A memory device may include L semiconductor layers, a gate structure on each of the semiconductor layers, N bitlines, and/or a common source line on each of the semiconductor layers. The L semiconductor layers may be stacked, and/or L may be an integer greater than 1. The N bitlines may be on the gate structures and crossing over the gate structures, and/or N may be an integer greater than 1. Each of the common source lines may be connected to each other such that the common source lines have equipotentiality with each other.

1. Field
Example embodiments relate to semiconductor devices and/or methods of operating the same. For example, example embodiments are directed to a NAND flash memory device including 3-dimensionally arranged memory cell transistors and/or methods of operating the same.
2. Description of Related Art
Many electronic appliances include semiconductor devices including electronic elements, for example, transistors, resistors, and capacitors. The electronic elements are integrated on a semiconductor substrate after being designed to execute functions of the electronic appliances. For example, computers or digital cameras include semiconductor devices, for example, memory chips for storing data, processing chips for processing data, and so forth. The memory chips and the processing chips include electronic elements integrated on a semiconductor substrate.
A higher integration level for semiconductor devices is required to meet the higher performance and lower cost requirements of users. However, the development of advanced processing technologies is necessary to achieve a higher integration level for semiconductor devices. Increases in the integration level of semiconductor devices are limited because the development of advanced processing technologies incurs enormous expense and longer time.
In spite of the restrictions in advancing techniques for forming finer patterns, a reduction of the channel length of a cell transistor is limited by an issue of leakage current for semiconductor devices, e.g., flash memory devices. A cell current of a programmed cell transistor, during a read operation of the flash memory, should be lower than a desired, or alternatively, a predetermined reference current. However, the unintended leakage current of the cell transistor increases with a decrease in size of the cell transistor. The leakage current is a kind of short channel effect which appears if gate line width and channel length of the flash memory are reduced. The leakage current makes determining whether the cell transistor of the flash memory is programmed more difficult. Accordingly, a unit cell area of the flash memory (for example, channel length of the cell transistor) may not be further reduced without suppressing the leakage current of the cell transistor.
A conventional NAND flash memory device includes a string selection transistor, a ground selection transistor, and a plurality of cell transistors disposed therebetween. A conventional NAND flash memory device has a higher integration level among conventional existing semiconductor devices. With an increase in a number of cell transistors disposed between the two selection transistors, the area occupied by the selection transistors in an entire cell array region becomes smaller. Accordingly, the integration level of the flash memory may become higher with the decrease in the area occupied by the selection transistors.
However, conventional NAND flash memory devices suffer from not only the limitation resulting from leakage current but also from the limitation of a lower sensible current which interferes with an increase in integration level. If serially connected cell transistors continue to increase in number, electric resistance thereof increases during a read operation. Accordingly, read current at a desired, or alternatively, a predetermined cell becomes lower than a magnitude capable of being sensed by a sensing circuit. In this case, because the cell may not be normally read, the number of cell transistors disposed between the selection transistors is limited to 32 in most NAND flash memory devices. Therefore, the limitation of the lower sensible current makes reducing the area occupied by the selection transistors in the NAND flash memory more difficult.

Memory device including 3-dimensionally arranged memory cell transistors and methods of operating the same


The method comprises and executes constitutional information collection processing of collecting constitutional information of the apparatus, constitutional information of a logical unit which is a logical existence obtained by abstracting the apparatus, constitutional information of the application and constitutional information of the dependency relation of the performance established among the apparatus, the logical unit and the application; performance information collection processing of collecting each performance information of the apparatus, the logical unit and the application; and saturation indication detection processing of analyzing a correlation between a change value with time of the performance information of the apparatus and a change value with time of the performance information of the logical unit having the dependency relation of the performance with respect to the apparatus for a predetermined period, and detecting that the apparatus has the saturation indication, when a correlation coefficient obtained by the correlation analysis is a predetermined threshold value or more.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus having a high possibility that a performance problem will be caused in an application in future, a method for managing apparatus performance in which it is possible to detect the apparatus having the high possibility that the performance problem is caused in the application at present, a system for managing the apparatus performance, and a management program.
To detect the apparatus having the high possibility that the performance problem will be caused in the application in future or the apparatus having the high possibility that the performance problem is caused in the application at present will hereinafter be referred to as the detection of the performance saturation indication.
2. Description of Related Art
Heretofore, as a method for managing performance of a computer system, the following two types of methods have been performed. Performance Management Method 1 is a reactive method in which, in a case where the performance problem is generated in a certain application, the performance of an apparatus group concerning execution of the application is checked, and a performance bottleneck is analyzed to specify the apparatus that has caused the performance problem in the application.
Performance Management Method 2 is a proactive method in which performance saturation indication of the application is detected to detect that there is a possibility of occurrence of the performance problem before the performance problem of the application occurs.
Either of Performance Management Methods 1 and 2 imposes a large burden on an apparatus manager, if the management is not supported by a computer program or the like in a case where an excessively large number of apparatuses exist as performance management targets. To solve the problem, support methods have been performed.
In Support Method A of Performance Management Method 1, performance information of the application in which the performance problem has occurred, and a correlation between the performance information and performance information of each of apparatuses of an apparatus group having a dependency relation of the performance with respect to the application are checked to presume an apparatus which is probably a bottle neck in the apparatus group.
In Support Method B of Performance Management Method 2, threshold value information is set with respect to the performance information of the application or the apparatus in advance, the periodically observed performance information is compared with the threshold value information, and an alert (warning or notice) is raised based on a rule to support the management (e.g., JP-A-2001-195285).

Method and system for managing apparatus performance


A method for generating and using a video-based icon (videcon) in a message, where a videcon comprises a (preferably short) video and an associated code, comprising identifying the code within a message, retrieving the video associated with the code, inserting either the video or a link to the video into the message, and sending the message to its intended recipient.

Emoticons are commonly used to convey emotions in multimedia messaging. Currently, emoticons are limited in form to either letters and punctuation or cartoons. For example, ":)" may be used to convey 'satisfaction' or 'laughter' and ";p" may be used to convey 'teasing'. Alternatively, the cartoon "J" may be used to replace ":)" to convey 'satisfaction' or 'laughter'. Cartoon emoticons that convey a variety of emotions, such as happiness, sadness, curiosity, and anger, are available in various shapes and sizes, such as 'smileys' and 'pandas'. Some cartoon emoticons are also animated, such as a cartoon 'smiley' that 'winks' to suggest 'teasing' by transitioning from both eyes open to one eye open and one eye closed. Despite the wide variety of emoticons currently available, the user must choose amongst a limited set, which is often ineffective at conveying the complexity and uniqueness of the user or an emotion of the user. There is, thus, a need in the messaging field for a new and useful method for creating and using video-based icons in the messaging field. This invention provides such a new and useful method.

Method for generating and using a video-based icon in a multimedia message


A network based computer implemented system for designing products is disclosed. The system comprises a network server, such as an Internet web server (30) operable to manage interaction of the system with external computers, and a product design module (204) communicating with the network server. The product design module (204) is operable to generate product designs. The system further comprises a live agent support system (44) communicating with the network server. The live agent support system (44) is operable to provide live assistance to a customer of the system. An agent (312) of the live agent support system (44) and a customer of the system simultaneously view a same page of the design tool. The customer and agent (312) also mutually communicate while collaboratively manipulating the page.

