A system, for tuning a plurality of write strategy parameters of an optical storage device, includes: a run-length limited (RLL) meter for detecting a plurality of lengths, each length corresponding to a pit or a land on an optical storage medium accessed by the optical storage device; and a calculation module coupled to the RLL meter for performing calculations according to the lengths to generate a plurality of calculation results; wherein the write strategy parameters are tuned according to the calculation results.

The present invention relates to write strategy tuning of an optical storage device, and more particularly, to methods and a systems for tuning write strategy parameters of an optical storage device.
As multimedia applications progress prosperously, the demand for storing massive digital data increases rapidly. As a result, high storage volume and compact size optical storage media such as CD-R discs and DVD±R discs become more and more popular, and an optical storage device such as a CD drive or a DVD drive becomes a standard accessory of a personal computer utilized for performing the multimedia applications mentioned above.
Take the CD drive as an example. When the CD drive is controlled to write data to a CD-R disc, the writing power of a Laser Diode in the CD drive is usually set to be a specific value and writing pulses corresponding to the data are utilized for recording pits and lands onto the grooves of a CD-R disc. The specific value for the writing power can be derived from an optimal power calibration (OPC) process. On the other hand, through a write strategy tuning process, which is also referred to as a recording strategy tuning process, changing write strategy parameters for controlling widths of the writing pulses may increase the accuracy of lengths of the pits and the lands formed on the CD-R disc. Please refer to related documents of the CD-R specifications (e.g. the Orange Book Part I) for more information.
According to the related art, a specific device such as an oscilloscope can be utilized during the write strategy tuning process. Usually, an engineer or a researcher should determine, by experience, a new set of write strategy parameters for controlling the widths of the writing pulses according to an eye pattern of a plurality of reproduced waveforms shown on the oscilloscope after a trial writing process in advance. It takes lots of time of the engineer or the researcher to utilize this method since repeatedly performing the same process, including at least writing test data, watching an eye pattern of reproduced waveforms shown on the oscilloscope and determining a new set of write strategy parameters by experience according to the eye pattern, is required for each different kind of applicable media and for each different recording speed. The write strategy tuning process mentioned above is time consuming since watching eye patterns to determine write strategy parameters is not automatic. In addition, the write strategy tuning process mentioned above is implicit since determining a new set of write strategy parameters by experience according to the eye pattern is not quantitative. Under certain situations, an unclear eye pattern would invalidate or interfere the write strategy tuning process.
A specific instrument such as a time interval analyzer (TIA) or a jitter meter might be helpful for the same purpose of deriving information for determining a new set of write strategy parameters. However, similar routine work is also required, and if the TIA or the jitter meter is simply coupled for measuring without setting up an additional control system, the same problem that the write strategy tuning process is not automatic still exists. In addition, the information derived from the specific instrument is usually implicit and therefore takes up lots of an experienced engineer or researcher's time.

Methods and systems for tuning write strategy parameters of an optical storage device

Science-Based Industrial Park, Hsin-Chu Hsien


A virtually tagged cache may be configured to index virtual address entries in the cache into lockable sets based on a page offset value. When a memory operation misses on the virtually tagged cache, only the one set of virtual address entries with the same page offset may be locked. Thereafter, this general lock may be released and only an address stored in the physical tag array matching the physical address and a virtual address in the virtual tag array corresponding to the matching address stored in the physical tag array may be locked to reduce the amount and duration of locked addresses. The machine may be stalled only if a particular memory address request hits and/or tries to access one or more entries in a locked set. Devices, systems, methods, and computer readable media are provided.

Computer systems have used virtual memory to support multiple parallel processes and enable application code to operate independent of the physical address information stored in a cache. In these systems with virtual memory, an operating system has allocated physical memory addresses to distinct processes. Thus, some form of virtual-to-physical address translation was performed before a physically tagged cache can be accessed by an application. The translation was done dynamically by a Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB), which contained the associated address mapping maintained by the OS. While the efficiency of higher-level caches has not been substantially impacted during translation, the translation has added latency to a first-level cache access. In the modern processors with clock frequencies in the gigahertz scale, this has resulted in one or more additional cycles to the performance critical load-to-consumer latency.
This performance degradation has been avoided by removing the translation from the critical path and applying a virtually tagged first-level cache, which uses virtual page numbers for the cache look-up instead of the physical page numbers. In these instances, the physical address was only needed to support a snoop mechanism and cache miss handling. The virtual-to-physical address translation can be done in parallel to a cache look-up and does not affect the load-to-consumer latency.
Virtual aliasing, however, has occurred when two or more virtual addresses are mapped to the same physical address. Unless virtual aliasing is checked, multiple copies of the same cache line could coexist in the cache. A write access to one of these copies will make the other copies stale and violate the correctness of the execution. Therefore, more than one modifiable copy of the same cache line must never coexist in the cache.
To prevent this situation from occurring, an operating system or other application had been configured to prevent the mapping of more than one virtual address to a same physical address. This solution, however, is computationally intensive and reduces overall performance.
A second approach involved using a virtual tag array to determine whether an address is included in the cache through a cache hit or miss, and a physical tag array outside the load-to-consumer loop for cache misses and snoop handling. Processors that have applied this second approach have stalled a machine when a memory operation misses or does not match any addresses in the virtual tag array. When the machine is stalled, the physical address was checked against the physical tag array. If there is a physical tag match, a virtually aliased entry may be evicted from and re-filled into the cache or just re-tagged with the new virtual page number. The machine then resumes its previous tasks once both virtual and physical tag entries have been updated. This second approach also adds unnecessary delay and negatively impacts overall system performance.
There is a need for preventing virtual aliasing in caches while reducing the impact on overall system performance.


