Diagnostic assistance to physicians is improved, by increasing detection rates of abnormal pattern candidates having radially extending linear structures, and decreasing false positive detection rates. A linear structure extracting means extracts linear structures from within radiation image of a subject. A linear concentration calculating means calculates linear concentrations of the extracted linear structures with respect to each pixel within the image. A directional distribution index calculating means calculates indices of directional distribution of the extracted linear structures with respect to each pixel of interest. A candidate region detecting means calculates products of the linear concentrations and the indices of directional distribution for each pixel of interest, and detects tumor pattern candidate regions based on the calculated products. Thereby, candidate regions are enabled to be extracted while taking into consideration variance in the directions of linear structures.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an abnormal pattern candidate detecting apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to an abnormal pattern candidate detecting apparatus that detects abnormal pattern candidates within an image, based on radiation image data of a subject.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of medicine, abnormal pattern candidate detecting processing systems (computer assisted image diagnosis apparatuses) have been proposed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,761,334. These systems enable objective and automatic detection of abnormal pattern candidates within radiation images of subjects by employing computers, without being affected by the experience or ability of a diagnostician.
These abnormal pattern candidate detecting processing systems detect mainly semispherical core regions as candidates for tumor patterns. The detection is performed based on characteristic density distributions and characteristic shapes of abnormal patterns, by utilizing iris filter processes and the like.
Meanwhile, tumor patterns that appear in radiation images are not limited to those in which cores can be visually recognized. For example, there are cases in which only radially extending linear structures called spicula, which exist at the peripheries of cores, can be seen in the images (refer to P1 of FIG. 1). There are cases in which tumors are made up of only spicula, without a core. There are also cases in which cores exist, yet are not pictured in the images. Particularly, as tumors having spicula are considered to have a high possibility of being malignant, it is an important objective to detect tumor patterns having spicula. Also, there is a high possibility that a tumor exists even if a core is not pictured, in portions such as: those in which distributions of breast tissue (mammary glands, blood vessels and the like) deviate from anatomical patterns, and are locally disarranged (referred to as "structural disturbance", refer to Pa of FIG. 1); those in which tissue is locally drawn into one spot (refer to P2 of FIG. 1); and those in which tissue is drawn in over a large region (refer to P3 of FIG. 1).
However, conventional abnormal pattern candidate detecting processing systems employing iris filters detect core regions of tumors that are pictured within images, based on characteristics thereof, such as density distributions. Therefore, it is impossible in principle for these systems to detect tumor patterns, of which the cores cannot be visually recognized within the images, such as those described above.
Therefore, processes employing morphology filters have been proposed in Kobatake, Hidefumi: "Morphology", K. K. Corona, 1996, pp. 161-165, and in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-133397. The morphology filter processes extract linear structures from within images to detect tumor pattern candidates such as those described above.
Abnormal pattern candidate detecting apparatuses for extracting tumor pattern candidates having linear structures have also been proposed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-133397. In these abnormal pattern candidate detecting apparatuses, the degree of concentration of lines around a specific point is defined as a feature called "linear concentration". Tumor patterns having linear structures are extracted based on the value of the linear concentration.
In addition, methods of extracting tumor pattern candidates having radially distributed linear structures have been proposed in, for example, Mekada, Yoshihito et al.: "Features of Local Concentration Patterns in Line Figures and Their Applications", Journal of the Society of Electronic Data and Communications J77-D-II, 9, 1994, pp.1788-1796. These methods define a uniformity index that quantifies the uniformity of concentration of lines around a specific point. Tumor patterns having radially distributed linear structures are extracted based on the uniformity index. The uniformity index quantifies the uniformity of concentration by utilizing variance in linear concentration within each of a plurality of regions around a pixel of interest, divided into equiangular intervals. The uniformity index is calculated according to the following formula (1).U(M)=1−2√{square root over (var{CRi(M)})}  (1)
wherein:
U(M): uniformity index of a pixel of interest M;
i: a number for identifying each of N regions around the pixel of interest M, divided at equiangular intervals, iε[0, N];
Ri: each of the regions;
CRi (M): linear concentration within the N regions; and
var: variance of the linear concentration CRi (M) within the N regions.
The linear concentration only indicates the degree of concentration of lines around a specific point. Therefore, it is not possible to distinguish between a case in which lines converge from all directions, as shown in FIG. 2A, and a case in which lines converge from specific directions, as shown in FIG. 2B, by using the linear concentration. Accordingly, in the case that a mammogram (a diagnostic radiation image in which a breast is the subject) is the subject of the abnormal pattern candidate detecting apparatus disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-133397, not only tumors having radially distributed spicula, but also mammary glands, in which lines are distributed unidirectionally from a point, will be detected. If detection criteria are made strict to avoid false positive detection results, a possibility arises that abnormal patterns made up of spicula will be overlooked.
On the other hand, the uniformity index indicates the uniformity of concentration of lines around a specific point toward the specific point. Therefore, it is possible to distinguish the difference among variances in the direction of concentration of lines around a specific point, as in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B. However, there are cases in which the uniformity index cannot correctly express the variances in direction. This is because the uniformity index assumes its minimum value of 0 when the linear concentration of half of the divided regions is 1 and the linear concentration of the other half of the divided regions is 0, assumes its maximum value of 1 when the linear concentrations of all of the regions are equal, and has symmetric properties. For example, consider a case in which a donut shaped region K around a pixel of interest M is divided into eight regions at equiangular intervals of 45 degrees. In the case that the linear concentrations of two of the eight regions are 1 while the linear concentrations of the rest of the regions are 0, as shown in FIG. 3A, the uniformity index is 0.134. In the case that the linear concentrations of two of the eight regions are 0 while the linear concentrations of the rest of the regions are 1, as shown in FIG. 3B, the uniformity index is 0.134. Therefore, the variances in direction cannot be correctly quantified, regardless of the fact the variance is greater in the example shown in FIG. 3B.


Solutions and methods are disclosed for the extraction and quantification of cellulose derived from cellulosic biomass samples. Improved extraction yields and selectivities are provided through the use of an extraction solvent mixture comprising an aprotic solvent such as DMSO, a quaternary ammonium salt such as TBAF, and an quaternary ammonium base such as TBAOH. The extracted cellulose can be optionally precipitated using disclosed precipitation solutions to further improve cellulose purity. Extracted cellulose can be measured by hydrolyzing the cellulose to glucose or cellobiose, or by using disclosed spectrophotometric assays of cellulose-salt complexes.

Biofuels produced from agricultural products provide a potential source for new transportation energy. By using such renewable feedstocks as raw materials, it is believed that fuel and other chemicals can be manufactured in a way that is sustainable, economically viable, and environmentally responsible. An example of a first-generation biofuel is ethanol produced from corn. Corn ethanol is made by extracting and converting the starch found in corn kernels into ethanol using conventional and readily-available technology.
Corn kernel starch, however, is only one component that is available from this biomass feedstock. For example, corn kernels that are used in the manufacture of corn ethanol can comprise approximately 70% starch, 10% fiber, 10% protein, 5% oil, and 5% ash on a dry weight basis. In a conventional dry grind corn ethanol process, the starch is converted nearly quantitatively to glucose via enzymatic hydrolysis, and the glucose is then fermented to ethanol using yeast. The corn oil is extracted and has commercial value as a byproduct. The remaining material, including the fiber, protein, and small amounts of residual starch, is often sold as distillers grains for use as animal feed. This fiber can comprise cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin in roughly equal parts.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency recently approved corn kernel fiber (CKF) as a feedstock for the production of cellulosic ethanol as a second-generation biofuel. As such, an ethanol producer wishing to manufacture cellulosic ethanol for which government credits are available has the option of either separating the CKF from the corn starch for subsequent processing to cellulosic ethanol, or co-processing the CKF and corn starch together to produce a mixture of cellulosic and non-cellulosic ethanol. In the latter case, the producer must be able to quantitatively determine the concentrations of both starch and cellulose that are commingled in relevant process samples in order to demonstrate the production of cellulosic ethanol. Such determination demands techniques for separating and analyzing the cellulose and starch components of cellulosic biomass samples.