The present invention relates generally to electronic commerce systems and electronic design systems. More particularly, the invention relates to a networked product configuration and design system having components to facilitate live agent support using network-based communications techniques. The invention will be described using an exemplary embodiment involving the design of custom storage closets. The invention may be utilized in numerous other applications as well.
Many companies have recognized the potential value of using the Internet to augment conventional marketing, sales, and support functions. In this regard, Internet web pages are now widely used to market products and the Internet shopping cart model is also widely used to handle the product sales function. Web-based customer support sites are also widely utilized, although typically such sites provide only answers to frequently asked questions or otherwise merely harvest email inquiries for a product support agent to answer by return email. These conventional marketing, sales, and support techniques work reasonably well for standardized, mass produced goods, such as computer software, books, pharmaceutical products, consumer electronic products, toys, and the like. These techniques work less well for products that are highly customized to a particular customer's needs. Heretofore, the intricate customer interaction needed to assist in the design of complex or highly customized systems has not been practical over the Internet.
The world wide web, and other information and communication facilities of the internet, have opened doors to a number of interesting business support applications. Initially, the internet served simply as a vehicle to disseminate information about a company's products and services, and to assist customers in selecting those products and services for purchase. Software systems, known as selection tools, evolved to support these simple selection functions.
However, more recently, sophisticated companies have begun using the internet to support complex products and services, and to assist customers in making complex purchasing and configuration decisions. Such functions go far beyond simple product selection. After items are selected, the relationships and interactions among those selected items are taken into account. Software systems known as configuration tools or "configurator" tools, have evolved to fulfill this purpose. In assessing relationships, configurator tools may employ both look-up and algorithmic processes.
By way of illustration, consider the product selection tool first. The typical product selection tool presents an on-screen catalog of products with an interactive interface through which the customer can add or subtract options. In shopping for a new computer, for example, the customer can make such option selections as adding or subtracting a modem, increasing or decreasing the memory and disk storage size, selecting a larger or smaller monitor, and the like.
In contrast, the configurator tool does considerably more. While it can be used to present on-screen information about products, services and selection options, the configurator tool also allows the user to alter parameters, combine components in user-defined ways, and to define the architecture and attributes of systems that may uniquely fit the user's needs.
For example, a configurator tool might be used to assist an engineer in designing the layout and components deployed in a petroleum refinery plant or an electric generating plant. Such applications would typically involve far more than simply selecting components. Complex physical, chemical, and electrical interactions also can be taken into account. Special attributes of individual components, such as their capacity, operating ratings, and physical characteristics also can be taken into account.
As the above example suggests, configurator tools can be quite complex. Often they may employ one or more expert systems or other artificial intelligence components to capture knowledge that is then presented to the user as needed. Unfortunately, there seems to be an inverse relationship between power and ease of use. The more powerful a configurator tool becomes, the more difficult it is to use.
As many web system designers have experienced, it is fairly easy to design an intuitive, self-directed tool when that tool must only access a shallow pool of knowledge. It becomes geometrically more difficult to retain the intuitive, self-directed properties as the knowledge pool deepens. Stated differently, as the body of knowledge encapsulated by the system grows, self-directed navigation through the system becomes increasingly more difficult.
The present invention tackles this problem with live agent technology. The expert system and other artificial intelligence components of the configurator tool are integrated with a live agent support system that places the user in communication with live agents (e.g. human assistants) as needed. While the user can navigate through and use the configurator tool alone, the user can also obtain on-the-spot assistance from a live agent simply by asking via on-screen selection. The live agent support system defines a common reference frame through which the user and agent communicate. While the common reference frame can take many forms, some of the presently preferred embodiments employ internet chat facilities for messaging and push technology to allow the agent to supply content to the user or to control what the user experiences at his or her web browser.
By solving the basic tool navigation problem, the invention makes complex configurator tools far easier to develop and use. In a typical implementation, the live agent works with the configurator tool every day, assisting users in solving ad hoc problems. Thus, while the agent may not necessarily be an expert in the underlying knowledge base for which the configurator tool was designed (e.g. instrumentation and control design, power system design, closet design), the agent does become an expert in using the tool. Thus when a user is blocked due to unfamiliarity with the tool, the live agent can step in to assist. This is a significant improvement that system users will readily appreciate.
However, from a business standpoint, the live agent support component of the invention offers an even more significant advantage. It places live agents in direct communication with customers, on the customers' own invitation. Direct marketing experts have long recognized the value of customer invitation. The potential customer who has given permission to be contacted directly represents a far better prospect than the one whose name simply appears on a purchased mailing list. The live agent support component of the invention thus places the live agent and potential customer (system user) in a permissive relationship that gives the live agent the opportunity to upsell, cross sell, and to establish a future relationship with that user as a customer.

Network based system design of custom products with live agent support


A mobile terminal apparatus requests a character be displayed which is assigned to a first key upon being pushed, and if operated continuously for a time span that exceeds a predetermined time, requests a next character be displayed which is assigned to the first key instead of the character assigned to the first key and currently being displayed, if the time span exceeds the predetermined time and the character assigned to the first key and currently being displayed is a special character that has another variation, changes the character to a character of the another variation, and, when the time span exceeds the predetermined time and the character assigned to the first key and currently being displayed is not a special character, requests a new character be displayed right next to the character which is currently being displayed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile terminal apparatus, character input method and character input program for character input using a key operation.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-17305, filed Jan. 25, 2005, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
In a mobile terminal apparatus which provides a mailing function, in order to accept character inputs such as sentences in a mail, predetermined alphabetic characters are assigned to dialing keys (ten keys from "0" to "9"), and character inputs are made by selecting the desired dialing keys. For example, when inputting Japanese, characters included in the "a" column, "ka" column, . . . , "ra" column and "wa, wo, n" are assigned to each of the above ten key buttons, and it is determined that "i" is input when the key assigned to the "a" column is pushed twice and "u" is input when the key assigned to the "a" column is pushed three times. It becomes possible to send mails easily from outside by operating the dialing keys of the mobile terminal apparatus having such a function.
Moreover, dull sounds and "pa", "pi", "pu", "pe" and "po" are often used, and a character input apparatus which simplifies the method to input such characters is known (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2004-030442).
However, a language which uses characters that have tone signs, for example Vietnamese, has many alphabetic characters. For example, in Vietnamese, as shown in FIG. 5, as well as the 26 characters of the English alphabets, there are 6 vowel characters and one consonant character which are unique to Vietnamese (therefore, Vietnamese has unique 7 alphabetic characters), and each of 12 kinds of vowel characters have combination characters to which 5 different kinds of tone signs are appended, therefore, the total number of characters which are used is 93. The number of characters which are assigned to one key becomes large when these characters are assigned to ten dialing keys (ten key), therefore, there is a problem in that the numbers of a key needs to be pushed in order to select one character from the characters assigned to a key increases according to the number of characters assigned to the key. Moreover, it is difficult to print characters assigned to the key on the key face when a large number of characters are assigned to one key; therefore, there is also a problem in that the operation of inputting characters becomes complex since a user needs to refer to a manual or the like to detect which key to push to select a desired character.
The present invention has been made in order to solve the problems above, and an object thereof is to provide a mobile terminal apparatus, character input method and character input program which allows easy input of characters by a key operation.

Mobile terminal apparatus, character input method and character input program


A semiconductor device includes a sidewall oxide layer covering an inner wall of a trench, a nitride liner on the sidewall oxide layer and a gap-fill insulating layer filling the trench on the nitride liner. A first impurity doped oxide layer is provided at edge regions of both end portions of the sidewall oxide layer so as to extend from an entry of the trench adjacent to an upper surface of the substrate to the nitride liner. A dent filling insulating layer is provided on the nitride liner in the trench to protect a surface of the first impurity doped oxide layer. Related methods are also disclosed.

