A lighting device includes a multi-faceted heat sink with facets in a center portion facing outward. The facets form a central enclosed portion, and the heat sink further has a plurality of fins, where each of the fins is placed between adjacent facets and protrudes outwardly from the heat sink. The lighting device also has a plurality of circuit boards with semiconductor emitters mounted thereon. Each of the circuit boards is mounted on a respective facet of the heat sink. The lighting device also has a light-diffusion housing covering the plurality of circuit boards, a power module in communication with the circuit boards and operable to convert power to be compatible with the semiconductor emitters, and a power connector assembly in electrical communication with the power module.

The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced rapid growth in recent years. Technological advances in IC materials and design have produced various types of ICs that serve different purposes. One type of these ICs includes photonic devices, such as light-emitting diode (LED) devices. LED devices emit light through movement of electrons in a semiconductor material when a voltage is applied. LED devices have increasingly gained popularity due to favorable characteristics such as small device size, long life time, efficient energy consumption, and good durability and reliability.
A-lamps have been in use for over a century as the most commonly seen incandescent lamps. In the United States, a typical household has many A-lamps with the familiar bulb shape in use in overhead fixtures, table lamps, and the like.
Recent developments have led to a phasing out of incandescent lamps in some parts of the world. One candidate for replacing incandescent lamps is lamps based on Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs). LEDs produce more light for the same amount of power compared to incandescent lamps.
There have been attempts at making LED-based A-lamps, but many are unsatisfactory. Traditionally, LED-based A-lamps produce forward lighting patterns because of the directive characteristics of LEDs. In some instances, forward light can be so bright that makes human eyes feel uncomfortable. Also, depending on how a luminaire of a directive A-lamp is installed, the A-lamp may radiate light in an undesirable or useless direction.
LEDs produce heat when radiating light. Thus, heat sinks are used for LED lighting luminaires in some conventional systems. It is typically easier to provide thermal management for a highly-directive luminaire that produces light from a single plane than it is to provide thermal management for a luminaire that attempts to approximate a uniform sphere of light. That is because some conventional LED A-lamps that attempt a spherical lighting pattern trap heat in the middle of the structure. Thus, in many designs, a desirable light pattern may be balanced with competing thermal management concerns. While some conventional LED lamps may be satisfactory in some aspects, LED lamps can use improvement.


Methods and apparatuses for controlling an apparatus comprising a controller integrated in a first slave device. In an example, the controller can detect a sensed current of the first slave device. The controller can receive a voltage signal associated with a second slave device connected to the first slave device. The controller can generate a correction current based on the sensed current of the first slave device and the voltage signal. The controller can modulate a pulse width modulation (PWM) signal received by the first slave device using the correction current. The controller can control a power converter using the modulated PWM signal.

Different electronic components may be connected to each other in different configurations, such as a master-slave configuration. A master-slave configuration is where one electronic component, such as a master device, controls another electronic component, such as a slave device. The master electronic component may be connected with the slave electronic component via a passive external network and respective connection points in the master and slave device or electronic components. In some examples, a system having a master device controlling multiple slave devices can be referred to as a multiphase network or multiphase system.
An example of a multiphase system can be a multiphase power regulator. A multiphase power regulator can include a plurality of power stages, where these power stages can be slave devices controlled by a master or controller device. The power stages can be referred to as phases, where these phases can be connected in parallel and share the same input and output capacitors. In some examples, an increase in the number of power stages or phases (or phase counts) can reduce the ripple on the input voltage to the system, causing fewer capacitors to be needed to keep the input voltage ripple within specifications. Traditionally, to double (or multiply) power stages support of a multiphase controller, an external device or component is used to balance current among the two power trains so that they can be driven by one PWM line. However, the increased number of phases by using the external device can also increase bill of materials (BOM) cost and printed circuit board (PCB) area. For example, in a case of a 20-Phase PWM controller supporting 40 power stages, it will require more than 180 extra external components. The present disclosure describes various integrated current balance schemes among phases driven by one control line (e.g. PWM output) are proposed, it simplifies the design and significantly reduce components count and layout complexity as well as improve system reliability.

Integrated current sharing schemes for multiplying power stages support of a multiphase controller


An electromagnetic coupling module includes a wireless IC chip and a functional substrate. The electromagnetic coupling module is mounted on a radiation plate, preferably using an adhesive, for example. On the upper surface of a base material of the radiation plate, two long radiation electrodes are provided. On the undersurface of the functional substrate, capacitive coupling electrodes that individually face inner ends of the radiation electrodes are provided. A matching circuit arranged to perform the impedance matching between the wireless IC chip and each of the radiation electrodes includes the capacitive coupling electrodes. As a result, it is possible to reduce the size, facilitate the design, and reduce the cost of a wireless IC device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless IC device used for an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) system for performing wireless data communication using electromagnetic waves.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, as a product management system, an RFID system has been used in which a reader/writer arranged to generate an induction field communicates with a wireless IC device attached to a product in a wireless manner so as to obtain predetermined information stored in the wireless IC device.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a wireless IC tag (RFID tag) disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-244778 in which an IC tag label is attached to an IC tag antenna.
In a wireless IC tag T0, a pair of main antenna elements 81, an auxiliary antenna element 82, and a pair of matching portions 83 are provided on the surface of a dielectric substrate 84.
The main antenna elements 81 are meandering antennas in which meandering conducting lines are provided, and are symmetrically arranged on the dielectric substrate 84. Between the main antenna elements 81 occupying areas at both ends of the dielectric substrate 84, the auxiliary antenna element 82 is disposed.
The matching portions 83 are meandering conducting lines (inductors). One end of each of the matching portions 83 is individually connected to an inner end of the main antenna elements 81, and the other end of each of the matching portions 83 is connected to a wireless IC chip 86.
However, the wireless IC tag disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-244778 has the following problems. Since the matching portions are individually arranged adjacent to the main antennas on the same substrate, the size of the wireless tag is increased.
If the tag is attached to a product having a high dielectric constant, the frequency characteristics of the matching circuit portions are changed due to the influence of the dielectric constant of the product. Accordingly, the frequency characteristic of the tag is significantly changed. If a protection film arranged to cover the surface of a product to which the tag is attached or the surface of the tag, the impedances of the matching portions are changed. Accordingly, it is necessary to design the wireless tag in consideration of the use condition of the wireless tag.
Since the auxiliary antenna is used to increase the design flexibility of the main antenna elements, the size of the tag is increased. Since matching design is performed at portions other than the matching portions, the number of design parameters is increased and the design complexity of the tag is increased.
Since the IC chip must be mounted on a small mounting electrode on a large substrate on which the main antennas and the matching portions are disposed, a high-precision mounting apparatus is required. Since the mounting position adjustment requires a long period of time and the manufacturing time for the tag therefore is increased, the cost of the tag is increased.
Since each of the main antennas is connected to the IC chip so that the DC continuity between them is achieved, static electricity may flow from the main antenna into the wireless IC chip and break the wireless IC chip.


A single-sided, straddle mount printed circuit board edge connector positively mechanically locks the connector to the circuit board using a plurality of gripper arm assemblies spaced along the connector housing. The gripper arm assemblies each include an upper and lower gripper arm defining therebetween a printed circuit board receiving space. The gripper arm assemblies positively mechanically lock the printed circuit board to the connector without the use of through holes and screws. The connector overcomes the disadvantages of connector tilt problems, manufacturability and simplicity in assembling the connector and printed circuit board.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electrical connectors and more particularly to an electrical connector for connection to an edge of a single-sided printed circuit board.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are a wide variety of electrical connector assemblies which are adapted to be mated to an edge of a printed circuit board. Many of these edge connectors include a mating slot which receives a tongue portion projecting from an edge of a printed circuit board. Many such connectors also include fastening means, such as screws or bolts, for mounting the connector housing to the printed circuit board.
In most such electrical edge connectors which have elongated slots for receiving an edge portion or end of a board, a plurality of terminals are mounted in the housing along the slot, and spring contact portions of the terminals are biased against contact pads on either one or both sides of the printed circuit board. These types of connectors generally suffer from the disadvantage of connector tilting which may cause interruption of the electrical pathway or bending of the contacts. To overcome this problem, many connectors rigidly clamp the board within the connector slot against movement perpendicular to the plane of the board. Such clamping often includes the use of screws traversing holes found in the printed circuit board. Such through-hole clamping means is not suitable for certain manufacturing and assembly processes, such as oven/IR reflow soldering.
Rigidly clamping the connector to the printed circuit board causes a myriad of other problems. Such problems include the spring contact portions of the terminals losing their resiliency and, accordingly, the effective biased engagement with the pads on the printed circuit board. Additionally, problems arise from stress cracks produced in the areas surrounding the fastening means which lock the connector to the board. Such stress cracks may create open circuits if the crack traverses a printed circuit.
To avoid the problems associated with edge connectors, conventional header designs are typically surface mount connectors or right-angle connectors. Surface mount connectors usually use "hooks" to secure the connector to the printed circuit board. This design suffers greatly from connector tilling problems, similar to the previously described edge connectors, as well as problems associated with solder lead coplanarity control. These problems lead to connector manufacturing difficulties and poor solder joint formation during automated soldering processes to couple the solder leads to the solder pads of the printed circuit board.
Right-angle connectors also suffer the disadvantage of tilting as well as kinking of the solder leads which are used to assist in holding the connector upright.
To avoid tilting and kinking problems, these connectors generally utilize screws and mating through holes on the printed circuit board to rigidly couple the connector to the board. Thus, right-angle connectors suffer from the disadvantages set forth above regarding stress cracks as well as manufacturing and assembling difficulties discussed above.
The present invention overcomes the problems set forth above to provide a superior design substitute for surface mount and right-angle printed circuit board connectors.

