A new set of random-access preamble signatures are introduced to differentiate new-release UEs from UEs compliant only with earlier releases. Additional new features of a random-access procedure are also disclosed, including an ability to deploy multiple transmission-time-intervals TTIs) in a given area. An example mobile terminal, according to some embodiments of the present invention, selects a TTI from two or more possible TTIs. The mobile terminal then selects a preamble signature from a group of one or more preamble signatures associated with enhanced-uplink resources and associated with the selected TTI, and transmits a random-access channel (RACH) preamble, using the selected preamble signature. In some embodiments, the mobile terminal selects between a 2-millisecond TTI and a 10-millisecond TTI.

The 3rd-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is continuing development of the specifications for the Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). More particularly, work is ongoing to improve the end-user experience and performance in Release 11 of those specifications. These efforts include work to improve end-user experience and system performance in the CELL_FACH state.
CELL_FACH is a Radio Resource Control (RRC) state in which the end-user terminal (user equipment, or UE, in 3GPP terminology) is known on cell level (i.e., it has a cell ID) and has a layer 2 connection, but has no dedicated physical layer resource. Instead, the UE in CELL_FACH state must share common physical layer resources with other users in CELL_FACH state.
The Enhanced Dedicated Channel (E-DCH), which is an uplink packet-access channel, can be deployed so that it is may be used by UEs in CELL_FACH state. More usually, E-DCH is used as a dedicated channel in CELL_DCH state, in which case a separate resource is allocated for each user. When E-DCH is used in CELL_FACH state, however, the system uses a pool of E-DCH resources that can each be temporarily assigned to a UE in CELL_FACH state.
This common pool of E-DCH resources is referred to herein as "common E-DCH resources." E-DCH resources are normally managed by the Radio Network Controller (RNC), but the pool of common E-DCH resources is instead managed by the NodeB (3GPP terminology for a base station.) Configuration data specifying the E-DCH configurations are broadcasted to UEs in the cell.
FIG. 1 illustrates common E-DCH transmission in CELL_FACH state. Shown at the top is the Primary Physical Common Control Channel (P-CCPCH), a downlink physical channel that carries the broadcast control channel (BCH), which in turn carries system- and cell-specific information for UEs, such as indicators that specify which uplink scrambling codes are to be used. The P-CCPCH also serves as a timing reference for all physical channels.
The next channel illustrated in FIG. 1 is the Acquisition Indicator Channel (AICH). This physical channel is used to carry Acquisition Indicators (AIs), which correspond to preamble signatures transmitted by UEs and which are used by the NodeB to acknowledge the receipt of Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) transmissions by UEs. The AICH can simultaneously acknowledge up to 16 PRACH preambles.
As shown in the next line of FIG. 1, labeled "RACH," the procedure to access the common E-DCH channel in CELL_FACH begins in the same way as a Release-99 Random Access Channel (RACH), i.e., with preamble power ramping using randomly selected preamble signatures. In the illustrated scenario, the UE transmits a preamble in slots #0 and #3, with the second transmission having a higher power level. Having detected the second preamble transmission by the UE, the NodeB acknowledges the UE's PRACH transmission with an AICH sequence, in slot #6. It also informs the UE which common E-DCH resource it has assigned to the UE. The UE can then use the E-DCH resource, as shown in FIG. 1, beginning with slot #7. Also shown in FIG. 1 are the Enhanced Absolute Grant Channel (E-AGCH) and the Fractional Dedicated Physical Channel (F-DPCH), which are downlink channels used to control uplink transmissions. Not shown are the Enhanced Relative Grant Channel (E-RGCH) and the Enhanced Hybrid-ARQ Indicator Channel (E-HICH), which are additional downlink channels for controlling the uplink.
A common E-DCH resource is defined as a particular combination of the following: an uplink scrambling code; an E-DCH Radio Network Temporary Identifier (E-RNTI); an F-DPCH code and timing offset; E-AGCH/E-RGCH/E-HICH codes and signatures; and parameters for use by the UE in uplink High-Speed Dedicated Physical Control Channel (HS-DPCCH) transmissions, such as power offsets and Channel Quality Report configuration information.
As of Release 10 of the 3GPP standards, the CELL_FACH state is commonly used to provide an efficient use of radio resources for UEs when data is arriving in bursts, with longer idle periods in between. The goals include both an efficient use of the UE's limited battery resources, as well as an efficient use of the network's radio resources. Ideally, an UE should be inactive between the bursts but still be capable of swiftly moving into an active state when there are packets to send or receive. For this kind of on-off type traffic patterns, the connection set-up latency and signaling load has a significant impact both on the preservation of the device battery and on the transmission quality perceived by the end user. In dormant periods, UEs are either sent to Idle state or are set to use configured Discontinuous Receive (DRX) schemes, to save battery.
Information specifying E-DCH resource configurations is broadcasted to UEs using SIB 5, which a system information block sent over the BCH. Some of the broadcasted parameters, such as the Transmission Time Interval (TTI), are common for all common E-DCH resources.
The specifications for E-DCH as of Release 10 of the 3GPP specifications are rather rigid and do not allow flexible configurations. One example is the Transmission Time Interval (TTI) for common E-DCH resources. Currently, two different TTIs may be configured: either 10-millisecond TTI or 2-millisecond TTI. However, for coverage reasons, the network is likely to have some common E-DCH resources configured with 10-millisecond TTI. As specified today, this implies that all resources must the same TTI. However, UEs in good radio conditions, e.g., in so-called hot spots, could make good use of common E-DCH resource with a shorter TTI, i.e. 2 milliseconds. A shorter TTI improves both uplink throughput and network capacity, since each resource is occupied for less time. Concurrent deployment of 2-millisecond and 10-millisecond TTI will thus introduce improvements and provide the network with the flexibility to make an effective and optimal utilization of the common E-DCH resources.
Another issue with current specifications is that E-DCH operation with 2-millisecond TTI does not support per-HARQ activation and de-activation for those common E-DCH resources. This feature is specified for CELL_DCH state. Per-HARQ-process activation/de-activation allows the network to keep a much closer control over the resources and the interference level. Per-HARQ-process activation/de-activation is performed by the NodeB. The problem resides in the fact that the Node-B does not have an explicit indication of the UE release. If per-HARQ-process activation/de-activation were to be standardized, there could be an inter-operability issue. If the Node-B sends an HARQ activation/de-activation order to a pre-Release-11 UE, i.e., a UE that is not compliant to Release 11 specifications, that UE will not act on that order according the specifications.
The utilization of common E-DCH resources may be inefficient for certain types of traffic, especially for very small packets like TCP ACKs. This inefficiency arises from the fact that the time from initial RACH preamble to active transition (the actual time depends on the system configuration) may be prefaced by DPCCH transmission, as well as that the relative overhead for a single, small payload transmission is rather large. In other words, the total resources used for control channel and signaling are relatively high, compared to very small transmissions like a TCP ACK.
Still other inefficiencies arise from the fact that the common E-DCH resource used by a UE is not released until all the HARQ processes have been acknowledged. This last issue means that common E-DCH resources are allocated for relatively long periods for the time actually needed for the transmission. From the network point of view, the network will wait at least one HARQ Round-Trip Time (RTT) from the last acknowledged HARQ process before it re-uses the resource for another UE. In practice, this means that the common E-DCH resource is occupied longer than a Resource-99 PRACH resource could be, given that only one packet is transmitted. Furthermore, in high load scenarios, the AICH NACK rate will increase due to the lack of common E-DCH resources.
To address some of these problems, a fallback approach is being standardized. With this approach, a Release-99 RACH process is used to access the network, even by Release-11 capable UEs, instead of using one of the common E-DCH resources. However, a similar problem to one of those noted above arises in the deployment of this fallback approach. Namely, the Node-B does not know the UE release. If the network wants to explicitly indicate to the UE to fall back to RACH using already specified Release-99 procedures, there will be interoperability issues, since pre-Release-11 UEs will not recognize and act on those orders. Additionally if new procedures are standardized, the NodeB needs to know which UEs are able to handle them.
In brief, the various significant issues with the use of E-DCH in CELL_FACH state include the following: how to control and configure the usage of the concurrent TTI configurations; individual UE capabilities are unknown before contention resolution; and network control is needed to handle overall interference, hardware resources, HARQ operation point, cell coverage, scheduling, etc.

Enhanced dedicated-channel signaling in a CELL


A sterile display for a sterile container includes a thermally actuatable display apparatus for the display of a first and a second sterility condition of the sterile container. The display apparatus includes an adjustment mechanism having an actuator element which can be transferred, by external heating, from a first stress state in which the first sterility condition can be displayed, to a second stress state in which the second sterility condition can be displayed. The adjustment mechanism includes a thermo-bimetal element wherein, by its actuation, the actuator element of the adjustment mechanism can be transferred from the first stress state to the second stress state.

