, in numerous applications, multiple layers of dielectric material (often referred to as interlayer dielectric, or ILD) are formed on a chip. The layers of dielectric material are patterned and etched to form trenches that are later filled with conducting material (e.g., copper) to form vias and wires that connect devices (e.g., RAM) in the chip to other components (e.g., motherboard). Conventional high speed chips may have as many as five to ten wiring layers.
Historically, dense metal oxides such as, for example, silicon dioxide (SiO2), have been used as the dielectric material in interconnect structures. While SiO2 is an excellent insulator with high modulus and hardness, and has a coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) close to silicon, the dielectric constant (k) is approximately 4.0, which is too high for advanced generation interconnects. High-dielectric constants for ILD materials result in signal charging and propagation delays as well as increased transistor power budgets in the circuits that make up the IC. These circuit delays and power requirements are becoming an issue relative to improving the performance of IC chips. As such, device manufacturers are migrating toward the use of low-k (e.g., k<3.0) dielectric materials (such as, for example, inorganic polymers, organic polymers such as polyamides, spin-on glasses, silsesquioxane-based materials, etc.). Generally speaking, low-k dielectric materials serve to increase the speed of the conducting wires, thereby increasing the speed of the semiconductor device.
However, one concern of integrating low-k dielectric materials into the wafer BEOL is the delamination stresses that occur when the chip is packaged. The delamination of the chip in the low-k dielectric material layers due to their weaker mechanical properties (e.g., modulus and adhesion) may result in failure of the package.
Stresses are imparted to the chip due to differences in CTE between the chip and the different materials used in semiconductor packaging. For example, a Silicon chip has a relatively low CTE, while an organic carrier that the low-k chip is disposed upon may have a relatively high CTE. Also, each wiring level may be composed of a different low-k dielectric material, each having differing coefficients of thermal expansion. When the chip is assembled to an organic carrier at an elevated temperature and subsequently cooled, and when a chip undergoes thermal cycling during reliability testing, the differences in CTE between adjacent layers cause stresses at the interface between the layers.
These stresses can lead to structural damage of the chip, including cracks in individual layers and delamination between adjacent layers. Structural damage, in turn, renders a chip unusable, thereby decreasing yield and posing a reliability risk.
In the early stages of technology development, low-k dielectric material delamination is a problem that typically affects a large number of modules. In order to determine the failing interfaces, destructive failure analysis is often performed. However, destructive failure analysis has become a very fine art and is difficult, slow, and costly.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art to overcome the deficiencies and limitations described hereinabove.

Sensor, method, and design structure for a low-k delamination sensor

International Business Machines Corporation


A method for controlling movement of a moving object includes, based on a target object selecting operation, a center point of a target object range on a display interface and a target-object-range adjusting pressure for adjusting the target object range, determining the target object range in the display interface according to the center point of the target object range and the target-object-range adjusting pressure, and determining an image object in the target object range as a target object tracked by the moving object.

An existing UAV captures images through one or more cameras installed on the UAV. The images can be displayed on a touch screen for displaying to a user. If the user is interested in an object in the images, a frame drawing operation can be performed around the object through the touch screen, such that the object can be selected in the frame drawn by the user. The UAV takes the selected object in the frame as a target object, and follows and photographs the target object. As such, the user can obtain clearer pictures and videos of the target object.
However, in the existing techniques, the user needs to select the target object through a frame drawing operation which is complicated. Further, the selection of the target object may not be accurate enough.

Methods, devices, and systems for controlling movement of a moving object


The present invention discloses a power supply circuit for multi-path light-emitting diode (LED) loads. The two ports of the second diode are connected in parallel with the first switch tube, and the two ports of the forth diode are connected in parallel with the second switch tube. The conduction mode of the second and forth diodes is controlled by controlling the switch status of the first and second switch tubes. When the system is on a normal state, the first and second switch tubes are both switched off. When the load output of any path needs to be turned off, the corresponding switch tube should be controlled to switch on, which makes the diode connected in parallel with the switch tube short-circuited. The present invention can avoid a strong impulse current produced in filtering capacitor when the load of any path is directly short-circuited. Therefore, the present invention can reduce the current stress in circuits, improve the reliability of circuits, and reduce the cost.

A constant current driver circuit for two LED loads (Chinese patent application No. 200910155848.0) is shown in FIG. 1, in which a capacitor Cb can maintain the currents of two LED loads (A1 and A2) to be equal. In FIG. 1 the constant current driver circuit for only two LED loads is shown. A constant current driver circuit for more than two LED loads can be implemented as the circuits shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, in which current sharing among multiple LED loads is achieved by a current sharing transformer T1. The circuit in FIG. 2 is applicable to drive even number of LED loads, and the circuit in FIG. 3 is applicable to drive odd number of LED loads.
In the circuit shown in FIG. 1, if one of the LED loads is opened and the other path of the LED loads is ensured to operate normally, an abnormal overvoltage will occur at the output of the opened load, such that the driver circuit will be damaged. Therefore, an additional open circuit protection circuit is needed.
An LED driver circuit with an open circuit protection circuit in the prior art is shown in FIG. 4.
Each of the LED loads is connected in parallel to an open circuit protection circuit K. When an abnormal overvoltage is detected at the output, a thyristor (SCR1, SCR2) is turned on and a load current flows through the thyristor, so as to avoid the abnormal output voltage due to the open circuit of the load.
However, the open circuit protection circuit K has the following disadvantages: when the output voltage is abnormal, the thyristor is turned on, and short-circuit discharge of an output filter capacitor (Co3, Co4) will cause a large impulse current, such that current stress in the circuit is increased, the cost of the circuit is increased and the reliability of the circuit is reduced.

Power supply circuit for multi-path light-emitting diode (LED) loads


A color balancing circuit for a flat panel display such as an electroluminescent display generates a primary current that can be varied to adjust the overall brightness of the display. Three currents related to the primary current by selectable ratios are generated, by current mirror circuits, for example; the ratios can be individually varied to adjust the color balance. Driving currents are generated from the three adjusted currents, by mirroring the adjusted currents, for example, and are used to drive display elements that emit light in the three primary colors. Image brightness and color balance can accordingly be adjusted separately, even though both are adjusted by adjusting the driving current. Circuit size is reduced in that the same primary current is used for all three primary colors.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a color balancing circuit for use in a flat color display panel such as an electroluminescence (EL) panel employing organic EL elements.
2. Description of the Related Art
Organic EL panels are also known as organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels. Other known types of flat panel displays include liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, non-organic light-emitting diode (LED) panels, and plasma display panels (PDPs). Two desirable qualities of these displays are an adjustable overall brightness and an adjustable balance of the brightness of the three primary colors red, green, and blue, so that colors can be accurately reproduced.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-42823 discusses the driving of an organic EL multicolor display panel having a passive matrix structure. The panel has red, green, and blue electroluminescent elements (EL elements) disposed at the intersections of a plurality of column electrodes (also referred to as anode lines or drive lines) with a plurality of row electrodes (also referred to as cathode lines or scanning lines). When a direct-current (DC) driving voltage exceeding the emission threshold of an EL element is applied to the EL element, it emits light with a brightness proportional to the current that flows from the column line to the row line in response to the applied voltage. If the applied voltage is less than the emission threshold voltage, no current flows and the emission brightness remains zero.
The red, green, and blue EL elements are arranged so that all the EL elements in the same column are of the same color. A first potential and a higher second potential are selectively supplied to the row electrodes. A third potential that provides an offset voltage below the emission threshold voltage of the EL elements and a current source that provides driving current are selectively connected to the column electrodes. The driving current and the third potential are variable and can be adjusted to different values for the red, blue, and green columns, to equalize the voltage changes in the different columns, thereby improving the light emission rise characteristic. This arrangement permits adjustment of both overall brightness and color balance, but separate adjustment circuitry is required for each of the three primary colors.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-134255 discusses the automatic adjustment of brightness according to the user's needs and ambient conditions (surrounding brightness) in a flat display panel such as an LCD panel with an adjustable backlight. The flat display panel has a display screen and a sensor disposed near the display screen for sensing surrounding brightness. An automatic (primary) adjustment of the brightness of the display screen is performed according to a signal output from the sensor. The flat display panel also has means by which the user can set the brightness of the display screen, means for setting the brightness characteristic of the display screen according to the ambient brightness detected by the sensor and the brightness value set by the user, and means for automatically adjusting the brightness of the display screen, after it has been set by the user, according to the brightness characteristic and the signal output from the sensor. This scheme provides a convenient brightness adjustment, but color balance must be adjusted by completely separate means.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 07-129100 discusses a simplified adjustment of the brightness of a color LED lamp panel. The lamp panel module has a plurality of picture elements (pixels), each comprising red, green, and blue LEDs that can combine to display an arbitrary color. The lamp panel module includes respective dimmer circuits in the red, green, and blue LED control circuits for independently controlling and adjusting the brightness of the red, green, and blue light, and has means for frequency control of the dimmer circuits. Color balance can thereby be adjusted, but this system fails to provide a single convenient adjustment for overall image brightness.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 08-286636 discusses the adjustment of the brightness of a plasma display panel. The mechanism by which a plasma display panel emits light is electrical discharge in a gas. Different pixel intensities are obtained by controlling the number of discharges on a pixel-by-pixel basis according to pixel data. Brightness is adjusted by doubling, tripling, or quadrupling the number of discharges, and also by multiplying the pixel data by a continuously variable gain factor. This scheme provides a continuous brightness adjustment over a wide range, but does not provide for adjustment of color balance.
In an organic EL panel, color balance and overall brightness can both be adjusted by adjusting the driving current supplied to the red, green, and blue light-emitting elements. If a separate adjustment is made for each primary color, an arbitrary desired color balance can be obtained, but separate adjustment circuitry is required for each color and overall brightness adjustment is inconvenient, because three separate adjustments are necessary. If a single adjustment of the driving current for all three primary colors is made, however, then although brightness adjustment is convenient and the amount of adjustment circuitry can be reduced, the color balance cannot be adjusted to suit the user's preferences, or to compensate for fabrication variations or aging changes.
For use in a flat color display panel such as an organic EL panel, it would be desirable to have a color balancing circuit capable both of adjusting the red, green, and blue driving currents individually to obtain a desired color balance, and of adjusting all three of the driving currents together to obtain a desired display brightness.