Single-sided, straddle mount printed circuit board connector


A data compression apparatus for video data having: a dividing circuit for dividing the video data into unit blocks, a converter for orthogonally converting the video data at each of unit blocks, a quantizer for quantizing the orthogonally converted video data, and a coder for run-length-coding the quantized video data, comprises: a first detector for detecting powers of the video data in the horizontal and vertical directions within given bandpasses respectively; a second detector for detecting a difference between the powers; and a controller for controlling the amount of coded data produced by the run-length-coding in accordance with a total of the powers and the difference. This apparatus controls the amount of coded data in accordance with power of input video data and difference between powers of video data of the horizontal and vertical directions. A method for compressing input video data is also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a data compression apparatus for a video signal and a method of data compression for a video signal. The invention relates particularly to a data compression apparatus for compressing data of still color picture images or color moving image in order to record or transmit the data and to a method of data compressing of the still color picture images or the color moving image in order to record or transmit the data.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Data compression is known which is used for effective recording when image data is recorded on a recording medium such as a magnetic disc, etc. For example, the image data is divided into blocks, each having N.times.N pixels and their image data of each block is orthogonal-transformed. The orthogonally transformed data is quantized through given steps. Then, it is subjected to zero-run-length coding or Huffman coding. In such data compression, data is compressed at a high efficiency. However, an amount of coded data is dependent of the image.
Therefore, formerly, the amount of coded data is controlled to remain constant as follows:
A first method is that the amount of actually quantized data through a given quantizing step size is obtained by operation, the quantization is performed again with the number of quantization steps (the quantizing step size) so changed that the amount of data becomes a desired value in accordance with the result of the operation.
A second method is based on that there is a given relation between coefficients of data after the orthogonal transformation and the amount of coded data and is as follows:
Sum of squares of coefficients at each clock is obtained by operation. Each block is classified into four classes, for example, in accordance with the obtained sum. Then, many bits are allotted to a block whose class is of a large amount of data and a few bits are allotted to a block whose class is of a small amount of data.
However, in the above-mentioned first method, high speed processing is difficult because processing of calculation of the amount of actually quantized data should be repeated at least twice.
In the above-mentioned second method, complicated processing is necessary because orthogonal transform processing as well as addition of information indicative of class to data is required, so that the amount of coded data becomes large.

Data compression apparatus for video signal and method of data compression for video signal


A therapeutic device for promoting the healing of a wound in a mammal is disclosed. An exemplary device comprises a permeable structure having a plurality of depressions formed in a surface thereof. In use, the surface having the depressions is disposed adjacent a surface of the wound. A method of treating a wound comprises the steps of providing a permeable structure comprising a plurality of randomly disposed fibers and having i) a plurality of wound surface contact elements disposed between end portions of the structure, and ii) a plurality of voids defined by the contact elements; and applying the permeable structure to at least one surface of the wound.

Wound healing is a basic reparative process of the human body. It has been known throughout time that dressing wounds with appropriate materials aids the body's natural regenerative process. Historically, such materials have been made from cotton fibers; e.g. gauze. These dressings are beneficial to the healing process because they insulate damaged tissue from external contaminants and because they remove potentially deleterious wound exudates.
Numerous studies suggest that wound healing depends on the interplay of complex mechanisms involving cell proliferation, migration and adhesion coupled with angiogenesis. Application of traditional gauze or other essentially flat materials are essentially sub-optimal with respect to these mechanisms. Wound healing studies In-vitro carried out in cell culture vehicles that permit cellular function. It is therefore desirable in the practice of wound healing to provide the equivalent of cell culture or a bioreactor system to allow the optimal interplay of cell functions of proliferation, migration and adhesion. Additionally, it is essential to incorporate other bodily functions that encourage the supply of fibronectins, plasma proteins, oxygen, platelets, growth factors, immunochemicals and so forth.
As science and medicine have advanced, the technology incorporated into wound healing devices has improved substantially. Highly absorbent wound dressings capable of absorbing many times their weight in liquids are available. Systems that temporarily seal wounds and utilize suction to remove exudates have found widespread utilization. Dressings incorporating anti-microbial agents and biologic healing agents are common. Devices that provide a moist wound environment for improved healing have been found to be useful.
In spite of the technological gains in wound healing devices and dressings, millions of people still suffer from the chronic wounds. Such chronic wounds are debilitating and can last for years, greatly diminishing the individual's quality of life. Often such wounds result in the loss of a limb. Individuals may even die from complications such as infection.
As such, there is dire need for more effective wound healing devices and methods.

Method of treating a wound utilizing suction


A disposable microwave food shield for preventing splatter of food onto the interior surfaces of microwave ovens made from absorbent, yet rigid paper material.

The invention relates generally to devices which are used in food preparation to prevent splatter of the food and also relates generally to disposable products. More specifically, the invention relates to a paper based, disposable shield, which will be used in the preparation of food in a microwave oven, so as to prevent the splatter of food onto the interior surface of the microwave oven.
The use of microwave ovens to prepare meals has become commonplace. That is to say the microwave is no longer used only to reheat beverages or prepared and pre-packaged meals. It is now commonly used for almost all cooking and heating applications from leftovers to complete meals. One of the difficulties in using microwave ovens is the generation of "Hot Spots" due to the lack of uniformity of microwave penetration within the substance being heated. These "Hot Spots" cause one or more small areas of the food being heated to reach a rapid localized boiling point and explode or pop, thereby splattering bits of food onto the interior surface of the microwave oven.
Current methods of reducing "Hot Spots" include rotating turntables which continually rotate the food as to distribute the internal microwave energy. Even with the use of these turntables, the food often splatters leaving the inside of the microwave soiled and in need of cleaning. Furthermore, there are instances where it is necessary to bring the food to a boil, and when such boiling occurs, the microwave oven is likely to be soiled by the splatter of the boiling food.
Currently, the most common method of preventing microwave ovens from being splattered with food is to cover the food being heated with another dish or lid. If an entire dish, such as a casserole, is being prepared, the lid may be used to prevent food splatter. However, it is very common to heat food on a serving dish, plate, bowl or other lidless container. In such cases, another plate is often placed over the open heating dish in order to protect the interior of the microwave. The problem here is that the person now has two dishes to wash from the preparation of a single dish of food. Alternatively, people often place a paper towel or napkin over the food being heated to protect against splatter. The use of the paper towel or napkin is desirable because it is relatively inexpensive to use and can simply be discarded after use. The napkin or paper towel rests on the food and absorbs any splatter caused by the "Hot Spots" or boiling food. The use of the napkin or paper towel, however, results in the undesirable absorption of liquids from the food, such as cheese, creams or sauces. This absorption also causes the paper towel or napkin to stick to the food.
Consequently, there is a need for a device and method for covering food during microwave cooking and heating so as to protect the interior of the microwave from being soiled with splattering food. There is also the need for this device and method of covering food to eliminate the addition of more dirty dishes and not leave paper towels or napkins sticking to the food. This device needs to be inexpensive and easy to use.


Services are provided via a multicast tree. A request to receive a service is received at a node. Stored information at the node is searched to identify a service path or a service node operable to provide the requested service.

The Internet, as it has grown considerably in size and popularity, is being used to provide various services and applications to users. Diverse applications, such as streaming a short movie demonstrating how to assemble a piece of furniture, taking a virtual tour of a real estate property or a scenic spot, watching a live performance of an artist, and participating in a networked multi-user computer game or conference, are all available to users via the Internet.
An important trend is that users are no longer satisfied with receiving services that are targeted at mass audiences. Users are demanding services that are tailored to their individual needs. For example, a user may desire to receive content in a particular language, or a user may require a transcoded-down version of a movie to view on a personal digital assistant (PDA). With the proliferation of personalized services, an important challenge facing future network infrastructure is balancing the tradeoffs between providing individualized services to each user and making efficient use of network resources. Due to high bandwidth requirements and intensive computations incurred by multimedia applications, traditional unicast delivery of services may not be able to meet the transmission requirements of individualized services and is not scalable to efficiently meet the demands of a large number of service providers and users.