Problems caused by Internet Protocol datagram fragmentation are solved by creating a session context for the datagram fragments without actually reassembling the datagram from its fragments. The session context enables treatment of the datagram without actually reassembling it. Processing fragments can be followed by forwarding the processed fragments to another node that can further fragment the IP datagram.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to digital communication systems, and more particularly to packet-switched communication systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Request for Comment (RFC) 791, Internet Protocol (September 1981), and other RFCs define the Internet Protocol (IP) that is used for packet-switched communication networks. Information to be transmitted is divided into digital data blocks called datagrams, each of which has a header that includes the addresses of the sender (source) and intended receiver (destination), among other items of information. IP modules in the sender and receiver use the addresses to direct datagrams toward their destinations. In general, an IP module is a software program that is executed by a suitable electronic processor.
An IP datagram can be fragmented, which is to say the datagram can be split into several smaller packets, or fragments, when the network allows only smaller chunks of data to travel through the network. The several fragments that are the parts of an original datagram are sent separately through the network and have to be reassembled at their destination, reconstructing the original datagram.
Information located in communication protocol layers above the IP layer, such as the source and destination port addresses, is sometimes used to identify a unique context of an original IP datagram. Such information is not available in all fragments of the datagram, and thus the context of the original datagram cannot be recognized immediately from fragments formed by standard IP fragmentation mechanisms.
Sections 1.4, 2.3, and 3.2 of RFC 791 describe fragmentation and how fragments are identified and reassembled into an original datagram using data fields in the packet headers. Datagrams are typically fragmented by IP modules in gateways and reassembled at destination IP modules in destination IP hosts (e.g., computers), although other arrangements are permitted within networks and by agreement.
FIG. 1 depicts the format of an IP packet header according to IP version 4 (IPv4) described in Section 3.1 of RFC 791. As shown, the header includes six groups, or words, of 32 bits each that are transmitted last-bit first. Each 32-bit word includes one or more fields of digital information that identifies the packet with which the header is associated. The fields in an IPv4 header include Version, Type of Service, Total Length, Identification (ID), Flags, Fragment Offset, Time to Live (TtL), Protocol, Header Checksum, Source and Destination Addresses, and Options. The Options field has a variable length up to 40 bytes, and padding to the 32-bit word length may be provided.
After the header, which cannot be fragmented, an IPv4 packet includes a variable-length data (payload) field, which can be fragmented. Information in the fragmentable part of a datagram can include the source and destination ports and information according to another protocol. For example, an Authentication Header (AH) or Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) protocol packet may carry encrypted Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or User Datagram Protocol (UDP) traffic.
The ID, Flags, and Fragment Offset fields in an IPv4 packet header are used for identifying datagram fragments. According to RFC 791, the 16-bit ID field is assigned by the sender to aid in reassembling an original datagram from fragments. Of the 3-bit Flags field, bit 0 must be zero, bit 1 is a "don't fragment" flag, and bit 2 is a "more fragments" flag. If bit 1 is 0, then the datagram may be fragmented if necessary, and if bit 1 is 1, then the datagram shall not be fragmented. If bit 2 is 0, then this packet is the last fragment, and if bit 2 is 1, then there are more fragments. The 13-bit Fragment Offset field indicates where in the datagram this fragment belongs. The fragment offset is measured, i.e., fragments are counted, in units of 8 octets (64 bits), and the first fragment has offset zero. Thus, 8192 fragments of 8 octets each are permitted by IPv4, and an unfragmented datagram has bit 2=0 in the Flags field and Fragment Offset=0.
Even when IPv4 packets that are fragments of an original datagram arrive out of order, the information in the header of every packet enables fragments to be identified. By using bit 2 of the Flags field, it is possible to know whether or not more fragments are expected for the current datagram. If there are more fragments to come, then the current packet is considered a fragment; if there are no more fragments to come, but the Fragment Offset is not 0, then the current packet is considered the last fragment of a larger (unfragmented) datagram.
Section 3.2 of RFC 791 describes a datagram reassembly procedure that is performed only at the final destination with allocated reassembly resources, including a data buffer, a header buffer, a fragment block bit table, a total data length field, and a timer. The data from a fragment is placed in the data buffer according to its fragment offset and length, and bits are set in the fragment block bit table corresponding to the fragment blocks received. For each datagram, a buffer identifier is computed as the concatenation of the Source and Destination address, Protocol, and ID fields.
IP version 6 (IPv6) uses 64-bit words in headers that are arranged in a manner similar to IPv4. FIG. 2A depicts the format of an IPv6 packet header in 32-bit words. The fields in an IPv6 header include Version, Traffic Class, Flow Label, Payload Length, Next Header, Hop Limit, and Source and Destination IP Addresses. After the header, an IPv6 packet includes a variable-length data (payload) field, which can be fragmented and includes source and destination ports. The IPv6 header is simpler than the IPv4 header in that it has a fixed size with no variable-size Options field, and no fragmentation information, if any.
The fragmentation information that may be carried by the IPv4 Options field is handled in IPv6 as "option" headers that are chained through the use of the Next Header field. FIG. 2B depicts the IPv6 header format of a fragment, including an 8-bit Next Header field, an 8-bit Reserved field, a 13-bit Fragment Offset field, a 2-bit Reserved field, a 1-bit More Fragments field, and 32-bit Identification field. The fragmentation header is always the last of the "unfragmentable" headers (in IPv4, the 20-60 byte IP header is the unfragmentable header). This makes for one of the differences between IPv4 and IPv6: it is not always possible from an IPv6 header to see what the payload protocol is. The Next Header field has the identification of the next "option" header, which can be a payload protocol value, such as "UDP", "TCP", "AH", or "ESP", if there are no other options before the UDP, TCP, AS or ESP packets.
The essence of the datagram fragmentation mechanism in IPv6 is more or less the same as IPv4. An unfragmentable part of the datagram stays more or less intact (only the fragmentation information changes), and a fragmentable part of the datagram is broken up and sent as a number of fragments. The Fragment Offset is zero in the first fragment, and all fragments except the last have a "more fragments" flag set. This results in four types of packets, from a fragmentation point of view, in both IPv4 and IPv6: unfragmented; initial fragment; non-initial fragment, more-fragments flag set; and non-initial fragment, more-fragments flag not set (i.e., the last fragment) In IPv4, a packet's type can be determined from the packets header. In IPv6, a packet must be scanned for either a fragment header or a header that is part of the "fragmentable part" in order to know if the packet is a fragment or not.
U.S. Patent Application No. US 2006/0262808 by Lin et al. states that it describes a flow-through architecture for fragmentation and reassembly of tunnel packets in network devices, including a hardware pipeline without typical store-and-forward operations. Incoming fragmented packets are reassembled.
"Resolve IP Fragmentation, MTU, MSS, and PMTUD Issues with GRE and IPSEC", Document ID 25885, Cisco (Oct. 2, 2006), which is available at http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/105/pmtud_ipfrag.html, also describes datagram reassembly from fragments, and notes that fragmentation increases receiver overhead because the receiver must allocate memory for arriving fragments and combine them into a datagram after all fragments are received.
As noted above, other problems with typical IP datagram fragmentation and reassembly involve difficulty in recognizing the context of an unfragmented datagram when information identifying the context is not available in all fragments of the datagram.

Method and ingress node for handling fragmented datagrams in an IP network


A method for fabricating an ultra-sensitive metal oxide gas sensor is disclosed, which comprises the steps of spinning a mixture solution including a metal oxide precursor and a polymer onto a sensor electrode to form a metal oxide precursor-polymer composite fiber; thermally compressing or thermally pressurizing the composite fiber; and thermally treating the thermally compressed or thermally pressurized composite fiber to remove the polymer from the composite fiber. Since the gas sensor includes a macro pore between nanofibers and a meso pore between nano-rods and/or nano-grains, gas diffusion and surface area can be maximized. Also, the ultra-sensitive sensor having high stability in view of mechanical, thermal, and electrical aspects can be obtained through rapid increase of adhesion between the metal oxide thin layer and the sensor electrode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ultra-sensitive metal oxide gas sensor and a fabrication method thereof, and more particularly to a fabrication method of an ultra-sensitive metal oxide gas sensor, in which a fine structure of a metal oxide is a network structure of nanofibers composed of nanograins or nanorods composed of nanograins.
2. Description of the Background Art
When ZnO, SnO2, WO3 and TiO2, which are metal oxide semiconductors, contacts special gas elements such as H2, CO, O2, NOx, CO2, DMMP, CH4, NH3, Alcohol and humidity, an electrical resistivity is changed by gas adsorption and oxidization/reduction occurring on the surface of the oxide.
Characteristics of a sensor fabricated by using the metal oxide semiconductor are considerably influenced by gas diffusivity and gas surface reaction. Accordingly, efforts have been made to increase an enhanced surface activity and a surface to volume ratio.
For example, studies of humidity and ammonia sensor using a ZnO nano wire structure have been made [Y. S, Zhang, Physica B-Condense Matter. Vol. 368, 94-99, 2005 or X. H. Wang, Appl. Phy. Lett. Vol. 252, 2504-2411, 2005]. Also, characteristics of a SnO2 [Zhang, D. Nano Lett. 4, 1919, 2004] and In2O3 [Kolmakov, A. Nano Lett. 5, 667, 2005] sensor using nanowire have been studied [Sens. Actuators B, 108, 29, 2005].
A sensor using a single nanowire can obtain high sensitivity but has a problem in that it is difficult to fabricate a device having high reproducibility due to noise caused by unstability of contact resistance.
Thus, sensors fabricated using networks of nanofibers may offer high reproducibility and better electrical stability as compared to that of sensors using individual nanowire and nanofiber. Electrospinning is one of the most simple and versatile approaches offering the ability to produce multiple nanofiber networks.
The fiber prepared by the electrospinning has a diameter of a few tens nm to a few μm depending on preparation conditions. Therefore, a surface area per unit volume of electrospun nano fibrous mats is larger than that of a continuous film by a few hundreds times (two orders of magnitude). When the fiber is used as the sensor material, the sensor is expected to have high sensitivity and rapid response. In this respect, studies for use in a chemical sensor, an optical sensor, and a bio sensor have been made actively.
Electrospun nanofibrous mats having a diameter of several hundreds of micrometers, fabricated by electrospinning have been studied by various research groups [D. Li and Y Xia, Nano Lett. 3 (2003), 555]. Such electrospun nanofibrous mats have high gas diffusivity due to an excellent porous structure of an open pore structure. However, since the size of the nanofiber ranges a few hundreds nm, a specific surface area is very low, generally below 20 to 30 m2/g. A sensor consisting of such materials enables fabrication of a large sized nanofiber, can obtain a network of an ultra-fine nanofiber at a low cost, and has sensing sensitivity more improved than that of a metal oxide nanowire obtained by thermal vapor deposition but still has deficient sensitivity.
There are increasing demands for a high sensitivity sensor of a thin layer of a fiber having an increased specific surface area of a metal oxide along with a porous structure having excellent gas diffusivity to attain a fast response time and high sensitivity sensing.
In addition, since adhesion between a metal oxide fiber and a sensing substrate is closely related to electrical contact, excellent adhesion is required to minimize noise. If a composite nanofiber including an electrospun metal oxide precursor is thermally treated on a metal or a ceramic substrate at a high temperature, peeling-off of nanofibers with respect to the substrate is observed.

