A computer-implemented method for identifying errors in transaction messages associated with payment transactions. The method includes a step of receiving a transaction message associated with a financial transaction, whereby the financial transaction originates from a merchant and is processed by an acquirer. The transaction message comprises a plurality of data element fields, with at least one of the data element fields being a merchant identification field used to identify the merchant originating the financial transaction. An additional step includes performing an error-identification routine on the transaction message, with the error-identification routine including analyzing a merchant identification (ID) data element populated in the merchant identification field to determine if the merchant ID data element is not uniquely associated with the merchant. An additional step includes generating an error message indicating that the merchant ID data element is not uniquely associated with the merchant, and transmitting the error message to the acquirer.

The use of credit and/or debit cards for payment transactions is now commonplace. To process payment transactions, merchants will generally have their own, integral payment processing systems, which are integrated with the merchants' acquiring institution. However, the use of third-party payment facilitators is becoming more prevalent with many merchants. For instance, in addition to a merchant's own payment processing systems (as provided by its acquiring institution), a merchant can also allow payment transactions to be processed by one or more third-party payment service providers (PSPs), such as PayPal™, Square™, PayU™, and iZettle™. Unfortunately, the use of PSPs by merchants can lead to various problems, such as problems related to network reporting, fraud monitoring, data integrity, the monitoring of network-based programs, and the like.
For example, payment transactions processed through a merchant's own payment processing system will generally be processed via transaction messages that include a unique identifier that corresponds with the merchant and/or the merchant's acquiring institution. In addition, however, if the merchant uses a PSP to process payment transactions, such payment transactions will be processed via transaction messages that include their own unique identifier that corresponds with both the PSP and/or the PSP's acquiring institution. Unfortunately, PSPs will often use the same unique identifier regardless of where the PSP is operating. For instance, a PSP may use the same unique identifier when processing transactions at both a first merchant (e.g., a brick-and-mortar store at a first geographic location) and a second merchant (e.g., a brick-and-mortar store at a second geographic location). Such duplicate usage of the unique identifier can cause problems with network reporting, fraud monitoring, data integrity, the monitoring of network-based programs, and the like. For instance, some payment networks offer programs that monitor a merchant's transactions. An exemplary program is an excessive chargeback program that monitors a merchant's transactions to ensure that the transactions stay within a normal chargeback to sales ratio. If a PSP improperly duplicates a unique identifier across multiple merchants, network monitoring and reporting will be affected, as the payment network will be unable to accurately determine a given merchant's actual chargeback to sales ratio.

Systems and methods for identifying errors in transaction messages


An information processing method, a system, an apparatus, an electronic device and a storage medium, where the method is applied to a client, and includes: receiving a transcript and a sentence identifier of the transcript sent by a service server; reading a local sentence identifier, and when the received sentence identifier is the same as the local sentence identifier, updating a displayed caption content corresponding to the local sentence identifier with the transcript. When the received sentence identifier of the client is the same as the local sentence identifier, the displayed caption content is replaced with the received transcript.

With continuous development of the Internet and communication technologies, information communication through communication applications has become one of important ways for a user to exchange information. When clients perform communication containing audio data with each other, a server may transcribe the audio data into texts and issue the texts to a corresponding client, so that the client displays captions corresponding to the audio data.
At present, the server normally issues the transcribed texts to the client after finishing transcribing audio data of each sentence, so that the client may see captions corresponding to each sentence with latency delays. Moreover, when a sentence is long, latency delay of captions will be longer, which will greatly degrade interactive experience of users.

Information processing method, system, apparatus, electronic device and storage medium

BEIJING BYTEDANCE NETWORK TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A cartridge 4 is mounted on a carriage 8 and has a liquid retaining member 460 placed in a recess 421 of a casing 420. A first side wall 425 constituting the casing 420 includes a first side wall part 425a and a second side wall part 425b aligned sequentially from a first end wall 423-side in a first direction from a first end wall 423 toward a second end wall 424. The first side wall part 425a includes a first side wall area 425a1 located on a bottom wall 422-side and extended to be substantially perpendicular to the bottom wall 422, and a second side wall area 425a2 arranged to be inclined with respect to the bottom wall 422. The second side wall part 425b is extended from the bottom wall 422 to be inclined with respect to the bottom wall 422. This configuration enables the liquid retaining member of containing a liquid such as ink to be compressed in the casing, while allowing for accurate positioning of the cartridge and improving attachment of the cartridge.

The present invention relates to a liquid supply unit.
An ink cartridge (also simply called "cartridge") configured to supply ink to a printer as an example of a liquid ejection device has been known conventionally as a liquid supply unit configured to supply a liquid to the liquid ejection device. The cartridge generally has a porous ink retaining member for containing ink placed in a sealed casing and is attached to a carriage of the printer to supply ink through an ink supply port formed on a bottom wall of the casing as described in Japanese Patent Publication (JP 2000-33707A).


The present invention is a rapidly deployable flood defense system and method that has at least one barrier cover, each comprising a plurality of laterally-extending crossbeam housing tubes stacked generally vertically and housing an inflatable crossbeam disposed within the tube, an end retaining tab at each end of the tube, and a plurality of rear support retaining tabs spaced along the lateral length of the crossbeam housing tube; and a front apron and a rear apron. The system also has a plurality of support tubes and a plurality of additional support tubes positioned along the lateral length of the crossbeam housing tube. Each support tube held in the generally vertical direction by a base post and each and additional support tube positioned along the lateral length of the crossbeam housing tube having an additional base post positioned rearwardly.

The use of sand filled burlap bags has been the conventional means of containing flooding rivers for several centuries. Burlap-type sandbags suffer the disadvantage that they need to be first filled with sand, then sealed individually and conveyed to the site of a flood, resulting in enormous labour and logistic costs, and requiring thousands of person hours to deploy and stack the sandbags in place. Once used and the flood waters have receded, the burlap sandbags need to be removed or they tend to rot or split. Often, the sandbags are contaminated by sewage and other toxic waste that is extremely hazardous to humans and animals, and require extensive decontamination or special disposal arrangements. Removal of the sandbags results in the same costs and resource requirements as the initial deployment.
In an attempt to overcome the disadvantages associated with burlap-type sandbags, various individuals have proposed the use of temporary flood barriers formed as water inflatable or water actuated temporary walls, such as those sold by AquaDam Inc. of Scotia, Calif. and that disclosed in Canadian Patent No. CA 2,974,437 to P.V. Flood Control Corp., issued on 2018 Mar. 6. The cylindrical tubes are positioned along the edge of a flooding river, and filled with water to form a temporary barrier. Water filled cylindrical tube flood barriers, however, suffer various disadvantages of instability and often require extensive and costly decontamination after being collapsed for withdrawal and storage.
One type of currently used inflatable barriers filled with air, such as that disclosed in Canadian Patent Number CA 2,909,346 issued to Cintec International Ltd of the United Kingdom, are monolithic in design, particularly with respect to the barrier component and may be susceptible to catastrophic failure in the event that the barrier component becomes damaged.
The prior art cylindrical tubes suffer a further disadvantage in that the tubes are prone to rupture, not only from internal pressures, but also from puncture and tearing by logs and other debris swept along by the flood waters, and which may strike against the side of the inflated tube.


A waveguide includes an input area, a multi-layered substrate, and an output area. The multi-layered substrate includes a plurality of layers of at least a substrate and at least one partially reflective layers. The input area in-couples light in a first band into the waveguide. The one or more partially reflective layers are partially reflective to light in the first band. Each of the one or more partially reflective layers are located between respective layers of the plurality of layers of the substrate. The output area out-couples light from the waveguide. The pupil replication density of the out-coupled light is based in part on a number of the one or more partially reflective layers and respective locations of the one or more partially reflective layers in the waveguide.

The present disclosure generally relates to waveguide displays, and specifically to optical waveguides with multi-layered substrates for better homogeneity of the image displayed.
Near-eye light field displays project images directly into a user's eye, encompassing both near-eye displays (NEDs) and electronic viewfinders. Conventional near-eye displays (NEDs) generally have a display element that generates image light that passes through one or more lenses before reaching the user's eyes. Additionally, NEDs in augmented reality systems are typically required to be compact and light weight, and to provide large exit pupil with a wide field-of-vision for ease of use. However, designing a conventional NED with materials of desired optical properties often results in a very low out-coupling efficiency of the image light received by the user's eyes and often result in poor homogeneity of the image light. Accordingly, conventional optical waveguides used in such NEDs are limited to poor pupil replication density and homogeneity of the image light.