Color balancing circuit for a display panel


An imaging lens includes first to sixth lens elements arranged from an object side to an image side in the given order. Through designs of surfaces of the lens elements and relevant optical parameters, a short system length of the imaging lens may be achieved while maintaining good optical performance.

In recent years, as portable electronic devices (e.g., mobile phones and digital cameras) become ubiquitous, much effort has been put into reducing dimensions of portable electronic devices. Moreover, as dimensions of charged coupled device (CCD) and complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) based optical sensors are reduced, dimensions of imaging lenses for use with the optical sensors must be correspondingly reduced without significantly compromising optical performance. Imaging quality and size are two of the most important characteristics for an imaging lens.
However, in optical lens design, to reduce proportionally a size of an imaging lens is insufficient to enable such an imaging lens to be miniaturized while maintaining imaging quality. In the design process, material properties and assembly yield of such an imaging lens should also be considered.
Therefore, greater technical difficulties are encountered for a miniaturized imaging lens than for traditional imaging lenses. Producing an imaging lens that meets the requirements of consumer electronic products while having satisfactory optical performance is always a goal in the industry.

Imaging lens, and electronic apparatus including the same


A seal assembly is provided for a turbine engine and includes an annular labyrinth seal holder supported on a radially inner end of vanes A plurality of radially extending labyrinth seal elements are supported on the labyrinth seal holder, and a brush seal assembly is supported to the labyrinth seal holder downstream from the labyrinth seal elements. The brush seal assembly includes a brush seal holder and a brush seal located adjacent to an axially rearward one of the rotor arms. The brush seal holder is attached to an axially facing surface of the labyrinth seal holder. A seal plate defining a detachable labyrinth seal element extends radially inward from the axially facing surface of the labyrinth seal holder to the rearward rotor arm at a location upstream of the brush seal.

In a gas turbine, a gas is compressed through successive stages in a compressor and mixed with fuel in a combustor The combination of gas and fuel is then ignited for generating combustion gases that are directed to turbine stages to produce rotational motion The turbine stages and compressor stages typically have stationary or non-rotary components, e.g., vanes, that cooperate with rotatable components, e.g., rotor blades, for compressing and expanding the operational gases.
Any fluid leakage between stages reduces overall gas turbine engine performance and efficiency and therefore, interstage seals are provided to reduce such leakage. In general, fluid leakage is reduced when a gap between the seal and a rotor assembly is minimized. Labyrinth seals have been used to effect a seal between stages at different pressures in gas turbine engines. Such seals generally comprise two principal elements, i e, a rotating seal and a static seal The static seal, as viewed in cross section parallel to the axial length of the engine, frequently has rows of thin labyrinth fingers or teeth, typically formed of stainless steel, extending radially from a relatively thicker base The teeth of the static seal extend radially to a location adjacent the rotating seal. If contact occurs between the labyrinth teeth and the rotating seal, the stainless steel teeth may be deformed and/or deteriorate. Accordingly, labyrinth seals have generally been designed to allow sufficient clearance to avoid problems associated with contact between the labyrinth teeth and the adjacent seal surfaces, allowing a certain amount of leakage of secondary air flow.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a seal construction for a multistage rotary machine that can avoid or minimize damage that may occur as a result of contact between the rotating seal and the stationary seal, and that maintains an adequate seal between different pressure regions defined by the engine stages.

Interstage seal assembly for gas turbine engine


An output circuit comprises a transfer gate connected between an input terminal of the output circuit and an input of an output buffer circuit, a protection circuit for turning off a transistor constituting the output buffer when a potential higher than an operating source voltage of the output buffer circuit is applied to an output of the output buffer circuit, and a control circuit for turning on the transfer gate in response to a signal input to the input terminal and to turn for turning off the transfer gate when the protection circuit is actuated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an output circuit and, particularly, to an output circuit of an integrated circuit which has an output terminal applied with a voltage higher than a source voltage thereof and is operable at a low voltage.
2. Description of Prior Art
Responsive to shortened gate length of MOS transistors caused by increase of integrating density and increase of operating speed of an integrated circuit (LSI) composed of CMOS circuits or BiCMOS circuits, an operating source voltage thereof is being reduced. Under such circumstances, when such an LSI operable at low voltage is combined with an LSI operable at the usual voltage, an interface is required between the LSI having mutually different source voltages. When an LSI having a source voltage is connected to another LSI having a different source voltage and an output terminal of an output circuit of the LSI having the lower operating voltage is imparted with a potential higher than its source voltage, the output circuit includes an over-voltage protection circuit for preventing current from flowing from the side of the high potential LSI to the lower potential LSI to restrict variations of the source voltage and current of the lower potential LSI.
Referring to FIG. 4 which is a circuit diagram of a conventional output circuit, the conventional output circuit includes inverters 1 and 2 having inputs connected to an input terminal TI, an output buffer circuit 4 which is adapted to be driven by these inverters 1 and 2 and output an output signal in response to output signal from the inverters 1 and 2 at an output terminal TO and a protection circuit 7 which is adapted to cut off the output transistor P1 when an over-voltage is applied to the output terminal TO to thereby prevent current from flowing thereinto.
The output buffer circuit 4 includes a PMOS transistor P1 having a source connected to a power source VDD, a gate connected to an output of the inverter 1 and a drain connected to the output terminal TO and an NMOS transistor N6 having a source grounded to GND, a gate connected to an output terminal of the inverter 2 and a drain connected to the output terminal TO.
The protection circuit 7 has a terminal a connected to the output of the inverter 1, a terminal b connected to a power source VDD, a terminal c connected to a well of the transistor P1, a terminal d connected to the input terminal TI and a terminal e connected to the output terminal TO. The protection circuit 7 includes a PMOS type transistor P15 having a source connected to the output of the inverter 1 through the terminal a, a gate connected to the power source VDD through the terminal b and a drain connected to the terminal e, a PMOS type transistor P16 having a source connected to the terminal b, a gate connected to the output terminal TO through the terminal e and a drain and an well connected each other and further connected to the wells of the transistors P1 and P15 through the terminal c, respectively, and a PMOS type transistor P17 having a source connected to the output of the inverter 1 through the terminal a, a gate connected to the input terminal TI through the terminal d and a drain and an well connected each other and further connected to the well of the transistor P16.
Now, an operation of the output circuit shown in FIG. 4 from which the protection circuit 7 is removed will be described. Assuming that the transistor P1 of the output circuit 4 is in ON state and the transistor N6 of the same is in OFF state, a potential of the output terminal TO is equal to that of the power source VDD. When, in this state, a high potential (referred to as "VPP", hereinafter, for simplicity of description) higher than the power source potential VDD is applied to the output terminal TO, a current path is formed from the output terminal TO through the transistor P1 to the power source VDD, causing a potential variation and/or current variation of the power source VDD to be induced. Further, it is well known that, when a well potential of the PMOS type transistor is lower than its source potential, not only a threshold value of the transistor varies but also a current path is formed from the source to a substrate, which cause the transistor itself to be degraded and cause a power consumption of a circuit including the transistor. Therefore, the well potential must be substantially the same as the source potential.
The protection circuit 7 is provided to prevent the current path described above from being formed. When the potential VPP is supplied to the terminal TO while To is outputting the potential VDD, the transistor P15 turns on because the source potential thereof becomes higher than a gate potential thereof. Therefore, the potential VPP supplied to the terminal TO is propagated to the gate electrode of the transistor P1 through the transistor P15 to thereby cut off the transistor P1. The transistor P17 is provided to make the well potentials of P1 and P15 to equal to the corresponding source potentials of P1 and P15, respectively to thereby prevent current flowing between the well region and the source region.
Further, the transistor P16 is provided to maintain the well potentials equal to the power source potential VDD when the output terminal TO is a ground potential GND.
When the output buffer outputs VDD level, the inverter outputs L level (ground level GND) to turn on P1. Therefore, a N-channel transistor of the inverter is in ON state. As a result, a current path from the terminal TO to the ground line through P15 and the N-channel transistor of the inverter is made.
Particularly, in the output circuit in a LSI which is operable at high speed, the output transistor having large channel width is used in the output buffer thereof. In order to drive such transistor having large channel width, the drive inverter is formed by using transistor having large channel width. Therefore, the current flowing from the output terminal TO to the ground GND becomes large, causing the problem of current consumption and heat generation to occur.

