The embodied hoisting mechanism has a hoisting cable, a hoisting-cable drive, a frame and a jib that can be topped. Hoisting-cable drive means form a path for the hoisting cable. A displaceable hoisting-cable guide is used with the hoisting cable so that the displacement of the displaceable hoisting-cable guide changes the length of the path. The displaceable hoisting-cable guide has an associated first hydraulic component with a first chamber that can be connected to a second hydraulic component with a second chamber of variable volume. A pressure source is coupled to the second hydraulic component in order to maintain a substantially constant hydraulic pressure in the second chamber. A pressure-limiting valve assembly, which is partially actuated by a topping-means loading sensor, is incorporated in the connection.

In the known hoisting mechanisms, the displaceable hoisting-cable guide, by interacting with the hydraulic components and the pressure source, causes shock loads on the hoisting cable, which act as shock loads on the hoisting mechanism, to be absorbed. In this context, the known pressure source is designed as a gas-filled reservoir, in which case the variation in the volume of the second chamber, which is filled with hydraulic fluid, does not have any significant effect on the gas pressure.
The shock absorption does not provide any protection against unsafe situations such as those which can occur very suddenly in practice. For example, in the case of hoisting mechanisms which are used at sea, for example on working ships or drilling installations, unsafe situations result from swell, sudden waves, movements of the ship and jamming of the hoisting hook or hoisting cable.
A need exists for a hoisting mechanism with an automatically operating, reliably functioning protection against overloading of the hoisting mechanism. In this way, the hoisting mechanism can effectively be provided with automatic protection against overloading, in particular against loads which occur very suddenly.
The embodiments meet these needs.
The embodiments are detailed below with reference to the listed Figures.


The present invention discloses a service providing system with an automatic transaction apparatus. According to the invention, service contents are dynamically selected and provided from an automatic transaction apparatus for a customer to make it possible to sufficiently utilize a service for the customer and to improve customer satisfaction measurement. The service providing system with an automatic transaction apparatus includes an automatic transaction apparatus which provides a service for a customer who performs a financial transaction, a database for storing customer information, an operation history, and service contents, and a service providing server for selecting at least one of the service contents stored in the database and transmitting each of the service contents to the automatic transaction apparatus. The service providing server dynamically selects each of the service contents on the basis of the customer information and the operation history of the customer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a service providing system with an automatic transaction apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, the following system is provided. That is, when a customer of a banking facility such as a bank, a cooperative bank, a post office, or a consumer finance company performs a financial transaction such as deposition, withdrawal, updating of a passbook, balance inquiry, transfer, transfer between accounts, transmission of money, or time and saving deposit setting uses an automatic transaction apparatus such as an ATM (Automatic Teller Machine) or a CD (Cash Dispenser) at a branch, i.e., a branch office, of the banking facility, not only information related to designation of an operating method of the automatic transaction apparatus and a financial transaction such as a transacted amount on a display screen of the automatic transaction apparatus, but also additional information such as a message from the financial institution to the customer, an advertisement, and a notification are displayed.
In this case, when the customer who comes to the branch office inserts a card such as a cash card into a card handing section of the automatic transaction apparatus to execute a financial transaction, the automatic transaction apparatus communicates with a host computer to execute a financial process selected by the customer. For example, when the customer operates the automatic transaction apparatus in the bank to perform balance inquiry and then ends the operation, after a message "This bank has started new AA service since on February 2. Please use this service." is displayed on a display screen, the screen returns to the initial screen.
When a trouble occurs in the automatic transaction apparatus, a message "I'm sorry for impossible transaction. Please come to the counter during business hours." is displayed on a display screen to lead the customer to the counter. In this case, even though a trouble such as failure in the automatic transaction apparatus occurs, the customer can do an appropriate action according to the message of the automatic transaction apparatus.
In recent years, a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system is adopted to make it possible to form a message having contents corresponding to respective customers. In this case, a message based on information related to basic attributes such as the address, name, age, type of business, income, and family structure of each customer and information such as a history related to accounting transactions performed by each customer in the past is formed to make it possible to show the message to the customer.
In this manner, the financial institution can provide a service such as a service that can timely show a message related to a financial product having contents suitable for each customer for the customer. Furthermore, an appropriate service such as a message having an expression suitable for each customer can be provided for the customer. A customer can enjoy a friendly appropriate service with respect to a financial product having contents suitable for the customer without receiving an unnecessary service such as an unnecessary message.

Service providing system with automatic transaction apparatus


The present invention relates to an electronic device including electronic circuitry, wherein the circuitry includes a first switching transistor (MN1) being adapted to serve as an integrated switch, and a first clamp transistor (MNC1) being coupled to the first switching transistor and being adapted to protect the first switching transistor (MN1) if an ESD event occurs.