Requesting a service from a multicast network

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


Disclosed are an apparatus, method, and computer readable medium configured for performing a background erase in a memory device. Included is the act of receiving at least one erase command and at least one erasable block address for the memory device. Also included is the act of asserting a background-process-busy flag after receiving the at least one erase command and the at least one erasable block address. At least one block in the memory associated with the at least one erasable block address is erased, wherein the erasing occurs at a time delay after receiving the at least one erase command if a background enable flag is asserted. Finally, the background-process-busy flag is negated after the erasing is complete.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to nonvolatile memory devices and, more particularly, to erasing portions of the nonvolatile memory devices.
2. Description of Related Art
Nonvolatile memory devices are provided in many electronics devices such as personal computers, personal digital assistants, digital cameras, and digital music players. Nonvolatile memory devices, such as flash memory devices and other Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memories (EEPROM) have many advantages over other types of data storage devices, both volatile and nonvolatile. Unlike magnetic and optical devices, such as hard-disk, Compact Discs (CD), and Digital Versatile Discs (DVD), nonvolatile memory devices include no moving parts. Unlike other nonvolatile semiconductor memories, such as Read Only Memories (ROM), nonvolatile memory devices may be reprogrammed. Finally, unlike other semiconductor memories, such as Random Access Memories (RAM) and Dynamic Random Access Memories (DRAM), nonvolatile memory devices retain their data values even after power is removed from the device.
However, nonvolatile memories, such as flash memories, include many characteristics that are different from other semiconductor memories. One significant difference is that the individual bit cells in flash memory devices, once programmed, cannot be directly programmed to a new value. Instead, once a bit cell is programmed, it must be erased before it can be programmed again. Conventionally, a bit is defined as a "1" when it is erased and a "0" when it is programmed. In addition, flash memories may be programmed as 8-bit bytes or 16-bit words. Thus, a byte/word is originally erased to all ones then programmed to the intended value, which is likely a combination of ones and zeros. To reprogram the byte/word to a new value, it must first be erased to all ones, and then reprogrammed to the new value. Furthermore, flash memories generally cannot be erased on a byte/word basis. Rather, all bits within a relatively large block are erased at the same time.
This block erase operation may stall other operations in the flash memory, such as read and write operations. In addition, it may be desirable to retain some information in a block while removing other information. Thus, before a block is erased, the retainable information may need to be copied to a new block, before the block is erased. With these limitations, many flash memory systems attempt to perform block erase operations at initialization or power down. However, if block erase operations are performed during initialization, the flash memory device may be unavailable for long periods during the initialization, which may cause a significantly noticeable adverse impact on performance. Block erase operations performed during power down can also pose significant problems. Many flash memory systems use transient power, wherein the system cycles between power on and power off to the flash memory devices quite frequently in an attempt to save power. In these systems, it may not always be predictable when power is going to be removed from a flash memory device or flash memory card. If power is removed from a flash memory device while a block is being erased, the block may not be fully erased, even though the flash memory system "believes" it has been erased. Thus, when the block is programmed again, the data may not be written correctly because the block was not fully erased.
There is a need for a method and apparatus that provides a means for performing block erases in a background mode to reduce performance impacts and provide for developing a time period wherein the flash memory system may be confident that blocks are properly erased even in a transient power system.

Method and apparatus for improving storage performance using a background erase


In S2, to-be-compressed image data is encoded and thus compressed each time when using a respective one of a plurality of templates. In S4, compression rates of encoded data are compared with each other which encoded data was encoded each time when a respective one of the plurality of templates was used in S2. In S6, encoded data having the highest compression rate and template identification information of a template used when the encoded data having the highest compression rate was obtained in S2 are output. The encoding comprises entropy encoding. The to-be-compressed data comprises video game software programs.

The JBIG (Joint Bi-level Image Group) system was proposed as a new bi-level image encoding method which is appropriate not only for hard copy communication such as facsimile communication but also for soft copy communication such as computer image data communication.
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram illustrating a standard JBIG system. A first block 101 is an electric circuit which uses a PRES (Progressive REduction Scheme) as an image resolution reduction system. A second block 102 is an electric circuit for performing DP (Deterministic Prediction). The DP is used to deterministicly predict a value of a pixel which is being encoded from values of surrounding pixels which have already been encoded. By using the DP, it is possible to improve an encoding efficiency. A third block is an electric circuit for setting a model template. A template is a reference pixel model to be used in encoding. FIG. 2 shows an example of such a template. In the example, the template includes 10 pixels `1` to `10` surrounding a pixel to be encoded. Using such a template, encoding is performed using an M.sub.1 -order Markov model on a minimum resolution-reduced image. Specifically, M.sub.1 pixels in proximity of each to-be-encoded pixel which have been already encoded are used as the reference pixels of the template. Possible states (combinations) of the values of the reference pixels are 2.sup.M1 states. For each one of these states, a respective predetermined conditional probability of a symbol is given. Using thus given probabilities of the symbol for to-be-encoded pixels and actual values (symbols), entropy encoding is performed. A fourth block 104 is an entropy encoding circuit and uses the JBIG QM coder. (The JBIG QM coder is a QM coder used in the JBIG. Usually, an arithmetic encoder is called a QM coder. The JBIG is the general name of the bi-level data encoding standard in the ITU (International Telecommunication Union). In the JBIG, the QM coder is used for encoding bi-level data.)
As such a type of encoding system in the related art, a system in which a template is fixed, an adaptive template system (see Yasuhiro Yamazaki, Humitaka Ono, Tadashi Yoshida and Toshiaki Endo, Progressive Build-up Coding Scheme for Bi-level Images -JBIG Algorithm-, 1991, Vol.20, No.1, Image Electronic Society Journal), and a system in which a template is selected according to a type of data (for example, see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No.6-261214) have been proposed. Further, see ITU-T (Telecommunication Standardization Sector of ITU), T.82 (03/93), Terminal Equipment and Protocols for Telematic Services, Information Technology--Coded Representation of Picture and Audio Information--Progressive Bi-level Image Compression, the teachings of which are hereby incorporated by reference, for the JBIG system.
In the system in which a template is fixed, based on statistics of compression rates in the system, the template which has the highest compression rate is determined and is used as the fixed template. In this system, a compression circuit can be simplified. However, in this system, when data which has characteristics significantly deviated from the average characteristics of the statistics, is encoded, a compression rate is degraded.
In the above-mentioned adaptive template system, during data compression, it is always determined which template results in the highest compression rate, and thus a template being used is dynamically changed. In this system, statistics are always taken and a template being used is changed according to the result of the statistics. Therefore, this system is appropriate for a case such as that where long data is encoded and characteristics of the data start to vary at a position of the data. However, if short data is processed, a time required for adaptively changing a template to be used makes up a significant portion of a whole compression processing period, and thus this system may not be an efficient compression system. Further, because which template is optimum is always determined, a circuit structure of the encoding/decoding apparatus will be complex.
In the system in which a template is selected according to a type of data, a respective template is provided to be used for compressing each one of a plurality of types of data. For example, when a color image is compressed, because each pixel comprises a plurality of bits, individual templates are used for a plurality of bit planes. However, in this method, because a template for each of the plurality of bit planes is fixed, the system is not satisfactory enough for a reason similar to the reason mentioned above for the above-described system in which a fixed template is used.
Further, a system, which processes color images in a manner in which a number of bits (number of bit planes) allocated for a single pixel varies, such as the above-described system in which a color image is processed, has been known. However, an encoding method in the related art can be applied only to a system in which a number of bit planes is fixed. Therefore, it has not been possible to apply a template-use encoding method to such a system which processes color images in a manner in which a number of bits allocated for a single pixel varies.

Encoding method and system, and decoding method and system


In transformation from a symbol string to a term, transformation rules received describe structures of input symbol strings in the form of a context-free grammar, and include structures of output terms as arguments of terminal symbols and non-terminal symbols. An inputted symbol string is analyzed by reduction processing based on the structures of input symbol strings described in the transformation rules, and an intermediate tree is formed. A term for output is produced in accordance with the structures of output terms shown in the arguments of the terminal symbols and the non-terminal symbols corresponding to the structure of the inputted symbol string. Transformation of structured data is performed in like manner using transformation rules which describe structures of input data in terms of relations between classes of partial structures, and includes structures of output data as arguments of class identifiers.