Multi-layered substrates for waveguide displays


An electropneumatic apparatus for sampling rapidly predetermined volumes of a mixture, to be connected to a computer. It comprises an injector provided with a detector connected to the computer for indicating activation of the injector; a reactor having a chamber provided with at least one aperture, the chamber being provided in its superior portion with an air inlet/outlet connected to a pressurized air system, the chamber having a bottom outlet provided with a flow sensor connected to the computer for indicating a volume of fluid exiting from the bottom outlet; the pressurized air system having an air channel provided with a first portion connected to an air source, and a second portion connected to the air inlet/outlet of the chamber, the air channel being provided with an air controlling device connected to the computer for producing a succession of positive and negative pressures inside the chamber, whereby the predetermined volumes of the mixture can be sampled from the bottom outlet under control of the computer; and a receiving system comprising a mobile manifold array for receiving successive samples exiting from the bottom outlet of the chamber.

Known in the art, there is the U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,244 granted on Jun. 6, 1989. In this patent, there is described a device for supplying constant pressure to a microcapillary to carry out process of controlling injection of small fluid samples through the microcapillary. The device comprises a main line connected to the microcapillary, a pressure source, and a valve system by which different positive pressures are produced inside the microcapillary. One drawback with the present apparatus is that no means is provided for mixing different reagents to produce a mixture, and no means is provided for rapidly sampling this mixture.
Also known in the art, there is U.S. Pat. No. 4,454,032 granted on Jun. 12, 1984. In this patent, there is described a fast filtering apparatus comprising an injection device, a filter supporting device, and a device for ensuring a fast and temporary contacting of the injection device and the filter support device. The fast filtering process is controlled by an electronic control means. Again, one drawback with the present invention is that no means is provided for mixing different reagents to produce a mixture, and no means is provided for rapidly sampling this mixture.
Also known in the art, there are the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. 4,427,415, "MANIFOLD VACUUM BIOCHEMICAL TEST METHOD AND DEVICE" Patrick H Cleveland; U.S. Pat. No. 4,415,449, "VACUUM FILTRATION BENCH", Wolfgang Hein, Carl Schleicher, GmbH & Co. KG; U.S. Pat. No. 3,888,770, "PLURAL-SAMPLE FILTER DEVICE" Shlomo Avital et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,730,352, "FILTRATION APPARATUS", Stanley N. Cohen et al., New Brunswick Scientific Co. Inc.; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,319,792, "MULTIPLE FILTRATION APPARATUS", Philip Leder et al., U.S.A. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
None of the above patents provides a means for rapidly sampling a mixture.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and a method for mixing different reagents to produce a mixture, and for rapidly sampling this mixture.

Electropneumatic apparatus for sampling rapidly predetermined volumes of a mixture, to be connected to a computer


An ear device for arrangement at an ear of a person and provided with at least two electrodes for having skin contact and detecting a bioelectrical signal when in use, the ear device includes a deformable ear canal part adapted to be arranged in an ear canal of the person, and an external ear part adapted to be arranged at the ear external to the ear canal and being provided with at least one external ear electrode for detecting a bioelectrical signal, the external ear part includes at least one bendable arm which is connected to the ear canal part and is adapted to exert a pressure such that the at least one external ear electrode is pressed against the skin when in use.

The present invention relates to an ear component for detecting bioelectrical signals. The invention relates more particularly to an ear component for arrangement partly in an ear canal and partly at the ear outside the ear canal (e.g. in the concha region, and/or in a region behind the ear).
Bioelectrical signals are here understood to be electrical potential differences originating from a living body. Well-known examples are Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals and Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. An ear component for detecting bioelectrical signals at the ear is often made for the detection of EEG signals, but could also be applied for detecting other bioelectrical signals such as ECG, electrooculography (EOG), or muscular activity.
EEG signals are electrical signals generated by a person's brain activity. In recent years, EEG monitoring systems, that may be carried or worn continuously by a person to be monitored, have been devised. A goal is to have personal wearable EEG monitors, which can be carried without causing more inconvenience than glasses or a modern small hearing aid, even when carried over several months or years.
Such EEG monitors may be applied for different purposes. One example is surveillance of a condition of a person and e.g. for providing an alarm or information in case predetermined conditions are met. The monitor may also be applied for collection of data, e.g. for diagnostic purposes or for research use. Examples of applications are for surveillance of persons having diabetes or epilepsy. Another example is as input to the control or adjustment of a hearing aid.
Moreover, in recent years there has been a lot of activities within transcranial neuro-stimulation (e.g. tDCS and tACS). Here, electrodes are used for recording electrical signals, but also for neuro-stimulation. Another application could be measurement of galvanic skin-responses (GSR).
Furthermore, electric potentials originating from neural activity in the cranial nerves and in the brain stem may also be measured with ear devices. This is e.g. relevant in assessment of hearing loss, where it is common to measure responses from the cranial nerve (cranial nerve 8) and from the brain stem (as in auditory brain stem responses). But it may also be relevant to measure responses from e.g. the vagus nerve (cranial nerve 10) which have branches out in the external ear. This may e.g. be of relevance in epilepsies.
Measuring the EEG signal in the ear canal is known from WO 2011/000383 A1 disclosing an ear plug with EEG electrodes where the ear plug shape is individually matched or customized to the users ear canal.
WO 2007/047667 A2 discloses an ear plug made from a compressible material and provided with EEG ear canal electrodes. External ear electrodes are arranged on a measurement device, which is worn behind the ear. Thereby, the housing of the measurement device is shaped/customized to the curved contour of the ear of an individual.


A stable paste for fired-on layers which produces few pyrolysis products contains 0.3 to 3 wt. % of polyethylenimine as binder. The binder inhibits sedimentation of the contents of the paste.

The present invention relates to a paste for preparing fired-on layers, in particular in the microelectronics industry, containing finely divided metallic and/or non-metallic powders and a binder of a water-soluble organic polymer and a water-soluble organic solvent.
Switching circuits for microelectronics and also for rear window heaters for cars are generally produced in a mass production process using these types of paste. For this purpose, the pastes are applied to the corresponding substrate and dried at temperatures of up to 200.degree. C. in order to remove volatile constituents. During a subsequent firing process at temperatures up to 800.degree. C., all of the other organic substances are removed and the layer is thereby compacted.
Pastes for producing thick fired-on layers using a silk screen process generally contain a large proportion of organic solvents and polymeric binders. Some of the solvents used present a health risk. Special occupational safety measures have to be adopted, therefore, when processing the pastes and cleaning the equipment which has been used. In addition, considerable amounts of solvent and organic pyrolysis products are released when drying and firing the layers and these may also be harmful to the health of workers.
A screen printable paste of this type is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,242,623. It consists of finely divided, electrically conductive metal powders in an organic binder which is composed of several organic polymers such as polyacrylates, polyesters, polyamides, polyvinyl alcohol or ethyl cellulose, in an organic solvent such as high-boiling alcohols or terpenes.
Recently, efforts have been made to replace at least some of the solvent with water in order to minimize the amounts of health hazardous substances and in order to enable the removal of paste residues with water.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,653 describes a paste for the application of electrically conductive layers onto substrates in the electronics field, these consisting of silver platelets, a water-soluble polymer, in particular a polyacrylic compound, water and a water-soluble organic solvent, such as aliphatic alcohols with 6 to 18 carbon atoms, which has a boiling point higher than that of water. This paste, however, is not suitable for screen printing and produces health hazardous pyrolysis products during the firing process.
The spray process used in U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,653 is greatly inferior to the screen printing process with regard to product quality. This applies in particular to contour sharpness and surface roughness. Stringent specifications for these types of products can only be satisfied by using the screen printing process.
A water-based screen printing paste is also described in WO 9603466. The rheology of the pastes is adjusted for screen printing applications by using alkali-swellable polymeric binders. Due to the high volatility of the main solvent, water, however, the processing time is very restricted. The paste dries out and continuous use in a mass production process is thus impossible.
Therefore, screen printing pastes with organic solvents which are not very volatile are still being used.
Water is also unsuitable as the main solvent in other applications where retention of the rheological properties over a long processing time is required, despite working under normal atmospheric conditions, such as for example for the edge-metallization of capacitors.
Although a paste in accordance with EP-OS 0 630 031 can be removed with water, it contains, as solvent, organic liquids whose rates of evaporation are slower than that of water by a factor of at least 2. It therefore preferably contains higher glycols as solvent and polyvinylpyrrolidones and polysaccharides as binders. These pastes have the disadvantage that, when they are stored for progressively longer times, they form a solid sediment which can no longer be stirred up.
Thus, an object of the present invention was to provide a paste for producing fired-on layers, in particular for the microelectronics industry which avoids problems encountered in the past.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a paste which does not form a deposit over relatively long storage times, or forms a deposit which can be stirred up, and which forms the fewest possible health hazardous decomposition products.


A pool of virtual lobby applications available for display in a virtual lobby of a meeting application is identified based at least in part on configuration information associated with a meeting being accessed by a user via the meeting application. A set of one or more virtual lobby applications is selected, from among the pool of virtual lobby applications based at least in part on user information associated with the user accessing the meeting via the meeting application, for display to the user in the virtual lobby of the meeting application. The respective virtual lobby applications, among the set of virtual lobby applications, is rendered within a virtual lobby display in a user interface of the meeting application.