Methods for quantifying starch and cellulose in corn samples


An ignitor housing wherein a piezoelectric device is supported is releasably attached to a backpiece of a torch tip assembly. The housing surrounds air inlet openings to allow passage of a high tension wire from the piezoelectric device to a support site downstream of the gas flow direction where spark gap is established. An actuator button for the piezoelectric device is closely adjacent to the support site for the torch to enable the operator to operate the button while supporting and controlling the torch with one hand. The site of the actuator button is very favorable for resisting the reaction forces to the actuating force on the button. The housing is constructed to enable replacement of internal components of the ignitor as well as replacement of the housing on the backpiece. The housing can be made from any of variety of materials because the support site on the backpiece always remains cool during operation of the torch. In all embodiments, the torch includes a replaceable tip for a gas supply and supports the ignitor housing.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a burner assembly having an accessible ignitor on a torch tip wherein an ignitor actuated by a push button is mounted on a back piece to circumscribe a mixing chamber for air and gas such as acetylene, Mapp, propane, or the like; and more particularly, to such an tip wherein an actuator button for a piezoelectric ignitor is orientated for actuation by applying a force in the direction opposite to a torch handle or torch regulator assembly to which the ignitor tip is detachably connected.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known practice to ignite a gas-air mixture formed by a hand-held burner through the use of a spark generating device. An operator first establishes a flow of a combustible air gas mixture emerging from a torch tip and then by holding a spark generating device close to the tip, the occurrence of a spark ignites the combustible air gas mixture. An example of such a burner can be found in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,886,447. Recent developments in this general type of burner provide for the integration of an electrically powered ignitor, e.g., piezoelectric apparatus, with the burner thereby avoiding the need to maintain the separate mechanical spark or flame source.
Examples of a burner assembly having an ignitor combined therewith can be found in the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. 4,348,172; U.S. Pat. No. 4,526,532; U.S. Pat. No. 4,804,324; U.S. Pat. No. 4,720,259; U.S. Pat. No. 4,881,894; U.S. Pat. No. 4,952,138; U.S. Pat. No. 4,954,078; U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,342; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,837. From this body of prior art there can be found a disclosure of a torch tip assembly wherein a piezoelectric ignitor and actuator button are mounted on a burner tube at any one of diverse places with regard to air inlet openings for a mixing chamber. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,348,172 and 4,881,894 there are disclosed high tension wires for a piezoelectric ignitors extending externally along the burner tubes to sites where an opening is provided in the burner tubes for passage of the high tension wire interiorly of the tubes an thence along the interior of the tubes to selected site where spark gap is formed with the burner tubes. In such an arrangement, the opportunity exists for an unwanted leakage of combustible gas from the openings where the high tension wires pass through the walls of the burner tube. Not only does the opportunity exist for the combustion of the gas leaking from the opening in the burner tube, but also deterioration to insulation due to thermal excursions of the burner tube at the entrance site throughout the operation of the torch.
It is undesirable to expose ignition lead wire to the environment that might allow damage to the lead wire or disconnection from the anchor site. In this regard, when an ignition lead wire enters a burner tube at a site downstream from the ignitor housing, it is prone to failure the attempts to maintain the gas type seal which can be damaged when used or bumped or when stored. Also, the combustible gas stream is completely combustible at a site downstream of a mixing chamber when chosen as an entry site in the burner tube for the lead wire. The lead wire and any attempts to provide a protective enclosure obstructs the operators view of the work area during use of the torch tip. It can also be found from this prior art that a housing with complex construction is utilized for separating and mounting a gas control valve as well as an ignitor onto the basic structure of the gas appliance. The complexity of the housing construction discourages and usually inhibits necessary occurring replacement of the piezoelectric ignitor when it fails service.
When a gas control valve and piezoelectric ignitor are integrated in a burner assembly, should the burner tube of the assembly, for example, be damaged, then the entire assembly including ignitor and gas control valve must be discarded. The burner tube is pone to wear and tear because of the thin wall tube design which also make it subject to damage when dropped or impacted. In the known design, when the ignitor is supported in an housing by a burner tube, the ignitor is too remote to the handle or other hand gripping surface to enable support of the torch by the same hand used to operate the ignitor. Moreover, the stress and stain imparted on the burner tube by the operation of the piezoelectric ignitor requires special measures to protect the burner tube against fatigue. A problem still remains in regard to the degregation of the close tolerance fit and "O" ring used in the quick release connection between the handle and the torch tip assembly. The need exists, therefore, to provide an ignitor housing to fit the back piece of a replaceable ignitor tip and provide a passageway for a high tension wire to the interior of the burner tube in such a manner so as to avoid the possibility of leakage of a combustible gas mixture to the atmosphere.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide in a burner assembly an ignitor housing affixed to a back piece of a torch tip which is detachable from a torch handle or a torch regulator and always remains impervious to heating throughout operation of the burner assembly to avoid thermal damage to the ignitor housing.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an ignitor arranged in a torch tip in a manner to allow operation of the ignitor push button by the thumb or finger of the persons hand which also grips and supports the torch handle or regulator.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a housing which is mounted on the back piece of a torch tip in a manner that will allow dimensioning of the ignitor to fit a multiplicity of differently sized torch tips while protecting the ignitor lead wire through utilization of air inlet openings of a mixing chamber in the back piece for passage in the lead wire to the interior of the burner tube.

Detachable ignitor tip for a burner assembly


A technique for static compaction of test sequences is described. The method for static compaction according to the present invention includes two key features: (1) two-phase vector restoration, and (2) identification, pruning, and re-ordering of segments. Segments partition the compaction problem into sub-problems. Segments are identified, dynamically pruned and re-ordered to achieve further compaction and speed up.

