An equivalent time sampling system employs two clock frequency sources, phase locked, wherein an analog to digital converter sampling clock is derived from one source and a pulse generator clock is derived from the other. Choice of the clock frequencies determines minimum time step and the set of available time steps, and pulse repetition period determines the time step size, for equivalent time sampling. The system is suitably implemented in a time domain reflectometer, optical time domain reflectometry system, or other systems for obtaining time domain responses to a periodic stimulus of a system under test, with stimulus rate and the sampling intervals varying over a wide range.

This invention relates to test and measurement instruments, and more particularly to equivalent time sampling and, for example, to an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) that employs an improved equivalent time sampling system.
An OTDR is an optical fiber test instrument that launches light pulses into a fiber, then measures the back reflected light signals as a function of time. By examining the result, useful information such as location and loss of connectors and fiber length can be determined.
With reference to FIG. 1, a block diagram of an OTDR in accordance with the prior art, Some of the typical functional blocks in an OTDR include:
Laser diode light source 12, pulsed current source for laser 14, photodiode light receiver 16, fiber directional coupler amplifiers 20, analog to digital converter (ADC) 22, acquisition timing comprising a pulse trigger 24 and ADC clock 26, memory for trace acquisition 28, controller (Digital Signal Processor (DSP) 30, and user interface/display 32.
An OTDR must be able to generate time records over a wide range of record lengths and time steps, to accommodate various fiber lengths from very short, to very long, e.g., 100 kilometers, with trace time steps over 0.3125 ns to 40 ns. Time measurement records are built up over many pulse repetitions rather than a single pulse, for two reasons:                small time steps, less than 1.0 ns, are needed for short cables. Practical ADCs cannot sample that quickly in real time. For example, a typical ADC might have sampling period of 40 ns; and        received signal levels are so small that many samples must be taken and averaged for each trace point, to increase the signal to noise ratio.
During each pulse rep, a subset of the required trace datapoints is acquired. All the different subsets that taken together comprise the trace record are acquired and stored in memory over a sequence of pulse repetitions numbering at least the following:(ADC clock period)/(trace time step).
This process of acquiring and storing over a sequence of pulse repetitions is repeated if averaging is employed. For example, with (ADC clock period)=40 ns and (trace time step)=0.3125 ns, the required number of pulse repetitions is at least 40/0.3125=128. If 64 averages are needed, pulse repetitions=128*64=8,192.
When the resulting trace memory is properly ordered, the result is an equivalent time trace that is identical to what would be obtained in real time at the trace time step rate, or 3.2 GHz for the present example.
OTDR implementations in accordance with the prior art achieve fine time base resolution by using a sequential sampling interlacing scheme, where the ADC clock rate determines coarse sample intervals, and an analog adjustable time delay circuit preceding the pulse generator provides the fine intervals. Each pulse repetition employs a different delay setting to cover all the required trace points. However, in such an implementation, the delay circuit requires high speed, precision parts and also must be calibrated to account for component variations, and is subject to temperature induced inaccuracy. Such a prior art system typically includes a constant current source/capacitor ramp generator that connects to a high speed comparator. The other comparator input comes from a digital to analog converter (DAC). By varying the DAC setting with the digital signal processor 30, a variable delay between starting the ramp and triggering the comparator is obtained, to provide a delay of the actual trigger of the OTDR lasers.
Some drawbacks of the prior art scheme include:                the need to calibrate prior to an acquisition sequence to calibrate the variable delay generator, by determining the DAC values that correspond to the position of two successive A/D clock edges, using the "CAL status" as feedback indicating the relative position of the Delayed Trigger to the A/D clock edge;        the need to calculate DAC values to create the desired interlacing of samples in the equivalent time sampling system;        "finicky" high speed, precision analog hardware is required; and        inaccuracies from second order effects.
Calculating DAC values to create the interlacing of samples is prone to some problems in that the delay is created using analog systems and thus subject to inaccuracies. Further, calibration requires moving the rising edge of the Delayed Trigger into the setup/hold region of a clocked digital part, which is prone to metastability which may lead to inaccurate calibration of the variable delay generator. Also, the laser pulse generator depends on the use of RC time constants to control the laser pulse widths. Individual component variations and inaccuracies result in variations between one device and the next when manufacturing devices.
It would be desirable to have an OTDR system that provided better step size precision, that did not need calibration adjustments and that was free from temperature drift.


A once-through boiler for producing steam from water comprising a boiler vessel having an interior portion, an inlet for passing the water into the boiler vessel, and an outlet. A first conduit is attached to the inlet for passing the water through said boiler vessel and is disposed in the interior of the vessel. A heater positioned within said interior portion and operable to generate heat for evaporating the water in the first conduit. A second conduit is connected to said first conduit at one end of the second conduit and to the outlet at the other end of the second conduit; wherein the second conduit passes the steam generated in the first conduit, and the heater is operable to heat the steam passing through the second conduit; wherein the second conduit attaches to the first conduit in the interior of the boiler vessel, passes externally to the vessel, and thereafter passes into the interior of the boiler vessel where the second conduit connects to the outlet. A spray valve is connected to the second conduit for controlling the temperature rise of the heater. A thermocouple for measuring the steam temperature is connected to the portion of the second conduit which is disposed externally to the vessel; wherein the thermocouple cooperates with the heater and the spray valve, and the heater generates more heat when the thermocouple senses the temperature below a desired level, and the spray valve releases water into the second conduit when the thermocouple senses the temperature above a desired level.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to once-through boilers and, more particularly, is concerned with improved steam temperature control for once-through boilers.
2. Background of the Invention
In a commercial once-through boiler, heat, from which steam and, ultimately, electricity are generated, is produced by burning a fossil fuel, such as coal or oil. The boiler is connected to a steam turbine which in conjunction with a generator produces electricity. The once through boiler itself includes a vessel body. A heater is attached to an interior surface of the vessel body for heating any water or steam passing therethrough. In a simplified form, a series of contiguous components pass through the vessel and forms a continuous conduit for conveying water and, eventually, steam therethrough. The conduit extends generally from the vessel exterior into the vessel and then out of the vessel again. Once the conduit enters the vessel, the water flowing therethrough is converted to steam in a first portion of the conduit, and a latter portion (i.e., superheater) of the conduit heats the steam before it exits the vessel via an outlet. To control the temperature of the steam discharged from the vessel, the temperature of the superheater is varied. A spray valve positioned outside the vessel discharges water into the conduit to counteract the temperature rise associated with the heater, if necessary. The temperature of the superheater is controlled by cooperative interaction between the heater and the spray valve. For example, to increase the heating in the superheater, the heater temperature is increased thereby increasing the temperature rise within the superheater. To lower the temperature of the superheater, the spray valve sprays water into the superheater thereby counteracting the heat of the heater and reducing the temperature rise within the superheater.
A thermocouple is attached to the conduit at the vessel outlet (outside the vessel body), and it communicates with both the spray valve and the heater. This thermocouple measures the temperature of the steam passing therethrough. For efficiency, the steam leaving the boiler and entering the turbine should be within preset limits. The thermocouple measures the temperature to determine if the preset limits are met and communicates this information to the heater and spray valve. If the temperature is below the bottom acceptable limit, the heater generates more heat, further heating the steam in the superheater. If the temperature exceeds an acceptable upper limit, the spray valve releases water into the superheater. This action lowers the temperature rise within the superheater so that heating of the steam is reduced.
Although the presently utilized system is efficient, it is not without drawbacks. In this regard, the steam has significant travel time through the superheater. If the temperature of the steam traveling through the superheater is not within the predetermined limits, it will not be detected until it reaches the thermocouple adjacent the steam outlet. The thermocouple will communicate this information to the spray valve and heater which, after receiving this information, reacts appropriately to either raise or lower the temperature of the steam within the superheater. This is a drawback because a time delay exists before efficient steam is passed to the turbine.
Consequently, a need exists for an improved temperature control of steam developed by once-through boilers.