Today's electronic devices, as e.g. PDAs, smart phones, web pads or any other kinds of handheld products usually have complete, highly integrated power management units (PMU). These power management units often include a plurality of integrated DC/DC converters. Integrated DC/DC converters are necessary for power efficient supply voltage generation. The battery or power management is real-time software-controlled in order to adapt the system dynamically to different operating conditions.
One of the most often used concepts for DC/DC conversion is the inductive down or up or auto DC/DC converter. In one typical configuration the inductive converter is implemented by four switches, two for the up converting part and two for the down converting part, an inductor and some additional circuitries. The switches are usually implemented by P-type metal oxide silicon field effect transistors (PMOSFET) and N-type metal oxide silicon field effect transistors (NMOSFET) which are integrated on a semiconductor substrate. The integrated circuitry including the MOS transistors is coupled to battery cells (e.g. NiCd/NiMH or Li-Ion/Li-polymer battery pack) and to an inductor via respective pads of the integrated circuitry. Additionally, the integrated DC/DC conversion unit can also comprise a controller circuitry being typically analog or digital. As for all kinds of integrated circuits, the integrated semiconductor devices need protection against excess currents and excess voltages caused by electrostatic discharge (ESD) or electrostatic overstress (EOS). Since the switching NMOS and PMOS transistors of the integrated DC/DC conversion units are to be directly coupled to the external electronic components, known solutions aim to provide direct protection for the transistors.
Accordingly, existing techniques resort for example to adapting the integral properties of the integrated transistors in order to meet ESD requirements. A special manufacturing technique known for example from U.S. Pat. No. 6,858,900 as "un-silicidation" (removal of self-aligned silicide) is used. This technique consists in blocking the deposition of layers of metals like tungsten, titanium or cobalt that are usually used to reduce the access resistance to the drain or source side of a MOS transistor. This measure requires an additional fabrication mask. Additionally, the gate to drain (or source) distance has to be increased, and by doing this a ballast resistor is added due to the higher access resistance of the drain or source diffusions. This leads to smooth flow of ESD current through the drain or source diffusions. However, the main disadvantage of the mentioned technique is that the area consumed by such a protected transistor is considerably increased.
Other known solutions, as for example described in WO 03/094241, provide special layout techniques for adding ballast distributed resistors between the source and the gate as well as the drain and the gate of the integrated MOS devices. In this case the silicide is not removed and the transistor occupies less area. However, this solution requires a special layout technique that is very sensitive to process variations and namely the silicide resistance. The silicide resistance as a process parameter has usually large dispersion in most commercial CMOS processes. And finally, the known solutions can hardly be modeled or simulated, because they are based on the assumption that the transistor will operate in a parasitic bipolar operation regime (snap-back) which is typically not modeled. This renders the behavior of the electronic device very difficult to model. Due to their process dependency, these concepts are also very difficultly portable between different manufacturing processes, but also between fabrication sites.


An aluminum alloy product having high strength, excellent corrosion resistance and weldability, having the following composition in wt. %: Mg 3.5 to 6.0, Mn 0.4 to 1.2, Fe<0.5, Si<0.5, Cu<0.15, Zr<0.5, Cr<0.3, Ti 0.03 to 0.2, Sc<0.5, Zn<1.7, Li<0.5, Ag<0.4, optionally one or more of the following dispersoid forming elements selected from the group consisting of erbium, yttrium, hafnium, vanadium, each <0.5 wt. %, and impurities or incidental elements each <0.05, total <0.15, and the balance being aluminum.

Different types of aluminium alloys have been used in the past for manufacturing a variety of products for application in the construction and transport industry, more in particular also in the aerospace and maritime industry. Designers and manufacturers in these industries are constantly trying to improve product performance, product lifetime and fuel efficiency, and are also constantly trying to reduce manufacturing, operating and service costs.
One way of obtaining the goals of these manufactures and designers is by improving the relevant material properties of aluminium alloys, so that a product to be manufactured from that alloy can be designed more effectively, can be manufactured more efficiently and will have a better overall performance.
In many applications referred to above, alloys are required which have high strength, low density, excellent corrosion resistance, excellent weldability and excellent properties after welding.
The present invention relates to an alloy of the AA 5xxx type combining improved properties in the fields of strength, damage tolerance, corrosion resistance and weldability.
As will be appreciated, herein below, except as otherwise indicated, alloy designations and temper designations refer to the Aluminium Association designations in Aluminium Standards and Data and Registration Records as published by the Aluminium Association in 2005.