IB1. Review of Static Compaction
A vector is a set of inputs to a system. A test set is a set of vectors that identify faults in the system. Target faults are the faults that are identified by a given set. Since cost of testing is directly proportional to the number of test vectors in the test set, short test sequences are desirable. Reduction in test set size can be achieved using static or dynamic test set compaction algorithms.
Dynamic techniques perform compaction concurrently with the test generation process. See I. Pomeranz and S. M. Reddy, "Dynamic Test Compaction for Synchronous Sequential Circuits using Static Compaction Techniques," Proc. Fault-Tolerant Computing Symp., pp. 53-61, June 1996; S. T. Chakradhar and A. Raghunathan, "Bottleneck removal algorithm for dynamic compaction in sequential circuits," IEEE Trans. on Computer-Aided Design, (Accepted for publication) 1997; E. M. Rudnick and Janak H. Patel, "Simulation-based techniques for dynamic test sequence compaction," Proc. Int. Conf. Computer-Aided Design, pp. 67-73, Nov. 1996; and T. J. Lambert and K. K. Saluja, "Methods for Dynamic Test Vector Compaction in Sequential Test Generation," Proc. Int. Conf. on VLSI Design, pp. 166-169, Jan. 1996. Dynamic techniques often require modification of the test generator.
Static compaction techniques, on the other hand, are employed after the test generation process. Hence they are independent of the test generation algorithm and do not require modifications to the test generator. In addition, static compaction techniques can further reduce the size of test sets obtained after dynamic compaction.
Several static compaction approaches for sequential circuits have been proposed in the following references: T. M. Niermann, R. K. Roy, I. H. Patel, and J. A. Abraham, "Test compaction for sequential circuits," IEEE Trans. Computer-Aided Design, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 260-267, Feb. 1992; B. So, "Time-efficient automatic test pattern generation system," Ph.D. Thesis, EE Dept., Univ. of Wisconsin at Madison, 1994; I. Pomeranz and S. M. Reddy, "On static compaction of test sequences for synchronous sequential circuits," Proc. Design Automation Conf., pp. 215-220, June 1996; M. S. Hsiao, E. M. Rudnick, and J. H. Patel, "Fast algorithms for static compaction of sequential circuit test vectors," Proc. IEEE VLSI Test Symp., pp. 188-195, Apr. 1995.
But, some of these approaches cannot reduce test sets produced by random or simulation-based test generators. See T. M. Niermann, R. K. Roy, I. H. Patel, and J. A. Abraham, "Test compaction for sequential circuits," IEEE Trans. Computer-Aided Design, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 260-267, Feb. 1992; B. So, "Time-efficient automatic test pattern generation system," Ph.D. Thesis, EE Dept., Univ. of Wisconsin at Madison, 1994. Static compaction techniques based on vector insertion, omission, and selection have been investigated in I. Pomeranz and S. M. Reddy, "On static compaction of test sequences for synchronous sequential circuits," Proc. Design Automation Conf., pp. 215-220, June 1996.
These techniques require multiple fault simulation passes. If a vector is omitted or swapped, the fault simulator is invoked to make sure that fault coverage is not affected. Though these techniques produce very good compaction, they are too computationally intensive to be practical.
Vector restoration techniques aim at restoring sufficient vectors necessary to detect all faults, starting with harder faults. See R. Guo, I. Pomeranz, and S. M. Reddy, "Procedures for static compaction of test sequences for synchronous sequential circuits based on vector restoration," Technical Report 8-3-1997, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Iowa, 1997. Fast static test set compaction based on removing recurring subsequences that start and end on the same states has also been reported recently in M. S. Hsiao, E. M. Rudnick, and J. H. Patel, "Fast algorithms for static compaction of sequential circuit test vectors," Proc. IEEE VLSI Test Symp., pp. 188-195, Apr. 1995. However, these test sets are not as compact as those achieved by algorithms that use multiple fault simulation passes.
Recently, compaction based on vector reordering has also been proposed. See S. T. Chakradhar and M. S. Hsiao, "Partitioning and Reordering Techniques for Static Test Sequence Compaction of Sequential Circuits," Technical Report 1997, Computers & Communications Research Lab, NEC USA Inc.
Among the known static compaction methods, compaction techniques based on vector restoration have yielded the largest compaction. See I. Pomeranz and S. M. Reddy, "Vector Restoration Based Static Compaction of Test Sequences for Synchronous Sequential Circuits," Proceedings Int. Conf. on Computer Design, pp. 360-365, University of Iowa, Aug. 1997; R. Guo, I. Pomeranz, and S. M. Reddy, "Procedures for static compaction of test sequences for synchronous sequential circuits based on vector restoration," Technical Report 8-3-1997, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Iowa, 1997.
IB2. Review of Vector Restoration Based Compaction
The test set V is an ordered sequence of vectors v.sub.1, . . . , v.sub.n. The test set detects faults f.sub.1, . . . , f.sub.z that form the fault set F. The goal of compaction algorithms is to reduce the test set without compromising on the detectability of all faults in F. If a fault is detected at vector v.sub.i of the test set, then the detection time D(f) of the fault is i. This information can be easily obtained by a pre-processing phase that involves fault simulation (with fault dropping) of test set T.
For example, the test set in FIG. 1 has 20 vectors v.sub.1, . . . , v.sub.20. This test set detects five faults f.sub.1, . . . , f.sub.5. Fault f.sub.5 is detected at vector v.sub.20. Therefore, D(f.sub.5)=20. Detection times for other faults are as shown in the figure.
Static compaction methods based on vector restoration is based on the following framework. Given a test set, fault set, and detection time for every fault, static compaction methods produce a shorter test set that detects at least as many faults as the original test set. A set of faults is chosen initially as the target faults. These faults can have the same or different detection times. If the latest detection time of any fault in the target list is t, then the restoration process finds a subsequence v.sub.i, . . . , v.sub.t (1.ltoreq.i.ltoreq.t) (1) detects all faults in the target fault list, and (2) if the subsequence is pre-pended to the restored subsequence for earlier target faults, then all earlier target faults are also detected. The next set of target faults is chosen from the faults that remain undetected by the restored vector set. This process is continued until there are no more target faults.
The techniques that rely on fault simulation to satisfy step 2 described above, are computationally intensive and impractical on large industrial designs. Among the known vector based compaction methods, the restoration omitting synchronizing prefix (RSP) is the only method which does not involve simulation to satisfy step 2. See I. Pomeranz, and S. M. Reddy, "Vector Restoration Based Static Compaction of Test Sequences for Synchronous Sequential circuits," Proceedings Int. Conf. on Computer Design, pp. 360-365, University of Iowa, Aug. 1997.
In the RSP approach, sufficient vectors are restored such that the target fault is detected starting from all unknown initial states. Consequently, independent of further additions to the restored vector sets, faults once chosen for restoration remain detected throughout the remainder of the compaction process.
A linear vector restoration method determines the subsequence by first considering only vector v.sub.t. If all target faults are not detected, then the subsequence v.sub.t-1, v.sub.t is proposed. If this sequence also does not detect all target faults, then additional vectors v.sub.t-2, . . . , v.sub.1 (in that order) are considered until all target faults are detected. More details about the complexity of this technique will be provided below.
Among the known vector restoration based compaction methods, the RSP approach requires fewer CPU seconds. Unfortunately, even the RSP approach is too slow to be practical on large industrial designs (See Table 2 in FIG. 7).
The conventional static compaction techniques including the RSP technique have at least a major problem that limit their practical usage. They require prohibitively large run-times when used for testing of large industrial designs.

Static test sequence compaction using two-phase restoration and segment manipulation


One embodiment of an electronic component packaging system includes a base adapted for supporting an electronic component, a lid sealed to the base, the lid including a fillport, and the fillport hermetically sealed by light irradiation.

Electronic components, such as micro electromechanical systems (MEMS), may be encapsulated within a package to protect the electronic component from environmental hazards such as humidity, electrical interference, dust, physical contact, and the like. Providing a hermetically sealed atmosphere for the electronic component within the package may reduce the effect of environmental hazards.
After initial sealing of the package, which may include hermetically sealing a cover to a base, fluid may be added to the interior of the package through a fluid port in the cover. The fluid port may then be sealed. Some sealing materials used to seal the fluid port may degrade the life or operation of the component or the fluid, or may result in a non-hermetic seal. Other methods of sealing the fluid port may require the package to undergo heating to a temperature that may damage the electronic component or the fluid, or may create a mis-match between the coefficient of thermal expansion of the fluid port seal and the cover. This may stress the electronic component or may result in a failure of the seal between the fluid port seal and the cover. Still other sealing methods may require welding or high compression forces that are not suited for certain types of cover materials such as glass or ceramics.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


The invention provides a method and apparatus for separating blood into components, may be expanded to include other types of cellular components, and can be combined with holographic optical manipulation or other forms of optical tweezing. One of the exemplary methods includes providing a first flow having a plurality of blood components; providing a second flow; contacting the first flow with the second flow to provide a first separation region; and differentially sedimenting a first blood cellular component of the plurality of blood components into the second flow while concurrently maintaining a second blood cellular component of the plurality of blood components in the first flow. The second flow having the first blood cellular component is then differentially removed from the first flow having the second blood cellular component. Holographic optical traps may also be utilized in conjunction with the various flows to move selected components from one flow to another, as part of or in addition to a separation stage.

There are several categories of blood cells. Erythrocyte or red blood cell (RBC) counts are for women 4.8 million cells/μl and men 5.4 million cells/μl. RBCs make up 93% of the solid element in blood and about 42% of blood volume. Platelets are 2 μm-3 μm in size. They represent 7% of the solid elements in blood and about 3% of the blood volume, corresponding to about 1.5 to 4×1011 cells per liter. There are 5 general types of white blood cells (WBCs) or leukocytes accounting for about 1.5 to 4−109 cells per liter. The WBCs comprise: 50-70% Neutrophils (12-15 μm in size); 2-4% Eosinophils (12-15 μm in size); 0.5-1% Basophils (9-10 μm in size); 20-40% Lymphocytes (25% B-cells and 75% T-cells) (8-10 μm in size); and 3-8% Monocytes (16-20 μmin size). They comprise 0.16% of the solid elements in the blood, and approximately 0.1% of the blood volume corresponding to around 4 to 12×109 per liter. A subject with an infection might have a WBC count as high as 25×109 per liter.
Platelets are the smallest cells in the blood and are important for releasing proteins into the blood that are involved in clotting. Patients with immune diseases that cause lower counts (such as cancer, leukemia and other chemotherapy patients) sometimes need platelet transfusions to prevent their counts from becoming too low. The platelet count in adults is normally between 140,000-440,000 cells/μl, and this number should not fall below 50,000 cells/μL because platelets play an integral role in blood clotting.
Blood separation techniques have traditionally employed discrete centrifugation processes. More particularly, a certain volume of blood is removed from a donor at a particular time. That volume of blood is then subjected to different levels of centrifugation to provide corresponding blood fractions for blood components such as plasma, platelets, red blood cells, and white blood cells. This process is discrete, rather than continuous, such that if more blood from the donor is to be processed, another volume is removed from the donor, and the process is repeated.
The steps in platelet collection are: collection of blood from donor: addition of anticoagulant; separation via centrifugation; return of red cells, leukocytes and plasma to the donor. A collection normally contains about 200-400 ml of plasma, which is reduced to avoid imcompatibility. This collection normally contains about 8 to 8.5×1010 platelets. A donor normally gives approximately 10% of his/her platelets with no loss in clotting ability, although a larger number of platelets could be separated from the blood. These platelets must be used within five days of collection.
Plateletpheresis, called apheresis, is a state of the art process by which platelets are separated [Haemonetics Component Collection System (CCS) and Multi Component System (Multi)(Haemonetics, Braintree, Mass.)]. This automated machine separates platelets from blood over a period of 1.5 to 2 hours (assuming 10% donation). This process is faster than traditional approaches and is completely automated and can be used for single or double platelet doses. Nevertheless, the process is slow relative to the patience of donors and is capable of improvement for the purity of the separated platelet fraction.
Other procedures are also time consuming, often taking several hours, particularly when unused blood fractions are to be returned to the donor. For example, platelet donation make take several hours, as whole blood is removed from the donor, fractionated through centrifugation to obtain the platelets, and the remaining blood components are then injected back into the donor. This centrifugation process is also comparatively harsh, also can result in damage to a proportion of the harvested cells, effectively reducing the usable yield of the blood fractions.
As a consequence, a need remains for a blood separation technique and apparatus which is continuous, has high throughput, provides time saving, and which causes negligible or minimal damage to the various blood components. In addition, such techniques should have further applicability to other biological or medical areas, such as for separations of cellular, viral, cell organelle, globular structures, colloidal suspensions, and other biological materials.