Virtual meeting applications are often used by individuals, organizations, etc. for conducting meetings, providing services, etc. In some scenarios, after accessing a meeting via a meeting application, a participant is required to wait until the participant actually joins the meeting in the meeting application. For example, a participant accessing a meeting via a meeting application may be required to wait until a host joins the meeting or until the participant is admitted into the meeting. In typical applications, while a participant is waiting to join the meeting, the participant may be shown a screen that may simply state, for example, that the host has not yet started the meeting or that the participant will soon be let into the meeting.
It is with respect to these and other general considerations that the aspects disclosed herein have been made. Also, although relatively specific problems may be discussed, it should be understood that the examples should not be limited to solving the specific problems identified in the background or elsewhere in this disclosure.

Personalized virtual lobby in a meeting application


A printer (10) for printing single sheets (126, 128) and at least one continuous paper strip (122) on a printing substrate plane (19), in which a single sheet (126, 128) is led up to the printing station (36, 56) from the operator side by being displaced manually on a feed table (20) and, in said printing station, can overlap the continuous paper strip (122), at least over part of the width of the latter. The continuous paper strip (122) is fed to the printing station (36, 56) from the operating side and the continuous paper feed channel (34) and the single-sheet feed channel (30) are each assigned a driven feed roller (98; 38) of a pair of feed rollers (100; 44). A mating roller (42) that is arranged on a rocker (48) can be pressed optionally against the driven feed roller (98; 38) of the continuous paper feed channel (34) or the single-sheet feed channel (30).

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a printer capable of printing a single sheet as well as at least one continuous strip of paper.
A printer of the type mentioned is disclosed by WO 91/13765 A1. In that patent, a matrix printing head with its needle mouthpiece pointing upward is arranged underneath a printing substrate plane, and the printer housing can be folded up in the plane of the printing substrate. A paper supply roll and a wind-up roll and a cutting device for a continuous paper strip are accommodated so that they are easily accessible in the upper part of the printer housing, which makes the threading of the start of a new continuous paper strip considerably easier. The arrangement has the further advantage that a single sheet and the continuous paper strip(s) can be fed to the plane of the printing substrate and led away from the latter over completely separate paths, so that a continuous paper strip which is always located in the printer and a single sheet can overlap. In order for it to be printed, a single sheet is pushed between the printing head and the endless paper strip on a level, horizontally aligned feed table. Following printing, the single sheet is transported out of the printer by pairs of transport rollers which are intended only for single-sheet transport. The continuous paper strip is then located directly in front of the printing head again and can be printed.
The advantages of the known arrangement cannot be transferred to a printer having an inkjet printing head since, as is known, such printing heads cannot print upward from below. Simply exchanging the printing head and printing support does not solve the problem, since a continuous paper web which is always located in the printer would shield a single sheet from the printing head. On the other hand, the handling of a printer substrate which is common in office printers, in which a continuous paper strip is pulled back out of the printing area before a single sheet is threaded, is impractical in the case of a cashdesk printer. Here, it is necessary to change continually between document and counterfoil printing, and too much time would be needed to pull back and re-feed the continuous paper strip which is normally used for counterfoil printing. In the case of a journal recording, in which a continuous paper strip is unwound from a supply roll and, behind the printing station, is wound up onto a wind-up roll, such a method could not be used in any case.
Therefore, there is a need for a printer having a printing station for printing a single sheet and at least one continuous paper strip on a single printing substrate plane, which is suitable for the use of an inkjet printing head.

Printer for printing on single sheets and an endless paper strip


A system and method for efficient document categorization are disclosed. In one embodiment, word length distribution information is used as a basis for categorization. Greater than 90% accuracy in classification may be achieved in, e.g., distinguishing newspaper articles from scientific journal articles. Word length distribution information may be developed without optical character recognition (OCR), permitting use of degraded document images.

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a system and method for categorizing documents and more particularly to document categorization that takes advantage of word length distribution analysis.
Automatic classification or categorization is an important function of a complete electronic document management system. It permits automatic filing of documents where the user would like scanned document images to be automatically routed to directories that contain similar material. For example, the user may wish to automatically store newspaper articles with other newspaper articles and scientific journal articles with other scientific journal articles.
One known technique analyzes general visual features of document images and matches them to distributions from other documents to derive decisions. This technique however does not take text semantics into account. Systems embodying this technique are available from Documagix of San Jose, Calif. and Visioneer of Palo Alto, Calif.
Textual features are another possible basis for categorization. The document management system would search a newly scanned document for keywords associated with categories. This categorization procedure however requires optical character recognition (OCR) which does not operate well on degraded images. Also, this procedure requires that each document be easily classified by the keywords found within it.
Yet another possible technique utilizes character transition probabilities, i.e., given a particular character, what is the probability of another character following. This technique also relies on OCR to identify characters. One prior art system accepts a document and returns other documents relating to similar topics by comparing character transition probability distributions. This system retrieves only semantically similar documents with documents on similar topics being classed together. This is a narrower categorization than necessary in many applications which only require distinguishing among generic classes such as newspaper stories or scientific articles. Although highly accurate when working with high quality images, this technique is computationally intensive and slow.
What is needed is a document categorization system that is capable of classifying documents into broad categories but that is able to use degraded images as input.

Document categorization by word length distribution analysis


A method of repairing an indirect addressing structure of a file system damaged by corruption of a virtual data block (VDB) mapping data stored in corresponding physical data blocks (PDBs) includes scanning PDB descriptors to identify PDBs storing data mapped by the corrupted VDB, where each identified PDB includes a set of PDB entries each having a backward pointer identifying a corresponding VDB entry of a corresponding VDB. The identified PDBs are scanned to identify PDB entries whose backward pointers refer to VDB entries of the corrupted VDB, then a replacement VDB is created by (1) for each of the identified PDB entries, recreating a corresponding VDB entry including a forward pointer to the identified PDB entry, and (2) incorporating the recreated VDB entries into the replacement VDB. The replacement VDB is then incorporated into the indirect addressing structure in place of the corrupted VDB.

The present invention relates to the field of file systems, in particular to large file systems used in data storage systems for organizing storage the data of logical storage objects such as volumes. Even more particularly, it relates to techniques for repairing damage to an indirect addressing tree of the file system that occurs during operation.

Data storage system with repair of virtual data blocks of internal file system


In a offshore oil and gas platform located over seawater in an open sea environment, the platform having drilling equipment, crew quarters, and a potable water holding tank for holding potable water, a portable desalination apparatus for producing potable water from seawater. The apparatus is comprised of a support skid to which is mounted a plurality of removable lifting lugs. A pump with associated piping and valves are fixed to the skid for collecting seawater from the open sea environment. Additional piping and valves are provided for moving seawater from the pump to a seawater filter. Additional piping and valves are used for moving the filtered seawater to a plurality of first pressure vessels each having reverse osmosis elements to produce a first quantity of brine water and a first quantity of desalinated water from the filtered seawater. Other piping and valves are used to move the first quantity of brine water to a second plurality of pressure vessels, each of the second pressure vessels also has reverse osmosis elements to produce a second quantity of brine water and a second quantity of desalinated water. Additional piping and valves are used for discharging the second quantity of brine water to a disposal system and collecting and transporting the first and second quantities of desalinated water an ultraviolet light chamber to expose the desalinated water to ultraviolet light to produce potable water. Structure is provided for discharging the potable water to the potable water holding tank of the platform.

The drilling of oil and gas wells in an offshore environment typically requires the use manned drilling platforms over extended periods of time. In order to provide a hospitable environment for the personnel, it is necessary that these drilling platforms be provided with large quantities of potable water for use be the personnel manning the platforms. Providing such water typically involves providing large storage tanks for potable water, these tanks being replenished by water being brought the platforms, or providing bulky, cumbersome, desalination equipment that either utilizes valuable platform space or requires tender vessels to support the equipment. The present invention is designed to provide a high volume, portable desalination apparatus designed to eliminate those problems associated with providing potable water on drilling platforms.

Portable skid mounted desalination apparatus


The present disclosure relates to a charged particle beam device intended to appropriately measure the amount of foreign substances in a vacuum chamber. As one aspect for achieving the above object, proposed is a charged particle beam device including a charged particle beam column (9) configured to irradiate a sample with a charged particle beam, vacuum chambers (1, 2) configured to create a vacuum around the sample, a plurality of electrodes (12) arranged in the vacuum chambers, and a capacitance measuring device (13) for measuring the capacitance between the plurality of electrodes.

A scanning electron microscope which is one aspect of a charged particle beam device is a device that generates an image by irradiating a sample with an electron beam and detecting signal electrons released from the sample. The vacuum sample chamber is required to be in a vacuum state in order to irradiate the sample with an electron beam, and to be in a clean state in order to prevent discharge and sample contamination due to foreign substances. Patent No. 5033374 (PTL 1) describes that a magnet that adsorbs foreign substances is installed in a vacuum chamber so that metal foreign substances and organic gas molecules generated from the transport unit do not adhere to a wafer that is an observation target of a scanning electron microscope.


