A system and method are provided for reducing vibrations and loads in one or more rotor blades on a rotor hub of a wind turbine when the rotor hub is in a locked or idling condition. An electronically tunable mass damper is attached to a fixed location on one or more of the rotor blades. The mass damper is maintained on the rotor blades during the locked or idling condition of the rotor hub. The method includes sensing movement of a mass component of the mass damper from vibrations or oscillations induced in the rotor blade. The mass damper is automatically tuned based on the sensed movements of the mass component by automatically varying an electrical characteristic of the mass damper.

Modern wind turbines are commonly used to supply electricity into the electrical grid. Wind turbines of this kind generally comprise a tower and a rotor arranged on the tower. The rotor, which typically comprises a hub and a plurality of blades, is set into rotation under the influence of the wind on the blades, wherein the rotation generates a torque that is transmitted through a rotor shaft to a generator, either directly ("directly driven") or through the use of a gearbox. This way, the generator produces electricity which can be supplied to the electrical grid.
There is a trend to make wind turbine blades increasingly longer to capture more wind and convert the energy of the wind into electricity. This results in the blades being more flexible and more prone to aero-elastic instabilities, e.g., vibrations of the blades that can also lead to blade oscillations. Vibrating blades create risk of major potential damages in the entire wind turbine.
When the wind turbine is in operation, a wind turbine controller may operate directly or indirectly any auxiliary drive system such as a pitch system or a yaw system to reduce loads on the blades. This way, vibrations of the blades may be counteracted. However, the problem of aero-elastic instabilities can be serious as well in circumstances when the wind turbine is in stand-still conditions, either idling or locked, wherein the blades are susceptible to edgewise oscillations.
At least two types of vibrations may happen during stand-still conditions. The first one is vortex induced vibration (VIV) at certain angles of attack and may or may not include cross flow vortices shed at frequencies close to blade eigen frequencies or system frequencies. The second one is stall induced vibration (SIV) when the angle of attack is close to stall angles and the flow interaction may lead to blade vibrations. The angle of attack may be understood as a geometrical angle between a flow direction of the wind and the chord of a rotor blade. There may also be cross flow components to the flow.
The vortex and stall induced vibrations are phenomena that, if not adequately designed or compensated for, can lead to blade failure or accelerate blade damage.
When the rotor is locked against rotation, for instance due to installation, commissioning, or maintenance tasks, the blades can experience aero-elastic instabilities, such as the VIV and SIV vibrations. Blades are susceptible to these vibrations when angles of attack are within certain ranges. Because the rotor is locked, rotation of the rotor cannot be used to reduce or damp these vibrations.
A current solution to the cited problems includes the use of aerodynamic devices attached to the blades to reduce vortices and/or increase damping. However, this solution may increase costs and time for installation and removal of such devices.
Another current practice for wind turbines when not making power includes setting the pitch angle of the rotor blades to substantially 90 degrees when the rotor is yawed into the wind and prevented from rotating by means of a locking pin. This particular pitch angle may reduce loads on the blades, at least with some wind conditions. However, the locking pin may suffer from higher loads when the pitch angle is set at the weathervane position and, even in this position, not all vibrations may be avoided, particularly if the wind direction changes over time.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,316,202 proposes a method and system to guard against oscillations of the wind turbine blades when the rotor is locked or idling at low speeds that involves attachment of a releasable cover to the blades that provides a non-aerodynamic surface for a region of the blade. The blade cover is described as a sleeve of a net-like material that can be positioned on the blade either before installation or in the field by service engineers using guidelines.
The present disclosure provides an alternate effective means to reduce or prevent vibrations or oscillations in the wind turbine blades when the wind turbine is in a non-operational mode with the rotor hub unable to yaw and locked or idling via use of unique vibration dampers that will provide benefits in cost, time and ease of installation, and effectiveness.

System and method for use of a tunable mass damper to reduce vibrations in wind turbine blades in a locked or idling condition of the rotor hub


A method of operating a computer causes information to be presented through visual displays using alternate mode of expression. The method is practiced by application software which operates on a general purpose computer. The application software separates concept data from expression data. Concept data identify information which the software intends to present in a visual display, without specifying any particular one of a plurality of forms of expression that might be used to express the concept data. Expression data cause the visual display to form images in accordance with a specific mode of expression. A user specifies the expression modes to utilize while operating the application program. For example, linguistic information may be presented in English, Spanish, German, French, or other languages, and graphic information may be presented in color or in black and white. Expression tables which translate concept data into expression data are loaded into primary storage. The user may change an expression mode while the application software is executing. To change an expression mode, new expression data tables are overlaid over old expression data tables without altering the executable program, concept data tables, or other permanent data.

The presentation of information on a computer's video display terminal is an extremely important function for many computer programs which are prepared for mass markets. Such information must be quickly and easily understood by a computer user for the computer program to be truly useful. Early computer programs almost exclusively presented information by displaying only text data at video display terminals. In recent years, increasing use is being made of graphic objects, often mixed with text data, to improve the presentation of information on a computer's video display terminal. However, further improvements are needed.
Conventional methods of operating computers and video display terminals severely limit flexibility in expressing concepts. Thus, the presentation of information is typically optimized for only one application, and nothing allows easy alteration of the way information is expressed at the video display terminal so that information is presented in a most desirable form for other applications.
To be specific, conventional computer programs which control a color graphics video display terminal are often optimized to take advantage of color. However, when color graphic visual displays are printed at a printer or plotter which only prints in black and white, the results are less than optimum. For example, a visual effect which results from using color is not necessarily duplicated merely by mechanically transforming diverse colors into diverse black and white crosshatching patterns. Moreover, various graphic objects and characters which are easily visible when presented using diverse colors become difficult to discern when simply translated to black and white. While some conventional computer programs permit a black and white view of a color graphics image, such programs do not actually alter graphic characters or objects to take full advantage of the black and white medium. Moreover, such conventional programs then do not permit interactive alteration of that image to permit a user to improve the composition of the image.
In addition, conventional computer programs are often optimized to present linguistic or textual information in accordance with a single particular language, such as English, Spanish, French, German, and the like. With this approach, separate versions of the programs must be manufactured, inventoried, purchased, and used for each language. This leads to difficulties in maintaining control over the computer programs and to increased costs.
Of course, those skilled in the art will immediately recognize that the computer program may be configured so that it consists of what amounts to multiple programs. Separate ones of these programs may then accommodate black and white graphics, color graphics, English text, Spanish text, German text, French text, and the like. However, this presents an impractical solution to the problem because it duplicates numerous programming features and requires that an extremely large portion of memory be dedicated to the task of expressing concepts for visual display. In computers with limited memory capacities, this leaves less memory for performing the basic functions for which the computer program is designed. In addition, this increases the amount of disk or secondary storage space required to hold the entire computer program. It is highly desirable to minimize the number of disks which are required to hold a program because an increased number of disks increases costs while decreasing reliability and making installation more difficult.
Overlaying represents a known method for increasing the apparent size of primary storage. This method keeps only the portions of a program that are currently being accessed within primary storage, with the rest being kept on a secondary storage device until needed. However, this does nothing to solve the problem of increased secondary storage needs. Moreover, overlaying typically involves programming instructions. Thus, the programming instructions that are being kept on secondary storage are not immediately available for execution in primary storage. Consequently, computer operations are slowed down because programming instructions must be swapped between primary and secondary storage.

Method of managing expression data to control the presentation of visual displays


Attributes relevant to at least one existing authorization system are identified. Noise removal from identified attributes of the at least one existing authorization system is performed. An attribute based access control (ABAC) policy is generated from remaining identified attributes to derive logical rules that grant or deny access.

Access control requires effective (correct) and timely policies which should relate the need for access to sensitive resources to be protected. There are existing models to provide access control with minimal administrative overhead. One of the simplest models is to directly assign permissions to users. However, such policies are large, and difficult to manage in dynamic environments. Newer policy models, such as role based access control (RBAC) that groups permissions into roles and assigns roles to users, have been developed to address the issues with prior work. While newer models decrease the administrative costs, they still require administrative actions to make changes to policies as needs change.
Attribute based access control (ABAC) is a popular model that grants access to users based on the attributes of the user and the request, such as the attributes of the permission and resources. As the attributes of the users change, access can be automatically granted. As resources are added, users with the required attributes are automatically granted access, making administration easier and more cost effective. ABAC requires a policy. Currently, such policies must be manually defined and written.