The present invention relates to data transformation by a data processor, and more particularly to transformation from an input symbol string into an output term and from data of some structure into data of another structure, both performed using transformation rules supplied from the outside. The invention can be applied, for example, to machine translation, program language conversion such as compiling, interpreting of programs, symbolic execution, automatic theorem proving or the like.
In the above-mentioned processings, in many cases, the data transformation is performed through tree-structured data as an intermediate expression. For example, in a compiler, an input sentence as a character string is transformed into a syntax tree expressing the sentence structure in tree structure, and semantic analysis, optimization and code generation are performed on this tree-structured data, whereby the input sentence is transformed into object machine code. This process may be deemed as a process where the input symbol string is transformed according to given rules. Most devices in the prior art to perform such transformation are designed in accordance with individual transformation rules. Consequently, devices being different in design must be prepared for different transformation rules.
An example of transforming means independent of individual transformation rules is software generally called a parser generator, which implements a parsing apparatus to perform syntactic analysis according to an inputted grammar.
In the syntactic analysis, the grammar is usually described in terms of a set P of relations called grammatical rules, rewriting rules, productions, etc., a set T of terminal symbols, a set N of non-terminal symbols and a start symbol s. The grammatical rule is constituted by the left side and the right side, and represents that a symbol string on the left side can be rewritten into a symbol string on the right side. The non-terminal symbol is that which can be rewritten by the set P of the above-mentioned relations, and the terminal symbol is that which cannot be rewritten by the set P. The start symbol s is a special non-terminal symbol, and if the input sentence conforms to the grammar, the start symbol s can be rewritten into this input sentence by applying the set P to the symbol s.
One of grammars of a basic class is a context-free grammar. The context-free grammar is a grammar where the left side of the grammatical rule belonging to the set P is restricted to one non-terminal symbol, and the right side is restricted to a sequence of zero or more terminal symbols and/or non-terminal symbols, that is, a grammer where each grammatical rule is expressed as follows:
A.fwdarw.a A.epsilon.N, a.epsilon.(N.orgate.T)* PA1 [every,man,loves,mary] PA1 sentence(theta,[every,man,loves,mary],[ ])
where "( )*" represents a set of strings of zero or more elements belonging to either N or T.
In general, in a grammar treated by a parser generator in the prior art, strong restrictions are imposed on the grammatical rules. In compensation for simplification in the parsing mechanism, such a grammar is disadvantageous in that description of sentence structure, i.e., structure of a syntax tree cannot be selected freely. Particularly, the description of a grammar having recursive structure is subjected to significant restrictions.
On the contrary, in DCG (Definite Clause Grammar), the grammar is described in the form of a context-free grammar, and the grammatical rules are deemed as a prolog program and executed by a prolog processing system, whereby the syntactic analysis is carried out. Details of DCG are disclosed in F. Pereira and D. Warren, "Definite Clause Grammars for Language Analysis - A Survey of the Formalism and a Comparison with Augmented Transition Networks", Artificial Intelligence, vol. 13, pp. 231-278 (1980), and an outline thereof will now be described.
DCG expresses the grammar as clauses of first-order predicate logic. According to this construction, parsing a sentence in a language is interpreted as proving a theorem under an axiom system which describes this language. Further, according to a concept that a set of clauses is a program, such theorem proving can be performed automatically. In this sense, a grammar described in DCG is at the same time an axiom system under first-order predicate logic, and further can be executed as a prolog program. The execution of this program is an implementation of a top-down parser of that language.
The notation of DCG is an extension of the notation of the context-free grammar in the following two points. In the following description, a predicate symbol is expressed by a string of small letters, and a variable symbol is expressed by a string of letters starting with a capital letter.
(1) A non-terminal symbol can have an argument.
______________________________________ Example: context-free grammar np DCG np(X, S) ______________________________________
(2) On the right side of the grammatical rule, not only a list of non-terminal symbols or terminal symbols but also a procedure call can be written.
______________________________________ Example: context-free grammar name .fwdarw. NAME DCG name(name(W)) .fwdarw. [w], {is.sub.-- name(W)} ______________________________________
wherein "NAME" appearing on the right side of the context-free grammar is a terminal symbol representing a specific character string belonging to phrase category of "name". "{is.sub.-- name(W)}" on the right side of DCG represents a call for predicate "is.sub.-- name(W)" which returns a value "true" when character string "W" is a name.
For example, when a series of grammatical rules starting with
______________________________________ sentence(s(NP, VP), SO, S) noun.sub.-- phrase(NP, SO, S1), verb.sub.-- phrase(VP, S1, S). ______________________________________
(wherein SO, Sl and S represent positions in a word string) and a dictionary are given as DCG, then the grammatical rules and the dictionary are executed as a prolog program on input sentence
and term
becomes true. In the above term, "theta" is term
______________________________________ s(np(det(every),n(man),rel(nil)), vp(tv(loves),np(name(mary))) ______________________________________
which is equivalent to a syntax tree.
Introduction of the argument and the procedure call term as described above further makes the following manipulations feasible.
(1) Conditions can be given using the procedure call.
______________________________________ Example: date(D,M) .fwdarw.month(M),[D], {integer(D),0<D,D<32}. ______________________________________
In this example, in the grammatical rule indicating that date of M-th month D-th day is described by phrase (M) representing month and subsequent symbol D, predicate "integer(D)" becoming true when D is an integer, predicate "0<D" becoming true when D is positive, and predicate "D<32" becoming true when D is less than 32 are called, thereby restricting D to an integer larger than 0 and less than 32.
(2) Information depending on the context can be transported and tested using the argument.
______________________________________ Example: sentence(s(NP,VP),SO,S) .fwdarw.noun.sub.-- phrase(N,NP,SO,S1), verb.sub.-- phrase(N,VP,S1,S). . . . noun(N,n(Root),SO,S) .fwdarw.[SO,W,S],{is.sub.-- noun(W,N,Root)}. trans.sub.-- verb(N,tv(Root),SO,S) .fwdarw.[SO,W,S),{is.sub.-- trans(W,N,Root)}. . . . is.sub.-- noun(man,singular,man). is.sub.-- trans(like,plural,like). ______________________________________
In this example, the argument N transporting the number is supplied to "noun.sub.-- phrase", "verb.sub.-- phrase" and other non-terminal symbols affected by the number, and the number (singular, plural) given by the dictionary is transported to "noun.sub.-- phrase" and "verb.sub.-- phrase". The numbers transported by "noun.sub.-- phrase" and "verb.sub.-- phrase" are collated at the level of "sentence", and only when these are coincident the predicate "sentence" becomes true.
Summarizing the above, DCG has the following features.
(1) The grammar is an extension of the context-free grammar.
(2) A parsing apparatus is implemented by executing DCG as a prolog program.
(3) Result of the syntactic analysis is a term given as the argument to the non-terminal symbol used in the syntactic analysis, and an output term different from a simple syntax tree can be obtained depending on what is given as the argument.
(4) A procedure call can be described in the grammatical rule.
(5) A grammatical rule depending on context can be described.
The above-mentioned DCG enhances the syntactic analysis ability and the language conversion ability by introducing the argument and others. However, since DCG describes the grammatical rules and the dictionay as first-order predicate logic and executes this as a prolog program, these grammatical rules and dictionary become one body and cannot be separated. As a result, inconveniences occur in the maintenance (correction, supplement, deletion or the like) of the dictionary, and further the common use of the dictionary for the syntactic analysis and other processing becomes difficult.
Also, processing as a prolog program is of the top-down type. As a result, the left recursive grammatical rule cannot be processed satisfactorily. In other words, if a grammatical rule is given wherein a non-terminal symbol on the left side appears at the left end of the right side, the DCG processing will not terminate.
Further, the main object of DCG is to transform an input sentence into a syntax tree. In order to transform data of some structure into data of another structure using DCG, the structured data for input must be previously decomposed into a character string, and then must be transformed from the character string into structured data for output. Through this procedure, a part of structure information possessed originally by the input data, such as the number of components, is lost and the transformation efficiency is deteriorated.

Data transforming method using externally provided transformation rules


The present invention stores digital data of a scanner and includes a component information database for storing information as data of components to be inserted in the printed circuit board and a non-insertion inspection database for storing data of lead wire clinching directions inserted in each hole from predetermined numeric control data. A control section collects hole information as data from the digital data of the scanner, reads the clinching directions of the components inserted in each hole from the non-insertion inspection database, and judges insertion states of the components according to whether or not brightness exists by inspecting a brightness change in the clinching direction around a hole. The present invention inspects brightness while drawing concentric circles from the hole center, inspects whether there is a brightness change around a lead wire direction read from the non-insertion inspection database, and judges a good insertion and a bad insertion according to whether or not the brightness change exists.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for inspecting electronic component insertion in a printed circuit board, and more particularly to an apparatus for inspecting electronic component insertion in a printed circuit board and the method therefor by inspecting a brightness change in clinching directions of component lead wires.
2. Prior Art
Automatic insertion of a component into a printed circuit board for an electronic product production has been attempted from the past, even though the automatic insertion is widely used nowadays. Automatic insertion procedures are performed in the order of (1) making up an electric circuit layout, (2) making up a circuit pattern to be printed on a board based on the electric circuit layout, (3) making up data of components to be inserted into the board according to the printed circuit pattern, (4) collecting information on insertion positions, insertion components, insertion directions, etc., by using the printed circuit pattern and converting the information into numeric control data for each equipment, (5) inputting the numeric control data into an automatic insertion equipment, supplying printed circuit board already made as mentioned above and components required to be automatically inserted for fitting into the printed circuit board, and (6) soldering the component-inserted printed circuit board by using an automatic soldering equipment for completion.
In the procedures as above for a finished printed circuit board, a procedure having a major effect all over the procedures is the one that inspects whether or not the components are inserted. During a series of procedures, unless correction is made to non-inserted or misinserted components before soldering, the uncorrected printed circuit board must be discarded, including the components. Further, the overall procedures for the printed circuit board become wasted.
Accordingly, it is imperative to discover any misinsertion of the components just after making a finished printed circuit board. However, in the past time, there was not a non-insertion inspection method, apart from that using the human eye. An inspection method using the human eye causes the inspection standard to vary depending on a worker's emotional state, work speed and time depend on worker's skill, obtaining a skilled worker is difficult, and a lot of time is required for a worker to become skilled.
In order to solve the problems as mentioned above, holes are detected by taking a picture of printed circuit board before inserting the components by means of a sight inspection equipment, the outer perimeters and the diameters of the holes are calculated to compare them to each other for determining whether the components are inserted into the holes, and maximum and minimum lengths are calculated from the center of each hole to the outer perimeter and determined to be a hole in case that the ratio lies in a criterion range.
In case that the clinched lead wires become adjacent to each other because the holes are made in an adjacent position, a picture of lead wires adjacent to each other is taken to obtain an image. The image is processed by an image processing procedure for an exact insertion inspection. However, a drawback exists in that an exact insertion inspection can not be obtained since adjacent lead wires are determined to be one lead wire.

