Proposed is an out-processing facility for individual goods comprising a storage area (1) with a plurality of storage passages (7) for items to be out-processed extending parallel to one another therein, whereby only items of the same type are located in each passage (7), furthermore comprising a loading area (2) at one end of the storage passages (7) with means for in-loading new items into the storage passages (7) provided therefore, and furthermore comprising an out-processing area (3) at the other end of the storage passages (7) with removal devices (4) for the computer-controlled transfer of individual items out of the storage passages (7) onto downstream conveyor devices. An out-processing facility is to be provided with which high turn-around rates can be achieved and which is also suitable for the simultaneous processing of goods that are very different in terms of weight and size. Every passage (7) comprises one roller conveyor (8), the rollers or cylinders of which can be rotated via a common drive means (16), whereby each passage (7) i provided with a discrete removal apparatus (4) that is actuatable independent of the other removal apparatus. Drive means (16) for the roller conveyor is preferably a drive belt on which active segments alternate with passive, i.e. non-powered, segments.

The invention relates to an out-processing facility for individual goods, comprising:
a storage or support area with a plurality of storage or support passages for items to be out-processed extending parallel to one another therein, whereby only items of the same type are located in each passage;
a loading area at one end of the storage passages with means for in-loading new items into the storage passages provided therefor; and
an out-processing area at the other end of the storage passages with removal devices for computer-controlled transfer of individual items out of the storage passages onto downstream conveyor devices.
Warehouse order-processing technology is gaining importance in all fields of commerce and in particular in the wholesale foods industry. However, warehousing in its narrower sense (i.e., static storage of individual goods) is becoming less significant while the dynamic processes and especially turn-around handling of goods is gaining importance. The goal of modern warehousing is therefore to keep the retention time of the individual goods in the warehouse to a minimum and thus to keep to a minimum the amount of capital tied up in warehousing.
Known out-processing facilities are multi-story racks that have storage passages for the individual goods and that are arranged adjacent to and above one another. The floors of the passages are provided with roller conveyors made of freely rotatable rollers and are slightly inclined so that goods warehoused at the one end of the passage, the so-called stocking or loading side, move along the roller conveyors to the other end of the passage, the removal or order processing side. Placing the individual goods into position on the stocking side is generally done manually in that the individual goods are removed from a pallet and placed into the assigned passage. Order-processing at the removal side of the racks is also frequently performed manually.
However, also known are computer-controlled drivable removal devices in the form of conveyor devices that can be driven in a passage arranged on the order-processing side of the rack and that, corresponding to the order, take the individual goods maintained instock in the individual passages and assemble the order. The conveyor devices used for this can be driven over corresponding guides in two coordinates so that each conveyor device can access individually each of the passages arranged adjacent to and above one another.
The object of the invention is to provide an out-processing facility with which high turn-around rates can be achieved and which is also suitable for simultaneous processing of goods that are very different in terms of weight and size.
For achieving this object in an out-processing facility of the type described in the foregoing, it is proposed that every passage comprise a roller conveyor, the rollers or cylinders of which can be set in motion via a common drive means, and that each passage be provided with a discrete removal apparatus that is actuatable independent of the other removal apparatus.
Such an out-processing facility makes it possible to achieve a higher turn-around rate than is the case in conventional systems because each individual passage is provided with a discrete removal apparatus that is actuatable independent of the other removal apparatus in the out-processing facility. This means that the inventive out-processing facility makes possible a turn-around rate at which it would even be possible, at full capacity, to remove items from all of the passages and assemble an order simultaneously. The items can even also be very different individual goods in terms of their weight and size. The use of a roller conveyor for each passage, the rollers or cylinders of which can be set in motion via a common drive means, ensures that light and heavy, large and small individual goods and containers are transported and stocked in the passages with the same degree of assurance. Even individual goods that are critical in conventional warehouse engineering, such as, for instance, full plastic crates of beverages, can be processed with no problem using the driven roller conveyor.
In accordance with one preferred embodiment of the out-processing facility, the common drive means is a continuous drive belt, and the drive belt has a first and a second group of longitudinal segments, whereby the longitudinal segments of each group alternate, the longitudinal segments of the first group exert a friction and/or positive driving torque on the rollers or cylinders, and the longitudinal segments of the second group exert no driving torque or comparatively less driving torque on the rollers or cylinders. Such a drive belt with longitudinal segments that work at different strengths leads to reduced conveyor pressure on the roller conveyor so that above all only limited pressure is exerted on the individual goods arranged at the first position on the removal-side end of the passage. This is advantageous precisely in the case of goods or containers that are sensitive to shock or pressure. It is furthermore advantageous that the removal apparatus of the out-processing area can be operated with limited drive power due to the limited dynamic pressure.