Multiple laminar flow-based rate zonal or isopycnic separation with holographic optical trapping of blood cells and other static components


In an embodiment, set forth by way of example and not limitation, a Bragg mirror includes a first bi-layer of a first thickness and a second bi-layer of a second thickness which is different from the first thickness. In this exemplary embodiment, the first bi-layer consists essentially of a first high impedance layer and a first low impedance layer, and the second bi-layer of a second thickness which is different from the first thickness, the second bi-layer consisting essentially of a second high impedance layer and a second low impedance layer. Preferably, the first bi-layer is configured to substantially reflect a first wavelength and the second bi-layer is configured to substantially reflect a second wavelength different from the first wavelength.

This invention relates to wave reflectors and, in certain exemplary embodiments, Bragg mirrors used in conjunction with piezoelectric resonators.
Piezoelectric resonators are used for a number of purposes but are primarily used in the electronics industry for signal filtering and reference oscillators. These resonators are commonly referred to as FBAR (film bulk acoustic resonators) or BAW (bulk acoustic wave resonators). The resonator is preferably acoustically isolated from the mechanical substrate, e.g. a silicon wafer. This can be accomplished by an air gap for a FBAR or a Bragg mirror for a Solidly Mounted Resonator ("SMR"). Bragg mirrors have been developed in both microwave and optical applications to reflect energy waves.
As is well known to those skilled in the art, a Bragg mirror typically comprises alternating high and low acoustic impedance materials that are each ideally approximately one-quarter the wavelength (λ/4) thick at the operating frequency of the resonator. Adjacent high and low acoustic impedance layers are generally referred to as "bi-layers", and are approximately one-half the wavelength (λ/2) at the operating frequency of the resonators. These devices are well documented in the literature. See, for example, W. E. Newell, "Face-mounted piezoelectric resonators," in proc. IEEE vol. 53, June 1965, pp. 575-581; L. N. Dworsky and L. C. B. Mang, "Thin Film Resonator Having Stacked Acoustic Reflecting Impedance Matching Layers and Method," U.S. Pat. No. 5,373,268, Dec. 13, 1994; K. M. Lakin, G. R. Kline, R. S. Ketcham, and J. T. Martin, "Stacked Crystal Filters Implemented with Thin Films," in 43rd Ann. Freq. Contr. Symp., May 1989, pp. 536-543; and R. Aigner, J. Ella, H.-J. Timme, L. Elbrecht, W. Nessler, S. Marksteiner, "Advancement of MEMS into RF-Filter Applications," Proc. of IEDM 2002, San Francisco, Dec. 8-11, 2002, pp 897-900, all incorporated herein by reference.
Briefly, a Bragg mirror, also referred to as a "Bragg reflector" or a "quarter-wave mirror" is a structure which consists of an alternating sequence of layers of two different transmissive materials, with each transmissive layer thickness corresponding to one quarter of the wavelength for which the mirror is designed. Since the wavelength through a material is inversely proportional to the impedance of the material, a quarter-wavelength thickness of a low impedance material will be thicker than a quarter-wavelength thickness of a high impedance material. The latter condition holds for normal incidence.
The operation principle can be understood as follows. Each interface between the two materials contributes a Fresnel-type reflection. For the design wavelength, the optical path length difference between reflections from subsequent interfaces is one half the wavelength; in addition, the reflection coefficients for the interfaces have alternating signs. Therefore, all reflected components from the interfaces interfere constructively, which results in a strong reflection. The achieved reflectivity is determined by the number of bi-layers and by the refractive index contrast between the layer materials. The reflection bandwidth is determined mainly by the index contrast.
FIG. 1 illustrates a resonator assembly 10 including a substrate 12, a Bragg mirror 14 and a standard piezoelectric resonator 16. The substrate 12 can be, for example, a silicon wafer 18 covered with a low impedance ("Z") layer 20, such as an oxide layer. It is to be understood with respect to the example of an acoustical Bragg mirror that the impedance of a layer is its acoustical impedance, and not another type of impedance such as electrical impedance.
The Bragg mirror 14 in this example has two bi-layers 22 and 24. Bi-layer 22 includes a low impedance ("LO-Z") layer 22a and a high impedance ("HI-Z") layer 22b. Similarly, bi-layer 24 includes a LO-Z layer 24a and a HI-Z layer 24b. The HI-Z layers have a relatively high impedance to compression ("acoustical") waves, and usually include a metal such as aluminum or tungsten. The LO-Z layers have relatively low impedance to acoustical waves, and can be, for example, silicon oxide or polymer layers.
The thickness of each layer of the bi-layers 22 and 24 is conventionally set equal to a quarter-wavelength (λL/4) of the incident wave that is to be reflected. That is, each of layers 22a, 22b, 24a and 24b are a quarter-wavelength thick. Since wavelengths are dependent upon the impedance of the material through which they are traveling, the LO-Z layers are thicker than the HI-Z layers. The alternate layers have the characteristics that each layer shows a high contrast in impedance with the adjacent layers. For microwave applications this is electrical impedance, and for BAW/SMR applications it is the acoustic impedance Z, which is a function of the material density and mechanical characteristics E (Young Modulus) and ν (Poisson Ratio).
The high-contrast bi-layers, each having two layers set to a quarter-wavelength of the incident wave, create a highly efficient mirror for reflecting the incident wave. In applications with piezoelectric resonators, such as resonator 16, this means that the acoustical energy created by the resonator is reflected back to the resonator and is not absorbed into the substrate 12. This allows the resonator to operate more efficiently than if it were supported directly on the substrate.
It should be noted that FIG. 1 illustrates a Bragg reflector having two bi-layers, each tuned for the same wavelength. This is because each bi-layer will reflect only a certain percentage of the acoustical energy. For example, if a bi-layer reflects 90% of the incident wavelength, then two bi-layers will theoretically reflect 99% of the incident wavelength. Depending upon the application, prior art Bragg reflectors can have a single bi-layer or two or more bi-layers, all of the same thickness; where the bi-layer is composed of two layers, each ¼ of the wavelength of the acoustic wave to be reflected.
A problem not addressed by the majority of the prior art is that of reflecting multiple frequencies of acoustic waves. That is, the Bragg mirrors of the majority of the prior art efficiently reflect only a specific wavelength which is twice times the thickness of the Bragg mirror bi-layer (i.e. four times the thickness of each layer of the bi-layer). Of course, by "specific wavelength" it is meant the principal wavelength and wavelengths within a relatively narrow range, e.g. ±20%, of the principal wavelength.
Some devices, such as piezoelectric resonators, develop acoustic waves at other than a primary wavelength. For example, piezoelectric resonators develop both a principal acoustic wave and a "shear" wave which is approximately ½ the wavelength of the principal wave. Bragg mirrors of the majority of the prior art do not effectively reflect other wavelengths other than those to which they are tuned, such as the wavelength of harmonics.
United States Patent Application 20050200433, published Sep. 15, 2005, discloses a bulk acoustic wave filter and method for eliminating unwanted side passbands, wherein a bulk acoustic wave (BAW) filter is fabricated from thin film bulk acoustic wave resonators and a method eliminates unwanted side passbands. This BAW filter comprises a substrate a resonator section and an acoustic mirror section. Further it comprises a detuning component positioned in the resonator section to provide precise passband characteristics and an additional detuning component in the acoustic mirror section to suppress unwanted side-passband characteristics.
These and other limitations of the prior art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the following descriptions and a study of the several figures of the drawing.


A method for assessing adequacy of message flow testing, including defining coverage criteria for testing a message flow through a set of message flow elements, determining a message-flow-coverage-goal for the message flow with respect to the coverage criteria, and designing a test suite responsive to the message-flow-coverage-goal. The method further includes applying the test suite to the message flow to generate a coverage result for the set of message flow elements and comparing the coverage result with the message-flow-coverage-goal.