Apparatus for inspecting electronic component insertion in a printed circuit board and the method therefor


A control system for optimizing the performance of a vehicle suspension system by controlling the damping factor of one or more shock absorbers is described. The control system uses a fitness (performance) function that is based on the physical laws of minimum entropy. The control system uses a fuzzy neural network that is trained by a genetic analyzer. The genetic analyzer uses a fitness function that maximizes information while minimizing entropy production. The fitness function uses a difference between the time differential of entropy from a control signal produced in a learning control module and the time differential of the entropy calculated by a model of the suspension system that uses the control signal as an input The entropy calculation is based on a dynamic model of an equation of motion for the suspension system such that the suspension system is treated as an open dynamic system.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an optimization control method for a shock absorber having a non-linear kinetic characteristic.
2. Description of the Related Art
Feedback control systems are widely used to maintain the output of a dynamic system at a desired value in spite of external disturbance forces that would move the output away from the desired value. For example, a household furnace controlled by a thermostat is an example of a feedback control system. The thermostat continuously measures the air temperature of the house, and when the temperature falls below a desired minimum temperature, the thermostat turns the furnace on. When the furnace has warmed the air above the desired minimum temperature, then the thermostat turns the furnace off. The thermostat-furnace system maintains the household temperature at a constant value in spite of external disturbances such as a drop in the outside air temperature. Similar types of feedback control are used in many applications.
A central component in a feedback control system is a controlled object, otherwise known as a process xe2x80x9cplant,xe2x80x9d whose output variable is to be controlled. In the above example, the plant is the house, the output variable is the air temperature of the house, and the disturbance is the flow of heat through the walls of the house. The plant is controlled by a control system. In the above example, the control system is the thermostat in combination with the furnace. The thermostat-furnace system uses simple on-off feedback control to maintain the temperature of the house. In many control environments, such as motor shaft position or motor speed control systems, simple on-off feedback control is insufficient. More advanced control systems rely on combinations of proportional feedback control, integral feedback control, and derivative feedback control. Feedback that is the sum of proportional plus integral plus derivative feedback is often referred to as PID control.
The PID control system is a linear control system that is based on a dynamic model of the plant. In classical control systems, a linear dynamic model is obtained in the form of dynamic equations, usually ordinary differential equations. The plant is assumed to be relatively linear, time invariant, and stable. However, many real-world plants are time varying, highly nonlinear, and unstable. For example, the dynamic model may contain parameters (e.g., masses, inductances, aerodynamic coefficients, etc.) which are either poorly known or depend on a changing environment. Under these conditions, a linear PID controller is insufficient.
Evaluating the motion characteristics of a nonlinear plant is often difficult, in part due to the lack of a general analysis method. Conventionally, when controlling a plant with nonlinear motion characteristics, it is common to find certain equilibrium points of the plant and the motion characteristics of the plant are linearized in a vicinity near an equilibrium point. Control is then based on evaluating the pseudo (linearized) motion characteristics near the equilibrium point. This technique works poorly, if at all, for plants described by models that are unstable or dissipative. The optimization control for a non-linear kinetic characteristic of a controlled process has not been well developed. A general analysis method for non-linear kinetic characteristic has not been previously available, so a control device suited for the linear-kinetic characteristic is often substituted. Namely, for the controlled process with the non-linear kinetic characteristic, a suitable balance point for the kinetic characteristic is picked. Then, the kinetic characteristic of the controlled process is linearized in a vicinity of the balance point, whereby the evaluation is conducted relative to pseudo-kinetic characteristics.
However, this method has several disadvantageous. Although the optimization control may be accurately conducted around the balance point, its accuracy decreases beyond this balance point. Further, this method cannot typically keep up with various kinds of environmental changes around the controlled process.
Shock absorbers used for automobiles and motor cycles are one example of a controlled process having the non-linear kinetic characteristic. The optimization of the non-linear kinetic characteristic has been long sought because vehicle""s turning performances and ride are greatly affected by the damping characteristic and output of the shock absorbers.
The present invention solves these and other problems by providing a new control system for optimizing a shock absorber having a non-linear kinetic characteristic. The new AI control system uses a fitness (performance) function that is based on the physical laws of minimum entropy. This control system can be used to control complex plants described by nonlinear, unstable, dissipative models. The control system is configured to use smart simulation techniques for controlling the shock absorber (plant).
In one embodiment, the control system comprises a learning system, such as a neural network that is trained by a genetic analyzer. The genetic analyzer uses a fitness function that maximizes sensor information while minimizing entropy production.
In one embodiment, a suspension control uses a difference between the time differential (derivative) of entropy from the learning control unit and the time differential of the entropy inside the controlled process (or a model of the controlled process) as a measure of control performance. In one embodiment, the entropy calculation is based on a thermodynamic model of an equation of motion for a controlled process plant that is treated as an open dynamic system.
The control system is trained by a genetic analyzer. The optimized control system provides an optimum control signal based on data obtained from one or more sensors. For example, in a suspension system, a plurality of angle and position sensors can be used. In an off-line (laboratory) learning mode, fuzzy rules are evolved using a kinetic model (or simulation) of a vehicle and is suspension system. Data from the kinetic model is provided to an entropy calculator which calculates input and output entropy production of the model. The input and output entropy productions are provided to a fitness function calculator that calculates a fitness function as a difference in entropy production rates for the genetic analyzer. The genetic analyzer uses the fitness function to develop a training signal for the off-line control system. Control parameters from the off-line control system are then provided to an online control system in the vehicle.
In one embodiment, the invention includes a method for controlling a nonlinear object (a plant) by obtaining an entropy production difference between a time differentiation (dSu/dt) of the entropy of the plant and a time differentiation (dSc/dt) of the entropy provided to the plant from a controller. A genetic algorithm that uses the entropy production difference as a fitness (performance) function evolves a control rule in an off-line controller. The nonlinear stability characteristics of the plant are evaluated using a Lyapunov function. The genetic analyzer minimizes entropy and maximizes sensor information content. Control rules from the off-line controller are provided to an online controller to control suspension system. In one embodiment, the online controller controls the damping factor of one or more shock absorbers (dampers) in the vehicle suspension system.
In some embodiments, the control method also includes evolving a control rule relative to a variable of the controller by means of a genetic algorithm. The genetic algorithm uses a fitness function based on a difference between a time differentiation of the entropy of the plant (dSu/dt) and a time differentiation (dSc/dt) of the entropy provided to the plant. The variable can be corrected by using the evolved control rule.
In another embodiment, the invention comprises an AI control system adapted to control a nonlinear plant. The AI control system includes a simulator configured to use a thermodynamic model of a nonlinear equation of motion for the plant. The thermodynamic model is based on a Lyapunov function (V), and the simulator uses the function V to analyze control for a state stability of the plant. The AI control system calculates an entropy production difference between a time differentiation of the entropy of said plant (dSu/dt) and a time differentiation (dSc/dt) of the entropy provided to the plant by a low-level controller that controls the plant. The entropy production difference is used by a genetic algorithm to obtain an adaptation function in which the entropy production difference is minimized. The genetic algorithm provides a teaching signal to a fuzzy logic classifier that determines a fuzzy rule by using a learning process. The fuzzy logic controller is also configured to form a control rule that sets a control variable of the controller in the vehicle.
In yet another embodiment, the invention comprises a new physical measure of control quality based on minimum production entropy and using this measure for a fitness function of genetic algorithm in optimal control system design. This method provides a local entropy feedback loop in the control system. The entropy feedback loop provides for optimal control structure design by relating stability of the plant (using a Lyapunov function) and controllability of the plant (based on production entropy of the control system). The control system is applicable to all control systems, including, for example, control systems for mechanical systems, bio-mechanical systems, robotics, electromechanical systems, etc.