The drive belt preferably comprises a continuous base body, which has the same thickness over its entire length, and drive segments that are affixed by segment to the base body and that form the longitudinal segments of the first group. For achieving a slip-free form-fit, it is furthermore advantageous when the drive segments have teeth on their exterior side and the teeth thus formed engage with corresponding opposing teeth on the circumference of the rollers or cylinders of the roller conveyor.
For achieving sufficient constructive freedom in the design of the drive and reversing devices for the drive means of the roller conveyor, it is furthermore suggested that the drive belt be reversed via reversing rollers that are situated in or below the loading area and/or the out-processing area.
For achieving limited drive slip while maintaining a cost-effective design of the roller conveyor, it is furthermore suggested that the drive belt be conducted between the rollers or cylinders and a pressure counter bearing, and that the pressure counter bearing be a longitudinally extending profile that is connected to a roller conveyor profile on which the individual rollers or cylinders are borne.
One preferred embodiment of the out-processing facility is characterized in that a transport conveyor that is preferably continuously driven extends along the removal apparatus and transverse to the passages for the items removed using the removal apparatus, and in that components of each removal apparatus are an actuatable retaining element projecting into the conveyor path of the roller conveyor and a horizontal conveyor that is arranged after the retaining element in the direction of *p+11Xconveyance and whose conveyor speed is greater than the conveyor speed of the roller conveyor. Preferably the conveyor speed of the horizontal conveyor is at least 25% greater than the conveyor speed of the roller conveyor. This achieves assured and problem-free separation of the first items to be removed from the items arranged thereafter and being conveyed by means of the drive device of the roller conveyor.
For achieving a constructively simple design of the out-processing area, it is furthermore suggested that a plurality of horizontal conveyors be driven via a common drive shaft that extends transversely to the passages. Furthermore suggested is a controlled switchable coupling for time-delimited initiation of an unblocking motion by the retaining element that releases the conveyor path from the rotational movement of the common drive shaft, whereby the coupling of each removal apparatus can be triggered separately from the other couplings. In contrast to the unblocking motion, it is not necessary to use the motor drives present for the subsequent re-blocking motion of the retaining element. Rather, it is sufficient when the retaining element is provided with restoring means that act upon the retaining element with a restoring force in the direction of its blocking motion, whereby the restoring force is less than the weight of the items/containers stored in the passage. This restoring force can be produced, for instance, by the weight or force of a suitable restoring spring.
In terms of the coupling, this is preferably a magnetic coupling annularly enclosing the common drive shaft, the output member of which is a cam that pivots against the restoring element when the magnetic coupling is triggered.
With the goal of a compact design for the out-processing area, it is suggested that the horizontal comprises a first, non-rotating belt pulley that is coaxially connected to the drive shaft, at least one additional belt pulley that runs therewith, and a continuous belt conducted via the belt pulleys, whereby the driven belt pulley defines the forward end and the belt pulley that runs therewith defines the rear end of the horizontal conveyor.
One embodiment of the loading area of the inventive out-processing facility is characterized by a transport conveyor for new items to be in-loaded that extends transversely to the passages and constitutes individual transport cylinders, whereby transverse conveyors that are separately actuatable for each said passage are arranged between the transport cylinders in the direction of that passage. The transverse conveyor preferably comprises belt pulleys over which is conducted a continuous drive belt on the exterior side of which are attached catch elements, which, when they are located on the carrying run of the drive belt, project beyond the conveyor surface of the transport cylinders. Transport means of the transverse conveyor are therefore not the belts themselves, but rather the catch elements attached thereto. Their interval on the drive belt is preferably greater than the length of the carrying run. This ensures that the catch elements do not impede the movement of the individual goods along the transport cylinders that comprise the transport conveyor.
In one additional embodiment of the out-processing facility it is suggested that the drive of a plurality of transverse conveyors occurs via a common main drive shaft and that each transverse conveyor has a discrete coupling for initiating its movement from the rotational movement of the main drive shaft, whereby the coupling of each transverse conveyor can be triggered separately from the other couplings. A magnetic coupling is preferably employed in this case, as well. For the purpose of structural simplification, it is finally suggested that the movement of the common drive means of the roller conveyor also be initiated by the rotational movement of the main drive shaft, preferably via a reverse gear and a coupling, preferably magnetic, that can be triggered individually for each roller conveyor. In this manner the number of drive components, such as electromotors, is reduced to a minimum. Compared to a separate electrical drive, current consumption by the electrical magnetic couplings is very low; they are only triggered for short periods, in contrast to the main drive shaft, which can be operated continuously.