Many types of software have been identified in the field of software engineering, though no single taxonomy system is yet universally accepted. It is common to refer to types of software according to programming and architectural paradigms known in the art. In an article entitled "Language and Architecture Paradigms as Object Classes: A Unified Approach Towards Multiparadigm Programming" by Spinellis, et al., published in Programming Languages and System Architectures International Conference, pages 191–207, by Springer-Verlag in 1994, and which is incorporated herein by reference, the authors define a paradigm as "a category of entities sharing a common characteristic." In the context of software, Spinellis, et al. note that "[c]omputer language paradigms offer linguistic abstractions . . . for expressing program implementations. Similarly, system architectures offer the hardware abstractions and quantitative theories applicable to the execution of compiled programs." The authors go on to describe a number of properties which may be used to characterize different paradigms, e.g., the property of problem decomposition entity. The problem decomposition entity is the primary architectural entity in a paradigm, i.e., the principal unit used to characterize and implement an application. In the case of an object-oriented system, for example, objects comprise the primary architectural element, and are used to model and implement the software.
Object-oriented, procedural, logical, component-oriented, visual, agent-oriented, and concurrent software are only a few examples of architectural and programming paradigms known in the art. Moreover, because many of the paradigms are overlapping and independent, a software application may be described in terms of a plurality of paradigms. For example, a given application may be at once object-oriented, visual, concurrent, and component-based.
In an article titled "Toward an Execution Model for Component Software," by Michael Franz, published in Special Issues in Object Oriented Programming: Workshop Reader of the 10th European Conference in Object-Oriented Programming ECOOP '96, pages 144–149, Linz, 1996, and which is incorporated herein by reference, the author states that "[w]hen discussing different programming paradigms, we usually base our taxonomy on the underlying design methodology, or, less subtly, on the programming language being used in a design. Strangely enough, this is no longer true when it comes to component-oriented programming." Franz further suggests that the programming model, distribution model, and execution model are useful properties in the classification of types of software including component-oriented software.
Software designers typically select one or more programming and architectural paradigms in the design and implementation of an application. Many criteria exist in the art for selecting a paradigm, including compatibility with an existing system, cost of development and testing, cost of long-term maintenance, and similarity of the paradigm to the underlying application problem. As Spinellis, et al. observe "[i]t is widely accepted that each paradigm offers a different set of tradeoffs between efficiency, provability, elision, and implementation cost."
A software paradigm identified in the art is message-oriented software. Message-oriented software treats messages as the primary architectural element, or the problem decomposition entity, according to Spinellis, et al. Applications are defined in terms of message flows, i.e., incoming and outgoing messages, and the processing performed on the messages. While the message-oriented paradigm is applicable to a wide range of business problems, the paradigm is especially compatible with a class of software applications known in the art as message-oriented middleware (MOM).
In an article titled "Message-Oriented Middleware" by Vondrak, published in the Carnegie-Mellon Software Technology Review which can be found at http://www.sei.cmu.edu/str/descriptions, and which is incorporated herein by reference, MOM is defined as "a client/server infrastructure that increases the interoperability, portability, and flexibility of an application by allowing the application to be distributed over multiple heterogeneous platforms. It reduces the complexity of developing applications that span multiple operating systems and network protocols by insulating the application developer from the details of the various operating system and net interfaces. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that extend across diverse platforms and networks are typically provided by the MOM." In other words, MOM is software that focuses on the interface between applications in a distributed environment, possibly on a variety of platforms. MOM implements inter-application communication as a separate function, independent of the communicating applications. Thus, in a world of diverse systems, developed in different languages, using different paradigms, and running on different hardware, MOM facilitates interaction among the diverse systems. This capability is especially significant for organizations with a varied collection of legacy systems; further, it provides a way to integrate new systems, e.g., a system acquired as a result of a merger or acquisition, without substantial investment. A plurality of implementations of MOM exist in the art, for example, the MQSeries produced by IBM Corporation of Armonk, N.Y., and Tuxedo by BEA Systems, Inc. of San Jose, Calif.
FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram depicting an architecture of a system 10 employing message-oriented middleware, as is known in the art. System 10 comprises client and/or server hardware platforms 12, 18, and 24, chosen from hardware platforms known in the art, and also designated respectively herein as client platform A, client platform B, and server platform C. Client platform A runs an application 14, also designated herein as client program A, and client platform B runs an application 20, designated herein as client program B. An application 26, also designated herein as server program C, runs on server platform C.
Client programs typically implement system functions visible to a user of the system, e.g., displaying results of a query or recording a new transaction. Server programs comprise programs providing services to client programs. Server programs supply a range of services, including access to a centralized resource such as a database, calculations, and communications services.
Client program A, client program B, and server program C are implemented using one or more of a plurality of programming and architectural paradigms known in the art. Client program A, client program B, and client program C may each utilize different architectural and programming paradigms. Typically, client program A, client program B, and server program C interact with each other by sending and receiving messages via a network 30. Client programs A, B, and C, and their respective platforms, are assumed to comprise different software paradigms and hardwares.
Because of the diversity of hardware platforms and software paradigms included in system 10, messages created by client program A must undergo transformations in order to render them understandable to network 30, and to client program B and server program C. Similar transformations are required for messages to and from client program B and server program C. A message-oriented middleware 16 provides the transformation service. MOM 16 comprises a platform interface which converts messages created by client program A from client platform A format into a protocol suitable for network 30, and transforms messages received by client program A from network 30 format into client platform A format. MOM 16 performs substantially similar transformations for client program B and server program C. Typically, the platform interface interprets message header and trailer data, removes or adds headers and trailers, and breaks up or reassembles messages.
In addition to the platform interface, MOM 16 comprises application-level logic for message processing. Thus, MOM 16 transforms a message sent by client program A, and produces a message that is valid in the context of communication via network 30; however, the message format and content may not match the expectations of one or more intended recipients of the message. Moreover, client program A is not necessarily aware of all the programs wishing to receive its message. For these cases, MOM 16 encapsulates the application logic required to re-format and route the message.
IBM's MQSeries Integrator comprises an example of an implementation of MOM 16. As described in Chapter 1 of MQSeries Integrator Introduction and Planning, published by IBM Corporation, 2000, and incorporated herein by reference, the services provided include the ability to "route a message to several destinations, using rules that act on the contents of one or more of the fields in the message or message header, transform a message, so that applications using different formats can exchange messages in their own formats . . . modify the contents of a message (for example, by adding data extracted from a database . . . )" Further, Chapter 1 cites the two principal benefits of MOM: message and data transformations are performed in a single place, thereby facilitating upgrades and modifications; and additional systems can be integrated quickly, by focusing on interface requirements.
Development of message-oriented software comprises defining message flows. Message flows describe the transformations, processing, and routing that are associated with a message. In an article titled "Coverage Analysis for Message Flows," by Aizenbud-Reshef, to be presented at ISSRE 2001, the 12th International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering in Hong Kong, Nov. 27–30, 2001, which is incorporated herein by reference, the author states that a message flow is a visual program describing the processing logic as a directed graph, which represents that processing performed on a message. Development environments for message-oriented software typically provide graphical tools for the definition and debugging of message flows, since visual programming is considered the most natural paradigm for message-oriented software. The Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing (FOLDOC), which can be found at http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc and which is incorporated herein by reference, defines a visual programming environment as "[s]oftware which allows the use of visual expressions (such as graphics, drawings, animation or icons) in the process of programming. These visual expressions may be used as graphical interfaces for textual programming languages. They may be used to form the syntax of new visual programming languages leading to new paradigms such as programming by demonstration or they may be used in graphical presentations of the behaviour or structure of a program."
FIG. 2 is a schematic message flow directed graph illustrating a message flow 50, as is known in the art. Message flow 50 comprises messages, connections, and nodes. An incoming message 52 enters message flow 50 via an input node 56. An outgoing message 66 exits message flow 50 via an output node 60. Incoming message 52 passes through a number of nodes: input node 56, a processing node 58, and output node 60. Input node 56 and ouput node 60 handle the queuing functions required to receive or dispatch a message, and typically comprise implementations of message queues Processing node 58 applies logic and functions to the message. All nodes comprise zero or more terminals, through which messages enter and exit the node. For example, processing node 58 comprises four terminal: an input terminal 57, and three output terminals designated 59, 61, and 63.
Typically, a message flow developer works in a visual development environment and constructs message flows by selecting nodes from a store of pre-defined nodes, extending existing nodes to create new nodes, or creating completely new nodes. Message flow developers implement logic in nodes by writing code in a language such as Structured Query Language (SQL). A node may itself contain a message flow, termed a sub-flow, in which case the node is considered a compound node. In message flow 50, processing node 58 can identify a run-time exception, which directs the message flow to a special type of output terminal, a failure terminal 63 and an exception handler 62.
Message flows can range from the very simple, performing just one action on a message, to the complex, providing a number of actions on the message to transform its format and content. A message flow can process one message in several ways to deliver a number of output messages, perhaps with different format and content, to a number of target applications.
Developers test all types of software for the same reason: to provide an assurance that the software performs as specified, without defects. Testing, according to the Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing, is defined as "[t]he process of exercising a product to identify differences between expected and actual behaviour." Since testing is costly and time-consuming, criteria are needed to assess the sufficiency of a set of tests. In an article titled "Test Adequacy Criteria for Component-Based Visual Software" by Keren and Shaham-Gafni, published in the Sixteenth International Conference on Testing Computer Software (TCS 99) in June, 1999, which is incorporated herein by reference, the authors note that "[t]he main technique for demonstrating that testing has been thorough is called test coverage analysis. Simply stated, the idea of test coverage analysis is to create, in some systematic fashion, a large and comprehensive list of tasks corresponding to the program under test. The tester's goal is to create a test suite that covers this list of tasks."
FIG. 3 is a flowchart of elements and processes involved in a process 80 for testing software under test (SUT) 51, as is known in the art. Initially, in a determine coverage model step 82, a coverage model is chosen. A number of coverage models are known in the art, referring to different ways of assessing adequacy of testing. For example, statement coverage considers a percentage of program statements executed over a test suite, functional coverage involves measuring a percentage of specified functions that a test suite exercised, and path coverage concerns how many different control-flow paths the tests caused SUT 51 to execute. In an establish coverage goals step 84, goals are identified according to the coverage model chosen in step 82, the goals both directing the creation of a test suite and forming stopping criteria for overall testing process 80. Coverage goals comprise metrics referring to the extent to which SUT 51 is exercised, for example, a first metric has a goal of 95% statement coverage; a second metric has a goal of 100% functional coverage. In a define coverage tasks step 86, a set of coverage tasks is generated to meet the coverage goals identified in step 84. The coverage tasks comprise a translation of the coverage goals into practical terms relative to SUT 51. For example, a coverage goal of 95% statement coverage engenders a plurality of coverage tasks of the form "execute statement #n," where n is a number comprising all statement numbers in SUT 51.
In a build test suite step 88, a test suite is generated, comprising a plurality of test conditions 90 and a way of evaluating expected results 92. Test conditions 90 comprise input values and conditions intended to exercise SUT 51 and perform one or more coverage tasks 86. Ideally, test conditions 90 should perform all coverage tasks generated in step 86, although in practice it may be difficult to identify a complete set of test conditions a priori. An oracle function typically evaluates expected results, either via manual inspection by a human expert or via automatic comparison to predetermined expected results 92. In an execution step 94, a test harness loads a test condition from test conditions 90 and executes SUT 51. Ideally, the test harness provides a way to execute SUT 51 while controlling inputs and monitoring outputs. During execution, a measure coverage step 96 runs, to assess the coverage achieved during the test. Execution of SUT 51 produces actual results, responsive to the test conditions loaded from test conditions 90. The oracle function performs a comparison step 98 between actual results of execution 94 and expected results 92, and a condition 100 determines the success or failure of the test. An outcome of failure generally indicates a defect in SUT 51, which requires developer attention in a debug step 102. A condition 104 checks whether sufficient testing of SUT 51 has completed, i.e., if the results of measuring coverage in step 96 accord with the coverage goals established in step 84. If the coverage goals have been accomplished, testing process 80 terminates.
If the coverage goals have not yet been achieved, testing process 80 continues in a condition 106 which checks if unexecuted tests remain in test suite 88. If tests remain, a next test condition is selected from test conditions 90, and execution step 94 again executes SUT 51 under the next test condition. If all tests in test suite 88 have executed without achieving the coverage goals of step 84, it is necessary to augment test suite 88 with additional tests in an add tests to test suite step 108, and continue in execution step 94.
Test adequacy criteria for different types of software have been proposed. For example, in Keren et el. propose coverage criteria for component-based visual software, based on utilization of a family of graph representations including the component containment graph, component call graph, component control flow graph, and framed graph. In an article titled "Testing Strategies for Form-Based Visual Programs" by Rothermel, et al., published in the Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering, pages 96–107, November 1997, and which is incorporated herein by reference, the authors suggest some test adequacy criteria for testing form-based programs, e.g., spreadsheet applications. The criteria make use of a cell relation graph, and include node and edge, cell dependence, and dataflow adequacy criteria.
Adequacy criteria are known in the art for testing object-oriented software. For example, in an article titled "Investigating the Applicability of Traditional Test Adequacy Criteria for Object-oriented Programs" by Kim et al., presented at FESMA-AEMES 2000: The European Software Measurement Conference, Madrid, October 2000, which is incorporated herein by reference, the authors explore the applicability of non-object-oriented adequacy criteria such as control-flow coverage and data flow-coverage to object-oriented software. Kim et al. conclude that "[t]he experimental result shows that the test criteria are able to deal with most of the OO [object-oriented] features, i.e., many of the defects related to the features could be revealed by the adequate test sets. However, they do not appear to be sufficient. There are a few OO-specific features that the investigated criteria are ineffective at handling, which indicates that the effectiveness of the criteria may be weakened in the presence of those OO features." In sum, it is accepted in the art that test adequacy criteria, i.e., coverage criteria, must suit the software and architectural paradigms used in the application.