It is known that in medicine or surgery, sterile containers are used which commonly can be loaded with surgical instruments designated for sterilization. During the sterilization process the instruments remain in the sterile container and are heated in it with a predetermined temperature so strongly and for so long that any micro-organisms and any of their spores contained on the surgical instruments are killed. In order to assure and inform a user, for example the staff who would like to use the sterile instruments in the operating room, that the instruments have indeed undergone a sterilization process and the use of said instruments on a patient is unproblematic with regards to a risk of infection, different embodiments of sterile displays for sterile containers have already been suggested in the prior art.
For example an exclusively manually actuatable sterile display in the form of a seal for a sterile container is known from DE 33 16 141 A1. The seal, which may only be accessed by a predetermined group of personnel, displays in its intact state attached to the sterile container that sterilized objects, in particular surgical instruments, are in the sterile container. It is disadvantageous in the case of this type of sterile display that the seal must be manually attached after the sterilization process, tested for integrity, and removed again before opening of the sterile container, or at least destroyed. The sterilization process must also be precisely monitored for a reliable evaluation of the sterility, due to the manual attaching of the seal.
Another type of sterile display is for example known from EP 0 412 571 B1. A sterile display for a sterile container is described therein, said sterile display including a display element for the display of a performed sterilization of the contents of the sterile container. For this purpose the display element comprises a spring made from a shape memory alloy, which makes available a spring load only upon exceeding a predetermined temperature, preferably the sterilization temperature. By means of the suddenly applied spring load, a locking member is transferred to a closed position in which it is visible that a sterilization has taken place. It is disadvantageous that for the sterile display a comparatively cost-intensive spring made from a shape memory alloy is used. It is further disadvantageous that such a spring cannot be brought as often as necessary into its stressed shape-memory position, but rather it is subject to restrictions with respect to its lifetime and thereby also with respect to the possible sterilization processes of the sterile container. Finally the sterile display of EP 0 412 571 B1 must be manually put back in its open position upon opening of the sterile container.

Sterile indicator for a sterilization container


An elongate channel member is arranged for mounting to a front wall of an awning to direct rainwater therefrom. The channel is arranged to include spaced lug members, having support apertures to each receive a fastener for securement of the channel to the awning member.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of invention relates to gutter structure, and more particularly pertains to a new and improved awning gutter wherein the same is arranged for retrofit to an existing awning member.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various awning structure such as aluminum awnings are positioned relative to portals and windows and the like of various buildings. Particularly relative to the entrance ways of such buildings, the fluid directed thereon is undesirable relative to erosion as well as during wintry climatic conditions and fluid directed onto such entrance ways is subject to freezing resulting in hazardous conditions. The instant invention is arranged to overcome deficiencies of the prior art by providing for a retrofit awning gutter structure arranged for securement relative to an awning member and in this respect, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.


The present disclosure discloses an inter-terminal interaction method, and related device and system, the method comprising: receiving by a second terminal a media resource insertion command entered by a user on a social networking platform; inserting the user's social networking platform account information into the command by the second terminal; sending the command from the second terminal to a service device; searching by the service device terminal identification information associated with the account information; generating prompt information by the service device; sending from the service device to a first terminal the prompt information based on the terminal identification information associated with the account information; presenting by the first terminal media resources based on the prompt information; sending from the first terminal to the service device media resources selected by the user from the presented media resources; receiving by the service device from the first terminal the media resources; sending from the service device to the second terminal the media resources; inserting the media resources into the social networking platform by the second terminal. The present disclosure can reduce manual participation by users and increase the efficiency of inter-terminal interactions.

On social networking sites ("SNS"), a user can log in certain social networking platforms (such as personal spaces and microblogs, etc.) using accounts, and publish information (such as blogs, etc.) on the social networking platforms the user has logged in, thereby allowing friends, colleagues and relatives in the user's relationship circle to promptly know the user's status.
In practice, when a user is publishing information (such as blogs, etc.) on a specific social networking platform logged in using a specific terminal, the user often wants to insert certain media resources such as pictures and videos in a box through which the information is published, thereby enriching the content of the information. However, when a media resource is not stored on a local terminal but on another terminal (such as a mobile phone, a tablet personal computer, etc.), the user needs to accomplish the interaction between the local terminal and the other terminal to transfer the media resource. This is commonly accomplished by transferring a media resource stored on another terminal to a local terminal using a storage card, and then inserting the media resource into the information-publishing box on the social networking platform. Alternatively, a user can use a universal serial bus to establish a communication connection between a local terminal and another terminal, and then insert a media resource stored on the other terminal into the information-publishing box on the social networking platform.
It has been found in practice that the process of accomplishing interactions between a local terminal and another terminal to transfer media resources requires a lot of manual participation by users. The result is low efficiency of inter-terminal interactions.

Method, related device, and system for inter-terminal interactions

TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) COMPANY LIMITED


The present invention discloses a method and a device for discovering a UE, a first UE and a base station. The method for discovering a UE comprises the steps of: monitoring, by a first UE, an uplink signal in a mobile communication system; extracting, by the first UE, first information for identifying a UE that is to be discovered and that transmits the uplink signal from the monitored uplink signal; transmitting, by the first UE, a monitoring report message carrying the first information to a base station, acquiring, by the first UE, the device ID of the UE to be discovered in accordance with the monitoring report response message and completing the discovery process of the UE. According to the present invention, it is able to discover the UE without changing a channel system of an existing system and occupying time-frequency resources of the system.

The rise of mobile Internet applications has brought about new challenges and requirements, e.g., higher user rate and more flexible communication mode, for the existing mobile communication technology.
New radio technologies, such as Device to Device (D2D) communication technology or enhanced Local Access (eLA) technology, have been developed to meet these requirements.
Different from any previous mode where the communication is merely performed in a mobile communication network via a link between a user and a base station, the D2D communication technology tries to perform the communication via a direct radio link between the users, while the eLA technology tries to set a local access node with a low power and then performs the communication via a radio link between the user and the local access node. Generally, the link between the users or between the user and the local access node has a short transmission distance and a high link quality, and can provide a high frequency reuse gain. As a result, it can help to ease the problems of constrained spectrum resources of a macro cell as well as low user rate.
In order to realize the communication between the users or between the user and the local access node, at least one of the users or the local access node must at first discover the other neighboring users, and then establish a connection with the discovered user for communication. Different from the base station in the existing mobile communication, the user or the local access node will not transmit a sync signal or a reference signal periodically to help the user to identify a cell ID. Thus, it is necessary to design a scheme so as to discover the neighboring users by the user or the local access node.
An existing method for discovering a UE is realized by setting a specific physical layer channel, which occupies certain time-frequency resources and is dedicated to identify a neighboring UE. For example, a UE will use the specific physical layer channel to broadcast a signal including its ID information, while the other neighboring UE will monitor the specific physical layer channel, receive a discovering signal and recover a UE ID included therein. In other words, the UE that transmits the broadcast signal will be discovered.
However, such a method needs to occupy certain time-frequency resources for discovering the UE, and these resources cannot be used for data transmission, so a fixed overhead of a system will be increased. In addition, a new physical layer channel introduced into the existing system will certainly have a significantly impact thereon.

Method and device for discovering UE, first UE and base station


A surface-mountable radiation-emitting semiconductor component includes an integrally constructed sheath of radiation-permeable material. The sheath has mutually opposite sides with a bottom surface and a radiation exit surface. The sheath also has a PCB bearing surface which is substantially perpendicular to the bottom surface and is located in one and the same plane as soldering surfaces of terminal leads protruding through the bottom surface out of the sheath.

Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a radiation-emitting semiconductor component which transmits a cone of radiation along an optical axis, including at least one semiconductor body transmitting radiation, a first electrical terminal part having a first head part and a first terminal lead, a second electrical terminal part having a second head part and a second terminal lead, and an integral sealing sheath, in particular formed integrally through the use of a casting technique from a material, especially plastic, that is at least partly permeable to the radiation, a first electrical contact of the semiconductor body being electrically conductively connected to the first head part, a second electrical contact of the semiconductor body being electrically conductively connected to the second head part, the sealing sheath enclosing the semiconductor body and the first and second head parts, the sealing sheath having a radiation exit surface and a bottom surface disposed on opposite sides of the sealing sheath, and the first and second terminal leads protruding through the bottom surface out of the sealing sheath.
The invention relates in particular to semiconductor components that emit infrared radiation (such as IR light emitting diodes or LEDs), for instance for use in infrared remote controls for television sets and radios, video recorders, light dimmers, etc., for remote controls for appliances, and for electric eyes for direct and alternating light operation, and light emitting diodes that emit visible light.
Such semiconductor components are available on the market and are described, for instance, in the Siemens brochure entitled "Lumineszenzdioden Qualitat und Zuverlassigkeit" [Light-Emitting Diodes Quality and Reliability], subject document 09.90, published by Siemens AG, Semiconductor Division, Marketing Communications, Munich, January 1991, and in the Siemens Shipment Program 07.94, entitled "Optohalbleiter und Sensoren" [Optical Semiconductor and Sensors], published by Siemens AG, Semiconductor Division, Marketing Communications, Munich, pp. 18-33. Mounting such semiconductor components on a PCB (printed circuit board) in a circuit configuration is performed by inserting the terminal parts, which are constructed as solder spikes, through bores in the PCB and then soldering them. However, because of the fact that today nearly all other electronic components are constructed to be surface-mountable, that entails especially great additional mounting expense. Surface mounting technology, which is also known as SMT, is a familiar method in semiconductor technology for securing semiconductor elements and will therefore not be described in further detail herein.
In a surface mountable LED unit which is known from German Published, Non-Prosecuted Patent Application DE 44 41 477 A1, a conventional so-called radial LED is inserted into a sleeve-like plastic housing with a protrusion forming a bearing surface and with a centering pin and recesses for receiving ends of electrical terminals. Producing such components entails relatively major technological effort and expense, especially since the dimensions of the plastic sheath and of the sleeve-like plastic housing cannot be allowed to have overly great tolerances, if a sufficiently accurate fit of the two parts is to be attained.