Out-processing facility for individual goods


A method for fabricating a semiconductor read-only memory (ROM) device of the type including a plurality of diode-type memory cells is provided. The ROM device is based on a silicon-on-insulation (SOI) structure in which all of the memory cells of the ROM device are formed in an insulating layer over a silicon substrate. The SOI structure allows for the prevention of leakage current between neighboring bit lines. The memory cells of the ROM device are each based on a P-N junction diode, which allows for a higher integration of the memory cells on a single chip than the use of MOSFET-based memory cells. The coding process is also easier to conduct.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to semiconductor memory devices, and more particularly, to a method for fabricating a semiconductor read-only memory (ROM) device of the type including a plurality of diode-type memory cells which are constructed based on a silicon-on-insulation (SOI) structure.
2. Description of Related Art
Read-only memory (ROM) is a nonvolatile semiconductor memory widely used in computer and microprocessor systems for permanently storing information including programs and data that are repeatedly used, such as the BIOS (abbreviation for Basic Input/Output System, which is a widely used operating system on personal computers) or the like. The manufacture of ROMS involves very complicated and time-consuming processes and requires costly equipment and material to achieve. Therefore, the data to be permanently stored in ROMS is usually first defined by the customer and then furnished to the factory to be programmed into the ROMs.
Most ROMs are identical in semiconductor structure except for the different data stored therein. Therefore, the ROM devices can be fabricated up to the stage where they are ready for data programming and then the semi-finished products are stocked in inventory awaiting customer orders. The customer then furnished the data to the factory where the data are stored in the semi-finished ROMs by using the so-called mask-programming process. This procedure is now a standard method in the semiconductor industry for fabricating ROMs.
In most conventional ROMS, metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET) are used as the memory cells for data storage. In the mask programming stage, impurities are selectively doped into specific channels in the MOSFET memory cells so as to change the threshold voltage thereof, thereby setting the MOSFET memory cells to ON/OFF states representing different binary data. The MOSFET memory cells are connected to the external circuits via a plurality of polysilicon-based word lines and bit lines. The channel regions are located beneath the word lines and between each pair of adjacent bit lines. Whether one MOSFET memory cell is set to store a binary digit of 0 or 1 is dependent on whether the associated channel is doped with impurities or not. If the associated channel is doped with impurities, the MOSFET memory cell is set to a low threshold voltage, effectively setting the MOSFET memory cell to a permanently-ON state representing the storage of a binary digit of 0, for example; otherwise, the MOSFET memory cell is set to a high threshold voltage, effectively setting the MOSFET memory cell to a permanently-OFF state representing the storage of a binary digit of 1.
One conventional type of MOSFET-based ROM device is shown and depicted in the following with reference to FIGS. 1A through 1C, in which FIG. 1A is a schematic top view of the ROM device; FIG 1B is a cross-sectional view of the ROM device of FIG. 1 cutting through the line 1B--1B and FIG. 1C is a cross-sectional view of the ROM device of FIG. 1 cutting through the 1C--1C.
As shown, the conventional ROM device includes a semiconductor substrate, such as a P-type silicon substrate, on which a plurality of parallel-spaced bit lines 11 and a plurality of parallel-spaced word lines 13 intercrossing the bit lines 11 are formed. The word lines 13 are separated from the underlying bit lines by an oxidation layer 12. This ROM device includes a plurality of MOSFET memory cells, each being associated with one segment of the word lines 13 between each neighboring pair of the bit lines 11.
Referring the FIG. 1C, in the method for fabricating the foregoing ROM device, the first step is to conduct an ion-implantation process so as to dope an N-type impurity material such as arsenic (As), into selected regions of the substrate 10 to form a plurality of parallel-spaced diffusion regions serving as the bit lines 11. The interval region between each neighboring pair of the bit lines 11 serves as a channel region 16. Subsequently, a thermal-oxidation process is performed in the wafer so as to form the oxidation layer 12 over the entire top surface of the wafer. Next, a conductive layer, such as a highly-doped polysilicon layer is formed over the wafer, and then selectively removed through a photolithographic and etching process. The remaining portions of the conductive layer serve as the word lines 13. This completes the fabrication of a semi-finished product of the ROM device awaiting a customer order.
In the mask-programming process, a mask 15 is placed over the wafer. This mask 15 is predefined to form a plurality of openings according to the bit pattern of the data that are to be programmed into the ROM device form permanent storage. These openings expose those channel regions that are associated with a selected group of MOSFET memory cells that are to set to a permanently-ON state, with all the other MOSFET memory cells being to be set to a permanently-OFF state. Subsequently, an ion-implantation process is performed on the wafer so as to dope a P-type impurity material such as boron, into the exposed channel regions. This completes the so-called code implantation process.
In the finished product of the ROM device, the doped channel regions cause the associated MOSFET memory cells to be set to a low threshold voltage, effectively setting the MOSFET memory cells to a permanently-ON state representing the permanent storage of a first binary digit, for example 0. On the other hand, the undoped channel regions cause the associated MOSFET memory cells to be set to a high threshold voltage, effectively setting the MOSFET memory cells to a permanently-OFF state representing the permanent storage of a second binary digit, for example 1.
One drawback to the foregoing MOSFET-based ROM device is that its MOSFET memory cells are constructed on a silicon substrate, which limits its application scope. Moreover, when the ROM device is further downsized, the leakage current between the bit lines will be increased, which can cause faulty reading of the data from the memory cells. To prevent the leakage current, one solution is to form an isolation layer, such an insulating layer or an impurity-doped layer, beneath the bit lines. However, this will make the fabrication process more complex.