Generation of attribute based access control policy from existing authorization system

International Business Machines Corporation


An optical fiber furnace having an access port for a preform is disclosed. The access port includes a gas pressure generation and sensing device and an automatic shutter door assembly. The gas pressure generation and sensing device responds to a sensed gas pressure built up around a new preform being inserted into the optical fiber furnace, for providing an automatic shutter door opening signal. The gas pressure generation and sensing device also responds to a sensed outwardly flowing purge gas pressure escaping around an exhausted preform being removed from the optical fiber furnace, for providing an automatic shutter door closing signal. The automatic shutter door assembly responds to the automatic shutter door opening signal, for opening the automatic shutter door assembly for inserting the new preform into the optical fiber furnace. The automatic shutter door assembly also responds to the automatic shutter door closing signal, for closing the automatic shutter door assembly after removing the exhausted preform from the optical fiber furnace.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a draw furnace; and more particularly, a fiber optic draw furnace for heat treating a glass preform or drawing optical fibers from a preform.
2. Background of the Invention
When thermally treating a high purity optical preform for drawing into optical fiber, inflow of oxygen and other atmospheric gases into the furnace can cause substantial production problems. Oxygen causes accelerated wear of graphite furnace parts and the generation of loose silicon carbide and graphite particulates that contaminate and degrade the physical strength of a finished fiber. The interior of a furnace is traditionally prone to contamination by ambient particulate matter. Common particulates have been demonstrated to reduce the optical and physical quality of the finished fiber. Oxygen from the atmosphere or silicon dioxide (Sio.sub.2) from the preform can react with materials used to line the furnaces, commonly at operating temperatures, shortening the useful life of the furnace.
In an attempt to overcome problems, prior art furnaces use two chambers separated by a partition such as a sliding door or shutter door. The door can be opened to provide access from a first chamber into a second thermal treating chamber once a preform is first decontaminated and temperature controlled in an environmentally controlled chamber. The atmosphere in both chambers is commonly purged of oxygen and particulate matter by using an inert gas.
However, this sequence of opening and closing two chambers has only been known to be actuated manually, while also inherently entailing the time-consuming steps of purging, heating, and cooling the chambers. Heating and cooling results from shutting down the heater, in the control chamber of the furnace. Shutting down the heater is often necessary to avoid higher temperature reactions at the control chamber stage when atmospheric gases and particulate matter are encountered and purged. Clearly, shutting down the furnace results in lost fiber production time as a preform cannot be immediately inserted into the furnace.
Typically, prior art furnaces require about a half-hour to cool, and an additional half-hour to reheat to furnace operating temperature. This represents valuable production time during which fibers are not being produced.
The reader is referred to U.S. Pat. No. 5,032,079, German patent DE 3,925,961, Japanese patent JP 6-199536, and Great Britain patent 1,523,595 for examples of other known prior art optical furnaces.

Optical fiber graphite furnace featuring an automatic shutter door system for feeding an optical preform


The present invention is directed to a defect-free magnetic memory disc substrate. In particular, it is directed to a composite alumina-based, glass-coated, article with a defect free surface. Several methods for its manufacture including frit bonding, molten glass submersion, and tape formation are disclosed.

This invention relates generally to the field of magnetic memory disc substrates. In particular, it relates to composite ceramic and glass substrates which, for reasons to be described herein, produce superior substrates for magnetic memory disc products.
The pace of new developments in the computer industry is torrid. Disc recording capacity, for example, continues to increase geometrically, with apparently no end in sight. Higher capacity discs require defect-free, smooth surfaces to allow for error-free operation. Typically, today's high capacity discs spin at 5400 rpm during read/write operations. The next generation will likely spin at 8000 rpm. This means that the pick up head can see velocities of close to 80 mph. At these speeds, even small defects in the surface of the substrate will cause unacceptable errors.
Traditionally, magnetic memory discs have been fabricated of an aluminum metal or alloy substrate with the various magnetic and protective coatings deposited thereon.
This configuration suffers from several inadequacies: chief among these is a lack of stiffness. This problem is only exacerbated by the high speeds demanded of today's discs. In an effort to upgrade the disc substrate material, polycrystalline ceramic materials show great promise. Known for their stiffness and other superior mechanical properties, they lend themselves to this application.
Unfortunately, the potential of these materials remains unrealized. This is due in no small part to the inability of prior workers in the art to fabricate an essentially defect-free coating on the base ceramic substrate material which is both manufacturable and cost effective.
Among the relevant work in the field is:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,408,463 is drawn to a substrate for magnetic disks comprised of a polycrystalline ceramic material coated by a glaze layer; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,128 is drawn to a process for making a magnetic recording disk by coating an alumina-based ceramic with glass and then subjecting the coated article to a Hot Isostatic Pressure (HIP) step; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,885 is directed to a substrate for a magnetic disc comprising alumina which is HIPped and polished; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,971,932 teaches a magnetic memory storage substrate made of a glass ceramic; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,846 is directed to a substrate which comprises alumina coated by glass in a paste or powdered form; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,808,455 is directed to a substrate on which a glass layer is deposited and then subsequently polished; PA1 JP 62-90451 is directed to a substrate of a crystalline material covered by a glass film; and PA1 JP 62-90445 is directed to a substrate of a crystalline material covered by a glass film. PA1 forming a green alumina tape; PA1 firing said tape; and PA1 applying a glass layer to the fired tape prior to cooling.
Defects, in the form of pin holes and seeds, can not be tolerated in a high performance magnetic memory disc substrate. If present, they can wreak havoc on data transfer by causing the head to skip, decreasing the available real estate for recording, and causing problems in coating of the magnetic over layer.
Generally, pin holes and seeds are formed when materials are trapped in, or gas evolves from, the material deposited on the substrate. It is the very nature of the prior art processes which cause these defects. Additional defects to be avoided are inhomogenieties due to lack of mixing, and the like. Since the inventive methods use a molten or pre-melted glass, applicants have solved the problems encountered by the prior art.

Memory disc substrate with defect free surface


Provided herein are synthetic methods for preparing a compound of formula (I): Also provided herein are synthetic methods for preparing a compound of formula (XIII): The disclosure also provides useful intermediates, derivatives, prodrugs, and pharmaceutically acceptable salts, solvates and hydrates of the formula (I) and formula (XIII) compounds. These compounds are useful for treating diseases associated with molybdenum cofactor deficiency.

Molybdenum cofactor (Moco) deficiency is a pleiotropic genetic disorder. Moco consists of molybdenum covalently bound to one or two dithiolates attached to a unique tricyclic pterin moiety commonly referred to as molybdopterin (MPT). Moco is synthesized by a biosynthetic pathway that can be divided into four steps, according to the biosynthetic intermediates precursor Z (cyclic pyranopterin monophosphate; cPMP), MPT, and adenylated MPT. Mutations in the Moco biosynthetase genes result in the loss of production of the molybdenum dependent enzymes sulfite-oxidase, xanthine oxidoreductase, and aldehyde oxidase. Whereas the activities of all three of these cofactor-containing enzymes are impaired by cofactor deficiency, the devastating consequences of the disease can be traced to the loss of sulfite oxidase activity. Human Moco deficiency is a rare but severe disorder accompanied by serious neurological symptoms including attenuated growth of the brain, untreatable seizures, dislocated ocular lenses, and mental retardation. Until recently, no effective therapy was available and afflicted patients suffering from Moco deficiency died in early infancy.
It has been found that administration of the molybdopterin derivative precursor Z, a relatively stable intermediate in the Moco biosynthetic pathway, is an effective means of therapy for human Moco deficiency and associated diseases related to altered Moco synthesis (see U.S. Pat. No. 7,504,095). As with most replacement therapies for illnesses, however, the treatment is limited by the availability of the therapeutic active agent.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods for synthesizing molybdopterin precursor Z derivatives


An airflow sensor for use in a conduit. The sensor comprises stacked first, second and third portions positioned, in use, in the conduit to define a hub and a plurality of tubes. The hub is centrally disposed in the conduit and has first and second interior chambers, a streamlined upstream-facing surface, a downstream-facing surface and a sidewall connecting said upstream and downstream facing surfaces, said sidewall having defined therein one or more static pressure ports through which the first chamber communicates with the conduit interior. The tubes extend radially from the hub, transverse to the flow. Each tube has a streamlined upstream-facing surface having defined therein one or more total pressure ports; a downstream-facing surface; and an interior passage communicating with the second chamber and communicating with the conduit interior through said total pressure ports. Each static pressure port is located downstream from a respective tube.

