A device for stabilizing a modulation operation of an optical modulator is provided, the optical modulator having an optical waveguide provided on a substrate and an electrode provided so as to correspond to the optical waveguide, modulating light inputted to the optical waveguide by a voltage corresponding to a physical amount to be measured which is inputted to the electrode, and outputting the modulated light. The device includes: an optical detecting device for outputting signal corresponding to intensity of light outputted from the optical modulator; a control signal outputting device for, on the basis of the output signal of the optical detecting device, outputting a control signal which compensates a phase bias fluctuation of the optical modulator; a light source device for outputting control light corresponding to the control signal; and a voltage applying device, provided in contact with the electrode of the optical modulator, for applying voltage corresponding to the control light to the electrode. Accordingly, the light source device illuminates to the voltage applying device a control light corresponding to a driving signal which negatively feeds back a phase bias fluctuation signal. In this way, the voltage applying device applies a voltage which is set so as to offset variation in phase bias fluctuation in accordance with bias fluctuation, and the phase bias fluctuation is offset.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stabilizing device for an optical modulator, and in particular, to a stabilizing device for an optical modulator which stabilizes an optical modulator which modulates inputted light by an optical waveguide and outputs the modulated light.
2. Description of the Related Art
A waveguide-type optical modulator, which modulates light propagated within a waveguide formed on a substrate, is known. Stabilizing the operating point of the waveguide-type optical modulator is an important technique. For example, when a Mach-Zehnder interferometer optical modulator is used, by setting and stabilizing the phase bias, which is the operating point, to .pi./2, optimal sensitivity and an optimal dynamic range characteristic can be achieved.
However, when the Mach-Zehnder interferometer optical modulator is used, the phase bias is set by the difference in the waveguide length when the modulating element is set. The actual value of the phase bias is several 100 nm, and manufacturing is not easy. Further, a problem arises in that slight changes in the ambient temperature or the stresses applied to the substrate or the like lead to the operating point (the phase bias) drifting. Namely, it is difficult to stabilize the operating point.
FIG. 1 illustrates the characteristic of an optical modulator at a time when the optical modulator is normal and at a time when the operating point drifts. In FIG. 1, the horizontal axis is the voltage applied to the electrode of the optical modulator, and the vertical axis is the intensity of the outputted light of the optical modulator. When the Mach-Zehnder interferometer optical modulator is used, the intensity of the outputted light varies as a cosine function of the applied voltage. At the normal characteristic (characteristic curve 100), the phase bias is set to .pi./2 and the operating point is the point of the characteristic curve 100 at which the slope is the greatest. Accordingly, the variation in the intensity of the outputted light with respect to the applied voltage due to an input signal 120 (i.e., a variation amount 104 in an output characteristic 102) is greatest, and the sensitivity is the highest.
However, if the operating point drifts from the normal characteristic (fluctuates by a phase bias fluctuation amount 130) to have the characteristic of characteristic curve 110, the variation in the intensity of the outputted light with respect to the applied voltage due to the same input signal 120 (i.e., a variation amount 114 in an output characteristic 112) is extremely small. As a result, some type of means is needed in order to compensate for the drift in the operating point.
In order to compensate for the drift in the operating point, drift compensating techniques have been proposed in which voltage corresponding to the fluctuation amount of the operating point is applied from the exterior (see Japanese Patent Applications Laid-Open (JP-A) Nos. 3-145623, 5-232412). In these drift compensating techniques, when light is modulated by using an optical modulator in optical communication, voltage corresponding to the fluctuation amount of the operating point is applied from the exterior so as to compensate for the drift.
FIG. 2 illustrates an optical modulator 140 in which drift in the operating point is compensated for. In the optical modulator 140, 1 is a laser diode, 2 is an LiNbO.sub.3 Mach-Zehnder interferometer optical modulator equipped with an electrode (hereinafter, "optical modulator"), 3 is a data signal input terminal, 4 is a modulator driving circuit, 5 is a coupling capacitor, 6 is a bias supplying circuit, 7 is a light branching device, 8 is an optical signal output terminal, 9 is a photodiode, 10 is a current voltage converter, 11 is an amplifier, 12 is a reference voltage source, 13 is a filter, and 14 is a metal wire which contacts the electrode.
A data signal inputted to input terminal 3 of the optical modulator 140 is inputted to the optical modulator 2 via the driving circuit 4 and the capacitor 5. At the optical modulator 2, the optical signal inputted from the laser diode 1 is intensity-modulated by an electrical signal inputted from the driving circuit 4. The data signal of the modified light is outputted from the output terminal 8.
The operating point of the optical modulator 2 at this time is controlled by the bias voltage supplied from the bias supplying circuit 6. More specifically, at the optical modulator 140, in order for voltage corresponding to the fluctuation amount of the operating point to be applied from the exterior, the metal wire 14 is connected to the electrode of the optical modulator 2. The operating point of the optical modulator 2 is controlled by an electric signal being applied to the wire 14. The control of the operating point is carried out by the light output waveform being monitored at the light branching device 7, the average value of the light output waveform being detected by the photodiode 9 and the current voltage converter 10, and the error voltage between the detected average value and reference value derived from the reference voltage source 12 being fedback as the bias voltage via the amplifier 11 and the filter 13. Namely, the deviation in the operating point is detected by monitoring the outputted light of the optical modulator 2, and the amount of deviation is fedback to voltage applied to the electrode of the optical modulator 2.
However, in a case in which a metal wire is connected to the optical modulator and an electrical signal is applied (as in the above-described case of the optical modulator 140), in the same way as an electric field probe, a waveguide-type modulator cannot be used in a light measuring device used in a sensor. Namely, the metal signal cable connected to the sensor disturbs the electromagnetic field to be measured, or an interference voltage is induced in the metal signal wire such that the signal/noise ratio decreases. Various problems, such as accurate measurement becoming difficult and the sensor becoming large, arise. As a result, the conditions of the environment in which the conventional optical modulator is used must be restricted by suppressing fluctuations in the ambient temperature by limiting the range of temperature in which the optical modulator is used, and by structuring the optical modulator such that loads such as stresses are not applied thereto, and the like.

Stabilizing device for optical modulator


A display data generation method used in a computer including an output module, includes generating display data of page numbers for scrollably displaying page numbers of a plurality of pages each containing predetermined item information, to output the display data of page numbers from the output module, retrieving page information indicating a same number of pages as a number of page numbers displayed in a distance corresponding to a distance between two points in a display region in which the page numbers are displayed when the two points are specified by the user, wherein the number of page numbers are calculated based on the distance between the two points and the distance between adjacent page numbers displayed in the display region, and generating item display data for displaying item information contained in the pages indicated in the retrieved page information, to output the item display data from the output module.

Several display methods are employed so that when a portable information device that has a small display, such as the so-called smart phone, displays information concerning many items stored in a server or the like, a user can find and browse desired information among the many items of information. For example, a portable information device scrollably displays pieces of information to allow a user to find and browse desired information by a scrolling operation. Alternatively, a portable information device displays a predetermined number of pieces of information at a time and displays, together with the predetermined number of pieces of information currently displayed, a "See more" button or the like for displaying the next predetermined number of pieces of information so that the user can find and browse desired information by touching or depressing the button.
However, when there are numerous pieces of information from currently displayed information to information that the user wants to browse, the user is required to perform the scroll operation or touch or depression of the "See more" button many times before reaching desired information, which requires much time and labor.
For example, in the search engine "Google, Inc., [Google], [online], Internet (URL: https://www.google.co.jp/)", a search server that receives a search request from a device divides a plurality of items found in a search into a plurality of pages, and arranges and displays the items in order so that a user can specify the page number of each page. When one of the page numbers displayed on the device is specified by the user, the search server displays items corresponding to the specified page numbers on the device.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2013-137626 describes an information processing apparatus that classifies items, such as articles of commerce, which make up a list, on the basis of classification criteria according to attributes such as the prices of the items to determine a plurality of groups of items, and creates a page brake so that all of the items included in the each item group are displayed in the same page.
The search engine "Google, Inc." allows a user to select a particular page from among a plurality of pages so that the user can quickly find and browse a desired item. However, the user is not allowed to change the number of items to be displayed at the same time and this may impair UX (user experience: details of experience and satisfaction of the user) when the user operates the device.
The information processing apparatus in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2013-137626 can classify a plurality of items into groups by attributes and display the classified items in each page. However, when there are many items that have the same attribute, the number of items to be displayed on one page is increased and the user is required to perform a scroll operation many times before reaching the desired item. On the other hand, when there are few items that have the same attribute, the number of items to be displayed on one page is decreased and the user is required to display many pages in sequence to find the desired item.

Display data generation method, computer-readable, non-transitory medium and computer


A system of elongated rails installed on the exterior hull surfaces of boats and projecting externally from the exterior hull surfaces of the boats, and having the functional attributes of: deflecting spray, reducing the tendencies of the bows to go under in choppy or turbulent seas, reducing heel and side-slipping while turning, contributing lift, acting as fenders to protect the hulls, providing accessible hand holds and foot steps, reducing the rocking motions of the boats and adding flotation to the boats. The rails are formed of a polymeric foam interior and a skin formed of a polymeric sheet or a fabric material.

This invention relates to a rail structure and to an external rail system utilizing the rail structure affixed to the hull of a boat in order to control water spray and control direction of the boat during use of the boat. The problem in the art to which this invention apertains are the need for an external rail system for boats in which elongated rails are structurally affixed to the external surfaces of boat hulls and by which such rails collectively have, some and in some cases all, of the following functional attributes of deflecting spray; of reducing the tendency of the bow to go under in choppy or turbulent seas; of reducing heel and side-slipping while turning; of contributing lift to a fast-moving hull; of acting as a fender to protect the hull; of contributing a safety factor by providing an accessible hand hold or foot step for swimmers or a man overboard; of reducing the rocking motion of the boat while moored or anchored; and of adding flotation to the boat.
Prior to the present invention, it has been proposed by Glass, U.S. Pat. No. 3,361,104 to provide rails in the hull of a boat in order to reduce pounding of the boat during use. The rails are generally triangular in shape having a sharp point at the position of the rail most distant from the boat hull. The exposed unsupported surfaces are easily deformed through accidental contact during used. In addition, the sharp edge of the rail and its position is inefficient in deflecting spray away from the boat interior during use. Glass rails were not successful because of the bond failure between the resilient material and the base attachment.
It has been proposed in French Patent 762,452 of Derro to utilize an attachment fitted to the submerged section of a boat hull to provide a planing surface to effect a lifting force on a boat hull during use. The attachment includes a series of truncated triangles when viewed in cross-section. Since the attachment is submerged, and is on the bottom of the boat hull, it does not provide water spray control from the exposed hull surface during use of the boat.
It would be desirable to provide a boat rail and a boat rail system which can be easily and permanently attached to a boat hull, which is sufficiently strong to retain its shape during normal boat use and which can be positioned anywhere on a boat hull to provide spray control or control of the boat direction during use.


A system and method provides efficient message processing of assets by placing all messages in a queue as they are received from an information feed. Messages are grouped according to the entities with which they are associated and messages within each group are sorted according to the time the message was generated by the information feed. Messages are processed in the order in which they were generated using a system that accounts for delayed or out-of-order messages by evaluating the message state, comparing it to the last stored state, and delaying the processing of messages arriving ahead of earlier-generated messages.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to processing asset information efficiently, and more particularly, to efficient processing of assets in an asset management system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many asset management systems receive high-volume information feeds consisting of individual messages that report asset movements, change of state or confirmation of unchanged state, aggregations and disaggregations with other assets, and the like.
In a simple asset management system, each message or update is about a unique "atom" or object. Thus, the transaction processing a single message needs to lock only the single object to which the message refers. However, for a system managing a large number of assets with various attributes and states, a message may be about an asset, but the asset may be related (possibly by containment or a physical linkage) to other assets; those assets that are related to one another are known as an "aggregation" as will be more fully defined below.
To process information feeds with aggregated data, the asset management system needs to process a very large number of updates per second; to achieve this, the updates are processed in many concurrent threads. The updates frequently are processed on a "cluster" of separate computers and the data is held and processed, for example on a relational database.
Conventionally, such a system uses a message queue to process the high-volume information feeds. Standard message queues allow multiple sources of information to be received, aggregated, and distributed efficiently to many different nodes in a cluster, and to many threads in each node. A message queue distributes messages as fast as possible to any thread waiting to process a message.
However, when messages about the same object are received by the system at about the same time, two problems arise: concurrent updating and ordering.
The problem associated with concurrent updating arises when separate threads are processing information about the same entity. In these circumstances, it becomes critical that no two threads attempt to update the same data record at the same time. If this condition occurs, the data is likely to become corrupt, causing the system to behave incorrectly.
One conventional approach to resolving the concurrent update problem is locking the rows that each transaction needs to update. Locking may take the form of pessimistic or optimistic locking.
In pessimistic locking, a transaction locking a row locks out access to that row to all other transactions that want to read, modify, or lock that row. All other transactions wanting to access the row in any way must wait until the transaction that owns the lock releases it. This scheme can lead to a state known as "deadlock." Consider an example in which a first transaction needs rows 1 & 2, and a second transaction needs rows 1 & 2. If the first transaction gets a lock on row 1 and the second transaction gets a lock on row 2, both transactions will wait indefinitely for the row each transaction is missing. Avoiding this sort of deadlock in a pessimistic locking scheme requires complicated, custom, and hard-to-debug code in a system. One known approach is to ensure that threads always take out locks on rows in the same order. However, doing so can be difficult if not impossible when complex, dynamic relationships exist between the objects that need to be locked. In addition, pessimistic locking reduces system throughput when many transactions are queued up waiting for a lock on the same row.
In optimistic locking, many transactions can have a lock on the same row at once, on the theory that potential problems are detected when updates are issued to the database. This process is implemented by logic to detect when a row with a lock on it has changed. If the system detects that a change has been made to a row, it will either fail the transaction or back out of the transaction and restart it. In a system in which conflict for rows is low, this process will maximize throughput. However, whenever there is conflict, all but one transaction is guaranteed to fail. Failure can be expensive, especially in terms of CPU and resource cost. Not only does each failed transaction has to roll back all the updates that it made up to backing out, which is typically several times the cost of making the update, but the transaction also has to be performed for a second time. Thus, high-volume information feeds cannot be supported well by either a pessimistic or optimistic locking scheme.
Another problem arises for messages processed out of order. Conventionally, threads are not deterministically scheduled by operating systems, and very rarely between different computers. As a result, two messages about a single asset that are received from the information feed at about the same time may be executed by different threads in different orders. For example, if the two messages are M1 at time t and M2 at time t+1, M1 may be processed first, followed by M2 or vice versa. Therefore, if M2 is processed first, the processing will not benefit from the knowledge in message M1. This misordering may cause the system to believe that there is a business exception. As a result of processing the messages out of order, the state of the system becomes invalid.
In addition, the ordering problem is exacerbated by the ability of the message queue to distribute messages extremely quickly to many different threads. For example, imagine that a group of twenty messages arrive into a queue, where the first and last (twentieth) concern the same asset. A conventional message queue would distribute each message to one of ten threads on each of two computers in a cluster, and it would do so nearly simultaneously. Given a small randomness in the behavior of threads, it is quite possible for the last (twentieth) message to start processing before the first message. As a result, the last message would own the lock on the database for the rows associated with the asset, guaranteeing that the first message will be either processed after the last message (using pessimistic locking), or fail (using optimistic locking).
In addition, traditional, simple systems make no attempt to recover from the errors or invalid states that are caused by such misordering. As a result, the quality and accuracy of the data in these systems are low.
Other conventional systems attempt to handle out-of-order messages by inferring missed messages. For example, when such a system receives a message, the system can infer that there is one or more missing, earlier message(s). The system could then "compensate" for the missing message(s) by filling in with a tentative, inferred message. Then, when a message arrives that matches an inferred message, the system would remove the inferred message, replacing it with the known message. Alternatively, if a message arrives that occurred between two messages that have been previously processed, the processed messages are modified and the new message inserted between them. However, this method is complex and costly in terms of processing, disk, and network overheads compared to the processing performed if the messages had arrived in the correct order.
Another conventional solution to this problem is to decrease the number of messages that a message queue will dispatch at any one time. However, this approach only reduces the likelihood of messages being processed out of order, unless the system as a whole processes only a single message at any one time. This approach is only suitable for systems with very low numbers of messages being received, thus, would not be effective for processing a very large number of updates per second.
A further complication of using an asset management system as described herein is the fact that an asset may be related (possibly by containment or a physical linkage) to other assets; those assets that are related to one other are known as an aggregation. Conceptually, therefore, several messages about different assets may in fact be messages about the same asset aggregation. Locking and ordering within the system must take these aggregations into account to prevent data integrity failures. This is in contrast to a simple message processing system, in which each message is about a unique atom or object.

Efficient processing of assets with multiple data feeds


An apparatus for extending a bus bar is disclosed. The apparatus may include a first extension piece and a second extension piece. The first extension piece may have multiple surfaces. A first surface may have a first group of receiving portions, a second may have a second group of receiving portions, and a third surface may have a curvature that offsets the third surface from the second surface. The second extension piece may also have multiple surfaces. The second extension piece may have a first surface that includes a first group of receiving portions, a second surface that includes a second group of receiving portions, and a third surface that is substantially parallel to the second surface and includes a third group of receiving portions. When connected to a bus bar, the first extension piece and the second extension piece may be substantially adjacent to one another.

In electrical power distribution, a bus bar is an apparatus that distributes power to multiple connected devices, that conducts electricity within a switchboard, distribution board, substation or other electrical apparatus. The bus bar may be an aluminum or copper conductor supported by insulators that interconnects the loads and the sources of electric power in an electric power system. A typical application is the interconnection of the incoming and outgoing transmission lines and transformers at an electrical substation. Bus bars also interconnect the generator and the main transformers in a power plant. In an industrial plant such as an aluminum smelter, large bus bars supply several tens of thousands of amperes to the electrolytic process.
There are several different types of bus bars. For example, there are rigid bus bars, used at low, medium, and high voltage; strain bus bars, used mainly for high voltage; insulated-phase bus bars, used at medium voltage; and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6)-insulated bus bars, used in medium- and high-voltage systems. The rigid bus-bar is an aluminum or copper bar, which is supported by porcelain insulators. The strain bus-bar is a flexible, stranded conductor which is strung between substation metal structures and held by suspension-type insulators. The insulated-phase bus-bar is a rigid bar supported by insulators and covered by a grounded metal shield. The sulfur hexafluoride-insulated bus-bar is a rigid aluminum tube, supported by insulators and installed in a larger metal tube, which is filled with high-pressure sulfur hexafluoride gas.
One of the challenges in designing a bus bar is accurately estimating the number of connections that may be made with the bus bar. As system and power requirements change, the number of connections to the bus bar may increase.


The invention includes a pull-wire igniter for a pyrotechnic distress or signalling device which includes a hollow, elongated, tubular body which has a pyrotechnic composition mixture packed into one portion of the body and a small diameter, central passageway is formed through the pyrotechnic composition. A thin elongated plastic center tube is inserted through the central passageway. The outer end of the center tube is recessed at the outer end of the composition. An igniter cup is positioned firmly within the end of the center tube. A pull-wire device extends through the center tube and is exposed at the opposite end of the body so that the user can grasp the pull-wire. The igniter cup is partially filled with an igniter mixture and the end of the pull-wire extends through the igniter cup and is coated with a scratch material. A short section of shrink tubing is positioned over the coated end of the wire to isolate the scratch material. The exposed end of the pyrotechnic composition is covered with an easily ignitable primer material and the outer end of the tubular body is covered with a sealant, coating or membrane to seal the body of the device against moisture or other contaminants. In a second embodiment the igniter system includes a plug formed in the end of the center tube adjacent to the end of the pyrotechnic composition. The end of the pull-wire which passes through the center tube is exposed beyond the plug and is coated with a scratch material and a short section of shrink tubing is positioned over the coated end. Primer material is then formed over the end of the pyrotechnic mixture to completely close and seal the composition. The end of the igniter wire is bent over adjacent to the end of the tube and is then sealed with a membrane or coating to seal the tube against moisture or contaminants. In both embodiments, the pyrotechnic composition and primer remain sealed until the moment the pull-wire is withdrawn and the primer mixture is ignited.

The most common type of pyrotechnic hand held flare is the highway signal flare, which is commonly called a "fusee". Another type of signalling device is the pyrotechnic smoke generating flare. These types of devices are relatively simple in that approximately one half of a hollow, rolled, paper or plastic tube is loaded with a burnable pyrotechnic composition or mixture and topped with a primer button. The burnable mixture is usually formulated to produce a bright flame or generate smoke. Covering the primer button is a striker cap whose outside surface is partially coated with a scratch material. This scratch material is in turn covered with a removable cover to protect the scratch material and seal it from adverse moisture or weather conditions. To ignite this type of flare the user must first remove the cover from the scratch material and remove the striker cap from the flare end containing the primer button. The end of the cover with the scratch material is then rubbed quickly across the primer button to ignite the flare mixture.
This type of igniter system has several major disadvantages. The first disadvantage is the fact that the user must hold the striker cap in the hand in order to rub the scratch material across the primer button. This places the hand very close to the ignition point. This arrangement causes the end of the flare to be directed towards the hand of the user at the time the ignition takes place.
The second disadvantage in this type of device is that the striker cap/primer button system relies on the chemical reaction between the materials in the scratch material and the primer button. This structure requires friction to effect the reaction necessary to ignite the primer button and thus, the flare. Under inclement weather conditions, such as, rain ,snow or marine use, the primer button and/or the scratch material can become subjected to moisture and must be dried in some way before they can be scrapped or scratched together. Although the primer button and scratch material are made to be water resistant, if their surfaces are soaked or saturated, the resulting decrease in available friction makes this ignition system unreliable.
As a result of these disadvantages, it is an object of the present invention to provide a pyrotechnic ignition system that allows the user to ignite a signal device when it is pointed in an outward direction and thus, aimed away from the user. In addition, it is also an object of this invention to provide an ignition system for a pyrotechnic device that will remain sealed and moisture proof until the moment of ignition.
Various other types of igniters for pyrotechnic devices have been attempted. Most of these are quite complex and utilize mechanical springs and levers for triggering the ignition. One of these is for a swimmer distress signal, wherein the ignition system can be operated with one hand. The entire device is housed in a sealed container which must be first removed. Removal of the container exposes a plunger which can be jammed against a solid object to, in turn, ignite the pyrotechnic device. This arrangement operates similar to a firing pin to initiate the combustion.
At the same time, there have been numerous igniters used for detonation of explosive devices. Some of these arrangements utilize a pull-wire having at the opposite end a crimped friction arrangement. This utilizes the draw friction obtained by pulling the wire, coated with a scratch material, through a small cup containing a primer mix. The friction between these two materials as the wire is drawn through it causes the ignition of the primer, which in turn, ignites the pyrotechnic material. This type of igniter has been used on detonators for detonating primacord, and other explosive mixtures.
In the past, pull-wire igniters have not been satisfactory for signaling or smoke generating devices because it was difficult to actually ignite the pyrotechnic burnable mixture of these devices with this type of pull friction igniter. The present invention, however has found a way to solve the problems which have been encountered with the earlier pull-wire igniter devices and now provides new and unobvious results that have not been known before.


Upon selection of an expression for pronunciation training, a look-up operation is performed in a speaker database (15) to obtain a predetermined model for comparison with a voice of a user received at an input (11). A speech modeling element models speech of a native speaker. The voice input is applied to the modeling element (102-107) and an analysis is carried out of the comparison, in correlation and in duration, between a phoneme or sub-word of the input and a phoneme or sub-word of the native speaker to provide a score, including a score for the correlation and a score for the duration. The score is analyzed with respect to a score for a predetermined speaker in an analysis element (40). An indicator device (16) coupled to the output of the analysis element indicates the result in a graphical illustration. A tracking tool indicates state of progress of the voice of the speaker.

Voice recognition products are more and more widely available which use various schemes for comparing features of input voice with either predetermined voice templates or voice templates determined by a training process. Thus, for example, speaker independent voice recognition products compare features of received voice with predetermined templates for words such as "1", "2", etc., or word parts commonly called "phonemes" or "triphones" in the art, which can be assembled to form templates for complete words. The advantage of a speech recognition system that is based on word parts is that new words can be constructed out of the parts of templates that already exist in memory. Thus, for example, the first part of the composite template for "promise" can be combined with the last part of the template for "conduct" to form a template for the word "product". Also, voice activated word processing software is available in which a large number of composite templates are used to recognize speech input from a microphone and to display the spoken words in a word processing application.
Products such as these focus on recognizing a word, where the input word is unknown, but is one of a limited selection of words from a dictionary, or they focus on training such a recognizer by preselecting a word which a user is to speak and creating a template or model in memory for that word when the speaker speaks the word. Voice recognition devices of the types described presuppose that the speaker is reasonably able to speak the language to be recognized.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention is described, by way of example only, with reference to the drawings.

Pronunciation measurement device and method


A motor including a mounting shaft having a hollow channel and a bearing attached to each end, a cylindrical hub having a hollow core for the mounting shaft, and plural rows of plural Molded Magnetic Flux Channels with a hollow core and a channel forming a U-shaped recess and mounted the surface of the hub, each row corresponding to a motor phase. Each magnetic flux channel forms two pole pieces divided by the channel. The motor also includes plural phase windings, one passing through each row of plural Molded Magnetic Flux Channels, a rotating drum having plural rows of permanent magnets on an inner surface, each row pair corresponding to and aligned with one of the plural rows of Molded Magnetic Flux Channels. The rotating drum connected with the bearing, and drive electronics for driving the plural phase windings, wherein the plural Molded Magnetic Flux Channels increases torque and motor efficiency.

Approximately 93% of motors constructed use iron cores, or variations thereof, to concentrate magnetic flux and boost torque. "Coreless" motors are suited for very high RPM's with low torque and iron core motors usually utilize insulated steel laminations in their stators which reduce heat losses from eddy currents. However, even with thinner laminations, the eddy currents are only blocked in one plane. So to further reduce eddy current losses, silicon is typically added to the steel to reduce its electrical conductivity. Although the silicon reduces some remaining eddy current losses (by reducing the current conductivity), the addition of silicon actually worsens the magnetic conductivity. This reduction of magnetic strength reduces the maximum amount of torque produced, and also reduces electrical efficiency.
Most prior art multi-phase motors use phase windings radially sequenced around the plane of rotation. The close coupled proximity results in "Armature Effect" which reduces efficiency at higher speeds. The usual multi-phase high speed motors also require a gearbox or other loss prone speed reducing device in order to boost torque. Additionally, conventional motors use some variation of axial or radial flux, with multiple salient windings wound around iron type cores. Although this boosts magnetic flux, it also increases inductance and electrical resistance, and reactance. At higher speeds, the inductive and reactive losses limit top speed and efficiency at high speed.
Known prior art direct drive motors include U.S. Pat. No. 4,625,392 issued to Stokes on Dec. 2, 1986 titled Method of manufacturing a molded rotatable assembly for dynamoelectric machines describes molding a rotor of a motor from magnetic material. However, it does not involve Transverse Flux and does not use molded material for the stator.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,567 titled Direct Drive Motor issued on Aug. 1, 1989, which describes a three phase outer rotor motor. However, it uses conventional configuration with the three phase windings sequentially located within the same axis, and does not use Transverse Flux.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,777,413 issued to Lange et al. on Jul. 7, 1999 titled Transverse flux motor with magnetic floor gap describes a locomotive motor with Transverse Flux. However, it uses conventional iron laminations as its flux path, and is mainly concerned with physically flattening the motor to allow it to fit into the space between the floor of the locomotive and the train axle.
Prior art transverse Flux motors have historically been too costly to construct, and have rarely been used. This invention simplifies construction and lowers costs of Transverse Flux motors, and at the same time increases electrical efficiency to a higher level than before.
The motor of the present invention overcomes a problem with prior art motors by using separate, independent, uncoupled planes for each phase, and phase and pulse timing to eliminate the "Armature Effect" which results is much higher efficiency at higher speed. The novel motor also has very high torque and can drive directly most loads (such as vehicle tracks, wheels, or propellers) without requiring clutches, gearboxes, or other speed reducing devices. The result is greater efficiency, lower costs, and fewer moving parts.
The present invention also overcomes prior problems associated with boosting magnetic flux, which increases inductance and resistance and at higher speeds, the inductive losses limit top speed and efficiency at high speed. The direct drive motor of the present invention can use radial flux construction, but the preferred embodiment is Transverse Flux construction. In Transverse Flux construction, one large single winding powers each phase. Because magnetic flux is directly proportional to Ampere-Turns, the same magnetic flux can be achieved with more turns with less amperage, or higher amperage and fewer turns. In the preferred embodiment, this novel motor has fewer turns, and higher amperages. With fewer turns, the inductance is less, and with larger copper conductors the electrical resistance is less also. Since the inductance and resistance are reduced, both the inductive losses and the resistive losses are greatly reduced which results in higher efficiency and also a much higher speed usable range.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

High-efficiency wheel-motor utilizing molded magnetic flux channels with transverse-flux


Stress is exerted to the SiC crystal in the region, in which the carriers of a SiC semiconductor device flow, to change the crystal lattice intervals of the SiC crystal. Since the degeneration of the conduction bands in the bottoms thereof is dissolved, since the inter-band scattering is prevented from causing, and since the effective electron mass is reduced due to the crystal lattice interval change, the carrier mobility in the SiC crystal is improved, the resistance of the SiC crystal is reduced and, therefore, the on-resistance of the SiC semiconductor device is reduced.

A. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to a method of manufacturing a silicon carbide semiconductor device (hereinafter referred to as a "SiC semiconductor device). Specifically, the present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a SiC semiconductor device having a MOS-type gate structure employing SiC for the semiconductor material thereof.
B. Description of the Related Art
The use of silicon carbide (hereinafter referred to as "SiC") in power semiconductor devices has been investigated. The band gap of 4H-SiC is a very wide 3.25 eV, which is 3 times as wide as the band gap of silicon (hereinafter referred to as "Si"), which is 1.12 eV. Furthermore, the electric field strength in SiC is from 2 to 4 MV/cm, or about one order of magnitude higher than that in Si. It is known that the resistance of a semiconductor device in the ON-state thereof (hereinafter referred to as the "on-resistance") is generally inversely proportional to the cube of the electric field strength and inversely proportional to the carrier mobility. Although the carrier mobility in SiC is lower than the carrier mobility in Si, the on-resistance of a SiC device can be reduced to several hundredths of the on-resistance of the Si device. Therefore, SiC devices have been expected to be power semiconductor devices for the next generation. Various SiC devices such as SiC diodes, SiC transistors, and SiC thyristors have been fabricated experimentally. These SiC devices include MOS field effect transistors having a MOS-type gate structure (hereinafter referred to as "MOSFETs"). The MOSFETs further include double-implanted MOSFETs (hereinafter referred to as "DIMOSFETs") having a double-diffused channel structure and UMOSFETs, having a gate structure that includes a gate buried in a U-shaped trench.
FIG. 15 is a cross sectional view of a conventional vertical DIMOSFET using SiC. FIG. 15 shows the cross section of one cell in the SiC n-channel DIMOSFET. Referring now to FIG. 15, SiC vertical DIMOSFET 100 includes n-type SiC substrate 101 exhibiting low electrical resistance and n-type drift layer 102 formed on n-type SiC substrate 101 by the epitaxial growth of a SiC layer. P-type base region 103 is formed by implanting aluminum ions (hereinafter referred to as "Al ions") and such p-type impurity ions into the surface portion of n-type drift layer 102. N-type source region 104 is formed by implanting nitrogen ions (hereinafter referred to as "N ions") or phosphorus ions (hereinafter referred to as "P ions") into the surface portion of p-type base region 103 such that n-type source region 104 is surrounded by p-type base region 103. Gate oxide film 105 is formed on the semiconductor structure formed so far and polysilicon gate electrode 106 is formed on gate oxide film 105. Gate electrode 106 is covered with insulator film 107. Source electrode 108 contacting commonly with p-type base region 103 and n-type source region 104 is formed on p-type base region 103 and n-type source region 104. Drain electrode 109 is formed on the back surface of n-type SiC substrate 101.
In SiC vertical DIMOSFET 100, the sandwiched portion of p-type base region 103, sandwiched between n-type source region 104 and n-type drift layer 102 beneath gate electrode 106, works as channel region 110. To improve the characteristics of the MOSFET, it is important to control the lengths L1 of channel regions 110 to be identical between the cells in the ion implantation steps for forming p-type base regions 103 and n-type source regions 104. A method of forming channel regions 110 with the lengths thereof controlled has been proposed (cf. JP P2000-22137A, paragraphs [0035] through [0044] and FIGS. 1 and 2).
When a sufficiently large negative bias voltage is applied to gate electrode 106 in the OFF-state in which source electrode 108 has been biased at the ground potential, the SiC vertical DIMOSFET is in accumulation mode, in which holes are induced in channel region 110 and no current flows. Since the junction between n-type drift layer 102 and p-type base region 103 is biased in reverse when a positive high voltage is applied to drain electrode 109, depletion layers expand into n-type drift layer 102 and p-type base region 103 and a high voltage is sustained while the current is suppressed at a low value, resulting in the OFF-state of the device. When a sufficiently high positive bias voltage is applied to gate electrode 106 in the OFF-state of the device, the SiC vertical DIMOSFET is in inversion mode, in which electrons are induced in channel region 110 and electrons flow from source electrode 108 to drain electrode 109 via n-type source region 104, channel region 110 (inversion layer), n-type drift layer 102, and n-type SiC substrate 101. This results in the ON-state of the device. When a negative bias voltage is applied again to gate electrode 106 in the ON-state of the device, the inversion layers vanish and the current paths are interrupted, resulting in the OFF-state of the device.
The on-resistance of SiC vertical DIMOSFET 100 is the sum of the resistance components. The resistance components include the contact resistance of source electrode 108, the source resistance, the channel resistance of the inversion layer, the accumulation resistance caused against the electron movement in the vicinity of the boundary between n-type drift layer 102 and gate oxide film 105, the JFET resistance caused against the electron flow in the portion of n-type drift layer 102, sandwiched between p-type base regions 103, from the vicinity of gate oxide film 105 toward n-type SiC substrate 101, the resistance of n-type drift layer 102 in the thickness direction thereof excluding p-type base regions 103, the substrate resistance, and the contact resistance of drain electrode 109.
SiC vertical DIMOSFET 100 exhibits the following advantages. First, since any built-in voltage is not caused in SiC vertical DIMOSFET 100, theoretically the on-resistance of SiC vertical DIMOSFET 100 is lower than the on-resistance of the bipolar devices. Second, since SiC vertical DIMOSFET 100 is a unipolar device, carrier accumulation does not occur in the ON-state thereof and therefore the switching loss thereof is low. Third, since SiC vertical DIMOSFET 100 is a voltage-driven-type device, the ON-OFF operations thereof are conducted by applying positive and negative voltages to the gate electrode and the driving circuit for driving SiC vertical DIMOSFET 100 is simple.
FIG. 16 is a cross sectional view of a conventional vertical UMOSFET using SiC. FIG. 16 shows the cross section of one cell in the SiC n-channel UMOSFET. Referring now to FIG. 16, SiC vertical UMOSFET 200 includes, in the same manner as SiC vertical DIMOSFET 100 does, n-type SiC substrate 201 which exhibits low electrical resistance and n-type drift layer 202 formed on n-type SiC substrate 201 by the epitaxial growth of a SiC layer. P-type base region 203 is formed on n-type drift layer 202 by the epitaxial growth of a SiC layer. N-type source region 204 is formed by implanting N ions or P ions into the surface portion of p-type base region 203. Then, a trench is etched down to n-type drift layer 202 by reactive ion etching (hereinafter referred to as "RIE"). Gate oxide film 205, gate electrode 206 and insulator layer 207 are formed such that gate oxide film 205, gate electrode 206 and insulator layer 207 cover the trench. Source electrode 208 contacting commonly with p-type base region 203 and n-type source region 204 is formed on p-type base region 203 and n-type source region 204. Drain electrode 209 is formed on the back surface of n-type SiC substrate 201. In SiC vertical UMOSFET 200, the portion of p-type base region 203 between n-type source region 204 and n-type drift layer 202 serves as channel region 210.
SiC vertical UMOSFET 200 conducts ON-OFF operations in the same manner as SiC vertical DIMOSFET 100. However, the accumulation resistance and the JFET resistance, which are caused in SiC vertical DIMOSFET 100, are not caused in SiC vertical UMOSFET 200. Since no JFET resistance is caused, the distance between adjacent p-type base regions 203 and 203 can be shortened and, therefore, the cell pitch can be shortened. Since the cell pitch can be shortened, the on-resistance of SiC vertical UMOSFET 200 can be set to be lower than the on-resistance of SiC vertical DIMOSFET 100.
Various proposals have been made for improving the characteristics of conventional SiC semiconductor devices. For example, the boundary between the channel region and the gate insulator film is brought into a good shape by interposing a buffer layer formed by the thermal oxidation of SiC between the SiC channel region and the gate insulator film to prevent carrier trapping and carrier scattering so that the carrier mobility may be improved (cf. JP P2002-222950A, Paragraphs [0045] through [0047] and FIG. 4). The carrier mobility also is improved by doping carbon into the Si channel layer, which exerts tensile stress to the channel region and improves the carrier mobility (cf. JP PHei.8 (1996)-111528A, Paragraphs [0014] through [0017] and FIGS. 1 and 2).
As the breakdown voltage of the SiC semiconductor device is set to be higher, the resistance of the drift layer rises as described in the following formula (1):Rdrift=4BV2/(μεECR3)  (1)
Here, BV represents the dielectric breakdown voltage, μ represents the carrier mobility, ε represents the dielectric permeability of the semiconductor, and ECR represents the critical electric field strength of the semiconductor. The Rdrift described by the formula (1) is the minimum on-resistance of the unipolar device. The on-resistance related by the formula (1) with the dielectric breakdown voltage is called a "unipolar limit," which indicates the theoretical lower limit value of the on-resistance.
However, various resistance components are caused in SiC semiconductor device in addition to the drift layer resistance. Due to the additional resistance components, the real on-resistance is far from the unipolar limit. As the dielectric breakdown voltage is lower, the ratios of the other resistance components to the drift layer resistance become higher.
In the MOSFET for example, the channel resistance described in the following formula (2) occupies a large part.RCH=L/{WCOXμn (VG−VT)}  (2)
Here, L represents the channel length, W the channel width, COX the oxide film capacitance, μn the electron mobility, VG the gate voltage, and VT the threshold gate voltage.
In the JFET, JFET resistance is caused when the length of the drift layer sandwiched by the gate regions is short. Although the JFET resistance may be set to be negligible by elongating the length of the drift layer sandwiched by the gate regions, the resistance component caused against the electrons flowing through the deep portions of the gate regions and described in the following formula (3) is added to the total resistance.R=LJFET/(q μnn)·(Ratio)  (3)
Here, LJFET represents the depth of the gate region, q the charge quantity, μn the electron mobility, n the electron density in the drift layer, and (Ratio) the ratio of the area of the drift layer in each cell sandwiched by the gate regions to the total area of each cell.
Although various resistance components contribute to the on-resistance, the resistance values of the MOSFET and the JFET are affected greatly by the electron mobility μn. In the JFET, the electron mobility μn is the electron mobility in the bulk. In the MOSFET, the electron mobility gun is lower than the electron mobility in the bulk, since the number of the electrons is reduced by the trapping thereof by the trap levels existing in the boundary between SiC and the gate oxide film and Coulomb scattering is caused by the trapped electrons. To obviate this problem, the boundary levels are lowered or the channel is spaced apart from the boundary to minimize the influence of the boundary levels. One target is to make the electron mobility μn closer to the electron mobility in the bulk as much as possible. Although the electron mobility μn may be made to be closer to the electron mobility in the bulk, the channel resistance still occupies a large part of the drift layer resistance at a low breakdown voltage lower than 1 kV.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to obviate the problems described above. It would also be desirable to provide a method of manufacturing a SiC semiconductor device that facilitates greatly improving the carrier mobility in the device and greatly reducing the on-resistance even at a low breakdown voltage. The present invention is directed to overcoming or at least reducing the effects of one or more of the problems set forth above.

Method of manufacturing silicon carbide semiconductor device


A polarizing plate includes a polarizer, and a protective film on one side of the polarizer and including a reverse dispersion liquid crystal coating layer having λ/4 retardation. An optical display panel includes the polarizing plate. The polarizing plate has a depolarization function and allows for viewing of the display panel through polarizing sunglasses.

1. Field
The following description relates to a polarizing plate and an optical display including the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Polarizing sunglasses include a polarizing film which filters light from the outside by allowing only light incident at a certain angle to be visible. Generally, polarizing sunglasses are used during driving or fishing.
However, when a display panel including a polarizing plate is viewed through polarizing sunglasses, the screen of the display may not be visible due to the perpendicular alignment of the polarizing plate of the display panel and the polarizing film of the sunglasses.
FIG. 1(A) shows a display including a liquid crystal panel 10, an upper polarizer 20 formed on an upper side of the liquid crystal panel 10, and a lower polarizer 30 formed on a lower side of the liquid crystal panel 10. If a polarizing film 40 of the polarizing sunglasses has an absorption axis parallel to that of the upper polarizer 20, a display image can be visible (indicated by the "O" mark on the left side). However, if the polarizing film 40 of the polarizing sunglasses has an absorption axis perpendicular to that of the upper polarizer 20, the display image is not visible (indicated by the "X" mark on the right side).
In an attempt to improve visibility, a polarizing plate as shown in FIG. 6 is usually used as an upper polarizing plate of the display. As shown in FIG. 6, a polarizing plate 4000 includes upper and lower protective films 340 and 320 formed on upper and lower sides of a polarizer 330, respectively; a retardation film 360 stacked on an upper side of the upper protective film 340 via an adhesive 350; and a hard coated-triacetyl cellulose film 380 stacked on an upper side of the retardation film 360 via an adhesive 370 to address low surface hardness of the retardation film 360. The polarizing plate 4000 is bonded to a display panel 300 via an adhesive 310.
The retardation film usually includes polycarbonate, polyethylene terephthalate, cycloolefin films, or the like. However, the polarizing plate prepared in this manner is thick and has low yield.

Polarizing plate and optical display including the same


A camera system (2, 40, 50) including a sensor (12, 58) and a first optical system which includes a convex mirror (4, 42) and through which the image of a solid angle region (14) is producible on the sensor (12, 58) by way of a first beam path (18). In order, in addition to producing an image of a large solid angle region (14), to permit scanning or detailed representation of a smaller partial region (20, 66, 82) of the solid angle region (14), the camera system (2, 40, 50) includes a second optical system through which a partial region (20, 66, 82) of the solid angle region (14) is detectable by way of a second beam path (34, 60) on a detail sensor (68), wherein the detail region (20, 66, 82) is selectable by an optical element (28) which is movable relative to the sensors (12, 58, 68).

1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a camera system comprising a sensor and a first optical system which includes a convex mirror and through which the image of a solid angle region can be produced on the sensor by way of a first beam path.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
For the purposes of monitoring large regions of space such as for example railway stations, airports, public places and squares, stadia and the like, camera systems are known which permit a view into a very large solid angle region—for example all around. The overview article 'Omnidirectional Vision', Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium of Robotic Research, Hayama, Japan, Oct. 3-7, 1997, describes camera systems in which the beam path of an optical system is directed on to a convex mirror and in that way objects can be imaged on a sensor, from a very large solid angle region. In that case, the convex mirror used is in the form of a spherical mirror through which an all-around view can be achieved. It will be noted however that the large solid angle region which can be viewed gives rise to the disadvantage that objects which are far away from the convex mirror are only reproduced on the sensor in a small size and with little detail.

Camera system for monitoring a solid angle region and for detection of detailed information from the solid angle region


A server system includes a memory, a processor in communication with the memory, and a server managing a plurality of cooperating microservices. The server executes on the at least one processor to capture tracing information reported during invocation of a set of cooperating microservices. The tracing information includes a service name and version information associated with at least one microservice of the set of cooperating microservices. Additionally, the server builds an application deployment profile from the service name and version information, compares the application deployment profile to an existing profile, and classifies the application deployment profile as a previously existing profile, a subset profile, an extension profile, and/or an updated profile. The server tracks performance data associated with the application deployment profile.

Computer systems may run applications or services that are provided via a server or cloud. A client computer system may send a request to a server that retrieves application installation files in an underlying database. The applications or services can be developed and deployed as a single unit or as multiple units, such as a collection of microservices. Applications that are developed as single unit may be a monolithic application that includes a user interface and data access codes combined into a single program from a single platform. Monolithic applications are self-contained and independent from other computing applications. Microservices or microservice architecture is a software development method of developing software applications as a suite of independently deployable smaller cooperating services. The cooperating services run processes and communicate to serve a business goal to form an enterprise application.

Automatic microservice problem detection in enterprise applications


A biocompatible material having excellent biocompatibility such as small interaction with a component of a living body such as a protein or blood cell. A biocompatible material comprising a polymer obtained by polymerizing a monomer composition comprising an amino acid-type betaine monomer represented by the formula (I):

Biocompatible materials have been expected to be applied in various fields. Presently, artificial materials such as silicone, polyethylene, and polyurethane have been used in medical devices such as medical tubes and catheters. However, these materials are recognized as a foreign substance by a living body, so that there are some risks that the materials are denatured by adsorbing a protein or blood cells to surfaces thereof, and that the materials themselves are activated to cause rejection such as coagulation of blood.
On the other hand, as a material having a glycine-type betaine monomer as a side chain, a glycine-type betaine resin in which betaine is formed by treating with sodium chloroacetate or the like, a polymer obtained by homopolymerizing N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate, or copolymerizing N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate with another monomer, or the like has been known (see, for example, Patent Publications 1 to 3).
However, there are some disadvantages in these betaine resins that since it is difficult to perfectly terminate a betaine formation reaction, an N,N-dimethylamino group would remain in the resin, and the remaining N,N-dimethylamino group gives disadvantageous influence to biocompatibility.
Patent Publication 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Sho 51-9732
Patent Publication 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Sho 55-104209
Patent Publication 3: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Sho 56-92809

Abstract: wherein R1 is a hydrogen atom or a methyl group; R2 is an alkylene group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms; each of R3 and R4 is independently an alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms; R5 is an alkylene group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms; and Z is an oxygen atom or an —NH group; and a polymerizable monomer represented by the formula (II):

Abstract: wherein R1 is as defined above; and R6 is a monovalent organic group, in a weight ratio, i.e. amino acid-type betaine monomer/polymerizable monomer, of from 1/99 to 100/1. The biocompatible material can be suitably used, for example, in food, a food additive, a medicament, a quasi-drug, a medical device, cosmetics, a toiletry article, or the like.


In order to provide a control device for a storage and reproduction mechanism that can acquire a constant error rate without being affected by changes of atmospheric pressure, a control device comprises a storage medium for storing data, a head for conducting a storage/reproduction process of data on the storage medium, an error detection unit for detecting an error of the data read by the head, and a flying height control unit for controlling a flying height of the head in accordance with the error rate for correlating changes of the flying height due to the changes in the atmospheric pressure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control device of a mechanism that stores and/or reproduces data on a storage medium provided in a magnetic disc device or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a magnetic disk device is configured in such a way in which a magnetic head (swing arm) is floated by approximately 0.01 μm to 0.02 μm by means of a stream of air caused by rotating a magnetic disk at high speed.
Recently, as the density of the recording surface of magnetic disks has increased, the flying height of magnetic heads have become increasingly lower.
Accordingly, the magnetic head's flying height is now easier to affect due to changes in atmospheric pressure, temperature, or other variations. For example, when the atmospheric pressure increases, the flying height of the magnetic head also increases, and, accordingly the signal characteristic deteriorates. When the atmospheric pressure decreases, the flying height of the magnetic head decreases in response and the probability that the magnetic head touches and damages the magnetic disk is greater.
In other words, there has been a problem in which a characteristic of a signal stored and/or reproduced on the magnetic disk is affected by the changes of the atmospheric pressure, temperature, or other variables.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 63-069075 discloses a magnetic disk device that increases the recording surface density while reducing the risk of impact between the magnetic head and the disk by decreasing the flying height of the magnetic head only at times when data is in the process of being stored and/or reproduced.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 06-236641 discloses a head flying height control device that controls the flying height of the head of a disk driving mechanism by dynamically adjusting a read/write head suspension system in real time.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-092810 discloses a magnetic disk device that improves an error recovery ratio by changing the flying height of the magnetic head in accordance with error causes.

Control device of storage/reproduction mechanism


A mechanism that synchronizes passwords maintained for plural domains. A user maintains accounts in two domains. The first and second domains each maintain tables correlating userIDs with passwords, such that the same user's password can be different in the different domains. A database stores tables that correlate a given user's userID/password combination in the first domain with his corresponding userID/password combination in the second domain. The database is used to sign the user onto one domain when the user is working in the other domain. When the user changes his password in the first domain, the change is reported to the database, so that the database stores the current password. Optionally, the password change may be reported to the second domain, such that the user will have the same password in both domains.

In a distributed computing environment, resources or services that a user needs to access may be spread out across different computers. As one example, each employee in an enterprise may have a desktop or laptop computer, which accesses files stored in a central cluster of file servers. Each of these various computers may be controlled by a sign on procedure that requires presentation of credentials. For example, the user may have to enter a valid userID/password combination in order to gain access to his desktop or laptop computer. Typically, once a user is signed onto his or her desktop or laptop, he or she does not have to enter a userID/password combination again in order to access the file server, because the file server and the user's computer are part of the same domain.
However, in some cases a user may be working in a first domain (e.g., an environment based on the MICROSOFT WINDOWS operating systems), and may need to access information in a second domain of a different type (e.g., a cluster of computers based on the UNIX operating system). (Domains that differ from each other in this manner may be referred to as "heterogeneous.") The second domain may maintain its own userIDs and passwords, and may require that the user sign onto the second domain separately. Conventionally, when the user attempts to access the second domain, the second domain will present the user with a prompt to enter "credentials" (e.g., a userID and password) for the second domain, which is clearly an inconvenience to the user. It is desirable to provide a software system that signs a user of the first domain onto the second domain seamlessly, by automatically tendering that user's corresponding userID/password combination to the second domain. Such a system may be referred to as a "single sign-on" ("SSO") system.
An SSO system may include a database that stores the user's credentials for the various domains that the user may need to access. Thus, when the SSO system needs to sign the user onto a different domain than the domain that the user is already signed onto, the SSO system can look up that user's corresponding userID/password in the other domain. However, the SSO system's ability to sign the user onto another domain is dependent upon the system having access to an up-to-date password for the user in that other domain. Thus, when the user changes his password in any domain, the database should be synchronized to those changes, so that it will have the user's current password. In some cases, it may also be desirable to synchronize passwords between domains, such that a given user's password in all domains will be the same.
The present invention provides a mechanism to support such synchronization, which has not been realized in the prior art.

Password synchronization in a sign-on management system


An example network information aggregator is disclosed. The network information aggregator includes a network interface, a memory, and processing circuitry. The processing circuitry is to receive a machine learning model trained using initialization data from a model creation device. The processing circuitry is also to generate a device steering rule to steer a client device from a first radio to a second radio using the machine learning model. The processing circuitry is also to send a steer command to the first radio.

Some enterprise wireless networks include many wireless access points (APs) across a campus. Each AP may include multiple radios. For example, certain APs currently being produced include two 5 GHz radios and a 2.4 GHz radio for 802.11 communication with wireless client devices (e.g. laptops, mobile phones, Internet of Things devices, etc.). As a wireless client device interacts with its environment (e.g. moves across the campus), it may be beneficial for the wireless client device to cease communication with a certain radio of the network and begin communication with a certain other radio of the network. In some situations, the wireless network initiates and assists the wireless client device transition between the radios using a process called steering.
Certain examples have features that are in addition to or in lieu of the features illustrated in the above-referenced figures. Certain labels may be omitted from certain figures for the sake of clarity.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP


An image processing apparatus comprises: detection means for detecting a region corresponding to a diseased part reference region other than a diseased part region in an input image; and identifying means for identifying the diseased part region based on the corresponding region detected by the detection means.

With recent advances in computerization in medical organizations such as hospitals, an increasing number of organizations have introduced electronic medical charts which manage patient diagnosis information. Each electronic medical chart unitarily manages, on it, the diagnosis history, medication information, surgical information, diseased part images, X-ray images, and the like of each patient, and allows to easily share and reuse data. Recent increases in storage capacity have allowed electronic medical charts to store large quantities of digital images of diseased parts and the like upon image-sensing them.
In such an environment, a technique for storing, in electronic medical charts, images obtained by image-sensing patients using digital cameras as medical records, is frequently used. In a dermatology department, surgery department, and nursing field, the images of wounds, operative scars, and pressure ulcers (bedsores) of patients are periodically sensed by digital cameras to observe temporal changes in the diseased parts.
Recent advances in communication technology have been implementing remote medical care at home. An increasing number of patients themselves now take pictures of diseased parts using image sensing apparatuses such as general-purpose digital cameras, transmit the pictures to medical organizations, and receive diagnoses from doctors. In such a state in which patients themselves perform image sensing, it is difficult, depending on the region of a patient, to capture the proper diseased part image while seeing an output image from an image sensing apparatus.
As a method of solving the problem of difficulty in image-sensing diseased parts, there is conceivable a method of automatically detecting a specific region at the time of image sensing by learning the region. As a detection method, there is available, for example, "Rapid Object Detection Using a Boosted Cascade of Simple Features", Viola, P. and Jones, M., IEEE COMPUTER SOCIETY CONFERENCE ON COMPUTER VISION AND PATTERN RECOGNITION, 2001, VOL 1, pages I-511-I-518. This method acquires a feature amount from a teacher image in advance, obtains the feature amounts of all partial images in an input image, and compares the feature amounts with each other to determine whether each partial image is similar to the teacher image.
An image processing method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 05-180699 detects a diseased part region by using a special marker when it is difficult to detect the diseased part position by surface temperature image sensing.
The method of detecting by learning a diseased part region has a problem that it is difficult to detect temporal changes including improvements and deteriorations in the symptom of a diseased part. In addition, learning from many teacher data including the follow-up of symptoms in a general purpose manner will increase the variance of features, resulting in a deterioration in detection accuracy.

Image processing apparatus, method of controlling image processing apparatus and storage medium


System for treating and/or processing liquid products, in particular beverages, having at least two system components, having a cleaning and rinsing system for cleaning and rinsing of at least product-carrying regions of the system components with at least one liquid cleaning and rinsing medium, and having at least one source for providing the cleaning and rinsing medium.

Known cleaning and rinsing systems are configured such that, during cleaning, all the system components, with their regions to be cleaned, and all the product-carrying connections and lines between the system components are arranged in series and thus form a single CIP circuit through which the cleaning medium flows. This design means that every volume element of the cleaning or rinsing media invariably passes through all the system components and all the connections and lines.
It is customary to use different cleaning media during the cleaning mode. Examples of such cleaning media include hot water, acid, alkaline solution and fresh water. In such cases, the system components arranged in series in the CIP circuit are treated in temporal succession with these cleaning media.
A disadvantage of known cleaning systems thereof is that it takes a long time to carry out the cleaning. This is in part because the total cleaning time depends on the cleaning time for whichever system component takes the longest to clean. In addition, all the system components are treated with all the cleaning media, even thought it might improve cleaning quality or reduce cleaning time to clean different system components in different ways.
In practice, therefore, the cleaning duration is generally determined by the cleaning duration of the container filling machine since this must be cleaned in a particularly intensive manner due to its numerous small and angled liquid channels and the similar valve arrangements. Cleaning the container filling machine therefore takes a long time.
In known systems, it is also highly disadvantageous that all the system components arranged in series must be fully prepared for the subsequent cleaning process before the latter can start. The preparation of the container filling machine is particularly laborious, because each filling point must be provided with a rinsing cap or rinsing sleeve.

System for treating and/or processing liquid products and method for cleaning components of such systems


A window content transfer method in a graphical user interface is provided. The method comprises: a) receiving a command to transfer the content of a web window, which is displayed within a first native browser window of a browser application, to a second native browser window; b) generating, using the browser application, a second native browser window; and c) transferring, using the browser application, the content of the web window to the second native browser window.

Most graphical operating systems, such as MICROSOFT WINDOWS, feature a windowing system. In these windowing systems, each application running on the operating system occupies a certain area of the display screen, usually accompanied by a border, a caption, a close button, and other such standard surroundings.
A World Wide Web browser (hereinafter a "web browser"), such as Internet EXPLORER, is a typical example of an application which is run and displayed in such a window by the operating system. The applications running these web browser windows have greatly increased in sophistication and many web browsers now provide for "tabbed browsing" in which two or more web browser windows may be displayed within a common frame on the display. This allows a user to switch between the web browser windows by selecting a "tab" representing the content displayed on the window. Further functionality of these web browsers allow a user to separate one or more of the web browser windows from the tabbed arrangement of the other web browser windows to allow viewing of multiple web browser windows at once.
It is advantageous for the applications running these web browser windows to themselves implement a windowing system, which may have similar features to the application, in order to provide additional functionality. Therefore a web browser window may itself display one or more windows displaying content and are usually also accompanied by a border, a caption, a close button, and other such standard surroundings.
The sophistication of the web applications is increasing, and lately web applications have come close to matching the capabilities of native applications in many ways. However, the content of a web window is constrained to remain within the native browser window it is being displayed in. Whilst certain web browser applications contain application programming interfaces (APIs) which allow the creation of new native browser windows, they are highly constrained by popup blockers in order to avoid nuisance use. So, for example, it is not possible for a web page running in a native browser window to create a new native browser window upon start-up. It is therefore not possible to treat web windows in the same manner as native browser windows, nor freely transfer content between them.

Windows content transfer methods and systems


A method of time division multiplexing for a forward data packet channel includes encoding parallel data sub-packets into parallel streams of turbo codes; interleaving each of the parallel streams of turbo codes to generate parallel streams of quasi-complementary turbo codes; modulating the parallel streams of quasi-complementary turbo codes to generate parallel streams of modulated data symbols; and multiplexing the parallel streams of modulated data symbols by one of multiplexing and non-complete puncturing to generate a single stream of modulation symbols.

A forward data packet channel (F-PDCH) is used to transmit encoded data in data packets to multiple mobile stations in a time division multiplexed fashion. Disadvantageously, the forward data packet channel currently supports only a single data sub-packet within a time frame. The time frame may be varied as a multiple of a time slot. A time slot has a typical duration of about 1.25 milliseconds. A sub-packet is a set of coded symbols obtained from a turbo coded encoder packet. Using previously defined protocols, sub-packets derived from the same encoder packet may be transmitted with different modulation formats, effective code rates, and in up to eight time slots.

Forward packet data channel with parallel sub-packets


An improved crimped swivel fitting (10) for a gasoline hose (11) is disclosed. The fitting is a three-piece assembly (10). A male stem (30) is provided with a shoulder (39) at one external end (31A) and a series of barbs (35) at the opposing end (31B). A swivel nut (50) with an external threading, is slid over the stem barbs (35) and abuts directly against the shoulder (39). The barbed stem end (31B) is inserted into a hose (11) to which a ferrule (60) with internal notching (64) has already been attached. An internal shoulder (63) of the ferrule (60) rests in a groove (33) on the stem (30) and directly abuts against a shoulder (55) of the swivel nut (50). The ferrule (60) is crimped onto the stem (30), thereby securing the fitting to the hose, and locking the swivel nut (50) onto the assembly (10).

This invention relates to a swivel fitting for a hose, preferably for a gasoline hose. More particularly, the invention relates to a swivel fitting permanently affixed to a hose.
Hose fittings, and in particular, swivel fittings, are known and have been in use for many years. Such fittings are attached to the end of a hose for the further conduit of a liquid or gas. Conventional swivel fittings used on gasoline hoses are reattachable, permitting the removal of the gasoline nozzle or hose and reinstallation and attachment of different swivel nuts and various attachments in the field by any technician or layperson.
Prior art swivel fittings function with a swivel nut secured to a stem piece by means of a retaining ring. The partial assembled fitting, with the retaining ring and swivel nut at the opposing end, is inserted into a hose, over which a ferrule has already been provided. The ferrule is secured to the stem, connecting the hose with the swivel fitting. By design, the conventional retaining ring is removable and the swivel nut can be removed and reinstalled in the field which may lead to safety concerns if the fitting is not reinstalled correctly. In practice, the retaining ring frequently becomes damaged and can come off while in service, resulting in a serious safety problem.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,804,212 discloses a three piece swivel fitting consisting of a nipple to be inserted into the end of a length of hose and secured to the hose by a socket crimped around the end of the nipple and hose. The swivel nut, with internal threading to provide direct metal to metal contact with the nipple for purposes of fluid transfer, is inserted onto the opposing end of the nipple prior to insertion into the hose and crimping. The disclosed fitting is crimped onto the hose assembly in such a manner as to form required wrench flats on the socket, in correspondence to the wrench flats on the swivel nut. The wrench flats on both the socket and swivel nut enable the operator to replace fittings without twisting the hose by providing a means of retaining the opposing ends by wrenches.
The disclosed invention is an externally crimped gasoline hose swivel fitting and a method of providing a crimped-on swivel fitting for a hose. The fitting is a three piece assembly. The first piece is a stem with a shoulder at one external end and a series of hose barbs at the opposing end. A swivel nut is slid over the hose barbs of the stem and retained on the stem by means of the shoulder. The barbed end of the stem is inserted into a hose to which a ferrule with internal notches has already been attached. An internal shoulder on the ferrule rests in a groove on the stem and the ferrule is crimped onto the stem, thereby securing the fitting to the hose.
The swivel nut is retained on the stem by means of the stem shoulder and the crimped ferrule. The swivel nut is provided with external threads permitting attachment of a female fitting gasoline nozzle. The swivel nut on the hose fitting freely rotates 360xc2x0 about the stem, allowing any attached nozzle or further hose attachment to rotate freely around the hose.
The ferrule has a smooth outer circumferential exterior. At one axial end of the ferrule is a radially inwardly extending shoulder, of a dimension to rest in a groove on the stem. Axially inward of the shoulder is a series of internal notches. The internal notching engages the hose and the barbs of the stem to secure the hose during crimping.
Advantages of the invention are cost reductions for the fitting, reduced safety problems associated with known swivel fittings, and improved pullout force of the fitting.

Crimped swivel fitting and method of attachment of the fitting to a hose


The present invention relates to devices, and methods for using the devices, to create and secure a tissue fold during an endoluminal medical procedure. The devices and methods may be used for folding and securing, for example, a fundus wall onto an esophagus wall or esophageal tissue in the region of the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) to reduce the diameter of the esophagus opening in that region. One aspect of the invention includes forming the tissue fold by closing a grasping arm that is pivotably connected to an overtube that has been positioned at the juncture of the fundus wall and esophagus wall. A further aspect of the invention includes tissue clips configured to be inserted and positioned through an endoluminal device.