Method of fabricating a semiconductor read-only memory device based on a silicon-on-insulation structure


New photosensitive polyamic acid precursors are disclosed which have the formula: ##STR1## where Z is a tetravalent organic radical which contains at least one aromatic ring, Z' is a divalent organic radical which contains at least one aromatic ring, and R* is a photo polymerizable group. Particularly preferred compounds include BPDA-PDA and BPDA-ODA polyamic acid precursors. The precursor compositions within the practice of this invention are i-line, g-line, and i-/g-line active and show good photoresolution. The films formed exhibit excellent self-adhesion and adhesion to glass ceramic and silicon wafer substrates have low internal stress, a very low degree of solvent swelling, high thermal stability, and excellent mechanical properties such as high modulus/tensile strength and high elongation at break.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to photosensitive polyimides and, more particularly, to a polyamic acid precursor with photosensitive groups bonded to the carboxylic acid moieties.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Polyimides are condensation polymers derived from bifunctional carboxylic acid anhydrides and primary diamines. Aromatic polyimides exhibit outstanding mechanical properties for application in microelectronics manufacture and have excellent thermal and oxidative stability. It is well known that the mechanical properties, thermal stability, adhesion, swelling, morphology, dielectric constant, coefficient of thermal expansion, and residual stress are determined to a large extent by the choice of the diamine and dianhydride components used as starting materials. Polyimide materials which are currently commonly used in microelectronics manufacture are synthesized from the monomers noted in Table 1.
TABLE 1 ______________________________________ Dianhydrides Diamines ______________________________________ 1) 3,3',4,4'-biphenyltetra- 1) M- and P-phenylene- carboxylic acid diamine (PMDA) dianhydride (BPDA) 2) pyromellitic 2) 4,4'-diaminodiphenyl dianhydride ether (PMDA) (ODA) 3) benzophenone 3) 4,4'-diaminodiphenyl dianhydride methane (MDA) (BTDA) ______________________________________
During manufacture of thin film structures, whether for chip or single or multi chip module packaging, the removal of solvents from the solvent based coatings as well as subjecting the films to numerous heating and cooling regimes for curing purposes. generates residual stresses within the films. The residual stresses produced by the difference in the thermal expansion coefficients of the materials and the moduli of the various material layers can lead to film delamination, cracking of the metal or polyimide, and bowing of the substrates resulting in poor photolithographic image transfer. In view of these problems, low stress materials are highly desirable for thin film fabrication.
Pattern generation in polyimides is normally achieved using photolithographic processes where patterns are transferred to the polyimide using lift-off techniques. The disadvantage of these processes is that multiple processing steps are required. In order to reduce process steps and cost in high density chip wiring and integrated device packaging, photosensitive polyimides have gained much attention in the electronics industry. Photosensitive polyimides have the potential of allowing the manufacture of multi-layer packaging of high performance integrated circuit devices in small and dense scale with less processing steps.
However, many of the currently available photosensitive polyimides have poor mechanical properties, such as very low elongation break, low modulus, low tensile strength, and brittleness, high thermal expansion, relatively high dielectric constant, high swelling in solvent, poor thermal stability and low glass transition temperature. Bateman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,830,953, Pfeifer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,698,295, Mueller et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,803,147, and Pfeifer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,629,777, all disclose photosensitive polyimides. However, there are many limiting factors associated with these products. For example, Bateman, Pfeiffer et al. and Mueller are only applicable to thin film use. In addition, all four of these products have poor photoresolution. Other problems associated with these products include poor thermal stability, high dielectric constant, poor adhesion, and poor mechanical properties especially after thermal cycling associated with multilayer thin film fabrication. Rohde et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,116, discloses photosensitive polyimides which include aromatic tetracarboxylic acid derivatives such as BTDA and PMDA, and alkyl substituted aromatic diamines where the alkyl groups can be radiation crosslinked with organic chromophoric polyazides. However, the Rohde et al. polyimides lack many of the critical properties needed for circuit manufacture and have low photosensitivity and yield poor pattern resolution in film thickness required for thin film packaging. The photo-patterning results discussed in Rohde et al. were obtained at very thin film thickness (ca. 1-2 .mu.m).