Apparatus and method for inserting fillings into foods such as bagels, donuts, other pastries and confectioneries. A base supports a movable platform onto which a restraining device are mounted for fixing a food to be filled in a fixed position. Coiled tubing is provided for insertion into the food and for conveying a filling material into the food. Coiled tubing may be inserted by holding coiled tubing in fixed position and rotating the food. Alternatively, the food can be held in a fixed position and the coiled tubing rotated into the food.

For decades, to the delight of both children and adults, bakers have been adding fillings to such pastries as eclairs and creme puffs. The tools with which bakers have added these fillings have ranged from simple non-porous bags which are squeezed to force viscous fluids into cavities in pastries, to more elaborate devices using valves, pistons and nozzles. The result of the baker's work has been tasty foods having a delightfully sweet filling. However, because of their design, most prior art devices have been useful only for foods having a particular shape or length.
Most prior art devices also are limited by their inability to allow determination of whether complete filling of a food product has occurred. Most do not allow monitoring of the purity of the filling, possibly allowing foreign matter into the food, or fouling the insertion of the filling. Finally, prior art devices generally have had straight insertion nozzles, limiting their use to items having generally elongated shapes.
For this reason, foods which have been filled generally have been elongate or solid, since an elongate filler is only effective for these shapes. Foods such as donuts and bagels are not normally filled because of the limitations imposed by elongate nozzles.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide apparatus for filling food having a coiled nozzle for insertion into food.
It is another object of the present invention to provide apparatus for filling food having a nozzle which can have various cross-sectional shapes;
Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

Apparatus and method for inserting a filling into a food product


Fine carbon fibers having a fiber diameter of 1 xcexcm or less, an interlayer distance d002 between carbon layers as determined by an X-ray diffraction method of 0.335 to 0.342 nm or less and satisfying d002 less than 0.3448xe2x88x920.0028 (log xcfx86) where xcfx86 stands for the diameter of the carbon fibers, and a thickness Lc of the crystal in the C axis direction of 40 nm or less. Fine carbon fibers containing boron in crystals of the fiber. The fine carbon fibers can be produced by using vapor-grown fine carbon fibers as a raw material, adding a boron or a boron compound to the material; pressing the mixture to regulate the bulk density to preferably 0.05 g/cm3 or more; and heating at a temperature of 2000xc2x0 C. or higher.

The present invention relates to fine carbon fibers (including coil-like carbon fibers, vapor grown carbon fibers, whisker carbon fibers, expanded carbon fibers and other fibrous carbons) and a process for producing the same, which carbon fibers are used as a filler added to any of a variety of materials such as metals, resins, and ceramics so as to improve electric and thermal conductivity thereof, as an electron-emitting element for an FED (field-emission display), and as a filler such as a property-improving material for a variety of batteries. The invention also relates to an electrode for batteries; i.e., a positive and a negative electrode for any of a variety of batteries such as a dry battery, a Pb secondary battery, a capacitor, and an Li ion secondary battery, the electrodes being incorporated with fine carbon fibers so as to improve the charge-discharge capacity and the mechanical strength of an electrode plate.
Fine carbon fibers, as referred to in the present invention, are typically produced through a vapor phase method comprising thermal decomposition of hydrocarbon (e.g., disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) Nos. 7-150419, 5-321039, 60-215816, and 61-70014 and Japanese Examined Patent Publication (kokoku) Nos. 5-36521 and 3-61768). The thus-produced carbon fibers typically have a diameter of approximately 0.01-5 xcexcm. If the diameter is 0.01 xcexcm or more, the fine carbon fibers include carbon nano-tubes and carbon nano-fibers having a concentric or tree-annual-ring structure similar to the carbon fibers grown by the vapor phase method.
There has been proposed use of fine carbon fibers as a filler for metals, resins, ceramics, etc. Of these, fine carbon fibers are particularly proposed as a filler for batteries, because the development of portable apparatuses such as small-sized cellular phones, video cameras, and notebook-type personal computers has been remarkable, and the demand for a small-sized secondary battery including an Li ion secondary battery (Li battery) serving as a power source therefor has increased drastically.
Examples of typical carbonaceous materials for a negative electrode of an Li battery include hard carbon pitch, meso-phase carbon microbeads (MCMB), meso-phase pitch carbon fiber (MPCF), artificial graphite, coke, and naturally occurring graphite. Furthermore, the addition of carbon fibers produced from pitch or vapor-grown carbon fibers to these negative electrode materials has also been proposed, while carbonaceous materials such as graphite micropowder and carbon black are incorporated into a positive electrode as electric conductivity-providing agents.
In a negative electrode of an Li battery, intercalation and deintercalation of lithium ions occur during charge and discharge processes. Graphite, having a layered structure, easily undergoes intercalation wherein a reactant (e.g., Li) is inserted into an interlayer void to thereby expand the void (intercalation). The reaction product containing a compound inserted in the interlayer void is called a graphite intercalation compound. The intercalation compound easily releases the intercalated reactant (deintercalation), to thereby transform itself into graphite; i.e., the original material. Fine carbon fibers, which is a material having excellent electric and thermal conductivity and an intercalating property, do not lower the capacity of the battery, and thus addition thereof is of interest as an additive in a negative electrode material.
The enhancing of the intercalating property of the negative electrode is essential for enhancing the capacity of an Li battery. In general, in order to enhance the intercalating property, the degree of graphitization; i.e., crystallinity, of carbonaceous materials including fine carbon fibers must be enhanced.
A negative electrode of a lead secondary battery per se comprises a compound having poor electric conductivity, and carbonaceous materials such as carbon black, graphite microparticles and carbon fiber may optionally be added thereto to enhance the conductivity of the negative electrode. Such carbonaceous materials desirably have high electric conductivity and crystallinity. In order to enhance the crystallinity of such carbonaceous materials, the materials are typically treated at high temperature in order to effect graphitization.
Meanwhile, fine carbon fibers having a small average fiber diameter, particularly 1 xcexcm or less, have a low bulk density and provide an insufficient filling density. Thus, when fine carbon fibers are added, to an electrode, in a large amount, the density of the electrode decreases. Therefore, fine carbon fibers are typically added in an amount of 20 mass % or less, preferably 10 mass % or less. From this point of view, fine carbon fibers are considered not to impart a remarkable effect commensurate with addition thereof even when the crystallinity of the fibers is enhanced. Therefore, no investigation other than treatment at high temperature has been carried out so as to enhance the crystallinity of fine carbon fibers. Thus, conventionally used fine carbon fibers have insufficient crystallinity, and the distance between two crystal layers represented by d002 is larger than 0.3385 nm.
To meet with demand for increased capacity, electrode materials with a lower electric resistance are sought to give a large electric current charge-discharge capacity.
Addition of various conductivity-imparting materials are studied to lower the resistance of electrodes, in which it is known that a filler of a fibrous material particularly of vapor grown carbon fibers is effective. The reasons thereof include:
1) fine fibrous materials have an aspect ratio of 100 or more allowing a long conducting path;
2) vapor-grown carbon fibers have a high crystallinity to give a high conductivity; and
3) vapor-grown carbon fibers have a charge-discharge capacity to thereby prevent reducing the capacity of a Li battery when added.
However, commercially available fine fibrous materials having a diameter of 1 xcexcm or less have an upper limit of the conductivity of 0.01 xcexa9xc2x7cm as the powder resistance when measured at a density of 0.8 g/cm3 and there are no available fine fibrous materials having a conductivity higher than this.
Recently, the crystallinity of a negative electrode material has been enhanced to thereby improve the charge-discharge capacity of a battery. This trend forces an additive other than a negative electrode material to have a high discharge capacity. Therefore, the crystallinity of carbonaceous material serving as an additive for a negative electrode must be enhanced.
Considering the above requisite to enhance the crystallinity of fine carbon fibers, the inventors have been investigated heat treatment up to 3200xc2x0 C. to enhance the crystallinity.
However, even when fine carbon fibers (vapor-grown carbon fibers) having diameters of the order of about 0.15 xcexcm are heated to 3000xc2x0 C. or higher, the lattice constant of the interlayer distance d002 cannot be reduced to less than 0.3385 nm.
Simultaneously, the conductivity had an upper limit of 0.01 xcexa9xc2x7cm as the powder resistance when measured at a density of 0.8 g/cm3. Accordingly, fine carbon fibers having a higher crystallinity and a lower resistance are sought.
The supposed reason for the above failure is that vapor-grown carbon fibers have a considerably small fiber diameter and a unique structure wherein the core of the concentrically grown crystalline fiber comprises a hollow or amorphous portion. In addition, when the fiber diameter is as small as 1 xcexcm or less, maintenance of a roll-shape structure of a carbon hexagonal network plane becomes more difficult with decreasing distance between the structure and the center of the fiber, to thereby make crystallization difficult. Therefore, the value of d002depends on the diameter of the fiber. For example, the limitations on the interlayer distance d002 were 0.3385 nm for the fiber with a diameter of about 0.15 xcexcm, 0.3400 nm for the fiber with a diameter of about 0.05 xcexcm, 0.3415 nm for the fiber with a diameter of about 0.02 xcexcm, and 0.3420 nm for the fiber with a diameter of about 0.01 xcexcm or less. Therefore, the limitation of the interlayer space d002 is 0.3385 nm and, even when the carbon fibers are heated to 3000xc2x0 C. or higher, d002 cannot be reduced to less than 0.3385 nm.
Accordingly, in order to enhance crystallinity and to reduce d002 to 0.3385 nm or less, there must be developed a method for enhancing crystallinity other than heat treatment.
The object of the present invention is to develop fine carbon fibers having a high crystallinity that has not been produced through a conventional method or having a high crystallinity, and to provide a battery electrode having a higher performance by containing the developed carbon fibers as a filler.
Firstly, the present inventors have investigated a graphitization catalyst (Called also a graphitization aid or additive and hereinafter simply called a xe2x80x9cgraphitization catalystxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9ccatalystxe2x80x9d) so as to attain the above-described objects.
Before now, no investigations have been conducted on controlling the characteristics of fine carbon fibers having a fiber diameter of 1 xcexcm or less by use of a graphitization catalyst. Further, the degree of enhancement in the crystallinity and characteristics of fine carbon fibers having such a particular crystal structure by use of a graphitization catalyst has not been elucidated.
Secondly, the present inventors have investigated treatment of fine carbon fibers by use of a catalyst.
The present invention has been accomplished based on the above study. The present invention provides the following.
(1) Fine carbon fibers having a diameter of 1 xcexcm or less; an interlayer distance d002 between carbon layers as determined by an X-ray diffraction method in a range of 0.335 nm to 0.342 nm, further 0.3354 nm to 0.3420 nm, and satisfying d002 less than 0.3448xe2x88x920.0028 (log xcfx86), preferably d002 less than 0.3444xe2x88x920.0028 (log xcfx86), more preferably d002 less than 0.3441xe2x88x920.0028 (log xcfx86), wherein xcfx86 stands for the diameter of the carbon fibers and the units of d002 and xcfx86 are nm; and a thickness Lc of the crystal in the C axis direction of 40 xcexcm or less.
(2) Fine carbon fibers according to (1), characterized in that the R value of Raman spectrum is 0.5 or more and the peak width of half height of a peak of the spectrum at 1580 cmxe2x88x921 is 20-40 cmxe2x88x921.
(3) Fine carbon fibers having a diameter of 1 xcexcm or less and containing boron in the crystals of the fibers.
(4) Fine carbon fibers according to (1) or (2), which contain boron in the crystals of the carbon fibers.
(5) Fine carbon fibers according to (3) or (4), which contain boron in an amount of 0.1-3 mass %.
(6) Fine carbon fibers according to any one of (1) to (5), which have a fiber diameter of 0.01-1 xcexcm and an aspect ratio of 10 or more.
(7) Fine carbon fibers according to (6), wherein the resistance as the powder when pressed to a density of 0.8 g/cm3 is 0.01 xcexa9xc2x7cm or less in the direction vertical to the pressing direction.
(8) Fine carbon fibers according to any one of (1) to (7), which are vapor-grown carbon fibers.
(9) A process for producing fine carbon fibers which comprises adding fine carbon fibers having a diameter of 1 xcexcm or less with boron or a boron compound and heating the fine carbon fibers to 2000xc2x0 C. or higher.
(10) A process for producing fine carbon fibers which comprises adding fine carbon fibers having a diameter of 1 xcexcm or less with boron or a boron compound;
regulating bulk density of the fine carbon fiber to 0.05 g/cm3 or more; and
heating the fine carbon fiber to 2000xc2x0 C. or higher while said density is maintained.
(11) A process for producing fine carbon fibers according to (9) or (10) wherein the amount of the added boron or boron compound is 0.1 to 10 mass %.
(12) A process for producing fine carbon fibers according to any one of (9) or (11) wherein the fine carbon fibers to which the boron or boron compound is added have a diameter of 0.01 to 1 xcexcm and an aspect ratio of 10 or more.
(13) A process for producing fine carbon fibers according to any one of (9) or (12) wherein the fine carbon fibers to which the boron or boron compound is added are vapor-grown carbon fibers.
(14) A process for producing fine carbon fibers according to (13) wherein the fine carbon fibers, prior to said heat treatment, to which the boron or boron compound is to be added are fired products of vapor-grown carbon fibers fired after growth.
(15) A process for producing fine carbon fibers according to (13) wherein the fine carbon fibers, prior to said heat treatment, to which the boron or boron compound is to be added are unfired products of vapor-grown carbon fibers not fired after the growth.
(16) A battery electrode containing fine carbon fibers as recited in any one of (1) to (8).