Output circuit with overvoltage protection


Radio equipment for communicating digital data includes a clock modulation part for angular-modulation of a clock signal by a given modulation signal; and a data processing part processing the digital data based on the clock signal angular-modulated in the clock modulation part and producing angular-modulated digital data. In the radio equipment, levels of harmonics generated from the clock signal and the digital data are reducible.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to radio equipment for transmitting a digital signal and its peripheral apparatus, and more particularly, to radio equipment and its peripheral apparatus for suppressing interference to a radio signal which is generated by the digital signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a variety of radio communication systems such as a portable telephone service system are developing and a wide range of radio frequencies are used for the systems. For such a system using a wide range of radio frequencies, a digital modulation method capable of achieving higher usage efficiency of the frequencies is being used instead of an analog modulation method. For example, portable telephone service systems operating at the 800-MHz band and 1.5-GHz band are already in commercial use by the digital modulation method of .pi./4-shifted quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK).
Further, transmission rate and processing speed of the digital signal also increase according to development of LSI technologies. Therefore, frequencies of a timing clock of the digital signal and a clock for processing the digital signal increases close to a carrier frequency for radio transmission.
Since the digital signal and the clock signal are formed by rectangular waves, these signals have a number of high-order harmonic components. Frequencies of the harmonic components are spread to UHF and VHF bands. Therefore, when the frequencies of the harmonic components are present in a receiving frequency band of a radio signal, the harmonic components enter a receiving circuit of radio equipment as interference and have influence on a desired signal. The harmonic components are obtained by Fourier-expanding a digital signal k(t) as follows: ##EQU1## According to the above equation, the harmonic components have odd-order frequency components.
In general, to miniaturize size of the radio equipment, radio parts and digital signal processing parts are arranged close to each other in the same housing. To improve transmission quality and to reduce power consumption, a highly-sensitive receiver has also been developed. Therefore, in such a configuration, the above-mentioned interference due to harmonics may cause a larger problem.
In Japanese Laid-Open Patent Applications No.3-255510 and No.5-90987, methods of frequency-modulating a clock signal of a clock oscillator for a control circuit such as a CPU are disclosed. By the frequency modulation, the spectrum of harmonics of the clock signal is spread, and levels of high-order harmonics may be reduced. Therefore, interference to a receiving circuit may also be reduced. More specifically, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No.5-90987 shows an embodiment in which the above-mentioned method is applied to radio equipment using an analog modulation and demodulation method.
However, in radio equipment using a digital modulation and demodulation method, a digital signal such as transmission data as well as the clock oscillator of the control circuit also generates high-order harmonics. When increasing frequency deviation of the modulation of the clock signal in the control circuit to further reduce the level of the harmonics of the clock signal, an error may occur in an operation of the control circuit. Furthermore, the clock frequency is increasing, and the high-order harmonics may easily have influence on the radio signal.
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of typical digital radio equipment. The equipment 1 shown in FIG. 1 includes a transmission part and a reception part. The transmission part comprises a data processing circuit 2, a modulator 4, and a transmitting circuit 6. The reception part comprises a receiving circuit 8, a demodulator 10, and a data processing circuit 12. The data processing circuit 2 includes a speech CODEC 16 and a signal processing circuit 18. The data processing circuit 12 includes a signal processing circuit 20 and a speech CODEC 22.
In the speech CODEC 16, a speech signal is converted to digital data based on a timing clock from a clock oscillator 30. In the signal processing circuit 18, the digital data is formatted in a format suitable for being transmitted. For example, when the radio equipment 1 operates in a time division multiple (TDM) system, the digital data is distributed to TDM frames. When the modulation method is QPSK, the digital data is separated to an I (in-phase) channel signal and a Q (quadrature phase) channel signal.
In the modulator 4, the digital data processed in the signal processing circuit 18 is filtered, and a first local signal is digitally modulated by the filtered digital data. For the digital modulation, phase modulation such as QPSK and frequency modulation such as GMSK are usable. An output signal of the modulator 4 is converted to a radio signal by the transmitting circuit 6, and is transmitted through a filter 40 to an antenna 42.
A radio signal which has come through the antenna 42 and the filter 40 is received in the receiving circuit 8, and is converted to an intermediate frequency signal. The intermediate frequency signal is demodulated in the demodulator 10 to reproduce digital data at a baseband frequency. The reproduced digital data is processed to digital data including a timing clock for the speech CODEC 22 in the signal processing circuit 20, and is converted to a speech signal in the speech CODEC 22.
The speech CODECs 16, 22 and the signal processing circuits 18, 20 may be commonly constructed with a digital signal processor (DSP). Timing clocks from the clock oscillator 30 are provided to the speech CODECs 16, 22, and DSP clocks from the clock oscillator 32 are provided to the signal processing circuits 18, 20. The speech CODECs 16, 22 and the signal processing circuits 18, 20 are connected to CPU 14 operable with a CPU clock provided from a clock oscillator 34 through a bus line.
In such a circuit configuration, the digital data is generated based on the timing clock for the speech CODEC and is formed by the rectangular waves. Therefore, the digital data includes a number of high-order harmonic components. When a frequency of one of the high-order harmonic components is close to the radio channel frequency, the harmonic component shown in a dotted line (A) may cause interference during operation of the receiving circuit 8.
The clock oscillators 30, 32 which generate the timing clock and the DSP clock for generating and processing the digital data have respectively high-frequency clock sources. Therefore, the high-frequency clock sources also generate high-order harmonic components which influence the receiving circuit 8. The interference is shown in dotted lines (B) and (C).
Further, the demodulator 10 commonly has a clock recovery circuit for recovering a timing clock to reproduce the baseband signal. Therefore, the clock recovery circuit and the reproduced baseband signal also generate high-order harmonic components which influence the receiving circuit 8. The interference is shown in a dotted line (D).
The CPU clock operating the CPU 14 and input and output data flowing through the bus line also generate high-order harmonic components which may cause interference. The interference is shown in dotted lines (E) and (F).
Still further, peripheral apparatuses such as a personal computer, a facsimile, a television, a radio, and a global positioning system (GPS), which are located close to the digital radio equipment 1, also have many clock oscillators. Therefore, harmonics are generated from those clock oscillators and harmonics are also generated from digital signals transmitting through cables which connect the peripheral apparatuses. These harmonics also influence the receiving circuit 8 of the digital radio equipment 1 as interference is shown in dotted lines (G) and (H).
Next, a detail description will be given of the interference by the timing clock generated in clock oscillator 30.
For example, when a bit rate of the timing clock is 11.2 kbps, the clock oscillator 30 has a 2.688-MHz clock source, and a signal divided by 24 is used as the timing clock. In this case, a 163-order harmonic of an output of the 2.688-MHz clock source is a 438.144-MHz signal. If a radio channel is used at a frequency of 438.150 MHz, the harmonic frequency is close to the radio channel frequency. The harmonic may interfere with the radio channel being received.
FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B show signal space diagrams when a QPSK signal is received with interference. FIG. 2A shows the signal space diagram at an instant of time, and FIG. 2B shows the signal space diagram averaged over a given time period. When the high-order harmonic component of the clock is added to an ideal QPSK signal, as shown in FIG. 2A, four ideal signal points of the QPSK signal are shifted by interference in the same direction. However, the shifted direction rotates about each signal point according to a frequency difference between the radio channel and the interference (in the previous example, 6 kHz). As a result, as shown in FIG. 2B, in averaging over the given time period, the four ideal signal points respectively spread in a circle form. The interference becomes a bright-line interference. When a size of the circle exceeds a decision level, an error occurs.
As mentioned above, in conventional digital radio equipment, since the data is formed by the digitally-shaped clock, the harmonics are generated from the digital data and the clock. Namely, the interference which did not occur in analog radio equipment is newly generated for the receiving circuit in digital radio equipment.
Further, for improving frequency utility and services, the data transmission speed needs to be increased. For this requirement, the clock sources of the clock oscillator for generating the timing clock and the DSP oscillator for processing the digital data tends to have a higher frequency. On the other hand, in a relatively low radio frequency, the digital modulation and demodulation methods are being used. Therefore, a level of interference due to the harmonics of the clock used for the digital data increases, and the interference may strongly influence the radio receiving circuit.