In variable air volume (VAV) heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, air flow through a duct system is varied to provide thermal comfort and proper ventilation. Multi-point, center-averaging sensors are typically provided at terminal box inlets in VAV systems to measure total and static pressure produced by air flowing through the duct system. The difference between these two measurements, known as "differential pressure," is proportional to air flow through the duct system. Total and static pressure measurements, which are preferably averaged and amplified by the sensor, are transmitted to a controller that responds by increasing or decreasing the rate of air flow through the duct by opening or closing a damper located downstream from the sensor.
Typical examples of multi-point, center-averaging airflow sensors are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,453,419 (Engelke) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,481,925 (Woodbury). The sensor disclosed by Engelke comprises a number of pairs of tubes extending radially outwardly from a central hub. One tube of each pair has upstream facing holes and transmits a total pressure signal to a first chamber in the central hub, while the other tube of each pair has downstream facing holes and transmits a static pressure signal to a second chamber in the central hub. The total pressure signals and static pressure signals are averaged and amplified in respective chambers of the hub and are then transmitted to a controller. The Woodbury sensor is similar to that of Engelke except the total and static pressure sensing tubes are not paired and only a single static pressure port is provided at the radially outermost end of each static pressure sensing tube.
Most known airflow sensors operate on a principle similar to that of a standard Pivot tube, traversing the air stream and measuring the pressure at a number of locations in the duct. Such sensors are capable of generating reasonably accurate pressure measurements when the airflow pattern through the duct is substantially symmetrical, that is, when the velocity of air flowing through the duct exhibits a parabolic distribution across the duct section, with the maximum velocity at the center of the duct and the minimum at the walls of the duct.
While symmetrical airflow conditions may exist in relatively long, straight portions of the duct system, the presence of obstructions such as elbows, transitions, flexible ducts and dampers in the duct system cause turbulence that disrupt the symmetrical airflow pattern, and can have a negative impact on the accuracy of the pressure measurements generated by the duct.
Another problem associated with known airflow sensors is that the sensor itself can be responsible for a certain amount of turbulence in the duct system. Sensor-generated turbulence causes a drop in pressure across the sensor, as well as noise in the duct system.
Yet another problem associated with known airflow sensors relates to durability. Airflow sensors are typically supplied by manufacturers as assemblies comprising a sensor installed in either a short sheet-metal sleeve or a terminal box to be incorporated into the duct system. When such assemblies are manually moved from place to place on a job site, it is not uncommon for the assembly to be lifted and carried by grasping one of the arms of the sensor. Since sensor tubes are typically of small diameter (to reduce sensor surface area and minimize flow disruption), they are easily damaged by such handling, the result being that the measurements generated by the sensor may be inaccurate.
Advances have recently been made in the prior art towards overcoming these problems.
Of note in this regard is U.S. Pat. No. 6,237,426 (Gryc et al.). Gryc et al. discloses that under asymmetric air flow conditions, total and static pressure measurements made close to the walls of the duct are poor indicators of actual air flow within the duct. Thus, in the sensor Gryc et al., static and total pressure ports are located a sufficient distance from the walls of the duct so as to generate pressure measurements of acceptable accuracy even under asymmetric flow conditions. Gryc et al. also explains that damper back pressure results in static pressure measurement inaccuracy.
To avoid the problem of static pressure measurements being affected by damper back pressure, static pressure ports are provided on a side surface of the sensor. Gryc et al. also make advances in terms of durability through the use of metal braces. Further, the Gryc et al. sensor provides for signal amplification without increasing face area, unlike Engelke and Woodbury, by experimentally-determined optimum location of total pressure ports.
Despite the advances represented by the Gryc et al. sensor, there is an associated increased manufacturing cost. Thus, improvement to the technology remains of interest.


An audio stream is segmented into a plurality of time segments using speaker segmentation and recognition (SSR), with each time segment corresponding to the speaker's name, producing an SSR transcript. The audio stream is transcribed into a plurality of word regions using automatic speech recognition (ASR), with each of the word regions having a measure of the confidence in the accuracy of the translation, producing an ASR transcript. Word regions with a relatively low confidence in the accuracy of the translation are identified. The low confidence regions are filtered using named entity recognition (NER) rules to identify low confidence regions that a likely names. The NER rules associate a region that is identified as a likely name with the name of the speaker corresponding to the current, the previous, or the next time segment. All of the likely name regions associated with that speaker's name are selected.

One method of creating machine generated pronunciation of names is to use grapheme-to-phoneme (G2P) tools to convert the letter string of a given name into phoneme sequences. These G2P tools are either rule based or apply statistical models that are learned from human created dictionaries. They are especially error prone for names, given the wide variety of pronunciations for a given spelling of a name depending on both the named person and the person speaking the name.
Another method of creating machine generated pronunciation of names is to ask a set of users to speak all personal names for which a pronunciation is to be learned. The resulting audio samples are then converted to phoneme sequences by applying a phonetic recognizer. A variation of this approach is to pick from multiple pronunciations that were created with a G2P tool by picking the G2P pronunciation(s) that are closest to the pronunciation(s) used by the speakers. This data-driven method is capable of yielding more accurate pronunciations than the first method, but it requires users to explicitly provide speech samples for all names.

Automatic collection of speaker name pronunciations


The method concerns automatic guiding a C-arm X-ray device equipped with a motorized exact positioning unit and essentially comprises the steps of:

The invention relates to a method of automatic guiding a C-arm X-ray device according to the concept of claim 1.
A C-arm X-ray device (in the following called C-arm) is used routinely today for the intraoperative control of length and axial and rotational alignment of bones or bone fragments in osteosynthesis. In order to point out the task of the method according to the invention the step xe2x80x9cintraoperative imagingxe2x80x9d is described as technical regulatory process in the following section.
In conventional, open operative technique the surgeon receives his visual feedback partly via direct vision without radiography. Therefore, a separate operative step xe2x80x98intraoperative imagingxe2x80x99 cannot be delineated. In order to obtain a particular view of a fracture, the surgeon may have to alter his own position relative to the patient or the position of the retractor on the patient. The desired view of the fracture corresponds to the target value and the patient can be identified as the controlled system. The surgeon records with his eye (measuring unit) the current view of the fracture and compares it with the desired view. From the difference (control deviation), the surgeon (controller) determines, on the basis of his experience, the type and extent of the necessary positional alteration. As a result the surgeon achieves a new view of the fracture which is expressed in regulatory terms as the actual value. In a block diagram, this situation may be expressed as a simple control circuit with only three elements. An optimal regulatory behavior is achieved on the basis of direct visual feedback and a simple control circuit. This model can be applied to the description of soft tissue interventions and of those open osteosynthesis procedures at which the C-arm is not used.
If the surgeon obtains his visual feedback by intraoperative imaging with the C-arm, then intraoperative imaging can be delineated as an individual operative stage. This will be expressed in the following as a technical regulatory process for the constellation intraoperative imaging with the C-arm and image guidance with the combination C-arm/surgical navigation system.
For this constellation the external C-arm operator and the C-arm as a device must be taken into account as well as the patient and the surgeon in order to be expressed in regulatory terms. The representation in a block diagram therefore requires additional elements. The intraoperative positioning procedure can be described as a serial connection of one outer and one inner control circuit.
The outer control circuit includes all persons and appliances participating in the process, i.e. the surgeon, the C-arm operator, the patient, and the C-arm. Adjustment to the desired projection, in other words, the target value, is regulated by the outer control circuit. The current projection (actual value) is shown on the monitor of the image intensifier. The surgeon (controller) compares the desired and the current projection.
A projection is defined by the orientation of the rays relative to the object being imaged. For any desired projection, the C-arm must therefore take up a specific position relative to the imaged fragment. The surgeon can only tell his description of the desired position in somewhat inexact terms and this depends upon his experience (interpreter). He communicates the position to the C-arm operator. The operator of the C-arm, the patient and the C-arm correspond to the outer control circuit as the controlled system which the surgeon influences as controller.
On the other hand, the interaction between the operator of the C-arm, the patient and the C-arm can be described as a second, inner control circuit with which the correct position of the C-arm is achieved. The operator tries to move the C-arm to the position stipulated by the surgeon. The C-arm operator acts as a controller in that he compares the position stipulated by the surgeon (target value) with the existing position of the C-arm (actual value). On the basis of his experience (interpreter), he plans suitable corrective movements. These may or may not be possible due to circumstances such as limited space or concerns for sterility (=disturbance factors). The actual position is constantly registered by the C-arm operator by eye (measuring unit), i.e. he receives continuous direct visual feedback. Only when the operator is satisfied with the position of the C-arm and the regulatory process in the inner control circuit is completed does the surgeon receive his first, delayed, visual radiographic feedback (measuring unit C-arm). Before the desired projection appears on the screen, the above procedure may have to be repeated several times.
The entire process has to be repeated in the same manner in order to reproduce a projection.
Surgical navigation systems make possible continuous image guidance based on stored data. This is done by representing the spatial relationships between surgical instruments and anatomical objects of interest on the screen. A surgical navigation system includes a facility for recording the position of the instruments in the operation room as well as the software and corresponding hardware components. This operates on a transceiver principle: on each surgical instrument transmitters tuned to the receivers are permanently mounted. Their position in the operating theater tracked by the receiver and positional information transmitted to the navigation system. Before each application of the surgical navigation system digital images of the patient are copied from an imaging unit (CT, C-arm) to the navigation system. The positional data on surgical instruments and anatomical objects in the OR make it possible to generate a simulated projection of the current position of the instruments on the recorded digital images.
The combination of surgical navigation system and C-arm can be applied during trauma surgery in the modes xe2x80x9cpositioning of the C-armxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cimage guidancexe2x80x9d. In the xe2x80x9cpositioningxe2x80x9d mode the navigation system helps the surgeon to place the C-arm correctly for a previously defined projection. To do this, the relative position of the C-arm with which the desired projection will be achieved and the object to be imaged (implant or fragment) are stored in the navigation system. lntraoperatively, the actual positions of C-arm and object to be imaged are tracked and from them the relative positions are calculated. Consequently, the target and the actual relative positions are imaged on the monitor of the navigation system.
To express this situation in terms of automated control engineering, the navigation system has to be taken into account. In the xe2x80x98positioningxe2x80x99 mode, it functions to set the target value for the surgeon. He can thus give more exact positional commands to the external operator of the C-arm. The navigation system is however not linked into the inner control circuit with which the positioning of the C-arm is controlled.
Even in this configuration the total process must be repeated as described if a previously set projection is to be reproduced.
In order to achieve an optimal handling procedure, the surgeon must be able to alter the position of the C-arm - and thus the visible imagexe2x80x94independently and immediately. This requirement is not fulfilled if a C-arm is used with the usual equipment available today for intraoperative imaging: the device is operated and positioned by a third person. This procedure takes time, is open to error, and leads to additional difficulties:
The entire procedure for setting up a projection has to be repeated if the projection needs to be reproduced, for example, when checking a reduction manoeuvre.
The radiographic checks necessary for positioning represent an additional exposure to radiation for the patient and the team in the operation room.
The person operating the C-arm has to be available more or less throughout the operation even though assistance may only be required occasionally after long waits.
These problems show clearly that an improved interface between the surgeon and the imaging unit must be found for intraoperative imaging with the C-arm. This becomes even more apparent at image-guided operations in which the surgeon is almost totally dependent on the information from images for the coordination of his manipulations.
On this point, the invention intends to provide remedial measures. The invention is based on the objective of providing a method of using a C-arm X-ray device that is automatically guideable by means of automatic controlling means.
The invention solves the posed problem with a method that displays the features of claim 1.
To execute the method according to the invention the C-arm X-ray device must be equipped with a motorized positioning unit apt to adjust the C-arm X-ray device in a desired position upon receiving control commands given by the C-arm operator, the surgeon (e.g. xe2x80x9cvoice controlxe2x80x9d) or by a computer assisted surgery system. Such a motorized exact positioning unit for a C-arm X-ray device (MEPUC) is disclosed in the International Patent Application No. PCT/CH00/00022.
The method according to the invention essentially comprises the steps of: A) attaching a first reference element at the bone or bone joint to be surgically treated in order to establish a measurable reference of the position and orientation of the bone or bone joint with respect to an on-site three-dimensional system of coordinates;
B) positioning the C-arm X-ray device in a desired position with a desired plane of projection at the bone or bone joint to be surgically treated. This first positioning may be effected manually through an assistant or by means of an control system which may be integrated in a Surgical navigation system;
C) measuring the position and orientation of a second reference element at the C-arm
X-ray device with respect to the on-site three-dimensional system of coordinates in order to determine the position of the C-arm X-ray device with respect to the on-site three-dimensional system of coordinates;
D) determining the position and orientation of the plane of projection with respect to the on-site systems of coordinates;
E) measuring the position and orientation of the first reference element at the bone or bone joint with respect to an on-site three-dimensional system of coordinates;
F) referencing the position and orientation of the plane of projection to the position and orientation of the first reference element in order to establish a mathematical relationship between the position and orientation of the plane of projection and the position and orientation of the bone or bone joint;
G) displacing the bone or bone joint in order to effect the desired surgical treatment at the bone or bone joint, whereby the surgical treatment may be e.g. a reduction manoeuvre;
H) measuring the actual position and orientation of the displaced bone or bone joint, whereby the actual position and orientation may be measured continuously during the surgical manoeuvre or subsequently;
I) determining the deviation between the actual position and orientation of the first reference element and the position and orientation of the first reference element referenced under step F);
K) determining the position of the C-arm X-ray device whereto the C-arm X-ray device has to be situated in order to reset the plane of projection as referenced under step F); and
L) guiding the C-arm X-ray device in the new position and adjust the plane of projection as determined under step K) by means of automatic controlling means.
The measurement of the position and orientation of the reference elements with respect to the three-dimensional on-site system of coordinates is performed with a position measurement device that is connected to the computer using software to evaluate the coordinates from the data received from the position measurement device.
The reference bodies preferably comprise at least three markers that are non-collinearly arranged. The markers as well as the detectors of the position measurement device may be acoustic or electromagnetic effective means such as energy emitting, receiving or reflecting means. For instance as energy emitting means:
Light sources, particularly light emitting diodes (LED""s );
Infrared light emitting diodes (IRED""s ); or
Acoustic transmitters
or as energy receiving means:
Photodiodes; or
Microphones
may be used. Other position measurement devices contain coils as energy emitting means and Hall-effect components as energy receiving means may be used as well.
A custom optoelectronic position measurement device may be used e.g. an OPTOTRAK 3020 System, Northern Digital, Waterloo, On., Canada. It preferably comprises
an OPTOTRAK 3020 Position Sensor consisting of three one-dimensional charge-coupled devices (CCD) paired with three lens cells and mounted on a stabilised bar. Within each of the three lens cells, light from an infrared marker is directed onto a CCD and measured. All three measurements together determinexe2x80x94in real timexe2x80x94the three-dimensional location of the marker;
a system control unit;
a computer interface card and cables;
data collection and display software; and
a strober and marker kit.
Computer assisted surgery systems (CAS systems) that are provided with a computer and a position measurement device in order to measure the position of surgical instruments or devices which are displaceable within the operation area are disclosed e.g. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,454 BUCHHOLZ and EP 0 359 773 SCHLONDxc3x96RFF. Often these CASxe2x80x94systems comprise a memory means in order to store medical images such as e.g. X-rays, Computertomographs or MR images (Magnetic Resonance images) using radiant energy means. Thereby the medical images may be gathered pre-operatively or intraoperatively.
Additional advantageous embodiments of the invention are characterized in the subclaims.
The advantages achieved by the invention are essentially to be seen in the fact that, thanks to the method according to the invention
shorter operation times;
reduced intraoperative radiation exposure; and
reduction of personnel necessary during the surgical operation may be achieved.

Method of automatic guiding a C-arm X-ray device

Abstract: A) determining the position of the plane of projection (2);

Abstract: E) measuring the position and orientation of the reference element (3) at the bone (4) or bone joint;

Abstract: F) referencing the position of the plane of projection (2) to the position of the reference element (3);

Abstract: H) measuring the actual position and orientation of the displaced bone (4);

Abstract: I) determining the deviation between the actual position of the reference element (3) and the position of the reference element (3) as referenced under step F);

Abstract: K) determining the new position of the C-arm X-ray device (1) in order to reset the plane of projection (2) as referenced under step F); and

Abstract: L) guiding the C-arm X-ray device (1) in the new position as determined under step K) by means of automatic controlling means.