A concealable chip leadframe unit structure is disclosed which is made up of multiple lead units arranged in order, each lead in the lead unit is formed by pressing and comprising of a piece body with upper placement plane, the lower surface of the piece body is pressed to form at least an inner conducting plane which can be connected to the chip, and at least one protruding bump is formed adjacent to the inner conducting plane, the end surface of the protruding bump is used as an out-conducting plane to be connected to outside; in this structure, chip can be attached to the upper placement plane of the lead structure, and the inner conducting plane can be connected to the chip through metallic wire.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to the structure and design of a concealable chip leadframe unit, it is more specifically related to the structure and design of a chip leadframe unit which is capable of been placed underneath the chip and been reduced in the leadframe volume.
2. Description of the Related Art
One of the major concern in the printed circuit board layout is how to fully use the limited area in a printed circuit board, especially when the information and electronic products nowadays move toward the trend of multi-function design, how to install more functional transistors possible in the limited printed circuit board space is the major technical bottleneck to be overcome; in addition, the electronic products nowadays, especially personal portable products such as: personal digital assistant (PDA), Note Book, multi-function portable disc, tablet PC, system or cellular phone, etc., have focused on providing portable convenience for the users and thus headed toward smaller volume and compact design, therefore, in addition to reduce the printed circuit board size, the improvement on the structure and design of other electronic components is also indispensable.
As shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, it is a prior art semiconductor packaging structure wherein leadframe 30 is installed underneath chip 20 in the conventional semiconductor package 10, an encapsulated body 40 is used to enclose and seal the whole structure, leadframe 30 is used as a media to connect chip 20 to the printed circuit board, the leadframe 30 comprising of multiple rows of leads 301 protruding along the lower two sides of semiconductor package 10, not only the volume of leadframe 30 in this structure is difficult to be reduced, but also the electrical resistance stays high, therefore, with this structure, it is difficult to meet the trend of compact and high speed printed circuit board and electronic components.

Concealable chip leadframe unit structure


A chatbot maintains a conversation with a user by providing a plurality of separate conversational tiers that allow the chatbot to interact with the user, each of the conversational tiers having a set of production rules that are independent of production rules for other ones of the tiers. The production rules indicate a flow of conversation between the user and the chatbot. The chatbot selects one of the conversational tiers based on previous conversational tiers used by the chatbot in connection with conversing with the user and based on content of conversations between the user and the chatbot. The chatbot responds to statements of the user according to a specific production rule that is chosen by the chatbot based on a particular one of the conversational tiers that has been selected and based on other factors. A scripting engine may match statements of the user with specific production rules.

The market for Artificial Conversation Utilities (ACEs, chatbots) is growing at an accelerated pace, representing a booming software area for applied Artificial Intelligence (AI). According to various 2017-2018 industry statistics and forecasts, the global chatbots market is expected to reach $1.25-$2.16 Billion by 2024-2025, growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 24.3%-28.7%. In all forecasts, North America is the largest part of the market. It is also estimated that broad proliferation of chatbots may revolutionize existing labor markets and change core requirements to the new workforce, while saving as much as 25%-30% on manpower costs over the next decade, warranting the need to invest upon skill upgrading and next generation technologies rather than routine processes, especially in various types of services.
Experts subdivide global chatbots market into three main segments: support chatbots, skills chatbots, and assistant chatbots, each segment applicable for many end user segments, such as BFSI (Banking, Financial services and Insurance), healthcare, e-commerce, retail, travel and hospitality, media & entertainment, etc.
The adoption of chatbots is spearheaded by major social networks and technology companies, including Facebook, Slack, Microsoft, IBM Watson, Twitter, Snapchat, Kik, Nuance, Creative Virtual and many others. These companies have well identified the potential of chatbots and are offering quickly evolving and comprehensive development platforms. The majority of successful chatbots run in popular messaging applications and use social and professional networks to reach their users. Thus, of the seven best 2016 chatbots awarded by the ChatBottle search engine, five were predominantly running in Facebook Messenger and one in Slack.
At this early stage of chatbots market, many chatbot applications are designed as single purpose digital assistants serving customer needs in particular areas. A 2017 Chatbot Survey by Mindbowser and ChatbotsJournal has identified five top chatbots markets as e-Commerce, Insurance, Healthcare, Retail and Hospitality (the five industries that received over 50% of survey participant votes), while the two business functions that received over half of the votes turned to be Customer Support and Sales/Marketing. Of the dozen suggested platforms/networks where future chatbots may be running, only three items gained majority approval: Facebook Messenger, each business's own website, and Slack.
A significant factor driving adoption of chatbots is a realization, increasingly supported by usage statistics, that chatbots enjoy higher user retention rates compared with less interactive mobile, web and desktop applications. In the above survey, a consensus estimate of an average of today's chatbots retention rate after one month of usage was 40-60%, compared with 20-40% for applications. Advanced chatbots systems, such as Octane AI, achieve engagement rates up to 70-90% by employing intelligent user engagement strategies, such as push notifications, utilizing User Generated Content, etc.
Notwithstanding significant advances in chatbots development and usage, many aspects of their design and functioning require improvements. Ninety percent of participants of the 2017 Chatbot Survey note that chatbots are lacking intelligence and over 70% consider conversational capabilities of chatbots insufficient. Many experts agree that the majority of currently functioning chatbots are far from being user friendly and do not behave in a human-like manner, which makes chatbots unfit as lifestyle tools.
Accordingly, it is desirable to create a new generation of user friendly chatbots with high retention rates and increased intelligence and conversational capabilities.