Radio equipment and peripheral apparatus


A processing system comprising a plurality of processors and a plurality of memories, wherein each processor is connected to a memory by a primary bus. When one processor needs to access another processor's memory, it requests access to that particular memory. A bus control monitors memory transactions and causes the processor for this target memory to relinquish the memory. The bus controller then configures a transfer bus and forwards the memory access command to the target memory such that the processor can then access its target memory in addition to its own memory. This configuration remains stable until any processor requests a memory outside of the current configuration or the processor associated with the target memory requests its own memory again. Advantageously, the bus control uses an arbitration table which provides equitable access to all memories.

General purpose processors are becoming increasingly common in applications that required special purpose processors only a few years ago. Previously, only special purpose processors had the power needed to perform complex tasks (i.e., these processors were usually optimized to perform a specific type of function, such as complex number calculations or vector arithmetic). A major problem with special purpose processors is that their cost per unit is very high and they have to be redesigned and re-implemented in order to take advantage of improvements in the art. As general purpose processors become faster and are able to do more, the cost savings of general purpose processors in many applications far outweighs the benefits of special purpose processors. One such application that can benefit from such cost reduction is digital signal processing.
Digital signal processing is used in diverse applications in diverse industries. For example, the telephone industry is using digital signal processing in applications such as recognition of spoken telephone numbers, credit card numbers, name recognition for telephone dialing, and speaker verification for credit card authorization. The computer industry is using digital signal processing in applications such as word recognition in speech-to-text applications, command control, and speaker verification for authorization of use. Two universal problems faced by all digital signal processing applications are that it requires large amounts of processing power and large amounts of high-speed memory.
In current architectures, digital signal processing is primarily performed by dedicated digital signal processing integrated circuits. Such digital signal processors are usually designed for one task alone, that is, performing all of the multiplications, accumulations, and comparisons necessary to provide the speech-to-text, word spotting, or speaker verification required by the application. Such single-function processors are expensive to make, because every change or improvement requires a new integrated circuit to be designed. Since the industry is moving so rapidly, such designs are constantly churning through the manufacturing process.
Digital signal processing is also very memory intensive. Large amounts of data are stored to be processed for each particular application. In addition, there are usually one or more large data dictionaries for comparison to digitized speech in order to provide the word spotting, text-to-speech, etc. As a result, very large memory structures are used in digital signal processing applications.
Such dedicated processing and large memory structures generally require complex bus structures in order to connect everything together and to coordinate complex operations, such as loading the memory with the speech to be recognized/verified, processing the speech and comparing it to known samples. These structures are even more complex when there is more than one digital signal processor working on the speech at the same time, as is frequently the case.
Therefore, a problem in the art is that there is no inexpensive digital signal processor and memory structure which can provide the processing abilities of dedicated digital signal processors without the cost of custom design.

System and method for providing high speed memory access in a multiprocessor, multimemory environment


An apparatus and a method for separating a light liquid from a heavy liquid in a mixture of these liquids are provided which enhance the gravitational separation of such liquids. Thus, water laden with greases such as from a commercial kitchen is contemplated to be substantially rid of the greases by the present apparatus and method. The apparatus comprises a separation chamber; an inlet port; an exit port for each of the light and heavy liquids, with the exit for the light liquid being positioned at about the fluid level of the mixture of liquids; a level control for maintaining the fluid level; and a heater element to heat the mixture, thereby decreasing the viscosity of the light liquid and further driving its separation from the heavier components of the mixture. In the preferred practice of the invention, a skimmer and a series of fluid flow obstacles are also employed along with the heater element to achieve optimal separation.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the separation of liquid components having different specific gravities contained in a single feed stream, and more particularly, relates to an apparatus and method for removing fats, oils, greases and the like from wastewater.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Restaurant kitchens generate wastewater streams containing a number of components aside from water, such as oils, greases, and food waste solids. Such wastewater is typically not suitable for transport directly to a sewage plant because of the presence of oils and greases. Specifically, these greasy wastes interfere with the proper operation of the sewage treatment process by, for example, coating the insides of the pipes and tank walls used to transport and store the sludge and scum from wastewater. Further, excessive amounts of grease may plug the trickling filters or coat the biological floc used in the activated sludge processes of typical wastewater treatment plants. Consequently, many local codes require the removal of oils and greases from wastewater prior to transport to the treatment plants.
Oil/grease separators are known which are capable of separating immiscible liquids having different specific gravities. In general, the separators operate by providing sufficient opportunity for gravity to separate the liquids, such that the heavier liquid sinks and the lighter liquid rises. Descriptions of known oil/grease separators follow.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,102,787, issued to Geurtsen and assigned on its face to Machinefabriek Geurtsen Deventer, B. V., discloses an apparatus for separating a mixture of liquids of different specific gravities (such as oil and water). The Geurtsen apparatus comprises a separation chamber into which a liquid mixture is introduced and a series of filters provided below the separation chamber which allows passage of the heavier liquid to the substantial exclusion of the lighter liquid, with the heavier liquid being collected in a chamber for disposal. The primary inventive feature of the Geurtsen apparatus is a movable wall portion for controlling the discharge of lighter liquid therefrom. This apparatus contains essentially no means for enhancing the separation of liquids, but rather depends solely upon gravitational forces to achieve separation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,122,280, issued to Russell et al. and assigned on its face to Protectaire Systems, Co., discloses a method and apparatus for separating oil from oil/water mixtures comprising a holding tank that discharges to a separation tank, with the outflow to the separation tank being directed underneath a surface underflow weir, after which the light liquid rises and is collected. Here again, the separation between the liquids is accomplished primarily on the basis of gravitational forces.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,895, issued to Basseen et al. and assigned on its face to Pioneer Air Systems, Inc., discloses an oil/water separator that includes vertical columns of coalescing media to enhance separation of the two liquid phases. Movement through the separator is effected by the incoming pressure of the air/oil/water mixture. While the Basseen et al apparatus purportedly effectively removes the majority of oil from a waste stream, the amount of time required to pass through columns of solid media is disadvantageous. Moreover, one is faced with the task of rejuvenating the columns after use.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,254,267, issued to Deskins et al., discloses a grease separation system which has a plurality of filters through which the grease-laden liquid mixture must pass, with the filters being situated above a bed of grease absorbing material which discharges to a perforated pipe. The separated grease must be collected from the grease-absorbing material and from the filters. This method can be undesirable since one must manually collect and handle grease following the separation process.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,340,477, issued to Simon and assigned on its face to Texaco Inc., discloses a separator apparatus for breaking emulsions formed between hydrocarbon liquid and an aqueous solution. Essentially, the apparatus includes an emulsion tank which receives emulsion near its bottom, such that the lighter component gravitates to the surface and is collected in a trough that encircles the tank by means of a skimming weir. This apparatus does not employ any means other than gravitational forces for achieving the separation of the lighter liquids from the heavier liquids, and may thus require an extended period for adequate separation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,360,555, issued to Batten and assigned on its face to Clearline Systems, Inc., discloses an oil/grease separation apparatus in which effluent passes through a weir system into a quiescent region, where the effluent resides for sufficient time for the oil/grease to float to the top for collection by a rotating oleophilic disk. The cleaned water passes under a baffle to an outlet chamber. The degree of separation achieved by Batten's apparatus is entirely dependent on gravitational forces.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,423,986, issued to Valentin and assigned on its face to Hans Huber GmbH & Co. KG of Berching, Germany, discloses an apparatus for the removal of clarified wastewater from circular tanks. The apparatus serves to uniformly draw off waste water, rather than separate immiscible liquid phases.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,445,730, issued to Pattee, discloses a grease/oil/water separator containing three tanks to achieve separation: a first separation chamber, a trap tank, and a pump tank. The settling chamber separates out debris from the wastewater; the trap tank separates sludge as well as grease/oil from water by means of gravitational forces encouraged by a diagonal flow path; and the pump tank pumps the grease-separated water through a sand filtering means for further cleaning. The trap tank relies solely upon gravity to achieve separation of the grease from the water, with the cleaned water being removed by a pipe inlet situated near the bottom of the tank. The separator depends entirely upon gravitationally-induced separation of grease/oil and water in the trap tank.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,619, issued to Batten and assigned on its face to Clearline Systems, Inc., discloses separator system for separating grease from water that includes a skimmer for collecting grease as well as a detector for detecting the presence of grease in the tank. A heat sink is employed to heat the grease in a grease storage container to prevent solidification of the grease.
Other patents disclose apparatuses and methods for removing one liquid from contact with another after separation of the liquids is achieved in a separator. Examples of such patents are U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,405,538 and 5,451,330. U.S. Pat. No. 5,405,538, issued to Batten and assigned on its face to Clearline Systems, Inc., discloses an apparatus for removing grease from a grease trap separator and transferring the grease to a transfer tank. Thus, the apparatus of Batten '538 primarily relates to the transport of separated grease, not the actual separation of grease from a grease-laden wastewater. U.S. Pat. No. 5,451,330, issued to Garrett and assigned on its face to Advanced Waste Reduction, Inc., discloses a suction skimmer for removing an upper layer of liquid from a vessel. Specifically, the skimmer is contemplated for withdrawing hydrocarbons under substantially laminar flow conditions. The Garrett apparatus itself does not achieve separation of immiscible liquids but simply removes the lighter liquid upon its separation.
The apparatuses and methods described above rely either solely upon gravitational forces to vertically separate immiscible liquids in a vessel according to their respective densities, or in some instances employ a weir system or a skimmer component to advance separation. None of the above-described apparatuses provide any means to hasten and/or improve separation beyond that naturally achieved with gravity, other than mechanical means of directing flow such as weir systems and skimmers.
There remains a need for an apparatus and a method for improving the degree of separation between grease and water contained in wastewater such that a greater percentage of grease is recovered compared by above-described apparatuses. The apparatus and method must be efficient and reliable, and must require only a minimal amount of maintenance.