International Business Machines Corporation


A sense mechanism for data bus inversion including a first memory device and an analog adder. The first memory device stores bits of the bus in a previous bus cycle. The analog adder compares the bits of the bus in the previous bus cycle with bits of the bus in a current bus cycle and provides a data inversion signal indicative of whether more than half of the bits of the bus have changed state. The analog adder operates as a bus state change sense device which rapidly evaluates bus state changes from one bus cycle to the next. The data inversion signal is used for selectively inverting the data bits of the bus and indicating bus inversion according to data bus inversion operation, such as according to X86 microprocessor protocol.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data bus inversion for logic circuits, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for rapidly evaluating state changes for a group of data output bits for the purpose of inverting their state and indicating data bus inversion, such as according to x86 microprocessor protocol.
2. Description of the Related Art
The architecture of the X86 type microprocessors, such as those manufactured by the Intel Corporation, provides a technique for limiting the noise on the data bus. This technique, called data bus inversion, operates to invert the bus signals if a majority (i.e., more than half) of the bus signals would otherwise change state from one bus cycle to the next. Data bus inversion ensures that half or less of the output bus data signals change state during each cycle. The current x86 protocol features a 64-bit data bus D[63:0]# consisting of four 16-bit groups D[63:48]#, D[47:32]#, D[31:16]# and D[15:0]#. A group of data bus inversion (DBI) bits DBI[3:0]# indicates the polarity of each data group of the data bus. In particular, during every bus cycle, each DBI bit in the DBI[3:0]# signal group indicates the polarity of a corresponding 16-bit group of data bus signals. According to standard terminology, the '#' symbol following a signal name implies that the signal is active low. Thus, if DBI[3:0]='HLHL', then DBI[3:0]#='LHLH' where 'H' denotes a High logic level and 'L' denotes a Low logic level. For the data signals D[63:0]#, however, the DBI[3:0]# signals are used to determine data bit polarity.
Logic within an x86 microprocessor is required to evaluate each of the 16-bit groups of data before the data is driven out to the external input/output (I/O) bus. To limit noise on the bus, if more than half of the signals within a signal group change state, then the signal group is driven out to the external bus in opposite polarity, and the state of the data bus signal group's corresponding DBI signal is set to indicate the selected polarity. Hence, a maximum of up to half of the data bits change state from one bus cycle to the next, thereby reducing noise caused by logic level switching. If all 16 bits in the data bus signal group change state on the next bus cycle, rather than toggling all 16 signals within the group, the signals are driven out in their previous logic state, and their corresponding DBI signal is toggled.
The prevailing technique for evaluating the changed state of groups of bits is a combinatorial digital adder. Each of the 16 bits in a group are provided to the adder and a cumulative sum is generated. This technique consumes valuable time potentially resulting in an additional clock delay to complete. It is desired to achieve the noise-reducing benefits of data bus inversion without adding clock delays on the external data bus.