Multi-tier conversational architecture with prioritized tier-driven production rules


A method for labelling a tissue section is provided. In certain embodiments, the method may comprise: (a) labeling a formalin-fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue section using a first set of labeling reagents that comprises a first primary antibody and a first labeled secondary antibody; (b) treating the labeled tissue with a protease, thereby digesting the first primary antibody and/or the first labeled secondary antibody and separating the label from the FFPE tissue section; (c) washing the tissue section to remove the separated label and the protease; and (c) labeling the FFPE tissue section using a second set of labeling reagents that comprises a second primary antibody and a second labeled secondary antibody. A kit for performing the method is also provided.

The use of chromogens as substrates to detect specific antigens is currently used by pathologists to diagnose biopsied tissue samples. The ability to detect multiple antigens in the same tissue section has the advantage of providing more validating data regarding the disease status of the patient. This can be critical especially when the amount of tissue is limited and multiple sections do not exist. Multiplexed detection allows one to study two or more antigens in the same cell; if the presence overlaps in space, this is known as co-localization. In order to detect this, two or more separate colors should be observed.

Multiple epitope detection in an FFPE tissue section


A technique includes accessing data representing a state of a given investigation of a potential security threat to a computer system by a security analyst. The state includes a result of a current investigative step of the investigation, and the analyst conducting the investigation uses an investigation graphical user interface (GUI). The technique includes applying machine learning that is trained on observed investigations to determine a recommendation to guide the analyst in a next investigative step for the given investigation. The technique includes communicating the recommendation through an output provided to the investigation GUI.

An enterprise may have a staff of human analysts (analysts of a security operations center (SOC), for example) that investigate events that occur in the enterprise's computer system for purposes of identifying and addressing security threats to the system. For example, the analysts may investigate activity associated with events that trigger security alerts for purposes of assessing whether the alerts correspond to actual security threats to the computer system; and for identified security threats, the analysts may identify areas of concern (host computers, user accounts, and so forth) and determine the appropriate remedial actions (address blocking, device isolation, quarantining software, and so forth) to be taken.