In example embodiments, the semiconductor memory device, and the method for operating the semiconductor memory device, includes a memory cell array having a plurality of memory cells each formed of a transistor having a floating body. The transistors are coupled between a plurality of word lines, a plurality of source lines and a plurality of bit lines. Additionally, the memory cell array includes a controller configured to read data from at least one of the memory cells and restore data to the memory cell storing a first data state through a bit operation of the memory cell. The controller restores data to the memory cell by applying a first source-line control voltage to a selected source line and applying a first word-line control voltage to a selected word line in a first period of a read operation. Also, the controller is configured to restore data to the memory cell, which is storing a second data state, by applying a second source-line control voltage to the selected source line and applying a second word-line control voltage to the selected word line in a second period of the read operation.

1. Field
Example embodiments relate to a semiconductor memory device, and more particularly, to a semiconductor memory device having dynamic memory cells without cell capacitors (hereinafter, referred to as "capacitorless dynamic memory cells") and a method for operating the semiconductor memory device.
2. Description of Related Art
A unit memory cell of a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) is traditionally composed of one transistor and one capacitor. However, considering that the cell capacitor may act as a limit to scaling down a topological size of the memory device, there has been proposed a memory cell without a cell capacitor, which is called a "capacitorless memory cell," simply having one transistor (1T) only. In such a 1T DRAM, a unit memory cell may include a body floated (i.e., electrically isolated) in the structure.
A general capacitorless memory may be fabricated on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer where silicon may be formed on an insulator, and senses data by accumulating majority carriers (holes or electrons) in a floating body or by releasing the majority carriers from the floating body. If majority carriers are accumulated in the floating body, it is represented as data "1." On the other hand, if majority carriers are released from the floating body, it is represented as data "0."
General capacitorless memory devices come in two types: one uses the characteristics of a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS); and the other uses the characteristics of a bipolar junction transistor (BJT). It is well known that the BJT is better than the MOS in high frequency operation and charge retention.

Capacitorless dynamic memory device capable of performing data read/restoration and method for operating the same


Disclosed is a PRML regenerating apparatus for regenerating a signal read by a head from a storage medium. This PRML regenerating apparatus has a waveform equalizing circuit for waveform-equalizing the read signal, a maximum-likelihood decoder for maximum-likelihood-decoding, after obtaining a determination value by comparing the equalized output with upper and lower slice levels, this determination value and a control circuit for setting variable a distance between the upper slice level and the lower slice level of the maximum-likelihood decoder. The distance between the upper and lower slice levels can be thereby set variable in accordance with an equalization characteristic. A ternary determination circuit of the maximum-likelihood decoder is constructed of a memory for storing a correspondence table of the equalized output and the upper or lower slice level versus the determination result and the next upper or lower slice level. The ternary determination circuit can be thereby actualized with a simple configuration.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a PRML regenerating apparatus making use of partial-response signaling with a maximum-likelihood sequence detection.
2. Description of the Related Art
A PRML (Partial-Response Signaling with Maximum-Likelihood Sequence Detection) has been utilized for enhancing a recording density of the magnetic disc and a magneto-optic disc apparatus in recent years. In such a PRML system, a PRML regenerating apparatus for regenerating a read signal is provided.
In a disc storage apparatus making use of the partial-response signaling, the regenerating apparatus is constructed of a waveform equalizing circuit and a maximum-likelihood decoder. A receiving filter of the waveform equalizing circuit of this regenerating circuit equalize-shapes an output signal of a record channel into a partial-response signal. Then, the maximum-likelihood sequence detector (maximum-likelihood decoder) performs, after making a ternary determination of the equalizing signal, the maximum-likelihood detection and thus reconstructs a recorded data string.
This type of PRML regenerating apparatus is disclosed in the specifications of U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,088, U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,564, U.S. Pat. No. 4,707,681, U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,890 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,888,775.
In the conventional PRML regenerating apparatus, parameters of the waveform equalizing circuit and the maximum-likelihood decoder are set to fixed values when delivered from the manufacturer of the apparatus. Therefore, characteristics of the waveform equalizing circuit and the maximum-likelihood decoder are also fixed. For example, in a ternary determination circuit of the maximum-likelihood decoder, a distance between two slice levels for slicing the input signal is fixed.
As a matter of fact, however, a sample signal quality is deteriorated due to a defect on a magnetic medium. Further, there is also the deterioration in terms of the sample signal quality in a case where a signal-to-signal interference described by a polynomial (1-D) can not be quantitatively controlled due to an equalization error. In addition, there exists the deterioration of the signal quantity that is derived from a scatter in terms of characteristics of an MR (magneto-resistive) head. If the equalization error occurs because of the characteristics of the above head, the magnetic medium and the waveform equalizing circuit, there arises such a problem that effective maximum-likelihood decoding can not be executed according to the prior art in which the distance between the above slice levels is fixed.
Besides, if the characteristics of the head and the waveform equalizing circuit are not proper, a problem is caused, wherein the equalization error is often produced, and an optimum regeneration can not be performed.
Further, the conventional PRML regenerating apparatus presents a problem in which a configuration thereof is complicated.

PRML regenerating apparatus having adjusted slice levels


A device for saturating material with resin and subsequently laying the saturated material onto a surface includes a frame and a vessel for retaining the resin attached to the frame. The vessel has a slot sized and configured so that material is passable through the slot after being coated with resin retained in the vessel. A first guide member is positioned adjacent the slot and a second guide member is positioned adjacent the slot and is spaced apart from the first guide member to define a passageway between the first and second guide members. The passageway is sized and configured for the material to be passable through the passageway and out of the device for laying on the surface. Embodiments of the device can be usable for methods of waterproofing and/or roofing.

Roofing and waterproofing may include applying a liquid resin to reinforcing fabric that is laid to help waterproof a roof, plaza deck, park deck, or other surface. Resins such as Sikalastic® 601, 621, 624 and 641 resins that are made and sold by Sika Corporation, are examples of liquid resins that may be used to coat a fabric or fleece to help waterproof a structure, help waterproof a roof, or help reinforce a surface.
A fabric or other material may be coated by having a liquid resin applied to a sheet of material during the laying of the material onto a surface or subsurface of a structure. Resin stored in a bucket may be brushed or rolled onto the surface prior to laying the material on the surface and resin may also be brushed or rolled onto that sheet of material after the sheet of material was placed on the surface, for example. A device such as a Kemperator machine sold by Kemper System GmbH & Co. KG, may also be used to coat a material with resin and subsequently apply the resin coated material to a surface.

Apparatus and method for coating a material with resin and applying the coated material to a surface


A method for preparing a polyolefine-vinyl composite, in which method about 10-200 weight fractions of vinyl monomer and about 0.01-4.0 weight fractions of a free radical polymerization initiator, based on 100 weight fractions of vinyl monomer, are impregnated in 100 weight fractions of polyolefine particles by slowly mixing these at a temperature of about 20.degree.-100.degree. C. while continuously or discontinuously adding about 1-60% by weight of water, based on the total weight of the vinyl monomer and the polyolefine, during the maintenance of the particle structure of the polyolefine, is disclosed. A water suspension is prepared by adding water and stabilizing agents to the above-mentioned mixture after a completed impregnation. The total quantity of water is about 80-1000 weight fractions, based on 100 weight fractions of polyolefine+vinyl monomer. The temperature of the water suspension is then increased for polymerizing the vinyl monomer.

In order to improve the rigidity, dimensional stability, printability, etc. of polyolefines which are to be worked into various articles or which are to be foamed into foam plastic, attempts have been made to blend the polyolefine with some vinyl polymer, e.t. polystyrene. Due to the low compatibility of polystyrene in polyolefines, it has proved to be difficult to obtain homogeneous blends with an attractive appearance. For example, with regard to small amounts, 02-10% by weight, the blend gets a low impact resistance and an impaired appearance.
Attempts have been made to overcome the above problem by polymerizing styrene inside the polyolefine particles. Basically, two different methods of polymerizing styrene in situ in polyolefine particles have been suggested. Both methods are based on the fact that styrene is allowed to diffuse into the polyolefine particles, after which the polymerization of styrene occurs in a basically traditional way. The greatest difference between the two methods is the way in which styrene is allowed to diffuse into the polyolefine particles.
In West German patent DE 29 08 662, the polymerization of styrene in situ is described in several different polyolefines. In this method, styrene is added slowly into a water suspension containing polyolefine particles at an elevated temperature. Thus, the impregnation and polymerization of the styrene occur simultaneously, with the result that the polymerization tends to occur more in the surface regions of the polyolefine particles. This results in the polystyrene being concentrated on the surface layer of the polyolefine particles.
U.S. Pa. No. 4,412,938 describes the polymerization of styrene in situ in an ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer. In this method, all of the styrene is added at one time into a water suspension containing ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer particles. The styrene is added at so low a temperature that no polymerization occurs. Only after all styrene or most of the styrene has diffused into the ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer particles is the temperature increased and the polymerization started. A disadvantage of this method is that it lasts several hours before the styrene has diffused into the ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer particles. The method is, therefore, time-consuming.
Neste Oy's Finnish Patent Application No. 894461 (Corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,164,456) describes a method for preparing a polyolefine-vinyl polymer composite in which method the impregnation occurs totally in the absence of water.