Sense mechanism for microprocessor bus inversion


A bearing retaining structure includes a base, a stator assembly and a bearing. The base has a bearing cup projected from one side thereof, and the bearing cup internally defines a receiving space and has a fixed end connected to the base and an opposite free end. The bearing is disposed in the receiving space of the bearing cup. The stator assembly has an axially extended central opening and a retaining portion radially inward protruded from an inner wall surface of the central opening. The stator assembly is externally mounted around the bearing cup with the retaining portion tightly fitted around the free end of the bearing cup to narrow the receiving space, so that an inner wall surface of the receiving space is in tight contact with an outer wall surface of the bearing, and the bearing is stably retained in the bearing cup.

An electronic product internally includes electronic elements that would produce a lot of heat during operation thereof. In the event the electronic elements are always in a high-temperature state, they will have lowered operating efficiency or even become burned-out. To protect the electronic elements from poor operating efficiency or burnout, at least a heat dissipating unit, such as a radiating fin assembly or a heat sink, and a fan are usually used together to dissipate the heat produced by the electronic elements, so as to prolong the service life of the electronic elements.
Conventionally, to enable convenient assembling of a fan, the bearing of the fan is associated with the bearing cup by way of loose-fit, and the rotary shaft of the blade assembly of the fan is also loosely fitted in the central hole of the bearing. While the loose-fit between the bearing and the bearing cup enables quick assembling of the fan, the bearing will vibrate relative to the bearing cup and produce noise during the operation of the fan.
To overcome the problem of vibration the bearing relative to the bearing cup, there are generally two ways to retain the fan bearing in place in the bearing cup. The first way is to injection mold the bearing and the bearing cup at the same time using plastic materials, and the second way is to manufacture the bearing and the bearing cup with metal materials and assemble them by way of tight-fit. The second way provides higher fitting accuracy between the metal bearing and bearing cup, but requires higher machining cost.
On the other hand, the forming of the bearing along with the bearing cup through plastic injection molding as suggested in the first way can be achieved at lower cost but it provides only relatively lower fitting accuracy between the bearing and the bearing cup. That is, a too tight fitting of the bearing in the bearing cup tends to cause bore shrinkage of the bearing, while a too loose fitting of the bearing in the bearing cup fails to effectively retain the bearing in place in the bearing cup.
In brief, the prior art bearing retaining structure for fans has the following disadvantages: (1) having poor fitting accuracy between the plastic injection molded bearing and bearing cup; (2) requiring higher cost to manufacture metal bearing and bearing cup with higher fitting accuracy between them; and (3) the assembled plastic bearing and bearing cup tending to produce vibration and noise during fan operation.


Wearable and snappable sensing devices may act to sense data associated with an environment of the user. A mobile device and the wearable/snappable device may together operate to provide an application for sensing environmental data associated with the user, analyzing the environmental data, and providing reports to the user. In one implementation, a mobile device may connect to an external sensing device; receiving, from the sensing device, environmental data sensed by the sensing device; provide, over a wide area network, a classification query to a remote classification service, the classification query being based on the sensed data; receive, from the classification server, classification results in response to the classification query; and provide, via a graphical display of the mobile computing device, a report based on the classification results.

In an increasingly networked world, more and more traffic, such as data, voice, and video traffic, is transmitted over public and proprietary networks. Wireless networks, in particular, are popular as networks through which subscribers obtain both voice services (e.g., telephone calls) and data services (e.g., email and web surfing). Wireless networks, such as cellular wireless networks, can provide network coverage over large geographic areas (e.g., nationwide coverage). Smartphones may commonly be used to access the wireless networks.
Smartphones, in addition to including a radio interface designed to interact with a wireless network, such as a cellular wireless network, may include other interfaces such as pluggable interfaces (e.g., a universal serial bus (USB) interface) or additional radio interfaces, such as radio interfaces designed to transmit data over short distances (e.g., a Bluetooth® interface). The additional interfaces of a smartphone may be used to connect the smartphone to external devices, such as external input or sensing devices.
One class of external devices may include snappable and wearable devices. A snappable device may include a device that is designed to be directly attached to a smartphone, such as by "snapping" the device into a USB interface of the smartphone. Similarly, a wearable device may be one that is designed to be worn by a user of the smartphone, such as an article of clothing or jewelry, and that may communicate with the smartphone using a short range radio interface (e.g., a Bluetooth® interface). Wearable and snappable devices will be generically referred to herein as "X'able" devices.
X'able devices may include sensors that measure information relating to the user of the smartphone or to an environment associated with the user of the smartphone. The smartphones may provide an application designed to communicate with the x'able device and provide a graphical interface for presenting sensed information and/or controlling the x'able device.

Cloud services for wearable and snappable devices


An improved interactive network system is provided that allows the Network Operator to control the transfer of information to and from the network end users, the system preferably using triggers or markers embedded within the programming broadcast to users via the network. As a consequence of this system, the Network Operator is able to efficiently garner revenues from third parties transacting business over the network and to control the look and feel of programming offered to network users. Additionally the system can be used as a means of limiting network access, filtering programming, providing on-screen graphics or audible signals for particular programming types or providers, bookmarking programming, profiling network users, targeting advertising, and simplifying network transactions.

Enhanced television broadcasts, the Internet, and other information transferal technologies allow an end user to actively interact with a variety of different content and service providers as opposed to only passively receiving information. Accordingly a user can request additional information or purchase goods and services from a third party that is only indirectly affiliated with the network and its operator.
An interaction between a user and a third party may be initiated in a variety of ways. For example, the user can initiate the interaction without consideration to the information currently being presented by the network (e.g., user wishes to obtain status information about an airline arrival time in the middle of watching a movie). Alternately, the user may initiate the interaction in response to a prompt within the material currently being viewed (e.g., a prompt within a television advertisement pertaining to additional available information such as specifications, delivery, pricing, etc.). Alternately, a third party may initiate the interaction by requesting that the user provide additional information (e.g., polling).
Regardless of how the interaction is initiated, once initiated the user interacts directly with the third party. Unfortunately, although the network supplies the conduit for the interaction, the operator of the network is unable to monitor the interaction. As such, the operator is unable to control the interaction, including the look and presentation of the materials provided to the user during the interaction. Additionally, as the operator cannot monitor the interaction, they are unable to insure that they are receiving compensation for any interactions flowing over the network. As a consequence of this inability to capture revenues from these network interactions, in many instances the operator is unwilling to upgrade a network to the extent necessary to provide user interactivity. In other instances, although the basic infrastructure necessary for user interactivity is in place, the operator may be reluctant to make improvements (e.g., interactivity speed). In still other instances, the user may be charged a flat rate for interactivity capabilities.
What is needed in the art is a method and a system that allows interactions occurring between a network user and a third party to be monitored. The present invention provides such a method and system.

Method and system for controlling and auditing content/service systems


A neural network system is proposed, including an input network for extracting, from state data, respective entity data for each a plurality of entities which are present, or at least potentially present, in the environment. The entity data describes the entity. The neural network contains a relational network for parsing this data, which includes one or more attention blocks which may be stacked to perform successive actions on the entity data. The attention blocks each include a respective transform network for each of the entities. The transform network for each entity is able to transform data which the transform network receives for the entity into modified entity data for the entity, based on data for a plurality of the other entities. An output network is arranged to receive data output by the relational network, and use the received data to select a respective action.

This specification relates to reinforcement learning. In particular it relates to a neural network system for selecting actions for an agent to perform in an environment potentially containing multiple entities, and to methods performed by the neural network systems.
In a reinforcement learning system, an agent interacts with an environment by performing actions that are selected by the reinforcement learning system in response to receiving observations that characterize the current state of the environment.
Some reinforcement learning systems select the action to be performed by the agent in response to receiving a given observation in accordance with an output of a neural network.
Neural networks are machine learning models that employ one or more layers of nonlinear units to predict an output for a received input. Some neural networks are deep neural networks that include one or more hidden layers in addition to an output layer. The output of each hidden layer is used as input to the next layer in the network, i.e., the next hidden layer or the output layer. Each layer of the network generates an output from a received input in accordance with current values of a respective set of parameters.