Carbon fiber, method for producing the same and electrode for cell


A hyaluronic acid product is comprising a cross-linked hyaluronic acid and one or more cyclodextrin molecules, and further comprising a guest molecule capable of forming a guest-host complex with the aminocyclodextrin molecule acting as a host, wherein the guest molecule is a retinoid, preferably adapalene, or a RAM BA. The hyaluronic acid is cross-linked by ether bonds, and the one or more cyclodextrin molecules are grafted onto the cross-linked hyaluronic acid by amide bonds, preferably using a triazine-based coupling reagent.

One of the most widely used biocompatible polymers for medical use is hyaluronic acid (HA). It is a naturally occurring polysaccharide belonging to the group of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). Hyaluronic acid and the other GAGs are negatively charged heteropolysaccharide chains which have a capacity to absorb large amounts of water. Hyaluronic acid and products derived from hyaluronic acid are widely used in the biomedical and cosmetic fields, for instance during viscosurgery and as a dermal filler.
Water-absorbing gels, or hydrogels, are widely used in the biomedical field. They are generally prepared by chemical crosslinking of polymers to infinite networks. While native hyaluronic acid and certain crosslinked hyaluronic acid products absorb water until they are completely dissolved, crosslinked hyaluronic acid gels typically absorb a certain amount of water until they are saturated, i.e. they have a finite liquid retention capacity, or swelling degree.
Since hyaluronic acid is present with identical chemical structure except for its molecular mass in most living organisms, it gives a minimum of reactions and allows for advanced medical uses. Crosslinking and/or other modifications of the hyaluronic acid molecule is necessary to improve its duration in vivo. Furthermore, such modifications affect the liquid retention capacity of the hyaluronic acid molecule. As a consequence thereof, hyaluronic acid has been the subject of many modification attempts.
Cyclodextrins (sometimes called cycloamyloses), also referred to herein as CD or CDx, are a family of compounds made up of sugar molecules bound together in a ring (cyclic oligosaccharides). Cyclodextrins are produced from starch by means of enzymatic conversion. Typically, cyclodextrins are constituted by 6-8 glucopyranoside units, and have a structural conformation resembling toroids with the primary hydroxyl groups of the glucopyranoside units arranged along the smaller opening of the toroid and the secondary hydroxyl groups of the glucopyranoside units arranged along the larger opening of the toroid. Because of this arrangement, the interior of the toroids is considerably less hydrophilic than the aqueous environment and thus able to host other hydrophobic molecules. In contrast, the exterior is sufficiently hydrophilic to impart cyclodextrins (or their complexes) water solubility.
When a hydrophobic molecule (the guest) is contained, fully or partially, within the interior of the cyclodextrin (the host), this is referred to as an inclusion complex or guest/host complex. The formation of the guest/host complex can greatly modify the physical and chemical properties of the guest molecule, mostly in terms of water solubility. This is a reason why cyclodextrins have attracted much interest in pharmaceutical applications: because inclusion compounds of cyclodextrins with hydrophobic molecules are able to penetrate body tissues, these can be used to release biologically active compounds under specific conditions. In most cases the mechanism of controlled degradation of such complexes is based on change of pH, leading to the cleavage of hydrogen or ionic bonds between the host and the guest molecules. Other mechanisms for the disruption of the complexes include heating or action of enzymes able to cleave α-1,4 linkages between glucose monomers.
WO 2013/040242 A2 discloses that additives containing carboxyl functional groups can be conjugated to hyaluronic acid hydrogels via esterifications using EDC chemistry. Example 14 of WO 2013/040242 provides however merely a prophetic example of conjugation of retinoic acid and non-crosslinked hyaluronic acid.
US 2014/0094433 discloses a one-step process of simultaneous cross-linking of HA and grafting of cyclodextrins. The grafting may occur either by direct covalent bonds, e.g. ester bonds, between HA and the cyclodextrin or by a linking group covalently bonded to both the HA and the cyclodextrin, e.g. by ester, ether, amine, amide or other covalent bonds.
JP 3847405 B2 is concerned with coupling of monosaccharides to cyclodextrins in the presence of an endoglucosidase, which enzymatically degrades oligosaccharides.
WO 2015/181365 A1 and WO 2015/181366 A1 discloses a hydrogel consisting of hyaluronic acid cross-linked by ether bonds to dextran, further comprising a cyclodextrin cross-linked by amide bonds to the hyaluronic acid moieties. The cyclodextrin moiety is comprising a drug substance.
Chariot et al., Macromolecules 40(26): 9555-9563 (2007) discloses a guest-host complex between adamantane coupled to hyaluronic acid (guest) and cyclodextrin coupled to hyaluronic acid. (host). The resulting hydrogel is thus physically linked only by reversible, non-covalent bonds.
Rodell et al., Advanced Functional Materials 25(4): 636-644 (2015) discloses a complicated procedure resulting in a guest-host complex between adamantane ester-coupled to hyaluronic acid (guest) and aminocyclodextrin amide-coupled to hyaluronic acid. (host), accompanied by thioether bonds between the hyaluronic acid molecules. The resulting hydrogel is thus physically linked by reversible, non-covalent bonds and cross-linked by thioether bonds.
Li et al., Scientific Reports 4: 4164 (2014) discloses a complicated procedure resulting in a guest-host complex between adamantane coupled to gold particles (guest) and cyclodextrin coupled to hyaluronic acid (host). The gold particles are thus physically linked to the hyaluronic acid only by reversible, non-covalent bonds