As the integration of semiconductor (i.e., integrated circuit) devices increases, isolation technology for electrically isolating adjacent devices has become more important. A shallow trench isolation (STI) formation process has been widely used as an isolation technology in manufacturing processes of high integration semiconductor devices. Various scaling technologies for manufacturing highly integrated semiconductor devices have been developed. Also, as a feature size of semiconductor devices becomes smaller, it may become more difficult to form STI structures for isolation.
Various isolation processes using STI have been suggested. In an example of a conventional isolation processes, a trench is formed in a substrate by using a nitride layer pattern, which is formed on the substrate, as an etching mask. A nitride liner is formed in the trench, and then an isolation layer is formed by filling an insulating material thereon. Then, a wet etching process is performed to remove the nitride layer pattern on the substrate. However, the nitride liner exposed near an upper edge of the trench may be consumed to a predetermined depth from an upper surface of the substrate, such that a dent is formed near the upper edge of the trench. This may adversely impact device properties.

Shallow trench isolation structures for semiconductor devices including wet etch barriers


A work machine includes a frame, one or more drive members coupled to the frame, an engine for providing power to the one or more drive members, one or more components coupled to the frame, and a monitoring system for monitoring wear of the one or more components. The system includes a user interface and a controller. The controller is in circuit communication with the user interface. The controller is configured to receive information inputted into the user interface by a user and send an alert notification regarding the servicing of at least one of the one or more components based on the received information.

Paving machines are generally used for laying paving materials, such as asphalt, on a work surface. The paving machine typically includes a screed system disposed behind the paving machine to receive the paving material from a hopper and deposit the paving material on the work surface. The screed system may include a screed plate for levelling the paving material with respect to the work surface. When the paving machine is used for a paving operation, the screed plate is in continuous contact with the paving material relative to the work surface. This contact between the screed plate and the paving material may cause wear of the screed plate. A worn screed plate on a paving machine can cause uneven levelling of the paving material on the work surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,618,437 ("the '437 patent") discloses a system for monitoring wear of screed plates of a paving machine. The system includes a sensor located on the screed plate and a controller coupled to the sensor. The sensor includes a resistor network having a plurality of electric resistors. As the bottom surface of the screed plate wears, the electric resistors of the resistor network are progressively removed, which changes the electrical resistance between a pair of electrical leads. The sensor generates signals indicative of wear of the screed plate based on the change in the electrical resistance of the resistor network. The controller receives signals from the sensor and determines the wear of the screed plate based on the received signals.

Work machines and systems for monitoring wear of components of work machines


A computer system having a kernel interface that provides a technique for creating memory descriptors that provides a single way of representing memory objects and provides a common interface to operations upon those objects. The present invention allow programmers to create a kernel interface that provides a mechanism to achieve a cohesive de-coupled interface between file-systems and virtual memory in a distributed computer system. The present invention allows the kernel interface to be provided as four sub-components with a primary abstraction mechanism and three supporting mechanisms. The primary abstraction is a memory descriptor that presents a common interface to manifold memory objects. The set of supported objects is complete in that the file-system need not deal with any other representation of memory.

A computer system can be generally divided into four components: the hardware, the operating system, the application programs and the users. The hardware (central processing unit (CPU), memory and input/output (I/O) devices) provides the basic computing resources. The application programs (database systems, games business programs (database systems, etc.) define the ways in which these resources are used to solve the computing problems of the users. The operating system controls and coordinates the use of the hardware among the various application programs for the various users. In doing so, one goal of the operating system is to make the computer system convenient to use. A secondary goal is to use the hardware in an efficient manner.
The Unix operating system is one example of an operating system that is currently used by many enterprise computer systems. Unix was designed to be a simple time-sharing system, with a hierarchical file system, which supported multiple processes. A process is the execution of a program and consists of a pattern of bytes that the CPU interprets as machine instructions (text), data and stack. A stack defines a set of hardware registers or a reserved amount of main memory that is used for arithmetic calculations.
Unix consists of two separable parts: the "kernel" and the "system programs." Systems programs consist of system libraries, compilers, interpreters, shells and other such programs which provide useful functions to the user. The kernel is the central controlling program that provides basic system facilities. The Unix kernel creates and manages processes, provides functions to access file-systems, and supplies communications facilities.
The Unix kernel is the only part of Unix that a user cannot replace. The kernel also provides the file system, CPU scheduling, memory management and other operating-system functions by responding to "system-calls." Conceptually, the kernel is situated between the hardware and the users. System calls are the means for the programmer to communicate with the kernel.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustration of a prior art computer system 100 having a processor 110, file-system 120, memory 130, operating system 140, kernel 150, applications 160 and I/O devices 170. The prior art system 100 shown in FIG. 1 employs a distributed memory mapping scheme in which physical memory and I/O of the system 100 is mapped with hardware descriptors.
The prior art system 100 implements a shared resource environment which allows such system resources as memory 130 and file-system 120 to be shared between applications processes in applications 160. The kernel 150 includes interfaces that allows applications processes to access virtual memory in memory 130. In the system 100 shown in FIG. 1, the kernel interface has limitations in its capabilities in supporting multiple and varied applications that access the file-system 120 despite the shared environment of system 100. This is because new file-system technologies have limited applicability due to the difficulty in adapting others to accommodate them. For example, multiple page size support in the virtual memory system in system 100 is not supported in a UFS file-system or other file-systems. On-line backups via snapshots cannot handle the files which have locked pages.
The difficulties with current kernel interfaces is primarily due to their shared state. File-systems must implement knowledge about the virtual memory system in order to operate correctly. This knowledge is vague and dynamic with respect to a source base. The corresponding difficulty lies within the virtual memory system, in that it can only assume generic file-system behavior; file-systems typically have no way to indicate it can utilize a new behavior.
As distributed systems become prevalent, it is important that the number of system downtimes be substantially reduced. CPU and network speeds, RAM and disk sizes will increase and so will access to these devices. The interface between the file-system 120 and memory 130 implementation therefore becomes important.
Memory requirements of computer system 100 frequently cannot be met with a single memory device. Several memory devices must then be interconnected to form a memory system. In a memory system, capacity is expanded by increasing the number of words or by increasing the word length above an attainable single memory device. Word length is increased by placing the outputs of two or more memory devices in parallel. The number of words in a memory system is increased by multiplexing outputs from two or more memory devices.
A memory system with an increased number of words requires address expansion, it requires expanding the number of address bits to which the memory system responds. The number of address bits that a microprocessor provides dictates its memory address space or the range of memory locations it can directly address. Depending upon the size of the memory system, external address decoding logic, in addition to the memory's inputs may be also be required for address expansion. Random access memory (RAM) is typically the main memory in many prior art computers. As programs are run, they first load into RAM from the disk drive 170, and the operating system then jumps to the beginning of the program to begin executing it. Program data also loads into computer's RAM. As changes are made in the data, the contents of the RAM are altered, and when the user finishes with the application, the revised data is copied back to the disk drive.
Read only memory (ROM) is the part of memory where, normally the basic input/output system (BIOS) of the computer resides. The BIOS is the interface between the computer hardware and the operating system and applications software. Under normal circumstances, one cannot write to ROM.
The size of the RAM and the ROM and the locations of various components is shown with memory. The prior art computer 100 includes several memory types that access different locations in the main memory. And in order to have a cohesive memory access to the various applications that run in the computer system 100, the memory device 130 in the prior computer system 100 typically has a number of memory descriptors 214–216 that define relationships between the applications and main memory identifying specific address ranges 210–212 for specific purposes. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the prior art computer 100 has unique specific descriptors 214–216 for each instance of an application that access a different type of memory in the system 100.
Having a number of descriptors represent a single application's access to memory could lead to errors to describe regions in main memory owned by a single device. The large number of descriptors also results in the use of a large number of memory logic circuitry to design main memory which could then result in slow access to memory in the computer system. Furthermore, the prior art has memory segments with corresponding page table entries for each application access main memory. There is a many-to-one relationship between the page table entries and the memory segments for applications which results to additional memory resources unnecessarily allocated to the applications.