An electronic still camera is provided with an electronic image sensor for generating an image signal corresponding to a still image of a subject and an orientation determination section for sensing the orientation of the camera relative to the subject. The orientation determination section provides an orientation signal recognizing either the vertical or the horizontal orientation of the camera relative to the subject. An image processor is responsive to the orientation signal for processing the image signal and correcting the orientation thereof so that the still image is output from the image processor in a predetermined orientation. In this way, the electronic still camera can be positioned in a variety of orientations relative to a subject, including both clockwise and counterclockwise vertical "portrait" orientations and a horizontal "landscape" orientation, without affecting the orientation of the images output by the camera.

In conventional video cameras (such as 8 mm camcorders), which display an image on a television screen, the camera must be held in the normal horizontal (or "landscape") orientation to obtain a properly oriented image. If the camera is rotated to a vertical (or "portrait") orientation, the displayed television image will likewise be rotated, unless the display screen or viewer are rotated, which is impractical in most television applications. This situation is even more of a problem in practice because there are actually two "portrait" orientations, one for clockwise rotation and the other for counterclockwise rotation. The result is shown in FIG. 1, where for the two "portrait" orientations, the sky appears at the left or right of the screen, rather than at the top. In conventional film-based photography, the film camera may be rotated to any orientation. When vertical "portrait" camera orientations are used to take pictures, the resulting prints are simply rotated when viewed or, alternatively, slides are simply rotated in the viewing projector.
Recent electronic still cameras, such as the Kodak DC 40 camera (sold by Eastman Kodak Co.), allow the user to take still images and display them on a computer screen. Like film cameras, these electronic cameras can be easily rotated so that the image can be composed in either the horizontal "landscape" orientation, or either of the two vertical "portrait" orientations. However, the images initially displayed on the computer screen always assume that the camera was held in the horizontal position. As a result, any pictures taken with the camera in the "portrait" orientations will be rotated so that the sky (upper part of the picture) is at the left or right, rather than at the top. Some computer image processing software, such as Adobe Photoshop.TM. (sold by Adobe Corp.), allows images stored in a computer to be rotated to their proper orientation. However, this is a "manual", time-consuming step, which requires the user to select each and every "portrait" orientation image and perform the proper clockwise or counterclockwise rotation.
Automatic reorientation in a special "album" application is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,274,418, as follows. A still video camera captures a plurality of pictures with control information for assembling the pictures into album-like pages. The camera includes an orientation detector that marks the output medium as to orientation. A separate player reads the orientation data and adjusts the images as necessary for proper placement on an album-like page display. This imaging system requires special application programs in the player, which means the orientation correction is dependent upon use with that specific player. As a result, the reorientation is "automatic" only if used with the special application programs in the special player.
Another type of picture processing corrects for unwanted tilting of the camera. As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,227,889, a video camera detects, and corrects for, the amount of slant of the entire camera in the vertical direction, due to inclination of the video camera while, e.g., walking. The slant is corrected by controlling the addressing of two field memories, depending on the slant information, thereby delivering an output signal that is corrected for slant of the output moving picture signals in real time. As a result, unwanted camera orientations are corrected in the output signal. While correcting for accidental slant of a motion video camera may make good sense, a still camera is frequently maneuvered so as to purposefully take a slanted picture, e.g., to include all desired picture detail in the still picture. A continuous slant correction would defeat this capability. The problem, in other words, is not with the handling of unwanted situations such as picture slant, but with the handling of desired situations, such as "portrait" orientations, and the provision of appropriate corrections for those situations.

Electronic still camera having automatic orientation sensing and image correction


A vehicle suspension system includes a suspension unit comprising a hydraulic actuator of variable displacement connected to the chassis or body of the vehicle and a wheel and hub assembly of the vehicle and a control device for varying the displacement of the actuator in response to signals received from transducers on the vehicle to control the vehicle suspension. The suspension unit further comprises a displacement detector device to detect when the actuator displacement approaches a desired maximum/minimum value and a device to modify the velocity demand signal which operates in response to the control signal generated by the displacement detector device to bring the extension/contraction of the actuator gradually to a stop as the desired maximum/minimum value is reached.

This invention relates to a vehicle suspension system and particularly to a wheeled land vehicle suspension system.
In wheeled land vehicles it is common practice to provide a suspension system which serves to support the wheel and hub assemblies for movement relative to the chassis or body of the vehicle, with some form of springing being provided between each wheel and hub assembly and the chassis or body.
Under certain circumstances it can happen that a wheel and hub assembly reaches the limit of its possible movement towards the chassis or body, and in order to prevent the possibility of damage in such circumstances vehicles are generally provided with so-called `bump stop` in the form of a resilient member, often of rubber, against which part of the wheel and hub assembly strikes at the limit of its movement towards the chassis or body.
A disadvantage of such known bump stop arrangements is that striking of the wheel and hub assembly against the resilient member can occur with a high force resulting in jarring of the vehicle, and that after striking the resilient member the wheel and hub assembly rebounds, thus adversely affecting the ride quality and handling characteristics of the vehicle.
Recently vehicles have been developed having so-called active suspension systems (see for example EP-A-0114757 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,022) which utilize wheel and hub assembly suspension devices in the form of hydraulic actuators by which the wheel and hub assemblies are mounted to the chassis or body. These suspension devices are controlled by signals representing various movement parameters of the vehicle, such as heave, pitch, roll and warp modes of movement of the vehicle, and speed, and lateral and longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle, to obtain a desired ride quality and attitude for the vehicle under all driving conditions, the control signals being derived from appropriate transducers located at appropriate positions on the vehicle. In the system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,022 control signals are also obtained from steering angle and yaw rate sensors on the vehicle, the signals from these sensors being used to control the steering characteristics of the vehicle.


The present disclosure discloses a semiconductor component and a method for forming the semiconductor component. The semiconductor component includes a substrate, a III-V layer, a doped III-V layer, a gate contact, a first field plate, and a second field plate. The gate contact has first and second sides away from the doped III-V layer. The first field plate has first and second sides, and the first side is closer to the second side of the gate contact than the second side. The second field plate has first and second sides, and the first side is closer to the second side of the gate contact than the second side. The first field plate is closer to the doped III-V layer than the second field plate and the first side and the second side of the gate contact.

Components including direct bandgap semiconductors, such as a semiconductor component including Group III-V compounds, may be operated or work in a variety of conditions or environments (such as different voltages or frequencies) due to their characteristics.
The above semiconductor components may include a heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT), a heterojunction field effect transistor (HFET), a high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT), or a modulation-doped FET (MODFET) and the like.

Semiconductor component and manufacturing method thereof

INNOSCIENCE (ZHUHAI) TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


An impact-absorbing device is installed at a leading edge of a vehicle hood to protect a pedestrian. The impact-absorbing device includes a fixing member fixed to a body frame on an inside of the vehicle hood and having a guide portion formed at a front end thereof, a buffer member fixed to an upper surface of the guide portion and having specified torsional rigidity, a center portion of the buffer member being bent in a convex shape, first and second supports, each provided in the center portion and both ends of the buffer member, for supporting the leading edge of the vehicle hood, and a guide member fixed to an upper surface of the buffer member and supporting the first support slidably.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an impact-absorbing device for a vehicle hood, and more particularly, to an impact-absorbing device provided at a leading edge of a vehicle hood, which device can absorb the impact applied to a pedestrian hit by the leading edge of the vehicle hood, thereby minimizing the risk of the pedestrian injury.
2. Description of Related Art
Regulations on pedestrian safety to protect pedestrians from injury when hit by a vehicle were embodied and expressed concretely in 1999. The enactment of the regulations has been promoted in Europe since 2002.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a vehicle to explain a pedestrian collision test.
According to the regulations on pedestrian safety, as shown in FIG. 1, a pedestrian safety test is performed in four sections (A, B, C, and D in FIG. 1) defined on an upper surface of a hood of a vehicle 10. The safety test comprises adult head test sections A, child head test sections B, upper legform test sections C and lower legform test sections D.
The upper legform test sections C are designed to estimate the risk of femur and hip injury. More specifically, bending moments occurring at femur and hip fractures and the resultant force directly applied to the femur and hips are measured to assess the injury risk to the pedestrian hit by a vehicle.
An impact-absorbing device for absorbing the impact is installed at a leading edge of a hood in order to protect the femur and hips of the pedestrian in accordance with the measured values of the upper legform test section C.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a conventional impact-absorbing device.
The impact-absorbing device includes a form member 20 provided in an inside of a leading edge of a hood 13 with a damping force, so that when a pedestrian is hit by the hood 13 of a vehicle, the form member 20 cushions the impact of the pedestrian's femur and hips against the hood to minimizing the risk of pedestrian injury.
However, since the femur and hips of the pedestrian are formed in a convex curved surface, only a portion of the femur and hips is cushioned by the form member 20 of the impact-absorbing device, and thus the hit portion is not effectively supported. Consequently, there is a limit to minimizing the risk of pedestrian injury.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.