International Business Machines Corporation


An object of the invention is to provide a droplet discharge apparatus which does not cause defective discharge due to drying, solidification, or the like of a composition in discharging the composition from a nozzle. One feature of the invention is to comprise a nozzle portion provided with a nozzle hole for discharging a composition, a piezo method for discharging the composition from the nozzle hole, a channel for supplying the composition to the bottom surface of the nozzle portion, wherein lyophilic treatment is performed on the bottom surface of the nozzle portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for discharging droplets, and particularly to a droplet discharge apparatus which prevents defective discharge due to drying or solidification of a composition to be discharged.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, research on directly drawing a circuit pattern over a substrate using a semiconductor material, a metal material, or an insulating material, so-called direct drawing, has been conducted actively. It is specifically intended that an electronic circuit be drawn and an electronic device be printed using an apparatus having a droplet discharging means, as if characters are printed out by a printer.
A conventional method for manufacturing an electronic device includes a considerably complicated process in forming a pattern of a circuit or the like. For example, in the case of forming one wiring, a film of a semiconductor material or a metal material to be a wiring is formed over a substrate; a region of the film to be used for the wiring is specified and provided with a resist or the like; lastly, the other part of the film is removed by etching or the like while leaving the specified region unremoved. This process is repeated to form a desired circuit pattern. However, such a process has a large number of steps and a step of forming or removing a film needs to be performed in vacuum. Therefore, heavy use of a huge expensive vacuum apparatus increases manufacturing cost.
On the other hand, in the case of using the direct drawing, a circuit pattern such as a wiring can be directly formed. Thus, a conventional three-stage process can be replaced by a one-stage process. Since the circuit pattern can be manufactured under atmospheric pressure, and a vacuum apparatus is unnecessary, drastic cost reduction can be achieved. Therefore, direct drawing with the use of a droplet discharge apparatus attracts considerable attention.
The above-described direct drawing is performed using, for example, a droplet discharge apparatus such as an inkjet apparatus. But, in the case of discharging a high-viscosity material or the like by a droplet discharge apparatus, defective discharge caused by drying of the material or the like has become a problem. Therefore, various solutions have been searched for in order to solve the defective discharge.
For example, there is a method in which a head having a discharge opening is wiped with a solvent such as an organic solvent or a discharge solution itself before discharging a material, a method in which an entire head is capped and then soaked into a solvent, or a method in which a head is placed in space filled with solvent vapor. Alternatively, there is also a method in which a moisturizing agent is added to a liquid to be discharged or a meniscus control method in which drying or solidification is prevented by vibrating and agitating a liquid with pulse voltage, not so high as to discharge a liquid, applied to a piezoelectric element (for example, Reference 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-290505).
Although the method in which a head is wiped before discharging a material, an entire head is capped and then soaked into a solvent, or a head is placed in space filled with vapor is effective against defective discharge before printing, it cannot deal with defective discharge in the process of printing. In other words, in drawing a pattern, an unused nozzle among a plurality of nozzles in a droplet discharge apparatus (a nozzle not discharging a droplet) does not perform discharge for a certain period. Therefore, defective discharge may be caused by drying or solidification of a material. As a more highly-volatile solvent is used, a material has higher viscosity due to evaporation of the solvent, and the possibility of defective discharge becomes noticeable.
In order to prevent this, the method in which a moisturizing agent is added to a liquid or the meniscus control method can be used; however, the method in which a moisturizing agent is added may include the case where there is no appropriate moisturizing agent depending on a material. The meniscus control method has a problem in that material viscosity increases due to solvent evaporation over time. Consequently, a change in discharge conditions is caused and the discharge amount or discharge position of the material cannot be controlled precisely. Thus, neither method has reached a fundamental solution.

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


Embodiments described include systems and methods for displaying overlays for a network application. A client application on a client device can establish a session to a network application accessed via an embedded browser of the client application. The embedded browser of the client application may receive and display a web page of the network application. Based on one or more conditions and/or policies, the client application may identify and display overlay content over the web page in the embedded browser. The overlay content may include, but is not limited to, training videos, tutorials, social options (e.g., emoticons, likes), form help text, form autofill suggestions, and/or navigation assistance. Once the overlay content is presented, feedback can be received in order to modify the subsequent overlays.