File system virtual memory descriptor generation interface system and method


Techniques for managing packets in an input/output virtualization (IOV) capable computing environment are described herein. One aspect comprises receiving, at one or more transceivers comprising an input/output capable adapter, a packet addressed to an input/output virtualization capable adapter destination, and forwarding the packet to a virtual router; applying, by a processor circuit coupled to the one or more transceivers, one or more packet management policies to the packet via the virtual router; routing the packet via the virtual router to the input/output virtualization capable adapter destination; and transmitting the packet to the input/output virtualization capable adapter destination via an input/output virtualization capable adapter architecture. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

A virtual machine (VM) may comprise a software implementation of a machine (e.g., a computer) that is operative to execute programs like a physical machine. Virtualized computing elements include operating systems, applications, processors, and memory elements. Virtualization poses new challenges for input/output, commonly referred to as I/O, performance for physical computing devices. Input/output performance is critical to high performance computer systems, such as those found in modern data centers and cloud computing infrastructure. In response, input/output virtualization methods, commonly referred to as IOV, have been developed that provide hardware and software configurations that abstract underlying hardware interfaces utilized in communication technologies. In this manner, input/output devices may be virtualized and shared amongst multiple virtual machines.
Input/output virtualization techniques suffer from high overhead because of operational demands placed on key components, such as the virtual machine monitor (VMM or hypervisor), which manages key host resources and virtual machine functions. Operational demands include packet copying and interrupt handling. Single root input/output virtualization, commonly referred to as SR-IOV, capable devices provide a set of peripheral component interconnect (PCI) express (PCIe) functions designed to limit virtual machine monitor intervention in input/output virtualization systems, resulting in increased input/output performance. However, the performance increase has come at the cost of decreased control and manageability of input/output virtualization systems. Therefore, one design goal for input/output virtualization systems is to provide increased input/output performance without negatively effecting system manageability. Consequently, techniques designed to provide security, control, and manageability in high performance input/output virtualization systems are desirable.

Techniques for packet management in an input/output virtualization system


A compensator for optical transmission systems exploits gain tilt inherent in optical amplifiers. The amount of SRS induced spectral power gradient is determined, and the amplifier gain is changed to cause a compensating gain gradient in the optical amplifier to compensate for the SRS induced spectral power gradient. Fewer components are needed, and so it can be less expensive. It can be implemented as a simple software upgrade to existing systems. Many such compensators can be distributed through the system, without requiring a large inventory of individually specified filters. More accurate compensation can be achieved by making it dependent on the distribution of wavelengths within a band.

It is well known to try to equalize power levels across all channels in a WDM (wavelength division multiplexed) optical transmission system or network. Any variation in power levels can result in bit errors from distortions caused by non linearities if the power is too high. If the power is too low, bit errors can result from noise at the receiver. Providing a margin in the optical power budget to allow for variations, adds to system costs. It is also known to provide end to end dynamic gain equalization using variable optical attenuators or dynamic filters. Controlling optical amplifiers to reduce gain tilt inherent in the amplifiers is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,818,629.
One type of non linearity, SRS (Stimulated Raman Scattering) which causes cross talk at high power levels, can also cause significant spectral power gradient (SPG) (that is variation of power with wavelength). This means that in optical transmission systems utilising WDM, short wavelength channels interact with long wavelength channels via Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS). The effect of this is to increase the apparent span loss for short wavelength channels, and decrease it for long wavelength channels. The amount of this gradient varies with the total optical power of all the wavelengths. It is recognized in U.S. Pat. No. 6,275,313 that spectral distortion (in other words, SPG) introduced by stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) in an optical fiber transmission system is always linear on a dB/nm scale and depends solely on the total input power and not on the input power distribution. By maintaining the total input power to the fiber constant, the resulting gradient may be compensated for or canceled by using a fixed optical filter.

Using gain tilt for local compensation of unwanted power gradients


An apparatus is described for the removal of impurity gases such as O.sub.2, CH.sub.4, CO, CO.sub.2 and H.sub.2 from impure inert gases such as rare gases and N.sub.2. The apparatus comprises an impure inert gas inlet, a housing containing first and second gas sorbing materials and a purified gas outlet. The first gas sorbing material may be a Zr--V--Fe getter alloy if the gas to be purified is a rare gas, whereas it may be a Zr--Fe alloy if the gas to be purified is N.sub.2. The second gas sorbing material is a Zr--Al alloy which ensures that the purified inert gas has an extremely low level of hydrogen. A process for the removal of impurity gases from inert gases and ensuring an extremely low level of hydrogen in the purified gas is also described.

Many manufacturing processes require the use of pure inert gases such as the rare or noble gases, helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon or nitrogen. One particular example of their use is in the manufacture of semiconductor devices. Before use impure inert gases must be purified by removing contaminant gases such as CO, CO.sub.2, CH.sub.4, O.sub.2 and H.sub.2. GB Patent Application Publication Nos. 2,177,079 A and 2,177,080 A describe methods for the purification of inert gases to remove these impurity gases. However these two GB Patent Application Publications give no information relative to the problems of the maintenance of extremely low levels of hydrogen.
Although there is no quantitative measure available which relates the percentage of defects found during the manufacture of semiconductor devices with the partial pressure of hydrogen present during the manufacturing process, it is generally believed that the lower the hydrogen partial pressure, the lower the number of defects found.

Gases and the ensurance of extremely low levels of hydrogen


A device and method for keeping rain water away from the foundation of a structure while providing a decorative border.

Many areas around the country and in particular Columbus, Ohio, have drainage problems causing wet basements. Moisture causes mold and mildew growth as well as cracks in the foundation. Gutters sometimes cannot handle large amounts of rain overflow and drip water near the foundation. Overhanging eaves address this problem by directing rainwater further away from a building. Overflowing gutters create trenches where soil has washed away under the building eaves due to roof runoff spillage. Some homes or buildings have erosion problems or ground with the grade running to the house requiring backfill with dirt and landscaping to cause the water to drain away from the building to keep the basement or crawl space dry. Hauling dirt and moving it against the building to create a slope does not always fix a wet basement. In addition, after getting the proper slope to make the water to run from the house or building, the area typically requires grass or plant landscaping to make the area more attractive.
What is needed is a modular landscaped drain that is aesthetically pleasing. There is a need for a modular drain system that resembles landscaping.
The advantage of the invention over present systems is that it both keeps rain water away from a basement or crawlspace while providing a permanent, attractive transition from the side of the house to the ground. Other advantages include not replacing mulch every season, eliminating weeds and insects that invade mulch and or rock. When cleaning the landscape areas after mowing the grass, mulch or small rocks will be blown by a blower into the lawn. By having such landscaping elements permanently affixed to a surface, the mulch, pebbles, rock, slate, and the like, would stay in place. A further advantage is that the units are sectional, so a section could be removed for planting a flower, shrubs, trees, fountains, large rock, and the like, or only placed where the owner desires. The invention could be installed with a new build or later, and could be changed as the homeowner desired. The pre-manufactured landscape modules lowering maintenance cost for edging, weeding, mulching and the like.

Modular landscaping and waterproofing system


A synchronous electrical motor, which may operate poly-phase electrical power, is configured to operate at a rated flux configuration and a high flux configuration. To enable the high flux configuration, some coils wound about the stator of the electric motor can be designated bypass coils and can be selectively disconnected from the power source supplying the motor with electrical power. The remaining permanent coils continue to receive full line power and generate a rotating magnetic field with an increased magnetic flux. At startup from standstill conditions, the bypass coils are selectively disconnected so that a flux boost occurs and a corresponding increase in output torque of the electric motor.

