The viscosity of quench oil circulated in a pyrolysis fractionation unit is controlled by contacting pyrolysis furnace effluent with a slip stream of 0.1-0.5 kg/kg of the quench oil, separating the resulting vapor-liquid mixture to remove tarry liquid, and feeding the remaining vapor to the fractionator. Removing the tarry liquid from the fractionator feed in this manner allows operation of the fractionator with less reflux, a higher bottoms temperature, and more heat recovery at a higher temperature.

Pyrolysis furnaces are widely used to produce olefins such as ethylene. During the cracking of a hydrocarbon in a pyrolysis furnace, significant quantities of high-boiling hydrocarbons are produced, such as, for example fuel oil, gas oil, and gasoline, as well as lower molecular weight olefin products such as ethylene. The effluent from the furnace, after initial cooling, is introduced to a pyrolysis fractionation unit which removes the heavy end products from the furnace effluent, and recovers heat from the hot effluent stream.
A conventional pyrolysis fractionation unit is illustrated in FIG. 1. Briefly, the pyrolysis fractionation unit includes fractionator 10, fuel oil stripper 12, quench tower 14 and quench drum 16. The partially cooled effluent from the pyrolysis furnace is introduced via line 18 to a lower end of the fractionator 10. A bottoms stream 20 is supplied to the fuel oil stripper 12 where it is stripped by steam introduced via line 22. Steam and hydrocarbon vapor are returned to the bottom of the fractionator 10 via line 24. A fuel oil product 26 is withdrawn from the bottom of the fuel oil stripper 12 via line 26.
Quench oil is circulated from the fractionator 10 via line 28, passed through a series of coolers 30,32 for heat recovery, and returned to the fractionator 10 via respective lines 34,36. Pumps and filters (not shown) are conventionally used in line 28. The coolers 30,32 represent heat exchangers which recover heat for various uses, such as, for example, low pressure steam, dilution steam, plant process use, or the like. A gas oil draw 38 may also be taken from the fractionator 10 and introduced to the fuel oil stripper 12.
Overhead vapor 40 from the fractionator 10 is introduced to the quench tower 14. The vapor is quenched in quench tower 14 by means of water introduced via lines 42, 44 such that an overhead vapor stream 46 is obtained which is at a temperature of about 25.degree.-40.degree. C. Water and condensate from the quench tower 14 are supplied to the quench drum 16 by means of line 48. Water and hydrocarbons are separated in the quench drum 16 to obtain a heavy gasoline stream 50 and a reflux stream 52 which is returned to the top of the fractionator 10. Water is circulated from the quench drum 16 via line 54, cooled in heat exchangers 56,58 and returned to the quench tower 14 by means of lines 42,44 as previously described.
In the operation of this typical pyrolysis fractionation unit, it is desirable to withdraw gas oil draw 38. This reduces the amount of the reflux stream 52 required by the fractionator 10, increasing the amount of heat recovery and the level of heat recovery in exchangers 30,32. Unfortunately, a significant limit on the amount of the gas oil draw 38 is that the viscosity of the circulating quench oil in line 28 significantly increases as the quantity of gas oil draw 38 increases. This increases fouling and pressure drop in the exchangers 30,32.
It would be desirable to be able to lower the viscosity of the circulating quench oil in the pyrolysis fractionator to increase the quantity and level of heat recovery from the feed to the pyrolysis fractionator.

Quench oil viscosity control in pyrolysis fractionator


A pulse oximetry sensor having a temperature indicator and a method of operating such a sensor to visually indicate to an operator the temperature of the sensor and hence a measure of the temperature of the tissue location to which the sensor is attached. In one embodiment, the temperature indicator is a color changing liquid crystal temperature monitor. The liquid crystal temperature monitor includes a number of segments, each of which is activateable within a predetermined temperature range to be monitored. In other embodiments of the present invention, the oximetry sensor includes an active regulated heating element to enhance blood perfusion within the tissue location being monitored. In either embodiment, the temperature indicator provides the operator with an effective way of monitoring the temperature of the sensor and the adjacent tissue location. In case of a heated sensor, the temperature indicator informs the operator that the warming function of the sensor is functioning correctly. In case of a nonheated sensor, the temperature indicator informs the operator regarding a measure of the degree of perfusion.

The present invention relates to oximeter sensors and, in particular, oximeter sensors with a heating element to improve perfusion.
Pulse oximetry is typically used to measure various blood characteristics including, but not limited to, the blood-oxygen saturation of hemoglobin in arterial blood, and the rate of blood pulsations corresponding to the heart rate of a patient. Measurement of these characteristics has been accomplished by use of a noninvasive sensor which passes light through a portion of the patient's tissue where blood perfuses the tissue, and photoelectrically senses the absorption of light in such tissue. The amount of light absorbed is then used to calculate the amount of blood constituent being measured.
The light passed through the tissue is selected to be of one or more wavelengths that are absorbed by the blood in an amount representative of the amount of the blood constituent present in the blood. The amount of transmitted or reflected light passed through the tissue will vary in accordance with the changing amount of blood constituent in the tissue and the related light absorption. For measuring blood oxygen level, such sensors have been provided with light sources and photodetectors that are adapted to operate at two different wavelengths, in accordance with known techniques for measuring blood oxygen saturation.
Heaters have been used in sensors to improve the perfusion, or amount of blood, adjacent the sensor. This will improve the measurement since the light will encounter a larger volume of blood, giving a better signal-to-noise ratio for the oximeter reading.
Because the normal human body core temperature is approximately 37° C., and burning of tissue could take place for temperatures above approximately 42–43° C., a tight range of control of the heating element is required. Although heating devices can be designed to automatically control the temperature of the sensor and hence the patient's tissue, there exists a need for a simple, low cost and effective way of assuring the operator of such a device that the warming feature of the sensor is correctly functioning. Moreover, in cases of nonheated sensors, a need also exists for a simple, low cost and effective way of indicating a degree of tissue perfusion by showing the temperature of a particular tissue location in contact with the sensor.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A switching system includes N handover runks respectively having M terminals to be independently coupled to radio transmission lines reaching M radio base stations which respectively form radio zones which become mutually adjacent zones or peripheral zones, and coupled to remote transmission lines reaching mobile stations of other parties located in the radio zones, where M and N are integers greater than one, out of the radio transmission lines, the N handover trunks selecting each transmission line with a best transmission quality and coupling the selected radio transmission lines to the remote transmission lines; a plurality of radio interfaces distributing lines independently formed between the switching system and the M radio base stations, with respect to different N paths; a radio transmission line forming unit forming radio transmission lines in advance with respect to all combinations of each of the paths subject to the distribution by the radio interfaces and each of the terminals other than the terminals to be independently coupled to the remote transmission lines out of the terminals of the handover trunks; a call processing unit carrying out a call processing with respect to calls generated by the mobile stations located in the radio zones by cooperating with a radio channel setting control that is carried out by the radio base stations via the radio interfaces; and a remote transmission line forming unit forming the remote transmission lines by the call processing carried out by the call processing unit.

The present invention generally relates to switching systems, and more particularly to a switching system which is connected via a link to a radio base station of a mobile communication system that carries out switching of channels in service, and processes calls generated in the mobile communication system.
The Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) was frequently used in communication for military purposes because the CDMA has a superior secrecy and is strong against interference. However, by positively utilizing the strong anti-interference characteristic of the CDMA, it is possible in general to improve the utilization efficiency of radio frequencies. In addition, since techniques for realizing a transmission power control with a high accuracy and an improved response have been established recently, the CDMA is now being applied to mobile communication systems in which mobile stations scattered in radio zones move while maintaining a service state and the switching of the channels in service, that is, handover of the channels, is carried out.
In the mobile communication system applied with the CDMA, the levels of the received waves reaching the base stations of the adjacent radio zones from the mobile station which is the subject of the handover are appropriately varied under the transmission power control described above. For this reason, unlike the mobile communication systems applied with the Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) or the Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), the radio zone to which the handover is to be made cannot be determined to a single radio zone depending on the levels of the received waves.
Accordingly, in the mobile communication system applied with the CDMA uses an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switching system which can smoothly and dynamically switch the radio zone to the radio zone handed over with the call. The ATM switching system and each radio base station are connected via a link adapted to the ATM.
However, in the mobile communication system applied with the CDMA, it was difficult to use a conventional ATM switching system without greatly modifying the construction of the conventional ATM switching system.
In addition, a delay in updating identification information related to the handover causes considerable deterioration of the speech quality, and it was particularly difficult to apply the conventional ATM switching system to a call of a telephone system in the mobile communication system.

Switching system linked to radio base station


The application provides, in part, vectors based on novel tobacco rattle virus replicons, as well as methods for using such vectors and transgenic plants.

Aided by high-throughput sequencing technology, plant biologists have identified large numbers of novel open reading frames (ORFs). Large-scale functional genomic approaches are needed in order to convert this sequence information into functional information. Traditionally, Agrobacterium Ti plasmid transfer DNA (T-DNA) and transposon-based insertional mutant populations have provided the resources for the analysis of phenotypes. Large collections of such insertion and deletion mutant populations have been generated for plants like Arabidopsis thaliana due to the ease of transformation. However, these mutant collections are not generally saturated, meaning that all ORFs have not been disrupted or tagged by an insertion or deletion. Saturation may be difficult to achieve because of bias in the insertion of T-DNA or transposons and because disruptions of essential genes often result in nonviable plants that are lost from the collection. In addition, many plant genomes have a high degree of gene duplication, and therefore a disruption of a gene will not yield any measurable phenotype because a duplicate copy of the gene compensates for the defect. Alternative methods for probing gene function have been developed, including dsRNA-mediated suppression of genes by vectors that produce sense and antisense transcripts. However, all of these approaches rely on the generation of transgenic lines. The generation of transgenic plant lines is a time consuming process, and is only practical for high throughput analyses in Arabidopsis.
Gene silencing approaches, such as virus induced gene silencing (VIGS), offer an attractive and quick alternative for knocking out expression of a gene without the need to genetically transform the plant. Using this method, recombinant virus carrying a partial sequence of a host gene is used to infect the plant. When the virus spreads systemically, the endogenous gene transcripts, which are homologous to the insert in the viral vector (VIGS-vector), are degraded by post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS). Vectors for carrying out gene silencing suffer from a variety of shortcomings, including inability to silence genes in proliferating or non-proliferating cells, inability to silence genes in a large area of the target plant, and poor rate of infection in target plants.
Improved vectors for use in plants, and particularly vectors for use in gene silencing and high-throughput gene analysis, are needed in the field of plant biology.

Tobacco rattle virus vectors and related compositions and methods


An image forming device includes: an image carrier on which a toner image is formed; and a cleaning blade which removes a residual material on the image carrier after the toner image is transferred to a transferred body, wherein the image carrier includes an elastic layer, the cleaning blade is a metallic plate spring, and a tip end of the cleaning blade is pressed against the image carrier by restoring force of the plate spring.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming device which transfers a toner image formed on an image carrier to a transferred body and removing a residual material on the image carrier after the transfer by means of a cleaning blade.
Description of the Related Art
An image forming device such as an electrophotographic printer includes an intermediate transfer system which forms toner images of respective colors of Y (yellow), M (magenta), C (cyan) and K (black) on respective photoreceptor drums and overlaps the toner images of Y to K colors formed on the respective photoreceptor drums with a rotating intermediate transfer belt to primarily transfer, then secondarily transfers the toner images of the respective colors multi-transferred to the intermediate transfer belt to a recording sheet, for example.
A belt formed of a resin material such as PI (polyimide) and PPS (polyphenylenesulfide) is generally widely adopted as such intermediate transfer belt, but there is a case in which adhesiveness in a secondary transfer position between the intermediate transfer belt and the recording sheet is deteriorated due to difference in macroscopic unevenness of a surface shape among paper types to be used (for example, normal paper, thin coated paper, thick paper and the like) and it becomes difficult to secure a transfer property.
In order to prevent such deterioration in the transfer property, there is a configuration in which an elastic layer made of a rubber material and the like is provided on a base layer made of the resin material on the intermediate transfer belt to make a surface shape of the intermediate transfer belt deformable to fit a surface shape of the recording sheet by the elastic layer, such that the adhesiveness between the intermediate transfer belt and the recording sheet is improved.
When the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt is transferred to the recording sheet, all the toner images are ideally transferred to the recording sheet; however, there actually is a case in which a part of toner particles remains on the intermediate transfer belt without being transferred. There also is a case in which paper powder adheres to the intermediate transfer belt by contact with the recording sheet. If such a residual material such as the remained toner and paper powder remains adhering to the intermediate transfer belt, this causes a trouble in subsequent formation of the toner image, so that a cleaner which removes the residual material on the intermediate transfer belt is provided.
As the above-described cleaner, a configuration of allowing a tip end of the cleaning blade made of an elastic body such as urethane rubber to abut a rotating intermediate transfer belt and scrapping the residual material on the intermediate transfer belt to remove is common.
In a configuration in which the cleaning blade formed of the elastic body abuts the intermediate transfer belt including the elastic layer, a real contact area becomes larger by abutment between the elastic bodies and frictional force generated between contacting portions becomes significantly large. Therefore, abrasion of the cleaning blade or the intermediate transfer belt is promoted and a lifetime becomes problematically short.
When hardness of the elastic body such as urethane rubber being a material of the cleaning blade changes by change in peripheral temperature, for example, a contact area between the intermediate transfer belt and the cleaning blade varies and the frictional force between the intermediate transfer belt and the cleaning blade also varies. The frictional force acts as brake to the rotating intermediate transfer belt, so that a rotational speed of the intermediate transfer belt varies due to increased variation in the frictional force, that is to say, brake force and peripheral speed difference occurs between the same and each photoreceptor drum rotating at a certain speed.
When the peripheral speed difference between the intermediate transfer belt and each photoreceptor drum occurs, positions of the toner images of respective colors transferred to the intermediate transfer belt easily displace to each other in a rotational direction when the toner images of respective colors are multi-transferred from the photoreceptor drums to the intermediate transfer belt. This displacement is problematic because color shift occurs when a color image is formed.
The above-described problem is not limited to the configuration of transferring the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt to the recording sheet. For example, this might generally occur in a configuration of transferring the toner image on an image carrier to a transferred body such as a configuration of transferring the toner image formed on a photoreceptor belt to an intermediate transfer drum.


A virtual computer system enabling dynamic, aggregated use of multiple TCP/IP offload engines (TOEs) by the set of guest computer systems hosted on the virtual computer system. Each of the guest computer systems includes an offload selection switch and the associated virtual machine monitor includes a first virtual context component. Second virtual context components are associated with a set of TCP/IP stacks and TOEs and interoperate with the first virtual context components to establish a virtual routing of network connections between the offload selection switches and the TOEs. The virtual context mapping retains the initially requested network connection information as well as the resolved virtual network connection established, thereby allowing the initial network connection request to be internally reapplied as required to accommodate dynamic changes in the network protocol parameters of the TOEs.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to networked virtual computer systems and in particular to an architecture and methods of providing TCP/IP offload engine support in virtual computer systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Virtual computer systems are conventionally recognized as providing a variety of practical benefits, including more efficient use of hardware resources, improved opportunity for security and management control over executing applications, and the ability to support multiple discrete if not wholly independent execution environments. Consequently, interest in the architectural development of virtual computer systems, particularly in the areas of supporting new, performance-enhancing hardware, and extending those performance enhancements to the individual execution environments, is substantial and ongoing.
In summary, virtual computer systems are typically based on a conventional hardware platform providing one or more central processing units, a main memory, various persistent storage devices, and one or more network interface controllers (NICs), potentially of different design and functional capabilities. The hardware platform is used to support execution of a typically dedicated operating system kernel that, in turn, implements various virtualization drivers and services that enable multiple virtualization environments to be executed under the control of the virtualization kernel. A conventional host computer operating system can, in the alternative, be employed in place of the dedicated operating system kernel.
The virtualization environments supported by the kernel may be fully isolated execution spaces that, in turn, each encapsulate a network operating system instance and application program execution space. Each virtualization environment represents a discrete virtual machine (VM), and, as such, is often referred to as a guest computer system. Applications executed by the guest computer systems and their respective included guest operating systems are presented with the appearance and, in select circumstances, the fact of directly executing on the hardware platform. While vendors provide operating system drivers for the different, assembled components of the hardware platform, these drivers typically do not incorporate specific support for, or are capable of handling the complications arising from, potentially concurrent use by applications executing in multiple, independent virtualization environments. Therefore, the virtualization kernel is responsible for and generally implements the controls for coordinating access to the shared resources of the underlying hardware platform.
TCP/IP offload engines (TOEs) have been developed to improve the network access performance of computer systems in general. As the supported Ethernet network transmission speeds have increased to 1 Gbps and beyond, execution of the TCP/IP stack purely as a software component can impose a significant burden on the main central processing unit and restrict the actual network data throughput obtainable. TOEs typically implement a hardware TCP/IP protocol stack in combination with a hardware NIC as a platform pluggable hardware adapter. Recent generations of TOEs are nominally capable of supporting session establishment and a significant degree of error-handling services independent of the main central processing unit. Characteristically, however, TOE implementations must rely on a standard software TCP/IP stack, as implemented in a conventional operating system, as a fall-back to handle operating conditions—specifically complex protocol and error conditions—that are otherwise beyond the nominal capabilities of the particular TOE hardware implementation.
A variety of TOE-to-software TCP/IP stack interfaces are known to exist. In most cases, TOE vendors provide proprietary drivers and operating system service modules that will enable a specific TOE adapter to be utilized by a conventional, network-capable operating system, as typified by the major Linux® and Microsoft® operating system variants. Additionally, Microsoft has proposed a defined API, code-named Chimney, to support and define the fall-back coupling between a TOE and operating system kernel-based software TCP/IP stack. See, Scalable Networking: Network Protocol Offload—Introducing TCP Chimney, www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/network/TCP_Chimney. In all, the TOE drivers and service modules enable common network connections and data flows to be conducted through the TOE between an offload target, typically the TOE embedded NIC, and a transport driver, socket, or equivalent layer interface. Where the connection setup and data transport are without exception, utilization of the main central processing unit is minimal. Whenever a unhandleable TOE exception occurs, a protocol object representing the state of the connection and any in-transit data is transferred from the TOE hardware to a corresponding layer level within the associated software TCP/IP stack. This effectively transfers the exception condition to the full software stack for handling and recovery.
Conventional TOE driver and associated service module support is difficult in the context of virtual computer systems. While the more recent TOE implementations are capable of independently handling a wide range of protocol conditions and exceptions, the TOE functions must still be closely coordinated with and backed by a full capability software-based network stack. While the individual guest computer systems typically implement a full network stack as part of the guest operating system, there are practical performance constraints that limit use of these stacks in support of TOE implementations. "TCP/IP Offloading for Virtual Machines," U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/741,244, which is assigned to the assignee of the present application and hereby expressly incorporated by reference, describes an effective approach to supporting TOE adapters in a virtual computer system. There, each TOE implementation provided as part of the hardware platform is supported by a virtualization kernel-based network stack. In turn, each guest computer system implements a guest network stack bypass that enables direct communications with an assigned TOE implementation and virtual kernel stack. A common socket connection space is defined for the guest stack, assigned virtualization kernel stack and TOE implementation to establish and ensure the path integrity of network session connections. This defined relation is effectively required by the fact that a conventional TOE implementation cannot multiplex between the separate socket spaces that would need to be presented to different guest computer systems.
Although fully functional, the system described in "TCP/IP Offloading for Virtual Machines" may not make optimum use of the TOE adapters provided as part of the hardware platform, particularly subject to dynamically changing operating conditions. Some guest computer systems may require only a fraction of the bandwidth provided by an assigned TOE implementation while others would be best served in a virtualization environment that supports dynamic aggregation of multiple TOE implementations. Consequently, there is a need for a TOE virtualization system and methods of integrating one or more TOE adapters into a virtual computer system that enables concurrent use of TOE implementations by multiple guest computer systems and, further, adaptability for dynamically changing operating conditions.

TCP/IP offload engine virtualization system and methods


Automatically generating a client-side application based on available components is provided. A source code and related build information of a component is stored in a component repository. The component is developed in a developer mode of a developer tool. An existing single-page application is changed using a non-expert editing tool by selecting a component from the component repository, retrieving the selected component from the repository, extracting build information from the retrieved component, adding dependencies regarding the retrieved component to a single-page packaging of the existing single-page application, and compiling the single-page application together with the retrieved component.

The invention relates generally to a software development environment, and more specifically, to automatically generating a client-side application based on available components.
Delivering computing capabilities by way of browser enabled applications has become the predominant way to let users interact with computer systems. Single page applications (SPAs) are a relevant concept for building versatile and responsive web sites. As their development approach unleashes a powerful set of capabilities, the coding and development effort is becoming more complex. A simple point-and-click approach, as in the case of a classical webpage design, may no longer work. Therefore, it is important to keep in mind that SPAs require a compilation of the application code and that the development of SPAs is a more sophisticated piece of work than the setup of traditional websites.

Single page application continuous integration, build, and deployment

International Business Machines Corporation


A method of transient transfection of obligate intracellular parasites is described. This method is exploited to develop a system for stable transformation utilizing selectable genes. For example, introduction of the chloramphenicol acetyl transferase (CAT) gene fused to Toxoplasma flanking sequences followed by chloramphenicol selection results in parasites stably expressing CAT. DNA hybridization analysis indicated that the CAT gene had inserted via homologous recombination.

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite which can infect most warm-blooded vertebrates. In humans, it has been recognized as a major cause of severe congenital disease and a common cause of infection in immunocompromised hosts. Recently, the parasite has received increased attention as an important opportunistic pathogen affecting up to 25% of AIDS patients (Kasper, 1992a). In the laboratory, T. gondii is relatively easy to handle and maintain and consequently has become an important model for the study of how obligate intracellular parasites function. To date, however, such studies have been hampered by the absence of a method for introducing DNA into the parasites.
Although transfection and stable transformation have been achieved for a range of trypanosomatids (Bellofatto, et al., 1989; Laban, et al., 1989, 1990; Lee, et al., 1990; Coburn, et al., 1991; Eid, et al., 1991; Lebowitz, et al., 1990; and Tobin, et al., 1991), such methodologies have not been reported for any of the obligate intracellular parasites, most notably members of the phylum Apicomplexa.
Efforts to stably transform these parasites have been complicated by their inability to replicate outside host cells. Neomycin and hygromycin, drugs commonly used for selection of stable transformants in other systems, including protozoan parasites from the kinetoplastida order (Laban, et al., 1989; Lee, et al., 1990; Coburn, et al., 1991), kill host cells as efficiently as parasites.

Transfection and genetic manipulations in obligate intracellular parasites

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


A programmable bit error rate monitor includes an error counter, a monitoring period counter with a programmable upper bound to set the monitoring period, and an error flag generator that compares the actual error count to a programmable threshold. The error flag generator may generate flags at different sensitivity levels, and the user may programmably select one of those flags. The three flags can be generated by independent comparators, or they can be extrapolated from the base error flag—e.g., by comparing only certain bits of the error count to corresponding bits of the threshold.

This invention relates to a bit error rate monitor for a serial communication interface. More particularly, this invention relates to a bit error rate monitor that is programmable to allow adjustment by a user to accommodate different interfaces.
Monitoring the bit error rate is important in serial communications applications. For example, the telecommunications industry closely monitors bit error rates. At various thresholds of bit error rate, a communications device may be instructed to slow down its transmission rate (and to return to its full rate when the error rate decreases), to request maintenance, to shut down or enter an idle mode, and/or to activate an alternate or back-up device.
Different communications devices have different error threshold requirements (i.e., different monitoring period and threshold levels). For example, the 10-Gigabit Ethernet 64b/66b padded protocol specification calls for monitoring two bits out of every 66 bits, and sets an error threshold of 10−4 (one bit error in ten thousand bits), while most telecommunications applications have a base error threshold of 10−3 (one bit error in one thousand bits) during a 125 μs period (after which the total bit counter and the error counter are reset). At 10 Gb/s, each bit period is 0.1 ns, so that 125 μs, which is 125,000 ns, translates to 1,250,000 bits. Thus the base bit error rate (one error per 1,000 bits) for telecommunications applications at 10 Gb/s is 1,250 errors in 1,250,000 bits, or 12.5 errors in 12,500 bits. Such applications also frequently report errors at additional thresholds of 10−6 (one error per 1,000,000 bits) and 10−9 (one error per 1,000,000,000 bits). It should be noted that, as is commonly the case in digital systems, these thresholds are actually multiples of 2−10 (one-per-1,024) rather than multiples of 10−3 (one-per-1,000), so that one-per-million threshold is actually 2−20 (or one-per-1,048,576) and the one-per-billion threshold is actually 2−30 (or one-per-1,073,741,824).
Bit error rate monitors exist for such applications and protocols. However, unlike in standard telecommunications applications, in data communications applications the user may define his or her own threshold value and/or base measurement period. Moreover, when users implement designs in programmable logic devices, those designs may deviate from standard clock rates—even when implementing known standards—in order to meet requirements of a particular implementation. In such a case, the standard bit error monitors may not be appropriate. For example, instead of using the 10 Gb/s standard described above, a user may implement an 11 Gb/s data rate. At 11 Gb/s, a 10−3 bit error threshold would translate to 13.75 bit errors per 13,750 bits instead of 12.5 errors per 12,500 bits, with similar adjustments for 10−6 and 10−9 thresholds. In such a case, the standard bit error monitors may not be appropriate.

Programmable bit error rate monitor for serial interface


An improved interpolation method in which a threshold value used for determining a pixel value of a pixel generated by interpolation according to a context which is a state value of adjacent pixels. In the interpolation method, the ambiguity between the interpolation value and the threshold value is removed by using the context, thereby reducing the blocking and smoothing phenomena in the restored binary image.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an interpolation method for a binary image, and more particularly, to an improved interpolation method in which a variable threshold value used for determining a pixel value to be generated by interpolation is determined according to a context (the state value of adjacent pixels). This invention has been adopted in ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 N1903 (ISO/IEC 14496-2 (Subpart 7 Committee Draft).
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a function for processing shape information has been added to MPEG-4. The shape information, which refers to object information of the image, is expressed as a binary image. To code such a binary image, MPEG-4 adopts a context-based arithmetic encoder (CAE). For lossy shape coding a down sampling method and an up sampling method are performed in each macro block of binary shape. A shape image is divided into shape blocks having an M×M size.
The down sampling refers to a method for reducing the binary image block according to a given conversion ratio. The reduced image block is transmitted together with the conversion ratio. Here, the conversion ratio is determined such that an error between the original binary image block and an binary image block restored later is within a predetermined range.
The reduced image block obtained by the down sampling is coded by a CAE and then transmitted.
The up sampling method is used to restore such a reduced image block. Up sampling is for restoring the reduced image block into block with the size of the original binary image block, by interpolation.
In such an up sampling process, an effective interpolation method must not cause excessive blocking and smoothing effects in the restored binary image.


A new cultivar of Abelia×grandiflora named ‘Wevo1’ that is characterized by its mature foliage that is variegated with green centers and white margins; the variegation is retained from spring until winter, its white flowers, and its dwarf and upright spreading plant habit.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Abelia×grandiflora and will be referred to hereafter by its cultivar name, 'Wevo1'. 'Wevo1' represents a new Abelia, a semi-evergreen shrub grown for landscape use.
The Inventor discovered the new cultivar in June of 2008 as a naturally occurring branch mutation of Abelia×grandiflora 'Abelops' (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 20,961) that was growing in a container at his nursery in Reeuwijk, The Netherlands.
Asexual propagation of the new cultivar was first accomplished by stem cuttings by the Inventor in Reeuwijk, The Netherlands in July of 2008. Asexual propagation by stem cuttings has determined that the characteristics of the new cultivar are stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations.


An image generating apparatus (1) is provided with: a drawing application processor (11) for indicating a drawing device (13) to generate a 3D image; and a graphics library (12). The drawing application processor separates information to generate the image into coordinate transformation information and drawing object information and generates both with two independent generating devices respectively, and the graphics library stores and manages these information. The drawing device generates the 3D image on the basis of these stored and managed information and outputs it to a display device. The drawing object information is prepared for a broader area than the area of a field of view corresponding to the 3D image to be displayed this time.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image generating apparatus for and an image generating method of generating a three-dimensional (3D) image on the basis of three-dimensional coordinate information, which is applied to a navigation system or the like, and a computer program to perform the image generating method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, the research development of an electronic control for controlling a drive of a car and the spread of a navigation system for supporting a drive are remarkable. In general, the navigation system is basically designed so as to have various databases and to display map information, current position information, various guidance information, etc. on a display unit. Moreover, such a navigation system is typically designed so as to search for a drive route in accordance with an input condition. It is further designed so as to display the searched drive route and a current position based on a GPS (Global Positioning System) measurement or a self-contained measurement on a map and carry out guidance (navigation) to a destination.
Moreover, in some types of navigation systems, a view on a front side from a currently driving point in addition to the drive route is displayed on a display unit. In addition, an indication of a driving lane, a direction to be curved at a crossing, a distance to a crossing, a distance to a destination, an arrival expectation time and the like are displayed. In such navigation systems, the forward view is displayed as a 3D image in perspective, which is a technique for drawing a 3D image on a plane on the basis of view point of a viewer.
Furthermore, some types of navigation systems is designated to change the forward view displayed as a 3D image according to an advance of a car in order to reproduce the change of the actual view that a driver watches in the car through the front window of the car while driving.
By the way, in order to display a 3D image that continuously changes, it is required to calculate enormous map data containing three-dimensional coordinate information at a high speed, input the data obtained by calculating to a drawing device one after another, and generate many 3D images in a shot time. In response to such a requirement, the technique that a display list is generated by mixing drawing object information indicating objects to be drawn such as a road, a building and so on and the coordinate transformation information indicating a view point, a field of view, a light source and so on, and a 3D image is generated at a time by using the display list. For example, the display list of OpenGL developed by Silicon Graphics Inc. has such a construction (Incidentally, OpenGL is a trademark of Silicon Graphics Inc.). However, if the image generating apparatus is applied to a navigation system or the like, it is required to generate the 3D images successively in real time in order to reproduce a view that successively changes, such as a landscape watched from a moving car or the like. As the movement of a car is fast, the landscape quickly changes. Therefore, it is required to generate 3D images at a very high speed. For this reason, if the generating of the display list is carried out at every 3D image corresponding to the changing view, it is impossible to reproduce the continuous and smooth change of the view as 3D images, because it takes a long time to generate the display list for each 3D image. Also, there is a technique that can store image information of a region wider than a display region in a larger frame buffer and instantly display the image when the display region is moved within the range. This technique can be used for a simple 2D image. However, it cannot be used for a 3D image, because the view to be displayed as the 3D image variously changes with the change of a view point, and therefore, it is impossible to generate and store in advance all of the 3D images corresponding to the various changes of the view point even if a large capacity memory is prepared.

Image generating apparatus, image generating method, and computer program


A riser connector connects the upper portion of a riser (12) having a latching enlargement (32) to a receptacle (14) on a vessel (16), so the riser upper end (22) can connect to a fluid coupling (42) leading to a conduit (40) on the vessel. A double-click mechanism (88), with parts on the enlargement and on the receptacle, turns a load ring on the enlargement to latch the enlargement in place when it is lifted to an upper position and lowered to a latched position, and releases it by again lifting and lowering. A cable coupling (24) is temporarily mounted on the top of the riser to enable the riser to be lifted by a cable (26), the cable coupling being later removed to connect the riser upper end to the fluid coupling on the vessel.

Risers, which are fluid-carrying conduits, are widely used in the production and transfer of hydrocarbons in offshore installations, such as to carry oil and/or gas from a sea floor well up to a vessel that floats at the sea surface. The connection and disconnection of the ends of risers can be time-consuming. One current method is to mount an enlargement on the riser near an upper end of the riser. The vessel carries a basket that can hold the enlargement. The riser is lifted until the enlargement lies above the level of the basket. The riser is moved sideward through a slot in the basket so the enlargement is directly over the basket. The enlargement is then lowered until it lies nested in the basket. Thereafter, the basket supports the enlargement and the upper end of the riser. This method is time consuming. In some situations, as where the riser upper end must be pulled up into an underwater opening in a turret of the vessel, considerable extra space must be provided, in addition to the awkwardness of shifting the enlargement through the slot before setting it down into the basket. It is desirable that no separate hydraulic or electrical actuator be required to latch the enlargement in the basket. A way of latching a lifted riser enlargement into a receptacle on a vessel, which minimizes the required space around the receptacle, which can be easily operated, and which does not require electric or hydraulic energized locks, would be of value.


A motorless treadmill for exercising the upper body and lower body of a user. Displacement of an upper-body exercise mechanism such as a pair of reciprocating arm members rotates a drive roller. The drive roller is coupled to an endless belt, and a transmission system links the drive roller to the upper body exercise mechanism such that arm movements are translated into belt rotation. In one embodiment, pulleys are used as the transmission system to transmit the energy from the movement of the arm members to the belt. A flywheel may be added to store energy to smooth the belt rotation.

Conventional treadmills employ a motor to rearwardly drive an endless belt. Generally, a user of a conventional treadmill is able to vary the speed and incline of the treadmill to obtain a desired level of workout. More sophisticated treadmills, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,462,504 and assigned to the assignee of the present application, automatically adjust the speed and incline of the treadmill to control the heart rate of the user.
In general, treadmills function to exercise the user's cardiovascular system and the skeletal muscles of the lower body, but do not exercise the upper body to any significant extent. Accordingly, a number of treadmills have upper body exercise devices associated therewith, such as arm members which are moveable against the resistance of a spring.
While conventional motor-driven treadmills provide a desirable exercise apparatus in appropriate settings, in other settings the motor makes such an apparatus undesirable. For example, motors need maintenance, can fail, need to be plugged into a power source and add to the weight of the treadmill, while the expense of the motor is a major factor in treadmill purchases.
As a result, simple treadmills are known which do not use motors, but are instead designed to be inclined such that the belt rotates rearwardly as a result of the weight and forward stride of the user overcoming belt friction. However, once the incline is set, these types of treadmills feel unnatural to a user because changes to the belt speed depend upon the amount of additional rearward force a user is able to apply. For example, without interrupting an exercise session to adjust the incline, a user wishing to increase the speed of a gravity-driven belt must push down and/or forwardly on hand rails or arm members in order to change the amount of rearward force applied to the belt. Such a workout is not at all like a person's natural stride when increasing or decreasing speed.


A process for activating a zinc-containing ore for flotation in aqueous media, wherein an ammonium-free aqueous cupric chloride solution is added to the media.

The present invention relates to the flotation recovery of zinc from zinc-containing ore. More particularly, the present invention provides a process for activation of zinc-containg ore for flotation utilizing an ammonium-free aqueous cupric chloride (spent printed wire board etchant) solution.
Ore flotation consists of producing a mineral concentrate using chemical conditioning agents followed by intense agitation and air sparging of the agitated ore slurry to produce a mineral-rich foam concentrate. Typically, crude ore is ground to a fine powder and mixed with water and reagents. When air is blown through the mixture, mineral particles tend to cling to the bubbles, which rise to form a froth on the surface. The froth is skimmed off and the water and chemicals removed, leaving a clean concentrate. Among the minerals effectively concentrated by this method are sulfide and phosphate ores. Several stages of processing are generally involved with rough bulk flotation products being subjected to additional flotation steps to increase product purity.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,936,294 to Childress describes a method for activating zinc sphalerite mineral in which crushed zinc sphalerite is mixed with an activating solution of ammoniated aqueous CuCO3 or CuCl2. This activator is a substitute for CuSO4 which is more expensive and less superior. Following activation, a flotation agent is added and air bubbles are introduced into the aqueous media to cause zinc to float to the surface.
The use of ammoniated aqueous CuCO3 or ammoniated aqueous CuCl2 is disadvantageous environmentally due to the presence of ammonia. Moreover, the use of such ammoniated copper solutions results in significant amounts of iron being extracted from the ore which carries over into the zinc.
A need exists for an improved activation solution for the flotation recovery of zinc. The present invention seeks to fill that need.
It has been discovered, surprisingly, according to the present invention, that it is possible to obtain improved zinc recovery in a zinc flotation process utilizing as activator an aqueous cupric chloride solution which is free of ammonia or ammonium compounds.
According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a process for activation of a zinc-containing ore for flotation in aqueous media comprising adding to the media an ammonium-free aqueous cupric chloride solution.
According to another aspect, the invention provides a process for activation of zinc sphalerite for flotation in aqueous media comprising adding to the media an ammonium-free aqueous cupric chloride solution.
The present invention resides in the surprising discovery that ammonium-free aqueous cupric chloride solutions, especially printed wire board spend etchant solutions, may be utilized to enhance the efficiency of flotation recovery of zinc from zinc-containing ore. A typical source of these ammonium-free aqueous cupric chloride containing solutions is spent etching solution utilized in the printed circuit board industry (printed wire board industry).
The solutions generally comprise in addition to cupric chloride (1) hydrochloric acid and chlorine gas, (2) hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide, and (3) hydrochloric acid and sodium chlorate. In addition sodium chloride can be added to all three formulae. Other chemical species can be added or substituted, such as potassium chlorate. Various ratios of these chemical components are used as etchants in the printed wire board industry. Any of the weight ratios of the components in the spent etchant will work in the zinc flotation process. It will be understood that many variations in spent etchant formulas are possible, all of which will be apparent to persons of ordinary skill in the art.
As used herein, the term xe2x80x9cammonium-free aqueous cupric chloride solutionxe2x80x9d means an aqueous solution of cupric chloride which contains substantially no ammonia or ammonium ion, such that the pH of the solution is no greater than 6, more usually in the range of 0-3, typically no greater than 1.5. Generally, the solution contains less than 0.5% by volume ammonia or ammonium ion, more usually from zero to less than 0.005% by volume ammonia or ammonium ion.
The temperature is usually maintained in the region of 80-130xc2x0 F. The control of temperature and pH is well known within the knowledge of those skilled in the art.
The flotation process of the present invention is carried out according to conventional techniques. Any zinc-containing ore may used in the process. An examples of a suitable ore is zinc sphalerite. Others known in the art are available for use. Zinc sphalerite is most typically employed in the present process.
An example of a typical step methodology will now be described for a flotation process involving an activation according to the present invention. It will be understood that many variations in mill procedure are possible, all of which will be apparent to persons of ordinary skill in this art.
Initially, the zinc ore is subjected to crushing, typically in a conventional jaw crusher. The ore is initially reduced to approximately 5 inches diameter or less, followed by further crushing to reduce the size to less than 1 inch, more usually less than xc2xd inch.
The ground ore is then classified according to conventional techniques. Examples of classifiers which may be employed are rake classifiers and cyclone classifiers. Differential grinding may also be employed wherein a flotation step is interposed between first and second grinding steps. A detailed discussion of differential flotation techniques along with other aspects of zinc mining is contained in AIME World Symposium on Mining and Metallurgy of LEAD and ZINC; Vol. 1, Rausch and Mariacher, eds., The American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, Inc. (1970). Many other variations in the grinding and classification steps will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art.
In the majority of zinc deposits, the zinc mineral is contaminated with other elements, typically lead, copper and cadmium. Iron is also usually present. The present invention achieves effective separation of zinc from such other metals, and results in reduced carry-over of iron into the recovered zinc, as compared to prior processes utilizing copper sulfate and ammoniated cupric chloride and/or ammoniated copper carbonate.
In the next stage, following flotation of a copper-lead fraction of the mineral ore, the non-floating fraction containing the zinc-containing ore is advanced to an activation station where an ammonium-free solution of aqueous cupric chloride (CuCl2) is added to the aqueous media containing the zinc ore. Examples of ammonium-free aqueous solutions of cupric chloride are provided above. The quantity of the activating solution added will vary, depending upon a number of factors. Generally, a sufficient quantity of ammonium-free solution of aqueous cupric chloride should be added to assure complete flotation of ZnS. The quantity of activating solution utilized will vary with the concentration of the solution as well as with the content of ZnS in the ore. Another factor is the amount of soluble Cu or CuO present in the mineral ore. The presence of soluble Cu or CuO will reduce the quantity of activating solution required.
In the absence of copper contamination, the amount of ammonium-free solution of cupric chloride used according to the invention may be determined using standard techniques known to those skilled in the art.
After activation of the zinc ore, and usually immediately prior to flotation, a suitable flotation agent is added to the aqueous medium. Typical flotation agents include sodium ethyl xanthate, amyl xanthate, methyl isobutyl carbinol, compounds sold under the trademark xe2x80x9cAerofloatxe2x80x9d by American Cyanamid Co. and those sold under the trademark xe2x80x9cMinerecxe2x80x9d by Minerec Corporation.
The zinc concentrate from the flotation step is then passed to a zinc upgrading circuit where the pH is lowered and the concentrate is heated. Additional flotation agent may be added at this stage to separate pyrite from the zinc concentrate to upgrade the ore. The pyrite is returned to the zinc flotation circuit for additional reclamation. The zinc concentrate is advanced for dewatering by thickening, filtering and drying, by the use of conventional equipment. Likewise, tailings are disposed of according to techniques well known to those skilled in the art.
It has been found, surprisingly, according to the present invention that the use of ammonium-free aqueous cupric chloride results in an increased yield of zinc as compared to that obtained using ammoniated copper solutions such as copper ammonium chloride and higher than that obtained using copper sulfate. This is demonstrated below in the working Example. A further surprising and advantageous result is that the carry-over of contaminant iron from the ore to the zinc in the flotation process is less than observed using copper ammonium chloride or copper sulfate. In addition, the use of cupric chloride as opposed to ammoniated copper solutions is environmentally more advantageous, and is less costly than either ammoniated copper solutions or copper sulfate.

Use of cupric chloride in zinc flotation


The present invention is directed to a method and system for unloading one or more T1 payloads from a target ATM cell where a target ATM cell has traveled over an ATM network that is emulating a T1 link. A plurality of ATM cells are stored in a cell buffer at a first rate. A buffer controller selects the target ATM cell from the bottom of the cell buffer. The buffer controller sends the T1 payloads carried in the target ATM cell to an elastic store buffer. The elastic buffer sends a plurality of timeslots in each T1 payload to a switch matrix at a second rate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to emulating a T1 communications link over an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) communications network. In particular, the present invention relates to a method for unloading T1 payloads from an ATM cell using a cell buffer and an elastic store buffer.
2. Related Art
A communications network serves to transport information among a number of locations. The information is usually presented to the network in the form of time-domain electrical signals and may represent any combination of voice, video, or computer data. A typical communication network consists of various physical sites called xe2x80x9cnodesxe2x80x9d, interconnected by conduits called xe2x80x9clinksxe2x80x9d. Each link serves to carry information from one site to another site. Individual sites contain data terminating equipment (DTE) for combining, separating, and transforming data.
T1 (also known as DS1) is one type of digital communications link. T1 is a synchronous link capable of carrying 24 64 Kbps channels (or DS0 channels) which are time domain multiplexed (TDM) and transmitted over a single physical line. T1 was originally developed to carry digitized voice communication which leads to the 64 Kbps channel standard. This occurs because an analog voice signal can be adequately represented by a digital data stream if sampled at a rate of 8000 samples per second. If each voice sample is digitized using 8 bits, this results in a digital data stream of 64 kbps.
A T1 link transmits one T1 frame 8000 times per second (or one frame every 125 xcexcs). Each T1 frame contains 24 DS0 timeslots, with 8 bits in each timeslot for a total of 192 bits, plus one additional frame bit that identifies the start of a T1 frame. This results in a data stream of 1.544 Mbps (8000 frames/secxc2x7193 bits/frame).
A T1 link may process T1 frames in groups known as T1 superframes or T1 extended superframes (ESF). A T1 superframe is composed of 12 T1 frames, such that each superframe contains a frame bit section composed of 12 frame bits, and a payload section of 12 samples for each of the 24 channels. A T1 ESF comprises an ESF frame bit section including 24 frame bits, and an ESF payload section including 24 samples of each of the 24 channels.
Although T1 was developed for real time voice communications, it is not limited to voice communications. The physical line carrying the 24 channels is capable of carrying real time digitized voice communications or non-real time data communications. Thus, a broader definition of a T1 link is a digital TDM transmission link with a capacity of 1.544 Mbps.
Since T1 is a synchronous TDM link, once a channel connection has been set up between two users, that channel is dedicated until the connection is torn down. For example, if channel #5 of the 24 T1 channels is set up between user A and user B, channel #5 will carry all communication between user A and user B. If there is a pause in the communication between user A and user B during the transmission of a particular T1 frame, then that particular T1 frame will carry an empty channel #5 timeslot. It can be seen that even a short pause of one minute can lead to 480,000 T1 frames being transmitted with an empty channel #5 timeslot. This is so even if channel #6 is being fully utilized by computer data at 64 kBs, but the channel #6 user would like to send data over two channels (e.g. #5 and #6) for an effective rate of 128 kbps. This results in an inefficient use of the 1.544 Mbps of T1 link capacity.
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a type of communications network that makes more efficient use of channel capacity than a synchronous T1 link. The basic unit sent over an ATM network is an ATM cell. A DTE with an ATM port into the ATM cloud sends time domain multiplexed cells at whatever rate is needed to satisfy all of the demand from users using the DTE, but will buffer excess cells to be transmitted if demand temporarily exceeds capacity.
For example, assume user A wants to send data at a rate of 500 Kbps over a physical line into the ATM cloud with 1000 Kbps capacity for 10 seconds, and then not send anything for 10 seconds. Another user, user B, wants to send a large block of data, for example, a 100 million byte file of geological data used for oil field analysis. User B""s priority is lower than that of user A.
Users A and B each start transmitting at the same time. The DTE would give user A as much of the 1000 kbps line capacity as it can use, since it has a higher priority. In this case, it""s 50%. User B gets the remaining 50% since its priority is lower than user A. After 10 seconds user A stops sending data to the DTE, and the DTE allocates 100% of the line capacity to user B for the remainder of the time that user A is not sending data. When user A starts sending again, its higher priority traffic will force the DTE to scale back what user B sends. User A and user B would correspond to the users of channel #5 and #6 in the example three paragraphs back. The inherent efficiencies of ATM, with its ability to assign priorities such that intelligent decisions can be made on the spot, are one reason for its appeal to the telecommunications industry.
One way to improve the efficiency of a T1 link is to emulate or terminate a T1 line at an ATM DTE with private branch exchange (PBX) capabilities and package the T1 frames in ATM cells that are sent over an ATM network. At the ATM destination node, the T1 frames are unpackaged (or unloaded) and sent to a switch matrix. The switch matrix de-multiplexes the DS0 channels and sends them to their particular DS0 user destinations or to a T1 line to another PBX. This approach is referred to as T1 emulation over an ATM network.
As discussed earlier, T1 was originally developed to carry real time voice communications, but is also capable of carrying non-real time data communications. Voice communications requires that system delay be kept to a minimum. In other words, users of a T1 voice link will not tolerate noticeable transmission delay.
Real time voice is tolerant of an occasional deletion or duplication of a single frame of data. This typically occurs when the two end nodes carrying the T1 traffic are not synchronized to each other. They are then operating at different clock rates, with one clock rate slightly higher than the other is. When this happens, the faster running end node will send more frames than the slower running end node can receive, and the slower running end node will send fewer frames than the faster running end node expects. To accommodate this, a frame of data is deleted or duplicated, depending on whether too many or too few, respectively, are received by each end node. This frame deletion or duplication is called a frame slip.
Current methods for unloading T1 frames from ATM cells are configured for real time voice communications as opposed to non-real time data communications. What is needed is a method that may be configured for real time voice communications with little delay that can also be configured for non-real time data communications with little additional effort.
The present invention generally relates to emulating a T1 communications link over an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) communications network. In particular, the present invention relates to a method and system for unloading one or more T1 payloads from a target ATM cell. The invention can be customized to provide low delay for real time voice communications with occasional frame slips. Alternatively, the invention can be customized to provide high delay for non-real time data communications with virtually no frame slips. The modification to switch from serving real-time to non-real time communications is relatively easy to implement.
According to the present invention, a plurality of incoming ATM cells is stored in a cell buffer at a first rate, wherein the first rate is the incoming cell rate. Each ATM cell carries at least one T1 payload, and each T1 payload comprises a plurality of timeslots. Next, the buffer controller selects the ATM cell at the bottom of the cell buffer as the target ATM cell. The buffer controller sends the T1 payload(s) from the target ATM cell to an elastic store buffer. Finally, the plurality of timeslots that comprise each T1 payload are sent to a switch matrix at a second rate that is generally asynchronous from the first rate.
In one embodiment, the emulated T1 link is carrying non-real time communications, and the storage capacity of the cell buffer is made large to absorb differences between incoming cell rate and the switch matrix rate. This minimizes frame slips during the unloading of the one or more T1 frames.
In another embodiment, the emulated T1 link is carrying real time communications (e.g. voice), and the storage capacity of the cell buffer is made small to minimize system delay of the T1 link as each cell waits in the buffer.
Frame slips are handled differently for real-time communication than for non-real time communication. For real time communications, buffer controller monitors the cell level in the cell buffer and determines if the cell level exceeds an upper threshold. If the cell level exceeds an upper threshold, then the buffer controller instructs the cell buffer to deliver an ATM cell to the elastic store buffer a frame early. This overwrites, or deletes, the last frame stored in the elastic store buffer. It also reduces the level in the cell buffer since cells are removed faster than they arrive for one frame. This is repeated until the cell level returns to the nominal cell level. If the cell level equals or falls below a lower threshold, then the buffer controller instructs the cell buffer to delay delivery of T1 payloads to the elastic store buffer for a single frame. The elastic store buffer is automatically configured to always duplicate the last frame sent to it, so it will then repeat this last frame. This additional delay allows the network time to deliver another cell, which moves the buffer above the lower threshold.
For non-real time data delivery, when the buffer controller determines that the cell level exceeds an upper threshold, it instructs the cell buffer to delete a quantity of cells until the cell level returns to the nominal cell level. If the buffer controller monitoring the cell level in the cell buffer determines that the cell level drops below a lower threshold, it instructs the cell buffer to suspend delivery of cells to the elastic store buffer until the cell buffer fills up to the nominal cell level.
Other embodiments of this concept are possible. These are described as an example only, and give a sufficient description of the concept that someone readily skilled in the art can implement.
In another embodiment, the cell buffer and elastic store buffer are configured to unload dual T1 source payloads from the target ATM cell.
In another embodiment, the emulated T1 link is a fractional T1 link.
Further features and advantages of the present invention, as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the present invention, are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying figures.

Method and system for unloading T1 payloads from ATM cells


An electronic system includes a reflective film including a diffraction grating configured to reflect an image within a reflective grating spectra at a reflection angle; and an image capture unit positioned at a device orientation to capture the image reflected from the reflective film.

Modern consumer and industrial electronics, especially communication devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops with embedded webcams, and video conferencing systems are providing increasing levels of functionality to support modem life including facilitating interactions with other electronic devices and users. Research and development in the existing technologies can take a myriad of different directions.
As users become more empowered with the growth of communication devices, new and old paradigms begin to take advantage of this new device space. There are many technological solutions to take advantage of this new device capability to communicate with other users and other devices. However, video communications using such devices often feel awkward and impersonal for both the viewer and the viewee.
Thus, a need still remains for an electronic system with a gaze alignment mechanism appropriate for today's communication needs. In view of the ever-increasing commercial competitive pressures, along with growing client expectations and the diminishing opportunities for meaningful product differentiation in the marketplace, it is increasingly critical that answers be found to these problems.
Additionally, the need to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and performance, and meet competitive pressures adds an even greater urgency to the critical necessity for finding answers to these problems. Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.

Electronic system with gaze alignment mechanism and method of operation thereof


To provide a handlebar switch that can achieve reduction in size of a switch case, while ensuring operability of switches that increase in number, a handlebar switch includes switch cases disposed on a handlebar inside a handlebar grip in a vehicle width direction and a plurality of switches disposed on the switch cases. The switches include direction switches that specify up, down, left, and right directions. The direction switches disposed to form one vertical row include a pair of upper and lower depressing up and down switches that specify up and down directions, respectively, and a tilting left-right switch that is disposed between the up and down switches and that specifies a left or right direction. Other switches are disposed at the left and right of the direction switches.

Various types of switch case configurations have hitherto been devised to respond to an increasing number of switches in the handlebar switch configured as a switch case that is mounted on a steering handlebar and in which a plurality of switches are disposed.
Patent Document 1 discloses a configuration in which a sub-switch case including a plurality of switches is disposed adjacent on the inside in a vehicle width direction to a switch case mounted on a handlebar that constitutes a steering handlebar.


A semiconductor device includes a gate structure located on a substrate and a raised source/drain region adjacent to the gate structure. The raised source/drain region includes: a first epitaxial-grown doped layer of the raised source/drain region in contact with the substrate; a second epitaxial-grown doped layer on the first epitaxial-grown doped layer and including a same dopant species as the first epitaxial-grown doped layer, wherein the second epitaxial-grown doped layer includes a higher dopant concentration than the first epitaxial-grown doped layer and interfacing the gate structure by using a predetermined distance; and a third epitaxial-grown doped layer on the second epitaxial-grown doped layer and including the same dopant species as the first epitaxial-grown doped layer, wherein the third epitaxial-grown doped layer includes a higher dopant concentration than the second epitaxial-grown doped layer.

A significant trend throughout integrated circuit (IC) development is the downsizing of IC components. As the size reduces, the performance requirements become more stringent. Also, as devices continue to shrink in size, the channel region continues to shrink as well. For metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs), increased performance requirements have generally been met by aggressively scaling the length of the channel region. However, such a short channel length faces high electric field and manufacturing limits.
As the length of a channel continues to shrink, diffusion of dopants becomes much harder to control. There are various thermal processes throughout a semiconductor manufacturing. For example, after dopants are implanted into a substrate, a thermal process is used to activate the dopants. However, these thermal processes cause dopant diffusion in an unintentional way. In addition, shorter channel lengths suffer from fluctuation of higher implantation concentration and depth. As the dopant concentration reaches about 1E20 atoms/cm3, the dopants will easily diffuse into channel regions and induce short channel effects during a thermal process. The electrical properties, such as threshold voltage, are altered and deviated from a predetermined value. This causes uniformity between each device and is a severe problem in circuit design. As such, a sufficient method to control the doped profile is required.

Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY LTD.


A flexible endoscope of the present invention includes a catheter portion and a connection plug. The catheter portion includes an image guide, a light guide, and a catheter tube that surrounds the image guide and the light guide in a longitudinal direction, and the connection plug includes a hollow cover that accommodates the proximal end of the catheter tube, a flexible tube that protrudes from the hollow cover and through which the catheter tube is passed, a first connection terminal that is connected to the light guide extending from the proximal end of the catheter tube, and a second connection terminal that is connected to the image guide extending from the proximal end of the catheter tube. The image guide and the light guide are slidable inside the catheter tube, and at least one of the image guide and the light guide is arranged curved inside the hollow cover of the connection plug.

In recent years, various endoscopic technologies that can be used to perform diagnosis, an operation, and the like inside a human body have been developed.
In particular, a flexible endoscope called an angioscope or angioscope catheter is used to measure the properties, length, and/or stenosis rate of a lesion inside a blood vessel such as a coronary artery. Such an angioscope is designed to have an elongated shape with a very small axial diameter compared with a digestive endoscope to be used to perform diagnosis, an operation, and the like on digestive organs, for example, in order to facilitate forward movement and backward movement inside a blood vessel. Furthermore, the angioscope includes, at its distal end (i.e., a leading end of the endoscope that is the farthest from the hand of a doctor), at least two guide members, namely a light guide including an optical fiber that can be used to irradiate the outside thereof with light, and an image guide including an image fiber for image transmission to be used to transmit, to a doctor, image information obtained at the distal end.
In addition, the proximal ends of these two guides of the angioscope (i.e., a leading end of the endoscope that is the closest to the hand of a doctor) are connected to a relay apparatus, and the relay apparatus is electrically connected to a medical console having various information processing functions including functions for displaying, analyzing, and storing the transmitted image information.
It has been conventionally proposed that the two guides of the angioscope are connected to the relay apparatus by inserting connection terminals of the light guide and image guide extending from the angioscope into ports provided in the relay apparatus. However, with such a procedure in which connection terminals are individually connected, there is a concern that a connection operation will take an unnecessary amount of time, and the connection terminals of the guides will be mistaken and connected to the wrong ports.
Meanwhile, the image fiber for the image guide included in such an angioscope is obtained by bundling, or bundling and bonding or fusing, a plurality of fine glass fibers using a method known to those skilled in the art, or by extending the thus-obtained bundles. If care is not taken during connection to the relay apparatus, it is conceivable that these fibers will be damaged and the performance of the image fiber is thus impaired. Therefore, care also needs to be taken during connection to the relay apparatus.

Flexible endoscope, and endoscope system equipped with same


The present invention relates to a process for producing zeaxanthin, β-carotene, or lycopene, comprising inducing mutation in a carotenoid-producing microorganism in which the base sequence of DNA corresponding to 16S ribosomal RNA is substantially homologous to the base sequence described in SEQ ID NO: 1; screening for a mutant strain having a high product proportion of zeaxanthin, β-carotene, or lycopene to the whole production amount of carotenoids to provide a microorganism producing zeaxanthin, β-carotene, or lycopene; culturing the mutant microorganism; and harvesting zeaxanthin, β-carotene, lycopene or a carotenoid mixture containing the same from the resultant culture.

Zeaxanthin is contained in various plants such as corn, added to feed as natural yellow pigment, and known to have applications for improving the color tone of egg yolk, meat, or skin of a fowl such as chicken and uses as a coloring agent for food. It also has a potent antioxidant effect (Fisheries Science, 62(1): 134-137, 1996), and has been reported to have an anti-tumor effect (Biol. Pharm. Bull., 18(2): 227-233, 1995). Zeaxanthin is known to be, together with lutein, present in the retina and lens and involved in the maintenance of eye health (FOOD Style 21, 3(3): 50-53, 1999). Due to these physiological effects, zeaxanthin is useful as a health food, cosmetic, or pharmaceutical material. β-Cryptoxanthin is contained in citrus fruits, known to have an anti-tumor effect (Biol. Pharm. Bull., 18(2): 227-233, 1995), and has applications as a food material or a compounding ingredient for feed. β-Carotene has provitamin A and antioxidant actions and is widely used as feed additive, food additive, natural coloring agent, or the like.
Known as a process for producing zeaxanthin are chemical synthesis using, as a raw material, an optically active hydroxyketone obtained by the asymmetric reduction of oxoisophorone (Pure Appl. Chem., 63(1): 45, 1991) and extraction from corn seeds (Seitai Shikiso (Biochrome), 1974, Asakura-shoten). A process by extraction from marigold is also known (JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 08-092205 A (1996)); however, a marigold-derived carotenoid mainly comprises lutein and has a reduced content of zeaxanthin. Further, microorganisms for production thereof include Spirulina algae (JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 10-155430 A (1998)), Nannochloris spp. microalgae (JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 07-059558 A (1995)), Flexibacter spp. bacteria (JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 05-328978 A (1993)), Alteromonas spp. bacteria (JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 05-049497 A (1993)), Flavobacterium spp. bacteria (Carotenoids, in Microbial Technology, 2nd edn, Vol. 1, 529-544, New York: Academic Press), Agrobacterium aurantiacum (FEMS Microbiology Letters, 128: 139-144, 1995), and a bacterial strain, E-396 (FERM BP-4283) belonging to a novel genus (JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 07-079796 A (1995), JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 08-009964 A (1996), U.S. Pat. No. 5,607,839, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,858,761).
β-Carotene is a natural yellow carotenoid contained in green and yellow vegetables such as carrot and finds wide use as a coloring agent for foods such as batter and margarine. It also has provitamin A activity and is an important nutrient for human. This substance is known to have an antioxidant effect (Fisheries Science, 62(1): 134-137, 1996) and has been reported to have anti-tumor and anti-cancer effects (Biol. Pharm. Bull., 18(2): 227-233, 1995). Due to these physiological effects, β-carotene is useful not only as a coloring agent, but also as a functional material for use in feed, food, cosmetics, or pharmaceuticals.
Known as a process for producing β-carotene are chemical synthesis from β-ionone (Pure Appl. Chem., 63(1): 45, 1979) and extraction from green and yellow vegetables such as carrot, sweetpotato, and pumpkin (Tennen Chakusyokuryo (Natural Coloring Agents) Handbook, Korin Publishing Co., Ltd., Tennen Chakusyokuryo Handbook Editorial board ed.). In addition, as example of production of β-carotene by a microorganism is known that by Dunaliella algae (J. Phycol, 23: 176, 1987), Blakeslea trispora (filamentous fungi) (Appl. Environ. MicroBiol. 36: 639-642, 1979), Phaffia rhodozyma (yeast) (JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 05-168465 A (1993)), Rhodotorula spp. yeasts (JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 06-022748 A (1994)), Agrobacterium aurantiacum (FEMS Microbiology Letters, 128: 139-144, 1995), or the bacterial E-396 strain (FERM BP-4283) belonging to a novel genus (JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 07-079796 A (1995), JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 08-009964 A (1996), U.S. Pat. No. 5,607,839, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,858,761).
Lycopene is a natural red carotenoid contained in tomato and useful as a coloring agent for food. It also has a potent antioxidant effect (Arch. Biochem. Biophys., 271: 532, 1989), is known to inhibit the oxidation of low density lipoproteins associated with arteriosclerosis (Nutr. Metab. Cordiovasc. Dis 7: 433, 1997) and has been reported to suppress the proliferation of cancer cells (J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 91: 313, 1999). Due to these physiological effects, lycopene is useful as a material for use in feed, food, cosmetics, or pharmaceuticals.
Known as a process for producing lycopene are chemical synthesis using linalool or geraniol as raw material (JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2001-039943 A (2001)) and separation and refinement from tomato (JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2002-193850 A (2002)). In addition, microorganisms for production of lycopene include Dunaliella algae (JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2001-161391 A (2001)), Chlorella algae (JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2000-152778 A (2000)), and Rhodobacter spp. bacteria (JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 08-239658 A (1996)). The bacterial E-396 (FERM BP-4283) strain belonging to a novel genus (JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 07-079796 A (1995), JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 08-009964 A (1996), U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,607,839, and 5,858,761) is also known to produce carotenoid compounds at high concentrations, but the level of lycopene production is minimal.
However, the above-described processes for chemically synthesizing zeaxanthin, β-carotene, and lycopene have problems in terms of safety and the directional trend of recent years toward a natural product because their use of organic solvents. Also, the conventional cultivation using a microorganism is not practical because of low productivity, and extraction from a plant (for example, corn, carrot, tomato, or the like) has the disadvantages of requiring too much cost because of its low content of a desired carotenoid compound and making its stable supply difficult because of weather dependency. The E-396 strain, which is known as a microorganism producing carotenoid compounds, has low product proportions of zeaxanthin, β-carotene, and lycopene to the total carotenoids, although it has provided an established process for producing, at high concentrations on an industrial scale, carotenoid compounds having safety already confirmed by various tests and including astaxanthin.
Thus, there is need for an inexpensive process for producing zeaxanthin, β-carotene, and lycopene with high safety, by which they can be stably supplied.