Method for preparing a vinyl polymer-polyolefine composite


A system and method for collecting x-ray exposure data in an x-ray detector include scanning pixels in an x-ray detector to determine exposure levels. The scanning may progress sequentially from a first edge to an opposite edge or may progress in an alternating fashion across the detector. The detector may include a data line split, where an object may be positioned between the data line split and an x-ray source. The scanning may then progress sequentially from at least one detector edge towards the data line split. In addition, a system for collecting x-ray exposure data in an x-ray detector is described. The system includes a detector, a plurality of data lines and scan lines, and a programmable logic device. The programmable logic device communicates at least one of a scan line driver module direction signal, an enable scan line driver module signal, and a cascade signal.

The present invention relates generally to medical diagnostic imaging systems, and in particular relates to a system and method for the elimination of the effects of saturated pixels in solid state x-ray detector images.
X-ray imaging has long been an accepted medical diagnostic tool. X-ray imaging systems are commonly used to capture, as examples, thoracic, cervical, spinal, cranial and abdominal images that often include information necessary for a physician to make an accurate diagnosis. X-ray imaging systems typically include an x-ray source and an x-ray detector. When having a thoracic x-ray image taken, for example, a patient stands with his or her chest against the x-ray sensor as an x-ray technologist positions the x-ray detector and the x-ray source at an appropriate height. X-rays produced by the source travel through the patient's chest, and the x-ray detector then detects the x-ray energy generated by the source and attenuated to various degrees by different parts of the body. An associated control system obtains the detected x-ray energy from the x-ray detector and prepares a corresponding diagnostic image on a display.
In addition, x-ray images may be used for many other purposes. For instance, internal defects in a target object may be detected by x-ray images. Additionally, changes in internal structure or alignment of a target object may be determined from an examination of an x-ray image. Furthermore, the x-ray image may show the presence or absence of objects in the target. The information gained from x-ray imaging has applications in many fields other than medicine, including, for example, manufacturing.
The x-ray detector may be a conventional screen/film configuration, in which the screen converts the x-rays to light that exposes the film. The x-ray detector may also be a solid state digital image detector. Digital detectors afford a significantly greater dynamic range than conventional screen/film configurations.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary solid state x-ray detector 100. The solid state x-ray detector 100 includes an array of picture elements (pixels 150), an x-ray conversion layer 120 and readout electronics 140.
The array of pixels includes a plurality of pixels 150. Each pixel 150 includes a switching element ("switch") and a light detector. Typically, the pixel 150 switch is a field effect transistor ("FET") and the light detector is a photodiode. The pixels 150 are generally composed of amorphous silicon. The x-ray conversion layer 120 may be a layer of CsI deposited on the pixel array.
The array of pixels 150 may be arranged in columns 170 and rows 160. Generally, the pixels 150 included in a row 160 are connected to a data line via the pixel 150 switch. A data line may be a conductor common to all pixels 150 in a given row 160. Each data line is connected to readout electronics 140. The readout electronics 140 measure the amount of charging current supplied to pixels 150 connected to a data line.
Generally, the pixels 150 included in a column 170 are connected to a scan line via control terminals of the pixel 150 switches. The scan line may be common to all pixels 150 in a given column 170. A scan line may be asserted to allow charging current to flow from the readout electronics 140 to the pixels 150 connected to the scan line. The various scan lines may be connected to scan drivers. The scan drivers may be included in a data acquisition system 190. The scan drivers activate a given scan line by asserting the scan line.
Prior to x-ray exposure, the detector 100 must be initialized. Initialization of the detector 100 occurs by charging each photodiode in the various pixels 150 with a reverse bias voltage to a known voltage. This is naturally accomplished in the course of scanning the detector 100. The readout electronics 140 provide a constant voltage on each of the data lines. As the data acquisition system 190 asserts each scan line (via a scan driver, as described above), the FET in each pixel 150 connected to that scan line conducts electrical charge from the data line connected to that pixel 150. In this way, the photodiode for each pixel 150 of the scan line may be recharged to the potential difference between the data line and a common electrode. Since the common electrode generally has a negative potential with respect to the data line, the photodiode is generally reversed biased, and therefore does not conduct charge other than leakage current. Therefore, the photodiode may then simply store the charge provided via the data line.
In operation, the photodiodes in the pixels 150 measure an amount of x-ray exposure. When incident x-ray flux strikes the x-ray conversion layer 120, the layer 120 converts the x-ray flux into light. The amount of light converted by the layer 120 is generally proportional to the intensity of the incident x-ray flux. The light then strikes the photodiodes in the pixels 150. Each photodiode is initially charged with a known amount of reverse bias voltage. When the light strikes the photodiodes, the photodiodes conduct and an amount of electric charge is discharged from the initially charged amount of reverse bias voltage in the photodiode. That is, the incident light discharges some or all of the reverse bias voltage initially charged in the photodiodes. The amount of discharged voltage in the photodiodes is generally proportional to the intensity of incident light, which is generally proportional to the intensity of the incident x-ray flux. Therefore, the amount of discharged voltage in photodiodes is generally proportional to the intensity of incident x-rays.
After the conclusion of the exposure, the voltage on the photodiode is restored to the initial voltage. The amount of charge required to restore the photodiode to the initial voltage is measured as restoring charge. The restoring charge is therefore a measurement of the x-ray flux intensity integrated by the pixel 150 during the length of the exposure.
The detector 100 is scanned by the readout electronics 140 in a manner similar to the structure of the pixel array. The detector 100 is scanned on a column-by-column basis for the various columns 170 of pixels 150 in the pixel array. In operation, a scan line is asserted by a scan driver in the data acquisition system 190. As described above, each of the pixels 150 along the scan line is connected to a separate data line. When the scan line is asserted, the gates of the FETs in the pixels 150 connected to the scan line conduct. The data line then conducts the charge to the photodiode that has been discharged due to x-ray exposure. As each scan line is asserted in turn, the initial voltage is restored to all of the photodiodes of the pixels 150 in the scan line simultaneously by the readout electronics 140 over the individual data lines. The amount of restoring charge for each pixel 150 is provided by the readout electronics 140 through the data lines.
The scan drivers may assert the individual scan lines in a given sequence. Therefore, the pixel 150 array may be read-out, or scanned, by selectively asserting a scan line, followed by asserting a different scan line, and so on, until all of the desired pixels 150 have been read-out by asserting the associated scan lines.
In any imaging system, x-ray or otherwise, image quality is important. X-ray imaging systems utilizing digital or solid state image detectors ("digital x-ray systems") experience certain electrical phenomena that may cause imaging difficulties. Imaging difficulties may be caused by effects such as electronic current leakage from imaging system circuitry, x-ray detectors, and the like.
At least one region of interest ("ROI") may be identified in an exposure of the detector 100. Generally, the ROI is an area of the detector 100 where the object being examined impedes the path of incident x-rays to the detector 100. The ROI is an area of the detector 100 where the detector 100 may receive a lesser intensity of x-ray flux intensity. Therefore, as described above, less incident x-ray flux may be converted into light by the scintillator 120, causing less voltage to be discharged in the various photodiodes of the pixels 150. Pixels 150 located within the ROI are therefore unsaturated pixels 150.
Pixels 150 located outside the ROI may be exposed to raw x-ray beams and therefore may become completely discharged of the initial voltage. Pixels 150 that become completely discharged of the initial voltage are saturated pixels 150. Saturated pixels 150 place a large amount of electronic stress on the photodiode FETs. In addition, for detectors 100 that use a scintillator and a photodiode, optical light emitted from the scintillator may be absorbed in the active area (particularly the FETs) causing an increase in this leakage current.
Because the exact location of the various saturated pixels 150 may be unknown prior to the scanning of the detector 100, each saturated pixel 150 on a data line may add an indeterminable amount of leakage current to the signal of each pixel 150 scanned prior to the saturated pixel 150 in the data line. If the saturated pixels 150 on a data line are scanned after unsaturated pixels 150 in the ROI on the same data line, the leakage current from the saturated pixels 150 may add to and corrupt the signal obtained from the unsaturated pixels 150. The reading of an unsaturated pixel 150 before a saturated pixel 150 in a data line therefore may cause the signal read from the unsaturated pixel 150 to become corrupted.
When the signal read from the unsaturated pixel 150 becomes corrupted, the x-ray intensity experienced by the unsaturated pixel 150 is inaccurate in the resultant x-ray image. For example, an unsaturated pixel 150 with a corrupted signal (caused by the reading of the unsaturated pixel 150 before a saturated pixel 150) may appear to have been exposed to a greater x-ray intensity than the actual x-ray intensity exposed to the unsaturated pixel 150. This, in turn causes the unsaturated pixel 150 to appear lighter in the resultant x-ray image. In addition, leakage current from the saturated pixels 150 may cause edges of an object to become blurred in the resultant x-ray image. As such, leakage current from the saturated pixels 150 may cause degradation in x-ray image accuracy, contrast and quality.
Many solid state x-ray detectors currently use a "split data line" design. FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary split data line detector 200. The split line detector 200 includes several data lines 210, a data line split 230 and several scan lines 250. As described above, each data line 210 includes a plurality of pixels 150. Each data line 210 does not extend across the full vertical length of the detector 200. The various data lines 210 extend from opposite edges of the detector 200 to the center of the detector 200. The data lines 210 in the two halves of the detector 200 meet at a data line split 230. The scan lines 250 also include a plurality of pixels 150. Each scan line 250 extends across the full length of the detector 200.
In operation, an object is placed above the detector 200 and is exposed to x-ray flux. As described above, pixels 150 in the detector 200 located underneath the object are located in an ROI 220. The pixels 150 in the ROI 220 are generally unsaturated pixels 240. Pixels 150 outside of the ROI 220 receive raw x-ray beams and are therefore generally saturated pixels 260. In this way, a pixel 150 may be either an unsaturated pixel 240 or a saturated pixel 260, depending on the amount of stored charge that is discharged in the pixel 150.
When the split data line detector 200 is scanned, a scan line 250 along the top of the detector 200 and a scan line 250 across the bottom of the detector 200 are activated simultaneously. The simultaneous activation of the scan lines 250 causes all the pixels 150 along those two respective scan lines 250 in the top and the bottom of the detector 200 to be read simultaneously. After the top and bottom rows of pixels 150 are read, the respective scan lines 250 are deactivated, and the second-to-top scan line 250 and the second-to-bottom scan line 250 are activated. The sequential activation, scanning and deactivation of adjacent scan lines 250 continues from the scan lines 250 at the opposite edges of the detector 200 and ends at the data line split 230.
However, as described above, leakage current from saturated pixels 260 read after unsaturated pixels 240 may corrupt the resultant signal. According to the direction of the progression of scan line 250 activation, scanning and deactivation illustrated in FIG. 2, the split data line detector 200 reads many saturated pixels 260 after the unsaturated pixels 240 of the ROI 220. Thus, the signal from many of the unsaturated pixels 240 of the ROI 220 may become corrupted from the leakage current of the saturated pixels 260.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and system for reading the signals from a solid state x-ray detector to reduce the effects of saturated pixels on the signals from unsaturated pixels.