Electric motors are devices that convert electricity into a motive mechanical force output as torque associated with a rotating motor shaft. Electric motors operate on various operating principles and can utilize different types of electrical power. One example is an alternating current synchronous electric motor that receives alternating current from a suitable power source. The alternating current is conductively directed through a plurality of conductive windings or coils disposed circumferentially about the stator of the electric motor. Conduction of the alternating current in the windings generate a magnetic field or flux that can electromagnetically interact with the rotor rotatably disposed in and concentrically surrounded by the stator. The periodic or wavelike nature of the alternating current causes the magnetic field produced by the stator windings to concentrically rotate about the stator which the rotor will tend to follow.
A characteristic of synchronous electric motors is that the rotational speed of the rotor locks in synchronization with the frequency of the alternating current conducted through the stator windings. Synchronization causes the rotor to rotate at the same speed as the revolving magnetic field. The speed that the magnetic field rotates around the stator and the locked rotational speed of the rotor is referred to as synchronous speed. One disadvantage of synchronous motors, such as line start permanent magnet motors or cage rotor permanent magnet motors, is that at startup they must be promptly brought to and maintained at synchronous speed and therefore may include additional starting devices or circuit configurations. Synchronous electric motors of the foregoing types may therefore be unsuitable for high inertial load conditions such as rotating industrial fans, blowers or pumps that require large amounts of synchronizing energy at startup. The present disclosure is directed to a stator winding configuration for an alternating current synchronous electric motor particularly suited to start under high inertial load conditions.

Electric motor with selective flux stator


The invention relates to an electric drive for bicycles, comprising two symmetrically arranged external-rotor type counter-rotating motors which are fed via two separate motor actuators/regulators that obtain the same control signal for power regulation purposes. The motors are mounted in an oscillating manner about an axis which is parallel, in particular substantially parallel, to the motor axis but offset with respect to the motor axis in a lateral manner, in particular in a parallel manner.

The hub motors that are mostly used at present only rotate at the speed of the wheel, approx. 200 rpm at 25 km/h, and have to generate extremely high torque in order to produce a sufficient forward thrust at the outer circumference of the wheel. The material input, the weight and the costs of this design are correspondingly large. One additional disadvantage is that the considerable motor weight of approx. 3 kg contributes 100% to the unsprung mass and adversely affects the driving characteristics of spring-mounted wheels. Front-wheel motors can easily spin on a slippery road surface, resulting in a risk of crashing. Rear-wheel motors inhibit the installation of disc brakes as well as derailleur and hub gears.
Centrally mounted motors avoid these disadvantages because they are usually fitted directly behind the bottom bracket, have a highly reduced transmission ratio and transfer their power to the chain via a sprocket. However, the service intervals of these highly strained wearing parts are additionally shortened by the motor. Power flow is complicated and subject to high loss because the output of the high-revving motor first has to be transferred to the very low chain speed and from there reconverted to the high peripheral speed of the wheel. Mounting space and fastening of the motor have to be taken into account during the frame design, eliminating the possibility of retrospective installation.
One special variation of the centrally mounted motor circumvents this restriction because in this case the motor sits concentrically on the axis of the bottom bracket occupies the design space of the front sprocket and needs only one torque support on the frame. Consequently, it can be retrofitted without difficulty on many bicycles. However, compared with the hub motor, its weight problem is further aggravated. As it can only rotate at the pedaling frequency, 60 to 80 rpm, it has to generate almost three times as much torque.
Apart from the legendary VeloSolex with petrol engine, which has been successfully marketed in substantial quantities, four other applications are known from the patent literature that closely resemble the invention described here because they also pursue the aim of directly driving the wheel at its outer circumference by frictional contact from lightweight and high-revving motors. In physical terms, this path definitely makes sense because the performance capacity of electric motors increases proportionally with the rotational speed and, due to the high peripheral speed, a given output can be transferred with correspondingly smaller forces.
US 2011/0232985 most closely approximates the Solex because the motor, which is parallel to the axle, transfers its angular force directly to the tread of the rear tire.
OE 42 19 763 and OE 196 33 345 have a single motor positioned outside of or above the tire and drives both sides of the tire flanks via a transmission that also simultaneously receives the torque division on two friction rollers.
DE 690 31 993 [U.S. Pat. No. 5,078,227] does not need a transmission because here there are two counter-rotating motors also mounted outside/above the front tire and the friction rollers are located on the motor axles that extend downward.
Various arrangements of motor mount and levers enable the friction rollers to be actively moved into their operating position with a high contact pressure onto the tire or into a contact-free idling position.


A storage cell having a storage circuit and a readout circuit may be used in power-saving environments, where the storage circuit may be maintained in an ultra-drowsy mode during power-saving periods while the readout circuit may be powered down during power-saving periods. A pull-down transistor may be incorporated into the readout circuit to reduce current leakage during power-saving periods.

In many devices, for example, in battery-powered devices, power saving methods may be employed. Such power saving methods often involve powering down at least some portion of the device. When portions of a device are powered down, state-retentive memories may be useful in order to preserve data (for example, but not limited to a system state). A problem that has plagued such state-retentive memories is current leakage, which may result in wasted power in portions of the device that are not powered down or not fully powered down.