Ultra-sensitive metal oxide gas sensor and fabrication method thereof

Korea Institute of Science and Technology


A color conversion apparatus and a method of color conversion are described for converting a first color in a first color space to a second color in a second color space. The color conversion apparatus includes a plurality of lookup tables storing color mappings relating the first color space to the second color space and a converter using the lookup tables to convert the first color to the second color. The first color space is the sRGB color space and the second color space is a device dependent color space, or vice versa. To reduce the table size, tables having little effect on the second color contain groups of input colors mapping to a same output color and are implemented with a memory having the address inputs connected to the upper most significant bits of an incoming color value. A gamma correction circuit is used to calculate the remaining tables.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to color conversion of display devices, and more particularly, to an apparatus for converting a first color in a first color space to a second color in a second color space and a method thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Graphic systems convert image signals into a visible form and vice versa. Examples of common graphic systems include: cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitors, liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors, projection displays, digital cameras, scanners, camcorders, printers, etc. Different graphic systems have different image signal requirements meaning that the image signals for a particular graphic system are not necessarily compatible with other graphic systems. For example, the image signal format used in a digital overhead projector is not the same image signal format used in a printer. Even among graphic systems that both use RGB image signals, such as two LCD monitors, because each monitor has different display characteristics, the image signals producing a particular color on one monitor do not necessarily produce the identical color on another monitor. The particular display characteristics for a graphic system are also referred to as the device color space. Difficulties arise when trying to accurately reproduce color across open systems having different devices using different color spaces. Particularly with the advent of the Internet, it is imperative that all graphic systems exchange color information accurately and easily.
The International Color Consortium (ICC) has proposed a solution to the problem of communicating color in open systems, which involves attaching a profile for the input color space to the image file in question. This is appropriate for high end users but there are a broad range of users that do not require this level of flexibility and control. Additionally, most existing file formats do not support color profile embedding and, in fact, there are many applications that oppose appending any extra data to data files.
The standard default RGB color space (sRGB) developed by Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft provides a single RGB representation of color independent of the graphic system and has been standardized by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) as IEC 61966-2-1. When using the sRGB specification, RGB values in the sRGB color space must be mapped to a corresponding RGB value in the destination color space and vice versa. Performing a mapping involves executing a matrix multiplication to adjust a first color value in the first color space to a second color in a second color space.
FIG. 1 shows the sRGB conversion formula 10 for mapping an sRGB value (R, G, B) to a destination dependent color space value (R′,G′, B′) according to the sRGB specification. As shown in FIG. 1, the second red value R′ is formed using a portion of the first red value R, the first green value G, and the first blue value B depending on the adjustment coefficients r1, g1, and b1 respectively. Similarly, the second green value G′ and the second blue value B′ are both formed using a portion of the first red value R, the first green value G and the first blue value B. The sRGB values are stored as 8 bit integers and the adjustments coefficients are stored as 10-bit floating-point values. Using standard matrix multiplication, the following formulas for the R′, G′, and B′ values are derived:R′=(R*r1+G*g1+B*b1)G′=(R*r2+G*g2+B*b2)B′=(R*r3+G*g3+B*b3)
To calculate the second red value R′, the first RGB values are first converted to floating-point values:Rfloat=R/255.0Gfloat=G/255.0Bfloat=B/255.0
A multiplier then multiplies the Rfloat, Gfloat, and Bfloat with the first red adjustment coefficient r1, the first green adjustment coefficient g1, and the first blue adjustment coefficient b1 respectively and adds the multiplication results together. The second floating-point red value is then converted back to an 8-bit integer and similar procedures are followed for the G′ and the B′ values. The following formulas show the full process and can be computed concurrently if sufficient hardware resources are available:R′=round(255.0*[r1*Rfloat+g1*Gfloat+b1*Bfloat])G′=round(255.0*[r2*Rfloat+g2*Gfloat+b2*Bfloat])B′=round(255.0*[r3*Rfloat+g3*Gfloat+b3*Bfloat])
In today's competitive consumer electronic marketplace, the performance of graphic systems must be as high as possible while keeping the price as low as possible. In other words, the conversion from a first color space to a second color space needs to be executed as fast as possible and with minimal hardware requirements. However, the conversions from integer to floating point, the conversions from floating point to integer, and the multiplications all require non-trivial processing time and specialized hardware. An efficient and cost effective implementation is needed.

Apparatus for color conversion and method thereof


A method for producing a hydrophobically finished aramid fabric includes at least    a) providing an aramid yarn,    b) applying a water-repellent agent to the aramid yarn,    c) drying the aramid yarn resulting from step b),    d) producing a fabric from the aramid yarn resulting from step c), and    e) heat treating the fabric. The fabric is used to produce an antiballistically effective article.The v50 values for the hydrophobically finished fabrics of the invention are in the wet state higher than, and in the dry state at least as high as or higher than, the values for hydrophobically finished fabrics not of the invention in the wet and dry states, respectively.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a method for producing a hydrophobically finished aramid fabric and the use thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Hydrophobically finished aramid fibers and fabrics and methods for producing them are known.
WO 95/04854 describes a process for plasma treatment of antiballistically effective materials such as aramids whereby, in a first step, plasma treatment is carried out with ≧50% of an inorganic gas or a mixture of inorganic gases and, in a second step, with a hydrophobically acting organic gas or with a mixture of such gases from the group of saturated hydrocarbons, unsaturated hydrocarbons, saturated fluorocarbons, unsaturated fluorocarbons, siloxanes and vinyl compounds, in the presence of one or more inorganic gases if required.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,087 discloses the coating of aramid fibers and/or aramid fabrics (e.g., Nomex fibers) with an aqueous dispersion of polytetrafluoroethylene particles and a water-soluble coordination complex of chromium with a fluoro-substituted hydrocarbon compound containing amino-substituted and sulfonylamino-substituted alkyl groups having ≧6 carbon atoms. The treated fabric is dried, after which crosslinking is advantageously effected by heat treatment.
WO 92/01108 describes the coating of aramid fibers with an aqueous fluoropolymer dispersion, which is applied to the fiber either in the wet or the dried state, whereby, preferably, the wet, never-dried fiber is immersed in a coating bath containing the fluoropolymer dispersion. The coated fiber is then dried, during which the coating on the fiber surface is crosslinked.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,116,682 describes the production of anti-wicking and water-repellent heat-stable yarns, such as polyester yarns or yarns made from glass, nylon or aramid. The yarn is coated with a fluorocarbon emulsion or dispersion, dried and then crosslinked by heat.
Aramid fabrics are known to show high antiballistic efficiency in the dry state. However, the antiballistic efficiency is considerably reduced when the fabric is in the wet state. Aramid fabrics are therefore often given a hydrophobic finish. It has been shown, however, that aramid fabrics provided with a hydrophobic finish by the known methods nevertheless show a significant reduction in their protective antiballistic efficiency when they are wet.

Method for producing a hydrophobically finished aramid fabric and use thereof


A connector with at least one multi-core fiber (MCF) and method of attaching the MCF within the connector, includes inserting a first end of a MCF into a ferrule of a connector. Then, rotating the end of the MCF within the ferrule until a first selected satellite core of the MCF is in a first alignment relative to a feature of the connector. The feature may be a mark, indentation or protrusion formed on a ferrule, ferrule holder or connector envelope. Finally, affixing the MCF within the ferrule of the connector. In the case of an array-type connector, first ends of other MCFs may be added to the ferrule and clocked relative to the same feature of the connector. Second ends of one or more MCFs may be clocked relative to a same feature of a second connector.

Fiber optic cables are cables that include one or more optical fibers that are used as a medium for transmitting optical communications signals. Fiber optic cables are used in a wide variety of applications such as, for example, in cable television networks, local area networks, vehicles, ships, airplanes, wide area networks and datacenters. Fiber optic cables may support very high data rate communications.
FIG. 1A is a perspective view of a conventional fiber optic cable 10. FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view of one of the optical fibers 22 included in the fiber optic cable 10 of FIG. 1A. As shown in FIG. 1A, the fiber optic cable 10 includes an optical fiber bundle 20 that includes a plurality of optical fibers 22, a strength member 30 that may comprise, for example, a plurality of strength yarns 32 and an outer jacket 40. As shown in FIG. 1B, the optical fiber 22 includes a central core 24, a cladding layer 26 and a buffer coating 28. Typically, the coating 28 comprises an ultra-violet light cured urethane acrylate coating, although other coatings may be used. The core 24 and the cladding 26 may each be made of transparent glass (silica), although plastic is sometimes used. The cladding 26 has a lower index of refraction than the core 24. The difference in indexes of refraction of the core 24 and cladding 26 along with the angle at which an optical signal is injected into the core 24 may be selected so that the core 24 will act like a waveguide through which the optical signal will propagate with very low loss, reflecting off the surrounding cladding 26. The buffer coating 28 protects the core 24 and cladding 26 from moisture and/or physical damage.
Referring again to FIG. 1A, the strength yarns 32 may comprise, for example, aramid yarns or glass yarns. These strength yarns 32 further protect the optical fibers 22 from physical damage. The jacket 40 may comprise, for example, a polyvinyl chloride jacket that provides an additional layer of protection and holds all of the components of the cable 10 together to form an integral unit.
Each optical fiber 22 of fiber optic cable 10 may be physically spliced to an optical fiber of another cable or to network equipment via mechanical splicing or heat fusing. More commonly, however, a fiber optic cable, such as cable 10, will be terminated with one or more fiber optic connectors (not shown) to provide a fiber optic patch cord or jumper cable. The fiber optic connector may be used to connect the fiber optic cable to another fiber optic cable or to network equipment. When fiber optic cables include a plurality of optical fibers, one or both ends of the fiber optic cable may be broken out into subunits (i.e., smaller cable sections that each include a subset of the optical fibers) that are individually connectorized. Alternatively, fiber array connectors may be used to connectorize such multi-fiber fiber optic cables. Typically, these fiber array connectors align the optical fibers in a side-by-side configuration (or stacked layers of side-by-side optical fibers) for mating with similarly aligned optical fibers in a mating fiber optic connector.
As communications networks are required that will support higher and higher data rates, there is a demand for fiber optic cables that will support these higher data rates. One way that has been proposed for meeting the demand for increased communications bandwidth is the deployment of fiber optical cables that use "multi-core" optical fibers. A multi-core optical fiber refers to an optical fiber that includes more than one core that is used for transmission of optical communications signals. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a typical multi-core optical fiber 50. As shown in FIG. 2, the multi-core optical fiber 50 includes a central core 60 and a plurality of satellite cores 61-66. The central core 60 may have the same diameter as the satellite cores 61-66 or may have a different (e.g., larger) diameter. A cladding 70 surrounds the central core 60 and the satellite cores 61-66. The cladding 70 has a lower index of refraction than the central core 60 and the satellite cores 61-66. A buffer coating 80 protects the cores 60-66 and the cladding 70 from moisture and/or physical damage. As a multi-core optical fiber has a plurality of cores, each of which serves as a separate transmission medium, a multi-core optical fiber may have significantly increased transmission capacity as compared to a traditional "single-core" optical fiber. A multi-core optical fiber is known in the existing art. See for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,734,773 and 6,154,594 and U.S. Published Applications 2011/0229085, 2011/0229086 and 2011/0274398, each of which is herein incorporated by reference.