Apparatus and method for removing grease from drain water in restaurant operations


The soluble material for three-dimensional modeling of the present invention is a soluble material for three-dimensional modeling that is used as a material of a support material that supports a three-dimensional object when manufacturing the three-dimensional object with a fused deposition modeling type 3D printer. The soluble material for three-dimensional modeling contains at least one polymer and at least one filler. In the soluble material for three-dimensional modeling, the filler is a fibrous filler having a fiber length of 0.02 μm to 1,000 μm and a fiber diameter of 0.0001 μm to 20 μm and/or a flat filler having a particle size of 0.1 μm to 20 μm and a thickness of 0.01 μm to 10 μm. The content of the filler is 0.01 part by mass to 200 parts by mass with respect to 100 parts by mass of the polymer. According to the present invention, foaming and a decrease of the accuracy of a three-dimensional object can be suppressed even when the soluble material for three-dimensional modeling is used in manufacture of the three-dimensional object with a 3D printer after being exposed to high humidity.

The present invention relates to a soluble material for three-dimensional modeling that is used as a material of a support material that supports a three-dimensional object when manufacturing the three-dimensional object with a 3D printer, especially a fused deposition modeling type 3D printer.
The 3D printer is one type of rapid prototyping, and it is a three-dimensional printer for modeling a three-dimensional object based on 3D data such as 3D CAD and 3D CG. Systems of 3D printing have been known, such as a fused deposition modeling system (hereinafter referred to as an FDM system), an inkjet ultraviolet curing system, an stereolithography system, and a selective laser sintering system. Among these systems, the FDM system is a modeling system of heat-melting, extruding, and laminating polymer filaments to obtain a three-dimensional object, and the FDM system does not use a reaction of the material unlike other systems. Accordingly, a 3D printer of an FDM system is small and inexpensive, and has become popular in recent years as an apparatus with less post-processing. In order to model a three-dimensional object having a more complex shape in a FDM system, a modeling material constituting the three-dimensional object and a support material for supporting a three-dimensional structure of the modeling material are laminated to obtain a precursor of the three-dimensional object, and then the support material is removed from the precursor of the three-dimensional object to obtain the target three-dimensional object.
An example of the method of removing the support material from the precursor of the three-dimensional object is a method of using a methacrylic acid copolymer as the support material and soaking the precursor of the three-dimensional object in an alkaline aqueous solution to remove the support material (for example, JP-T-2008-507619 and JP-T-2012-509777). The method utilizes that carboxylic acid in the methacrylic acid copolymer is neutralized by an alkali and dissolved in an alkaline aqueous solution.

Soluble material for three-dimensional molding


The invention is directed to a process for controlling product yields in a fluid catalytic cracker unit. In particular, the invention is directed to a process wherein the introduction of feed into a catalytic cracking zone is effected by feed injectors which optimize the atomization of the feed in order to achieve yield and/or quality objectives.

In the petroleum refining industry, the fluidized catalytic cracking of hydrocarbons is well known and may be accomplished in a variety of processes which employ fluidized solid techniques. Normally in such processes, suitably preheated, relatively high molecular weight hydrocarbon liquids and/or vapors are contacted with hot, finely-divided, solid catalyst particles either in a fluidized bed reaction zone or in an elongated riser reaction zone, and maintained at an elevated temperature in a fluidized state for a period of time sufficient to effect the desired degree of cracking to lower molecular weight hydrocarbons typical of those present in motor gasolines and distillate fuels.
During the cracking reaction, coke is deposited on the catalyst particles in the reaction zone thereby reducing the activity of the catalyst for cracking and the selectivity of the catalyst for producing gasoline blending stock. In order to restore a portion, preferably a major portion, of the activity to the coke-contaminated or spent catalyst, the catalyst is transferred from the reaction zone into a regeneration zone. Typical regeneration zones comprise large vertical cylindrical vessels wherein the spent catalyst is maintained as a fluidized bed by the upward passage of an oxygen-containing regeneration gas, such as air, under conditions to burn at least a portion, preferably a major portion, of the coke from the catalyst. The regenerated catalyst is subsequently withdrawn from the regeneration zone and reintroduced into the reaction zone for reaction with additional hydrocarbon feed.
In a fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU), commercial practice has been to employ fixed throat feed injectors. For example, Dean et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,434,049 and Skraba, U.S. Pat. No. 4,575,414 disclose fixed throat injectors comprising atomizing spray nozzles. Chesmore et al., Japanese Kokai 59-145287 disclose a fixed throat feed injector with spiral momentum. Such fixed throat feed injectors are usually designed on a forecast basis and optimized for a certain feed quality. In the actual plant operation, however, feed quality is usually different from the forecast basis, since business objectives change with time. For these reasons, most conventional FCCU's change their fixed throat feed injectors on a two to three year cycle, which roughly corresponds to the FCCU turnaround cycle.
Furthermore, it is current practice with FCCU operations to practice multivariable constraint control to maximize refinery profits on a continuous basis. An important process variable is the product yield and quality. For example, the naphtha from a catalytic cracker is a large part of the mogas yield from a refinery. In fact, an FCCU is probably the single most important generator of valuable products in a refinery. Due to an FCCU's large throughput, even minor variations of yields can have a significant impact on economics.
Prior art methods of increasing product yield include changing the catalyst used and changing the physical reactor, for example shortening the riser of an FCCU, to achieve a shorter residence time.
There is a need for better and more continuous maximization of catalyst cracking fluid and overall refinery operation in a changing economic environment. During the course of a typical two-to-three year plant run, there is considerable room for increasing yields by continuous optimization.

Controlling yields and selectivity in a fluid catalytic cracker unit


An example module includes: a radio to communicate with a sensor; a communication interface to communicate with a second module; a chassis to mate with the second module; and a processor connected to the radio, the communication interface, and a memory, the processor to execute instructions stored in the memory. The instructions are to: receive, via the radio, sensor data from the sensor; process the sensor data to generate processed sensor data; and transmit the processed sensor data to a remote device.

Edge devices that process sensor data received from internet of things sensors are generally dedicated devices that have fixed radio and processing functionality. However, as new sensors with new radio functionality and/or more complex sensing data are deployed, such edge devices become limited and/or must be replaced with new edge devices having updated radio and/or processing functionality.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


Separate independent streams of pumpable and non-pumpable ingredients of a complex food article are first subjected to respective specific thermal stabilization treatments and are then cooled and combined into the desired complex food article which is finally sealed in a package. All the operations are carried out in an aseptic sterile environment.