State-retentive mixed register file array


An impeller pump for a fluid includes a rotary impeller (10; 20) and a pump casing (4). The pump casing defines a first pump channel (51) and a second pump channel (71). The impeller is disposed within the pump casing and opposes to the first pump channel and the second pump channel, respectively. The fluid discharged from the first pump channel and the fluid discharged from the second pump channel converge at a convergence channel (62). A pulsation canceling device serves to cancel pulsations of the fluid discharged from the first pump channel and the second pump channel, respectively. An impact reducing device (155, 175; 357; 455, 457; 555, 557) serves to reduce impacts produced by at least one of the flow of the fluid from the first pump channel and the flow of the fluid from the second channel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to impeller pumps of a type known as Westco pumps, generative or friction pumps, cascade pumps and circumferential-flow pumps that have rotary impellers.
2. Description of the Related Art
A known Westco pump is shown in FIGS. 23 and 24, in which the Westco pump includes a single impeller 110 disposed rotatably within a pump casing 104. The impeller 110 has a substantially circular disk-like configuration and rotates as a shaft 109a of an armature of a motor section (not shown) rotates. A predetermined number of grooves 112 are formed in each of upper and lower surfaces of the impeller 110 and are arranged at a predetermined pitch in the circumferential direction. The grooves 112 formed in the lower surface and the grooves 112 formed in the upper surface are arranged symmetrically with each other. Thus, the grooves 112 formed in the lower surface and the grooves 112 formed in the upper surface are arranged at the same circumferential positions with each other.
Referring to FIG. 23, the pump casing 104 defines pump channels 151 and 171 that oppose to the grooves 112 formed in the upper surface and the grooves 112 formed in the lower surface of the impeller 110, respectively. Suction ports 152 and 172 are defined in communication with start ends of the pump channels 151 and 171, respectively. Discharge ports 153 and 173 are defined in communication with terminal ends of the pump channels 151 and 171, respectively. As shown in FIG. 24, the suction port 152 and the discharge port 153 of the pump channel 151 are separated from each other by a partition wall 105a that defines an interruption region. Similarly, the suction port 172 and the discharge port 173 of the pump channel 171 are separated from each other by a partition wall 107a. A fuel suction channel 170 is defined in the pump casing 104 and is open into a suction side region. The fuel suction channel 170 communicates with the suction ports 152 and 172. A fuel discharge channel 150 is defined in the pump casing 104 and is open into a discharge side region. The fuel discharge channel 150 communicates with the discharge ports 153 and 173. Incidentally, as shown in FIG. 24, the discharge ports 153 and 173 are disposed at the same position with each other in the circumferential direction of the impeller 110.
Referring to FIG. 23, in order to perform a pumping operation, the impeller 110 is rotated, so that a fuel is drawn from the suction side through the fuel suction channel 170. Subsequently, the fuel is diverged into the inlet ports 152 and 172 and then enters the pump channels 151 and 171. The fuel that has entered the pump channels 151 and 171 receives kinetic energies from the grooves 112 (i.e., fins defined by the grooves 112) of the impeller 110 and is pressurized to be fed through the pump channels 151 and 171. The fuel that has been fed to the terminal end of the pump channel 151 and the fuel that has been fed to the terminal end of the pump channel 171 are converged after passing through the discharge ports 153 and 173, respectively. The fuel is then discharged via the fuel discharge channel 150.
However, in the known Westco pump, the grooves 112 formed in the lower surface and the grooves 112 formed in the upper surface are arranged at the same positions in the circumferential direction of the impeller 110. In addition, the discharge port 153 of the pump channel 151 and the discharge port 173 of the pump channel 171 are disposed at the same position in the circumferential position of the impeller 110. Therefore, the phase of pulsation of the fuel discharged from the pump channel 151 and the phase of pulsation of the fuel discharged from the pump channel 171 are the same with each other, and the pulsations of fuel may be intensified by the convergence of the fuel discharged from the discharge ports 153 and 173. As a result, pump noises that may be caused by the pulsations may increase. Here, the term "pulsation" is used to mean a periodic change in pressure of the fuel during the operation of the pump.
Furthermore, in the known Westco pump, the directions of flow of the fuel from the pump channels 151 and 171 are changed at substantially right angles toward the discharge ports 153 and 173, respectively. Therefore, the fuel collides with corner portions 151a and 171a (see FIG. 24) at the terminal ends of the pump channels 151 and 171. Pump noises also may be increased due to impacts caused by this collision. Therefore, it has been desired to reduce pump noises that may be caused by the pulsations and the impacts of the fluid.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication Nos. 3-18688, 8-14814 and 2000-329085 teach Westco pumps having impact reduction means. However, these publications relate to Westco pumps in which a fluid is drawn from a suction port disposed on one side of an impeller and is then discharged from a discharge port disposed on the other side of the impeller. The impeller has a plurality of grooves that are formed in each of upper and lower surfaces of the impeller and are spaced from each other in the circumferential direction by a predetermined pitch. The impact reduction means is provided for reducing impacts of the fluid, which impacts may be produced when the direction of the flow of the fluid is changed toward the discharge port. Thus, the Westco pumps of the publications are not configured to discharge the fluid from two discharge ports that are disposed on both upper and lower sides of the impeller. Therefore, the publications do not teach reduction means that is designed or intended to reduce the pulsations of the fluid that may be intensified due to the convergence of the fluid discharged from the discharge ports.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An adaptive control system (ACS) uses direct output feedback to control a plant. The ACS uses direct adaptive output feedback control developed for highly uncertain nonlinear systems, that does not rely on state estimation. The approach is also applicable to systems of unknown, but bounded dimension, whose output has known, but otherwise arbitrary relative degree. This includes systems with both parameter uncertainty and unmodeled dynamics. The result is achieved by extending the universal function approximation property of linearly parameterized neural networks to model unknown system dynamics from input/output data. The network weight adaptation rule is derived from Lyapunov stability analysis, and guarantees that the adapted weight errors and the tracking error are bounded.

Research in adaptive output feedback control of uncertain nonlinear dynamic systems is motivated by the many emerging applications that employ novel actuation devices for active control of flexible structures, fluid flows and combustion processes. These include such devices as piezoelectric films, and synthetic jets, which are typically nonlinearly coupled to the dynamics of the processes they are intended to control. Modeling for these applications vary from having accurate low frequency models in the case of structural control problems, to having no reasonable set of model equations in the case of active control of flows and combustion processes. Regardless of the extent of the model accuracy that may be present, an important aspect in any control design is the effect of parametric uncertainty and unmodeled dynamics. While it can be said the issue of parametric uncertainty is addressed within the context of adaptive control, very little can be said regarding robustness of the adaptive process to unmodeled internal process dynamics.
Synthesis approaches to adaptive output feedback control typically make use of state estimation, and therefore require that the dimension of the plant is known. Some approaches further restrict the output to have full relative degree, or restrict the uncertainties in the plant to be an unknown function of the output variables. It would be desirable to remove all these restrictions by adopting a direct output feedback approach that does not rely on state estimation. One of the immediate consequences of such an approach would be that the dimension of the controlled plant need not be known. Consequently, the resulting system would be applicable to plants having both parametric uncertainty and unmodeled dynamics. Furthermore, it would be desirable to produce a control system that is not only robust to unmodeled dynamics, but also learns to interact with and control these dynamics.
Output feedback control of full relative degree systems was introduced by Esfandiari and Khalil, 1992, "Output feedback stabilization of fully linearizable systems," International Journal of Control, 56(5):1007-1037. In their publication the authors formulated a control methodology that involves a high gain observer for the reconstruction of the unavailable states. A solution to the output feedback stabilization problem for systems in which nonlinearities depend only upon the available measurement, was given by Praly, L. and Jiang, Z. (1993), "Stabilization by output feedback for systems with iss inverse dynamics," System & Control Letters, 21:19-33. Krstic, M., Kanellakopoulos, I., and Kokotovic, P. (1995), Nonlinear and Adaptive Control Design, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York and Marino, R. and Tomei, P. (1995). Nonlinear Control Design: Geometric, Adaptive, & Robust. Prentice Hall, Inc., presented backstepping-based approaches to adaptive output feedback control of uncertain systems, linear with respect to unknown parameters. An extension of these methods due to Jiang can be found in Jiang, Z. (1999), A combined backstepping and small-gain approach to adaptive output feedback control. Automatica, 35:1131-1139.
For adaptive observer design, the condition of linear dependence upon unknown parameters has been relaxed by introducing a neural network (NN) in the observer structure of Kim, Y. and Lewis, F. (1998), High Level Feedback Control with Neural Networks, World Scientific, N.J. Adaptive output feedback control using a high gain observer and radial basis function neural networks (NNs) has also been proposed by Seshagiri, S. and Khalil, H. (2000), "Output feedback control of nonlinear systems using {RBF} neural networks," IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, 11(1):69-79 for nonlinear systems, represented by input-output models. Another method that involves design of an adaptive observer using function approximators and backstepping control can be found in Choi, J. and Farrell, J. (2000), "Observer-based backstepping control using on-line approximation," Proceedings of the American Control Conference, pages 3646-3650. However, this result is limited to systems that can be transformed to output feedback form, i.e., in which nonlinearities depend upon measurement only.
The state estimation based adaptive output feedback control design procedure in the Kim and Lewis 1998 publication is developed for systems of the form:{umlaut over (x)}=f(x)+g(x)δc  (1)y=x dim x=dim y=dim u,  (2)which implies that the relative degree of y is 2. In Hovakimyan, N., Nardi, F., Calise, A., and Lee, H. (1999), "Adaptive output feedback control of a class of nonlinear systems using neural networks," International Journal of Control that methodology is extended to full vector relative degree MIMO systems, non-affine in control, assuming each of the outputs has relative degree less or equal to 2:{umlaut over (x)}=f(x, δc)  (3)y=h(x) dim y=dim u≦dim x.  (4)
These restrictions are related to the form of the observer used in the design procedure. Constructing a suitable observer for a highly nonlinear and uncertain plant is not an obvious task in general. Therefore, a solution to adaptive output feedback control problem that avoids state estimation is highly desirable.