Methods of connectorizing multi-core fiber optic cables and related apparatus


A carton is provided having a door that is shiftable from a closed position to an open position to permit access to an interior of the carton. The door includes a gripping tab for opening the door. The gripping tab is restricted from movement by a blocking member prior to the initial shifting of the door from the closed position to the open position. Upon sufficient movement of the gripping tab, the blocking member is removable to permit shifting of the door from the closed position to the open position, thereby permitting access to the interior of the carton.

Cartons are often used as packaging for a variety of consumer products. The carton may be configured for opening by the consumer for removal of the contents from the interior thereof. The marketing, distribution and sale of contents packaged in cartons for consumers often requires considerable attention to the design of the cartons used to package such products. In particular, it is generally desirable to design such cartons with a feature that permits the purchaser to open the carton with a minimal amount of physical effort to gain access to the contents.
One type of carton is provided with a pair of overlapping flaps or panels on one end that are attached relative to each other. Often, the overlapping panels are merely glued together, requiring the consumer to break the glue bonding the two overlapping panels to gain access to the interior of the carton. Considerable effort may be required by the consumer to break the adhesive bonding between the panels, and can result in uncontrolled tears in the carton. To address these concerns, some cartons have been provided with a tear strip between the overlapping panels, allowing a consumer to remove the tear strip to allow the panels to separate in order to gain access to the interior of the carton.
Other types of cartons use opening features comprising a perforated region formed in the carton that is intended to be openable by pressing a thumb or finger against the perforated region of the carton. Perforated regions for opening cartons may be located at various parts of the carton, such as upper portions of a side panel or on the top panel of the carton. After opening of the perforated regions, such regions may be designed to remain connected to the carton wall by a hinge so that the perforated region is not detached from the carton.
Many such opening features in the form of perforated regions are found in existing carton designs for paperboard cartons. The perforated regions may be bordered by a series of perforations, reverse cuts, score lines, or cut lines in the surface of a carton wall in the shape of a "V", a "U", an oval, a rectangle or other shapes. The carton is opened by pressing the perforated region toward the interior of the carton so that the carton wall ruptures or tears along the perforations to form an opening allowing access to the interior of the carton.
However, these regions often require considerable opening force because the perforations may not fully penetrate the panel and may not be of sufficient size to permit easy opening of the carton. The force required to open perforated regions in many instances can cause the carton panels to deform, bend or even collapse, and can render the perforated region itself inoperable. These types of opening problems can lead to consumer frustration and complaints, which can result in lost sales and increased costs for returned goods.
The open perforated region may be configured to act as a finger grip that allow the user to create a larger opening in the carton. In such cartons, the perforated region can first be depressed into the interior of the carton by the consumer. Next, the consumer can pull on the perforated region, such as toward a side or top of the carton, to peel back a panel of the carton and to create an enlarged opening permitting improved access to the contents of the carton. In some cartons, the carton side or top panel may be removed entirely.
The use of a perforated region as described above to provide an opening for further opening the carton may be employed in cartons for bulk products such as pastas, cereals and similar food stuffs. Often sauce packets or other flavoring packets are provided with the bulky, pourable products. The removal of such packets can be difficult when the bulk contents shift during shipping and handling prior to opening by a consumer. When a consumer finally opens the carton, the bulk contents and the packets may have shifted in a manner to cause difficulty in removing the bulk contents and the packets from the interior of the carton. In some instances, the packets can even block the openings of the carton, further causing difficulty in removing the bulk contents.
The design of carton opening features requires consideration of a number of objectives and performance requirements in addition to providing for convenient opening of the carton by a consumer. The easy open features in such cartons should not compromise the structural integrity and strength of the carton. Paperboard cartons often are subjected to a variety of loads and stress during shipping, storage, and handling of the cartons. These include stresses and loads experienced during the packing of individual cartons in shipping cases, in palletizing the cases for storage at warehouse facilities, and during shipment, stacking, and other movement of pallets. Once the cartons reach a retailer, they may be subjected to additional stresses and loads during the shelving and display of the product. Consumers purchasing such cartons may further subject the cartons to stresses and loads that can cause unintentional openings or deformation of the carton.
Cartons are typically made from a precut, unitary blank having prescored lines that permit the folding, forming, filling and sealing of the cartons using automated machinery. For many such cartons, an easy open design must be integrated into the overall carton structure with a minimum of complicated or added components. For example, the easy open features in paperboard cartons frequently must be integral to a unitary paperboard blank used to form the carton to simplify assembly of the carton and reduce material and assembly costs. It is desirable to avoid the need for unnecessary panels, folds, glues, inserts, reinforcements or the like to form the easy open feature to reduce the cost of the carton and the steps needed to form the carton.
Thus, there remains a need to provide cartons capable of inexpensive mass production and suitable for retail sale having an opening feature configured for simplified access to the interior of the carton after packing, shipping, and handling of the carton.


A method of fabricating a polarizing member includes: sequentially disposing a metal layer and a preliminary pattern layer on a base substrate including a display area and a non-display area; forming a patterned resin layer on the preliminary pattern layer in the display area, the patterned resin layer including patterns formed on a surface of the patterned resin layer; surface-treating the preliminary pattern layer and the patterned resin layer; forming a mask pattern including a photoresist material on the preliminary pattern layer disposed in the non-display area; forming preliminary patterns on the preliminary pattern layer using the patterned resin layer; and forming a wire grid polarizing unit in the display area by etching the metal layer using the preliminary pattern and the mask pattern as a polarizing pattern.

Field
Exemplary embodiments relate to a method of fabricating a polarizing member, and a method of fabricating a liquid crystal display including the polarizing member.
Discussion of the Background
A liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal display panel disposed is between two polarizing plates. The liquid crystal display device applies an electric signal to each pixel of the liquid crystal display panel to change an arrangement of liquid crystal molecules and control the amount of light passing through.
The liquid crystal display device is a light receiving device, and requires a backlight unit. The backlight unit includes a light source, a light guide plate for improving efficiency of light moving to the liquid crystal display panel and a plurality of optical sheets. A large portion of light emitted from the light source is lost while passing through the light guiding plate and the optical sheets.
The polarizing plates are an absorptive polarizing plate configured to selectively absorb and transmit light, and may absorb about 50% of light transmitted to the liquid crystal display panel. Accordingly, a user may view the very small portion of the light emitted from the light source, for example, about 10% or lower of light.
A polarizing member including a wire grid may have improved light transmittance. However, such polarizing member with a wire grid may have increased fabrication costs due to forming the wire grid through a photolithography process.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the inventive concept, and, therefore, it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Method of fabricating polarizing member, and method of fabricating liquid crystal display including polarizing member


A Schmitt trigger (30) operates at low power and low frequency and can be implemented in a small amount of surface area on an integrated circuit. Specifically, the Schmitt trigger (30) includes transistors (34, 40) that are implemented as long channel devices and operate in a linear region for providing resistive elements, and another pair of transistors (44, 46) that function as non-linear devices allowing a current through the Schmitt trigger (30) to provide both a reference and the switchpoints for the Schmitt trigger (30). These transistors also establish low current through the Schmitt trigger (30).