Reinforcement learning using a relational network for generating data encoding relationships between entities in an environment


The total porosity of a formation, a fractional volume of the shale, and a resistivity of the shale are determined in a laminated reservoir including sands that may have dispersed shales therein. A tensor petrophysical model determines the laminar shale volume and laminar sand conductivity from vertical and horizontal conductivities derived from multi-component induction log data. The volume of dispersed shale and the total and effective porosities of the laminar sand fraction are determined using a Thomas-Stieber-Juhasz approach. Removal of laminar shale conductivity and porosity effects reduces the laminated shaly sand problem to a single dispersed shaly sand model to which the Waxman-Smits equation can be applied.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related generally to the field of interpretation of measurements made by well logging instruments for the purpose of determining the fluid content of earth formations. More specifically, the invention is related to methods for calculating fractional volumes of various fluids disposed in the pore spaces of earth formations where these earth formations include laminations of shale with reservoir rock that may include dispersed shales.
2. Background of the Art
A significant number of hydrocarbon reservoirs include deep water turbidite deposits that consist of thin bedded, laminated sands and shales. A common method for evaluating the hydrocarbon content of reservoirs is the use of resistivity measurements. In interpretation techniques known in the art, typically one or more types of porosity-related measurement will be combined with measurements of the electrical resistivity (or its inverse, electrical conductivity) of the earth formations to infer the fluid content within the pore spaces of the earth formations. The fractional volumes of connate water and hydrocarbons can be inferred from empirical relationships of formation resistivity Rt with respect to porosity and connate water resistivity such as, for example, the well known Archie relationship. In the Archie relationship fractional volume of water in the pore space is represented, as shown in the following expression, by Swxe2x80x94known as xe2x80x9cwater saturationxe2x80x9d:                               S          w          n                =                                            R              0                                      R              t                                =                                    1                              R                t                                                                                aR                w                                            φ                m                                                                        (        1        )
where a and m are empirically determined factors which relate the porosity (represented by ("PHgr") to the resistivity of the porous rock formation when it is completely water-saturated (R0), Rw represents the resistivity of the connate water disposed in the pore spaces of the formation, and m represents an empirically determined xe2x80x9ccementationxe2x80x9d exponent, n is the saturation exponent.
Relationships such as the Archie formula shown in equation (1) do not work very well when the particular earth formation being analyzed includes some amount of extremely fine-grained, clay mineral-based components known in the art as xe2x80x9cshalexe2x80x9d. Shale typically occurs, among other ways, in earth formations as xe2x80x9cdispersedxe2x80x9d shale, where particles of clay minerals occupy some of the pore spaces in the hydrocarbon-bearing earth formations, or as laminations (layers) of clay mineral-based rock interleaved with layers of reservoir-type rock in a particular earth formation.
In the case of dispersed shale, various empirically derived relationships have been developed to calculate the fractional volume of pore space which is capable of containing movable (producible) hydrocarbons. The fractional volume of such formations which is occupied by dispersed shale can be estimated using such well logging devices as natural gamma ray radiation detectors. See for example, M. H. Waxman et al, xe2x80x9cElectrical Conductivities in Oil Bearing Shaly Sandsxe2x80x9d, SPE Journal, vol. 8, no. 2, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Richardson, Tex. (1968).
In the case of laminated shale, the layers sometimes are thick enough to be within the vertical resolution of, and therefore are determinable by, well logging instruments such as a natural gamma ray detector. In these cases, the shale layers are determined not to be reservoir rock formation and are generally ignored for purposes of determining hydrocarbon content of the particular earth formation. A problem in laminated shale reservoirs is where the shale laminations are not thick enough to be fully determined using gamma ray detectors and are not thick enough to have their electrical resistivity accurately determined by electrical resistivity measuring devices known in the art.
Sands that have high hydrocarbon saturation are typically more resistive than shales. In reservoirs consisting of thin laminations of sands and shales, conventional induction logging tools greatly underestimate the resistivity of the reservoir: the currents induced in the formation by the logging tool flow preferentially through the conductive shale layers leading to an overestimate of the conductivity of the formation.
One method for estimating hydrocarbon content of earth formations where shale laminations are present was developed by Poupon. See A. Poupon et al, xe2x80x9cA Contribution to Electrical Log Interpretation in Shaly Sandsxe2x80x9d, Transactions AIME, Vol. 201, pp. 138-145 (1959). Generally the Poupon relationship assumes that the shale layers affect the overall electrical conductivity of the earth formation being analyzed in proportion to the fractional volume of the shale layers within the particular earth formation being analyzed. The fractional volume is typically represented by Vsh (shale xe2x80x9cvolumexe2x80x9d). Poupon""s model also assumes that the electrical conductivity measured by the well logging instrument will include proportional effects of the shale layers, leaving the remainder of the measured electrical conductivity as originating in the xe2x80x9ccleanxe2x80x9d (non-shale bearing) reservoir rock layers as shown in the following expression:                               1                      R            t                          =                                            (                              1                -                                  V                  sh                                            )                                                  xe2x80x83                                                                  (                                                      a                                                              xe2x80x83                                                                                R                      w                                                                            φ                    m                                                  )                                            -                1                                                                S              w              n                                +                                    V              sh                                      R              sh                                                          (        2        )
where Rt represents the electrical resistivity (inverse of conductivity) in the reservoir rock layers of the formation and Rsh represents the resistivity in the shale layers.
The analysis by Poupon overlooks the effect of anisotropy in the resistivity of a reservoir including thinly laminated sands and shales. Use of improper evaluation models in many cases may result in an underestimation of reservoir producibility and hydrocarbon reserves by 40% or more as noted by van den Berg and Sandor. Analysis of well logging instrument measurements for determining the fluid content of possible hydrocarbon reservoirs includes calculating the fractional volume of pore space (xe2x80x9cporosityxe2x80x9d) and calculating the fractional volumes within the pore spaces of both hydrocarbons and connate water. As noted above, Archie""s relationship may be used.
In thinly laminated reservoirs where the wavelength of the interrogating electromagnetic wave is greater than the thickness of the individual layers, the reservoir exhibits an anisotropy in the resistivity. This anisotropy may be detected by using a logging tool that has, in addition to the usual transmitter coil and receiver coil aligned along with the axis of the borehole, a receiver or a transmitter coil aligned at an angle to the borehole axis. Such devices have been well described in the past for dip determination. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,510,757 to Huston and U.S. Pat. No. 5,115,198 to Gianzero,
U.S. Pat. No. 5,656,930 issued to Hagiwara discloses a method of determining the horizontal resistivity, the vertical resistivity, and the anisotropy coefficient of a subterranean formation by means of an induction type logging tool positioned in a deviated borehole within the subterranean formation. In a preferred implementation, the induction type logging tool is first calibrated to determine a proportionality constant. A predetermined relationship between the proportionality constant, the phase shift derived resistivity, the attenuation derived resistivity, the horizontal resistivity, the vertical resistivity, and the anisotropy coefficient is then generated and stored in the memory of a programmed central processing unit. During an induction logging operation, the phase shift derived resistivity and attenuation derived resistivity are then received and processed by the programmed central processing unit in accordance with the predetermined relationship to generate the horizontal resistivity, the vertical resistivity, and the anisotropy coefficient. These measured values of horizontal and vertical resistivities when combined with a predetermined relationship between the horizontal resistivity, the vertical resistivity, the net/gross ratio, and the ratio of the sand layer resistivity to the shale layer resistivity make it possible to obtain a net/gross ratio. However, there are many laminated reservoirs in which the sands may include dispersed shales. Interpretation of formation water saturation in such reservoirs can be in error if the combined effects of laminations, dispersed shales within the sand, and possible intrinsic anisotropy of the shales is not considered.
There is a need for a method of determining the properties of a laminated reservoir that includes shales, clean sands and sands having dispersed clay therein. Such a method should preferably determine the water saturation of the sands in order to give a more accurate estimate of the productive capacity of the reservoir. Such a method should preferably make as few assumptions as possible about the properties of the sands and the shales. The present invention satisfies this need.
The present invention is method of accounting for the distribution of shale in a reservoir including laminated shaly sands using vertical and horizontal conductivities derived from multi-component induction data. Along with an induction logging tool, data may also be acquired using a borehole resistivity imaging tool. The data from the borehole resistivity imaging tool give measurements of the dip angle of the reservoir, and the resistivity and thickness of the layers on a fine scale. The measurements made by the borehole resistivity imaging tool are calibrated with the data from the induction logging tool that gives measurements having a lower resolution than the borehole resistivity imaging tool. A tensor petrophysical model determines the laminar shale volume and laminar sand conductivity from vertical and horizontal conductivities derived from the log data. The volume of dispersed shale and the total and effective porosities of the laminar sand fraction are determined using a Thomas-Stieber-Juhasz approach. Removal of laminar shale conductivity and porosity effects reduces the laminated shaly sand problem to a single dispersed shaly sand model to which the Waxman-Smits equation can be applied.

Water saturation and sand fraction determination from borehole resistivity imaging tool, transverse induction logging and a tensorial water saturation model