Adaptive control system having direct output feedback and related apparatuses and methods


A pallet for carrying load, comprising:                an upper surface for carrying load;        a bottom surface; and        at least one beam attached to the bottom surface, the beam comprising a curved force carrying element.

The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to carrying loads and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to pallets and beams for carrying loads.
A number of pallets are known in the art, for example:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,396 to Shuert discloses a plastic pallet in which an insert assembly is positioned within the hollow of the plastic pallet to discourage warpage and failure especially in racked, storage situations. The insert assembly comprises a pair of beams arranged in an X-configuration, tower members secured at their upper ends to respective ends of the beams and positioned respectively in the four corners of the pallet, and tensioning straps extending between the tower members around the perimeter of the pallet proximate to the upper surface of the bottom wall of the pallet. The X-configuration beams are positioned in the space between the spaced upper and lower sheets of the platform structure of the pallet and are maintained in a convexly bowed configuration by the tensioning straps so as to resist downward bowing of the platform structure, even when the pallet is racked for extended periods of time in a loaded position.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,962,115 to Markling et al. discloses a pallet system including a pallet body. The pallet body is formed from a first, independently formed first portion and a second blow molded second upper portion insert molded to the first portion. The pallet body may have two to eight recesses for forklift truck fork access. The second upper portion has a generally rectangular surface for carrying loads. The portions may have anti-skid properties, for example, a knurled topside surface or rubber coated bottom. At least one foot is attached to the second upper portion by insert molding. At least one runner may be attached to each foot to form part of the first portion. At least one stringer is attached to each runner to add further stability to the pallet. The runners and feet have channels or protruding members to effectively mate with the second upper portion. The system may also have top cap and tie members to affix the cap to one or more pallet bodies as well as high-friction inserts to permit the pallet from sliding on a surface or objects from sliding on the pallet.
WO2010/095129 by Nevo et al. discloses a pallet with a non-flat deck. The pallet can be reinforced by inserting or attaching reinforcement elements and can include taut cables that prevent or reduce the declining of the upper deck when the pallet is loaded.


A method and apparatus for providing dynamic and remote tuning of a cryo-cooled bandpass filter is disclosed. The device includes resonator element and a voltage sensitive element as part of the capacitance in a narrow band filter circuit. A varactor such as a GaAs varactor may be used. Alternatively, a capacitor having a voltage-sensitive dielectric such as SrTiO3 may be used. A computer may be connected to the varactor to provide for automated tuning. The voltage-sensitive capacitor may be integral with the resonator element. The invention provides for remote and dynamic tuning of a narrow bandpass filter while located within its sealed cryo-cooled environment.

Electrical bandpass filters allow certain frequency components of an input signal to pass unattenuated from the input terminals to the output terminals, while all components having frequencies outside of the passband are attenuated. In environments where accuracy of the passband is required, the bandpass filter may need adjustment in order to meet the specifications of the individual applications and customers. Such adjustments may be required for a number of different parameters. Several of the more critical parameters include: frequency accuracy, return loss, insertion loss, and bandwidth. The need for the physical filter to meet the desired parameters becomes even more critical with narrow band filters of the type utilized in connection with wireless communications applications such as cellular and PCS.
Unfortunately, the need for adjustment of the these narrow band filters can not be easily eliminated by design due to manufacturing limitations and physical characteristics. More specifically, the manufacturing and physical characteristics change from physical device to physical device due to dielectric constant variations of the substrate; thickness variations of the substrate; variations of the photolithographic pattern; and the aging effect due to temperature change and cycling of the filter.
One method which has been previously utilized to adjust RF filters is to utilize moveable conductors or dielectrics, such as tuning screws or spring pins. This approach is described in Socher, U.S. Pat. No. 5,968,875. In this type of system, a screw is used in connection with the capacitor type element. While this arrangement may be used to solve for dielectric constant variations of the substrate, the thickness variations of the substrate, and the photolithography variations of the photolithographic pattern, this type of tuning can not be utilized to solve for the aging effect due to temperature changes and cycling.
It will be appreciated that filters which are utilized at a constant or room temperature do not necessarily have a problem with an aging effect due to the temperature change in cycling. More specifically, filters used in these types of environments can be retuned at room temperature once the aging effect occurs. However, since cryo-cooled filters have been utilized, there has been a need in the art to develop a method and apparatus for tuning the filters dynamically without removing the filter from its cooled environment and while the filter is cooled.

Varactor tuning for a narrow band filter


A fixing tool includes a holding portion and fitting portion. The holding portion allows a chassis to hold a component. The fitting portion is integrally formed with the holding portion and is to be fitted in a through hole formed in the chassis, so that the holding portion is fixed to the chassis. The fitting portion has a post, a pair of fitting pieces, a pair of disengaging pieces, and a pair of leg pieces. The post projects downward from one side of the holding portion. The fitting pieces are formed at a distal end of the post to have an arrowhead-like shape, and elastically deform outwardly in diameter so as to be fitted in the through hole. The disengaging pieces extend from distal ends of the fitting pieces along two side surfaces of the holding portion, and elastically deform the fitting pieces, when operated manually, to disengage them from the through hole. The leg pieces have proximal ends connected to part of the disengaging pieces, and distal ends that can abut against an upper surface of the chassis. The disengaging pieces have extending ends which are close to or connected to the side surfaces of the holding portion.

The present invention relates to a fixing tool used to package an electronic component, a cable, or the like on the chassis of an electronic device or the like and, more particularly, to a fixing tool that can be removed from the upper surface of the chassis easily.
When assembling an electronic device, electronic components must be attached to an assembly board such as a panel, chassis, board, or the like (which will be referred to as a chassis hereinafter), and wiring components such as cables must be extended on the board. A mounting component is used for this purpose. For example, when a plurality of cables are to be extended parallel to each other along the surface of a chassis, a cable tie which ties the plurality of cables together and attaches them on the chassis is used. FIG. 12 shows an example of a conventional cable tie. A cable tie 1C has a band portion 11 with one free end that ties a plurality of cables together, and a locking portion 12 to which the proximal end of the band portion 11 is connected and which has engaging teeth to fit with sawteeth (not shown) of the band portion 11, when the band portion 11 is inserted in the locking portion 12 from its distal end, so that removal of the band portion 11 is prevented. The band portion 11 and locking portion 12 have the same arrangements as those of the cable tie of an embodiment to be described later, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted.
The locking portion 12 has a fitting portion 30 on its lower surface. The fitting portion 30 has a pair of fitting pieces 32 overhanging like arrowheads from the two sides of its post 31 projecting downward. When the fitting pieces 32 are inserted in a through hole 3 formed in a chassis 2 from the upper surface of the chassis 2, the pair of fitting pieces 32 are reduced in diameter by their elasticity to extend through the through hole 3. After passing through the through hole 3, the fitting pieces 32 elastically restore to enlarge in diameter, so that steps 32a formed on the terminal ends of the fitting pieces 32 fit with the inner edge of the through hole 3. A pair of inverted-V-shaped leg pieces 34 which oppose the fitting pieces 32 abut against the upper surface of the chassis 2, so that the steps 32a and through hole 3 are held fitted with each other. As an example of a fixing tool that has such a fitting portion, for example, one described in Patent Reference 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-242936) is available.
In recent years, in home electric appliances, OA devices, automobiles, and electronic devices as a whole, environmentally friendly products must be sold to solve environmental issues. Along with this demand, for example, a printed board or connecting wires built in an electronic device must be able to be disassembled from the chassis, panel, or the like of the electronic device. Particularly, to facilitate the disassembling operation, the printed board or wiring lines must be disassembled easily without using any tools. With the structure of the conventional fitting portion shown in FIG. 12, however, the fitting pieces 32 must be reduced in diameter by using hands or a tool, and be extracted from the through hole 3 of the chassis 2. In this case, since the fitting pieces 32 are small and difficult to hold, they are difficult to handle. Also, the fitting pieces 32 must be reduced in diameter on the lower surface side of the chassis 2, leading to poor workability.
Regarding this issue, if the fitting pieces 32 are designed and manufactured to have low elasticity, they can be reduced in diameter easily, and can be removed from the chassis 2 easily. However, the poor operability on the lower surface side of the chassis 2 cannot be improved. If the elasticity of the fitting pieces 32 is merely decreased, when an external force acts on the fitting pieces 32, the fitting pieces 32 are likely to deform easily and be reduced in diameter easily. Then, the fixing tool may drop from the chassis 2 easily.