This invention relates, in a general aspect, to a method of producing food articles ready for consumption and having a prolonged shelf-life.
More particularly, the invention relates to a method of thermally stabilizing, cooking, and packaging food articles ready for consumption which are intended for preservation over extended periods and which include one or more non-pumpable ingredients and optionally one or more pumpable ingredients.
In the following description and throughout the appended claims, the expression "non-pumpable ingredient" will be used to indicate:
a solid edible product of any size substantially free from process liquid,
a mixture of a liquid and solid particles of an edible product with a liquid-to-solid ratio below 45% and with a particle size below 25 mm, and
mixtures comprising a liquid and a particulate solid product with a liquid-to-solid ratio above 45% and a particulate diameter above 25 mm.
As an example, a food article of the aforesaid type may comprise a cooked stuffed pasta product (tortellini, ravioli and the like), dressed with a sauce. Another example is a milk-based cream incorporating big fruit lumps, whole strawberries or the like shrub berries.
Hereinafter in this description and throughout the appended claims, food articles of this kind will be referred to as complex food articles.
In the industrial-scale production of packaged complex food articles ready for consumption and having a prolonged shelf-life, there is a so far unresolved technical problem which schematically comprises two basic aspects.
A first aspect is represented by the difficulty of subjecting the food article to an adequate thermal treatment of stabilization, sterilization and/or cooking. When the thermal treatment is carried out in an autoclave, the solid ingredients of the food article (i.e. the so-called particulate) which vary in size and weight, require fairly long processing times, in the region of 15 minutes, if proper heat penetration is to be achieved, whereas the liquid and semi-liquid ingredients require definitely shorter times (in the region of 5 minutes).
This difference in response to thermal treatment and the paramount importance of providing full sterilization (or sanitization or stabilisation) of the particulate, involve necessarily that the liquid ingredient undergoes an excessive thermal treatment with an inevitable downgrading of its peculiar organoleptic characteristics.
The use of such particular "heat sources" as microwave emitters or the like electromagnetic radiation generators (magnetrons) may reduce to some extent the relevance of the aforesaid technical problem, but fails to eliminate it completely, while it rather adds the difficulty of controlling and regulating such heat sources.
A second aspect of the technical problem mentioned above is represented by the presence of non-pumpable solid ingredients. In fact, owing to the unavailability of a continuous stream of the food article through the thermal treatment station, the treatment should be carried out discontinuously with a recognized consequent productivity decrease.

Method of making complex food articles having prolonged shelf-life

Barilla G. E R. F.lli-Societa per Azioni


A method of compressing image signals, to provide more efficient compression than a discrete cosine transform (DCT) while having the least amount of overhead information is provided. A partial exchange between a row and a column of a transform matrix is performed by applying several values to a parameter, which shows an extent of partial exchange between rows and columns of the transform matrix. When a value of the used angle parameter is stored or transmitted, an overhead increases. Processes generating a random sequence of the angle parameter, generating a compression coefficient matrix regarding each angle parameter of the generated random sequence, and calculating a compression rate are repeated to obtain an angle parameter with the highest compression rate. The angle parameter having the highest compression rate is not stored or transmitted, but a number in the random sequence of the corresponding angle parameter is obtained, and stored or transmitted.

1. Field of the Invention
Methods and apparatuses consistent with the present invention relate to compressing an image signal, and more particularly, to compressing an image signal, so as to improve a compression rate by modifying a transform matrix.
2. Description of the Related Art
A discrete cosine transform (DCT) is a well-known technology that is used in video, image, or audio compression. In recent years, several attempts were made to develop a more efficient coding method, and due to this, in audio coding, parametric coding has shown better results than DCT. Regarding two-dimensional (2D) data, Karhunen Loeve transform (KLT) coefficients have the minimum bit interval, but the amount of overhead information remarkably increases.

Method and apparatus for compressing image signal


A packing method and system are disclosed which system includes a first platform having a product support surface for supporting a product and a second platform for supporting a box into which the product is to be packed. After a box is received on and secured to the second platform, the second platform is rotated so that the open top of the box faces the first platform and moved toward the first platform until the box substantially surrounds the product on the product support surface. The first and second platforms are then rotated simultaneously so that the product is transferred from the product support to the box, and the full box is discharged to a discharge conveyor.

Various packing or packaging machines are known for placing a product into a box, carton, or other container. However, special problems are encountered when the product to be packaged comprises stacks of discrete objects. These stacks, for example, may have previously been formed by a stacking machine and set on a support surface for further processing. Such stacks can be lifted manually and placed into a box, but if multiple stacks have to be placed in the same box, it can be difficult to maintain the integrity of the stacks as they are moved; this leads to the occasional need for a manual restacking step. Furthermore, it is difficult to lift multiple adjacent stacks of objects at the same time by hand, and therefore a person would normally be limited to lifting the stacks one at a time when placing them in a box. However, if the stacks are to be packed tightly in the box, that is, if they are to be packed with a minimal amount of space between the stacks themselves and between the stacks and the inner walls of the box, it may be difficult to manually position the stacks that are adjacent a sidewall, and especially difficult to place the last stack into a box, which stack will be bounded on four sides by box sidewalls or other stacks of products.
Stacks of products such as those discussed above can be moved by gripping the top and bottom of the stack and applying pressure to hold the stack together while it is moved. An apparatus for gripping and moving stacks in this manner is disclosed in a co-pending application entitled "Stack Transfer Device" filed concurrently herewith and assigned to the assignee of this application, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. However, gripping a stack from the top and bottom makes it difficult to insert the stack into a previously formed box having an open top. To package a stack that is gripped in this manner, either a box must be formed around the stacks of objects while they are being gripped, or the objects must be deposited on a surface and moved again from the surface to a box.
When using a stack transfer device, such as the one disclosed in the above application, the stacks are often placed on a device called a matrix former before they are packaged. A matrix former comprises a horizontal platform and two or three upstanding, movable sidewalls forming a structure that resembles a cube with an open top and no front wall. The purpose of the matrix former is to consolidate several stacks by sliding them toward one another and removing the spaces therebetween, to make them easier to fit into a box. The upstanding walls of the matrix former, however, make it even more difficult to transfer the stacks from the matrix former to a pre-formed box or case. It would therefore be desirable to provide a method and apparatus for automatically, simultaneously, transferring a plurality of stacks of discrete objects from a support platform, such as a matrix former, to a box in a manner that preserves the integrity and arrangement of the stacks.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Methods and systems for detecting barometric pressure (BP) changes based on tire pressure changes are disclosed. In one example approach, a method comprises adjusting an evaporative leak detection threshold based on a change in barometric pressure, where the change in barometric pressure is based on a tire pressure change.

Barometric pressure (BP) in an engine intake of a vehicle may vary due to altitude changes of the vehicle. Thus, an accurate assessment of barometric pressure changes experienced by an engine of a vehicle may be beneficial for improved operation of the vehicle. In particular, diagnostic functions, e.g., leak diagnostics in an evaporative emission control system, and engine strategies, e.g., air/fuel ratio estimates and spark timing, may benefit from having an accurate estimate of barometric pressure. For example, an evaporative leak check monitor may false fail or false pass if the BP is changing due to altitude changes or weather phenomenon. As another example, evaporative leak check detection thresholds may be adjusted in response to changes in altitude. BP determination in an engine typically relies on a barometric pressure sensor in an intake of the engine, e.g., a manifold air pressure (MAP) sensor in the engine intake.
The inventors herein have recognized various issues with approaches which rely on a MAP sensor for accurate BP determination. In particular, approaches which utilize a MAP sensor for determining barometric pressure rely on part throttle or full or wide open throttle conditions, e.g., cruising or going up a hill, in order accurately determine BP. However, during closed throttle conditions, e.g., during downhill driving, or if a fault is present in a MAP sensor, the MAP sensor may not be able to be used to infer BP. During these conditions, engine operation and diagnostic routines may become degraded since an accurate determination of BP is not possible. For example, lack of altitude detection can result in alpha/beta errors in an evaporative diagnostic monitor (ideally, the monitor should abort execution if a significant altitude change is detected). In some approaches a global positioning system (GPS) may be included in a vehicle to determine altitude changes. However, not all vehicles have GPS technology and there may be remote geographical areas where GPS reception is not available. Thus GPS technology for altitude determination may be unreliable or costly.
In one example approach, in order to at least partially address these issues, a method for detecting barometric pressure changes in a vehicle with an engine comprises adjusting an evaporative leak detection threshold based on a change in barometric pressure, where the change in barometric pressure is based on a tire pressure change. For example, a tire pressure change may be determined via one or more tire pressure sensors and used to indicating an altitude change based on the tire pressure change. Various engine operating conditions and diagnostic routines may then be adjusted based on the BP change detected via the tire pressure change. For example, an evaporative leak detection monitor may be discontinued in response to a change in altitude determined from the tire pressure change. As another example, an engine air/fuel ratio may be adjusted in response to a change in altitude determined from the tire pressure change.
In this way, tire pressure sensors coupled to one or more tires of a vehicle may be utilized to determine changes in barometric pressure during fault conditions of a MAP sensor, e.g., during closed throttle conditions. Since such tire pressure sensors are ubiquitous, such an approach provides a consistent and accurate approach to BP determination so that vehicle operation may be optimally adjusted during all conditions. Utilizing readily available tire pressure sensors, altitude changes can be detected and used to increase robustness of diagnostic routines and engine air/fuel control.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above of in any part of this disclosure.

Barometric pressure inference based on tire pressure


This disclosure describes embodiments of a wagering game machine that includes a wager gaming operating system including downloadable components. This disclosure also describes methods for downloading such components. In one embodiment, the method includes booting the wagering game machine for operation, wherein the booting is performed in-part by core operating system components. The method can also include downloading, over a network, a non-core operating system component, wherein the downloading is performed with assistance from the core operating system components. The method can also include installing the non-core operating system component on the wagering game machine, wherein the installing is performed by the core operating system components. The method can also include presenting a wagering game upon which monetary value can be wagered, wherein the presenting is performed in-part by the non-core operating system component.