Optimization control method for shock absorber


A coefficient calculator calculates a correlation coefficient representing a correlation between a normal frame, which is imaged in a state in which normal light is applied to a subject, and a special frame, which is imaged in a state in which special light is applied to the subject; and a processing unit that applies image processing to the special frame so that a part in which the correlation coefficient is high and a part in which the correlation coefficient is low are displayed differently in the special frame. Further provided are: a first determination unit that calculates, for each pixel or each area of the normal frame, a first determination value representing a probability that a predetermined site is imaged; and a second determination unit that calculates, for each pixel or each area of the special frame, a second determination value representing a probability that a predetermined site is imaged.

In the past, for example, various techniques for use in medical settings have been proposed, in which a normal image of an organ or the like captured by an endoscope apparatus is combined with a special image indicating a position of a lesion, such as a blood vessel and a tumor, that is hard to distinguish in the normal image.
For example, capturing the normal image and the special image in time division is described in PTL 1. In addition, for example, combining and displaying the normal image and the special image is described in PTL 2. In addition, combining and displaying the normal image and the special image and flashing the special image is described in PTL 3.
Here, the normal image denotes an image captured by applying normal light, such as white light, to an organ or the like as a subject. The special light denotes an image captured by applying special light with a predetermined wavelength different from the normal light. Note that in capturing the special image, a fluorescent agent or the like that reacts to the application of the special light may be mixed or applied to a blood vessel (blood) or a lesion as a subject.

Medical image processing apparatus, medical image processing method, and program


Provided is a liquid sensor that can more accurately detect the state of a liquid. The liquid sensor includes a light emitting element, an optical waveguide, a light receiving element, and a detection circuit. The light receiving element is configured to receive light that was emitted by the light emitting element and passed through the optical waveguide. The detection circuit is configured to detect output of the light receiving element. The optical waveguide includes a first pillar portion that extends straight and a second pillar portion that extends straight. The second pillar portion is provided at a position opposing the first pillar portion. A space for liquid is formed between the first pillar portion and the second pillar portion. The first pillar portion includes a first end surface that faces the light emitting element, and a second end surface that is tilted relative to the first end surface and reflects light toward the second pillar portion. The second pillar portion includes a third end surface that faces the light receiving element, and a fourth end surface that is tilted relative to the third end surface and is configured to reflect light from the second end surface toward the light receiving element.

JP H5-273121A (Patent Document 1) discloses a liquid sensor. In this liquid sensor, light emitted by a light emitting element passes through a liquid, and the light that passes through the liquid is detected by a light receiving element. In this liquid sensor, contamination of the liquid is determined based on the detection result (see Patent Document
JP H5-273121A is an example of related art.


In one embodiment, a processor includes a memory hierarchy and a core coupled to the memory hierarchy. The memory hierarchy stores encrypted data, and the core includes circuitry to access the encrypted data stored in the memory hierarchy, decrypt the encrypted data to yield decrypted data, perform an entropy test on the decrypted data, and update a processor state based on a result of the entropy test. The entropy test may include determining a number of data entities in the decrypted data whose values are equal to one another, determining a number of adjacent data entities in the decrypted data whose values are equal to one another, determining a number of data entities in the decrypted data whose values are equal to at least one special value from a set of special values, or determining a sum of n highest data entity value frequencies.

Cryptographic computing may refer to solutions for computer system security that employ cryptographic mechanisms inside processor components. Some cryptographic computing systems may employ encryption and/or other cryptographic mechanisms inside a processor core on memory pointers or user data before such data leave the processor boundary and enter some external memory unit or are communicated to some device. Furthermore, encryptions and decryptions may be part of memory load and store operations. Such flexible encryption operations can substantially reduce the typical overheads associated with current solutions such as accessing tables with permissions, memory ranges or other security metadata, as such tables may be large, stored in external memory units, and be time consuming to access.

Implicit integrity for cryptographic computing


In a seal or bearing that uses the tapered-sleeves-with-spiral-groove technology, the capacity is increased, without increasing the space envelope, by folding the tapered surfaces. Double and triple folding is illustrated. The seal/bearing may be used in e.g. a rotary impeller pump, or as a big-end bearing.

This invention relates to developments of the technology described in patent publication number WO-95/35457 also U.S. Pat. No. 5,827,042.
The technology provides a combined seal and bearing assembly apparatus, comprising a stator and rotor adapted for rotation about an axis. The apparatus may be installed in place of the stuffing box of a centrifugal pump.
The rotor and the stator components are formed with complementary bearing-surfaces, which are so arranged as to sweep each other in a hydro-dynamic-bearing relationship, over an area termed the bearing area. One of the bearing-surfaces is formed with a groove, which extends in a spiral configuration along and around the bearing-surface, over the bearing area. The spiral-groove comprises several turns extending over the bearing-surface, the arrangement thereof being such as to leave lands of substantial width between adjacent turns of the spiral-groove. The spiral-groove has an entry-mouth and an exit-mouth.
The apparatus is so structured as to define an entry-chamber and an exit-chamber, being chambers which are in fluid-conveying-communication with the entry-mouth and the exit-mouth respectively, and the apparatus includes a means for conveying a barrier-liquid into the entry-chamber, and away from the exit-chamber. When the apparatus is driven in rotation, the barrier-liquid flows along the spiral-groove from the entry-mouth to the exit-mouth.
The apparatus is so structured that the fit of the bearing-surfaces is a tight running clearance, the clearance or gap between the surfaces being small enough, and the land width between the turns being wide enough, to ensure the establishment and continuance of a hydro-dynamic film between the bearing-surfaces. The bearing surfaces are conically tapered, and either the rotor or the stator is made axially movable into and out of the taper.


Various 2′-beta-methyl-6-substituted adenosine analogs (including 2,6-disubstituted adenosine, 8-aza-6-substituted adenosine, and 2-aza-6-substituted adenosine) are prepared by conventional and combinatorial library approaches. Contemplated compounds are particularly useful as therapeutic agents, and especially as antiviral agents.

Nucleosides, and especially purine-type nucleosides and their analogs interact with many biological targets, and some nucleoside analogues have been used as antimetabolites for treatment of cancers and viral infections. After entry into the cell, many nucleoside analogues can be phosphorylated to monophosphates by nucleoside kinases, and then further phosphorylated by nucleoside monophosphate kinases and nucleoside diphosphate kinases to give nucleoside triphosphates. Once a nucleoside analogue is converted to its triphosphate inside the cell, it can be incorporated into DNA or RNA. Incorporation of certain unnatural nucleoside analogues into nucleic acid replicates or transcripts can interrupt gene expression by early chain termination or by interfering with the function of the modified nucleic acids. In addition, certain nucleoside analogue triphosphates are very potent, competitive inhibitors of DNA or RNA polymerases, which can significantly reduce the rate at which the natural nucleoside can be incorporated. Many anti-HIV nucleoside analogues fall into this category, including 3′-C-azido-3′-deoxythymidine, 2′,3′-dideoxycytidine, 2′,3′-dideoxyinosine, and 2′,3′-didehydro-2′,3′-dideoxythymidine.
Various purine-type and other nucleoside analogues can also act in other ways, for example, causing apoptosis of cancer cells and/or modulating immune systems. In addition to nucleoside antimetabolites, a number of nucleoside analogues that show very potent anticancer and antiviral activities act through still other mechanisms. Some well-known nucleoside anticancer drugs are thymidylate synthase inhibitors such as 5-fluorouridine, and adenosine deaminase inhibitors such as 2-chloroadenosine. A well-studied anticancer compound, neplanocin A, is an inhibitor of S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase, which shows potent anticancer and antiviral activities.
Unfortunately, many nucleoside analogues that can inhibit tumor growth or viral infections are also toxic to normal mammalian cells, primarily because these nucleoside analogues lack adequate selectivity between the normal cells and the virus-infected host cells or cancer cells. For this reason many otherwise promising nucleoside analogues fail to become therapeutics in treatment of various diseases.
Selective inhibition of cancer cells or host cells infected by viruses has been an important subject for some time, and tremendous efforts have been made to search for more selective nucleoside analogues. In general, however, a large pool of nucleoside analogues is thought to be necessary in order to identify highly selective nucleoside analogues. Unfortunately, the classical method of synthesizing nucleosides and nucleotides having desired physiochemical properties, and then screening them individually, takes a significant amount of time to identify a lead molecule. Although thousands of nucleoside analogues were synthesized over the past decades, if both sugar and base modifications are considered, many additional analogues are still waiting to be synthesized.
During the last few years, combinatorial chemistry has been used to generate huge numbers of organic compounds other than nucleosides, nucleotides, and their analogs resulting in large compound libraries. If nucleosides, nucleotides, and their analogs could be made through a combinatorial chemistry approach, a large number of such compounds could be synthesized within months instead of decades, and large libraries could be developed. A combinatorial chemistry approach to nucleosides may also encourage a focus beyond previously addressed biological targets. For example, in the past nucleoside analogues were usually designed as potential inhibitors of DNA or RNA polymerases and several other enzymes and receptors, including inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase, protein kinases, and adenosine receptors. If a vast number of diversified nucleoside analogues could be created their use may extend far beyond these previously recognized biological targets, which would open a new era for the use of nucleoside analogues as human therapeutics.
The generation of combinatorial libraries of chemical compounds other than nucleosides, nucleotides, and their analogs by employing solid phase synthesis is well known in the art. For example, Geysen, et al. (Proc. Natl. Acac. Sci. USA, 3998 (1984)) describes the construction of a multi-amino acid peptide library; Houghton, et al. (Nature, 354, 84 (1991)) describes the generation and use of synthetic peptide combinatorial libraries for basic research and drug discovery, and Lam, et al. (Nature, 354, 82 (1991)) describes a method of synthesis of linear peptides on a solid support such as polystyrene or polyacrylamide resin. Although a combinatorial chemistry approach has been proven to work well with many types of compounds, there are numerous problems with the generation of nucleoside libraries. Among numerous other difficulties, most nucleoside analogues contain a sugar moiety and a nucleoside base, which are linked together through a glycosidic bond. The formation of the glycosidic bond can be achieved through a few types of condensation reactions. However, most of the reactions do not give a good yield of desired products, which may not be suitable to the generation of nucleoside libraries.
Moreover, the glycosidic bonds in many nucleosides are in labile to acidic condition, and many useful reactions in combinatorial chemistry approaches cannot be used in the generation of nucleoside analogue libraries. As a result, many researchers focused their attention to areas in pharmaceutical chemistry that appear to present an easier access to potential therapeutic molecules, and there seems to be a lack of methods for generating libraries of nucleosides and nucleotides using solid phase synthesis. Therefore, there is still a need to provide new nucleoside compounds and methods for generation of nucleoside and nucleotide libraries.