A moving image processing device is configured such that a frame data acquisition unit configured to acquire frame data in which a parallax image for the left eye and a parallax image for the right eye are arranged across an active space. An image processing unit configured to subject the frame data to image processing. An active space setting unit configured to identify the position of the active space processed by the image processing unit and to set the pixel values of the active space to be fixed values.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to moving image processing devices and moving image processing methods and, more particularly, to a moving image processing device and method adapted for stereoscopic images.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, 3-dimensional display devices like three dimensional (3D) television sets capable of presenting stereoscopic videos or 3-dimensional video playback devices such as Blu-ray (registered trademark) players for playing back stereoscopic images are becoming available to ordinary users. A variety of signal processes and image processes such as coding or decoding of videos, change of image size, dithering, and format conversion are performed in a 3-dimensional display devices and 3-dimensional video playback devices.
Standards designed for connection between a display device and a video playback device and adapted for delivering 3-D videos are formulated (HDMI1.4a standard, see http://www.hdmi.org/press/press_release.aspx?prid=120). Standards like this stipulate a format for delivering and storing 3-D images.
When the 3-D video is subjected to image processing and does not meet the standard as a result, a problem is caused in that the video is not properly delivered or displayed. Another possible problem is that the video that does not meet the standard may lose compatibility in the future. For this reason, there is called for a technology of ensuring that the 3-D video subjected to image processing meets the standard.

Moving image processing device and moving image processing method


Provided is a system for reducing burden on an inspector by making it possible to evaluate the operation of a mixed injection worker which is difficult to evaluate numerically at a place remote from the mixed injection work place. Provided is a mixed injection inspection system for inspecting a mixed injection work for mixing an injection drug by an inspector different from a mixed injection worker, the mixed injection inspection system including: a mixed injection work photographing device provided in a mixed injection work place and used to photograph the mixed injection work; an inspector side mixed injection work monitor provided in a place remote from the mixed injection work place and used to display the mixed injection work photographed by the mixed injection work photographing device; an inspector side input device provided in a place remote from the mixed injection work place and used to input instructions for the worker working at the mixed injection work place; and a mixed injection worker side display means for displaying to the mixed injection worker what has been input by the inspector side input device.

The above-mentioned mixed injection work, which is directly related to the condition of the patient, has to be executed through very careful procedures. In particular, in the case of a powerful drug such as an anticancer agent, the agents constituting the materials thereof before mixing or the medicine prepared by mixed injection may, more often than not, harm the health of a person in normal health when taken inadvertently. In view of this, Japanese Society of Hospital Pharmacists, for example, has publicized "A Guideline for Preparing Injection drugs for Hospitalized Patients (December, 2000)," according to which, in order to secure the effectiveness and safety of a medicine, it is necessary to check the propriety of the prescription such as the applied dose, dosing method, dosing rate, and dosing system based on the patient information. When there is any doubt, it is necessary to refer to the prescribing physician before performing the medicine preparation work.
The injection drug is prepared by the following procedures and method. That is, the injection medicine order input by the doctor is output as an injection drug prescription within a predetermined period of time or at a predetermined time by a system totally controlled by a computer, and the medicine preparation is generally performed in the following order: 1. Prescription inspection and instruction regarding measurement (mixing); 2. Pre-inspection; 3. Measurement preparation; 4. Germ-free adjustment (mixing with infusion solution); 5. Post-mixing inspection and label attachment; 6. Counting (individual setting) and label affixation; and 7. Final inspection.
In this way, in the mixed injection work, inspection has to be performed for each of a number of stages taking safety into consideration. Above all, the above-mentioned steps of 2. Pre-inspection and 3. Germ-free adjustment are important. Regarding 3. Germ-free adjustment, checking (inspection) has to be performed at various stages of the method (checking of the medicines to be mixed, the way of mixing, the degree of oscillation, oscillation time, etc.). In particular, it is obvious that an error in the selection of the medicines used for mixed injection or an error in the amount of medicine leads to a fatal result. In view of this, in the pre-inspection, the medicine and the infusion solution prescribed and stored for the patient, and the medicine and the infusion solution to be actually subjected to mixed injection, are checked through comparison. Regarding the mixed injection work, there has conventionally been known a prescribed medicine preparation support system (Patent Document 1) in which there are provided a master database storing master data on a large number of medicines, and a preparation pattern storage means storing a plurality of types of medicine preparation patterns set beforehand, each preparation pattern indicating the procedures for preparing a plurality of kinds of medicine to be administrated to the patient at one time and accommodating the same in a support container and using as parameters a part or all of the following factors: presence/absence of solid medicine, presence/absence of liquid medicine, presence/absence of solvent, presence/absence of diluent, and the kind of supply container; the medicine preparation procedures, which includes a plurality of steps, include the step of measuring the initial weight of the supply container and the step of measuring the final weight of the supply container after preparation of the mixed injection, whereby the initial weight and the final weight are compared with each other to check whether the applied dose of the medicine constituting the mixed injection material has been proper or not.
In the conventional technology disclosed in Patent Document 1, the quantitative control of the medicines used are effected accurately as described above, and hence this technique is excellent as a prescription medicine preparation support system for an anticancer agent or the like, of which the quantitative control of medicines is effected with particular strictness.    Patent Document 1: JP 2004-208842 A


A remote treatment system may include a syringe assembly and a cone assembly. The syringe assembly may further include a cannula that has a solid bevel tip and an exit port on a longitudinal side of the cannula. The cone assembly may include a fore-end ring at the cone assembly apex and a base ring at a center of the cone assembly base. The fore-end ring and base ring may carry the cannula and the fore-end ring may be shiftable along the longitudinal axis of the cannula between an extended first position and a retracted second position. The fore-end ring may be in a sealing relation with the cannula exit port in the extended first position, while the exit port may be unsealed in the retracted second position. In response to an impact between the cone assembly and a target, the fore-end ring may shift to its second position.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently-named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Remote inoculation or treatment systems (RTS) are mechanical devices capable of administering a liquid or other payload (e.g., a vaccine, an anesthetic, other medical treatment, a tracking device, etc.) in a single dose to a target, such as the soft tissue of an unrestrained animal, usually by means of a ballistic projectile. A typical RTS includes a gun and a dart containing a product. However, modern delivery systems suffer many shortcomings. For example, the target must be first located and then approached closely. Under most circumstances, animals, or other targets must be within thirty yards of the shooter for a projectile-RTS to be effective. Many animal species are secretive and extremely difficult to locate, let alone approach closely. Also, many RTS can be used only on larger animals. Typical RTS using projectiles tend to be inaccurate and the preferred target area on smaller animals may be very small. A misplaced shot might easily injure or kill the target. Even if placed correctly, the impact energy or penetration depth could be injurious or lethal to smaller animals. Furthermore, training and experience are necessary and most RTS should not be used without some degree of formal instruction by experienced practitioners.