Schmitt triggers are used in various applications for providing hysteresis to a digital input of a circuit. There are various known prior art Schmitt triggers available. FIG. 1 illustrates in schematic diagram form a Schmitt trigger in accordance with the prior art. Schmitt trigger 10 includes inverter 12, P-channel transistors 14 and 22, N-channel transistors 20 and 24, and inverter 26. Inverter 12 includes P-channel transistor 16 and N-channel transistor 18. As in most Schmitt trigger circuits, positive feedback is used to adjust a switchpoint of the inverter 12. The positive feedback includes non-linear elements 22 and 24 coupled to the output of inverter 12 to switch the supply to inverter 12 based on logic swing of an input signal labeled "V.sub.IN ". P-channel transistors 14 and 22 essentially provide a divider circuit. A ratio of P-channel transistor 14 to P-channel transistor 22 determines an upper switchpoint of inverter 12. Likewise, N-channel transistor 20 and 24 form a voltage divider to control the low switching voltage of inverter 12.
A current flows through the voltage divider reference circuits causing Schmitt trigger 10 to consume a relatively large amount of power. Also, the gates of P-channel transistor 14 and N-channel transistor 20 are coupled to receive the input voltage V.sub.IN causing increased input capacitance for Schmitt trigger 10.
Power is consumed in Schmitt trigger 10 when the input voltage V.sub.IN is less than V.sub.DD minus a threshold voltage ("V.sub.T ") of transistor 14, and greater than V.sub.SS plus a V.sub.T of transistor 20. P-channel transistor 14 and N-channel transistor 20 will remain conductive causing a current to flow through the circuit between V.sub.DD and V.sub.SS, thus consuming a large amount of current. In order to reduce the current through P-channel transistor 14 and P-channel transistor 22, the gate length of P-channel transistor 22 can be increased. However, if one increases the gate length of P-channel transistor 22, a gate length of P-channel transistor 16 must also be increased. In addition, the gate length of P-channel transistor 14 would also have to be increased in order to give the same hysteresis point. Increasing the gate lengths of these transistors increases the surface area required for implementing Schmitt trigger 10 on an integrated circuit. In addition to increasing the gate lengths of each of the P-channel transistors, a corresponding increase in gate lengths of each of the N-channel transistors would also be required.


In a controller for a vehicle-mounted component, a shift position detector that detects an effective shift position of an automatic transmission. A shift position switching unit switches the effective shift position of the automatic transmission. A parking switching unit mechanically locks the output shaft of the automatic transmission when the effective shift position in a parking position. A shift position switching controller, which is not energized when the engine is stopped, controls the shift position switching unit. A memory device memorizes the effective shift position at a timing when the shift position switching controller stops being energized. A vehicle-mounted component controller prohibits an operation of a vehicle-mounted component when the effective shift position in the memory device is not in the parking position while the current supply to the shift position switching controller is stopped.

It is desirable that vehicle-mounted components such as vehicle doors are operated only when the vehicle is securely parked, even while an engine o the vehicle is stopped. In order to allow the operation of the vehicle-mounted components only when an effective shift position is in a parking position in the vehicle with an automatic transmission, it is necessary to keep supplying electricity to an actuator controller for controlling an actuator even while the vehicle is parked and the engine is stopped. This is to detect the effective shift position driven by the actuator at all times via the actuator controller. In this regard, the parking position is a shift position in which there is no transmission between an input side and an output side of the automatic transmission and an output shaft of the automatic transmission is mechanically locked.
A capacitance of a vehicle-mounted battery is limited. Thus, it is desirable to detect the effective shift position without consuming electricity at all or with small electricity consumption while the vehicle is parked, to prevent the battery from running out.
The controller for a vehicle-mounted component has an automatic transmission, a shift position detector, a shift position switching unit, a parking switching unit, a shift position switching controller, a memory device and a vehicle-mounted component controller. The automatic transmission reduces a rotation of an engine and outputs the rotation at an output shaft. The shift position detector detects an effective shift position of the automatic transmission. The shift position switching unit switches the effective shift position of the automatic transmission. The parking switching unit mechanically locks the output shaft of the automatic transmission when the shift position switching unit switches the effective shift position in a parking position. The shift position switching controller controls the shift position switching unit. The current supply to the shift position switching controller is substantially stopped when the engine is stopped. The memory device memorizes the effective shift position at a timing when the shift position switching controller stops being energized. The vehicle-mounted component controller prohibits an operation of a vehicle-mounted component when the effective shift position memorized in the memory device is not in the parking position while the current supply to the shift position switching controller is stopped.

Controller for vehicle-mounted component


Disclosed is a wire harness fixing structure allowing deformation volume of a middle of a plate in a wire harness clip to be minimized when a wire harness is pulled. The wire harness fixing structure is configured to fix the wire harness to a panel using a wire harness clip. The wire harness clip includes a plate composed of a base portion and a pair of extension portion extending in a direction away from both ends in a length direction of the base portion. The pair of extension portion is formed narrower than the base portion. The plate and the wire harness are covered with an self adhesive sheet, and fixed. The latched part being latched in a hole of the panel allows the adhesive sheet between the plate and the panel to be pressured and adhered to an outer circumference of the hole.

FIGS. 16A to 16C are explanatory views of a wire harness fixing structure for fixing a wire harness to a fixed member using conventional wire harness clip.
The wire harness fixing structure shown in FIGS. 16A to 16C is such a structure for attaching the wire harness 202 to the fixed member 201 such as a body of a vehicle, various devices, or a panel, and is provided with a wire harness clip 203 to be latched in a latching hole 201a of the fixed member 201, and a fixing film 204 for holding the wire harness clip 203.
The above mentioned wire harness clip 203 is formed of synthetic resin, and is provided with an anchor 203a latched in the latching hole 201a of the fixed member 201, a plate 203b formed into plate-like shape.
A tip of the above mentioned anchor 203a is provided with a first latched piece 203c and a second latched piece 203d. The anchor 203a is inserted into the latching hole 201a of the fixed member 201, the first latched piece 203c and the second latched piece 203d are thus deformed elastically to contract, and the first latched piece 203c and the second latched piece 203d, after passing through the latching hole 201a, are restored and latched in the latching hole 201a.
The fixing film 204 is such a heat contraction film that is formed of such polyolefin series resin or chloroethene series resin, in which a though hole 204a through which the anchor 203a is passed is formed.
When the wire harness 202 is fixed to the fixed member 201 using the above mentioned wire harness clip 203 and the fixing film 204, as shown in FIG. 16A, the anchor 203a of the wire harness clip 203 is first inserted into the through hole 204a of the fixing film 204, and the wire harness clip 203 is fixed to the fixing film 204 with the plate 203b abutted onto the fixing film 204.
Then, as shown in FIG. 16B, the wire harness 202 is arranged on a middle of the fixing film 204, and the fixing film 204 is folded back frontward in such a way as to wrap around the wire harness 202. Then, after stacked portion of the fixing film 204 is adhered, welded, or thermal compression bonded, the fixing film 204 is heated and contracted so as to fix the wire harness clip 203 and the wire harness 202.
Then, as shown in FIG. 16C, the anchor 203a of the wire harness clip 203 is latched in the latching hole 201a of the fixed member 201, which allows the wire harness 202 to be fixed to the fixed member 201 (see PTL 1).
FIG. 17 is a perspective view illustrating other conventional wire harness clip. FIG. 18 is a plane view illustrating a state of the wire harness shown in FIG. 17 being fixed to the wire harness. FIG. 19 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a state of the latched part of the wire harness clip shown in FIGS. 17 and 18 being press-fitted and latched into a hole of the panel.
A wire harness clip 300 shown in FIGS. 17 to 19 is such a structure as to fix a wire harness 2 (see FIG. 18), formed such that a plurality of wire harnesses 2a is bound together, to a panel 3 (see FIG. 19), which is provided with a clip main body 301 formed of synthetic resin and a packing 302 mounted to the clip main body 301.
The above mentioned clip main body 301 is elongated plate-like shaped, which is provided with a plate 310 following the wire harness 2, a latched part 311 press-fitted and latched in a hole 3a of the panel 3, and a blade 315 to be attached to the packing 302.
The above mentioned latched part 311 is provided with a pillar 312 upstanding from the middle of the plate 310, and a pair of latched pieces 313 extending toward the plate 310 from a top of the pillar 312. A tip of each latched piece 313 is provided with a step-like latching shoulder 314 formed. The latched part 311 is press-fitted from the the tip of the pillar 312 into the hole 3a of the panel 3, and is latched in the hole 3a by each latching shoulder 314 of the pair of latched pieces 313 engaging to the edge of the hole 3a.
The blade 315 is formed into plate-like shape around a base end of the pillar 312, which involves elasticity.
The packing 302 is attached to a surface of the blade 315 at the side of panel 3, provided with a hole 320 in the middle that passes the latched part 311 therethrough. This packing 302 adheres to an outer circumference of the hole 3a by the latched part 311 being press-fitted to be latched in the hole 3a of the panel 3, preventing water or dust from penetrating inside the panel 3 from the hole 3a (near the plate 310 in FIG. 19).
When the wire harness 2 is fixed to the panel 3 using the above mentioned wire harness clip 300, as shown in FIG. 18, the plate 310 follows the wire harness 2, around which a tape 309 is wound to fix, and subsequently the latched part 311 is press-fitted in the hole 3a of the panel 3, allowing the wire harness 2 to be fixed to the panel 3.