Process for producing carotenoid compound


Methods for treating and/or collecting information regarding neurological disorders, including language disorders, are disclosed. A method in accordance with one embodiment directing a patient to perform a language-based task, directing information to be collected, with the information corresponding to a level of neural activity in the patient's brain while the patient performs the language-based task, and, based at least in part on the information, selecting a stimulation site within the patient's skull for receiving an electrode coupleable to an electrical current. In further embodiments, at least one electrode can be placed at the stimulation site, and the patient's language disorder can be reduced by applying electrical stimulation directly to the stimulation site via the at least one electrode.

A wide variety of mental and physical processes are controlled or influenced by neural activity in particular regions of the brain. For example, various physical or cognitive functions are directed or affected by neural activity within the various regions of the cerebral cortex. For most individuals, particular areas of the brain appear to have distinct functions. In the majority of people, for example, the areas of the occipital lobes relate to vision; the regions of the left inferior frontal lobes relate to language; portions of the cerebral cortex appear to be involved with conscious awareness, memory, and intellect; and particular regions of the cerebral cortex as well as the basal ganglia, the thalamus, and the motor cortex cooperatively interact to facilitate motor function control.
Aphasias are neurological disorders that affect the language centers of the brain. Aphasias are typically caused by brain lesions that result from a stroke or head injury. Different aphasias result from damage to different portions of the brain's language centers. For example, Broca's aphasia typically results from a large frontal lobe lesion and causes the patient to speak with great effort in a nonfluent manner, while generally not affecting the patient's comprehension of single words and simple sentences. Wernicke's aphasia typically results from damage to the left temporal lobe of the brain and impacts the patient's comprehension of words and sentences, usually without affecting the patient's fluency. Global aphasia can affect both Broca's area and Wernicke's area of the brain and can accordingly adversely affect both the patient's comprehension and speech fluency. Conduction aphasia is caused by damage to structures that interact with the major language areas of the brain. Conduction aphasia does not have as substantial an effect on the patient's comprehension or fluency as do other aphasias, but reduces the patient's ability to repeat sentences verbatim or easily name pictures and objects.
Practitioners have developed imaging techniques to isolate the portions of the brain affected by various aphasias. For example, Perani, et al. disclose identifying and tracking neurological functioning connected with language-based activities by obtaining functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data while the patient executes language-based tasks (see "A fMRI Study of Word Retrieval in Aphasia," Brain and Language 85 (2003) pp. 357-368). Practitioners have also treated aphasia, for example, with conventional and/or melodic speech therapies, with drugs (e.g., amphetamines and other neuro-stimulatory agents) and with transcutaneous magnetic stimulation (TMS) applied to the brain. However, these techniques all suffer from drawbacks. In particular, the efficacies of speech therapy and drug-based techniques have not been conclusively demonstrated, and the effects of TMS are short-lived.


A method for voice evaluation having three analysis steps is described. First, the subject is caused to stand with the arms at the sides and produce a yawn-sigh-like sound ("AH") without vibrato for approximately one second. The subject is instructed to begin the sound fairly high on the vocal scale, using the light mechanism of the voice, and to gradually lower (descend) the pitch of the tone in a smooth sliding/glissando effect. The tone descends through the middle voice and down through the chest voice or heavy mechanism of the voice, ending on the lowest tone that the subject can produce. The analyst listens to the quality of the descending tone evaluating it for clarity across the vocal scale and listening for disturbances in the quality, registration, resonance and placement of the tone, as well as a skip/interruption in the tone, a flutter/shakiness, a double tone, or any other vocal aberration. Second, the subject is caused to turn the head to a first side, facing the shoulder, without turning the torso, thus inhibiting the functioning of the vocal cord on the side being faced and allowing the vocal cord on the opposite side to vibrate freely so that it may be examined. The subject is then instructed to produce a yawn-sigh-like sound as described under the first procedure and the analyst listens to the tone produced and evaluates it as described in the first analysis step. Third, the subject is instructed to turn the head to the opposite side, facing the opposite shoulder, without turning the torso. The subject is then caused to produce the yawn-sigh-like sound as described under the first procedure and the analyst listens to the tone produced and evaluates it as described above. The analyst then compares the tone produced by the subject when facing forward with the tone produced when facing to the first side and then when facing to the opposite side. The tones produced are then analyzed to determine the type, severity and location of bumps or protrusions, swellings, or irritations.

Singers, orators, and others whose hobbies or livelihood depend upon the quality of their voice have long sought training and exercises to improve the quality and condition of their singing or speaking voice. It is well known that the vocal cords must be in good health and functioning properly in order for singer or speaker to produce a clear and dynamic vocal sound. It is also well known that many problems related to the vocal cords are caused by the presence of abnormalities or physical disturbances on the vocal cords that cause the vocal cords to deviate from normal functioning, thus resulting in a disturbance in the tone produced. These abnormalities or disturbances include bumps or protrusions extending outward on or around the approximating edge of the vocal cords, swelling within the vocal cords, or an irritation or disturbance of the tissues along or near the approximating edge of the vocal cords.
Exercises for the strengthening or enhancement of the voice are most effective when they can be designed to address particular informalities in the structure or condition of the vocal cords. When the location and severity of any bumps, protrusions, swellings or irritations can be precisely determined, a skilled voice trainer or speech therapist can design exercises to most effectively eliminate or minimize the problems caused by such conditions.
Inventions covered by the prior art which can be used to determine the condition of the vocal cords, identify and locate bumps, protrusions, swelling, irritations and other problems have typically involved invasive procedures. At a minimum, such inventions have included mirrors and lighting apparatus that are inserted into the throat of the person seeking voice evaluation. Other inventions include miniature video cameras, photographic instruments, and surgical procedures. It is well known that the use of such equipment, in such a sensitive area of the body, will often be less sensitive and less accurate and cause deviations in the evaluation itself. In addition, such procedures are time-consuming, expensive and at least irritating to the person undergoing them.
To date, none of the prior art inventions include methods to precisely determine the location of factors effecting the performance of the vocal cords without the use of artificial equipment which may often have deleterious effects upon the person whose voice is being evaluated.


The systems and methods that generate a one-touch frame are provided. A line of code including a tag is inserted into a webpage. The tag includes a link to a server from which parameters for the frame are obtained. The browser uses the parameters to generate the frame. In addition, the server or a local memory of a computing device on which the frame is generated also store credentials associated with a user account. These credentials are also obtained and incorporated into the frame. The frame may then be activated to perform one-touch functions using the credentials.

A webpage receives input from users. The input allows users to manipulate a webpage and use a webpage to conduct transactions with a server. In this case, the fewer clicks the webpage receives from the user to conduct transactions, the more seamless is the user experience.
Additionally, when a webpage receives user input and conducts transactions, different data may be transmitted and received by the webpage. In this case, the webpage may "hang" or otherwise be unable to receive user input while the webpage waits to receive data or processes data. Additionally, the webpage may also become desynchronized with another webpage that also receives user input and conducts the same or similar transaction.
Embodiments of the disclosure and their advantages are best understood by referring to the detailed description that follows. It should be appreciated that like reference numerals are used to identify like elements illustrated in one or more of the figures, wherein showings therein are for purposes of illustrating embodiments of the disclosure and not for purposes of limiting the same.