System and method for eliminating the effects of saturated pixels in solid state x-ray detectors


Various improvements and applications for digital watermarking technology are detailed. One concerns techniques for making watermarks resistant to malicious attacks. Another involves using digital watermarking with ID cards and credentials, such as a watermarked driver's license conveying a user's cryptographic PKI. Still another uses digital watermarks in connection with automated compliance audits for corporate users of electronic content. A variety of other technologies are also detailed.

Digital watermarking is the science of encoding physical and electronic objects with plural-bit digital data, in such a manner that the data is essentially hidden from human perception, yet can be recovered by computer analysis. In physical objects, the data may be encoded in the form of surface texturing, or printing. Such marking can be detected from optical scan data, e.g., from a scanner or web cam. In electronic objects (e.g., digital audio or imagery—including video), the data may be encoded as slight variations in sample values. Or, if the object is represented in a so-called orthogonal domain (also termed "non-perceptual," e.g., MPEG, DCT, wavelet, etc.), the data may be encoded as slight variations in quantization values or levels. The present assignee's U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,122,403 and 6,614,914 are illustrative of certain watermarking technologies.
Watermarking can be used to tag objects with a persistent digital identifier, and as such finds myriad uses. Some are in the realm of device control—e.g., tagging video data with a do-not-copy flag that is respected by compliant video recorders. (The music industry's Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), and the motion picture industry's Copy Protection Technical Working Group (CPTWG), are working to establish standards relating to watermark usage for device control.) Other watermark applications are in the field of copyright communication, e.g., indicating that an audio track is the property of a particular copyright holder.
Other watermark applications encode data that serves to associate an object with a store of related data. For example, an image watermark may contain an index value that serves to identify a database record specifying (a) the owner's name; (b) contact information; (c) license terms and conditions, (d) copyright date, (e) whether adult content is depicted, etc., etc. (The present assignee's MarcCentre service provides such functionality.) Related are so-called "connected content" applications, in which a watermark in one content object (e.g., a printed magazine article) serves to link to a related content object (e.g., a web page devoted to the same topic). The watermark can literally encode an electronic address of the related content object, but more typically encodes an index value that identifies a database record containing that address information. Application Ser. No. 09/571,422 details a number of connected-content applications and techniques.
One problem that arises in many watermarking applications is that of object corruption. If the object is reproduced, or distorted, in some manner such that the content presented for watermark decoding is not identical to the object as originally watermarked, then the decoding process may be unable to recognize and decode the watermark. To deal with such problems, the watermark can convey a reference signal. The reference signal is of such a character as to permit its detection even in the presence of relatively severe distortion. Once found, the attributes of the distorted reference signal can be used to quantify the content's distortion. Watermark decoding can then proceed—informed by information about the particular distortion present.
The assignee's U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,408,082 and 6,614,914 detail certain reference signals, and processing methods, that permit such watermark decoding even in the presence of distortion. In some image watermarking embodiments, the reference signal comprises a constellation of quasi-impulse functions in the Fourier magnitude domain, each with pseudorandom phase. To detect and quantify the distortion, the watermark decoder converts the watermarked image to the Fourier magnitude domain and then performs a log polar resampling of the Fourier magnitude image. A generalized matched filter correlates the known orientation signal with the re-sampled watermarked signal to find the rotation and scale parameters providing the highest correlation. The watermark decoder performs additional correlation operations between the phase information of the known orientation signal and the watermarked signal to determine translation parameters, which identify the origin of the watermark message signal. Having determined the rotation, scale and translation of the watermark signal, the reader then adjusts the image data to compensate for this distortion, and extracts the watermark message signal as described above.
With the foregoing by way of background, the specification next turns to the various improvements. It will be recognized that these improvements can typically be employed in many applications, and in various combinations with the subject matter of the patent documents cited herein.


A utility truck with arched reinforcing rods incorporated into the base of a plastic truck during molding. The reinforcing rods are held in place in a mold at a predetermined distance above the mold's inner surface by spacers attached to the ends of the rods. Plastic is molded around the rods, with more plastic provided below the rods than above them, so that, when the plastic truck is removed from the mold and allowed to cool, the plastic will contract to a greater extent than the metal rods, causing the base and the reinforcing rods to bow upward, creating a convex arch in the truck's base. The arch provides an inherently strong, bridge-type structure that substantially strengthens the load-bearing capability of the truck, yet requires less reinforcing material than conventional supplemental chassis structures. In another embodiment, caster base mounts are also molded into the bottom of the truck, providing a utility truck with a unitary chassis structure.

Plastic utility trucks are used in many applications, of which hotel or hospital laundry trucks serve as one example. A hotel laundry truck must hold a large quantity of heavy, wet laundry, such as towels. Wet hotel linens gathered in a laundry truck can accumulate and be very heavy, imparting substantial loads on the plastic truck. Plastic laundry trucks will tend to sag under such heavy weights. To overcome the tendency of plastic trucks to sag under such weights, base chassis structures are bolted or glued to the bottom of the truck to increase the strength of the truck. FIG. 1 shows such an arrangement. The utility truck 1 is rectangular in shape, being longer in the front-back direction than side-to-side. The truck 1 is made from molded plastic, as practiced and understood in the art. To increase the load bearing capacity of the truck, a supplemental chassis base 3 is secured to the bottom 2 of the truck. The chassis base 3 is usually made of metal or plastic and is bolted or glued to the truck's bottom 2. At each of the four corners of the chassis base 3, caster wheels 4 are bolted to the base.
A utility truck with such a supplemental chassis base structure requires the construction of the separate chassis. Steel bases are commonly used for this purpose. To maximize strength provided by the metal chassis base to the plastic truck, the metal chassis must have a large surface area, thereby requiring a substantial quantity of metal. Most such metal chassis base structures are constructed of steel, which is expensive. In most applications, the metal chassis base will be prone to oxidation, and this is especially true of a steel chassis in a laundry truck, since the laundry will be wet and promote rust. To prevent the metal from oxidizing, the chassis base is usually powder coated to seal the metal from the surrounding environment. However, chips in the coating are likely to occur during use and allow rust incursion. The construction and powder coating of a metal chassis base is expensive. As noted above, plastic supplemental chassis bases are sometimes used, but these will not provide as much strength as a steel chassis and, nevertheless, still require the manufacture of a separate chassis structure.
In addition to the cost of the separate chassis base structure, the assembly of the molded plastic truck and the separate chassis base requires several additional manufacturing steps after the plastic truck has been removed from the mold. These assembly steps are labor intensive. Also, the chassis base is often attached to the plastic truck with bolts that extend through the bottom of the truck, which creates passages through which liquid can escape. To prevent this, sealant must be applied around these through-bolt mountings, thereby increasing the cost of manufacturing the truck and creating a potential area through which leaks may develop over time as the sealant degrades.
What is needed is a utility truck with a chassis incorporated into the plastic truck, thereby eliminating the need for a separate chassis base structure. Also needed is a method of manufacturing such a truck with a chassis incorporated into the plastic truck during molding. Also needed is such a unitary plastic truck and molded-in reinforcing chassis structure that uses less reinforcing material, provides a lighter truck, yet provides superior structural strength and load-carrying capacity.