2-beta -modified-6-substituted adenosine analogs and their use as antiviral agents


A magnetoresistive element includes a first ferromagnetic layer formed on a base substrate, a tunnel barrier layer formed on the first ferromagnetic layer, and a second ferromagnetic layer containing B formed on the tunnel barrier layer. The second ferromagnetic layer includes at least one of H, F, Cl, Br, I, C, O, and N, and a concentration of molecules of the at least one of H, F, Cl, Br, I, C, O, and N included in the second ferromagnetic layer is higher in a central portion in a depth direction of the second ferromagnetic layer than in an upper surface and a lower surface thereof.

Nowadays, large-capacity magnetoresistive random access memories (MRAMs) using a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) element exploiting the tunnel magnetoresistive (TMR) effect have gained attention and raised expectations. In an MTJ element used for an MRAM, one of two ferromagnetic layers (CoFeB) holding a tunnel barrier layer (MgO) therebetween is used as a magnetization fixed layer (reference layer) in which the direction of magnetization is fixed and prevented from changing, and the other is used as a magnetization free layer (storage layer) in which the direction of magnetization is easily reversed. The state where the directions of magnetization of the reference layer and the storage layer are parallel and the state where the directions of magnetization are antiparallel are correlated with binary numbers "0" and "1", respectively, and thereby information can be stored.
When the directions of magnetization of the reference layer and the storage layer are parallel with each other, the resistance (barrier resistance) of the tunnel barrier layer is lower than that in the case where the directions of magnetization are antiparallel, and has greater tunnel current. The equation "MR ratio=(resistance in the antiparallel state−resistance in the parallel state)/resistance in the parallel state" holds. Stored information is read out by detecting a change in resistance caused by the TMR effect. Thus, it is preferable that a resistance change rate (MR ratio) caused by the TMR effect is large in reading.

Tunneling magnetoresistive element having a high MR ratio


A process for the preparation of cefdinir of the formula (I) the said process comprising the steps of: i) condensing 7-amino-3-cephem-4-carboxylic acid of the formula (XII) wherein R1 is as defined above with compound of the formula (XIII) in the presence of a tertiary amine and an organic solvent, followed by treatment with a base to produce a salt of compound formula (XIV), wherein M+ is a counter ion and ii) hydrolyzing the compound of the formula (XIV) using an acid in the presence of a solvent to produce cefdinir of formula (I).

Cefdinir is a third generation cephalosporin antibiotic for oral administration and has a broader antibacterial spectrum over the general gram positive and gram negative bacteria, especially against Streptococci, than other antibiotics for oral administration.
In view of the vital antibiotic activities of cefdinir of the formula (I), various methods of preparation were reported. Cefdinir is for the first time claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,559,334 and the nature of the product that is disclosed in this patent is described as crystalline like amorphous in subsequent US patent (U.S. Pat. No. 4,935,507). This patent also discloses a process for the preparation of cefdinir as depicted in the Scheme I.

In the disclosed process, 7-amino-3-vinyl-3-cephem-4-carboxylic acid ester where R represents a conventional carboxy protecting group, is acylated with the reactive ester of haloacylacetic acid, which was converted to its oxime, followed by cyclization with thiourea and deprotection of the ester group to afford cefdinir. The product obtained by the process described in examples 14 and 16 is approximately 80–85% pure. The cyclization step suffers from poor yield and affords brownish color of the thiazole derivative, which subsequently affords cefdinir, but quality and yield were inferior. Further, owing to the fact that the expensive 7-amino-3-vinyl-3-cephem-4-carboxylic acid is carried through four steps, cost of producing cefdinir is high.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,935,507 claims the novel crystalline form of the cefdinir syn-isomer and a process for preparing the same. The X-ray crystallography data given in this patent is given in the following table:
2 θ ° ValuesRelative Intensity14.77617.85621.510022.07023.43824.48028.040The crystalline form (Crystal A) of U.S. Pat. No. 4,935,507 is prepared from the syn-isomer prepared according to the procedures described in Examples 14 and 16 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,559,334.
In our U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,070, we disclosed a process for preparing a compound of formula (VIII), wherein, R1 represents H, trityl, etc., R2 represents H, phenyl, etc., R3 represents CH3, CH═CH2, etc., R4 is H or a salt or a carboxylic protecting group; R5 is H or trimethylsilyl; comprising acylating the compound of formula (VI) with compound of formula (VII) in the presence of an organic solvent, organic base and a silylating agent at a temperature in the range of −10° C. to +30° C. The reaction is shown in scheme II below:

U.S. Pat. No. 6,093,814 discloses a process for the preparation of cefdinir and its intermediate as represented in Scheme III:

In this process p-methoxybenzyl 7-amino-3-vinyl-3-cephem-4-carboxylate is condensed with 2-mercaptobenzothiazolyl (Z)-(2-amino-4-thiazolyl)-2-(trityloxyimino)acetate in N,N-dimethyl acetamide, and the product obtained was treated with p-toluenesulfonic acid in the presence of a mixture of diethyl ether and methanol to get crystalline 7-[(2-amino-4-thiazolyl)-2-(Z)-(trityloxyimino)acetamido]-3-vinyl-3-cephem-4-carboxylic acid.pTSA.2DMAc solvate. This process utilizes highly volatile, low-boiling and therefore industrially-not-preferred solvent, diethyl ether, for crystallizing out the above solvate. In addition, the quantity of the low-boiling solvent used is also very high ranging from 60–100 volumes, thereby adding hazard to the operations. Added to this is the fact that the recovery of these solvents from their mixture is not straight-forward.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,350,869 discloses the purification of impure cefdinir through the preparation of N,N-dicyclohexylamine salt of 7-[2-amino-4-thiazolyl-2-(z)-hydroxyimino acetamido]-3-vinyl-3-cephem-4-carboxylic acid and subsequent hydrolysis to get pure cefdinir. This process requires the preparation of crude cefdinir, conversion to N,N-dicyclohexylamine salt and then hydrolysis of the salt to get pure cefdinir, and therefore the overall yield is not attractive.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,350,869 also emphasizes that cefdinir is unstable in the presence of other amines, with which, it gets heavily degraded. In addition, Yoshihiko Okamoto et al. (J. Pharm. Sci. Vol. 8(9), 976, 1996) report that cefdinir may be unstable under basic environment.
Crystalline cefdinir has limitations in formulation development as it cannot be developed into tablets.
Considering the foregoing limitations, we undertook an investigation in our lab to develop a product which is easy to handle and convenient to develop a dosage which is easily absorbable. We also parallel undertook an investigation to identify a process, which involves (i) less number of steps, (ii) the direct isolation of cefdinir, with out the need to prepare crude cefdinir in an additional step. This would permit commercializing the production of high-pure cefdinir with industrial-friendly solvent, which can further be recovered for recycling.

Amorphous hydrate of a cephalosporin antibiotic


A light emitting diode (LED) for achieving an asymmetric light output includes a multilayered structure comprising a p-n junction, where at least one layer of the multilayered structure comprises a surface configured to provide a peak emission in a direction away from a normal to a mounting surface, the surface being a top or bottom surface of the layer.