Cyclodextrin-grafted cross-linked hyaluronic acid complexed with active drug substances and uses thereof


Example embodiments provide techniques for configuring a natural-language processing system to perform a new function given at least one sample invocation of the function. The training data consisting of the sample invocation may be augmented by determining which subset of available training data most closely resembles the sample invocation and/or function. The effect of re-training a component this this augmented training data may be determined, and an annotator may review any annotations corresponding to the invocation if the effect is large.

Speech-recognition systems allow humans to interact with computing devices using their voices. Such systems employ techniques to identify words spoken by a human user based on various qualities of a received audio input. Speech-recognition techniques, combined with natural-language understanding techniques, enable speech-based user control of a computing device and may thus allow the device to perform tasks based on the user's spoken commands. The combination of speech-recognition processing and natural-language understanding processing techniques is referred to herein as speech processing. Speech processing may be used by computers, hand-held devices, telephone computer systems, kiosks, and a wide variety of other devices to improve human-computer interaction.


An organic electroluminescent display device includes organic electroluminescent films, each containing organic electroluminescent materials and sandwiched by a pair of electrodes, each forming a plurality of light-emitting elements above a substrate. Each pixel of the display device is composed of two different colors light-emitting elements, and the chromaticity of each color is controlled by changing the concentration of organic electroluminescent materials or by adding foreign materials thereto. For example, if the chromaticity of the red light-emitting element is set to a value shifted toward green side, various colors including white can be produced by mixing this red with blue of the blue light-emitting element. Then, the organic electroluminescent display device can produce high-quality quasi-color images by mixing two colors of which chromaticity values are properly controlled. By virtue of a two-color structure, the aperture ratio becomes high and the manufacturing process becomes simple.

The present invention relates to an organic electroluminescent display device including light-emitting films containing organic electroluminescent materials.
The present application claims priority from Japanese Patent Application Nos. 2002-209869 and 2002-281110, the respective disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
It is known that the electroluminescence (hereafter, referred to as EL) of organic compound materials which emit light by current injection is utilized in display devices (organic EL display devices) The EL display device has many pixels arrayed in a predetermined pattern on a planar substrate. Each pixel is composed of organic EL display elements made of organic EL films.
As a result of research efforts, organic compound materials which can emit red (R), green (G) and blue (B) light of high purity have been developed, which are suited for organic luminescent displays represented by the organic EL display device. Now full color display devices are available which have R, G and B light-emitting elements in each pixel.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a prior art organic electroluminescent display device, which is capable of providing color images, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 8-227276. On a transparent substrate 1, this organic electroluminescent display device has scan signal lines 2 and data signal lines 3 which are arrayed to intersect at right angles and electrically isolated from each other, non-linear elements 4 each connected to the scan signal line 2 and the data signal line 3, and first display electrodes 5, which are connected to the non-linear elements 4, of independent array patterns each corresponding to the R, G and B light-emitting elements. On the first display electrode 5, a different organic electroluminescent film is deposited for each color, and a common second display electrode (not shown) is further deposited on the organic electroluminescent film.
In such an organic electroluminescent display device, R, G and B light-emitting elements constitute a display unit (pixel) in combination, and full-color images are provided by driving the individual light-emitting elements.
In addition, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei.11-52905 discloses a technique using two light-emitting diodes (LEDs) of different colors per pixel for providing multicolor images by mixing the two gray-scaled colors.
There is a problem in the former case, i.e., in the conventional organic electroluminescent display device where a display unit is composed of three light-emitting elements, that the ratio of luminescent areas per pixel (aperture ratio) is low. This is because non-luminescent margins for wiring exist around the light-emitting elements. Another problem posed in the prior art is that the manufacturing process is complex because the three light-emitting elements need to be formed one by one on the substrate.
The above problems could be avoided by constituting the light-emitting elements with a single light-emitting element per pixel. However, in turn, there arises another problem that such a display device only provides monochrome gray-scale images, instead of versatile color images.
Moreover, in using LEDs as light sources as shown in the latter prior art, it is difficult to precisely control the chromaticity of emitted light. Therefore, high-quality two-color images are not provided by such an approach because of the limited chromaticity range attained by mixing LED colors.

Organic electroluminescent display device


Systems and methods according to one or more embodiments are provided for performing rotorcraft based non-destructive physical inspection and/or testing. In one example, a system includes a rotorcraft and a rotating arm coupled to the rotorcraft. An inspection sensor is coupled to a first end of the rotating arm and configured to be placed in close proximity to and/or in physical contact with a surface of an object.

In the field of physical inspection systems, there is an ongoing effort to improve access to structures such as to perform non-destructive physical inspections. Limited access to confined spaces such as interior portions of an aircraft fuselage during production and assembly, for example, may make inspection of internal aircraft structures difficult for inspection personnel. Moreover, manual inspection of outer structures such as an aircraft wing may require elevated open framework catwalks to provide access for inspection personnel and equipment. Significantly, for inspection of in-service aircraft, there may be no ready access to upper portions of a fuselage exterior. The aircraft may need to be taken out of service and moved into a hanger for inspection. Thus, there is a need for an improved methodology to safely and efficiently inspect objects such as aircraft.

Rotorcraft inspection systems and methods


In a two-stroke internal combustion engine, output power is increased and total hydrocarbon (THC) exhaust is decreased as a result of small structural changes. An exhaust port and scavenging ports are configured and disposed such that they are open in a reduced period of the combustion cycle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a small air-cooled two-stroke gasoline engine having a displacement of about 15 cc to about 35 cc which is preferably used in a small-sized hand-held working machine such as a brush cutter or chain saw. More particularly, it relates to a small air-cooled two-stroke gasoline engine which is designed so as to reduce noxious pollutants in an exhaust gas, in particular, total HC (THC) without impairing output power characteristics.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, due to increased environmental awareness, even with respect to a small air-cooled two-cycle gasoline engine which is used in a hand-held working machine such as a brush cutter or chain saw, it has been strongly desired to render an exhaust gas discharged therefrom less pollutive by reducing noxious pollutants such as HC, CO and NOx in the exhaust gas. For example, according to the regulation of exhaust gas bill in the State of California, i.e., so-called CARB 1999, it is required to reduce CO, total HC (THC) and NOx contents of an exhaust gas to not higher than 130 g/bhp-h, 50 g/bhp-h and 4 g/bhp-h, respectively, from 1999 onward.
FIGS. 8 and 9 show an example of a conventional small air-cooled two-stroke gasoline engine which has been subject to a demand for reduction of noxious pollutants contained in an exhaust gas.
The illustrated internal combustion engine 1' is a Schnurle scavenging type small air-cooled two-stroke gasoline engine which is incorporated as a power source into a hand-held working machine such as a brush cutter or chain saw and whose displacement is about 23 cc. The internal combustion engine 1' comprises a cylinder 2' having a combustion chamber 5' equipped with a spark plug 15, a crank case 3 connected to the bottom of the cylinder 2', and a piston 4' fit-inserted in the cylinder 2'. In the cylinder 2', an intake port 7 connected to a carburetor (not shown) and an exhaust port 10' are formed so as to open oppositely at different levels, and a pair of scavenging ports 9' 9' ' are formed symmetrically with respect to the longitudinal sectional plane bisecting the exhaust port 10' and the intake port 7. Opening and closing of these ports 10', 7 and 9', 9' are effected by the reciprocating movement of the piston 4'.
As in a customary internal combustion engine, reciprocating motion of the piston 4' is converted into rotational motion of a crank shaft 12, on which a balance weight 14 is mounted, via a connecting rod 11, and the output power from the crank shaft 12 is utilized as a driving force of the hand-held working machine.
In the internal combustion engine 1', during a reciprocation, i.e., two strokes of the piston 4', steps of compression, combustion, intake, scavenging, expansion and exhaust are effected in a well-known manner as a consequence of the vertical reciprocation of the piston 4'. In the conventional engine 1', for example, as shown in the conceptional diagram of FIG. 6 (B), opening and closing of the exhaust port 10' and the scavenging ports 9', 9' by means of the piston 4' are timed, in view mainly of output power characteristics, such that the exhaust port 10' and the scavenging ports 9', 9' are open when the crank shaft 12 is within ranges covering an angle of 140 degrees and an angle of 107 degrees in terms of its crank angle, respectively, each of which centrally contains the bottom dead center (BDC). In other words, the exhaust port 10' and the scavenging ports 9', 9' are closed when the crank shaft 12 is outside the above respective ranges in terms of its crank angle.
As shown in FIG. 5 (B) which is an enlarged view of the combustion chamber 5' and its surroundings, the combustion chamber 5' is a squish dome type combustion chamber which comprises a substantially conical main surface 5a' and an annual skirt-like squish band 5b' gently sloping and having a relatively large band width .alpha.' (maximum width: 8 mm, minimum width: 3 mm). The combustion chamber 5' is equipped with a spark plug 15' in the conical surface opposite to the exhaust port 10' in such a manner that a spark point SP' of the spark plug 15' is located nearer to the exhaust port 10' than the center line C of the combustion chamber 5'.
Further, as shown in FIG. 5 (B), a distance L' between the top surface 4a' of the piston 4' and the upper edge 4b' of a groove for retaining the upper piston ring 21' of piston rings is about 2.5 mm, and each of the piston rings 21', 22' has a thickness d' of about 2.0 mm.
In the conventional small air-cooled two-stroke gasoline engine 1' as described above which is used in a portable working machine, a fresh gas mixture (air-fuel mixture) is in part directly swept toward an exhaust port 10' and discharged therefrom, so that a so-called "blow through" amount is undesirably large. This leads to unsatisfactory fuel consumption. Further, it is extremely difficult to reduce pollutants contained in an exhaust gas, in particular, THC. To date, there have not yet been developed any practically effective measures to cope with these problems.