Temperature control of steam for boilers


A spool has a bobbin, and first and second flange portions that are formed on both ends of the bobbin and have diameters larger than that of the bobbin. A drag mechanism that brakes the spool and includes a drag operation member and first and second member that are arranged on the handle side of the spool. The first brake member is attached to the second flange portion. The second brake member is arranged axially movably and opposite the first brake member. The second flange portion has a large diameter portion and a small diameter portion. The large diameter portion has a diameter larger than that of the first brake member. The small diameter portion is formed between the bobbin and the large diameter portion and has a diameter smaller than that of the first brake member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dual bearing reel. More specifically, the present invention relates to a dual bearing reel that releases and winds fishing line.
2. Background Information
Lever drag type dual bearing reels that move the spool shaft in the axial direction by a lever shaped drag operation member to brake the spool are generally known as dual bearing reels. This dual bearing reel includes a reel unit having a pair of side plates and side covers, a spool shaft that is supported on the reel unit so as to be movable in the axial direction, a spool that is rotatively supported on the spool shaft, a drag mechanism that brakes the spool, and a rotation transmission mechanism that serves to rotate the spool by rotating a handle.
The spool is movable in the axial direction together with the spool shaft, and has a bobbin for winding fishing line around the outer periphery thereof, and flange portions arranged on both ends of the bobbin which project radially outward. The drag mechanism includes a first brake member arranged on an outer side surface of one flange portion of the spool, a second brake member that can be pressed into contact with the first brake member, and a spool shaft movement mechanism that moves the spool shaft in the axial direction. The second brake member is rotatively supported on the spool shaft, and the rotation from the handle is transmitted to the second brake member via the rotation transmission mechanism. The spool shaft movement mechanism has a lever shaped drag operation member that is pivotably supported on the reel unit, a cap shaped drag adjustment member that is fixedly coupled to one end of the spool shaft, and a cam member that is disposed between the drag operation member and the drag adjustment member and is non-rotatably mounted on the reel unit. Slant cams are formed on the cam member, and by pivoting the drag operation member, the drag operation member will raise the slant cams, and the cam member will press the drag adjustment member to move the spool shaft in one axial direction. Movement to the other axial direction of the spool shaft is effected by the urging force of a spring member that is disposed, for example, between the first brake member and the second brake member.
With this type of dual bearing reel, the drive force due to the rotation of the handle is transmitted to the first brake member of the drag mechanism via the rotation transmission mechanism, and transmitted to the spool by pressing the first brake member and second brake member into contact with each other. With this type of configuration, adjustment of the drag mechanism braking force is carried out by pivoting the drag operation member mounted on one end of the spool shaft. When the drag operation member is pivoted in one direction, the spool shaft will move in one of the axial directions due to the cam member, the spool will come near the drag mechanism, and the first brake member will be pressed into contact with the second brake member. With this type of dual bearing reel, by operating the drag operation member, the drag mechanism braking force will be adjusted, and the first brake member and the second brake member will separate from each other and place the spool in the free rotation state.
A dual bearing reel having this type of drag function is known, in which the diameter of a flange portion to which the first brake member is fixedly attached is larger than that of the flange member on the opposite side, and the diameter of the first brake member is larger than the flange portion on the opposite side (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H11-9160). With this dual bearing reel, because the first brake member is formed to have a diameter that is larger than the flange portion on the opposite side, the torque applied to the first brake member will become larger. Accordingly, the braking force of the drag can increase.
Because a dual bearing reel having the aforementioned conventional drag mechanism is formed such that the first brake member has a diameter that is larger than that of the flange portion on the opposite side, the braking force of the drag can be increased. However, when the flange portion to which the first brake member is attached, in order to form the first brake member with a large diameter, is formed to have a diameter larger than that of the flange portion on the opposite side, fishing line may be wound onto the bobbin up to a position on the flange portion to which the first brake member is attached that reaches beyond the flange portion on the opposite side. When a large amount of fishing line is wound onto the bobbin on the flange portion side to which the first brake member is attached in this way, the wind up torque applied to the spool may increase, and the smooth rotation of the spool during wind-up may be compromised.
In view of the above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure that there exists a need for an improved dual bearing reel that overcomes the problems of the conventional art. This invention addresses this need in the art as well as other needs, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.


A saturated steam generation system is supplemented with at least one gas turbine set, at least one heat recovery steam generator, at least one topping steam turbine and at least one steam mixing component. The topping steam turbine is coupled to the gas turbine set and is supplied by the steam generated in the heat recovery steam generator. The exhaust steam from the topping steam turbine is fed via the steam mixing component to the steam turbine set.