As the workforce of an enterprise becomes more mobile and work under various conditions, an individual can use one or more client devices, including personal devices, to access network resources such as web applications. Due to differences between the client devices and the manner in which network resources can be accessed, there are significant challenges to the enterprise in managing access to network resources and monitoring the usage of resources as well as providing sufficient level of support to its users.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Systems and methods for SaaS overlays using embedded browser


A pet drinking fountain includes a base having a well housing a water filter and pump. A water tank is mounted on the base, and a drinking dish is disposed beside the tank. The dish communicates with the well in the base allowing water to flow from the it to the well. A duct extends from the pump upward through the tank and discharges water onto the outer surface of the tank from which the water flows into the bowl. The pet can drink from the dish or lap water flowing down the tank surface. When the level of water in the well falls below a prescribed level, water from the tank is discharged into the well. A food dish may also be added to the structure.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to drinking and feeding apparatus for pets and more particularly to a drinking fountain that provides continuously running water and that offers a large descending surface and a bowl as alternate drinking sites for the pet.
It has long been recognized that pets, and particularly cats, prefer to drink running water as opposed to still or stagnant water and examples of devices that provides running drinking water for pets is well represented in the patent literature including the following: U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,799,609; 5,842,437; 6,055,934; 5,501,178; and 4,976,220. Many of the prior art devices have limited capacity, are inconvenient to fill and afford limited drinking space for the pets. The purpose of the present invention is to overcome the many limitations of the prior art by providing apparatus that is easy to maintain and operate, is easy to clean, and provides the most appealing drinking facilities for a pet.


Topology mapping in a distributed processing system, the distributed processing system including a plurality of compute nodes, each compute node having a plurality of tasks, each task assigned a unique rank, including: assigning each task to a geometry defining the resources available to the task; selecting, from a list of possible data communications algorithms, one or more algorithms configured for the assigned geometry; and identifying, by each task to all other tasks, the selected data communications algorithms of each task in a single collective operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is data processing, or, more specifically, methods, apparatus, and products for topology mapping in a distributed processing system.
2. Description Of Related Art
The development of the EDVAC computer system of 1948 is often cited as the beginning of the computer era. Since that time, computer systems have evolved into extremely complicated devices. Today's computers are much more sophisticated than early systems such as the EDVAC. Computer systems typically include a combination of hardware and software components, application programs, operating systems, processors, buses, memory, input/output devices, and so on. As advances in semiconductor processing and computer architecture push the performance of the computer higher and higher, more sophisticated computer software has evolved to take advantage of the higher performance of the hardware, resulting in computer systems today that are much more powerful than just a few years ago.
Modern computing systems can include multiple computing nodes. In a large multi-node system, each node has limited resources that can be used for inter-node communications. These resources are of different types and can have different algorithms associated with them. While a node knows what resources it does and does not have available, the node needs to know what resources are available via other nodes in the computing system, and how to communicate with the other nodes in the computing system.

Identifying data communications algorithms of all other tasks in a single collective operation in a distributed processing system

International Business Machines Corporation


The invention relates to a casing element of an electric equipment, said casing element being configured to house at least one electrical conductor configured to form an external terminal of the electric equipment and at least one electronic power component, adapted to be electrically connected to said electrical conductor and to convert a direct current into an alternating current, said casing element being characterised in that it comprises reception members adapted to receive, by sliding, the electrical conductor.

As is well known, an electric or hybrid automotive vehicle includes an electric drive system powered by a high-voltage battery through an on-board high-voltage electrical system and a plurality of auxiliary electrical installations, which are powered by a low-voltage battery through an on-board low-voltage electrical system. The high-voltage battery powers the electric drive system, thereby providing for the vehicle's propulsion. More specifically, in order to control the electric device driving the wheels of the vehicle, the use of an inverter enabling the conversion of the direct current provided by the high-voltage battery into one or several alternating control currents, for example sinusoidal currents, is known.
In a known solution, the inverter is in the form of a casing on which are mounted an electronic power module and an electronic control unit. The inverter comprises a body comprising the electric components through which the power driving the electric motor passes. The electronic control unit comprises electronic components enabling to control the electronic power module.
For the purpose of connecting the electronic power module to the high-voltage battery, the electronic power module comprises an electrical conductor called "positive potential" connected to the positive potential of the high-voltage battery, and an electrical conductor called "negative potential" connected to the negative potential of the high-voltage battery. Furthermore, in the case of a three-phase motor, the inverter comprises three electrical conductors, called "phase conductors", enabling to connect the electronic power module to the electric motor to control the motor by using three currents, called "phase currents", with a two-by-two phase change, for example of 120°, generated by the inverter from the direct current supplied by the high-voltage battery.
These phase conductors are in the form of strips that are cut and then folded, and made of an electrically-conducting material, for example copper. The dimensions, and in particular the thickness, of these phase conductors, depend on the intensity of the currents circulating through them. Therefore, when the inverter is used to control the electric device driving the wheels of the vehicle, relatively thick phase conductors must be used (for example with a thickness of more than 2 mm) to allow the circulation of high-intensity currents, for example of more than 100 A. However, when the inverter is used to store the energy produced by the electric device during a braking phase of the vehicle in the high-voltage battery, phase conductors with a reduced thickness can be used, for example with a thickness of less than 1 mm, as the intensity of the current circulating in the phase conductors in this case is lower, for example of less than 50 A.
According to a known solution, the phase conductors are first secured to the control module, by screwing onto the electronic control module so as to connect them electrically, and then overmoulded with an element of the inverter casing made of a plastic material. With this fixing method, the manufacturing of the inverter is expensive, complex and time-consuming, which is a disadvantage. Furthermore, this permanent fixing method does not enable to optimise the manufacturing of inverters based on the application for which they are intended, i.e. based on whether they are to be used to control the electric device or to store energy. In particular, it is not possible to change the type of electrical conductor depending on the intended applications when the conductors are overmoulded, which is another disadvantage.
There is therefore a need for a simple, reliable and efficient solution allowing to easily install and replace various types of phase conductors, in particular with different thicknesses.