Impact-absorbing device for vehicle hood


The present invention is a water fountain control system that utilizes cameras to analyze movements of a human subject, and actuates one or more water fountain controllers in response to the movements to create a display incorporating spray patterns of the flowing water. The camera system records video in real time and generates optical signals that are sent to a processor running software that assesses the dimension, position, stance, and/or motion of the human subject and converts the data into recognized classes of movements and/or poses. Once the processor identifies the type of movements and/or poses, it sends signals to the actuators of the water fountains to control the fountains in a manner that implements stored predetermined visual effects generated by the fountain to create a visual presentation to an audience.

Water fountains have long been a staple of ornate landscaping and a source for tranquility. Early water fountains used a single spout and a single water pressure to generate a water movement pattern that was essentially static, in that the arc and trajectory of the flowing water remained unchanged during the fountain's entire operation. Water fountains eventually grew in complexity, adding second and third water streams to create a more complex, albeit static, water pattern. Then next generation water fountains used servo motors to move the spout(s) and create a dynamic water pattern, resulting in a spray movement pattern that is more interesting to the observer. In some locations, these dynamic water fountains were eventually put to music, lights, lasers, etc., and entire shows were centered about the operation of water fountains. The motors that controlled the spouts would later be programmed to perform predetermined arcs, swivels, loops, and the like, and with changing water pressures the fountains could create a myriad of spectacular images and sequences. The fountains at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, Nev., is a quintessential example of the pomp and complexity that can be attributed to a state-of-the-art water fountain show.
Water parks recognized the attraction and versatility of dynamic water fountain capabilities, where the possibilities are further enhanced by a participant being a prop in the display. Children chasing water projectiles, avoiding or catching water beads, running through water streams, etc., and the like can be equally entertaining and fascinating to watch. However, the water fountains remain largely a preprogrammed presentation, where the observer can react to the movements of the water but the sequence eventually repeats over and over as governed by its programming. The art lacks a feature whereby the observer could interact in real time with the fountain and alter the way the fountain interacts with the observer. The present invention pertains to a next generation of water fountains that address this lacking feature of the water fountain technology.


A non-pressurized or low pressure, gravity flow system and method for filtering, purifying or otherwise removing contaminants from water to create potable water is disclosed. The filters of the disclosure may be used in non-pressurized, low pressure, gravity flow, pour through or manually pressurized devices and may comprise a membrane having a metallic material, such as a nanoalumina fiber material, grafted onto microglass structural fibers.

The disclosure relates generally to liquid purification systems and methods, and more particularly, but not necessarily entirely, to gravity fed liquid purification systems and methods comprising a hydrophillic filter using a material having metallic fibers, such as nanoalumina fibers, grafted to microglass fibers to create an electromagnetic field to remove a variety of contaminants, including pathogens, microorganisms, cysts, bacteria, viruses and other microbiological contaminants without the use of chemicals, such as chlorine or iodine and without the use of electricity.
Potable water is essential for life. There are many situations that may result in the potable water supply becoming tainted or contaminated causing serious concern for the safety and welfare of individuals who may not have access to potable water. While there are many types of contaminants that can pollute potable water supplies turning those water supplies into non-potable water, microbiological contaminants may be categorized broadly into three categories: viruses, cysts, and bacteria. Natural disasters, such as fires, earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, flooding, etc., may cause potable water supply sources to become contaminated for one reason or another. Further, in many parts of the world potable water is not readily available, whether due to various natural disaster conditions or for other reasons.
It will be appreciated that in a disaster relief response or in other conditions or environments in which potable water may be difficult to obtain, there is a need to provide potable water. On a large scale basis, such as an earthquake or other natural disaster, this frequently requires that potable water be brought in from other unaffected areas. The response in providing potable water is often slow, costly and it is difficult to distribute to those in the most need of the potable water. In many cases, water may be available and could suffice if adequate water treatment could be performed to remove contaminants including pathogenic organisms and other biological contaminants, such as viruses, cysts, and bacteria, as well as dissolved and suspended organic matter, toxic metals and sediment. Filtering contaminated water and turning it into potable water requires that equipment be brought to the devastated location and operated from a generally centralized location from which potable water may be distributed. While this response may be a viable solution over a protracted period of time, disaster survivors or others located in remote areas may not be able to receive potable water for several days. In other cases due to prohibitive costs, remote location or other factors, it may be difficult to provide potable water to those in need.
It will be appreciated that water treatment and liquid purification systems have other uses beyond natural disasters, such as for camping, hiking, or other activities where water may be available, but is contaminated or potentially contaminated requiring a filtration system. Further, in areas where the water may be potable, but may have some accepted level of contamination, there may be need for a filtration system to aid in filtering the water for taste, smell or otherwise making the water more palatable. In such instances, a liquid filter system may be advantageously used and employed.
For the above reasons, a need exists to provide a simple and effective way to provide potable water to disaster survivors and others who may have water supplies available, but which may be contaminated, during times of need when more elaborate or commercial water treatment systems are not available. Gravity flow water filtration devices have been used in such disaster or other situations in which contaminated water must be purified for potable purposes. However, no single gravity flow water filtration device has the capability to remove all three major categories of biological contaminants, namely viruses, cysts, and bacteria. Instead, gravity fed systems rely on filters in combination with chemicals or other devices to remove viruses, cysts, and bacteria from contaminated water.
Further, membranes having membrane modules, hollow fibers or micro sized openings (pores) have been used to filter contaminated water. Such membranes typically employ a pressure differential to move water through the membrane. The pressure differential may be produced by a pressure-driven system (positive pressure), where each membrane module has a pressure vessel, or a vacuum-driven system (negative pressure), which use hollow fiber modules that are submerged or immersed in an open tank or container. In either case, pressure is required to move water through the membrane. These devices are also easily fouled or clogged by sediment and particulates in the source water, requiring frequent back-washing or replacement and making them ultimately unsuitable for use in extreme conditions.
Because relatively high pressures are required to move water through the filtration membranes and because of their susceptibility to clogging, such membranes have not been successfully employed in combination with gravity flow water filtration devices. Gravity flow water filtration devices are used in situations where power is often not available, thereby requiring gravity flow. Thus, gravity flow filtration devices are simply not capable of producing the pressure needed to pass water molecules through membranes. Without the higher pressures produced by pressure-driven or vacuum-driven systems to push the water through the membrane pores, gravity flow water filtration devices and systems have not been workable to remove all three categories of microbial contaminants. Applicants have discovered a system and method for using a gravity flow filtration system in combination with a filter that may comprise a material or membrane that is capable of producing potable water without the need for high pressure systems or chemicals.
The features and advantages of the disclosure will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by the practice of the disclosure without undue experimentation. The features and advantages of the disclosure may be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out herein.

Gravity powered liquid purification system


A method of and system for processing a purchase order. The method of processing a purchase order includes receiving data regarding the purchase order in a computerized system, wherein the purchase order has been rejected based on the application of at least one rule. The method also includes providing options to facilitate acceptance of the purchase order. The system for processing a purchase order includes means for receiving data regarding the purchase order, wherein the purchase order has been rejected based on the application of at least one rule. The system further includes means for providing options to facilitate acceptance of the purchase order.