Wagering game machine makers continually provide new and entertaining games. One way of increasing entertainment value associated with casino-style wagering games (e.g., video slots, video poker, video blackjack, and the like) includes offering a variety of base games and bonus events. However, despite the variety of base games and bonus events, players often lose interest in repetitive wagering gaming content. In order to maintain player interest, wagering game machine makers frequently update wagering game content with new game themes, game settings, bonus events, game software, and other electronic data.
When distributing new wagering game content to wagering game machines in the field, wagering game machine operators typically manually deliver the content to each wagering game machine. For example, when deploying new wagering game content, operators typically replace existing media (e.g. ROM, CD-ROM, or flash RAM) with new media containing updated wagering game content. For wagering game machine operators owning scores of machines, this process can be relatively laborious and expensive.

Downloadable operating system for wager gaming systems


The present invention relates to a method for inhibiting fibrosis that occurs in an organ where the farnesoid X receptor (FXR) is expressed. This method involves the step of administering a high potency, activating ligand of FXR in an effective amount to a patient who is not suffering from a cholestatic condition. The invention also provides pharmaceutical compositions containing an effective amount of an FXR ligand and kits for dispensing the pharmaceutical compositions.

Fibrosis is characterized by an excessive accumulation of collagen in the extracellular matrix of the involved tissue. It is a long-standing and challenging clinical problem for which no effective treatment is currently available. The production of collagen is a highly regulated physiological process, the disturbance of which may lead to the development of tissue fibrosis. The formation of fibrous tissue is part of the normal beneficial process of healing after injury. In some cases, however, an abnormal accumulation of fibrous material can severely interfere with the normal function of the affected tissue or even cause the complete loss of function of the affected organ.
Liver fibrosis, for instance, represents a major-medical problem with significant morbidity and mortality. In a variety of liver diseases, chronic injury leads to progressive fibrosis that the liver is able to compensate for over as long as 20-30 years; eventually, however, patients begin to experience symptoms and signs of liver failure due to severe fibrosis and cirrhosis. Worldwide chronic viral hepatitis infections, particularly by Hepatitis B and C virus, represent the major cause of liver fibrosis; however, within the United States chronic alcohol consumption has traditionally been the leading cause of hepatic fibrosis and cirrhosis. Currently, with the rapid increase in the prevalence of obesity in the general population, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is becoming the most prevalent condition associated with liver fibrosis and may become the leading cause of liver fibrosis associated morbidity and mortality in coming years. Other known causes of liver fibrosis include parasitic infection, autoimmune diseases, iron or copper storage disorders, and biliary obstruction. Liver fibrosis can be classified as a wound healing response to a variety of chronic stimuli that is characterized by an excessive deposition of extracellular matrix proteins, of which type I collagen predominates. This excess deposition of extracellular matrix proteins disrupts the normal architecture of the liver resulting in structural and functional damages to the organ. If left untreated, liver fibrosis can progress to liver cirrhosis ultimately leading to organ failure and death. Many other debilitating and potentially fatal diseases also lead to fibrosis of organs such as the intestine, kidney, heart, and lung.
Because of the pivotal role of collagen production during fibrosis, many studies have focused on the regulation of collagen expression and proliferation of fibroblasts, the major cell type responsible for collagen synthesis. In the liver, the hepatic stellate cell (HSC) is the primary fibrogenic cell type.
A variety of compounds have been identified as anti-fibrosis agents via different mechanisms of action, including the suppression of collagen expression. For example, pantethine (D-bis-(N-pantothenyl-β-aminoethyl)-disulfide) has been reported to be effective for the inhibition of hepatic fibrosis (U.S. Pat. No. 4,937,266); a hydrazine derivative, benzoic hydrazide, has been shown to be a powerful antifibrotic agent (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,374,660 and 5,571,846); the use of angiotensin inhibitors in combination with nitric oxide stimulators to inhibit the progression of fibrosis is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,645,839 and 6,139,847; 6,005,009 describes methods using certain pyridoxal benzoyl hydrazones or their analogs for inhibiting fibrosis; U.S. Pat. No. 6,117,445 describes the use of A1 adenosine receptor antagonists and/or P2X purinoceptor antagonists for treating or preventing fibrosis and sclerosis. More recently, somatostatin agonists, hepatocyte growth factors (HGFs), chymase inhibitors, and antagonists of IL-13 have been reported to effectively inhibit fibrosis (U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,268,342, 6,303,126, 6,500,835, and 6,664,227).
The farnesoid X receptor (FXR), also known as the bile acid receptor (BAR) and NR1H4, is a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily of ligand-activated transcription factors and forms, with retinoid X receptor (RXR), a heterodimer receptor crucial for bile acid homeostasis (Forman et al., Cell 81:687-693, 1995; Lu et al., J. Biol. Chem., 17:17, 2001). FXR is expressed in various tissues including the liver, kidney, intestine, colon, ovary, and adrenal gland (Forman et al., Cell 81:687-693, 1995).
Containing a conserved DNA-binding domain (DBD) and a C-terminal ligand-binding domain (LBD), FXR binds to and becomes activated by a variety of naturally occurring bile acids, including the primary bile acid chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) and its taurine and glycine conjugates (Makishima et al., Science 284:1362-1365, 1999; Parks et al., Science 284:1365-1368, 1999; Wang et al., Mol. Cell., 3:543-553, 1999). Upon activation, the FXR-RXR heterodimer binds the promoter region of target genes and regulates the expression of several genes involved in bile acid homeostasis. For example, the activation of FXR in the liver leads through the direct induction of the nuclear receptor short heterodimer partner (SHP) to the reduced expression of CYP7A, a gene encoding an enzyme catalyzing the rate-limiting step in bile acid synthesis (Schwartz et al., Curr. Opin. Lipidol., 9:113-119, 1998); whereas the activation of FXR in the intestine leads to increased expression of a bile acid-binding protein (I-BABP), which is involved in the active transport of bile acids in the ileum (Kanda et al., Biochem. J., 330:261-265, 1998). For a more detailed list of FXR-regulated genes, see. e.g., WO 03/016288, pages 22-23.
Because of the importance of FXR in bile acid homeostasis, FXR-activating ligands have been proposed for use to treat a variety of cholestatic liver diseases and conditions where the normal enterohepatic bile flow is blocked or has otherwise ceased (see, e.g., WO 02/072598 and WO 03/090745).
While not intending to be bound to any particular theory, the present inventor revealed that FXR activation can down-regulate collagen synthesis and resulting fibrosis through a mechanism involving SHP and other FXR target genes. Thus, FXR-activating ligands are effective anti-fibrosis agents in tissues and organs where FXR is present, such as liver, kidney, intestine, etc. The present disclosure provides a new method for preventing, treating and/or reversing fibrosis, based on the surprising discovery of previously unknown properties of FXR-activating ligands.


A motor drive control apparatus 30, on which a switching element 73 for performing drive control of the motor 10 is mounted, includes: a heat sink 50 placed on the front side or rear side of the motor; and a housing 40 that is coupled to the heat sink and couples the heat sink to the frame or that covers the switching element mounted on the heat sink, and wherein an abutment surface 110 between the housing and the heat sink is located on a single plane intersecting with the direction of the rotation axis of the motor, and screw holes 42 and 52 for coupling the frame, the heat sink and the housing to each other are provided such that the positions in the circumferential direction of the screw holes 42 and 52 correspond to each other.

Conventionally, a motor drive apparatus in which a motor for an electric power steering apparatus is integrated with a motor drive control apparatus has been devised (see Patent Documents 1 and 2).
For example, a motor drive apparatus described in Patent Document 1 includes: a motor 4; a deceleration mechanism 35; a power board 41 having a heat generating component thereon; a control board 60 having a non-heat generating component thereon; a circuit case 50 in which a torque sensor connector 52, a vehicle speed sensor connector 53 and a power supply connector 51 are integrally molded and a conductive plate for wiring is insert-molded; and a heat sink 70 for dissipating heat from the power board 41 and the like, wherein the power board 41 in tight contact with the heat sink 70, the circuit case 50 attached to the heat sink, covering the power board 41, and the control board 60 attached to the circuit case are stacked in this order to form a controller 40, wherein the motor 4 is attached to the heat sink 70 by a support member 21a of a housing 21, and wherein the heat sink 70 is attached to the deceleration mechanism 35.
Integrating the motor with the motor drive control apparatus in this way can make the apparatus smaller.


The invention provides a composition and method for providing nutritional support to obese patients. The composition has an energy density between 0.4 and 0.9 kcal/ml and comprises a protein source which comprises at least 30% by weight whey protein and provides at least 30% of the total calories of the composition. The composition may include a carbohydrate source and a lipid source. Preferably at least 50% by weight of the protein source is whey protein. The invention further extends to use of the composition in the prevention of treatment of malnutrition in obese patients.