Utility truck base reinforcement and method of manufacture


In one embodiment, the invention is a method. The method includes receiving a validity statement including a range and an identifier from a user interface. The method further includes determining the identifier indicates a validity range statement. The method also includes looking up the range of the validity statement in a validity range table. Additionally, the method includes translating the range of the validity statement into a validity from parameter and a validity to parameter. Moreover, the method includes submitting a database select statement including the validity from parameter and the validity to parameter to a database interface. Furthermore, the method includes receiving a set of records from the database interface responsive to the database select statement. Also, the method includes transmitting the set of records to the user interface.

In searching for information, a date related to that information is often a vital part of a search query. For example, a search may be executed for all transactions on a given date, or within a given range of dates. Similarly, a search may be executed for all information entered on a given date, or within a range of dates. Such searches may be useful for identifying sales of products, meetings with clients, visits by people to a facility, and many other similar forms of data. Another example of such searches for information occurs on the website of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, at which, a date or range of dates may be entered for patents or patent applications in the process of searching for such data.
When a user uses software to search for data with a date range, typically the user needs to provide a start and end date for a date range. Where a very specific date range is specified, or a date range unrelated to a calendar is specified, such an interface works well. However, even in such instances, errors in entering dates (such as typographical errors on a keyboard) can be problematic, both in terms of providing erroneous results of searches and in terms of reliance on such erroneous results by users of such data. Users of data need not be the people entering the search criteria, and may not have any contact with the users of a data storage system from which data is obtained. Thus, date range errors can affect many more people than the users of the interface to the data storage system.
It may be expected that most date ranges will correspond to a well-identified portion of a calendar. Quarterly sales information may be based on a three month window. Weekly hospital visit counts may be based on a Sunday to Saturday (or Monday to Sunday, for example) week. Monthly sales call totals may be based on calendar months. All of these exemplify potential types of searches for information, or queries in database operations. However, it can be difficult to enter a proper start and end date for some of these requests. For example, a mistyped begin date may result in a quarter with four (instead of three) months. Similarly, a mistyped end date may result in a Monday to Monday (instead of Sunday) week. Thus, a solution to avoid entering specific dates for a date range may be useful, to ameliorate errors and to ease requirements of user interfaces in software.


A self-stabilizing vehicle includes a mass gyroscope which is fixed at an occupant compartment chassis corresponding to a portion where occupants sit. The occupant compartment portion may tilt outwards in response to the centrifugal force. If the vehicle has three or more wheels, the load is evenly distributed on the left wheel and the right wheel which move oppositely up and down about an effectively centrally-mounted shaft pin. Further, the present disclosure proposes a method for operating the self-stabilizing vehicle. According to the self-stabilizing vehicle and the operating method thereof, a vehicle having a narrow body may be used. When the vehicle undergoes external forces such as the centrifugal force and the crosswind, the occupant compartment can maintain the vertical stability even though the wheels may slide sideways.

In the early 20th century, Ford Motor Company had attempted to promote a gyroscopic stabilized two-wheeled vehicle which had a wide body and was propelled by an internal combustion engine (the vehicle was not put into production after its roll-out). In recent years, some people have proposed the concept of gyroscopic stabilized two-wheeled electric motorcycle (which has not been put into production yet). Both of gyrocar and the gyroscopic motorcycle have two wheels (one wheel is at the front and the other at the rear), and are designed to be stabilized against a range of transverse external forces including a centrifugal force, a gravitational force, a wind force, and other external forces caused by the movements of loaded goods etc., based on physical laws involved by using a mass gyroscope to achieve ideal effects of stable movement and resisting toppling over (the mass gyroscope refers to a spinning top in the traditional physics, differing from the electronic gyroscopes in modern optics or electronics, the latter cannot offer a stable force, but can measure the orientation of an object more precisely.) Over a decade, at least twenty proposals and models for the multi-wheeled vehicle with the narrow body have emerged on the internet. However, there is yet no patent or literature disclosing a technical solution identical to the present disclosure.
It is well known that each wheel of a vehicle in contact with the ground can contribute to the road holding performance. The existence of road holding property is advantageous in making a turn, braking and generic stability. Therefore, 'multi-wheeled vehicles' are more stable and safer than two-wheeled vehicles, especially when travelling at a high speed. Especially, besides the gyroscope, if an auxiliary smart electromagnetic actuating system can be additionally provided, a better use effect can be achieved, and its overall performance dwarfs the two-wheeled vehicles. Moreover, the electromagnetic system can even work independently to stabilize the vehicle body in some cases. Furthermore, the fact that vehicles with less than four wheels are not allowed to run on the highway as stipulated by Chinese transport authorities is unlikely to be changed in a short term.
What are the advantages of the narrow body? Compared with the automobiles of normal width, the vehicle with a narrow body occupies a small space on the road, which helps the vehicle to pass through the traffic flow agilely, just like a rat. Thus, narrow body can offer obvious advantages when facing problems of a traffic jam, parking, cost, and unit price. Moreover, a study shows that an average height of automobile occupants ranges from 1.5 to 1.7 m, so a wide body is just a waste of cost and road resources, which increases the air pollution. At the present, when the whole world is concerning about the haze issue, building and maintaining roads and the land occupation are at a high cost, the electric components have growing maturity, and getting a licensable electric automobile which is allowed to run on the highway only costs thirty to forty thousand yuan (after being subsidized in compliance with Chinese measures in 2017), the present disclosure is particularly important and timely.

Self-stabilizing vehicle and control method thereof


An optical device includes a substrate, a plurality of optical elements formed in an element formation region of the substrate, a plurality of lenses formed over the element formation region so as to correspond to the plurality of optical elements, and a protective layer formed so as to cover the plurality of lenses. A holding member is formed on the protective layer in a region outside the element formation region. The holding member holds a bottom surface of a transparent member. A gap between the protective layer and the transparent member is filled with an adhesive.

The present invention generally relates to an optical device and a manufacturing method thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to an optical device used in, for example, a digital camera and a manufacturing method thereof.
Optical devices having a plurality of optical elements formed in a substrate and a plurality of lenses corresponding to the optical elements have been used in digital cameras and the like. In such optical devices, contamination of lenses is a critical problem since light enters an optical device through the lenses. A transparent member that covers the lenses is therefore provided to prevent contamination of the lenses. The top surface of the transparent member serves also as a reference plane for mounting the optical device.
In general, the plurality of lenses are covered by a protective layer having a low refractive index, and the transparent member is fixed onto the protective layer with an adhesive interposed therebetween (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-31782). With this structure, the transparent member can be easily fixed because the protective layer forms a flat surface over the lenses.

Optical device and manufacturing method thereof


The object of the present invention is to provide a molding sheet for forming a hard coat layer having an excellent shelf life or tracking ability to the mold in a semi-cured state, and having an excellent abrasion resistance after being cured completely, a molded body having a hard coat layer, and a method for manufacturing the same. The present invention relates to a molding sheet for forming a hard coat layer, comprising a layer consisted of a semi-cured material of a composition comprising:    a) an organosilicon compound,    b) a ultraviolet ray curable-compound, and    c) a silanol condensation catalyst on the substrate, and to a molded body using the same.