The present description relates generally to the field of methods of and systems for processing purchase orders, and more specifically to methods of and systems for applying rules to accept or reject the purchase orders.
Purchasing products and services from a supplier or provider typically involves sending a purchase order to the supplier requesting a specific number of items for a specific price. The number of items multiplied by the price of the items provides a total cost associated with the purchase order. Prior to sending the purchase order, the purchase order may need to be approved by an entity, such as a budgeting department. The entity may apply one or more rules to the purchase order in determining whether to approve the purchase order. For example, a rule may dictate that the approval is granted or denied based on whether incurring the total cost of the purchase order is acceptable in view of budget constraints. Accordingly, the purchase order is approved or rejected based on budget constraints prior to being sent to the supplier.
The rules that are applied to the electronic purchase order may be any of a plurality of types of rules. For example, the rule may be a budgeting rule. Budget rules describe the amount of money available to purchase merchandise for a given time period. During a pre-season planning and buying phase, the budget rules may be used by planners and buyers to control their purchasing budget. During a seasonal phase, the budget rules may be utilized in calculating performance as the budget rules are updated based on sales activity. For example, planners and buyers may monitor the updated budget rules to determine if each category's performance is proceeding according to plan or if corrective steps, such as price reductions or stopped orders, need to be taken to manage inventory.
The retail business can require that certain purchase orders be processed in a very short amount of time, while other purchase orders must be placed in advance of the desired delivery. For example, changes in current trends in the fashion industry may require that inventory be increased on short notice. Additionally, fashion articles may require ordering well in advance of delivery, in some cases six months or more in advance. For certain aspects of the fashion industry, items may be required to be ordered one or more seasons in advance. Further, tracking inventory and budgets for seasonal items can be important to the profitability of a business. For example, identifying a particularly fast selling item and ordering additional quantities of the fast selling item within a prescribed budget may increase the profitability of a retail location.
Moreover, increasing inventories on short notice during, for example, a seasonal phase, in order to accommodate increased demand due to a change in trends or a fast selling item will have an impact on the budgets planned for these items during a pre-season planning phase. For example, purchase orders generated for additional quantities of an item to meet an increased demand for the item may exceed the amount of funding budgeted for the item during the pre-season planning phase.
Thus, there is need for a method of and system for processing purchase orders that is configured to automatically approve or reject purchase orders based on the application of a rule. There is further need for such a system and method configured to provide a user with remedial options for purchase orders that have been rejected based on the application of the rule.

Method of and system for processing purchase orders


Method of reducing corrosion in a power boiler of a pulp mill using biofuel and suspended matter obtained from the waste water treatment of the mill. In the method flue gases obtained from a waste heat boiler are fed into the power boiler, causing the sulfur dioxide contained in them to react with the alkali chlorides in the boiler and the chlorine to form hydrogen chloride.

Considerable quantities of waste water are produced from pulp production, and environmental regulations stipulate that it has to be treated and suspended matter must be removed before it is led into the water system. The waste water is usually first led to treatment where most of the suspended matter therein separates and settles as sludge to the bottom of a settling pond. Hereafter the water is led to biological purification whereby suspended matter is also obtained. Both of these formed suspended matters are recovered and dried either by a press or in some other known manner. The formed sludge is led into a boiler, which typically is e.g. a bark fired boiler or the like, operating as the power boiler of the pulp mill. The chlorine content of the suspended matter obtained from the waste water is significant, the chlorine originating either from the bleach plant or from the wood used. The sulfur content in normal power boiler fuel, such as bark obtained from the debarking plant, is very low. As a result, a situation arises in the power boiler wherein the chlorine in the sludge reacts with the alkaline material entering the boiler, such as potassium, sodium and calcium, forming alkali chlorides which cause corrosion in the boiler heat transfer surfaces. This problem occurs especially in bubbling fluidized bed boilers, wherein the formed alkali chlorides are driven together with fly ash and flue gas onto the heat transfer surfaces of the boiler. As the alkali chlorides lower the melting temperatures of the ash sediments on the boiler heat transfer surfaces, they cause and enhance molten phase corrosion in their materials. In the long run this results in the formation of leakage in the boiler tubes, causing shutdown.
Materials that are very resistant to corrosion phenomena or materials causing corrosion are typically used in attempts to stop corrosion. Materials that are resistant to chlorine-induced corrosion have been used in power boilers. To use these materials is, however, quite costly, and superior materials do not eliminate corrosion, but only slow its progress owing to their superior resistance to corrosion. Consequently, materials with superior corrosion resistance have not in practice proved sufficiently effective in preventing chlorine-induced corrosion.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,124,135 discloses a process for removing elementary chlorine from gaseous mixtures of Cl.sub.2 and Br.sub.2. In this process gaseous sulfur dioxide is added to a gas mixture containing chlorine and steam, and then the mixture is cooled until a purified gas is obtained. The publication states that as a result also water drops are obtained, but the mechanism of the chlorine removal reaction is not disclosed. The significance and role of sulfur dioxide in the reaction also remains unclear.
The Finnish Patent Application 933,336 discloses a method of adjusting the sulfur balance in a sulphate pulping process, wherein chlorides in the chemical recovery loop are removed in a recovery boiler by feeding sulfurous odor gases as such into the boiler. This aims at invoking a reaction between sulfur and chlorine to separate the chlorine in gaseous form. Adjusting the chemical recovery loop in a pulping process and the thereto related recovery boiler burning are as such a fully different kind of technique than the present invention applies to. Furthermore, the solutions in this application cannot as such be applied to a power boiler using biofuel, since the processes and conditions therein are substantially different.


In particular embodiments, a method includes accessing a first binary decision diagram (BDD) representing data streams from sensors, selecting portions from the first BDD based on ease-of-analysis, and constructing a plurality of sub-BDDs by partitioning the first BDD, wherein the sub-BDDs comprises a first sub-BDD representing the selected portions, and second sub-BDDs representing the non-selected portions.

A sensor network may include distributed autonomous sensors. Uses of sensor networks include but are not limited to military applications, industrial process monitoring and control, machine health monitoring, environment and habitat monitoring, utility usage, healthcare and medical applications, home automation, and traffic control. A sensor in a sensor network is typically equipped with a communications interface, a controller, and an energy source (such as a battery).
A sensor typically measures a physical quantity and converts it into a signal that an observer or an instrument can read. For example, a mercury-in-glass thermometer converts a measured temperature into expansion and contraction of a liquid that can be read on a calibrated glass tube. A thermocouple converts temperature to an output voltage that a voltmeter can read. For accuracy, sensors are generally calibrated against known standards.
A binary decision diagram (BDD) is a data structure that may be used to represent a Boolean function. A reduced ordered binary decision diagram (ROBDD) is an optimized BDD that has no redundant nodes and isomorphic sub-graphs and that the variables appear in the same order along each path from root to a terminal node.

Partitioning medical binary decision diagrams for analysis optimization


A radio controlled toy vehicle has a central chassis, a front end mounting a pair of front wheels which is rotatably coupled to the front of the chassis and a rear end mounting a pair of rear wheels. An electric motor is provided in the chassis to selectively rotate the front end with the front wheels about a generally longitudinal axis through a partial rotation for steering or through as many complete rotations as desired for stunts. In one embodiment, the front end includes a yoke pivotally supporting a pivot body mounting the front wheels. The rear end contains a propulsion drive coupled to the rear wheels and is pivotally coupled with the chassis so that both rear wheels remain grounded as the chassis pivots in reaction to rotation of the front end for steering. In another embodiment, a stop is provided to limit the rotation of the front end. The stop releasably engages a collar around a shaft rotating the front end and is disengaged by providing more torque to the shaft. A remote hand control unit includes manual actuators and switches to generate signals for left steer, right steer, left continuous rotation and right continuous rotation of the front end as well as forward and reverse propulsion.

The present invention relates to toy vehicles and, in particular, to powered, propelled toy vehicles having unusual transformation and action capabilities.
Toy vehicles are well known. Remotely controlled and radio-controlled toy vehicles, in particular, have come to constitute a significant specialty toy market. Manufacturers constantly seek new ways and features to add innovative action to such toys to make such vehicles more versatile, more entertaining or both.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,259,808 discloses a four-wheeled, flip-over toy vehicle. One end of a front axle of the vehicle mounts the two front wheels and is pivotally coupled with the remainder of the vehicle. The front axle is latched into a normal operating position parallel to the back axle so that all four wheels define a common support plane. A mechanism permits the latch to automatically release after predetermined movement of the vehicle. A spring is provided between the front end and the remainder of the vehicle to pivot the remainder of the vehicle away from the front axle when the latch is released, thereby causing the vehicle to flip over.
Each of U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,398,541, 4,691,798 and 5,019,009 discloses a vehicle or toy vehicle provided with one or more auxiliary, ground contacting wheels, which are mounted to rotate on axes extending generally perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle and to pivot about a pivot axis running generally parallel to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle. As was the case with the toy vehicle of U.S. Pat. No. 5,259,808, the axles and auxiliary wheels of these vehicles are permitted to pivot only through a limited arc which is a fraction of a full circle.


The image sensor 15 of the information processing apparatus 1 can capture the retroreflective sheet 17 subjected to infrared light emitted from the infrared emitting diodes 11 since the retroreflective sheet 17 is exposed when the open-close portion 19 is opened. Therefore, it is possible to detect the input device 3. On the other hand, when the open-close portion 19 is closed, the image sensor 15 can not capture the retroreflective sheet 17 since the reflective sheet 17 is not exposed. Therefore, the input device is not detected.

A golf game system of the present applicant is described in Jpn. unexamined patent publication No. 2004-85524. The golf game system includes a game apparatus and a golf club type input device, and an imaging unit including an image sensor and infrared emitting diodes is provided within a housing of the game apparatus. The infrared emitting diodes intermittently emit infrared light to a prescribed area above the imaging unit. Therefore, the image sensor intermittently picks up an image of a reflective portion attached to the golf club type input device which moves within the prescribed area. The speed of the golf club type input device which is an input to the game apparatus is calculated by processing images of the reflective portion captured by the stroboscope. In this way, input is given to a computer or a game apparatus in real time by means of the stroboscope.


This invention relates to display apparatuses having an array of light modulators and a plurality of apertures formed in a layer of material. Each light modulator corresponds to one or more apertures and has a portion which may overlap a corresponding aperture, where the size of the overlap is proportional to a distance between the array and the layer of material.

Displays built from mechanical light modulators are an attractive alternative to displays based on liquid crystal technology. Mechanical light modulators are fast enough to display video content with good viewing angles and with a wide range of color and grey scale. Mechanical light modulators have been successful in projection display applications. Backlit displays using mechanical light modulators have not yet demonstrated sufficiently attractive combinations of brightness and low power. There is a need in the art for fast, bright, low-powered mechanically actuated displays. Specifically there is a need for mechanically actuated displays that include bi-stable mechanisms and that can be driven at low voltages for reduced power consumption.

Methods and apparatus for actuating displays


The present invention provides an image forming apparatus comprising a photosensitive member, scan means including light emitting elements for emitting laser beam to scan the photosensitive member, and control means for controlling the illumination of the light emitting elements. Wherein, when a shifting speed of the laser beam on the photosensitive member is v, a length of one side of a pixel is L and a maximum light emitting time of the light emitting element for each pixel is t, the control means controls the light emitting elements to satisfy a relation of t<L/v.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer and the like, and, more particularly, it relates to an image forming apparatus for forming an image by scanning a photosensitive member by laser beam.
2. Related Background Art
Among image forming apparatuses, an electrophotographic laser printer is known as a high speed and low noise printer. Such laser printer generally performs binary recording wherein an image such as a character, figure and the like is formed by illuminating or not illuminating a laser beam onto a photosensitive member. In general, since the recording of the character, figure and the like does not require an intermediate tone, the printer can be simplified.
Recently, there has been proposed an intermediate tone pixel forming method wherein high resolving power can be obtained without decreasing the recording density. In this method, the intermediate tone image is formed by modulating a pulse width of laser beam illumination in response to an image signal (PWM). According to this PWM system, an image can be formed with high resolving power and high gradient. Thus, this system is inevitable for color image forming apparatuses wherein high resolving power and high gradient are required. According to this PWM system, it is possible to effect the area gradation of a dot formed by a beam spot for each pixel, and, thus, the intermediate tone can be achieved without reducing the pixel density (recording density).
Even in the image forming apparatuses wherein the image is formed by scanning the photosensitive member by the laser beam, the improvement in the resolving power has been requested. It is considered that a diameter of the laser beam spot is decreased to increase the resolving power. However, in order to decrease the diameter of the laser beam spot, power of a focusing lens must be increased, with the result that the image forming apparatus itself becomes bulky and expensive. Further, the depth of focus is reduced, thereby making the focusing on the photosensitive member unstable.

Illumination control means for image forming apparatus


A LCD device (200) is disclosed that has a cholesteric compound layer (205), a backplane light (201), and one or more polarizers (203, 209) and liquid crystal smectic C* layers. The cholesteric compound layer (205) transmits elliptically polarized light having an amount of absorbance which is related to the angular rotation of the polarization. One or more of the liquid crystal smectic C* layers may be controlled as a polarization filter to select the apparent color of the transmitted light.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a display device, and more particularly to a liquid crystal display using a cholesteric mixture.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Liquid crystal display (LCD) devices have become increasingly popular in recent years as prices have fallen, the devices have become thinner and more lightweight, and the picture qualities have improved. LCD devices are generally categorized as either reflective or transmissive. Reflective LCDs tend to require less power since they lack an internal light source, and rely on ambient light reflected from the images displayed on the screen. Transmissive LCDs have an internal source of light, a back light, to produce brighter images.
Transmissive LCD devices typically include one or more array substrates, liquid crystal layers, color filter substrates, and electrode layers. Voltages may be applied to the electrode layers to generate an electric field between them and align the molecules of the liquid crystal layer(s). In this way, light from the back light passing through the liquid crystal forms images as seen from the front of the transmissive LCD device.
Materials in a liquid crystal state tend to exhibit characteristics of matter which are between the solid phase state (crystalline) and the liquid state (isotropic). Materials in a liquid state exhibit isotropic properties, that is, properties that are the same regardless of the direction of measurement. Materials in a solid state are anisotropic in that they tend to have properties which vary depending on the direction of measurement. The liquid crystal phase state is a thermodynamically stable phase which exhibits anisotropic properties due to the alignment and the shape of the molecules in the liquid crystal material. The temperature and concentration of a material in the liquid crystal state affects the material's phase state, thus affecting its properties. There are a number of distinct types of liquid crystal states.
One liquid crystal phase state, the nematic liquid crystal phase, has been studied extensively and is found in common use in a number of LCD applications such as the flat screen monitors for laptop computers. The molecules in a nematic liquid crystal phase do not have positional order relative to each other, but tend to be directionally oriented in one common direction, along the director. One class of the nematic liquid crystal phase state is chiral nematic, sometimes referred to as cholesteric. Materials in a cholesteric state have can selectively reflect one component of circularly polarized light.
Another liquid crystal phase state is the smectic phase. Molecules in the smectic phase state tend to be oriented in a common direction along a director, like nematic state molecules. However, unlike nematic molecules, smectic molecules also tend to be aligned in planes or layers. Hence, smectic molecules are more solid-like than nematic molecules. Different combinations of smectic layers and/or cholesteric layers may be combined with electrodes and other components in various manners to produce flat screen LCD devices with a variety of capabilities.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,549,261 ('261 patent), issued to Okada et al. features a reflective LCD having a cholesteric liquid crystal capable of selectively reflecting spectral rays of a specific visible wavelength. In the '261 patent, either a carrier layer or the cholesteric liquid crystal itself contains a coloring agent which absorbs wavelengths different from the reflected wavelength of the cholesteric liquid crystal. The device displays visible rays of a specific wavelength which are observed as a specific color. The devices may be stacked to produce red, green and blue in various combinations, as shown in FIG. 2 of the '261 patent, and herein in FIG. 1A.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,693,689 ('689 patent), issued to Kim et al. features a reflective LCD which includes a linear polarizer to convert natural light into linearly polarized light, and a retardation film to convert the linearly polarized light into circularly polarized light. The devices described in the '689 patent has a liquid crystal layer used to vary the phase of the light according to an applied electric field, and a cholesteric liquid crystal color filter to selectively reflect light received from the liquid crystal layer, along with a black background for absorbing light passing through the color filter. The device has pixels (or subpixels) dedicated to red, green and blue as shown in FIG. 12 of the '689 patent, and herein in FIG. 1B.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,580,482 ('482 patent) issued to Hiji et al. features a reflective multicolor LCD device that includes a cell 51 having a display layer 31 with a right-handed cholesteric liquid crystal for blue, a cell 53 having a display layer 33 with a left-handed cholesteric liquid crystal for green, a cell 57 having a display layer 37 with a right-handed cholesteric liquid crystal for yellow, and a cell 55 having a display layer 35 with a left-handed cholesteric liquid crystal for red. The various cell layers laminated in a stack to produce the multiple colors as shown in FIG. 1 of the '482 patent and herein in FIG. 1C.

One pixel full color display device using cholesteric mixture