This invention relates generally to compositions and methods for the treatment and nutritional support of patients. More specifically, this invention relates to the nutritional support of obese patients prior to, during and after hospitalisation for surgery, treatment of diseases or other disorders as well as during periods of convalescence.
The prevalence of obesity in adults, children and adolescents has increased rapidly over the past 30 years in the United States and globally and continues to rise. Obesity is classically defined based on the percentage of body fat or, more recently, the body mass index or BMI. The BMI is defined as the ratio of weight in Kg divided by the height in meters, squared. As obesity becomes more prevalent in all age groups, it is inevitable that the number of patients in hospitals who are also obese will increase.
Many obese patients have pre-existing chronic diseases related to their obesity such as impaired glycaemic control, diabetes mellitus, coronary artery disease, hypertension, respiratory abnormalities, hyperlipidaemia, degenerative joint disease, and hepatobiliary disease that are likely to complicate even routine hospital care. In addition, obese patients are more likely than their non-obese counterparts to develop postoperative complications such as impaired wound-healing, nosocomial infections, respiratory complications, and delayed cardiac recuperation. In adult intensive care patients, obesity (BMI greater than 30) has even been reported to be significantly associated with increased risk of mortality. Obesity entails increased oxidative stress and, in many cases, sarcopenia. It is well known that acute illness and/or surgical intervention is also associated with oxidative stress as well as negative nitrogen balance and loss of muscle mass, and in many cases insulin resistance is enhanced. In other words, acute illness is likely to exacerbate physiological and metabolic alterations already present at baseline in obese patients.
Recently, Dickerson et al (Nutrition 18:241-246 2002) compared the effects of hypocaloric and eucaloric enteral tube feeding in critically ill obese patients. Their results suggested that hypocaloric enteral nutritional support (by which the authors meant feeding a composition with an energy density of at least 1.0 kcal/ml) was at least as effective as eucaloric feeding in this group. In the more generalised group of obese patients who, although ill, are not critically ill, there is a tendency for the nutrition offered post operatively in particular to be less than ideal. These patients tend to be offered either the same feeds as non-obese patients and thus ingest calories they do not require. Alternatively, it is assumed that in the short term no nutritional support at all is needed because the patients are calorically abundant. However, this overlooks the possibility that, when stressed for example by illness or surgery, obese patients may suffer from protein and micronutrient depletion just as non-obese patients do. Further, as noted above, obese patients are at greater risk of postoperative complications and would be in better conditions to resist these complications if they were not further weakened by impaired nutritional status. A need therefore exists for a nutritional composition designed to meet the nutritional needs of patients who are obese.


A wireless communication device, method and system adapted so that, in response to a repeat request indicating a communication signal (because of an error in transmission of the communication signal), the communication signal is wirelessly retransmitted using a remapping of bits into at least partially different frequencies in the retransmission compared to the original transmission.

1. Technical Field
The present invention pertains to the field of wireless communication. More particularly, the present invention pertains to wireless retransmission of data in response to an error in transmission.
2. Discussion of Related Art
For the evolution of 3G systems such as WCDMA, other access techniques such as OFDM have been considered besides WCDMA, especially for the downlink. Also, for future systems such as 3.9G and 4G, OFDM is a strong candidate for the access technique. OFDM uses subcarriers at different frequencies separated from adjacent frequencies so that each subcarrier is (at least approximately) orthogonal the other subcarriers. The information to be communicated, sometimes as packets (as opposed being communicated via a circuit switched network), is simultaneously conveyed by typically several of the subcarriers. In case of downlink, where the signal being transmitted includes packets for more than one user, the packet information for a first of the users is simultaneously conveyed by a first set (typically neighboring) of the subcarriers, and the packet information for a second of the users is simultaneously conveyed by a second set (typically neighboring) of the subcarriers, and so on. This approach relies on separation of the users in the frequency domain. Another way of separating the users could be in the time domain, such that different users have access to the frequency bands at different times.
In typical OFDM-based systems, the subcarriers are sometimes grouped into scheduling units, known as resource pools in 3GPP. The advantage of this approach—grouping subcarriers—is in connection with signalling complexity. A user needs to be told which resource pools to receive, and so having a large number of resource pools or scheduling units increases signalling complexity. Due to multipath propagation, the received signal power in each frequency band of an OFDM signal (i.e. the power for each subcarrier) often varies as a function of time (often as a result of the user moving during a communication session). Due to such power variations the corresponding channel quality of each subcarrier also varies. To combat the effects of multipath propagation, such a system will typically use forward error correction techniques. One of the most often-used techniques for forward error correction is turbo coding.
To be able to increase the spectral efficiency of such a system, the scheduling algorithms—used for scheduling when packets will be communicated—will typically use an aggressive approach where the packet error probability is relatively high (5-30%), and will rely on hybrid automatic repeat request (H-ARQ) to recover erroneously received packets.
One problem in using turbo coding is that for optimum decoding performance, all bits should be received with the same error probability. Having a high degree of variation in the error probabilities among the received bits causes packet error performance to degrade significantly. To randomize the occurrence of errors among the received bits, an interleaver is typically used (so that sequences of bits having higher error probability is largely avoided). If H-ARQ is used, the bits for retransmission will in some instances (depending on the retransmission strategy) be placed in the same positions in the bit stream (and thus the same position after the interleaving). This, in conjunction with scheduling based on segmentation into frequency sub-bands (bands of sub-carriers), can cause retransmitted data to have the same errors as in the original transmission.
What is needed is some way to avoid retransmitting data using OFDM so as to be likely to have the same errors as originally.

Mapping strategy for OFDM-based systems using H-ARQ


Provided are methods and apparatuses for depositing barrier layers for blocking diffusion of conductive materials from conductive lines into dielectric materials in integrated circuits. The barrier layer may contain copper. In some embodiments, the layers have conductivity sufficient for direct electroplating of conductive materials without needing intermediate seed layers. Such barrier layers may be used with circuits lines that are less than 65 nm wide and, in certain embodiments, less than 40 nm wide. The barrier layer may be passivated to form easily removable layers including sulfides, selenides, and/or tellurides of the materials in the layer.

Integrated circuit (IC) fabrication methods generally involve deposition of conductive metals into recessed features and other surfaces forming a layer of inter-layer dielectric (ILD). The deposited metal provides the conductive paths, which extend horizontally and vertically within the IC substrate, connecting the active devices (e.g., transistors) in a desired pattern. The metal lines formed in adjacent ILD layers are connected to each other by a series of interconnections (interconnects). On a typical wafer substrate, one or several dielectric layers are deposited onto a layer containing the active devices and are patterned to provide vertical and horizontal recessed features (vias and trenches), which are subsequently filled with conductive metals. The resulting layer containing metal-filled lines residing in a dielectric is referred to as a metallization layer. Copper is a commonly used metal in modern devices due to its low resistivity and high electromigration resistance. Aluminum is another frequently used metallization metal.
Some conductive metals, for example copper, can diffuse into the dielectric material that forms the trench or provides a surface and can impact dielectric properties. Maintaining low dielectric constants (low-k) is particularly important in ICs having densely packed features, where the insulating dielectric is thin and can lead to excessive capacitance. This can cause signal delay (RC time constant) and crosstalk between conducting lines, thus adversely affecting the performance of the device. A barrier is typically used to prevent conductive metals, particularly Cu, from diffusing into the dielectric. The diffusion barrier is a continuous layer deposited between the dielectric and the conducting metal and is usually sufficiently thick and made of materials that prevent migration of conductive metals from the line and via region. Many barrier materials are poor electronic conductors in comparison to copper and aluminum and also are resistive to initiating uniform and adherent electroplating thereupon. Hence these barriers typically require an additional conductive seed layer suitable to initiate and promote feature filling and electroplating of the conductive metal over the diffusion barrier layer. However, each such layer adds to production costs and complicates reducing the size of device nodes.
Further miniaturization of IC devices results in constantly decreasing dimensions of device features. Conductive line widths are already below 200 nm in many ICs, and it is expected that 40 nm lines will soon be commercially feasible. Electroplating copper or other material into such small features can present a set of challenges. Specifically, the diffusion barrier and conductive seed layers must be scaled down together with the line's dimensions. However, reducing thicknesses of these layers may lead to undesirable results. For example, barrier strength and conductance are directly dependent on the thicknesses of the corresponding layers. It may be desirable to eliminate one layer, such as a conductive seed layer, and electroplate directly onto a diffusion barrier layer that is sufficiently conductive. Moreover, many diffusion barrier materials do not adhere well to underlining dielectrics leading to poor Time Dependent Dielectric Breakdown (TDDB) behavior and Electromigration (EM) performance, both of which can cause premature failure of the IC, particularly in smaller circuit lines.
Overall, there is a need for improved diffusion barriers suitable for use within small dense features. Such barriers should be thin while providing good resistance to diffusion, conductivity, electromigration resistance, and adhesion-to-dielectric characteristics.