Conventionally, a hard coat is widely provided to a desired site such as a surface of a molded body made from resin, in order to confer abrasion resistance to a surface of various products similar to that of a glass surface.
One of methods for forming such hard coat, is a method for transferring a hard coat layer.
This is a method comprising using a so-called transfer foil, and there is an advantage that by using a transfer foil comprising a hard coat layer on the substrate, a hard coat with a uniform film thickness can be formed with a relatively simple process to a desired site of various substances. However, there is a problem for a hard coat transfer foil, that when the hardness of the hard coat layer is very high, cracks are generated to the hard coat layer when wrapped in a roll state. There is a transfer foil for hard coat by two-step curing, comprising wrapping around a hard coat layer in a roll state when it is in a semi-cured state, transferring the layer to the adherend, and performing further curing to complete a final hard coat on the adherend (Patent Document 1).
As an alternative method, there is a method comprising coating and drying a resin solution to be a hard coat layer in a later step, to a surface of a thermoplastic resin sheet that has been adjusted to a certain size, to provide a semi-cured resin layer, and subjecting the thermoplastic resin sheet to heat molding such as vacuum molding (Patent Documents 2, 3). The semi-cured resin layer has a hardness of a level that there is no difficulty for handling, and changes its shape by sufficiently following the prescribed shape of molding. A hard coat covering the surface of the molded product is made by completely curing the semi-cured resin layer after semi-curing and molding.
Each of these methods uses a sheet (foil) having a hard coat precursor layer in a semi-cured state on the substrate. However, these sheets had also drawbacks in that it cannot be stored for a long period in a semi-cured state as the semi-cured state is not stable, and that it was necessary to put a release resin film or the like between the sheets in order to avoid adhesion (blocking) of the sheets, when wrapping a long sheet in a roll state.
On the other hand, it is known to use acrylate series resin and the like as UV curable resin for a hard coat film. For example, Patent Document 3 describes a hard coat film comprising meth(acrylic)ester mixture (A), photopolymerization initiator (B), ethylene unsaturated group-containing urethane origomer (C), colloidal silica sol (D), and diluent (E), and that the obtained film has a good pencil hardness, curl and adherence to the substrate.
Moreover, Patent Document 4 describes to use a curable composition comprising (A) a particle made by binding an oxide particle of at least one element selected from the group consisting of silicon, aluminum, zirconium, titanium, zinc, germanium, indium, tin, antimony and cerium, and an organic compound comprising a polymerizable unsaturated group; (B) a compound having a urethane bound and 2 or more polymerizable unsaturated groups in the molecule; and (C) a curable composition comprising a photopolymerization initiator, and describes that a film (layer) having an excellent coating ability, can be formed on the surface of various substrates with a high hardness and high refractive index as well as an excellent abrasion resistance and an excellent adherence between the substrate and layer with low refractive index.
Further, Patent Document 5 describes an ultraviolet ray curable-hard coat resin composition made by compounding (A) a mixture of a hydrolysate of an organosilicon compound and fine particles of a metal oxide, (B) multifunctional acrylate or methacrylate, and (C) a photopolymerization initiator, which bleed to the surface of antistatic agent, decrease of transparency, degradation of humidity resistance and the like can be set within a substantially acceptable range, and can satisfy the functions as a hard coat (abrasion resistance, surface hardness, humidity resistance, resistance to solvents and chemicals, etc.).
However, as hard coat films using these acrylate series resins are inferior to inorganic films in the point of wear resistance, they are improved by adding metal oxide sols. Thus, while the hardness was improved, they had drawbacks in the decrease of transparency and flexibility.
Against this problem, the present inventors had found out that a thin film comprising a polysiloxane composition and an ultraviolet ray curable compound had a significantly high hardness as the surface is mineralized, and thus excellent in abrasion resistance, and also had an excellent adhesion with the adherend (Patent Document 6).    Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2005-206778    Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2004-1350    Patent Document 3: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2006-150949    Patent Document 4: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2005-272702    Patent Document 5: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2001-214092    Patent Document 6: WO2008/069217

Molding sheet for forming hard coat layer


A computer includes a chassis, a motherboard, an air guiding member, and a fan. The chassis includes a rear wall at a rear side thereof and a sidewall at a lateral side thereof. The rear wall defines a plurality of inlet holes therein, and the sidewall defines a plurality of outlet holes therein. The motherboard is received in the chassis opposite to the sidewall, a heat sink is installed on the motherboard for dissipating heat generated by a processor mounted on the motherboard. The air guiding member is received in the chassis at a front side, for guiding air drawn into the chassis through the inlet holes toward the outlet holes. The fan is used for drawing air from outside of the chassis through the inlet holes, and blowing the air out of the chassis through the outlet holes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to computers. Particularly, the present invention relates to a computer having apparatuses for cooling elements therein.
2. Description of Related Art
Computers, such as desktop computers, notebook computers, and servers, have fans and heat sinks for dissipating heat generated by electronic elements therein. Popularly, the electronic elements of a computer are installed in a chassis in which holes are defined to allow air to flow into the chassis, thus dissipating the heat and cooling the electronic elements.
In a common computer, storage devices, such as hard disks are installed to a front side of the chassis of the computer, while extension cards and processors are installed to a rear side of the computer. Holes are usually defined in a front wall of the chassis, causing the air to flow a long distance to the processors through the hard disks. Therefore, the air flowing to the processors has already been heated by the hard disks, which lowers the cooling efficiency of the airflow. Moreover, the air flowing into the chassis from the holes are mixed with air flowing into the chassis around the extension cards, thus eddies are easily formed, which lessens the cooling efficiency of the airflow in the chassis.

Computer having apparatuses for cooling elements

Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (ShenZhen) Co., Ltd.


A wireless, non-powered fatigue monitoring sensor uses a piezoelectric element that is attached to the surface of or embedded within a structure to be monitored. When subjected to stress over time, the material properties of the element change reliably and permanently. These properties are used to determine the fatigue history of the structure. The monitoring device requires no power for monitoring and is nondestructively queried to determine the stress history using wireless means such as radio frequency technology.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to monitoring stress in a structure and, in particular, to an improved system, method, and apparatus for a wireless, non-powered stress history and fatigue monitoring of a structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many structures, especially in the aerospace industry, must be monitored over time for overload and/or fatigue damage. Typically, this is done in one of two ways. First, a structure may be statistically evaluated for stress or fatigue. With this method the exact number of cycles is not known, but it does offer a prediction of what is typical for a certain amount of running time or flights. Second, active strain gages and/or accelerometers, for example, may be used to count cycles. Unfortunately, the first method is approximate, while the second method is costly and not feasible for most in-service applications due to wiring and power requirements. Some practitioners have proposed "power harvesting" for such applications whereby energy is harvested from vibrations, solar, RF, thermal, or other power sources. Although that solution would eliminate the power wiring requirements or batteries, the proposition is very challenging for continuous operation while a structure is in service.
Examples of externally powered prior art solutions include U.S. Pat. No. 4,433,581 to Scott, which describes strain gages that are powered by conventional means. U.S. Pat. No. 5,520,055 to Fussinger shows a device that has notches that break upon a sufficient number of cycles of fatigue. U.S. Pat. No. 5,531,123 to Henkel uses a fatigue monitor that must be physically removed from the underlying structure and then inspected by viewing striations formed in the monitor due to the fatigue. U.S. Pat. No. 6,014,896 to Schoess discloses a piezoelectric device that emits an acoustic wave and is battery powered. U.S. Pat. No. 6,928,881 to Brennan discloses a power detector with strain gages and a memory device with data storage. Finally, U.S. Patent Application No. 20040078662 to Hamel describes the energy harvesting concept for wireless sensors. Although each of these designs is workable, an improved solution for monitoring the fatigue of components while they are in service and can remain in service after inspection would be desirable.

System, method, and apparatus for wireless non-powered stress history and fatigue monitoring of a structure


The instant invention is an improved cure system composition and a method for curing chlorinated elastomer compositions. The cure system composition includes a polymercapto crosslinking agent; an inorganic base; and an onium salt. The onium salt has a formula selected from the group consisting of

Chlorinated elastomers may be cured by numerous means including the use of peroxide/coagent systems, thiadiazole-based systems, or irradiation crosslinking techniques. Peroxide cures are typically preferred for their scorch safety, shelf-life or bin stability, low permanent set, and high temperature performance. However, peroxide cure systems are often unacceptable for use in molded goods because of mold sticking and fouling due to volatiles or in applications that require a low temperature cure due to equipment or processing limitations.
Thiadiazole-based cure systems provide certain advantages such as the ability to cure over a wider range of temperature and pressure conditions than peroxide cures while generating fewer volatile byproducts, having good mold release characteristics, and the ability to use less expensive compounding ingredients such as aromatic oils.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,128,510 discloses that halogen containing polymers can be crosslinked by employing a cure system including 2,5-dimercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole (or its derivatives) and a basic material such as a metal oxide, metal hydroxide, or metal carboxylate. It further discloses that the addition of an accelerator containing aliphatic or aromatic amines or quaternary nitrogen groups may be desirable; additionally, the condensation product of butyraldehyde and aniline is described as being a particularly useful accelerator.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,288,576 discloses 2,5-dimercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole (and derivatives thereof) curing systems for saturated halogen containing elastomers, e.g. chlorinated polyethylene, wherein the curing systems specifically include certain vulcanization accelerators. Classes of accelerators include: 1) amines having a boiling point above 110° C. and pK values below about 4.5; 2) salts of amines with pK values below 4.5 and acids having pK values above 2.0; 3) quaternary ammonium hydroxides and their salts with acids having a pK above 2.0; 4) diphenyl- and ditolyl-guanidines; and 5) the condensation product of aniline and mono-aldehydes containing one to seven carbon atoms. The presence of at least an equal amount of an inorganic base is additionally required.
Despite the excellent vulcanizate properties obtainable with the polymercapto/inorganic base/accelerator-based vulcanization systems for chlorinated elastomers, two key problems remain that limit their usefulness. The first problem is the premature vulcanization of the compound during storage (i.e. poor bin stability) or during processing (i.e. poor scorch safety) prior to forming the vulcanized article. The second problem is the inconsistency of the vulcanization rate. It is desired that the elastomer compound, after preparation, be stable under typical environmental conditions of storage and during processing of the compound such that minimal vulcanization occurs prior to formation of the finished article. A consistent vulcanization rate is desired so that processes that form the finished vulcanized article, e.g. injection molding, extrusion, or compression molding can be run consistently and without the generation of scrap materials.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,745,147 discloses curable compositions of a chlorinated polyethylene, a polymercapto crosslinking agent, an acid acceptor, and a polyhydric alcohol. The composition must also contain a cure initiator such as an amine, a quaternary ammonium salt or a quaternary phosphonium salt (collectively hereinafter referred to as "onium salt"). The onium salts are of either the formula R1R2R3R4Z+Cl− or the chloride salt of an N-substituted pyridinium ion, wherein Z is N or P; R1-R4 may be the same or different from each other and selected from C1-17 alkyl, cyclohexyl, phenyl and benzyl groups. The polyhydric alcohol is said to improve the cure state and heat aging of crosslinked compositions.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,665,830 and 5,686,537 disclose that variability in the premature curing (scorch) of the 2,5-dimercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole, amine/quaternary ammonium salt, metal oxide cure system is due to the influence of water and that the variation can be eliminated by addition of polyethylene glycol or glycerin.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,482,681 discloses polymercapto cure systems containing an organic or inorganic base, and a hydrated salt, which releases its water during curing. The hydrated salt improves the cure rate. Some chlorinated elastomers also require an accelerator, which may be an amine or a quaternary ammonium salt.
Despite the research efforts in developing and improving in the scorch safety and cure rate reproducibility, there is still a need for further improvement in scorch safety while maintaining an acceptable cure rate.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Cure system composition and a method for curing chlorinated elastomer compositions