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7xc2xa7119 and/or 365 to application Ser. No. 199 62 386,4 filed in Germany on Dec. 23, 1999; the entire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to a method for supplementing a saturated steam generation system having at least one steam turbine set in a steam power plant which is designed for high live steam parameters. It also relates to a steam power plant supplemented using this method.
For various reasons, the state of a steam generator may change, in particular after a prolonged operating period, in such a way that the steam generator can only continue to be operated at reduced output or with changed parameters.
For example, it is possible that the output or specified parameters of a steam generator will not be reached because of the heating surfaces being highly contaminated by deposits.
Particularly in a nuclear power plant, components in the nuclear area are additionally aged by the exposure to radiation. Furthermore, nuclear technology is the subject of intense political discussion, which may cause the statutory framework conditions to change. One consequence may be that it is no longer possible or permissible for the reactor to be operated at its full power density, and as a result the output from the steam generation will fall, the flexibility of the plant will be restricted and the like.
If a steam generator has to be operated at reduced output, and the water/steam cycle and therefore the steam turbine set of the power plant are no longer fully loaded, restrictions arise with regard to the operating methods which were originally permitted and the like. The result is losses in the electric power generated, i.e. financial losses for the operator, for example, of the power plant.
When supplementing saturated steam generation systems of reduced output having steam turbine sets, the supplementing procedure at the same time aims to modernize the installation by raising the steam parameters in order to increase both the output and the efficiency of the overall power plant, comprising the saturated steam generation system and the steam turbine sets.
The invention is therefore based on the object of providing a method for supplementing a saturated steam generation system having at least one steam turbine set, according to which, while the original plant technology is maintained, the at least one steam turbine set can continue to be as fully loaded as possible with a reduced output from the saturated steam generation system.
This supplementing process is advantageously to lead to the output being increased but also, at the same time, to the efficiency of the entire steam power plant being increased.
The invention is to be suitable in particular for supplementing a nuclear saturated steam generation system having at least one steam turbine set.
In a first embodiment of the method, this is achieved, according to the invention, in that the saturated steam generation system is supplemented with at least one gas turbine set, at least one heat recovery steam generator, at least one topping steam turbine and at least one steam mixing component, the exhaust gas from the at least one gas turbine of the at least one gas turbine set is utilized for steam generation in the at least one heat recovery steam generator, the steam which is generated in the at least one heat recovery steam generator is fed via a live steam line to the at least one topping steam turbine, and the exhaust steam from the at least one topping steam turbine is fed via an exhaust steam line to the at least one steam mixing component, in which at least one steam mixing component steam originating from the saturated steam generation system is mixed with steam originating from the at least one topping steam turbine, and the steam mixture is provided to the at least one steam turbine set. The exhaust steam states of the at least one topping steam turbine are within the ranges which are permissible for operation of the at least one steam turbine set.
In a second embodiment of the method, the at least one steam turbine set has a saturated steam intermediate pressure steam turbine, a separator, a reheater and a low pressure steam turbine, and the at least one heat recovery steam generator has a reheater. The exhaust steam from the saturated steam intermediate pressure steam turbine of the at least one steam turbine set is at least in part reheated on the mass flow side in the reheater of the at least one heat recovery steam generator, and the reheated steam is provided to the at least one steam turbine set.
In a third embodiment of the method, the at least one topping steam turbine has a high pressure part and an intermediate pressure part, and the at least one heat recovery steam generator has a reheater. The exhaust steam from the high pressure part of the at least one topping steam turbine is reheated in the reheater of the at least one heat recovery steam generator and, after the reheating, is fed to the intermediate pressure part of the at least one topping steam turbine. The exhaust steam from the intermediate pressure part of the at least one topping steam turbine is fed via the exhaust steam line to the at least one steam mixing component of the at least one steam turbine set.
A steam power plant which has been supplemented according to a first embodiment of a plant for carrying out the method, which plant has a saturated steam generation system and at least one steam turbine set which is supplied with steam by this system, is distinguished by at least one gas turbine set, at least one heat recovery steam generator, at least one topping steam turbine and at least one steam mixing component, which steam mixing component is in communication on the inlet side with the saturated steam generation system and with the at least one topping steam turbine and on the outlet side with at least one part of the steam turbine set.
According to a second embodiment of the plant for carrying out the method, which plant has a saturated steam generation system and at least one steam turbine set, the plant is distinguished by the fact that the at least one heat recovery steam generator has a reheater and the at least one steam turbine set has a saturated steam intermediate pressure steam turbine, a separator, a reheater and a low pressure steam turbine, at least one steam mixing component is arranged between the saturated steam generation system and the at least one steam turbine set, which component is in communication on the inlet side with the saturated steam generation system and the at least one topping steam turbine and on the outlet side with the at least one steam turbine set, which saturated steam intermediate pressure steam turbine is in communication, via a cold reheat steam line, with the reheater of the at least one heat recovery steam generator, from which there leads a hot reheat steam line which runs to the at least one low pressure steam turbine.
According to a third embodiment of the plant for carrying out the method, which plant has a saturated steam generation system and at least one steam turbine set, this plant is distinguished by the fact that the at least one heat recovery steam generator has a reheater, and the at least one topping steam turbine has a high pressure part and an intermediate pressure part, the high pressure part being connected on the exhaust steam side, via a cold reheat steam line, to the reheater of the at least one heat recovery steam generator, the hot reheat line of which is connected to the intermediate pressure part of the at least one topping steam turbine, the exhaust steam line of which is in communication with at least one part of the steam turbine set.
Once the supplementing is complete, the plant comprises at least two independent generator units, having
different dynamic performance
different efficiencies of energy generation, and
if appropriate different fuels and fuel prices.
As a result, there is further freedom in terms of the operating method and the economics of the plant.
The advantages of the invention are that, despite a reduced output from the saturated steam generation system, the existing steam turbine set, which is designed for saturated steam conditions, can continue to be operated under full load, and the overall output and efficiency of the power plant can be increased. In addition, the flexibility of the power plant rises through having two independent generator units. Particularly for nuclear power plants, the result is a plant which involves minimal investment.
Furthermore, particularly in the case of a nuclear power plant, it is possible for the nuclear part of the power plant and the gas turbine part to operate independently. In addition, the power plant represents a first stage of conversion from a nuclear power plant to a combined-cycle power plant, with the aim of subsequently shutting down the nuclear part.

Method for supplementing a saturated steam generation system having at least one steam turbine set, and steam power plant supplemented using the method


A computer implemented method and computer program product for sharing licensed applications between virtual machines. When an event is intercepted which comprises an attempted access of a file stored in a hard disk of a guest operating system, wherein the file type has no association with any application installed on the guest operating system, an application installed on a host operating system capable of opening the file is identified. An association of the file type with an application on the host operating system is established, and the file is copied from the hard disk of the guest operating system to a temporary location on the host operating system. The file is opened and accessed using the associated application on the host operating system. The file is then copied back to the hard disk of the guest operating system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system, and in particular, to a computer implemented method and computer program product for sharing licensed applications between virtual machines.
2. Description of the Related Art
A virtual machine monitor (VMM) is a host program that allows a single computer to support multiple, identical execution environments. An example of a commercial VMM product is VMware®, which is a product of VMware Inc. VMware® is a virtual machine software system that allows a host operating system to run one or more virtual guest operating systems. For example, a system running Windows XP may use VMware® to run an operating system such as Linux or Windows 2000. Once the guest operating system is running, applications may be installed and services may be run which the guest operating system supports. The computing environments created (comprising the guest operating systems) are referred to as virtual machines.
While virtual machine monitors allow users to easily access multiple operating systems without using two separate desktop machines or a dual-boot computer, there can be problems when opening files which are associated with certain applications. Consider the example of an x86-based personal computer (PC) which is running Microsoft Windows as the host operating system, as well as another instance of Microsoft Windows running in VMware as the guest operating system. In this example, the host operating system has an application such as Microsoft Excel installed, and the guest operating system does not have the application installed. When a user wants to open an Excel file located on the guest operating system's hard disk, the user double-clicks the Excel file. Since the guest operating system does not have the Microsoft Excel application installed, a dialog is presented to the user which indicates that there is no application associated with the selected file type. In response, the user currently must drag and drop the Excel file from the guest operating system to the desktop of the host operating system, which does contain the Microsoft Excel program. The user may then double click on the Excel file in order to view the file and make changes. The user then drags and drops the Excel file from the host operating system back to the guest operating system. These existing steps are prone to errors, such as the user forgetting to drag the file back into the virtual machine (guest operating system), or having older copies lying around which can create havoc in version numbers.

Method to share licensed applications between virtual machines

International Business Machines Corporation


A lock nut comprising a solid nut body having a flange, from which a neck projection extends axially, being provided at its end surface with an annular shroud, from which at least two claws extend radially.