Casing element for an electric equipment


A mobile station operating in a digital cellular system such as GSM is ordered to perform signal strength measurements on non-BCCH carrier frequencies by including an identification of those frequencies twice in the bit map comprising the BA-list. The mobile station formats a measurement report containing signal strength measurements of both BCCH and non-BCCH carrier frequencies and send it to the network which uses the data for automatic frequency allocation within the network.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to cellular radio systems and, more particularly, to cellular frequency planning and allocation within such systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
The explosive growth of radio telecommunications technology in recent years and its utilzation by consumers has required continual improvement in the traffic capacity of cellular systems. For example, in order to improve the spectrum efficiency of cellular systems, the industry has moved rapidly from analog modulation techniques to digital modulation techniques. This has dramatically increased the number of simultaneous calls which can be handled by a cellular system on a discreet number of radio frequency channels. Time division multiple access (TDMA) systems such as the global system for mobile (GSM) communications allows a single radio frequency channel to be time divided into a number of separate time slots with one cellular subscriber's conversation being transmitted during each of the sequentially occurring time slots. This and similar techniques have greatly expanded the capacity of cellular systems.
One important procedure which is used in the management of cellular radio telecommunications systems in order to maximize the spectral efficiency of those systems is that of frequency reuse schemes. With such frequency reuse plans, the same radio frequency channel can be used simultaneously to carry different calls in different geographically separated areas of the system, known as cells. One constraint on the reuse of the same frequency for different channels within a cellular system is that the cells in which the same frequencies are used must be physically spaced far enough apart from one another that the interference between the two competing channels (referred to as co-channel interference) is low enough to provide acceptable voice quality for the users both of the channels. The level of co-channel interference must be balanced against the system operator's desire to reuse the same limited number of radio frequency channels as much as possible within the system.
The systematic reuse of radio frequency channels within the different cells of a cellular system must be carefully organized and planned for both existing traffic capacity as well as future expansion as traffic density within the system grows over time. Classically frequency reuse planning is done by a network operator by performing traffic and coverage analysis of the geographical area of interest and by determining the expected traffic load within that area of the system. Next, data are collected which includes the number of available frequencies, anticipated system growth, grade of service desired to be rendered to the subscribers in that area as well as population and mobile subscriber station distribution anticipated within the area. With these and other data, traffic calculations are performed to determine how many cell sites and cells are needed within the geographic area under consideration. From the number of frequencies which are available, the grade of service (GOS) desired to be rendered, Erlang tables and other parameters, the amount of traffic per anticipated subscriber may be calculated. Once a cell reuse pattern is selected, the operator can then determine the number of three sector cell sites based upon frequency reuse distances.
Many different cellular frequency reuse patterns are possible, however, the three major reuse patterns are 7/21, 4/12 and 3/9. In each of these three cases, the cell site geometry includes the following features:
(a) There are three cells (sectors) at each site. The antenna pointing azimuth of the cells are separated by 120.degree. and the cells are arranged with antennas pointing at one of the nearest site locations thus forming cells in a clover leaf fashion; PA1 (b) Each cell uses one 60.degree. radius transmitting antenna and two 60.degree. diversity receiving antennas with the same pointing azimuth; and PA1 (c) Each cell approximates the shape of a hexagon.
A group of neighboring cells using all of the channels which are available in the system, but not reusing them, is referred to as a cell cluster.
As can be seen, frequency planning has classically been a relatively complex and laborious process but one which is absolutely essential in order to accommodate growth within the system and enable an operator to maximize the utilization of the frequencies which it has available and, thus, maximize its investment in the system.
A great advantage could be obtained in the operation of a cellular system if an operator was able to automatically perform frequency allocation and reuse planning within its system on a continuous, and preferably automatic, basis. Automatic frequency allocation (AFA) would be a very desirable way to simplify frequency planning while still being able to obtain system capacity close to what is possible with manual implementation of multiple reuse patterns. The general idea behind automatic frequency allocation is that of monitoring within each cell the signal strength on all frequencies, or within a subset of all frequencies, which are available to the operator. The measured signal strength on each frequency is used to estimate the interference that would be generated if that frequency was to be used within that cell. If any of the frequencies which are non-allocated within a cell has a lower interference than that of a frequency which is allocated within that cell, a frequency switch is made. The most interfered with of the then allocated frequencies is replaced by the frequency having the lowest measured signal strength. This procedure is iteratively repeated until no further improvement in co-channel interference can be obtained within the cell.