Gastroesophageal reflux occurs when stomach acid enters the esophagus. This reflux of acid into the esophagus occurs naturally in healthy individuals, but also may become a pathological condition in others. Effects from gastroesophageal reflux range from mild to severe. Mild effects include heartburn, a burning sensation experienced behind the breastbone. More severe effects include a variety of complications, such as esophageal erosion, esophageal ulcers, esophageal stricture, abnormal epithelium (e.g., Barrett's esophagus), and/or pulmonary aspiration. These various clinical conditions and changes in tissue structure that result from reflux of stomach acid into the esophagus are referred to generally as Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD).
Many mechanisms contribute to prevent gastroesophageal reflux in healthy individuals. One such mechanism is the functioning of the lower esophageal sphincter (LES). With reference to FIG. 1, the LES is a ring of smooth muscle and increased annular thickness existing in approximately the last four centimeters of the esophagus. In its resting state, the LES creates a region of high pressure (approximately 15-30 mm Hg above intragastric pressure) at the opening of the esophagus into the stomach. This pressure essentially closes the esophagus so that contents of the stomach cannot pass back into the esophagus. The LES opens in response to swallowing and peristaltic motion in the esophagus, allowing food to pass into the stomach. After opening, however, a properly functioning LES should return to the resting, or closed state. Transient relaxations of the LES do occur in healthy individuals, typically resulting in occasional bouts of heartburn.
The physical interaction occurring between the gastric fundus and the esophagus also prevents gastroesophageal reflux. The gastric fundus is a lobe of the stomach situated at the top of the stomach proximal to the esophagus. In healthy individuals, the fundus presses against the opening of the esophagus when the stomach is full of food and/or gas. This effectively closes off the esophageal opening to the stomach and helps to prevent acid reflux back into the esophagus.
In individuals with GERD, the LES functions abnormally, either due to an increase in transient LES relaxations, decrease in length of the esophagus, decreased muscle tone of the LES during resting, or an inability of the esophageal tissue to resist injury or repair itself after injury. These conditions often are exacerbated by overeating, intake of caffeine, chocolate or fatty foods, smoking, and/or hiatal hernia. Avoiding these exacerbating mechanisms helps curb the negative side effects associated with GERD, but does not cure the disease completely.
A surgical procedure, known generally as fundoplication, has been developed to prevent acid reflux in patients whose normal LES functioning has been impaired, either as a result of GERD or otherwise. Fundoplication involves bringing the fundus into closer proximity to the esophagus to help close off the esophageal opening into the stomach. In Nissen Fundoplication, a particular type of the fundoplication procedure, the fundus is pulled up and around the esophagus and then sutured to itself and the esophagus such that it completely encircles the esophagus. Traditionally, this procedure has been performed as an open surgery, but has recently enjoyed success as a laparoscopic procedure, as discussed in McKernan, J. B., Champion, J. K., "Laparoscopic antireflex surgery," American Surgeon, Vol. 61, pp. 530-536, (1995).
As with any open surgery, complications can occur as a result of infection, blood loss or from the use of anesthesia. Further, the relatively large incisions necessary in the performance of open surgery require extended recovery times for the incision to heal. Though laparoscopic surgical procedures reduce these negative effects by using relatively small devices at a relatively small incision site in the abdominal wall, there still exists an increased risk of infection due to the incision. The location of the incision in the abdominal wall presents a risk of other negative effects, such as sepsis, which can be caused by leakage of septic fluid contained in the stomach.
Other surgical procedures specifically address the LES. These procedures attempt to prevent reflux by thickening the LES region and reducing the diameter of the esophageal opening to the stomach, i.e., tighten the LES region. However, existing procedures are lengthy and difficult to perform.

Methods and devices for folding and securing tissue


A new and distinctly salt and boron tolerant poplar tree cultivar named ‘RRR Yellow’, is particularly distinguishable by its ability to tolerate and grow in soil with high concentrations of salt, boron and selenium. The ‘RRR Yellow’ cultivar was originally discovered as a naturally occuring branch sport through stringent selection of cultivated poplar trees, and potentially from isolation of a single unique sapling or sport that exhibited high levels of salt and boron tolerance necessary for survival, and then propagated.

1. Field of the Invention
Poplar trees are part of the genus Populus, comprising many species, some of which can hybridize with other species within the same genus. The poplar tree is a fast growing tree and can grow under a variety of adverse conditions. Their aggressive root system can tap into shallow water tables and, as such, help manage the upward migration of water and soluble salts toward the soil surface. However, several negative physiological effects, e.g., osmotic effects, water stress, and ion imbalance, on poplar trees exposed to salinity may inhibit growth at the cost of carbohydrate production, decreased photosynthesis and stomatal conductance (Neuman, et al. (1996)). There is the need for a type of poplar tree that does not exhibit these negative physiological effects when exposed to salinity.
Irrigation water quality and drainage water disposal have become priority issues for irrigated agriculture in the western San Joaquin Valley of Central California, after inorganic salt contaminants, particularly selenium and boron, were reportedly responsible for waterfowl deformities (Ohlendorf et al., 1986). Evidence suggests that recycling saline water originating from agricultural drainage or from shallow ground waters is desirable over disposing of the saline water (Oster, 1994). Recycling poor quality water for irrigation may have application for more than 250,000 acres of drainage-impacted soils of the Western San Joaquin Valley, but its long-term use requires a critical evaluation that includes irrigation and irrigation delivery systems (Dudley et al., 2008). A practical water reuse strategy in Central California would require the selection of salt and boron tolerant crops and trees for use with waters high in salinity (e.g., 10 dS/m) and boron (10 mg/L) (Lin et al., 2002).
The Integrated on-Farm Drainage Management (IFDM) system expanded the idea of recycling salt-laden drainage water in agricultural systems (Cervinka et al., 1999). Within the IFDM system, trees may offer other advantages over vegetative plants because they transpire larger quantities of water, produce larger biomass, have longer life spans, are deeper rooted, promote greater ecosystem diversity, and re-grow new stems after they have been cut. In previous IFDM implementations, trees, such as Eucalyptus spp. had been planted as border recipient plants for poor quality drainage and surface waters.
2. Description of the Relevant Prior Art
Salt and boron tolerant poplar trees have been selected from screenings occurring on simulated micro-field conditions in Parlier, Calif. (Banuelos, et al. 2010). The micro-field conditions were created by digging 1 m deep pits in Parlier, Calif. and filling the pits with soil (Banuelos, et al. 2010). Poplar trees were planted in the 1 m deep pits and irrigated with waters containing boron and increasing salt levels.
What is needed is the selection of salt and boron tolerant trees to be screened in actual adverse field conditions of the Western San Joaquin Valley.


A multi charged particle beam writing method includes emitting each corresponding beam in an “on” state while starting and continuing tracking control, shifting a writing position by beam deflection of the multi beams, in addition to tracking control, while continuing tracking control, emitting each corresponding beam in the next “on” state to the next writing position having been shifted while continuing tracking control, and returning the tracking position by resetting tracking control, after emitting each next corresponding beam to the next writing position having been shifted at least once, wherein writing of a predetermined region is completed by repeating the number of preset times a group of performing emitting, shifting, emitting, and returning, wherein the tracking time from start to reset of tracking control in at least one of the repeated groups is longer than the others.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to a multi charged particle beam writing method and a multi charged particle beam writing apparatus, and more specifically, for example, relate to a method for reducing the writing time of multi-beam writing by tracking deflection.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, with high integration of LSI, the line width (critical dimension) required for circuits of semiconductor devices is becoming progressively narrower. As a method for forming an exposure mask (also called a reticle) used to form circuit patterns on these semiconductor devices, the electron beam (EB) writing technique having excellent resolution is employed.
As an example employing the electron beam writing technique, a writing apparatus using multiple beams (multi-beams) can be cited. Compared with the case of writing a pattern by using a single electron beam, since it is possible to emit multiple beams at a time (one shot) in multi-beam writing, the throughput can be greatly increased. For example, in a writing apparatus employing a multi-beam system, multiple beams are formed by letting portions of an electron beam emitted from an electron gun assembly pass through a corresponding hole of a plurality of holes formed in the mask, blanking control is performed for each beam, and each unblocked beam is reduced by an optical system and deflected by a deflector so as to irradiate a desired position on a target object or "sample".
Conventionally, pixels are defined by dividing a writing region in the surface of a target object into a plurality of mesh regions by the beam size. Then, during irradiation of multiple beams of each shot to the target object placed on the stage moving at a fixed speed, irradiation of each beam is executed while each beam performs a tracking operation following the stage movement so that a pixel to be irradiated by each beam may not be deviated by the stage movement. After one shot is completed, the tracking operation is reset to swing back each beam, and the deflection position is shifted to a next pixel to be irradiated. Then, in the same way, each beam irradiation is performed while executing the tracking operation. Thus, a pattern is written by performing necessary beam irradiation for each of the entire pixels.
As described above, multiple beams are used in multi-beam writing. For example, irradiation time data for n×m beams is transmitted to an irradiation unit from a control unit within an irradiation time. Therefore, it is necessary to cope with errors of data transmission to the irradiation unit from the control unit.
In connection with the multi-beam technique, there is disclosed, a technique where a tracking operation in response to a stage movement is performed while multi beams are continuously scanned in one direction by the raster scan method (refer to, e.g., Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application (JP-A) No. 05-166707).

Multi charged particle beam writing method, and multi charged particle beam writing apparatus