Machine learning-based security threat investigation guidance


Objects such as pieces of mail are stacked without significant contact therewith by producing laminar air flow over a surface which defines or parallels a desired movement path for the objects. The objects are placed and form a barrier between the laminar air flow and ambient air and movement such as turning an edge of the object to prevent impact on other objects and regulation of direction velocity an kinetic energy of the motion of the objects is regulated by the Coanda effect of the laminar flow. The object thus provides an acoustic barrier to reduce generation and propagation of noise by the high pressure air used to create the laminar flow. An air amplifier reduces the volume of high pressure air required to provide control of object motion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to object transport and sorting systems and, more particularly, to object placement and stacking structures at destination pockets of such systems.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The transport of material and objects is an important feature of many industrial activities, particularly when material or objects must be moved on a large scale. Many such systems include arrangements for sorting of objects or material in accordance with properties thereof or indicia placed on the objects. For example, large volumes of mail or packages which must be transported to different locations must first be sorted in accordance with addresses placed thereon in the course of being transported to different locations in a sorting facility. Similar systems and applications may be encountered in baggage handling in airports and the like.
Such sorting of objects requires the objects to be handled in sequence in order to provide selectivity of handling and direction to various locations from which groups of objects that can be commonly transported to another location. This requirement generally implies that the objects must be transported at relatively high speed in order to accommodate the volume of objects which are presented. While it is possible to regulate the speed of objects somewhat in a high volume sorting apparatus, it is not generally possible to provide space to allow significant deceleration of objects as they approach their final destination in the sorting machinery. Therefore, as the object approaches a final destination such as a sorting bin or a stacker apparatus (sometimes referred to as a destination pocket or, simply, pocket) in the sorting system, the deceleration must usually be quite abrupt and often involves allowing the object to impact more or less violently on a surface or barrier such as the side of a destination pocket in a largely uncontrolled motion possibly including substantial rebound and, at least, not allowing the deposited articles to be placed in the destination pocket in an orderly fashion such as a stack.
Orderly positioning of objects in a destination pocket, often referred to as "neatness", "raggedness" (e.g. "left-edge raggedness") of, more generally, "stack quality", is essential to avoid jamming of the system and damage to the objects following collisions between the trailing edge of an object and the leading edge of another object sent to the same bin, often in very rapid succession (e.g. as much as fifteen objects per second). Less than optimal stack quality and objects that assume a tilted orientation, in particular, present edges and surfaces and otherwise occupy a portion of the volume of the pocket where collisions are likely. Further, since these variations from an ideal stack are essentially random, they are not readily resolved by machinery once they occur.
For example, to improve the orderly placement of objects in a destination pocket, several additional types of device have been employed: one being of an auger type and another being a pneumatically actuated pusher. An exemplary mechanism including both of these known devices is shown in FIG. 5. (The depiction of FIG. 5 is arranged to illustrate operation of the known devices in a manner to facilitate comparison with the present invention and no portion of FIG. 5 is admitted to be prior art in regard thereto. Therefore, FIG. 5 has been designated as "Related Art".) An incoming article or piece of mail is directed along plate 510 and one edge of the article is engaged by auger 520 which seeks to turn the article along the angled portion of plate 510. Once the article is turned, it may be pushed into place in a stack by pusher plate 530, actuated by pneumatic actuator 540. Sorting of mail pieces is accomplished by gates 550 which direct articles to one side or the other of roller 560 as they are passed along a path defined by rollers 570. It should also be appreciated that FIG. 5 illustrates a portion of the sorting mechanism which forms a part of the immediately downstream sorting mechanism and pocket.
Unfortunately, it has been found that collisions remain likely to occur between the leading edge of an object and some structure of the auger 520 or pusher 530, 540 as it manipulates objects previously placed in the pocket while continuing to allow rebound of a substantial number of objects which reduces the effectiveness of the additional structures and continues to be a source of collisions and jamming.
It has also been found that some widely used types of mail envelopes, particularly a back-side vertically oriented, end-flap-sealed C-5 envelope referred to as "Australia Post" which is of very light weight and flexible has proven very difficult to handle and is a major source of collisions, damage and jamming in mail sorting system including systems equipped with one of the additional auger or pusher device described above. In particular, as one envelope of the Australia Post type or an edge thereof is slid across another, an edge of one envelope will often engage an incompletely sealed portion of the sealing flap of another, preventing registration of envelopes in a stack or with the sides of the destination pocket. Further, it has been found, particularly in regard to the Australia Post envelope, that such auger and/or pusher devices are a source of article or object damage as well as a source of noise and particulates (e.g. cellulose paper dust) and a potential source of injury to personnel.
Since objects such as mail envelopes are often essentially "flown" into a destination pocket, and the importance of the aerodynamics of the objects has been recognized and, occasionally, exploited, it has been proposed to direct movement of objects with air currents. However, operational costs can become prohibitive when even moderate amounts of pressurized air at effective velocities are required. It is generally considered that the number of destination pockets required on many mail sorters would multiply such air requirements beyond the realm of feasibility even if relatively efficient arrangements could be designed. Further, any such arrangement must accommodate both incoming objects and objects previously deposited and exert control over such objects reliably over multiple degrees of freedom while the orientation and motion of the objects may vary widely to both establish and maintain good stack quality. In other words, the amount and number of features of control may be very limited consistent with other types of control which may be desired. Other factors which also present problems in the use of pressurized air are the generation of white noise and the generation of particulates which may affect the operation of the apparatus and possibly engender the potential for occupational hazards.

Non-contact aerodynamic diverter/stacker insertion system


An electric control is shown adapted for use with gas furnaces which controls fan motors, ignition controls and a gas valve based on inputs from a room thermostat, limit switches, a flame probe, a flame roll-out probe, and a condensate sensor. A roll-out detection circuit utilizing flame rectification includes a multidirectional roll-out probe 16 coupled to a microcontroller (U2) through an inverter (U3) to provide both fault both protection and fault identification. A condensate sensor (20) in the form of a conductive condensate sensor member is also coupled to the microcontroller (U2) through an inverter (U3) to detect the presence of condensate build-up.