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are solid state devices that convert electric energy to light, and generally comprise one or more active layers of semiconductor material sandwiched between oppositely doped layers. When a bias is applied across the doped layers, holes and electrons are injected into the active layer where they recombine to generate light. Light is emitted from the active layer and from all surfaces of the LED.
Technological advances over the last decade or more have resulted in LEDs having a smaller footprint, increased emitting efficiency, and reduced cost. LEDs also have an increased operation lifetime compared to other emitters. For example, the operational lifetime of an LED can be over 50,000 hours, while the operational lifetime of an incandescent bulb is approximately 2,000 hours. LEDs can also be more robust than other lights sources and can consume less power. For these and other reasons, LEDs are becoming more popular and are being used in applications that have traditionally been the realm of incandescent, fluorescent, halogen and other emitters.
LEDs are also being used in displays, both big and small. Large screen LED based displays (often referred to as giant screens) are becoming more common in many indoor and outdoor locations, such as at sporting events, race tracks, concerts and in large public areas, such as Times Square in New York City. Many of these displays or screens can be as large as 60 feet tall and 60 feet wide. These screens can include thousands of "pixels" or "pixel modules," each of which may contain a plurality of LEDs. The pixel modules can use high efficiency and high brightness LEDs that allow the displays to be visible from relatively far away, even in the daytime when viewed in sunlight. The pixel modules can have as few as three LEDs (one red, one green, and one blue) that allow the pixel to emit many different colors of light from combinations of red, green and/or blue light. In the largest jumbo screens, each pixel module can have dozens of LEDs. The pixel modules are arranged in a rectangular grid. For example, a grid can be 640 modules wide and 480 modules high, with the end size of the screen being dependent upon the actual size of the pixel modules.
Conventional LED based displays are controlled by a computer system that accepts an incoming signal (e.g., a television signal) and, based on the particular color needed at the pixel module to form the overall display image, the computer system determines which LED in each of the pixel modules is to emit light and how brightly. A power system can also be included that provides power to each of the pixel modules; the power to each of the LEDs may be modulated so that each LED emits at the desired brightness. Conductors are provided to apply the appropriate power signal to each of the LEDs in the pixel modules.
Present technology utilizes optics and geometries that maximize light extraction from the LED to obtain uniform emission profiles. This usually entails a hemispherical lens coupled to a light emitting element where the optical centers of the lens and the emitting surface are perfectly aligned, and the peak light emission is along the optical axis. Such a configuration may not be advantageous for all situations, however, such as when the LED display is mounted above the viewer's eye level. In this case, much of the light emitted by the display may not be seen by the viewer and is thus wasted.
One way to reduce the amount of light that is wasted is by mounting the display at an angle to better match the viewer's line of sight, but this can require complex and expensive mounting hardware that is difficult to use, particularly for very large displays mounted at high elevations. Efforts have also been made to control the light emission from LED packages by modifying the shape of the encapsulant or lens, but this may require special, costly lens tooling and modified lens fabrication processes. Some systems may utilize secondary optics to alter beam profiles or redirect light patterns to different angles; however, the secondary optics may incur significant losses on the order of 10-12% and add cost to the display system.

Light-emitting diode (LED) for achieving an asymmetric light output


Machine logic that automatically detects natural language processing (NLP) system annotation errors and correspondingly updates NLP annotators to prevent future erroneous annotations by performing the following steps: (i) determining that a first annotation error has occurred in an annotation of a corpus by the natural language processing system; (ii) generating a candidate set of annotation correction actions, where each annotation correction action of the set is adapted to prevent an occurrence of an error similar to the first annotation error by the natural language processing system; (iii) selecting an annotation correction action from the candidate set of annotation correction actions, based, at least in part, on a set of annotation correction confidence characteristics; and (iv) automatically applying the selected annotation correction action to the natural language processing system.

The present invention relates generally to the field of natural language processing, and more particularly to correcting components of natural language processing systems.
Natural language processing (NLP) is a field of computer science, artificial intelligence, and linguistics concerned with the interactions between computers and human (natural) languages. Generally speaking, NLP systems use machine learning to analyze and derive meaning from textual corpora (that is, sets of textual content). Many known NLP systems annotate textual corpora (also referred to simply as "corpora," or, in the singular, a "corpus") with information that may be helpful in understanding and/or interpreting the text. For a Definition of "annotate," see the Definitions sub-section of the Detailed Description section.

Automated correction of natural language processing systems

International Business Machines Corporation


A wrapping machine for wrapping articles such as newspapers in individual protective packets comprising a support assembly having a feed station for introducing unwrapped articles into the machine for wrapping and a pick-up station for retrieving wrapped articles from the wrapping machine mounted on opposite ends thereof, a transport/wrapping assembly for moving the articles from the feed station to the pick-up station and a film supply for enclosing the article between a first flexible protective film sheet and a second flexible protective film sheet, a film sealing assembly for sealing the opposite sides and the opposite ends of the first flexible protective film sheet and the second flexible protective film sheet together to form a protective packet enclosing the article therein, a film cutting assembly for separating adjacent protective packets and a control assembly including at least one sensor to detect articles moving through the wrapping machine and to selectively activate and deactivate the sealing assembly and cutting assembly.

1. Field of the Invention
A wrapping machine for wrapping articles such as newspapers within individual protective packets to protect the articles.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous efforts have been made to wrap various articles such as newspapers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,937 describes a machine for packaging articles comprising a conveyor to transport a newspaper through an entrance into the machine. The newspaper imparts a tension on both a top sheet deployed from a first roll and a bottom sheet deployed from a second roll. A top and bottom dance bar communicates with a top and bottom sheet, respectively. In response to the tension, each dance bar simultaneously releases a brake and activates an electric motor causing the first and second rolls to rotate and feed out the top and bottom sheet, respectively. The top and bottom sheet is guided over the top and bottom surface of the newspaper by a pair of first and second edge guides, respectively, for preventing lateral movement of the top and bottom sheets. A cutting and sealing mechanism comprising a front sealing bar is placed into contact with the top and bottom sheets near the rear edge of the newspaper for simultaneously sealing together and cutting the top and bottom sheets. The front sealing bar comprises a heated metal body having a cutting blade protruding from a sealing edge.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,824 shows a method of distributing articles including collating newspaper inserts into separate stacks. The stacks of collated newspaper inserts are wrapped to provide separate wrapped packages. Newspaper news sections are collated into separate groups. The groups of collated newspaper news sections with the wrapped packages of collated newspaper inserts are distributed to customers. The wrapping of the stacks of inserts includes applying film sheeting about the stacks, sealing the sheeting applied to the stacks, and severing the sheeting to separate the stacks from one another to provide the separate wrapped packages. The wrapped packages of collated newspaper inserts are stacked together and stored until the time of distribution with the groups of articles news sections.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,708 relates to partially overlapping printed sheets which are transported from an inserting or other producing or processing machine delivered into a stacking unit which accumulates groups of overlapping sheets and dumps such groups into an intermittently operated wrapping unit wherein the groups are confined in film foils. The sheets which are intercepted during evacuation of a freshly formed group from the stacking unit are diverted into an accumulating unit which gathers the diverted sheets into piles and dumps the piles into a magazine for packing or for admission into one or more additional wrapping units.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,559,367 teaches a horizontal, continuously moving conveyor adapted to carry articles individually in a flat position to an enveloping station where the articles are packaged in a protective film. The enveloping station has a transport mechanism that is actuated responsive to a newspaper sensor located at the conveyor. Two rolls of protective film are supported above and below the plane of the conveyor to rotate about horizontal axes so as to feed film to the enveloping station. The ends of the two rolls of film are sealed together across the entrance to the enveloping station. As each newspaper approaches the enveloping station, the sensor actuates the transport mechanism of the enveloping station, thereby moving the newspaper through the enveloping station behind the sealed ends of the two rolls of film. Consequently, the film envelops the top and bottom surfaces of the newspaper. After the newspaper passes the sensor, the transport mechanism of the enveloping station stops and a film cutter and sealer is actuated. The film is thus cut and sealed transverse to its length near the entrance to the enveloping station and is sealed along its sides. One transverse seal is utilized for the rear edge of one packaged newspaper and the front edge of the next newspaper. The transport mechanism moves the newspaper through the enveloping station at a faster horizontal speed than the continuously moving conveyor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,376 shows a method and an apparatus for wrapping a product, particularly a bundle of articles or magazines, especially an extra thick bundle or an extra thin bundle comprising a few or a single newspaper or magazine. The product is carried on a conveyor system to a curtain of film formed by an upper and a lower sheet of film. The curtain accompanies the product and is auto-sealed behind the product after which the sheets of film are separated in the middle of the sealing region. The curtain of film is re-established and the product is provided with a wrapper. The deflection roller or the like which defines the upper limit of the sheet of film is carried by drive device such as cylinders which are arranged to displace the deflection roller in such a way that its upper portion will be supplied quickly and substantially without tensile force at the start of a wrapping operation if the height of the product is slight, or at the end of the wrapping operation if the height of the product is particularly great.