An electric device comprises a core having a center section and two outer sections, a high current winding, and a low current winding. The high current winding includes a plurality of half-turn coils connected in parallel between a first high current terminal and a second high current terminal. Each of the plurality of half-turn coils is wound around a fraction of the center section and forms a loop around one of the two outer sections along with the first and second high current terminals. The low current winding includes a plurality of full-turn coils connected in series between a first low current terminal and a second low current terminal, each of the plurality of full-turn coils wound around the center section of the core substantially fully. The plurality of half-turn coils of the high current winding are interleaved with the plurality of full-turn coils of the low current winding.

Transformers are often used in high efficiency electric and power electronics applications, such as direct current to direct current (DC-DC) converters, direct current to alternating current (DC-AC) inverters, and alternating current to alternating current (AC-AC) systems. In some applications, high turns ratio, low total leakage inductance, and very high current ratings on the low voltage winding are desired for the transformer. Typically, high current low voltage windings are connected in parallel, while the low current high voltage windings are in series to achieve a high turns ratio. In addition, the low leakage inductance can be achieved by interleaving the low voltage and high voltage windings. This arrangement requires multiple terminations of both low voltage and high voltage windings, which might cause difficulty in manufacturability, increase leakage inductance, and consume more space.
Electric power transformers have a wide variety of applications. High-switching-frequency (e.g., 600 Hz, 1,200 Hz, 100,000 Hz, etc.) transformers are often used in modern compact high efficiency power electronics applications, such as DC-DC converters or DC-AC inverters. The high-frequency switching can help avoid saturation of inductors and transformers, enabling use of magnetic elements that have less weight and lower material cost. Furthermore, the high-frequency switching enables the use of optimal low loss operation switching in power electronics, such as bipolar junction transistors (BJT), metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET), etc., which may have differing switching speeds and/or control schemes.


Methods, systems, and computer program products for analyzing a product are disclosed. The product includes parts supplied by suppliers. Each part includes materials, each material includes substances, and each substance has a respective substance amount. A database includes relationship information for the product, parts, materials, substances and substance amounts. The product is analyzed by, first, receiving instructions to select at least one of the product, the parts, or the materials for analysis. Next, responsive to the received instructions, relationship information is retrieved from the database for the selected product, parts, and materials. Finally, the retrieved relationship information is processed to determine at least one of (1) a materials breakdown or (2) a compliance status for the selected product, parts, or materials.

The environmental impact of electronic components is a global concern. There are presently at least three directives in force concerning the environmental impact of electronic components including the European End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) directive, the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive, and the Restriction on the use of certain Hazardous Substances (ROHS) directive. In addition, a directive under consideration titled Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) provides a legislative framework for environmental design standards aimed at reducing the environmental impact of electronic equipment throughout a product's life cycle. Legislation and regulatory activities have been developed in the United States and China, e.g., California's Proposition 65 and China's RoHS. Methods and apparatus do not exist for aggregating and relating environmental substances and material data for electronic components in accordance with these directives. Accordingly, there is a need for methods and apparatus for aggregating and relating environmental substance and material data for electronic components. The present invention addresses this need among others.

Method and apparatus for determining material breakdown and product compliance


A holder for a support arm system having a fastening section with a receptacle into which a profiled support element is inserted and fastened on the holder. The holder contains one or several compensating elements for aligning the profiled support element and the receptacle has a support section, at least some portions of which are matched to an exterior circumference of the profiled support element. For making possible a simple and continuous adjustment of the profiled support element for compensating deformation under load, the receptacle has, directly or indirectly adjoining the support section, a regulating area which is wider in cross section than the support section and into which the profiled support element extends. The support section together with the regulating area forms a pivot seating for the profiled support element.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a holder for a support arm system having a fastening section with a receptacle into which a profiled support element is inserted and fastened on the holder, wherein the holder contains one or several compensating elements for aligning the profiled support element, and the receptacle has a support section, at least some portions of which are matched to an exterior circumference of the profiled support element.
2. Discussion of Related Art
An angle piece for a suspension device is known from German Patent Reference DE 43 31 125 C2, in which a receptacle is cut out for fixing a support arm, which is substantially oval in cross section, in place on a support arm fastening wall. The receptacle is an annular shoulder projecting away from the support arm fastening wall. The receptacle has a flat face on which the support arm is supported flush at its flat end. The securing of the support arm is provided by fastening screws which are inserted into fastening receivers cut into the support arm fastening walls and which can be screwed into aligned screw-in channels of the support arm.
With such support arm systems, the support arm system is deformed in the elastic range by a load, for example by a suspended housing for receiving a control unit. It is not possible to compensate for this lowering by the known receptacle for the support arm.
To avoid this disadvantage, solutions are known, for example, from the Rittal catalog "Systems for the Human/Machine Interface", in accordance with which the horizontal alignment of the support arm under the predicted load occurs by the insertion of small plates or partial radii between the end of the support arm and the surface against which the support arm rests. Thus, the support arm intentionally rests against an inclined surface and, without a load, extends obliquely upward, by which the lowering under a load is compensated.


An object of the present invention is to provide a lithographic printing plate with a hydrophilic layer mainly made from resins which has a photosensitivity to the light in near infrared region, on which images can be printed directly with laser beam, requiring no development and wiping off operation, and immediately recovering from ink stains without any difficulties when an ink attaches to non-image areas on printing, and a photosensitive resin composition applied to the printing plate.

A lithographic printing plate is a printing plate which is used for lithographic printing. The surface of the printing plate consists of image areas to which an ink is received and non-image areas which do not receive an ink and repel. In general, the non-image areas form a surface where water is adsorbed and kept thereon. In an actual printing process, the non-image areas is firstly provided with water to repel an ink. Thus, in a lithographic printing plate, the non-image areas are made of a hydrophilic material whose characteristics influence greatly the performance of the lithographic printing plate.
A printing plate most widely used as a lithographic printing plate is generally called as "PS-plate". The PS-plate uses an anode-oxidized aluminum plate whose surface is sand-blasted as a hydrophilic material, and a layer of an ink-receiving photosensitive material is formed on the anode-oxidized aluminum plate. The PS-plate is exposed to light corresponding to an original image, and the photosensitive material except for those in image areas is eliminated to expose the underlying hydrophilic aluminum surface so that an image consisting of image areas and non-image areas is formed on the printing plate.
The process in which the photosensitive layer is eliminated after exposure to light is called as development. Because in the development process, generally an alkaline solution or an organic solvent is used as a developer, disposal of the developer waste has loaded a heavy burden on printing operation. Particularly in recent years, with increasing awareness of environmental problems, it is requested for the developer waste to be disposed in environmentally completely harmless state. In addition, an exclusive apparatus is required for development. From the standpoint of the problems of high installation cost of such apparatus or requirement of keeping sufficient working space, a printing plate that does not require development process is requested.
As a plate that does not require development process, for example, a plate whose non-image areas comprises a hydrophilic swelling layer is disclosed in Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-open publication No. 282142/1996). This plate, after the hydrophilic swelling layer is formed, acquires photosensitivity by absorbing photosensitive materials in the hydrophilic swelling layer. The image areas lose hydrophilicity as the result of reaction of the photosensitive materials contained in the hydrophilic swelling layer through exposure to light. However, in this method, unnecessary photosensitive materials remain in the non-image areas, so that the problem of requiring a rinsing process still remains, where the photosensitive materials in the non-image areas are rinsed off after exposure to light.
Patent Document 2 (Japanese Patent Laid-open publication No. 314934/1995) discloses a plate having a constitution where an ink-repelling layer made of a silicone resin is superimposed on an inorganic light-absorbing layer of titanium or titanium oxide and the like. In this plate, the silicone resin layer repels an ink to form non-image areas, and image areas are formed by irradiation of near-infrared light. On printing, the silicone resin layer is eliminated after irradiation with light so as to expose the support surface having affinity to ink. In order to eliminate the silicone resin completely, wiping off operation is required. When the silicone resin is wiped off incompletely, the ink is not sufficiently adhered to the irradiated portion and defects are formed in the image areas, leading to a drawback of imperfect printing.
Further, Patent Document 3 (Japanese Patent Laid-open publication No. 109141/2001) discloses a printing plate having a hydrophilic layer to which a water-soluble polymer compound is added. This plate employs a so-called ablation mechanism in which the hydrophilic layer is irradiated with laser beam to cause, by thermal energy, chemical reactions such as burning, dissolution, decomposition, vaporization or explosion or physical changes in the irradiated portion of the hydrophilic layer, and as a result, the adhesion of the irradiated portion of the hydrophilic layer is lowered so as to eliminate selectively the portion irradiated with laser beam. This method still has such a problem of requiring a wiping off operation with a water-swollen pad and the like.
In recent years, a method called on-press development has been proposed, in which development process is carried out in printing machines on site. In the on-press development method, unnecessary portion after exposure to light is eliminated in printing machines, without using developer, with a fountain solution or by mechanical contact with an impression drum or a blanket drum in the machine. For example, Patent Document 4 (Japanese Patent Laid-open publication No. 127683/1997) and Patent Document 5 (Japanese Patent Laid-open publication No. 171249/1997) disclose plates having a hydrophilic support with a photosensitive layer containing water-dispersing thermoplastic resin particles that become to have an affinity to ink by melting and welding through exposure to light. The photosensitive layer of the plates can be developed with a fountain solution in printing machines on site, because the unexposed portion is dissolved in water. The on-press development method has an advantage of having no requirement for installation of a development apparatus and actual operation of development, however, the method has such drawbacks of requiring strict humidity control for the plate as well as contaminating the fountain solution and ink with insoluble components after exposure to light.
As a plate which does not require both wet-development and on-press development, Patent Document 6 (Japanese Patent Laid-open publication No. 1850/1995) discloses a method in which a photosensitive layer contains microcapsules encapsulating an oleophilic substance in a hydrophilic resin which reacts with the hydrophilic groups of the hydrophilic resin and forms chemical bonds, and the microcapsules are collapsed by irradiation with light so as to change the hydrophilic resin into oleophilic. However, this method also has a disadvantage of requiring microcapsules with small diameter to meet the request for higher resolution and lower scumming and also has a difficulty in the production of such microcapsules. While the microcapsules can be collapsed relatively uniformly by heat and pressure on printing with thermal heads, there is such a problem that the microcapsules are collapsed non-uniformly by irradiation with light on printing and also have poor resolution.
The present applicants disclose a plate for lithographic printing in Patent Document 7 (International Publication WO 01/083234), in which the plate is consisted of a photosensitive layer of a hydrophilic resin which is obtained by cross-linking a photosensitive resin composition containing a hydrophilic polymer, a cross-linking agent, and a photo-absorber, or another photosensitive resin composition containing a hydrophilic polymer, across-linking agent, a photo-absorber, and a hydrophobic polymer, and the surface of the plate changes from hydrophilic to inkphilic (having affinity to ink) by irradiation with light. This plate requires no development and wiping off operation and has a good sensitivity and resolution because changes occur only on the surface of the light-irradiated portion. However, an improvement is awaited so as to completely eliminate the ink that adheres on non-image areas.
The same applicants disclose a lithographic printing plate in Patent Document 8 (Japanese Patent Laid-open publication No. 18547/2001), in which the plate has a hydrophilic layer comprising organic substances and has a porous surface. In the plate, an attempt of increasing hydrophilicity of the hydrophilic layer is made by increasing the surface area of the hydrophilic layer through its porous surface and increasing the water-absorbing rate to the plate. However, also in this plate, an improvement is desired so as to completely eliminate the ink that attached to non-image areas. Another improvement is also desired, because the plate does not provide satisfactory performance of imaging when an image is directly printed on the plate by irradiation with laser beam.                Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-open publication No. 282142/1996        Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laid-open publication No. 314934/1995        Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Laid-open publication No. 109141/2001        Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent Laid-open publication No. 127683/1997        Patent Document 5: Japanese Patent Laid-open publication No. 171249/1997        Patent Document 6: Japanese Patent Laid-open publication No. 1850/1995        Patent Document 7: International Publication WO 01/083234        Patent Document 8: Japanese Patent Laid-open publication No. 18547/2001

Lithographic printing original plate and lithographic printing plate

Abstract: A lithographic printing original plate having a photosensitive layer formed on a support is characterized in that the surface of the photosensitive layer has a phase-separation structure, and the recessed parts are formed on the surface of a photosensitive layer by the dissolution of one component of photosensitive layer constituting the phase-separation and the surface of the photosensitive layer is changed to have affinity for ink by irradiation with light.


A low-cost portable digital video player receives proprietary compressed data from a source such as a personal video recorder (PVR), and displays the data on an integral display. A rewritable non-volatile memory of the player stores the data and a media decoder of the player transforms and decompresses the data. According to one embodiment the decoder transforms the data to a non-proprietary format, prior to storing the data. According to a second embodiment, the memory stores the data in the proprietary format, and decoder transforms and decompresses the data in response to an instruction from a user input device, and transfers the decoded data to a display. A cradle for the player provides communications to the PVR, a power supply and optionally further storage capacity.

Personal video recorders (PRVs) such as provided by Tivo™ and Replay™, are a relatively recent development compared with the older tape-based video cassette recorders. PVRs record broadcast video data in a proprietary, compressed video format based upon a standard encoded, audio-visual, digital, compressed format, e.g., MPEG-2, and provide a convenient way to time-shift a broadcast video program. Unfortunately, conventional PVRs are not portable, and thus do not provide a convenient way to "place-shift" (permit recording and viewing recorded broadcast video programs in alternate locations).
Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to provide a low-cost portable playback device for reproducing compressed digital information at a time and a place different from the time and place of the original video reception.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a portable playback device configured to reproduce compressed video information recorded by a PVR for viewing.
These and other objects of the present invention are discussed or will be apparent from the detailed description of the invention.

Portable player for personal video recorders


Some embodiments provide a non-transitory machine-readable medium that stores a program executable by a device. The program receives a request to process a file. The file includes a set of images of text. The program further converts the text in each image in the set of images into a set of machine-readable text. The program also uses a machine learning model to predict, based on the set of machine-readable text, whether the set of images of the file are images of pages that belong to a single document or images of pages that belong to different documents.

As cloud computing systems and big data continue to grow at a rapid rate, the demand for fast and efficient document management systems also grows. In general, document management systems are used to receive, track, manage, and store documents. Often, documents that a document management system receives are parsed, examined, analyzed, sorted, modified, etc. before it can be managed and/or stored. Without optimizations to reduce the amount of resources required to process incoming documents or improve efficiency, document management systems can quickly become overwhelmed and sluggish as the amount of documents is handles increases.

Separating documents based on machine learning models


A synthetic aperture radar hybrid-polarity method and architecture comprising transmitting circular polarization (by driving the orthogonal linear feeds simultaneously by two identical waveforms, 90° out of phase), and receiving horizontal (H) and vertical (V) linear polarizations, coherently. Once calibrated, the H and V single-look complex amplitude data are sufficient to form all four Stokes parameters, which fully characterize the observed backscattered field.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and, more particularly, to a method and architecture to maximize the measurement potential of a SAR using a partial polarimetric scheme by obtaining the four Stokes parameters of a backscattered field.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many applications using space-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR), the prime objective is to maximize the measurement potential thereof in response to backscatter from a random field whose elements have unknown orientation relative to the polarity of the radar's illumination. Measurement potential is maximized, if and only if, the data products are the four Stokes parameters of the backscattered field (or their logical equivalent) (see R. K. Raney, "Dual-Polarized SAR and Stokes Parameters," IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, vol. 3, pp. 317-319, 2006, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety). Rotational invariance implies that the transmitted polarization must be circular. The choice of polarization basis for the receiver is open to optimization of the radar's design within reliability, mass, and power constraints.
The high-level objective of "partial polarimetry" or "compact polarimetry" (these terms are used interchangeably herein) is to exploit coherent dual-polarized radar data to realize many of the benefits of a quadrature-polarized system without the attendant costs, such as halved swath coverage and doubled average transmitter power. It should be stressed that any partial-polarimetry scheme is not an equivalent substitute for quadrature polarization. Partial polarimetry simply is a major and efficient step up from a single channel system towards full polarimetric measurement capabilities. Partial polarimetry is a reasonable strategy when system resources (power, mass, data volume, or cost) preclude full polarimetry. Partial polarimetry is also compatible as an optional mode for any radar that implements full polarimetry.
One of the first partial polarimetric concepts was the π/4 mode, which posits radiating a linearly-polarized field at 45° (with respect to either horizontal (H) or vertical (V) orientations), then receiving coherently the resulting H and V backscatter components. The concept subsequently was extended to include circularly polarized transmission, with the suggestion that the two types of transmitted polarization should lead to equivalent results. It is now generally accepted that these two transmit polarizations lead to different results (see R. K. Raney, "Decomposition of hybrid-polarity SAR data," presesnted at POLinSAR, Frascati, Italy, 2007, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety). For clarity, as used herein "hybrid-polarity" refers to the "circular transmit, H&V linear receive" case, in contrast to the "π/4 mode", which refers to the "slant-linear transmit, H&V linear receive" case. Both of these mixed-polarity modes have been used extensively in meteorological radar.
In the π/4 mode, decomposition analyses are most successful for scatterers within the scene whose orientation distributions are predominantly horizontal or vertical. In contrast, however, the objective of many applications is to ascertain the prevailing orientation of backscattering constituents, rather than to presume them at the outset. For such applications, an a priori assumption on backscatterer orientation is not appropriate. Further, there are important applications, such as planetary geology, in which decomposition should be able to classify dihedral-like backscattering features regardless of their orientation. Such applications are best served by rotational invariance, which requires that the illumination be circularly polarized. In short, the preferred form of compact polarimetry depends on the intended application.
An alternative compact polarimetric approach is to receive coherent dual-circular polarizations in response to a circularly-polarized transmitted field. End-to-end circular polarization has an extensive heritage in radar astronomy, from which very good results have been obtained, including backscatter analyses based on Stokes parameters. A spacecraft SAR that is circularly-polarized on transmit and dual-circularly-polarized on receive would be a viable alternative to the hybrid-polarity architecture described herein, but only if the required hardware were more appealing and the resulting measurements were comparably robust. However, such an embodiment implies several disadvantages in hardware and performance that are avoided by the hybrid-polarity method of this invention.
Circular polarization is not entirely foreign to Earth-observing SARS. Noteworthy examples include analysis of quadrature-polarized data from sloping terrain, for which it has been shown that synthesis of circularly-polarized data leads to results that are superior to those from the more conventional linearly-polarized data construct. However, in all such cases, the starting point requires data generated by a quadrature-polarized system, thus invoking all of the attendant disadvantages of that mode.
Recent studies conducted in support of two radars being implemented for deployment at the Moon have looked carefully at alternative architectures, within the constraints of small lunar orbiters. The science requirements include measurement of the circular-polarization ratio, maximized potential to distinguish between backscatter types, and robustness to randomly-oriented dihedral backscatterer distributions. The implementation requirements include minimal mass and power.
Given a SAR constrained to transmit only one polarization, what is needed are a method and architecture that meet two aggressive measurement objectives: (i) full characterization and exploitation of the backscattered field, and (ii) invariance to geometrical orientations of features in the scene.