This invention relates generally to the sensing of certain conditions associated with the operation of gas furnaces and more specifically to the sensing of condensate and flame roll-out conditions.
Integrated or combined hot surface ignition and fan controls are common in the heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) industry. Conventional controls employ thermal sensors in the form of bimetal thermostatic sensors for the detection of flame escaping the confines of the combustion chamber in a gas furnace. This flame escaping the combustion chamber is known as "flame roll-out". These thermostatic sensors are normally closed manual reset (or one-shot) type devices. They are located such that when flame escapes the combustion chamber, the thermostatic sensors are heated which causes the normally closed contacts to open. The contacts of the thermostat are wired in series with the gas valve circuit of the control. Thus the gas valve will be de-energized if the flame escapes the combustion chamber. With the advent of multiposition furnaces, as many as four thermostatic sensors must be employed (one for each of the four directions that the escaping flame may rise) to detect the flame roll-out condition. However, the use of four sensors is expensive. Another draw back to the use of thermal sensors is the inherent time delay involved with the heating of the sensors, typically, 30 seconds.
On the other hand, thermostatic sensors provide a desirable characteristic in that all failure modes with the wiring and connections result in safe conditions. In fact, these failures result in an equivalent to the opening of the flame roll-out thermostat's contacts. In the case of one (or both) of the wires connected to the thermostat "broken", the current path for the gas valve is opened (thus the valve is de-energized). If one of the wires to the thermostats is shorted to the chassis of the furnace, power for the gas valve is shorted out and again the gas valve is de-energized. Thus safe operation is achieved in all of the failure modes with thermostat sensors.
Another problem associated with high efficiency gas furnaces presently in use relates to the fact that such furnaces are so efficient that water vapor is condensed from the by products of combustion. This presents additional problems for furnace manufacturers. Condensate must be drained from the vent and the combustion chamber. This is accomplished through a so called collection box which encloses the outlet from the combustion chamber and the inlet to the vent system. The collection box is constructed of a polymer material due to a number of factors such as cost, odd shape and the corrosive nature of condensate. In such a system if the drain becomes clogged, the furnace will begin filling with fluid and its operation will become unsafe. Furnace manufacturers normally solve this problem by adding an extra pressure switch to detect the build up of fluid in the vent (vent pressure changes due to partial blockage and fan restriction).

Combined fan and ignition control with selected condition sensing apparatus


A network performance measurement relies on the transmission of a verifiable, single-use, highly-entropic file across the network. Upon receiving a network performance measurement query from a user equipment (UE) device communicating through a mobile communication network, a test utility (TU) server generates a test file having high entropy such that it does not reduce substantially in size when compressed using standard compression algorithms. The test file is assigned a filename including a variable component, and the file is transmitted to the UE device. Information relating to the transmission of the test file is logged, and a network performance measurement value for the transport of the high-entropy test file to the UE device is computed based on the logged information. In one example, hash-value computations are used to verify that the test file received in the UE device is complete and accurate.

Mobile communication services are expanding and increasing in popularity around the world. Many advanced networks offer wireless mobile communication service for voice calls, mobile messaging services (e.g., text and/or multimedia) and data communications. The data services, for example, enable surfing the world wide web via a browser or downloading files or applications from third party web servers. Data services may also support real-time streaming of audio, video, or other multimedia content.
Variations in network performance can significantly impact a user's perception of the quality of the data service that the network offers, and thus impact subscriber satisfaction. A network carrier's ability to accurately measure a network's performance, an improvement in a network's performance in response to an upgrade in equipment or protocols, and/or to measure other carriers' networks' performances, may provide the carrier with a competitive advantage over competitors.
The measurement of a mobile communication network's transport layer capabilities, such as the measurement of the network's data transfer rate (i.e., network speed, or network bandwidth), can be affected by the network's automatic caching of content and the network's compression of content. For example, in measuring the network's data transfer rate, the automatic caching of commonly-accessed content by a performance enhancing proxy server (PEP) may obfuscate measurement of transport layer data transfer rate between a remote server and a user equipment (UE) device by causing a cached version of the content to be provided to the UE by the PEP instead of the content being retrieved from the remote server. Additionally, a network's built-in compression may cause a network data transfer rate measurement (i.e., network speed measurement, or network bandwidth measurement) performed with a highly compressible file to differ from a measurement performed with an uncompressible file.
Current methods for measuring network performance are sensitive to content caching and compression. Network performance measurements performed using such methods therefore generally do not accurately reflect the network's overall performance.