The present invention concerns a lock nut (1) for a bearing, especially a wheel bearing of vehicles, wherein the bearing has a universal shaft which introduces the torque across a splining, and a flange, which is axially fastened to the universal shaft by a screw connection.
A nut of this kind is known from DE 195 43 436 C2. This document discloses a sleevelike threaded nut, which is used on a universal shaft of motor vehicle wheels to secure a wheel flange in a wheel bearing. In this case, the sleevelike threaded nut is screwed onto a threaded journal formed on the universal shaft and its axially resilient clamping flange lies against the wheel flange with prestress. The clamping flange passes into a hexagonal recess, which serves to fasten the threaded nut onto the threaded journal of the shaft. Notches are provided at the outer circumference of the threaded portion of the nut, which engage in a splining to secure the threaded nut, transferring the torque from the universal shaft to the wheel flange. In any case, the prestressing force of the bearing is produced by forming the inner end of the hub shaft provided on the wheel flange radially outward into a bead, which thrusts against the roller bearing races that are shoved onto the hub shaft, as is also described in patent DE 4,339,847 C1. This kind of nut serves only as a captive device with slight clamping force, so that the described configuration as a sheet metal part is sufficient.
Practice has shown that the familiar sleevelike threaded nut does not meet the requirements for the clamping force, due to the constantly occurring load changes at the wheel bearing, especially when braking and accelerating the vehicle in curves. The clamping force of this threaded nut produced as a deep-drawn sheet metal part can slacken considerably, which is not acceptable for safety reasons. Furthermore, because of the flexible design of the clamping flange of the sleevelike threaded nut, moisture cannot be reliably prevented from getting into the region of the splining. Thus, the splining may become corroded, so that a reliable transmission of the torque is no longer guaranteed.
The tooling expenses and the production costs are considerable for the sleevelike threaded nut manufactured as a deep-drawn part.

Metallwarenfabrik Hermann Winker GmbH & Co. KG


A high density surface emitting semiconductor LED array comprises disordered regions extending through a second contact layer, second confinement layer, an active layer and partially extending through a first confinement layer to define light emitting areas therebetween the disordered regions. Individual contacts on the second contact layer aligned with each emitting area inject current through the layers to a common contact on a first contact layer causing emission of light from the active layer through the surface of the exposed first contact layer. The second confinement layer can be replaced with a DBR to form an enhanced LED array. Both confinement layers can be replaced with DBRs to form a laser array. A refractive semiconductor layer, fresnel lenses or a micro lens array can be used to optically modify the surface emitted light. The semiconductor laser/light emitting diode arrays are fabricated without a substrate.

This invention relates to a surface emitting semiconductor laser/light emitting diode structure and, more particularly, to a high density surface emitting semiconductor structure without a substrate with independently addressable individual light emitting elements.
The ability to fabricate closely spaced, or high density, independently addressable laser and light emitting diode (LED) sources is important for many applications such as optical disk technology, laser printing and scanning, optical interconnection and fiber optic communications.
Individually, semiconductor light emitting diodes and semiconductor lasers are low power output devices. Arrays of semiconductor light emitting diodes or semiconductor lasers can be used to increase the power output and to simplify optical system design. To provide and maintain good optical alignment of the light emitting elements of the array with one another and to minimize the assembly involved, arrays have been fabricated so that the light emitting elements are in a single semiconductor substrate.
One problem with such arrays is maintaining the electrical and optical isolation between the individual light emitting elements. Another problem is increasing the density of the light emitting elements in the substrate by closely spacing the elements together while still maintaining the isolation, avoiding heat dissipation problems, and providing precise alignment of the elements.
Another problem is making each individual light emitting element in the array independently addressable. As the light emitting elements are spaced closer together in higher densities, it is progressively more difficult to separately, individually and independently cause each element to emit light.
Typical laser and LED sources have been edge emitters. The light is emitted from the edge of a monolithic structure of semiconductor layers. An alternative construction is surface emitters where the light is emitted from the surface of the monolithic structure of semiconductor layers.
Surface emitting semiconductor light sources have several advantages over edge emitters. The light emitting surface of a surface emitter is larger than that of an edge emitter. The power needed to cause emission of light is less for a surface emitter than an edge emitter. Surface emitting LEDs are more efficient than edge emitting LEDs because they have that larger emitting area. Fabrication of surface emitting lasers can be less complex than fabrication of edge emitting lasers since the cleaving and mirror passivation needed for edge emitters are eliminated.
If the individual contacts that make the surface emitters of the array independently addressable are on the same side of the semiconductor as the light emitting surface, the lateral spacing between the surface emitting light sources is restricted and consequently the density of the array is limited. The diameter of the contact will be larger than the diameter of the emitting surface. Annular contact shapes are also more difficult to contact while maintaining a clear aperture for the emitting surface. For direct wire bonds the contacts may require an auxiliary pad. Same surface contacts and emitting surfaces also may increase the amount of heat generated and may cause dissipation problems.
The individual contacts that make the surface emitters of the array independently addressable should also be directly aligned with the light emission optical cavity. Alignment is advantageous because it minimizes the electrical resistance, the current spreading to each emitter, and the size of the electrode. It also places the heatsinking as close to the emitting area as possible. Minimizing current spreading helps electrically isolate the individual elements.
Prior embodiments of the laser/light emitting diode array have all been fabricated on a substrate which remains part of the diode array structure. The substrate provides structural strength and rigidity to the complete semiconductor structure. Substrates are typically 75 to 100 microns thick which greatly increases the size of the semiconductor structure. If the laser/light emitting diode array is a surface emitter and the substrate is between the surface and the light generation layer, then the substrate must be removed by some means to expose the underlying surface emitters to permit the emission of light through the surface or the substrate must have a high bandgap and low doping level to facilitate light emission. To enable efficient heatsinking of the array, it is advantageous to mount the epitaxial layers of the diode structure in contact with the heatsink. This mounting orientation then requires light output to be obtained either through the heatsink or from the substrate side.
A method has been disclosed recently by Yablonitch et al., ("Double Heterostructure GaAs/AlGaAs Thin Film Diode Lasers on Glass Substrates", IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 41-42, February 1989) for liftoff of an epitaxially deposited semiconductor structure from a temporary substrate.
It is an object of this invention, therefore, to provide a high density array of light source surface emitters without a substrate.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a means for independent addressing of the individual laser or light emitting diode elements in this high density array.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide the independently addressable, individual contacts of the array on the opposite surface of the surface emitting semiconductor light source from the light emission surface.
It is still another object of this invention to provide that the independently addressable, individual contacts of the array are directly aligned with the light emission optical cavities and thereby maximize the density of emitters.

High density, independently addressable, surface emitting semiconductor laser/light emitting diode arrays without a substrate


A method and apparatus for backing up and restoring data to a database is provided. During the backup, data blocks are copied from a database to a storage medium without the contents of the data blocks being analyzed during the copy. Data indicating the initial configuration of the data blocks is also backed up. During the restore, the data blocks are copied from the storage medium back to the database. The information within each copied data block is analyzed to identify any location dependent information (e.g., pointers). All location dependent information is updated based on the initial configuration and the new configuration to cause the location dependent information to reflect the new configuration.