There is provided a control apparatus adapted to easily and securely plural robots in an individual manner so that they can be controlled. In more practical sense, when one robot unit is controlled, a slide button 52 is switched to the module A side. When the other robot unit is controlled, such button is switched to the module B side. When a button 51 caused to correspond to sound name is operated, sound corresponding to that sound name is outputted at sound pitch corresponding to switching position of the slide button 52, and robot is controlled by that sound. Respective robots take thereinto only audio signals of sound pitches corresponding thereto.

This invention relates to a control apparatus and a method therefor, an information processing apparatus and a method therefor, and a medium, and more particularly to a control apparatus and a method therefor, an information processing apparatus and a method therefor, and a medium which can easily and securely control plural robot units.
The applicant of this application has proposed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 335091/1996 publication, a system in which plural sounds of predetermined sound names of sound names referred to as C, D, A . . . are combined to control, e.g., robot apparatus (unit), etc. with the combination (chord) thereof being as one word or sentence.
While, in the previously mentioned proposal, the robot unit can be controlled by sound, there has not yet been provided technology to individually control, in such cases that plural robot units exist, those units when viewed including the previously mentioned proposal.
This invention has been made in such circumstances as described above, and contemplates easily and securely controlling plural robot apparatuses (units).
In more practical sense, a control apparatus according to this invention comprises selector means for selecting a predetermined controlled unit from plural controlled units, input means for inputting combination of plural sounds different in frequency for controlling controlled units, memory means for storing sound pitch information corresponding to the plural controlled units, and generating means for generating sound of combination inputted by the input means of sound pitch corresponding to the controlled unit selected by the selector means. The controlled unit may be robot unit. Moreover, combination of sounds (voices) may be combination of sounds of predetermined sound names within one octave.
Further, a control method according to this invention includes a selection step of selecting a predetermined controlled unit from plural controlled units, an input step of inputting combination of plural sounds different in frequency for controlling controlled units, a memory step of storing sound pitch information corresponding to plural controlled units, and a generation step of generating sound of combination inputted by processing of the input step of sound pitch corresponding to the controlled unit selected by processing of the selection step.
In addition, a medium according to this invention is adapted so that there is recorded program including a selection step of selecting a predetermined controlled unit from plural controlled units, an input step of inputting combination of plural sounds different in frequency for controlling controlled units, a memory step of storing sound pitch information corresponding to plural controlled units, and a generation step of generating sound of combination inputted by processing of the input step of sound pitch corresponding to the controlled unit selected by processing of the selection step.
In the control apparatus, the control method and the medium which have been described above, inputted combined sound of sound pitch corresponding to selected controlled unit is generated.
Moreover, an information processing apparatus according to this invention comprises sound detecting means for detecting sound, sound pitch detecting means for detecting sound pitch of the sound detected by the sound detecting means, combination detecting means for detecting combination of plural sounds different in frequency of sound detected by he sound detecting means, determining means for determining corresponding to detection results of the sound pitch detecting means and the combination detecting means, and execution means for executing processing corresponding to command by the determining means. The information processing apparatus may be robot unit. Further, combination of sounds (voices) may be combination of sounds of a predetermined sound name withing one octave.
Further, an information processing method according to this invention includes a sound detection step of detecting sound, a sound pitch detecting of detecting sound pitch of the sound detected by processing of the sound detection step, a combination detection step of detecting combination of plural sounds different in frequency of the sound detected by processing of the sound detection step, a determination step of determining command corresponding to detection results at the sound pitch detection step and the combination detection step, and an execution step of executing processing corresponding to the command determined by processing of the determination step.
Further, a medium according to this invention is adapted so that there is recorded program including a sound detection step of detecting sound, a sound pitch detection step of detecting sound pitch of the sound detected by processing of the sound detection step, a combination detection step of detecting combination of plural sounds different in frequency of the sound detected by processing of the sound detection step, a determination step of determining command corresponding to detection results at the sound pitch detection step and the combination detection step, and an execution step of executing processing corresponding to the command determined by processing of the determination step.
In the above-described information processing apparatus, information processing method and medium, command corresponding detected sound pitch and combination of sounds is determined. Thus, processing corresponding to the determined command is executed.
In addition, control apparatus according to this invention is directed to a control apparatus adapted for controlling controlled unit controlled on the basis of combined sounds, and comprises input means supplied with a signal, converting means for converting an input signal inputted to the input means into combined sound caused to correspond thereto, and sound output means for outputting combined sounds that the converting means has converted. The controlled unit may be robot unit.
In this control apparatus, such an approach is employed to detect signal from pocket telephone, etc. by input means to convert the detected signal into combined sounds caused to correspond thereto to output it to a robot unit which can be controlled by combined sound by sound output means.

Control device and method therefor, information processing device and method therefor, and medium


A system, method, and computer program product for publishing transcoded media content in response to publishing service requests from end users. A user request for media content, is processed intelligently, either by directing the processing of the request to one of a set of transcoding servers so as to effectively balance the load among the servers, or by directing the processing of the request to an appropriate alternative means for satisfying the request. Transcoding tasks can be prioritized. Moreover, the current load on any particular transcoding server can be monitored in conjunction with determination of the load to be created by a transcoding task, in order to facilitate server selection. Transcoding can be performed on-demand or in a batch mode. Alternatively, a request can be satisfied by distributing media content that has already been transcoded and is resident in cache memory in anticipation of such requests.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention described herein relates to publication of media content through a computer network.
2. Related Art
The popularity of the World Wide Web ("Web") and services provided on the Web has increased the demands placed upon Web sites. Server farms made up of a number of servers are sometimes used to provide computing power for a Web site. The load capacity on a single Internet Protocol (IP) based application server such as a Web server is often fixed. When a load upon a server reaches a certain level, performance of the server can degrade.
Therefore, given a server farm, load balancers can be used to distribute computing work load across different servers. FIG. 1 shows an example conventional load balancer 100 coupled to a server farm 110. Server farm 110 has multiple Web servers 120, 130 and 140. Load balancer 100 processes requests made by Internet users 105. Load balancer 100 is manually configured with a list of candidate Web servers 120-140 in a given pool, each with their respective resources. Load balancer 100 can then distribute client requests in a round-robin fashion among the available Web servers 120-140.
Load balancer 100 has a number of limitations. First, load balancer 100 does not discriminate among requests. All requests are handled equally regardless of whether a particular request involves more complex computing or a higher workload, relative to other requests. Treating a high workload request in the same manner as a low workload request can create an imbalance across servers. Second, load balancer 100 can manage multiple unrelated pools of servers, but is not aware of the data flow between pools of servers. This hampers load management. Third, the configuration needed in load balancer 100 can make it difficult to retire or reassign servers frequently or automatically. Operator intervention may be required, since the retiring or reassignment of a server must generally be carefully synchronized with changes on the load-balanced machines.
Load balancer 100 generally has a limited fault tolerance, based only on server availability. Load balancer 100 may perform a TCP-level check on the availability of Web servers 120-140 and distribute requests to available Web servers. This distribution (based on availability) is fairly crude and does not take into account whether an available server can provide a useful service in light of a particular task.
Conventional load balancers are generally limited by a lack of understanding of higher layer operations being carried out by servers. For example, many conventional load balancers work at a transport layer (OSI Layer 4) using TCP. At this layer, a load balancer can only determine that a server is willing to accept a connection, but not whether the server can satisfy a given request sent on that connection.
Moreover, a request from a user may not require the attention of a server in farm 110. Alternatives may exist for the satisfaction of a user request. A server external to farm 110 may best be able to handle the request, for example. Alternatively, a request for data could be handled by reading the requested data from a memory unit, such as a cache, and delivering the data to the user. In either of these cases, the processing of one of the servers 120-140 is not necessary.
Therefore, a need exists for a system that can intelligently process a user request, either by directing the processing of the request to one of a set of servers so as to effectively balance the load among the servers, or by directing the processing of the request to an appropriate alternative means for satisfying the request.