Methods and systems for network performance measurement using verifiable single-use highly-entropic file generation


The invention relates to materials comprising siloxanes, preferably the materials have thermal-responsive properties. In some embodiments, the invention relates to silsesquioxane groups functionalized with polymers. In another embodiment, silsequioxane-polymer conjugates comprise polylactone segments. The silsequioxane-polymer conjugates may be crosslinked together to form a material, and these materials may be functionalized with bioactive compounds so that the materials have desirable biocompatibility or bioactivity when used in medical devices. In further embodiments, the invention relates to composite materials that contain a polymer matrix and aggregates, and in some embodiments, methods of making, and methods of using these materials. Preferably, the aggregates are calcium phosphate aggregates. Preferably, the material is resistant to fracture. In further embodiments, the materials are used in surgical procedures of bone replacement. In further embodiments, the materials contain polyhedral silsesquioxanes and/or biodegradable segments.

Thermal-responsive materials—shape memory alloys (SMA) and shape memory polymers (SMP)—are capable of switching between shapes upon exposure to a particular thermal environment. This unique property can be utilized to enhance the performance of many biomedical devices. However, known materials have certain physical property limitations that hinder broad use in biomedical applications. Some of these properties include low deformability (<8%), the necessity of high-temperature and time-consuming processing, as well as poor biocompatibility and degradability. Such properties are beneficial in, for example, the surgical removal of bone segments, a common treatment for osteosarcoma. The lack of a bone segment presents substantial problems for the patients, which are typically addressed by bone grafts. Bone cement such as Plexiglas, polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), is used in joint, hip and shoulder replacement surgeries to bond metallic devices with bone. The benefits of such surgeries suffer from a relatively short lifetime due to PMMA's limited capacity to integrate with bony tissue and susceptibility to fatigue and fracture. Moreover, these organic scaffolds are intrinsically weak, and do not provide immediate solutions for large skeletal defects where moderate loads are expected. Thus, there is a need to develop materials that overcome both the limitations of currently employed materials and a need to develop bone substitutes that provide flexibility that facilitates surgical fitting, a degree of porosity to promote osteointegration, and strength and toughness against compressive forces.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Thermal responsive polymer siloxanes, compositions, and method and applications related thereto


An integrated circuit device includes: first through fourth terminals arranged in order in which the first terminal and the fourth terminal are arranged in line symmetry with respect to a center axis of the first through fourth terminals, and the second terminal and the third terminal are arranged in line symmetry with respect to the center axis; a first receiving circuit coupled to the first and second terminals, the first receiving circuit receiving one of a first differential signal pair and a second differential signal pair; a second receiving circuit coupled to the third and fourth terminals, the second receiving circuit receiving the first differential signal pair when the first receiving circuit receives the second differential signal pair and the second differential signal pair when the first receiving circuit receives the first differential signal pair; a first selector selecting one of a first signal and a second signal obtained by inverting the first signal that are output from the first receiving circuit based on a select signal; a second selector selecting one of a third signal and a fourth signal obtained by inverting the third signal output from the second receiving circuit based on the select signal; and a third selector outputting each output of the first and second selectors by switching each output to a first output line and a second output line based on the select signal.

The present invention relates to an integrated circuit device and electronic apparatus provided with an interface circuit mountable on both sides of a substrate.
An interface circuit such as a driver integrated circuit (a driver IC) with a high speed serial interface is required. For example, for a liquid crystal display apparatus, it is common to mount a driver IC on a front surface of a glass substrate on which a liquid crystal display section will be mounted. However, it is also required to mount the driver IC on a back surface of a glass substrate because of various factors such as convenience of designing an apparatus and downsizing of an apparatus.
However, because the driver IC includes various terminals, positions of the terminals invert depending on a case to mount on a front surface or a back surface. Therefore, a wiring pattern on a glass substrate has to be changed for mounting on a front surface or a back surface as well as arrangement of a circuit on a driver IC. As it especially requires change of a macrocell that incurs manual wiring and arrangement of a circuit cell, the above-mentioned requirement was hard to satisfy.
In particular, in a case of a driver IC with a built-in interface circuit receiving and/or transmitting signals by a differential signal pair, the situation becomes more complicated as two terminals for the differential signal pair are also arranged inversely depending on a case of mounting on a front or a back surface. The problem above cannot be solved with related art disclosed in JP-A-2001-236303 and JP-A-2003-256352.