Two possible approaches for backing up and restoring a database include the "logical" approach and the "physical" approach. According to the logical approach, the backup of a database involves reading the data to be backed up from the database, converting the data from its native database representation to a user/application layer format, such as columns and rows, and then storing the user data in a backup file. To restore the data, the user data is read from the backup file, converted back into its native database format and written to disk. SQL (Structured Query Language) retrieve and insert calls are sometimes used to convert the data from native disk format to user format and from user format back to native database format.
By converting the database data from native database representation to a higher level user format, the logical approach supports the backup and restore of data between different types of databases, as well as bulk data transfer between databases. Converting the data into user format also provides the benefit of only backing up the actual data, without the internal database data structures associated with the data, thereby minimizing the amount of data which needs to be backed up and restored. However, despite the inherent flexibility offered by the logical approach, the physical-to-logical conversion of data during both the backup and restore can require large amounts of time and system resources.
In contrast to the logical approach, backing up a database according to the physical approach involves copying database data files from a database to a backup location without converting the data contained in the data files. The data is restored by copying the data files from the backup location back to the database. Sometimes an operating system call or other copy utility is used to copy the data files, making the physical approach much faster than the logical approach.
However, the physical approach also has its disadvantages. First, some database systems automatically allocate a minimum amount of data space regardless of whether all of the allocated space is used. Thus, some space that is physically used is logically unused. Since all of the allocated space is located in the system data files, backing up and restoring all of the data files for a database necessarily means that logically unused data blocks will be backed up and restored, wasting system resources and increasing the backup and restore time.
Perhaps the most important limitation associated with the physical approach is that data files may only be restored to a database system supporting the database file format of the original database. Moreover, even if files are to be restored to a compatible database, the data cannot be directly inserted into the database if that database already contains data.
In view of the advantages and disadvantages provided by the logical and physical approaches, an approach providing for the backup and restore of a database and the transfer of bulk data having the flexibility of the logical approach and the favorable performance characteristics of the physical approach is highly desirable.

Database backup/restore and bulk data transfer


A power amplifier for receiving and amplifying an input signal and outputting an output signal includes N power amplifying units (N is an integer larger than 1) connected in parallel so as to output amplified signals in response to the input signal; an output combining unit for combining the output signals from the N power amplifying units and outputting a combined signal as the output signal of the power amplifier; and an amplitude controlling unit for selectively turning ON each of the N power amplifying units based on an amplitude of the input signal. In the power amplifier, the amplitude controlling unit may includes N amplitude adjusters connected in parallel for adjusting the amplitude of the input signal of the power amplifier; and a controller for selectively turning ON each of the N power amplifying units and controlling the amplitude adjusters so that an amplitude of the output signal becomes a substantially continuous function with respect to the amplitude of the input signal.

The present invention generally relates to power amplifiers, and, more particularly, to a power amplifier which can control its output power to make it continuous, and to a power amplifier which can highly efficiently amplify modulated signals.
One conventional power amplifier is known in the art, in which a plurality of power amplifying units are used in parallel for performing efficient amplification, as shown in "Alireza Shirvani, David K. Su, and Bruce A. Wooley, "A CMOS RF Power Amplifier With Parallel Amplification for Efficient Power Control, "IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS. VOL. 37, NO. 6, JUNE 2002".
FIG. 1 shows a basic structure example of a conventional power amplifier. This conventional power amplifier comprises a plurality of Class F amplifying circuits. Each of the Class F amplifying circuits comprises an FET (Field Effect Transistor), a λ/4 transmission line connected to a drain of the FET, a capacitor C, a tuning circuit, a load, an RF choke coil (RFC) for coupling DC power from a voltage Vdd to the FET, and a driver for supplying a required signal input level to the FET. By connecting the λ/4 transmission lines of all the Class F amplifying circuits together, the combined output signals from the Class F amplifying circuits make a transmission output signal.
Turning off any one of the drivers can prevent a corresponding Class F amplifying circuit from operating.
Each of the Class F amplifying circuits generally has input-output power characteristics (or input-output characteristics) and power efficiency (ratio of output power to DC power supply) to input power characteristics as shown in FIG. 2. When the output power approaches the saturation output power Ps, high efficiency is obtained, but the input-output characteristics becomes significantly non-linear. On the other hand, in an area where the input/output powers are small, the input-output characteristics become linear, but the efficiency is significantly degraded.
When the conventional power amplifier shown in FIG. 1 is used for amplifying constant envelope input signals, the non-linearity of the input-output characteristics does not provide a big problem. Therefore, when each of the Class F amplifying circuits operates near the saturation output power, high efficiency is obtained. In the conventional power amplifier shown in FIG. 1, by controlling the number of operating Class F amplifying circuits, a plurality of levels of transmission output signals can be obtained, that is, the transmission power can be controlled. High efficiency is obtained at different transmission levels.
Another prior art power amplifier is known, in which variable pre-attenuators for two parallel transistor amplifiers are controlled to reduce differences between the operating conditions of these two transistor power amplifying circuits, in order to prevent the mutual modulation distortion of the combined output signal due to transmission frequency variation in a radio transmitter, as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication 2001-237651.
The conventional power amplifier shown in FIG. 1 operates well in providing highly efficient amplification and transmission power control of constant envelope signals. However, for amplitude-variable signals, transmission power levels become discrete, and there is a problem that a continuous output power level cannot be attained.
When power amplifying amplitude-variable signals using this conventional power amplifier, transmission output signals have large distortion due to non-linearity of each of the Class F amplifying circuits.
Further, even if the transmission output signals are averaged, the thus obtained average power levels are still discrete, and no continuous average power level can be attained.


The present invention provides methods of treating an eye disorder. The methods comprise a step of locally administering a Clostridial toxin to the eye of a patient to treat the disorder. The eye disorder may be associated with an inflammation of the eye, including for example, bacterial conjunctivitis, fungal conjunctivitis, viral conjunctivitis, uveitis, keratic precipitates, macular edema, and inflammation response after intra-ocular lens implantation. The Clostridial toxin may be produced by a Clostridial beratti, a Clostridia butyricum, a Clostridial tetani bacterium and/or a Clostridial botulinum.

Inflammation, or reddening, of the superficial tissues of the eye is a relatively common affliction. Eye disorders associated with inflammation include, for example, bacterial conjunctivitis, fungal conjunctivitis, viral conjunctivitis, uveitis, keratic precipitates, macular edema, and inflammation response after intra-ocular lens implantation.
Various types of palliative treatments have been used to treat this condition. The most common treatment includes the administration of eye drops which contain emollients and other ingredients designed to ease the discomfort due to the inflammation and to eliminate the redness associated with the condition. These treatments, however, have not been entirely satisfactory, however.
For example, current treatments often involve frequent applications of a medicinal eye drop. Unfortunately, however, many commercially available eye drops include preservatives, an ingredient that may be quite harmful to the eye. As such, frequent application of the commercially available eye drops may not be healthy for the eye.
Thus, there is a continued need to have improved methods and compositions for treating eye disorders. The present invention provides such compositions and methods for treating eye disorders. In particular, the methods and compositions of the present invention involve the use of a Clostridium toxin.
The present invention is, in part, based upon a surprising discovery that a Clostridial toxin may be administered to an eye of a patient, e.g., a mammal, to treat eye disorders.
A Clostridial toxin that is commonly used clinically to treat various muscular conditions is botulinum toxin. For example, botulinum toxins have been used in clinical settings for the treatment of neuromuscular disorders characterized by hyperactive skeletal muscles. In 1989 a botulinum toxin type A complex was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of blepharospasm, strabismus and hemifacial spasm. Subsequently, a botulinum toxin type A was also approved by the FDA for the treatment of cervical dystonia and for the treatment of glabellar lines, and a botulinum toxin type B was approved for the treatment of cervical dystonia. Non-type A botulinum toxin serotypes apparently have a lower potency and/or a shorter duration of activity as compared to botulinum toxin type A. Clinical effects of peripheral intramuscular botulinum toxin type A are usually seen within one week of injection. The typical duration of symptomatic relief from a single intramuscular injection of botulinum toxin type A averages about three months, although significantly longer periods of therapeutic activity have been reported.
It has been reported that botulinum toxin type A has been used in clinical settings as follows:    (1) about 75–125 units of BOTOX® per intramuscular injection (multiple muscles) to treat cervical dystonia;    (2) 5–10 units of BOTOX® per intramuscular injection to treat glabellar lines (brow furrows) (5 units injected intramuscularly into the procerus muscle and 10 units injected intramuscularly into each corrugator supercilii muscle);    (3) about 30–80 units of BOTOX® to treat constipation by intrasphincter injection of the puborectalis muscle;    (4) about 1–5 units per muscle of intramuscularly injected BOTOX® to treat blepharospasm by injecting the lateral pre-tarsal orbicularis oculi muscle of the upper lid and the lateral pre-tarsal orbicularis oculi of the lower lid.    (5) to treat strabismus, extraocular muscles have been injected intramuscularly with between about 1–5 units of BOTOX®, the amount injected varying based upon both the size of the muscle to be injected and the extent of muscle paralysis desired (i.e. amount of diopter correction desired).    (6) to treat upper limb spasticity following stroke by intramuscular injections of BOTOX® into five different upper limb flexor muscles, as follows:    (a) flexor digitorum profundus: 7.5 U to 30 U    (b) flexor digitorum sublimus: 7.5 U to 30 U    (c) flexor carpi ulnaris: 10 U to 40 U    (d) flexor carpi radialis: 15 U to 60 U    (e) biceps brachii: 50 U to 200 U. Each of the five indicated muscles has been injected at the same treatment session, so that the patient receives from 90 U to 360 U of upper limb flexor muscle BOTOX® by intramuscular injection at each treatment session.    (7) to treat migraine, pericranial injected (injected symmetrically into glabellar, frontalis and temporalis muscles) injection of 25 U of BOTOX® has showed significant benefit as a prophylactic treatment of migraine compared to vehicle as measured by decreased measures of migraine frequency, maximal severity, associated vomiting and acute medication use over the three month period following the 25 U injection.
Additionally, intramuscular botulinum toxin has been used in the treatment of tremor in patients with Parkinson's disease, although it has been reported that results have not been impressive. Marjama-Jyons, J., et al., Tremor-Predominant Parkinson's Disease, Drugs & Aging 16(4);273–278:2000.
In addition to having pharmacologic actions at the peripheral location, botulinum toxins may also have inhibitory effects in the central nervous system. Work by Weigand et al, Nauny-Schmiedeberg's Arch. Pharmacol. 1976; 292, 161–165, and Habermann, Nauny-Schmiedeberg's Arch. Pharmacol. 1974; 281, 47–56 showed that botulinum toxin is able to ascend to the spinal area by retrograde transport. As such, a botulinum toxin injected at a peripheral location, for example intramuscularly, may be retrograde transported to the spinal cord.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,989,545 discloses that a modified clostridial neurotoxin or fragment thereof, preferably a botulinum toxin, chemically conjugated or recombinantly fused to a particular targeting moiety can be used to treat pain by administration of the agent to the spinal cord.
A botulinum toxin has also been proposed for the treatment of rhinorrhea, hyperhydrosis and other disorders mediated by the autonomic nervous system (U.S. Pat. No. 5,766,605), tension headache, (U.S. Pat. No. 6,458,365), migraine headache (U.S. Pat. No. 5,714,468), post-operative pain and visceral pain (U.S. Pat. No. 6,464,986), pain treatment by intraspinal toxin administration (U.S. Pat. No. 6,113,915), Parkinson's disease and other diseases with a motor disorder component, by intracranial toxin administration (U.S. Pat. No. 6,306,403), hair growth and hair retention (U.S. Pat. No. 6,299,893), psoriasis and dermatitis (U.S. Pat. No. 5,670,484), injured muscles (U.S. Pat. No. 6,423,319, various cancers (U.S. Pat. No. 6,139,845), pancreatic disorders (U.S. Pat. No. 6,143,306), smooth muscle disorders (U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,291, including injection of a botulinum toxin into the upper and lower esophageal, pyloric and anal sphincters), prostate disorders (U.S. Pat. No. 6,365,164), inflammation, arthritis and gout (U.S. Pat. No. 6,063,768), juvenile cerebral palsy (U.S. Pat. No. 6,395,277), inner ear disorders (U.S. Pat. No. 6,265,379), thyroid disorders (U.S. Pat. No. 6,358,513), parathyroid disorders (U.S. Pat. No. 6,328,977). Additionally, controlled release toxin implants are known (see e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,306,423 and 6,312,708).

Methods and compositions for treating eye disorders


A drive-train for a vehicle having at least one electric drive unit (EM) which is, or can be, coupled by way of a driveshaft (AW) to at least a first transmission stage (i1), a second transmission stage (i2) and a third transmission stage (i3). At least one shifting device having at least two interlocking shifting elements (S1, S2) is provided for engaging the first and second transmission stages (i1, i2), and a frictional shifting element (S3) is provided for traction a force support of the first and the second transmission stages. The frictional shifting element (S3) is also provided for engaging the third transmission stage (i3).

Drive-trains with automated manual transmissions are known, which use interlocking shifting elements with which, however, only gearshifts with traction force interruption can be carried out. Furthermore, drive-trains with powershift transmissions are known, in which frictional shifting elements are used to carry out traction-force-maintaining gearshifts, such as dual-clutch transmissions and automatic transmissions.
From the document DE 10 2013 204 227 A1 a drive-train for a vehicle having at least one electric drive unit is known, which unit can be coupled via a driveshaft to at least a first transmission stage and a second transmission stage. In addition at least one shifting device for engaging the transmission stages is provided, such that the shifting device comprises at least one interlocking shifting element and at least one frictional shifting element in order to carry out powershifts. Each of the transmission stages can be engaged with the interlocking shifting element and at least one of the transmission stages can also be engaged both with the interlocking shifting element and with the frictional shifting element. In a corresponding design with at least three wheel planes, at least one further, additional interlocking shifting element would have to be used, which would increase the fitting space occupied.


Techniques for generating an overlay map on a digital medical image of a slide are provided, and include cell detection and tissue classification processes. Techniques include receiving a medical image, separating the image into tiles, and performing tile classifications and tissue classifications based on a multi-tile analysis. Techniques additionally include identifying cell objects in the image, separating the image into and displaying polygons identifying the cell objects and cell classifications. Generated displays may be overlays over the initial digital image.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
To guide a medical professional in diagnosis, prognosis and treatment assessment of a patient's cancer, it is common to extract and inspect tumor samples from the patient. Visual inspection can reveal growth patterns of the cancer cells in the tumor in relation to the healthy cells near them and the presence of immune cells within the tumor. Pathologists, members of a pathology team, other trained medical professionals, or other human analysts visually analyze thin slices of tumor tissue mounted on glass microscope slides to classify each region of the tissue as one of many tissue classes that are present in a tumor sample. This information aids the pathologist in determining characteristics of the cancer tumor in the patient, which can inform treatment decisions. A pathologist will often assign one or more numerical scores to a slide, based on a visual approximation. Numerical scores assigned during microscope slide analysis include tumor purity, which is the percentage of the tissue that is formed by tumor cells.
Characteristics of the tumor may include tumor grade, tumor purity, degree of invasiveness of the tumor, degree of immune infiltration into the tumor, cancer stage, and anatomic origin site of the tumor, which is especially important for diagnosing and treating a metastatic tumor. These details about the cancer can help a physician monitor the progression of cancer within a patient and predict which anti-cancer treatments are likely to be successful in eliminating cancer cells from the patient's body.
Manually analyzing microscope slides is time consuming and requires a trained medical professional. Furthermore, because numerical scores are assigned by approximation, these scores are subjective, not quantitative.
High-resolution, digital images of microscope slides make it possible to use artificial intelligence to analyze the slides and classify the tissue components by tissue class.
A Convolutional Neural Network ("CNN") is a deep learning algorithm that analyzes digital images by assigning one class label to each input image. Slides, however, include more than one type of tissue, including the borders between neighboring tissue classes. There is a need to classify different regions as different tissue classes, in part to study the borders between neighboring tissue classes and the presence of immune cells among tumor cells. For a traditional CNN to assign multiple tissue classes to one slide image, the CNN would need to separately process each section of the image that needs a tissue class label assignment. Neighboring sections of the image overlap, so processing each section separately creates a high number of redundant calculations and is time consuming.
A Fully Convolutional Network (FCN) can analyze an image and assign classification labels to each pixel within the image, so a FCN is more useful for analyzing images that depict objects with more than one classification. A FCN generates an overlay map to show the location of each classified object in the original image. However, FCN deep learning algorithms that analyze digital slides would require training data sets of images with each pixel labeled as a tissue class, which requires too much annotation time and processing time to be practical. In digital images of slides, each edge of the image may contain more than 10,000-100,000 pixels. The full image may have at least 10,000{circumflex over ( )}2-100,000{circumflex over ( )}2 pixels, which forces long algorithm run times due to the intense computation required. The high number of pixels makes it infeasible to use traditional FCNs to segment digital images of slides.

Artificial intelligence segmentation of tissue images


A magneto-resistive effect type head is provided to suppress the thermal asperity caused by projections or foreign matter found on the recording medium. A step or a protrusion which is closer to the recording medium than the element is provided on the air bearing surface of the head in an area on the leading side of the element with respect to the moving direction of the head.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a magnetic disk device, particularly to a magneto-resistive effect type head, used for writing/reading information to a recording medium in a magnetic disk device used as an external memory for a computer or the like.
Recently, since the recording density in a magnetic disk device has been more and more increased, a gap between the head and the recording medium has been drastically minimized. Therefore, the demand for high performance and high reliability heads, which are operable with a low flying area or a small contact area, has increased.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate one example of a known magneto-resistive effect type head used in a magnetic disk drive. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a slider member of the magneto-resistive effect type head, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view taken along a line II--II in FIG. 1. In the illustrated head, the slider member 1, made of ceramic material such as Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 TiC or the like, has a pair of rails 3a, 3b on a surface thereof opposite to a recording medium (not shown), the rails 3a, 3b extend generally parallel to each other from a leading side to a trailing side as seen in a moving direction of the recording medium. A head element 2 is provided on the trailing side of one of the two rails 3a, 3b.
As shown in FIG. 2, the head element 2 is located on the trailing side and includes an insulation layer 4 such as Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 or other and similar material is also covered with a protection layer 5 of an insulating material such as Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 or other similar material. The head element 2 includes a reading section R wherein a magneto-resistive effect element 2a is nipped in a gap portion 9 of an insulating material interposed between a pair of a lower shield layer 7 and an upper shield layer 8 of NiFe or other similar material, and a recording or writing section W including a recording coil 10 and a recording magnetic pole (upper pole) 11. The upper shield layer 8 is used for both the reading section R and the writing section W. The magneto-resistive effect type element 2a is typically a multilayered structure including a magneto-resistive layer, a bias layer, and a magneto-control layer among others, which layers are depicted as a single layer in FIG. 2, for the sake of simplicity.
The magneto-resistive effect type element 2a detects the variation of resistance in the element caused by the magnetic field of the recording medium (not shown), and therefore, if there are any projections or foreign matter on the recording medium, there is a risk of collision therewith of part of the head element 2 on the slider member 1. If such a collision occurs, the resistance in the element increases due to the heat generation caused by the collision energy or a by friction, which in turn induces the variation of a base line of reproduction signals and is detected as the output variation. This phenomenon is called "thermal asperity" and a typical wave shape of this phenomenon is illustrated in FIG. 3. As is apparent from FIG. 3, the base line of the reproduction signals largely varies due to a rapid temperature rise in the element. As the flying height of the slider member 1 is reduced, the probability of collision of the slider member with the projections or foreign matter on the recording medium increases. Thereby, to realize high-density recording, it is important to suppress the probability of such a collision. In this regard, thermal asperity is discussed, for example, in "Magneto-Resistive Head Thermal Asperity Digital Compensation"; R. L. Galbraith; G. J. Kerwin; J. M. Poss; IEEE Trans on Mag., Vol 28, No. 5, 1992.

Magneto-resistive effect type head with step or protrusion for reducing thermal asperity


A first Exclusive OR circuit operates an Exclusive OR between input data and a predetermined random number. An operation circuit performs one operation of encryption and decryption of output data from the first Exclusive OR circuit. A data register circuit, which has a plurality of data hold units, holds data from the operation circuit in one data hold unit of the plurality of data hold units in response to a selection signal, and supplies the data from the one data hold unit to the operation circuit. A second Exclusive OR circuit performs an Exclusive OR between output data from the data register circuit and the random number. The operation circuit recursively performs the one operation of the data from the data register circuit and outputs next data to the data register circuit.

In general, in a block cipher algorithm such as the DES method determined by FIPS46-3 (FIPS: Federal Information Processing Standard), data is encrypted/decrypted by repeating a predetermined operation processing a predetermined number of times. Concretely, whenever the operation processing is executed, an operation result is temporarily stored in a memory means (Ex. Register). The next operation processing is executed using the current operation result, and the next operation result is overwritten in the memory means. Briefly, encryption/decryption is executed while updating the operation processing stored in the memory means.
Aim at data change in the memory means is explained. Hamming distance is represented as a difference between two operation results continued on a time axis. If there is correlation between Hamming distance and power consumption, then an attacker reveals secret information in an encryption/decryption apparatus. And one method for estimating secret information in the encryption/decryption apparatus is the DPA (Differential Power Analysis), which using analysis data for transition of change of power consumption and data.
By using the DPA, if a change of the power consumption of a circuit (having encryption function) or a processor (executing encryption operation) relates to secret data during operation, the secret data can be disclosed. The DPA is an attack without a destroy package. By watching an outside of a chip (or a device), it is not decided whether key information is extracted with the attack or not, and it is feared that damage by unauthorized use expands. Accordingly, in the circuit for encryption, protection against a DPA attack is necessary.
One of a countermeasure for the DPA is the data mask method for hiding any correlation between the power consumption and the operation data from an attacker. For example, the data mask method is disclosed in "An implementation of DES and AES, secure against some attacks", Proceedings of CHES 2001, LNCS 2162, pp. 309-318, 2001.
In the data mask method, a random number is used as data for masking. By performing Exclusive OR between data for operation and data for masking, the data for operation is masked. Briefly, by masking data with the random number during operation, the attacker cannot correctly estimate the data on operation. As a result, secret information in the encryption module cannot be disclosed.
In case of executing the DPA protection by the data mask method, it is desired that a random number of necessary quantity is always obtained. However, if constraint of the power consumption and a circuit scale is strict such as an IC card, output data width of a random number generation circuit need be miniaturized.
In this case, in order to obtain the random number for masking from the random number generation circuit, several clocks are necessary. Furthermore, by relationship between an output data width of the random number generation circuit and a data width for masking, operation processing often waits several clock periods. Briefly, during processing of encryption/decryption, wait time for generation of random number occurs at each operation.
Accordingly, in each timing of encryption/decryption, operation data is masked with the same random number by Exclusive OR. Hereinafter, "masking" means Exclusive OR between data for masking and data for operation.
In case of writing two continuous masked data (Masked Data A and Masked Data B) into the memory means, Hamming distance of data is explained. As for the Masked Data a firstly written into the memory means, Data A being on operation is masked by data ("RN") for masking. As for the Masked Data B secondly written into the memory means, Data B being on operation is masked by data ("RN") for masking.
The Hamming distance of data in the memory means is the same as the operation result of Exclusive OR of two written data. Accordingly, the Hamming distance is represented as follows.The Hamming distance of data=Masked Data A^Masked Data B=(Data A^RN) ^(Data B^RN)=Data A^Data B^RN^RN=Data A^Data B
In this way, data for masking ("RN") is eliminated. This corresponds to the change quantity of two continuous data in the memory means. Therefore if an attacker can correctly estimate the change quantity (Hamming distance) in the memory means, secret information can be disclosed and safety cannot be guaranteed. (Analysis model aiming at Hamming distance of two continuous data is called a state transition model.)


The present invention is directed to a viscosifier prepared by enzymatically hydrolyzing a ungelatinized, granular starch or flour. Such starch or flour is useful as an ingredient in food products, particularly fruit- or vegetable-based products, as a viscosifier and may be used to replace pectin or tomato solids.

The present invention relates to enzymatically-treated starches which are useful as viscosifiers and to a process for their preparation. Such starch-based viscosifiers are useful in the preparation of food products, particularly fruit and vegetable based products.
Numerous starch products prepared using a variety of processes are known in the art. These include starches which are prepared by enzymatic treatment.
Enzymatic treatment of starches has also been disclosed in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 3,644,126 discloses a method of liquefying a starch slurry using .alpha.-amylase and then malt enzymes and glucoamylase to make a highly fermentable starch conversion syrup with a DE less than 35. U.S. Pat. No. 3,922,196 discloses solubilization of a granular starch to essentially dextrose using .alpha.-amylase. U.S. Pat. No. 5,445,950 discloses a method of using .alpha.-amylase to prepare slightly decomposed, low viscosity starch granules with a DE preferably between 0.1 and 1.0 to produce a material useful as a raw material in the sugar industry.
EP 182 296 discloses a granular .alpha.-amylase hydrolyzed starch for use as a dusting powder. EP 231 729 discloses a gelatinized starch hydrolyzate useful as a sweetener in foods which is prepared using .alpha.- and .beta.-amylase in a two-step process. EP 704 169 discloses partially gelatinized starch which is hydrolyzed to a DE of preferably between 4 and 10 for use as a fat or oil substitute.
The use of glucose syrups in a variety of foods, including ketchup, jams, marmalades and fruit preparations, has been reported in Food Review, 19(6): 33 (1993). Glucose syrups are purified, concentrated aqueous solutions of nutritive saccharides of DE 20 or more obtained by hydrolysis of edible starch. See Whistler, et al., Starch Chemistry and Technology, 2.sup.nd Ed., Academic Press, Inc. Orlando, pp. 612 (1984). Further, glucose syrups known in the art do not add viscosity to food products. They are primarily added to provide or balance sweetness, as a bulking agent or filler, and to enhance Maillard browning.
Surprisingly, it has now been discovered that enzyme hydrolysis of a non-gelatinized, granular starch or flour produces unique starches useful as viscosifiers in food products, particularly fruit- or vegetable-based products.

Use of enzymatically-treated starches as viscosifiers and their use in food products

National Starch and Chemical Investment Holding Corporation


Disclosed are a method and apparatus for determining an intra prediction mode, and for encoding/decoding video using the same. An apparatus for determining an intra prediction mode is provided, the apparatus comprising a calculator to calculate a variation of adjacent pixels to a current block; a threshold setter to set a threshold to evaluate the pixel variation; a comparator to compare between the variation and the threshold; a first prediction mode determination unit to determine a single predetermined prediction mode to be an optimal prediction mode if the variation is below the threshold; and a second prediction mode determination unit to determine a particular prediction mode from a plurality of prediction modes to be the optimal prediction mode through a rate-distortion optimization by performing intra predictions in the plurality of prediction modes if the variation is greater than or equal to the threshold.

Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) have developed an improved and excellent video compression technology over existing MPEG-4 Part 2 and H.263 standards. The new standard is called H.264/AVC (Advanced Video Coding) and was released simultaneously as MPEG-4 Part 10 AVC and ITU-T Recommendation H.264.
The H.264/AVC (hereinafter referred to as 'H.264') uses a spatial predictive coding method, which is different from conventional video coding international standards such as MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part2 Visual and the like. Conventional methods use "intra prediction" for coefficients transformed in Discrete Cosine Transform Domain (or DCT Transform Domain) to seek higher encoding efficiency resulting in degradation of the subjective video quality at low band transmission bit rates. However, H.264 adopts the method of encoding based on a spatial intra prediction in a spatial domain rather than in a transform domain. An encoder that uses a coding method based on the conventional spatial intra predictions predicts current block information from information of the previously encoded and reconstructed previous blocks, encodes only the difference information between the actual block and the predicted block, and transmits the encoded information to a decoder. Then, the encoder may transmit parameters needed for prediction of the block to the decoder, or the encoder and decoder may be synchronized, so that they share the needed parameters for the decoder to predict the block. In terms of the decoder, the block information to be currently decoded is predicted using previously decoded and reconstructed adjacent block information and then added to the difference information transmitted from the encoder, which reconstructs the block to be decoded. Then, again, if the parameters needed for the prediction are transmitted from the decoder, the parameters can be decoded and used for prediction.
The above described intra prediction may be an intra—4×4 prediction, intra—16×16 prediction, intra—8×8 prediction and the like, where the respective intra predictions include a plurality of prediction modes.
Referring to FIG. 1, the intra—4×4 prediction has nine prediction modes which include a vertical mode, horizontal mode, direct current (DC) mode, diagonal down-left mode, diagonal down-right mode, vertical-right mode, horizontal-down mode, vertical-left mode and horizontal-up mode.
In addition, referring to FIG. 2, the intra—16×16 prediction has four prediction modes which include a vertical mode, horizontal mode, DC mode and plane mode. The intra—8×8 prediction also has four modes similar to the intra—16×16 prediction.
An H.264 encoder selects an optimal prediction mode out of a plurality of prediction modes and performs a prediction. Compression efficiency depends on what prediction mode is selected as the optimal prediction mode and used for a block prediction. In order to select the optimal prediction mode, a prediction of the block is performed with respect to every prediction mode before a cost is calculated using a predetermined cost function, and a prediction mode with the lowest cost is finally selected.
Therefore, in order to determine the optimal prediction mode whether it is intra—4×4 prediction or intra—16×16 prediction, the cost should be calculated after trying every prediction mode. This makes an encoding process complex and lowers the compression efficiency.
In addition, in case there exist identical or similar pixels in the adjacent blocks that produce the correspondingly identical or similar predicted values, a selecting method that requires predictions in all the prediction modes results in unnecessary process and lowers the coding efficiency.

Method and apparatus for determining intra prediction mode, and method and apparatus for encoding/decoding video using same