Synthetic aperture radar hybrid-polarity method and architecture for obtaining the stokes parameters of a backscattered field


This invention relates to a method for enabling the use of valid authentication certificates when the public key and private keys of any of the certifying authority have expired, comprising obtaining a server certifying authority chain (SCAC) certificate by the server from the said certifying authority, presenting the original valid authentication certificate along with the said server certifying authority chain certificate by the server to the browser during the SSL handshake, accepting the transaction by the browser after verification of the original authentication certificate using the expired public key of the certifying authority, and verifying the said SCAC certificate using the new public key of the said certifying authority.

Digital Certificates are used all over the Secure Internet world for Authentication and Data Integrity. To set up a secure Web Server, the servers request a certificate from Certification Authorities (CA). CAs are trusted third parties that are recognized and trusted by all Internet population including all Web Servers and Web Browsers. The Server Certificate is a signature by the CA that the Server has been validated by it and can be trusted. It is a signature by the CAs private key on the server's public key, its Domain Name and other information like Address etc. The self-signed Certificates of the CAs are provided in all the Servers and Browsers. So in a normal SSL Handshake between a web server and a client i.e. a Browser, when the server presents its certificate to the browser the Browser software validates the Certificate by checking the signature of the CA on the certificate with the help of the CA certificate it has.
The Problem in the above digital certificates is that the strength of the security lies in the strength of the keys used in the system. There are one pair of keys for each entity including the CA and the Web Server—the Private Key and the Public Key. Now as the CA certificates are available publicly and trusted by everyone, these keys need to be very strong and no one should be able to break them. However, this is not possible forever. Knowing the Public Key (available in the CA Certificate), with some time and money, the keys be broken. Each key has its own lifetime alter which it is assumed that it is no longer safe to use the as in that time period the keys can be broken. So the CAs expire their certificates alter some amount of time. This poses some problems as the servers using the Certificates from CAs whose certiticates expire become no longer valid (even though the servers certificates are valid i.e. not expired). Although the communication might still be secure the client throws up a message box to the user warning him that the CA has expired and it might not be a safe to transact with the server. This creates a lot of confusion for the user.
The first solution to the above problem currently is to get a new certificate for the Web server from the CA with the new CA keys generated.
The second solution to the above problem is to modify the browser software to automatically accept this connection even though the certificate has expired.
This problem was seen on 1 Jan. 2000 very much as one of the most used Verisign Certificate expired on the day and Sites using the certificates issued by the CA has to face problems as their users got an undesired pop up window from Browsers warning them of the expiration. The solution was either get the new Server Certificate from Verisign or use New versions of the Browsers. The new versions probably accepted the certificate irrespective of the date expiration. As there are a lot of CAs, each will have the same problem when their certificates expire. The users will have problems with the old versions of the Browsers, which might amount to a sizable amount of a Web Site's users. Verisign had advised users to get the newer versions of the browser.
The third solution would be to have a requirement for all CAs not to issue Certificates for period spanning more than their expiry date.
The problem with the first Solution is that it requires generating of a new Server Certiticate Request, Sending it to the CA, the CA validating and signing it, sending the Certificate to the server, and finally the server importing it and making it the default Certificate. This amounts to a lot of rework, in fact requires the entire process of Certificate generation to be done again.
The problem with the second solution is that it will work only with the newer versions of the Browser software thereby cutting a sizable amount of the Internet Population. Generally while dealing with Internet applications, users would not like to spend much time in downloading new software or might not like being advised of getting a new Browser. So sites might lose on some of their customers and hence some of their Business. Secondly, by accepting the expired CA, the newer versions defeat the purpose of having expired the Certificate at the first place and do pose a security threat.
The problem with the third solution is that it is practically not feasible and is not used currently. There are a lot of situations where CAs have to issue certificates for longer times. For e.g., the CA might generate keys for 2 years, after 1 year and 1 month, when an entity requests for a certificate for 1 year, the CA has to issue it for 1 year and cannot do that for 11 months and expect the user to get it reissued after that. The user will go to some other CA and the CA will lose its business.

Method and system for authentication when certification authority public and private keys expire

Abstract: This invention further includes a system conducting secure transactions including a certifying authority for authenticating such transactions.

International Business Machines Corporation


A facial steamer having an adjustable steamer arm, which includes a steamer spread arm, a first adjustable device, a second adjustable device hingedly and rotatably connect to the first adjustable device by means of two connecting means, a steam transporting mean, and a mounting device for rotatably mounting the second adjustable device in position, enables the adjustable steamer arm to be selectively rotated along an connecting axis thereof and swung up and down for enabling the cosmetician to selectively adjust the adjustable steamer arm to an adequate position with respect to the face position of the patient more easily. Moreover, the facial steamer is specifically designed to be located at a hand reaching position close to the cosmetician for ensuring easy operation.

There is an old saying that: "loving to look beautiful is a first nature of woman". That is definitely a true statement but, nowadays, even men are paying more attention to their outlook than before. In today's society, people are unavoidably to judge you by how you look because it is the first resource that you present yourselves to others. Therefore, in order to look younger and healthier, it is getting more and more popular for people spending time to have facial care in beauty shop to protect their skin and to clean their faces by utilizing the facial steamer. Many men and women go to the beauty shop to have their faces done on a weekly basis. The facial steamer can supply atomized steam spreading onto a patient's face skin for cleaning and relaxing purposes. After the skin is spread with the atomized steam, the cosmetician can massage the skin and clean out the dirt particle from the pores of the skin.
As shown in FIG. 1A, a first generation facial steamer on the market is simply a very basic equipment, that comprises only a steamer device 100 and a steamer arm 101 rigidly extending from the steamer device. A far end of the steamer arm provided a steam outlet opening 102 for spreading out steam at a fixed angle that can not be adjusted to other desirable position.
A second generation facial steamer, as shown in FIG. 1B, has been improved over the first generation facial steamer, in which a steamer arm 201 is reconstructed to rotatably attach on a side of a steamer device 200 so that the steamer are 201 is able to be adjusted with certain rotating angle. Even though the second generation facial steamer provides plenty of improvement over the first generation facial steamer, the rotatably angle is only limited to unidirectional movement.
In view of such limited rotatable angle of the conventional facial steamer, it causes the following shortcomings:
a) As shown in FIG. 1C, the patient P usually is required to lay on an operation bed while the cosmetician C sits or stands at an end side of the operation bed in order to work on the patient's face. Due to the limited unidirectional rotation movement of the facial steamer arm 201, the control panel 203 having all operation buttons of the facial steamer provided thereon is unavoidably positioned far away from the sitting position of the cosmetician C, so that the cosmetician is unable to directly hand reaching the control panel 203 without the need of standing up or even walking around the facial steamer 200 to operate those operation buttons provided on the control panel 203. That causes great inconvenience for the cosmetician.
b) Since the facial steamer arm 201 is only adjustable within the limited unidirectional rotation movement, the steam outlet opening 202 disposed on the facial steamer arm 201 can only be fixed at a certain discharging angle to spread the steam on the face skin of the patient.
c) When the cosmetician needs to adjust the facial steamer arm to spread steam on some other adjacent portion of the patient, the cosmetician must move the whole facial steamer instead of just the facial steamer arm.

Facial steamer with an adjustable steamer arm