System, method, and computer program product for media publishing request processing


The present invention pertains to a yellow ink for inkjet printing and, in particular, to a yellow ink containing a combination of specific yellow colorants, namely Direct yellow 169 and Acid Yellow 79. The present invention further pertains to ink set having this yellow ink. The ink and ink set are particularly advantageous for printing on plain and photo glossy paper.

The present invention pertains to a yellow ink for inkjet printing and, in particular, to a yellow ink comprising a combination of specific yellow colorants. The present invention further pertains to an ink set comprising this yellow ink.
Inkjet printing is a non-impact printing process in which droplets of ink are deposited on a substrate, such as paper, to form the desired image. The droplets are ejected from a printhead in response to electrical signals generated by a microprocessor. Inkjet printers offer low cost, high quality printing and have become a popular alternative to other types of printers.
An ink jet ink set for color printing will generally comprise a cyan, magenta and yellow (CMY) ink, which are referred to as the primary colors. An ink set will also commonly comprise a black ink (CMYK).
A suitable ink should generally exhibit good crusting resistance, good stability, proper viscosity, proper surface tension, good color-to-color bleed alleviation, rapid dry time, consumer-safety and low strike-through.
In addition, the ink set should provide printed images having good color characteristics, such as correct hue and high chroma. Preferably, the ink set will achieve these favorable characteristics on a range of media including plain paper as well as specialty media such as transparency film and coated paper. Also, preferably, the hard copy output is reasonably lightfast.
While some of these conditions may be met by ink vehicle design, other conditions must be met by the proper selection and combination of the colorants. The selection of the colorants becomes especially important when additional limitations are placed on the choice of the colorants because of other system requirements, such as the color-to-color bleed control mechanism.
The term "bleed" means the invasion of one color into another, once the ink is deposited on the print medium. It can be seen as a ragged border between two adjacent colors. The occurrence of bleed is especially problematic between a black ink and color ink because it is all the more visible. Preferably bleed is minimized or eliminated so that borders between colors are clean and sharp.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,488,402 discloses a method for preventing color bleed between two different color ink compositions wherein the first ink is anionic and comprises a coloring agent which includes one or more carboxyl and/or carboxylate groups, and the second ink includes a precipitating agent which is designed to ionically crosslink with the coloring agent in the first ink to form a solid precipitate in order to prevent bleed between the two ink compositions. Multivalent metal salts are disclosed as being useful as the precipitating agent.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,518,534 discloses an ink set for alleviating bleed in multicolor printed elements employing a first ink and a second ink, each containing an aqueous carrier medium and a colorant; the colorant in the first ink being a pigment dispersion and the second ink containing a salt of an organic acid or mineral acid having a solubility of at least 10 parts in 100 parts of water at 25° C., wherein the salt is present in an amount effective to alleviate bleed between the first and second inks.
To take advantage of a bleed control mechanism involving salts, it is necessary to have a set of inks that can provide suitable performance characteristics while maintaining reliability in the presence of those salts. U.S. Pat. No. 6,053,969, for example, discloses an ink set with salt compatibility that addresses these needs. A key aspect of this art is the selection of yellow colorant for the yellow ink in this ink set. The difficulties of selecting the yellow colorant are described. For example, DY132 has favorable hue angle, chroma and lightfastness, but is incompatible with precipitating agents (inorganic salts). DY86 has favorable, chroma and lightfastness, but a lower than desired hue angle and no compatibility with precipitating agents. AY23 has favorable hue angle, chroma and compatibility with precipitating agents, but poor lightfastness. AY17 has favorable chroma, lightfastness and compatibility with precipitating agents, but higher than desired hue angle. IIford Y104 (CAS Number 187674-70-0) has favorable chroma, lightfastness and compatibility with precipitating agents, but lower than desired hue angle. However, a yellow ink with a combination of yellow colorants, namely AY17 and IIford Y104 achieves all the target attributes, namely a hue angle of 90-95, plain paper chroma of at least 70, good lightfastness and compatibility with inorganic salts.
Co-owned and co-pending application U.S. application Ser. No. 11/472,710 discloses other yellow colorant combinations, namely Acid Yellow 17 with Acid Orange 33 and/or Reactive Yellow 181, that achieve target attributes similar to the AY17/IIford Y104 combination in U.S. Pat. No. 6,053,969.
However, the aforementioned salt stable yellow inks, and ink sets containing same, have some performance deficiencies on specialty paper. In particular, the regions of the CYM composite black (combination of cyan, magenta and yellow inks) printed on photo quality microporous glossy paper have undesirable haze and hue shift.
A need still exists for improved inks, particularly yellow inks, and ink sets that provide appropriate color, lightfastness and bleed control on both plain paper and specialty paper, such as photoglossy paper, and that exhibit little or no haze or hue shift.


An image processing apparatus includes a non-linear smoother for smoothing input video data with an edge component thereof preserved, and outputting smoothed video data, a subtractor for subtracting the smoothed video data from the input video data and outputting high-frequency component video data not containing the edge component, an outline extractor for extracting the edge component from the smoothed video data and outputting edge component video data, a first amplifier for varying a signal level of the edge component video data, a second amplifier for varying a signal level of the high-frequency component video data not containing the edge component, and an adder for adding video data output from the first amplifier and video data output from the second amplifier to one of the smoothed video data and the input video data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus, method, computer program, and recording medium for processing an image for use in an image pickup apparatus, for example. In particular, the present invention relates to a technique that outline enhances input video data in a manner free from image degradation by separating an edge component from a smoothing process result of the input video data with an edge component thereof preserved, and by adjusting a level of the input video data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Video apparatuses for processing a variety of video data enhance an outline in a corresponding image with an outline enhancing circuit to improve image quality.
FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a typical known outline enhancing circuit 1. In the outline enhancing circuit 1, a sharpness component extractor 2, including a high-pass filter for example, extracts and outputs a high-frequency component from input video signal Y1, thereby extracting a component for use in an outline enhancement process. An amplifier 3 amplifies the high-frequency component with a predetermined gain, and outputs the amplified component. An adder 4 adds the output signal from the amplifier 3 to the original video signal Y1, thereby enhancing the outline of a video signal Y2 with the edge component thereof enhanced as shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-298621 discloses a technique of improving contrast and sharpness. As shown in FIG. 9, in an image processing circuit 6 related to the disclosed technique, a separator 7 limits the bandwidth of a luminance signal Y1 with a non-linear filter, thereby smoothing the luminance signal Y1 with an edge component thereof preserved, and outputting a luminance signal ST1 as shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B. The separator 7 subtracts the smoothed luminance signal ST1 from the luminance signal Y1, thereby extracting a high-frequency component TX1 not containing the edge component as shown in FIG. 10C. The non-linear filter is a two-dimensional ε filter, for example.
An amplifier 8 in the image processing circuit 6 amplifies the high-frequency component TX1 not containing the edge component with a predetermined gain and outputs the amplified high-frequency component TX2. An adder 9 adds the output signal TX2 from the amplifier 8 to the smoothed luminance signal ST1 output from the separator 7, and thus outputs a luminance signal Y3 with an edge component removed therefrom and the high-frequency component enhanced. Since the edge component is not processed at all in this method, enhancement is performed with the occurrence of pre-shooting and over-shooting controlled.
The known outline enhancing circuit of FIG. 7 enhances a high-frequency component other than the edge component, thereby enhancing a noise component. This process makes noise pronounced, leading to image quality degradation.
So-called coring process may be contemplated to remove noise component. If a noise component and a variation in signal level, each having a level higher than a coring level, are superimposed on an edge, etc., these signals cannot be removed. This technique has room for improvement.

Apparatus, method, and computer program for processing image, and recording medium storing the computer program