Abstract: wherein Z is a nitrogen or phosphorous atom, R1 to R4 are independently alkyl or aryl groups containing between 2 and 8 carbon atoms, and the total number of carbon atoms on R1-R4 is between 10 and 14; wherein R5 and R6 are alkyl groups containing between 1 and 8 carbon atoms, and the total number of carbon atoms on R5-R6 being between 5 and 9; and wherein X is an anion. The method for curing a chlorinated elastomer composition according to instant invention includes the following steps: (1) providing a chlorinated elastomer composition; (2) providing a cure system composition as described above; (3) contacting said chlorinated elastomer composition with said cure system composition; and (4) thereby curing said chlorinated elastomer composition.


A system for producing an image includes a MW (microwave) transmitter, configured to transmit a MW towards an object, and a MW receiver, configured to detect a MW signal received from the object. A processor is programmed to produce an image of the object by compensating both phase shifts and amplitude losses for frequency dependency in a plurality of detected MW signals.

The present disclosure pertains generally to ultra-wide band (UWB) imaging radar technology. Applications can be non-destructive testing, underground surveillance and ground-penetrating radar such as landmine detection, and invasive medical diagnosis.
The UWB radar technology aims to detect the existence, location, and profile of an object by sending out a UWB electromagnetic (EM) pulse, and post-processing the echo signal (scattered field) from the object. By estimating the time shift (delay) between the transmitted pulse and the echo, the range D from the object to a radar antenna is solved by the equation
      D    =                            v          ·          Δ                                                          t            2        ,where ν is the propagation speed of the EM signal. The 3-D position of the object in the space may be found when a time shift is measured from multiple different places in the space.
To reveal the object's size, shape, and location, a radar system must provide high resolution. Generally speaking, resolution depends on an aperture of the radar antenna array, and the bandwidth of the applied EM pulse. A large-aperture antenna array (which may need many antenna elements) provides a good cross resolution; and a broad bandwidth provides a high range resolution (as illustrated in FIG. 1). That is the reason a wideband signal and a large antenna array are desired in imaging radar.
From the point of view in the time domain, UWB indicates a very narrow pulse in duration. Short-time pulses are helpful to accurately find out the time shift between the transmitted pulse and the echo pulse, which results in a good space resolution of the object. A typical radar imaging approach is delay and sum (DAS). DAS (and many of its extensions and variations) firstly compensates the time shift of the received pulse in order to back-propagate the signal from the receiver position to a field point (this will be done for all the antennas), and then sum the signal acquired by all antennas to compute a pixel value for the field point. This calculation will be executed for all field points in the region of interest in order to obtain an image. FIG. 2 illustrates the area of interest in the near field of antennas. The area is meshed into many grids. Each grid is imagined as a field point like 201 outside the object and field points like 202 inside the object. For each field point, it is imagined that the wave propagates from a transmitter 203 to the current field point and a scattering occurs, then the scattered wave is acquired by a receiver 204. The receiver and transmitter may be located at the same position. As the signal is a narrow pulse, the object 205 edge against the background medium is found. The signals where an object is present are expected to sum coherently and the signals where an object is not present are expected to sum incoherently. More details about the DAS algorithm are in references [1] to [5]. DAS is also a traditional method for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging, in which technology the transmission/reception system is mounted on a moving platform, e.g. aircraft or satellites, and the target to be detected is in the far field (on the earth) as discussed in references [6] and [7]. The entire contents of these publications [1] to [7] are incorporated herein by reference for such DAS and SAR techniques as well as systems, methods and other techniques related to microwave (MW) imaging.

Accurate signal compensations for UWB radar imaging in dispersive medium


The image processing apparatus detects a region of a subject from an input image, and extracts an image feature amount from the region. Also, the apparatus classifies the subject into any one of plural attributes based on the image feature amount, and estimates, based on the image feature amount and an attribute into which it is classified, an attribute value of the subject belonging to the attribute into which it is classified.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for estimating an attribute of an object included in an image.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, object attribute estimation techniques for estimating an attribute of an object (to be referred to as an object attribute hereinafter) in an image have been extensively developed. Of these techniques, a face direction estimation technique estimates a direction of a human face in an image, and is an example of the object attribute estimation technique having a human face as an object and its direction as an attribute. In this manner, since human face direction information in an image can be automatically acquired, this technique has broad use ranges such as semantic understanding or composition estimation of an image and device control according to a human face direction.
As a typical method of face direction estimation, a method of preparing a plurality of face detectors dedicated to faces in specific directions are prepared, and estimating a face direction by integrating outputs from the respective face detectors is known (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-226512). The face detector dedicated to a face in a specific direction is implemented by preparing in advance a large number of images including human faces whose face direction angles fall within a specific range (to be referred to as a face direction range hereinafter), and learning those images by a machine learning method. This method has a merit of estimating a face direction simultaneously with face detection. However, since the number of face detectors has to be increased to enhance the estimation resolution, each of a plurality of face detectors requires a dictionary file, and a total size of these dictionary files becomes huge, resulting in a demerit. Individual face detectors are independent detectors, and have no relevance between their output values. Hence, even when their output values are integrated, estimation cannot always be made at high accuracy.
On the other hand, a method of estimating a face direction angle value by extracting a feature amount from a face image, and inputting the feature amount to a recursive function (estimation model) has been proposed. This method allows angle estimation at a high resolution by learning the recursive function using learning data prepared by associating face images and their face direction angle values with each other. As an example of face direction estimation using the recursive function, a technique disclosed in non-patent literature 1 (Y. Li, S. Gong, J. Sherrah, and H. Liddell, "Support vector machine based multi-view face direction and recognition," Image and Vision Computing, vol. 22, no. 5, p. 2004, 2004.) is available. The technique disclosed in non-patent literature 1 estimates a face direction by inputting projected features, which are obtained by projecting a feature amount extracted from a face image onto an eigenspace base prepared in advance, in a Support Vector Regression (SVR). By projecting a feature amount onto the eigenspace, not only a dimension reduction effect of a feature amount but also an effect of eliminating the influence of noise derived from a change in illumination condition of a face image can be expected. The eigenspace is obtained by learning a large number of face images of a face direction range to be estimated, which are prepared in advance. Using nonlinear kernels in the SVR, a recursive function which expresses in detail a feature space having a complicated, nonlinear structure, and maps on a face direction angle, can be configured.
In a technique disclosed in non-patent literature 2 (Erik Murphy-Churtorian, "Head pose estimation for driver assistance systems: A robust algorithm and experimental evaluation," in Proc. IEEE Conf. Intelligent Transportation Systems, 2007, pp. 709-714.), an HOG (Histogram of Oriented Gradient) is extracted as a feature amount, and a face direction is estimated using the SVR. The HOG corresponds to feature mounts obtained by converting pieces of luminance gradient information of an image into a histogram for respective regions of the image, and is known as a feature amount robust against local noise and densities of an image. By selecting a feature amount robust against variations which are not related to a face direction, stable face direction estimation can be implemented even in an actual environment.
A technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-333023 estimates an age of a face by inputting a feature amount extracted from a face image in a neural network which is learned in advance. In this manner, an attribute other than the face direction can be estimated using the machine learning method.
However, these methods suffer a problem of an estimation accuracy drop when a face image having a broad face direction range and including noise in an actual environment like a general photo is input. In the actual environment, since the face direction has no limitation, a broad face direction range includes face directions from a full-face direction to a half-face direction, and an appearance of an image according to that angle change largely changes. In addition, there are a large number of factors (noise components) (for example, various illumination conditions such as direct sunlight, indoor illumination, and the like, personal differences of head shapes, various expressions on faces, and the like), which largely change the appearance in addition to the face direction. In such case, for the method of estimating a face direction from projected features using the single eigenspace like in non-patent literature 1, and the simple estimation model using only a feature amount robust against noise like in non-patent literature 2, it is difficult to attain face direction estimation. This is because since a face direction and a change in appearance caused by other factors overlap each other, a range that can be expressed by a single feature amount is exceeded, and an estimator cannot discriminate an appearance difference based on a face direction.

Image processing apparatus and image processing method