Integrated circuit device mountable on both sides of a substrate and electronic apparatus


Techniques for designing and optimization of solid/cellular structures are described using a modeling process referred to as high-definition cellular level set in B-splines (HD-CLIBS). With this process, the entire design domain for the solid/cellular structure in question is subdivided into a set of connected volumetric cells in three dimensions. An implicit trivariate B-spline function is defined on each subdomain cell. With this parameterization scheme, constraints can be imposed on the relevant B-spline coefficients to naturally maintain geometric continuities at the connection faces between neighboring cells. The method offers several useful properties and powerful functionalities to build and modify a solid/cellular structure in the modeling process and to conduct topology optimization by directly adjusting the B-spline coefficients. The model construction can be carried out using a fast B-spline interpolation, and the topology optimization can involve a sequence of discrete B-spline convolutions.

Cellular materials and structures, also referred to as architecture materials or meta-materials, are defined as structures composed of downscale microstructures with geometric features that can span several dimensional orders from tens of nanometers to sub-millimeters. Cellular materials have great application potential in a variety of industries including aerospace, automobile, and medical industries, used as for instance, light-weight design structures, energy absorption structures, and implant scaffolds. For instance, the gradual variation in the composition of cellular materials can reduce the stress concentration effects near the interface between different phases and thus can be used to relieve the "stress shielding" phenomenon for orthopedic implants. A decreased density distribution of honeycomb cellular structures in the crushing direction can also be used to enhance the energy absorption at early crushing stages. Other applications can also be found in thermal insulation and acoustical wave attenuation.
By utilizing microstructures as the building blocks, cellular structural materials can be designed with extraordinary physical properties that were previously inaccessible, such as ultra-strong mechanical performance properties with relatively low densities. These microstructures can have complex internal configurations which can be designed to exhibit a much broader property range than their constituent materials. In addition, by tailoring the configurations in the microscale, remarkable multifunctional responses can also be achieved. With advancements in modern fabrication techniques, such as additive manufacturing and three-dimensional printing, fabrication of such cellular structures with complex and multiscale geometric features becomes possible and affordable, which also stimulates the research and development of the cellular structures.
However, cellular structures with highly tailored or extreme physical properties cannot be easily modeled and designed with existing computer-aided design (CAD) methods because the feature sizes of the cellular structures can span over several length scales. The most convenient approach in the computational design of cellular materials is to define the microstructures in the material with a periodic array of identical unit cells. The design problem thus is transformed into a topology optimization problem to optimize the material distribution within the design space of a single unit cell to achieve better structural performance. In the so-called inverse homogenization approach, the homogenization theory is applied to approximate the effective properties of the material.
While the topology optimization of periodic microstructures has been studied in depth and for a variety of physical properties, the greater potential is in optimized cellular materials and structures with spatially-varying microstructures and associated physical properties. When cellular structures are designed with spatially-varying microstructures, local requirements on material or structural properties can be best achieved and satisfied. Therefore, they are expected to have a better mechanical performance or multi-functionalities compared with the periodically repeated cellular structures. However, it is even harder to create cellular structures with variable microstructures since each microstructure may have its own configuration. In this regard, a key issue in topology optimization of cellular structures is the representation scheme for modeling variable microstructures while each microstructure could have its own configuration. A widely used method for realizing this purpose is to first characterize the microstructures via explicit parameters and then adjust the cellular structure by changing the microstructure parameters. For this method, the microstructural cells are defined prior to the structural design. In this regard, their topologies are fixed during the design, and no post-design operations can be applied to the cellular structure for customizing or optimizing the microstructures, which greatly limits the design flexibility. In addition, the parametric representation method cannot adequately model microstructures involving general types of internal features as well as their geometric variations. Therefore, the resulting cellular structures can have only limited gains in structural performance or in multi-functionalities.
Additionally, when designing cellular structures with spatially-variable microstructures, it is difficult while crucial to guarantee the geometric connectivity between adjacent cells. When simply using topology optimization to optimize each individual cell, the neighboring cells do not necessarily form an integral part, causing deterioration in physical properties. Any unconnected cells cannot bear external load and will cause fabrication difficulties in manufacturing. Existing works addressing this critical issue typically focus on pursuing geometric connectivity conditions on the adjacent microstructural cells, such as imposing geometric constraints, applying predetermined connectors, or employing sequential filtering. However, these piece-meal approaches essentially impose a severe design space restriction with a large set of geometric constraints, thus compromising the performance of the optimized design. Consequently, they substantially reduce the capability of the design optimization, if still considered as topology optimization, and they cannot be readily extended to three-dimensional cellular structures. Therefore, many newly designed artificial materials cannot be adopted as cellular structures, which limits gains in structural performance and functionality.

Methods of high-definition cellular level set in B-splines for modeling and topology optimization of three-dimensional cellular structures

THE HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY