A method for adaptive driver workload estimation. A subjective assessment of a driver workload is received from a vehicle driver. A stream of sensor input data is collected from one or more sensors in response to receiving the subjective assessment. A machine learning algorithm is applied to a driver workload estimate model based on the stream of sensor input data and the subjective assessment. The result of the applying is an updated driver workload estimate model.

The present disclosure relates generally to driver workload estimation and in particular, to an adaptive driver workload estimator.
Driver workload estimator (DWE) refers to real-time continuous estimation of a driver's workload index by monitoring the driver, the vehicle and the driving environment. A DWE performs workload assessment continuously in real-time, under naturalistic driving conditions, and in a way that is highly unobtrusive to drivers. In some cases, when driver workload information is available, a number of in-vehicle functionalities can be enhanced, for example: presentation of information to drivers, active safety driver assistance, and vehicle chassis control.
There are three major types of driver workload: visual, manual and cognitive. When a driver is stressed by the manual driving task, or when the driver is mentally involved in a secondary task while driving, such as engaging in a cellular telephone conversation, his or her cognitive workload becomes high. The capability of detecting hazards and handling an elicited problem may be reduced. Cognitive workload is the most difficult to measure among the three major types of workload; it is essentially internal to the driver and only partially observable.
A long list of parameters is believed to be capable of reflecting a driver workload. The parameters include items such as: lane position deviation, lane departure duration, speed deviation, steering hold, brake pressure, vehicle headway, driver eye gaze fixation duration, eye gaze position variance, heart-beat interval variance, etc. While some are closer reflections of a driver's cognitive internal state than others, none alone stands to be a reliable indicator. Research has shown that the fusion of the parameters tends to provide better overall performance than individual parameters. Currently, there is no driver workload system that performs this fusion to provide a driver workload estimate.
The current DWEs are built with a manual workload analysis and modeling process, in which only parameters that demonstrate a high driver workload correlation are selected and manually modeled. These DWEs may omit promising candidate parameters that do not follow a unimodal Gaussian distribution, which is assumed by the design method. A parameter showing low correlation with workload level under the unimodal assumption is not necessarily a bad workload indicator.
In addition, the current "handcrafted" DWE models tend to be simple, such as linear regression models. Their parameter coverage is generally limited, such as the binary heuristics based workload estimators. This low level of model sophistication may be due to the cumbersome manual workload analysis and modeling method. As the number and capabilities of sensors increase in vehicles, and the list of promising parameters grows, these DWEs may not be able to adapt structurally. In order to account for these changes, estimation algorithms in current DWEs may have to be redesigned. Further, the current DWEs tend to be static, in that their estimation algorithms are "cemented" based on one set of available model data. They are not tailored and adaptive to individual driver workload characteristics.


Benefit denial systems for securing an asset within a container and methods of use are provided. Such benefit denial systems of the present invention may include a benefit denial device that secures the asset within the container. The benefit denial device may include a base member and at least one locking member, and the asset may be secured therebetween. By securing the asset between the base member and a locking member, the asset will be rendered unusable if a thief attempts to remove the asset from the container. For example, if the asset is a storage medium such as a DVD, then the DVD will break if the thief attempts to remove the DVD from the confines of the benefit denial device.

The present invention relates to benefit denial systems and methods of use and, more particularly, to benefit denial systems for securing an asset within a container and methods of use.
In order to make a shopping experience more enjoyable, assets may be displayed for sale or rental in a manner in which they are they are available to a potential customer to handle and examine. For example, potential customers may handle the asset to determine whether to buy or rent the item. Providing a customer with an opportunity to handle an asset before purchasing it is often referred to as a "live sale."
One environment in which a live sale is particularly desirable is in connection with the sale or rental of storage media, such as, for example, digital versatile discs ("DVDs"), compact discs ("CDs"), and video games. Storage media is typically displayed in a storage container that includes a cover portion and a base portion that is hingedly coupled to the cover portion. The storage media to be secured is placed in the container, and the cover portion is mated with the base portion to secure the asset within the container. Since many potential customers may handle these storage containers, however, it is necessary to provide a locking mechanism to deter potential thieves from stealing the storage medium.
Current locking mechanisms include, for example, locking mechanisms that interact with a container such that a potential thief is prevented from opening the container and removing the asset stored therein. Examples of such locking mechanisms are described, for example, in Lax et al. U.S. patent publication No. US 2002/0023853, published Feb. 28, 2002 and Lax U.S. Pat. No. 6,561,347, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties. Even with these mechanisms, however, a thief may still run out of a retail or rental establishment with the locking mechanism still attached to the container, and may find it worthwhile to expend the substantial effort required to break open the locked container.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide benefit denial systems for securing an asset within a container and methods of use.

Denial system for securing an asset within a container and methods of use


Methods and apparatus for determining a presence of a non-conductive coating on electrodes in fluid resistivity measurement devices are described. An example method of determining a presence of a non-conductive coating on electrodes of a fluid resistivity measurement device involves obtaining a first electrical potential value associated with a substantially uncoated condition of first and second electrodes of a fluid resistivity measurement device. The example method also involves measuring a second electrical potential value at a location between the first and second electrodes, comparing the first and second electrical potential values, and determining the presence of a non-conductive coating on at least one of the first and second electrodes based on the comparison.

Downhole fluid analysis is often used to provide information in real time about the composition of subterranean formation or reservoir fluids. Such real-time information can be advantageously used to improve or optimize the effectiveness of formation testing tools during a sampling processes in a given well (e.g., downhole fluid composition analysis allows for reducing and/or optimizing the number of samples captured and brought back to the surface for farther analysis). More generally, collecting accurate data about the characteristics of formation fluid(s) is an important aspect of making reliable predictions about a formation or reservoir and, thus, can have a significant impact on reservoir performance (e.g., production quality, volume, efficiency, etc.).
Fluid characteristics such as composition, density, viscosity, formation water or formation fluid resistivity, etc. are typically measured using formation fluid testers that are deployed via wireline tools and/or logging-while-drilling (LWD) tools, both types of which are commonly available. Formation fluid testers often use sensors that are in-line with a flowline of a formation fluid tester portion of a wireline or LWD tool and which may be at least partially in contact with or exposed to fluid(s) in the flowline.
Formation fluid resistivity is an important formation fluid characteristic because fluid resistivity characteristics can be advantageously used or applied in many ways. For example, formation fluid resistivity measurements can be used to determine formation water resistivity (Rw) which, in turn, can be used for petrophysical analysis of a formation. Also, for example, resistivity measurements can be used to determine the injection or formation water in water flood carbonates, determine whether carbonate transition zones have been invaded by formation water or water-based mud (WBM), determine salinity, quantify the level of WBM contamination, and/or perform a robust downhole fluid analysis at high temperature and high pressure.
Fluid resistivity measurement devices typically use either a direct measurement technique or an inductive measurement technique. Inductive fluid resistivity measurement devices induce a current in a portion of a flowline. In particular, inductive resistivity measurement devices typically employ two electrodes that are spaced along the flowline and are electrically insulated from each other (e.g., by an insulator or otherwise electrically insulated portion of the flowline). However, as is the case with many flowline sensors or measurement devices, the electrodes of an inductive resistivity measurement device are in direct contact with the fluid(s) flowing in the flowline. As a result, over time, one or both of the electrodes can become at least partially coated by substantially electrically insulating (i.e., substantially non-conductive) fluid(s) such as, for example, WBM, oil, etc. If one or both electrodes become contaminated with such non-conductive coatings, the resistivity measurements made by resistivity measurement device are biased or inaccurate.

Methods and apparatus for determining a presence of a non-conductive coating on electrodes in downhole fluid resistivity measurement devices


In accordance with some embodiments, a control surface stores the index bits in a tile using multi-sampling anti-aliasing. By determining whether all the samples in a tile point to plane 0, one can use only two bits in a control surface for the tile to indicate that all the samples on the tile point to plane 0. Otherwise more than two bits may be stored in the control surface to indicate planes pointed to by the samples of the tile.

This relates to graphics processing.
It is axiomatic that traffic to memory should be reduced as much as possible in any type of computer architecture, as this saves power and/or provides better performance, or enables other parts in an architecture to exploit more bandwidth.
As such, it is important to compress color data, since this reduces the memory traffic. Multi-sampling anti-aliasing (MSAA) increases the image quality on rendered edges, and it is a common method to increase rendering quality. For 4×MSAA, for example, each tile (e.g., 8×4 pixels) may be divided into 4 planes. Each sample has then 2 index bits (in an index buffer), which indicate which color plane that sample points to. Planes are allocated from low numbers to high numbers, and plane 0 is always allocated. If all samples in a tile point to plane 0, for example, then all index bits are 00.
Compression methods can compress the individual planes, but compression methods do not compress the index buffers. For an 8×4 tile of pixels with four samples per pixel (4×MSAA), the index bits will use 2*4*8*4=256 bits. In some examples, the index bits are using 30% of the memory traffic for color.

Hierarchical index bits for multi-sampling anti-aliasing


The invention is a system and method for hosting a multi-matrix game where a player makes selection from two matrices and the winning numbers are also drawn from these two matrices. Matches are allowed between the player's selection from one matrix and the winning numbers selected from a different matrix.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to lottery game methods. More particularly, the present invention relates to a multi-matrix lottery game method in which matches are credited across different matrices.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known in lottery games to utilize a selection process defined by three parameters comprising first a set of indicia; next, the game player's selection from the set of game indicia, and last the lottery authority's selection from the set of game indicia. This is the structure upon which most known types of lottery games are based. Some lottery games use more than one selection process in which the prizes awarded are based on the how the outcomes from the individual processes combine, but the outcomes for the individual processes are independent of one another.
Referring now to the drawings and the description below, many lottery games can be expressed in terms of "matrices." As mathematically known, a matrix is a triple, (x, y, z), where x represents the number of objects selected by the player, y the number selected, or "drawn," by the lottery authority, and z is the number of objects from which the player and lottery authority are making selections. Prizes are based on the number of matches between the player's and the lottery authority's respective selections. For example, consider a lottery game in which a player selects six numbers in the range of from 1 to 49, the lottery authority selects six numbers in the range of from 1 to 49, and prizes are based on the number of matches between the player's and the lottery authority's respective selections. This scenario could be described as a (6, 6, 49) matrix. Note, however, that the x and y in the matrices need not be the same. For example, in Keno-style game methods, the lottery authority draws 20 out of 80 numbers, and the game player may choose the size of their selection, ranging from 1 to 10 numbers. If the player chooses 6 numbers out of 80, for example, this game could be described as a (6, 20, 80) matrix.
There are also more complex "multi-matrix" lottery games, wherein the player and lottery authority make selections from more than one set of objects. A well-known example is MEGA MILLIONS®, a large-jackpot multi-state lottery game played in selected lottery jurisdictions within the United States. In MEGA MILLIONS®, players select five numbers in a range of from 1 to 52, the first set of objects, and one number in a range of from 1 to 52, the second set of numbers. Likewise, the lottery authority draws five numbers in a range of from 1 to 52, the first set, and one number in a range of from 1 to 52, the second set of numbers. MEGA MILLIONS® can thus be described as a two-matrix game, the first matrix being (5, 5, 52) and the second matrix being (1, 1, 52). Matches are tallied for the (5, 5, 52) matrix, and matches are tallied for the (1, 1, 52) matrix. Prizes are based on the number of matches for both matrices. For example, a player is awarded $5,000 according to the prize table of FIG. 1, if he matches four in the (5, 5, 52) matrix and one in the (1, 1, 52) matrix.
"Numbers games," e.g. lottery games based on permutations of three or four digits, can technically be considered multi-matrix games. For example, a three-digit game is composed of three identical matrices, (1, 1, 10). A player wins a "straight" bet if he matches his number with the lottery authority's for each matrix. A player wins a "box" bet if there is a one-to-one association between the player's numbers and the three matrices such that the player's numbers match those produced by the associated matrices. For example, suppose the player's selection is 1-2-2 and the lottery authority's draw is 2-1-2. Associating the player's 1st number with the 2nd matrix, the player's 2nd number with the 1st matrix and the player's 3rd number with the 3rd matrix, there are three matches.
Note that for a box bet the association between the player's selection and the matrices must be one-to-one. For example, suppose that the player's bet is 1-2-2 and the lottery authority's draw is 1-2-1. Associating the player's 1st number with the 1st matrix, the player's 2nd number with the 2nd matrix and the player's 3rd number with the 2nd matrix, would result in three matches. However, it is disallowed that both the player's 2nd and 3rd numbers be associated with the 2nd matrix.
In a multi-matrix game, such as MEGA MILLIONS®, a match is determined by comparing player indicia to lottery authority indicia within the same matrix. The number of matches is determined for each matrix separately and prizes are based on the resulting numbers of matches. The present invention allows for matches determined by comparing player indicia with regard to one matrix to the lottery authority indicia with regard to a different matrix. The matrices may have different parameterizations. This may allow for a more interesting play experience and more appealing prizes. Thus, it is to a multi-matrix lottery games with more interesting play characteristics and more appealing prizes, the present invention is primarily directed.


An apparatus for collection of semen comprises: i) a frame forming an elongate body; ii) a base supporting the body; iii) a tubular receptacle containing an artificial vagina having a rear end portion pivotally carried on opposite lateral sides within the body, and an inner end portion releasably carried within the body, so that when the inner end portion is released collected semen therein will drain downwardly to an inner end portion; and, iv) a recessed rear access door, said door having an inner side portion positioned adjacent to the opening in the rear end portion of the tubular receptacle and an outer side portion positioned within an interior peripheral top and lateral side portions of the rear entry end of the body, so that downward and lateral components of thrust load exerted by the horse are largely sustained by the frame of the body, and wherein said recessed and protected door also has an enlarged thickness to accommodate a funnel shaped opening in the exterior side portion thereof to guide the horse into a central opening therein. When the horse is able to independently guide himself the apparatus is substantially more convenient and safer to use.

The best predictor and indication of the value of a horse is its bloodlines. A prize horse is largely valued for its potential for breeding. Breeding stallions are most in demand after they have had a long and distinguished show or racing career. Unfortunately these careers frequently over tax their joints and they have limited ability to breed. These mature animals are also more affected by disease and injuries which have affected their ability to stand or balance on their hind legs. Because transportation of horses is difficult, time consuming, and expensive, artificial insemination is widely practiced. The use of frozen collected semen for artificial insemination has only been widely accepted in the last five years. The breeding associations for quarter horses, (the largest registration of horses) as well as the breeding associations for appaloosa, and paint horses have only accepted the use of frozen semen in the last five years. And now, collected semen can be deposited by anyone, within a cooling container having a removable frozen pack, then couriered overnight for use the next day.
The most difficult aspect of artificial insemination has been collecting the semen from the horse. U.S. Pat. No. 4,620,531 was issued to Jack L. Dyer, the inventor herein, is for a semen collection apparatus. One of the problems with this apparatus was the rear entry door on the horizontal body. During use the door is subjected to continual downward pressure by the stallion's body as well as to forceful thrusting. Because of this downward pressure, and the lateral components of the thrusting, the door's thickness could not be excessive. Occasionally this door opened during use and the unpadded rear peripheral edge portion of the body injured the stallion. Another problem with this door was that it limited thickness minimized the potential to provide an interior funnel to guide a horse's penis to a central opening adjacent to the artificial vagina. It is significantly more convenient for the operator when all horses are able to guide themselves to the artificial vagina. It is critical for some horses, which refuse to continue, if they are handled to be guided to the artificial vagina. In addition to the safety of the horses another problem with this apparatus was the safety of the operator. With this apparatus the operator was too frequently required to get beneath the horse to initially guide the horse into the artificial vagina. And the operator was always required to get beneath the horses after semen was collected. Operators received frequent kicks from the flying front feet of the horse.
Another feature the original semen collection apparatus lacked was an ability to accommodate a stallion which had suffered back, and/or hind leg injuries, and/or any other neurological disorder which effects their ability to balance themselves while standing on only their hind legs. A surprising number of prize animals, due to a hock, stiffle, or back injuries sustained during a long show or racing career, are prevented from breeding due to an inability to wholly support and balance themselves standing wholly on their hind legs. Particularly West Nile virus, and equine protozoal myelitis (E.P.M.) which effect the horse's balance, have prevented many prize stallions from having a successful natural breeding career. Most horses are shown or raced at great expense primarily to pay off in a breeding career.


A flame-retardant thermoplastic resin composition is disclosed, comprising (A) a thermoplastic resin, (B) a halogenated bisphenol type epoxy resin flame-retardant, and (C) an organic phosphite compound. The composition exhibits improved thermal stability to provide molded articles having improved mechanical strength and appearance.

Flame retardation of thermoplastic resins such as styrene resins and polyester resins have conventionally been carried out by compounding of flame-retardants, e.g., organic halogen compounds, and, if desired, flame-retardant assistants, e.g., antimony trioxide. Typical organic halogen compounds as flame-retardants include tetrabromobisphenol A (TBA) and decabromodiphenyl ether (DBDPE).
TBA, when compounded into thermoplastic resins, brings about great reductions in heat resistance and thermal stability and also a reduction in weatherability. DBDPE, when compounded into thermoplastic resins, causes a considerable reduction in weatherability. Besides, DBDPE has an extremely high melting point of about 307.degree. C. and is therefore poor in dispersibility or compatibility in or with the resins, resulting in reductions in mechanical strength and appearance of molded articles. Further, these conventional flame-retardants are attended by corrosion of molds due to evolution of a halogen gas.
In order to settle down these problems, it has been proposed to compound a flame-retardant comprising a halogenated bisphenol A type epoxy resin into a thermoplastic resin as disclosed in JP-A-61-241343 and JP-A-62-4737 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application").
However, these flame-retardants turned to impair thermal stability of thermoplastic resins during molding. That is, the thermal history of the thermoplastic resin in the molten state during kneading in an extruder or molding in an injection molding machine induces decomposition chiefly of the flame-retardant itself, which tends to lead to not only deteriorated appearances of molded articles due to discoloration or generation of a burned mark, but also reductions in mechanical strength and thermal resistance of molded articles. Particularly serious reduction in thermal stability is observed with styrene resins and polyester resins which are molded at relatively high temperatures.
In an attempt to obtain a thermally stable flame-retardant thermoplastic resin composition, the inventors compounded the above-described flame-retardant resin composition with a known phenolic antioxidant as a heat stabilizer but only to provide a resin composition suffering from discoloration or burning, failing to accomplish the purpose.
A flame-retardant resin composition containing a brominated aliphatic hydrocarbon flame-retardant in combination with a specific organic phosphite compound is known as a flame-retardant composition having improved thermal stability as disclosed in JP-A-61-106641. However, because the flame-retardant used here has a low decomposition temperature, the effect of improving thermal stability is virtually lost when the resin composition is molded generally at temperatures exceeding 230.degree. C.

Flame-retardant thermoplastic resin composition


A method of serially transferring annihilation information in a compact positron emission tomography (PET) scanner includes generating a time signal for an event, generating an address signal representing a detecting channel, generating a detector channel signal including the time and address signals, and generating a composite signal including the channel signal and similarly generated signals. The composite signal includes events from detectors in a block and is serially output. An apparatus that serially transfers annihilation information from a block includes time signal generators for detectors in a block and an address and channel signal generator. The PET scanner includes a ring tomograph that mounts onto a portion of an animal, which includes opposing block pairs. Each of the blocks in a block pair includes a scintillator layer, detection array, front-end array, and a serial encoder. The serial encoder includes time signal generators and an address signal and channel signal generator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to positron emission tomography (PET) scanners, and more particularly, to low-power, low-noise front-end electronics in compact conscious animal positron emission tomographs for use in imaging portions, such as the brain, of conscious animals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Positron emission tomography (PET) is a non-invasive imaging technique that uses radioactive isotopes to map chemical or metabolic activity in living organisms. PET is commonly used to diagnose and monitor cancers, brain disorders and disease. It has also been an important research tool for investigating chemical and functional processes in the areas of biochemistry, biology, physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, and pharmacology. While traditional radiography and three dimensional imaging techniques, such as x-ray computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), provide structural information, PET scanning provides physiological information of metabolic activity leading to biochemical changes that generally occur long before the associated structural changes can be detected by the more traditional imaging techniques.
Positrons are positively charged electrons emitted by the nucleus of an unstable radioisotope. The radioisotope is unstable because it is positively charged and has too many protons. Release of the positron stabilizes the radioisotope by converting a proton into a neutron. For radioisotopes used in PET, the element formed from positron decay is stable. All radioisotopes used in PET decay by positron emission. The positron travels a small distance, which depends on its energy, before combining with an electron during a so-called "annihilation". The annihilation of the positron and electron converts the combined mass into two gamma rays that are emitted at 180° to each other along a so-called "line of coincidence". These gamma rays are readily detectable outside the human body by the detectors of the tomograph. The coincidence lines provide a detection scheme for forming the tomographic image.
Several radioisotopes are commonly used for PET including 11C, 18F, 15O, and 13N. The radioactive isotope that becomes a source of gamma rays for PET is first chemically incorporated into a compound forming a "tracer" of chemical or metabolic activity, which is then administered to the patient, typically by injection or inhalation. Compounds naturally occurring in the body are most useful for monitoring metabolic activity. Such compounds include glucose, oxygen, water, nitrogen, or ammonia. One common use of PET is to pinpoint which areas of the brain are used to perform a particular function. The technique uses a naturally occurring compound as a radioactive tracer. For example, when a subject is injected with a form of radioactive glucose, the glucose is delivered to the brain through the bloodstream. Since glucose normally fuels brain activity, the more active a part of the brain is during some experimental task, the more glucose it uses and the higher concentration of glucose in that part of the brain is revealed in the generated PET image.
Pharmaceutical drugs can also be tagged and administered, so that the drug itself is used as a tracer to determine the pharmacokinetics of its interactions in the brain or other body sites. PET scans can then provide in vivo repeated static measurements at a given time interval, or even dynamic measurements of the efficiency and distribution of the drug over time. Such measurements have been extremely useful to quantify the performance of a drug using a noninvasive technique. Such studies are becoming a more routine portion of testing used in the development of new, particularly psycho-active, pharmaceuticals.
Analogously, the phenomena of drug addiction has also been studied using PET. For example, PET images of drug addicts are compared with those of normal subjects. Such studies may make use of tagged neurotransmitters to examine the changes in receptor densities (numbers) or receptor binding affinities that result from long-term drug abuse.
Like other clinical imaging scanners, the typical PET scanner consists of detectors surrounding the subject to be imaged. The detectors are coupled to a scintillator, which converts gamma rays to light photons. The light photons are then converted into electrical impulses. Each electrical impulse generated at a detector corresponds to an "event", or the arrival at the detector of a gamma-ray photon that originated at an annihilation within the subject.
Common prior art scintillator materials for gamma-ray detection include sodium iodide crystal, bismuth germinate (BGO), and barium fluoride (BaF2). The common prior art detectors include photomultiplier tubes.
The simultaneous or "coincident detection" of a pair of annihilation gamma rays by two detectors locates the line of coincidence along which an annihilation occurred due to chemical activity in the body. The detectors communicate with a central processing unit (CPU), at which a tomographic reconstruction technique is applied to generate or "reconstruct" a spatial mapping of the chemical activity in the body from a superposition of multiple lines of coincidence obtained from the entire array of detectors. Reconstruction of images from tomography data, using techniques such as filtered back-projection, is well known in the art and is described, for example, in A. C. Kak and M. Slaney, Principles of Computerized Tomographic Imaging, IEEE Press (1988), which is incorporated herein by reference.
In a typical PET scanner, each detector communicates with the CPU via independent data links, each of which is dedicated to a particular channel. The detector area commonly limits the spatial resolution obtainable in the reconstructed tomographic image. Therefore, to obtain good spatial resolution, it is not unusual for a PET scanner to be comprised of thousands of detectors with an equally large number of corresponding channels and data links.
One area of research that has benefited tremendously from the use of PET technology is medical research on the effects of pharmaceuticals in treating various diseases, cancers and drug addictions. For most of these types of studies, animal models must be used in place of human subjects, for obvious ethical reasons. PET imaging of animals, however, poses some problems. For example, in order to eliminate motion-induced artifacts from the PET image, it is necessary to immobilize the animal using an anesthetic. Unfortunately, anesthesia profoundly disturbs the neurological state of the animal, complicating the interpretation of PET results. The present state of the art PET scanners and methods of using PET have not addressed the problem of how to perform positron emission tomography on a conscious and awake animal or how to perform positron emission tomography on an awake animal while the animal performs some task.
In addition, human patients whose health management may benefit from the information provided by a PET scan are not always compliant with the requirement for maintaining a fixed position. Non-compliance may arise as a result of the very disease indication for which the PET scan results could usefully address, e.g. Parkinson's patients. Non-compliance may also arise in patients that are unable to understand the necessity of remaining in a fixed position, such as in children and/or the mentally disabled. The present state of the art PET scanners and methods of using PET have also not addressed the problem of how to perform positron emission tomography in human patients that are unable to maintain a fixed position, i.e., in a moving subject.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Compact conscious animal positron emission tomography scanner


A system and method for treatment of ammonia-containing raw water from low-temperature sources is designed to provide optimum treatment conditions, particularly temperature of the raw water in the bioreactor(s) containing nitrifying bacteria. The raw water supply is split into two streams, of which one stream is heated before remixing with the other stream. The split-stream heating is optionally supported by the provision of a retention tank on the heated-water stream. A three-way valve is provided to control compressed air supply to be mixed with the raw water in dependence on water level in the bioreactor.

This invention relates to a method and a system for biological treatment of water and wastewater, and particularly to a method and system for biological removal of nitrogen-containing impurities from low-temperature water and ground water.
Biological treatment of wastewater is well known. Also known are systems and methods for removal of nitrogen compounds, e.g. ammonia and other biodegradable matter from raw water supply for commercial, industrial and municipal users.
Certain raw water sources, for instance ground water sources in cold climate zones, provide raw water at a relatively low temperature, close to the freezing point (0° C. or 32° F.). At this temperature, some bacterial strains normally useful for biological degradation of water-borne impurities do not operate in an optimal manner. Nitrifying bacteria Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter are normally not able to metabolize sufficiently at a temperature close to the water freezing point, at a temperature below approximately 5° C. On the other hand, at temperatures in the range about 5-40° C., these bacteria strains are active and degrade ammonia and other nitrogen impurities sufficiently well. The bacteria are aerobic and consume approximately 5 ppm of oxygen per 1 ppm of removed ammonia while also utilizing carbon source nutrients present in raw water.
While the relationship between bacterial efficiency, optimum temperature, oxygen and nutrient supply is known, the solutions vary depending on the source of raw water or wastewater and the scale of the systems. Specifically, there is a need for a low-cost system and method of biological treatment and purification of raw water derived from low-temperature sources such as ground water in cold climate areas, where the treatment efficiency depends in large part on the reliability of temperature control of the process.

System for biological treatment of water and wastewater


An electro-dynamic machine in the form of a d.c. motor having a commutator, has an electrical service circuit carried by a printed circuit on which are mounted brush carriers for the carbon brushes engaged with the commutator. The machine has a casing which is closed by an intermediate member, and the electrical service circuit is mounted within a cavity of the intermediate member defined by a peripheral flange of the latter, this flange being directed towards the interior of the machine when the intermediate member is mounted on the motor casing.

In the prior art, arrangements have been proposed for mounting electrical service circuits on the casing or body of the machine. However, these solutions present certain problems in respect of mounting, especially in relation to the positioning of the components of the machine with respect to the electrical service circuits.
In a currently preferred arrangement, the machine has a commutator which is mounted on a rotor. The latter carries windings; either these have to be excited (where the machine is acting as a motor), or, where the machine is acting as a generator, an induced electromotive force is taken from across the ends of the windings. The electrical connecting cable is connected to carbon blushes mounted in brush carriers and in contact with the conductive strips of the commutator. The relative positioning of these components must be precise, and this involves some manufacturing cost. In general the known ways of mounting the components are not satisfactory.

Electro-dynamic machine with an integral electrical service circuit


In a method for processing a rotor used for a supercharger and the like, a slanted rolling machine is used having rolls designed such that the rolls are arranged about a pass line along which a material to be molded advances. Each roll is of corn shape and has a plurality of spiral-shaped grooves formed on its side surface. A shaft member made from iron or a similar material is inserted into an aluminum alloy tube. The aluminum alloy tube with the shaft member inside it is continuously fed to the slanted rolling machine along the pass line. Then, the periphery of the aluminum alloy tube is rolled/spread by the rolls for forming spiral shaped teeth from the tube material and for metallurgically attaching the tube to the shaft member.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method for processing a rotor used for a supercharger and the like.
2. Background Art
In a supercharger, a screw compressor, a roots blower, a Lysholm compressor and the like, each rotor includes a shaft member, in the form of a shaft and a rotor portion around the shaft member. The shaft member is made from rigid carbon steel, while the rotor portion is made from aluminium alloy that has excellent processability. In manufacturing the rotor, the shaft member and an aluminium profile portion constituting the rotor portion are integrally attached with each other by methods like shrinkage fit or internal chill.
However, the shrinkage fit method requires aluminium material of high rigidity to be used as the rotor portion. Such aluminium alloy of high rigidity is not only expensive but also has other problems like the difficulty to make it near net shape, low productivity and higher production cost. On the other hand, the internal chill method, though it reduces production cost and allows the near net shape processing, still shows low productivity.

Method for processing a rotor used for a super charger

Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co., Ltd.


A method of misalignment correction in a structured light device is provided that includes extracting features from a first captured image of a scene, wherein the first captured image is captured by an imaging sensor component of the structured light device, and wherein the first captured image includes a pattern projected into the scene by a projector component of the structured light device, matching the features of the first captured image to predetermined features of a pattern image corresponding to the projected pattern to generate a dataset of matching features, determining values of alignment correction parameters of an image alignment transformation model using the dataset of matching features, and applying the image alignment transformation model to a second captured image using the determined alignment correction parameter values.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to correction of projector-camera misalignment in structured light systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
In structured light imaging systems, a projector-camera pair is used to estimate the three-dimensional (3D) depth of a scene and shape of objects in the scene. The principle behind structured light imaging is to project patterns on objects/scenes of interest and capture images with the projected pattern. The depth is estimated based on variations of the captured pattern in comparison to the projected pattern. In such imaging systems, the relative position of the camera with respect to the projector is typically fixed and the camera-projector pair is initially calibrated, e.g., by the maker of the system or by a user following calibration instructions.
After physical calibration, a further step involving projecting a checker board pattern on a plane surface at different depths may be required. Note that this calibration may require that the projector has the capability to project more than one pattern. Calibration is performed by finding correspondences between locations of corners of the checkerboard pattern in captured and projected images. Such calibration may require manual intervention in which the plane surface is moved by the user in front of the camera-projector pair. This calibration is generally performed once as the assumption is that there will be no change in the relative position of the camera-projector pair.
Such calibration is generally sufficient as long as the camera-projector pair remains stationary. However, in practical applications, a structured light system may not be stationary. For example, a structured light system may be mounted on an unstable platform or used in a handheld device. In such applications, the relative position of the camera and projector can be altered unintentionally over time or due to manufacturing imperfections and environmental factors, thus necessitating re-calibration.

Projector-camera misalignment correction for structured light systems


The technology described herein is directed to a reinforcement learning based framework for training a natural media agent to learn a rendering policy without human supervision or labeled datasets. The reinforcement learning based framework feeds the natural media agent a training dataset to implicitly learn the rendering policy by exploring a canvas and minimizing a loss function. Once trained, the natural media agent can be applied to any reference image to generate a series (or sequence) of continuous-valued primitive graphic actions, e.g., sequence of painting strokes, that when rendered by a synthetic rendering environment on a canvas, reproduce an identical or transformed version of the reference image subject to limitations of an action space and the learned rendering policy.

Semantic image manipulation aims to generate realistic images from a source image and a text description such that the generated images match the content of the text description while simultaneously maintaining text-irrelevant features of the source image. Indeed, semantic image manipulation attempts to manipulate the source image based on the text relevant features identified in the text description without manipulating text-irrelevant features of the source image that are not identified in the text description. This manipulation typically requires a system that is able to learn a suitable mapping between visual and linguistic features.
Current semantic image manipulation techniques have explored various methods for editing images using generative adversarial networks (GANs). For example, current techniques have explored language-based image editing with recurrent attentive models, attempted to edit images according to high-level instructions based on StyleGAN generators, etc. Unfortunately, these approaches have various drawbacks. Most notably, current semantic image manipulation approaches are notoriously unreliable. More specifically, current semantic image manipulation techniques are unable to reliably manipulate a source image based on text relevant features identified in a text description without manipulating text-irrelevant features of the source image that are not identified in the text description. Moreover, current semantic image manipulation techniques can only generate images of limited resolution that tend to lack fine and clear details.
Furthermore, current semantic image manipulation techniques suffer additional deficiencies. For example, current techniques utilize closed vocabulary systems that require a unique model for each image attribute (or feature). Unfortunately, the number of required models is burdensome as each unique model needs to be individually trained, maintained, and properly deployed to achieve reliable semantic image manipulation. Indeed, current semantic image manipulation techniques require training data for each possible outcome to properly train a model for each image attribute (or feature). Additionally, current semantic image manipulation techniques require paired data, i.e., language instruction, original image, image after editing, for training. Generating and/or otherwise obtaining this training (or paired) data can be extremely burdensome and resulting in models that are not properly (or fully) trained.

Semantic image manipulation using visual-semantic joint embeddings


A heat generating type ink-jet print head including an ink supply passage for receiving an ink from an ink container, a micro chamber for storing the ink and nozzles, all being directly formed on a substrate, and a method for fabricating the ink-jet print head using an electrolytic polishing process, and a method for fabricating the ink-jet print head. The ink-jet print head is fabricated using an electrolytic polishing process, thereby achieving an accurate and inexpensive fabrication.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet printer, and more particularly to a heat generating type ink-jet print head including an ink supply passage for receiving ink from an ink container, a micro chamber for storing the ink and nozzles, all being directly formed on a substrate, and a method for fabricating the ink-jet print head using the electrolytic polishing process.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The expanded use of computers has resulted in an abrupt increase in the requirement of inexpensive printers having a superior performance. Heat generating type ink-jet printers have been known as satisfying the above requirement on the basis of the following reason. Such heat generating type ink-jet printers have the advantages of easy application to a digital computer, high resolution, high speed, color printing function and low cost, as compared to dot matrix printers and laser printers.
An ink-jet printer is most suitable for a portable computer because of its low requirement of energy per dot as compared to other printer systems and no requirement of any small and heavy mechanical elements. An ink-jet printer also has the advantages of the elimination of noise by virtue of its non-impact system, reduced cost by virtue of consumption of ink only as dots require, easy maintenance and high applicability to technical fields by virtue of its non-contact system.
Of various elements constituting such heat generating type ink-jet printers, the highest value-added and technology-intensive ones are ones with the head adapted to inject the ink.
If there is no independent fabrication and design capability for ink-jet print heads, then it is impossible to independently design other elements (additionally, mechatronics and software) constituting a printer. In the case of ink-jet printers, therefore, the independent fabrication and design capability for ink-jet print heads is very important.
Hewlett Packard Company in the U.S.A. and Canon Company in Japan are the leading companies in producing heat generating type ink-jet print heads. Although products made by these companies are operated in the same principle manner, they have a difference in the ink injection direction. That is, the product made by Hewlett Packard Company has an upward ink injection direction, while the product made by Canon Company has a lateral ink injection direction. Although the products of both companies have individual advantages and disadvantages, the present invention embodies a heat generating type ink-jet print head having the upward ink injection direction, as in the product of Hewlett Packard Company, using an electrolytic polishing process.
Now, a heat generating type ink-jet print head produced by Hewlett Packard Company will be described in conjunction with FIG. 1.
As shown in FIG. 1, the head is attached at its lower surface to the upper surface of a ink container 1. The head includes the main ink supply passage 2, vertically extending throughout a substrate 14 of the head and serving to supply ink .from the ink container 1 towards the upper surface of the head. The head also includes an assistant ink supply passage 3 communicating with the main ink supply passage 2. The assistant ink supply passage 3 serves to supply the ink from the main ink supply passage 2 to a micro-chamber 4. The head also includes a nozzle 5 for injecting the ink contained in the micro-chamber 4 onto a sheet 13.
The ink injection is achieved as a heat generating resistor film 6, formed on the micro-chamber 4, generates a thermal energy which, in turn, abruptly expands the volume of the ink. To this end, the head has a wiring for applying the electrical energy to the heat generating resistor film 6 and a pad 8 for coupling the wire 7 to an external energy source.
The head also includes a non-conductor protection film 9 and a metal protection film 10 in order to protect the heat generating resistor film 6 and the wire 7 from mechanical impact generated upon the ink injection and an erosion caused by the ink. A thermal insulating film 11 is formed beneath the heat generating resistor film 6 so as to efficiently use the heat generated at the heat generating resistor film 6 as the ink injection energy. The micro-chamber 4 is defined by a thermal insulator 12.
This conventional head, having the above-mentioned structure, is fabricated using the method including the steps of forming constituting elements of the head up to the micro-chamber on the substrate, forming the main ink supply passage using a laser or sand striking process, and then covering a nozzle plate, provided with the nozzle, over the resulting structure obtained after the formation of the main ink supply passage.
However, this fabrication method has the following problems.
First, it involves high manufacturing costs because it uses expensive laser equipment and specific equipment for arranging the nozzle plate and the substrate.
Second, it involves low productivity because the formation of the main ink supply passage and the covering of the nozzle plate are not carried out by the unit of wafer, but carried out by the unit of head.
Third, it involves severe generation of dust and crack and the difficulty in fabricating a high resolution and wide-width ink-jet print head having a smaller-size main ink supply passage because the main ink supply passage is mechanically formed.

Kit Gyosu Apt. 15-202, 236-2, Gajeong-Dong


Low-mass implants, for example hydrogen and helium ions, are used in place of more typical dopants like boron, phosphorus, and arsenic for testing the performance of ion implanters. Consistency between ion implantation test runs with the low-mass ions may be used to provide information about the proper operation of ion implanters. Lower-mass ions do not transfer as much of their energy to the wafer as heavier ions. Consequently, high energy ion implantations with low-mass ions do not repair wafer surface damage to the same degree as ion implantations with high-mass ions. When sufficient surface damage exists, a thermawave tool can detect the damage and provide information about the performance of the ion implanter. This determination can be made in a one-step method. An additional advantage to implanting the test wafers with low-mass ions is being able to reuse the wafers for subsequent test runs. When low-mass implants are used (such as hydrogen and helium), a thermal anneal subsequent to the ion implantation can repair any damage to the crystal and at the same time dissociate the low-mass dopants from the silicon crystal. The crystal is returned in its original condition after the escape of the low-mass dopants. If reusability is the highest priority, silicon ions may be used as the test species. Implanted silicon ions can cause measurable damage to the surface of the wafer. A calibration state of the ion implanter may then be determined by examining the surface damage. A subsequent thermal anneal can repair the damage to the surface and return the crystal to its original state.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of semiconductor processing and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus that monitor the performance of an ion implanter to ensure its calibration.
2. Description of Relevant Art
Fabrication of a metal-oxide-semiconductor ("MOS") transistor is well-known. Fabrication typically begins by lightly doping a single-crystal silicon substrate n-type or p-type. The specific area where the transistor will be formed is then isolated from other areas on the substrate using various isolation structures. A gate dielectric is then typically formed by oxidizing the silicon substrate. A gate conductor is then patterned using a photolithography mask from a layer of polycrystalline silicon ("polysilicon") deposited upon the gate dielectric. The polysilicon is rendered conductive with the introduction of ions from an implanter or a diffusion furnace. Subsequently, source and drain regions are doped with a high-dose n-type or p-type dopant. If the source and drain regions are doped n-type, the transistor is referred to as NMOS, and if the source and drain regions are doped p-type, the transistor is referred to as PMOS. A channel region between the source and the drain is protected from the implant species by the pre-existing gate conductor. When voltage above a certain threshold is applied to the gate of an enhancement-mode transistor, the channel between the source and drain becomes conductive and the transistor turns on.
The amount of dopants introduced into the source and drain regions and the polysilicon gate conductor of a transistor are critical to the performance of the device. Chemical diffusion is one method currently used to introduce dopants into semiconductors. Diffusion is the process by which a species moves as a result of the presence of a chemical barrier. A typical diffusion system consists of a heating element, diffusion tube, and dopant delivery system. The dopant sources can be gaseous (the most common), liquid (bubbler or spin-on), or solid (tablet, powder, or disk). Many wafers can be doped at the same time using chemical diffusion. However, chemical diffusion does not have good control over the amount of dopants introduced into the wafers and the location of where the dopants are introduced.
During the past 25 years, ion implantation has become the preferred technology for introducing dopants into target materials used in semiconductor processing. Ion implantation is a process in which energetic, charged atoms or molecules are accelerated by an ion implanter and then directed toward the semiconductor substrate. Acceleration energies can range from 10 keV to several MeV for high-energy implant systems.
FIG. 1 shows a schematic of an ion implanter. Ion source 10 ionizes the species to be implanted to form a plasma at low pressure, typically 10.sup.-3 torr. A voltage difference in the range of 15-40 kV is then applied between ion source 10 and plates 12 to extract and accelerate the ions which now form beam 14. Beam 14 is subsequently routed through analyzing device 16, typically a magnet, which spatially separates the beam according to the ionic mass of its constituents. The analyzer directs only ions with a specific mass toward the target while impurities with different ionic masses are disposed elsewhere.
Acceleration tube 18 creates an acceleration field to further increase the ion energy to the desired energy level. Tube 18 may also be used to decelerate the ions if the desired implantation energy is less than the extracted energy. Focusing ring 20 is used to focus the beam into a ribbon or round shape depending on the application. Plates 22 separate out any neutral components of the beam. As a result, neutral beam 24 is unaffected by plates 22 and is separated from ion beam 26 which is bent toward wafer target 28. Neutral beam 24 is stopped by target 30.
Scanner plates 32 (x-axis) and 34 (y-axis) are responsible for controlling the position of the ion beam over the surface of the wafer. By applying the appropriate timing control sequence to the plates, the whole wafer may be scanned by the ion beam. The timing control sequence applied to the plates is such to ensure a uniform dopant distribution across the entire surface of the wafer.
Ion implantation has the ability to precisely control the number of implanted dopant atoms into substrates to within 3%. For dopant control in the 10.sup.14 -10.sup.18 atoms/cm.sup.3 range, ion implantation is clearly superior to chemical diffusion techniques. Mass separation by the ion implanter ensures a very pure dopant. Ion implantation is used throughout the semiconductor manufacturing process. Low dose (10.sup.11 -10.sup.12 ions/cm.sup.3) ion implantation can be used to adjust the threshold voltage of transistors by implanting the channel region to change its doping concentration. Ions can be introduced into the semiconductor substrate to create the source and drain regions of transistors. The polysilicon gate structure of a transistor may also be doped to become conductive at the same time the source and the drain are doped. Ion implants can be used to increase the threshold voltage of parasitic transistors in order to minimize the probability of a turn-on of such a transistor.
Heavy doping with an ion implanter can be used to alter the etch characteristics of materials for patterning. The implantation may be performed through materials that may already be in place while other materials may be used as masks to create specific doping profiles. Furthermore, more than one type of dopants may be implanted at the same time and at the same position on the wafer. Other advantages include the fact that ion implantation may be performed at low temperature which does not harm photoresist and in high vacuum which provides a clean environment.
It is important to monitor the performance of the ion implanter to ensure that the correct amount of dose is implanted into each wafer and that the implanter remains calibrated between ion implantations. In many instances, monitor and test wafers are exposed to the implanter prior to exposing actual product wafers. These test wafers are either void of device structures or have arrays of test structures designed for measuring, the parameters of interest.
The four-point sheet resistance method is the most commonly used technique for measuring implantation dosages because of its versatility. A rapid thermal anneal ("RTA") step must first follow the ion implantation step in order to diffuse and activate the implanted ions. In addition, the RTA step repairs any damage to the crystal structure that occurred during the ion implantation step. An RTA process is typically performed at 420.degree.-1150.degree. C. and lasts anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes. Large area incoherent energy sources ensure uniform heating of the wafers to avoid warpage. Various heat sources are utilized, including arc lamps, tungsten-halogen lamps, and resistively-heated slotted graphite sheets. Most heating is performed in inert atmospheres (argon or nitrogen) or vacuum, although oxygen or ammonia for growth of silicon dioxide and silicon nitride may be introduced into the RTA chamber. The resistance measurements using four co-linear probes follow the thermal anneal. Current is introduced by the two outer probes while the two inner probes measure the voltage drop. Doses ranging from 10.sup.11 -10.sup.16 ions/cm.sup.2 can be measured using the four-point sheet resistance method.
The four-point sheet resistance method is relatively time consuming since it involves a two-step process (annealing and measuring resistance), which can reduce the overall wafer throughput. Furthermore, the intermediate anneal step is an additional variable in the process of determining the consistency and calibration of the ion implanter. A more reliable, one-step method for examining the performance of an ion implanter is the thermawave method. A thermawave measures the damage that the implant causes to the upper surface of the wafer. An argon pump laser is directed toward the surface of the wafer to generate a thermal and electron-hole plasma waves. A HeNe probe laser measures the change in reflectivity induced by the argon laser at a second position on the surface of the wafer. The reflectivity is indicative of the damage on the surface due to the ion implantation.
Typical surface damage on a wafer is shown in FIG. 2. Wafer 40 is implanted with ions 42 to form doped region 44 near the upper surface of wafer 40. Expanded view 46 shows a detailed view of the arrangement of atoms close to the surface. Silicon atoms are shown by hollow circles (.smallcircle.) and dopant atoms by solid circles (.cndot.). Silicon atoms are shown displaced, and in some cases replaced, by dopant atoms. Dopant atoms are either in places of silicon atoms or in between them.
As the implantation energy increases, the additional energy provided begins to repair the surface damage. As a result, for high energy implants, the damage to the wafer surface is not enough to be measured by the thermawave method. FIG. 3 shows the resulting damage to a wafer surface from a high energy implant. Wafer 50 is implanted with high energy ions 52 to form doped region 54 near the upper surface. Expanded view 56 shows a detailed view of the arrangement of atoms close to the surface. Most of the damage caused by the high energy ions is repaired due to additional energy provided to the wafer.
Independent of the method used to monitor the implantation dosage, the test wafers are not reusable. After the first implantation, a new set of wafers must be used. Replacing the test wafers after every set of measurements can be very costly.
It would be desirable to have a one-step method to monitor the performance of the ion implanter. A one-step method introduces no additional variables that could affect the implanted ions and thus provides a more accurate information on the performance of the ion implanter. It would also be desirable to have a one-step method which can monitor the performance of the ion implanter for low, medium, and high implantation energies. It would additionally be desirable to be able to reuse test wafers for more than just one ion implanter test.

Method for monitoring the performance of an ion implanter using reusable wafers


An air duct is disclosed which includes a tubular member formed from a metal sheet. A paper is disposed around an outer periphery of the tubular member for preventing condensation droplets condensed on the tubular member from dripping, and an adhesive is interposed between the tubular member and the paper to adhesively secure the tubular member and the paper. Furthermore, a paper for an air duct, adapted to be secured to an outer periphery of the air duct, is disclosed. The paper is produced from a material including a papermaking pulp and is characterized by the following: a wet strength of at least 0.3 kgf/15 mm, a critical value for dripping of water droplets of at least 45 g/m.sup.2, and a basis weight of 40 to 5000 g/m.sup.2.

The present invention relates to an air duct for use in air conditioning facilities in buildings and to a paper for use in the air duct, and in particular an air duct in which condensation thereon is prevented from dripping as well as to a paper to be wound around a tubular member to insulate the air duct.
Air ducts composed of a tubular member of a square, oblong, or circular cross-section made of a tin or aluminum sections are indispensable as conduits materials for air conditioning facilities in buildings. Among various ducts of these kinds, a rectangular duct, a round duct, a spiral duct, and a flexible spiral duct are well-known.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, the rectangular duct is constructed by shaping metal sheets into tubular members 1 of a square or oblong cross-section and connecting the tubular members 1 together in a longitudinal direction by means of S-shaped seams 2. The round duct is formed by curving metal sheets into tubular members of a circular cross-section and connecting the tubular members in a longitudinal direction by means of grooved seams. The spiral duct is constructed by winding metal sheets spirally into tubular members of a circular cross-section and connecting the ends of the metal sheets by means of grooved seams.
Furthermore, the flexible spiral duct is formed by winding metal sheets of uniform width spirally into a tubular member, and as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, corrugated ribs are formed on the surface thereof mainly in order to enhance the strength and workability of the tubular member. The flexible spiral duct of FIGS. 2 and 3 is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application, B-Publication (Koukoku) No. 3-17105, and comprises a tubular member 10 formed by winding a metal sheet of a prescribed width spirally while seaming the lateral ends thereof. Several corrugated ribs 12 are formed between the adjacent two seams 11 and 11 of the tubular member, whereby the flexible spiral duct is expansible and contractible in an axial direction thereof. During the construction of an air duct facility, the flexible duct in a contracted state is simply expanded to a desired length, bent as necessary, and secured. Thus, the use of the flexible duct enables bent arrangements for the piping and allows easier piping installation. For manufacturing the flexible spiral duct as described above, as shown, for example, in FIG. 4, a metal sheet 13 is fed into a shaping machine 14 to form the corrugated ribs 12 along the moving direction, and is then wound spirally on a roll 15 arranged obliquely with respect to the above moving direction. Subsequently, the lateral ends of the metal sheet are seamed to provide a continuous tubular member 10.
When the air ducts as described above are used in pipings for air conditioning facilities in buildings such as pipes for cooling or intake pipes for ventilation, cooled air is caused to flow through the air ducts, and water vapor contained in the ambient air is condensed on the outer peripheral surface of the ducts due to the temperature difference between the inside and outside of the duct.
This condensation may cause the air duct to corrode, thereby reducing the service life thereof. Furthermore, the condensation droplets may stain the ceiling, the walls, the floor and so on, or may otherwise reduce the service life of the buildings. The condensation on electrical wiring may cause short circuiting.
Conventionally, for the prevention of the condensation, heat insulating material such as rock wool, glass fiber, urethane foam resin, nonwoven fabric, or the like is wound on the outer periphery of the air duct, and is fixedly secured thereto by covering the entire duct with a tape or a metal sheet.
However, the above conventional method of using heat insulating materials requires laborious work inside the insulating material must be wound at the construction site after the air duct is installed. Therefore, increased expenses cannot be avoided. In addition, the work space is often very small and even dangerous in some cases. In particular, in the case where a flexible spiral duct is employed as the air duct, the advantages of using this type of duct will be lost.
Moreover, even though heat insulating materials are employed, it is very difficult to completely prevent condensation. Therefore, when cooled air is allowed to run through the duct, condensation, even if slight, inevitably condenses on the outer periphery of the duct and is absorbed into the insulating material. However, heat insulating material generally is poor in releasing water, and its outer periphery must be almost entirely covered with a tape or a metal sheet. Consequently, even after the supply of cooled air into the duct ceases, the water absorbed into the heat insulating material remains therein and does not evaporate. This causes the duct to corrode. Furthermore, since the condensation which penetrated into the heat insulating material gradually accumulates therein, the heat insulating efficiency is thereby lowered. The droplets from the heat insulating material may further stain the ceiling, the walls, the floor and so on, or may otherwise reduce the service life of the buildings. Condensation on the electrical wiring may cause short circuiting.
Moreover, when the heat insulating material is wound around the aforesaid flexible spiral duct, gaps inevitably form between the heat insulating material and the corrugated ribs formed on the tubular member, and water absorbed into the heat insulating material may remain in the gaps and thereby accelerate the corrosion of the duct.
Furthermore, since the heat insulating material contains a high proportion of resin constituents, it burns easily, and additionally, during a fire, toxic gases are produced.


A pneumatic radial tire 1 including a carcass 6 and a belt layer 7 is provided with a cord-reinforced layer 12 with reinforcing cords of organic fiber being disposed at angles of 30 to 60 degrees with respect to a tire circumferential direction at a buttress portion Bs thereof. A ply turnup portion 11 of the carcass 6 is terminated radially outside a tire maximum width point M. The cord-reinforced layer 12 is arranged such that its outer end portion in the radial direction 12U is pinched between the carcass 6 and the belt layer 7 and such that its radially inner end portion 12L is secured between the ply main portion 10 and the ply turnup portion 11 of the carcass 6.

In a radial tire including a belt layer that is disposed outside of a carcass and a tread portion being reinforced to exhibit hoop effects, the restraining force of the belt layer will be decreased at an outer end portion thereof so that lifting is apt to be caused at a shoulder portion of the tire through centrifugal force or other factors when performing high speed running. The durability consequently tends to be decreased such that, for instance, peeling and damages are caused originating at the outer end of the belt layer.
To suppress the lifting and increase the high speed running durability performance, conventionally, a band layer around which band cords made of nylon or similar are spirally wound in a tire circumferential direction is provided outside of the belt layer so as to complement restraining force at the outer end portion of the belt layer. It is known that a tire reinforced by the band layer exhibits superior high speed durability performances in high speed durability tests (for instance, standard tests such as ECE 30 etc.) of so-called step speed method in which speed up is performed by a ratio of 10 km/h per every 20 minutes.
Through various experiments that have been performed by the inventors, it has been found that no sufficiently satisfactory effects in durability have been achieved by the above tire when continuous high speed running was made under the condition close to actual usage such as in the case where it was made to run at high speed for a long period of time. This is assumed to be due to the fact that the buttress portion outside in the tire axial direction is more largely affected rather than the belt layer, wherein the buttress portion is gradually raised by the high speed running lasting for a long time so as to cause lifting of the shoulder portion.
The present invention thus aims to provide a pneumatic radial tire in which movements of the buttress portion and lifting of the shoulder portion are effectively restricted, and high speed durability is improved not only when a step speed method is employed, but also when continuous high speed running is conducted under the condition close to actual usage. For such purpose, the present invention basically provides a structure of a pneumatic radial tire in which a cord-reinforced layer, the radially outer end thereof being secured between a carcass and a belt layer and the radially inner end thereof being secured between a ply main portion and a ply turnup portion of the carcass, is provided at the buttress portion.


An application, peer and method for determining a faulty peer in a structured Peer-to-Peer overlay network. The overlay network includes plural peers besides the faulty peer. The method includes determining that a message sent from a given peer to a target peer along a first path did not reach the target peer; determining an intermediate peer at which the message had arrived; using a second path to send the message from the given peer to the target peer; determining that the message had arrived at the target peer on the second path; adjusting a node identifier (nodeID) of at least one of the target peer and the intermediate peer to obtain a new target peer or a new intermediate peer; and reusing the first and second paths to send the message to the new target peer or the new intermediate peer until the faulty peer is detected.

P2P networks are utilized today in various contexts, for example, for file sharing or voice-over-IP. The P2P networks are classified as structured and unstructured networks. Structured P2P networks employ a globally consistent protocol to ensure that any peer can efficiently route a search to some peer that has the desired file or service. To achieve this, a structured pattern of overlay links is employed. The most common type of structured P2P networks are DHT (Distributed Hash Table) based networks. An example of a P2P DHT network is Chord (see Stoica et al., "Chord: A Scalable Peer-to-peer Lookup Service for Internet Applications," in Proceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM '01 Conference, San Diego, Calif., August 2001, pp. 149).
In the DHT, the information is stored among all the peers in the form of a hash table with several <key, value> pairs. When a peer in the overlay needs certain information, the peer has to perform a lookup of the key, and then to retrieve a value associated with the key if the key is stored in another peer. Traditional DHT algorithms use the concept of finger tables in order to route packets through the overlay. Each peer in a P2P overlay that uses the Chord DHT has a finger table. The finger table includes a list of pointers to other peers and a neighbor table, which is a list of the peers that are located one or few hops from the given peer. A peer is considered in this context to be a device.
For maintaining a fully functional P2P network, its peers need to constantly maintain their finger tables. This is achieved through probing other peers and observing the results. Due to the nature of the P2P networks, when all peers have correct finger tables, the whole P2P network is stable from a routing point-of-view. However, in the real world, peers constantly join and leave the P2P network, thereby, requiring the remaining peers to continuously update their finger tables. In addition, there are defective or malicious peers that drop the received data, or route the received data to a wrong peer (data forwarding problems) and these actions disrupt the functionality of the P2P network. A defective peers does not have the intention to disrupt the data traffic while a malicious peers has that intention. Thus, there are many ways in which a peer can disrupt the network. All these peers that are either defective or malicious are generically called herein as faulty peers.
As a result of the existence of the faulty peers, the network and its peers are unable to distinguish whether data forwarding problems are caused by churn (joins and/or leaves) or by a malicious peer having incentives to disrupt the network's normal operation. In other words, a peer sending information to the P2P network cannot know why the traffic is not reaching the destination peer. Moreover, even having the knowledge of an on-going attack, it is hard for a peer to mitigate the attack's effects because the culprit is unknown.
The detection of malicious peers in a P2P overlay is an ongoing problem that is yet to be completely solved. Current P2P networks do not have the ability of detecting malicious peers that misroute the packets or the ability to detect if a node is dropping the packets.
There are some approaches for achieving this functionality as discussed next. However, these approaches have their limitations. One approach is hop testing. It consists of using iterative routing to check the behavior of each hop in a route. Without iterative routing, this test is not usable and it is inefficient if the malicious peer is placed close enough to the target peer. Moreover, this approach is costly because it requires a large amount of messages to be exchanged between various peers.
Another approach is using an alternative routing path if the original routing path fails. This approach consists on analyzing the reply of the possible malicious peer, i.e., if the peer does not reply after a certain timeout or if the reply arrives too late (being therefore incorrectly routed). If this happens, the query is repeated over an alternative path. This approach only palliates the problem by trying a different path, but it does not help to localize the malicious peer.
Still another approach implements parallel routing. This approach assesses whether a node is responsible for a key or not. The approach sends one message to the suspected node using normal routing, then it sends a test message using iterative routing and an alternative path is opened. This method is not commonly used since it often generates false positives. The method also requires specially formatted messages.
From the above-discussion of the traditional approaches, it is noted that they focus on ensuring that the messages arrive to the destination, rather than detecting the peer or peers responsible for the incorrect routing and preventing them from continuing such behavior. Moreover, the existing approaches fail to prevent such behavior if the attacker is located close to the victim or if the network density is dissimilar. The existing approaches also require some amount of information regarding the full path route or the use of direct messages for each peer using expensive iterative routing. In addition, these approaches have to be performed in collaboration by several nodes.
Thus, there is a need to develop a new approach that can be performed by a single node, does not need supplementary information and also is capable to detect the position of the malicious peer. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide devices, systems and methods that avoid the afore-described problems and drawbacks.

Peer, application and method for detecting faulty peer in peer-to-peer network


A magnetic field application apparatus includes a pair of magnetic field application means, each of which is arranged, at least during application of a magnetic field, on either side of a magnetic field application target so as to face each other, and which generate a magnetic field in a predetermined direction. Each of the magnetic field application means includes a pair of magnetic portions which generate a magnetic field in a desired direction from one of the magnetic portions toward the other magnetic portion, and of which the polarities on the side facing the magnetic field application target are different from each other. Each of the pair of magnetic portions is formed so that magnetic force applied to the magnetic field application target becomes weaker stepwise or continuously from the side of the magnetic portion, facing the other magnetic portion, toward the opposite side thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic field application apparatus for initially magnetizing a medium onto which information is transferred and/or for reversing magnetization thereof. The present invention also relates to a magnetic transfer apparatus which includes the magnetic field application apparatus. The present invention also relates to a method for producing a magnetic recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a technique for producing a magnetic recording medium, a magnetic transfer technique is well known. According to the magnetic transfer technique, information corresponding to uneven patterns formed on a surface of an original disk (master information carrier) for transfer is magnetically transferred onto a medium (slave medium). Generally, in magnetic transfer, the medium onto which information is transferred is initially magnetized in a specific track direction. Then, the medium onto which information is transferred and the master information carrier are placed in close contact with each other, and a magnetic field in a direction opposite to that of the initial magnetization is applied. Accordingly, magnetization of the medium onto which information is transferred is reversed based on the uneven patterns on the surface of the original disk for transfer. Consequently, signal patterns are transferred onto the medium onto which information is transferred.
A magnetic field application apparatus for initially magnetizing a medium onto which information is transferred and/or for reversing magnetization thereof is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-272143 or the like.
A schematic diagram of the magnetic field application apparatus according to the related art is illustrated in FIG. 7A (a side view in a track direction). In FIG. 7A, the magnetic field application apparatus according to the related art includes a magnetic field application means 110 which has a pair of magnets 111 and 112, of which the polarities on the side facing a magnetic field application target 120 are different from each other. The direction of a magnetic field generated from one of the magnets toward the other magnet is a desired direction Hx. If the magnetic field application means 110 is placed on one side of the magnetic field application target 120, an unnecessary magnetic field in a perpendicular direction is applied to the magnetic field application target 120. The unnecessary magnetic field is a magnetic field in a direction other than the track direction (horizontal direction). Therefore, there is a possibility that the unnecessary magnetic field affects the accuracy of magnetic transfer. Therefore, the magnetic field application means 110 is provided on either side of the magnetic field application target 120, as illustrated in FIG. 7A.
In the magnetic field application apparatus illustrated in FIG. 7A, the magnetic field application target 120 is rotated relative to the magnetic field application means 110. Accordingly, the magnetic field in the desired direction Hx can be applied to the entire surface of the magnetic field application target 120.
In the magnetic field application apparatus illustrated in FIG. 7A, a magnetic field indicated with an arrow is generated. Therefore, the intensity of a magnetic field in a horizontal direction, applied to the magnetic field application target 120, is distributed, as schematically illustrated in FIG. 7B. In FIG. 7B, the horizontal axis shows the position of the magnetic field application target 120, corresponding to FIG. 7A, with respect to the horizontal direction, and the vertical axis shows the intensity of the magnetic field. In the vertical axis, the intensity of the magnetic field in the desired direction Hx is represented by positive (+) values. Here, the magnetic field in the perpendicular direction is cancelled out by the pair of magnetic field application means 110. Therefore, the magnetic field in the perpendicular direction is not applied to the magnetic field application target 120.
In the magnetic field application apparatus, magnetic fields in various directions are generated from the magnetic field application means 110. Therefore, a magnetic field in a direction HNG opposite to the desired direction Hx is applied to the magnetic field application target 120 at positions before and after the magnetic field application means 110 (immediately before the magnetic field application target 120 enters a position between the pair of magnetic field application means 110 and immediately after the magnetic field application target 120 moves out therefrom). In recent years, as the capacity of a magnetic field recording medium has increased, the intensity of a magnetic field applied to the magnetic field application target 120 has become higher. Therefore, an influence of the magnetic field in the opposite direction HNG on magnetic transfer has become substantial.

Magnetic field application apparatus, magnetic transfer apparatus and method for producing magnetic recording medium


A printhead includes a jetting module that forms drops, a catcher, and a deflection mechanism that deflects some of the drops toward the catcher. A moveable sealing mechanism has a first position in contact with the catcher and a second position removed from the catcher that permits drops to travel past the catcher. The moveable sealing mechanism includes a first portion that is fixed to the printhead and translates the sealing mechanism relative to the catcher, and a second portion that is removably fixed to the first portion and cooperates with the catcher to form a seal when the sealing mechanism is in the first position. A removal tool for use with the printhead includes a shaft, a magnet affixed to the shaft, and a spacer affixed to the shaft. The spacer includes a valley that is aligned with the at least one magnet.

Inkjet printing is commonly used for printing on paper or other types of print media and is generally a non-contact application of an ink to the print media. Typically, one of two types of ink jetting mechanisms are used and are categorized by technology as either drop on demand inkjet (DOD) or continuous inkjet (CIJ). The first technology, "drop-on-demand" (DOD) inkjet printing, provides ink drops that impact upon a recording surface using a pressurization actuator, for example, a thermal, piezoelectric, or electrostatic actuator. One commonly practiced drop-on-demand technology uses thermal actuation to eject ink drops from a nozzle. A heater, located at or near the nozzle, heats the ink sufficiently to boil, forming a vapor bubble that creates enough internal pressure to eject an ink drop. This form of inkjet is commonly termed "thermal inkjet (TIJ)."
The second technology commonly referred to as "continuous" inkjet (CIJ) printing, uses a pressurized ink source to produce a continuous liquid jet stream of ink by forcing ink, under pressure, through a nozzle. The stream of ink is perturbed using a drop forming mechanism such that the liquid jet breaks up into drops of ink in a predictable manner. One continuous printing technology uses thermal stimulation of the liquid jet with a heater to form drops that eventually become print drops and non-print drops. Printing occurs by selectively deflecting one of the print drops and the non-print drops and catching the non-print drops. Various approaches for selectively deflecting drops have been developed including electrostatic deflection, air deflection, and thermal deflection.
Additionally, there are typically two types of print media used with these inkjet printing systems. The first type is commonly referred to as a continuous web while the second type is commonly referred to as a cut sheet(s). The continuous web of print media refers to a continuous strip of media, generally originating from a source roll. The continuous web of print media is moved relative to the inkjet printing system components via a web transport system, which typically include drive rollers, web guide rollers, and web tension sensors. Cut sheets refer to individual sheets of print media that are moved relative to the inkjet printing system components via rollers and drive wheels or via a conveyor belt system that is routed through the inkjet printing system.
For highest productivity of these inkjet printing systems, it is common for the printing systems to use print modules which include an array of printheads to span the desired print width of the print media, so that the print media can be printed in a single pass of the print media past the print module. With such arrays of printheads there is a need to be able to service the print module, by removing, servicing and replacing a printhead from the array of printheads or of removing, servicing, and replacing of a component of one of the printheads. When the printheads or printhead components are installed in the print module, there is often a need to accurately position the serviceable unit relative to other portions of the print module. In many printing systems, there are space constraints that can hinder the task of removing and reinstalling the serviceable unit.
There is, therefore, a need for an improved system and method for securing and locating the serviceable unit in a print module of a printing system.


In a communication terminal holding apparatus 101, the control right of communication in a direct link type network is acquired by a control right acquiring section 205. After acquiring the control right, a first scheduling section 203 assigns communication resources to a terminal apparatus in the direct link type network. A second scheduling section 204 cooperates with a first scheduling section 203 so as not to allow any competition or collision of communication resources in the communication between the direct link type network and the master-slave type network and assigns communication resources to a terminal apparatus in the master-slave type network. Owing to this, it is enabled to use a slave terminal apparatus in a master-slave type network as it is in a network integrated with a direct link type network.

In multimedia interface for which the needs has been sharply increased recently, a high speed and large capacity data transmission under various user circumstances, such as in public, office, home and the like, is desired. As one of multimedia interfaces which provide such high speed and large capacity data transmission, a high speed wireless access network, a high speed radio access network or the like is getting the focus of public interest.
As examples of typical structures of such networks, there are a master-slave type network and a direct link type network. In the master-slave type network, by means of a central control via a communication terminal holding apparatus, a plurality of terminal apparatus carry out communication with the communication terminal holding apparatus. On the other hand, in the direct link type network, by means of a central control via a communication terminal holding apparatus, which has the control right in one or more communication terminal holding apparatus, a plurality of terminal apparatus and other communication terminal holding apparatus carry out communications respectively.
A master-slave type network shown in FIG. 1 comprises a communication terminal holding apparatus 11 which has an access point (AP) facility equivalent to a base station apparatus in a mobile communication system, and MT device apparatus 12, 13 and 14 having a mobile terminal (MT) facility respectively, which is equivalent to mobile station apparatus of a portable telephone apparatus or the like. In the master-slave type network, the communication terminal holding apparatus 11 carries out a scheduling in which communication resources such as time area and frequency or the like are assigned, and the communications between the MT device apparatus is made by surely being interposed by the communication terminal holding apparatus 11. For example, in a case where the MT device apparatus 12 carries out a communication with the MT device apparatus 14, the MT device apparatus 12 transmits a signal to the communication terminal holding apparatus 11 in accordance with the scheduling by the communication terminal holding apparatus 11.
A direct link type network shown in FIG. 2 comprises CC/WT device apparatus 21 and 22, which have a central controller (CC) facility and a wireless terminal (WT) facility, and WT device apparatus 23 and 24, which have a WT facility only, and communication is made directly between the WT device apparatus. Herein, the control right is transferred periodically between the CC/WT device apparatus 21 and 22, which have the CC facility respectively, and the apparatus having the control right carries out the scheduling. For example, when the CC/WT device apparatus 22 makes a request for a communication with the WT device apparatus 24 at a point of time when the CC/WT device apparatus 21 has the control right, the CC/WT device apparatus 21 carries out the scheduling in which communications resources such as time area and frequency or the like are assigned.
Since each MT device apparatus carries out data communication only to the communication terminal holding apparatus, the master-slave type network has such merit that the MT device apparatus has a simple structure. On the other hand, since the data communication is carried out directly between the WT device apparatus without being interposed by any other apparatus, the direct link type network has such a merit that the communication resources can be utilized effectively.
As the field of the network application expands, such needs that the MT device apparatus used in the master-slave type network is desired to use also in the direct link type network are raised. As one of the methods to meet the needs, such a method that, as shown in FIG. 3, a terminal apparatus 31, in which a WT facility is added to a MT facility is introduced, has been proposed conventionally.
However, in this method, such problems reside therein, i.e., an MT device, which is conventionally used, can not be used as it is and the size of the terminal apparatus becomes larger resulting in elimination of the merits of the master-slave type network. Also another problem such that MT device apparatus (MT device apparatus 13, 14 in FIG. 3), which are not provided with the MT facility, can not be used in a direct link type network resides in.

Communication terminal accommodating apparatus and communication terminal accommodating method

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.