In the performance of signal strength measurement for AFA, it can be argued that it is sufficient to measure the signal strength of various frequencies on the uplink only; that is, the signal strength of the frequency as received at the base station, since this would indicate which frequencies carry the traffic. However, there are two principal reasons why it is very important to measure the signal strength of each frequency also on the downlink; that is, on the radio signals as they are received at the mobile station. First, it is important to survey the interference environment within the interior of the cell where the traffic is actually located and not just at the periphery of the cell where the base station is located. Second, the base stations of most current systems utilize sectorized antennas which implies that the uplink signal strength measurements at the base station are incapable of estimating interference originating from traffic outside the antenna sector.
With respect to the first reason, most sectorized antennas are located on the periphery of the cell which they are serving. This means that the signals received along this periphery may not be fully representative of the actual radio traffic signal conditions within the environment where most of the traffic is occurring, i.e., out in the center in the cell as well as around the periphery of the cell at some distance away from the base station. Not only will buildings and other environmental obstructions change the signal levels for various frequencies within the cell but co-channel interference by the same frequencies reused in other cells may well be different around the periphery of the cell at some distance from the base station receiving antenna than they are contiguous to that antenna.
With respect to the second reason, the sectorized antennas at the base station only receive signals within the 120.degree. sector for which they are designed. Thus, if a particular signal is coming from outside of that sector, for example from an adjacent cell directly behind the sectorized antenna, it will measure a very low signal strength for the signal on that frequency but a mobile which is located in the middle of the cell and transmitting and receiving on an omni-directional antenna will detect a much higher signal strength on that frequency. It is this signal strength value which exists at the omni-directional antenna of the mobile station that creates co-channel interference and is thus most relevant with respect to frequency strength measurements useful in an automatic frequency allocation algorithm.
In digital cellular systems today, for example in the GSM system, downlink radio signal measurements are performed by the mobiles through a procedure known as mobile assisted hand-off (MAHO). While mobile stations which are in active mode may perform signal strength measurements on a large number of frequencies as instructed by the base station, they may only report on a small fraction of these. For example, when a GSM mobile is initially turned on and enters the idle mode it starts to find the strongest BCCH carrier of the frequencies stored in its subscriber information module (SIM) card. Once the idle mobile camps on that BCCH carrier it is periodically sent an idle mode BA-list on the system information type 2 carried on the BCCH carrier. The mobile uses this idle mode BA-list to measure the BCCH carriers among its currently serving base station and the base stations serving cells neighboring the one it is in to determine which has the strongest signal and, thus, which it should camp on for purposes of receiving or originating a call. Once the idle mobile becomes active and a call is being set up to or from it, the mobile is sent an active BA list on the slow associated control channel (SACCH) in the form of system information type 5. The frequencies on the active BA-list sent on the SACCH are those on which the mobile station should periodically measure the signal strength and send to the network in the form of a measurement report used to determine a hand-off candidate list.
The broadcast control channel (BCCH) is broadcast by the base station of the cell and includes information such as location area identity (LIA), the maximum output power allowed in the cell and the BCCH-carrier frequencies for the neighboring cells on which idle mobile stations are to perform measurements for possible cell reselection should the quality of the signal of the currently serving cell deteriorate. This list of BCCH carriers is called the idle BA-list and is sent on the BCCH in the form of a so-called, system information type 2 message. Once the mobile is active within a cell and maintaining communication on a traffic channel (TCH) it is periodically sent information on the SACCH in the form of messages from the network to the mobile stations within the cell. These messages give each mobile station updated information on the BCCH channel allocations in their neighboring cells by means of the system 5 information. These SACCH messages are broadcast to the mobiles by "stealing" time on the traffic channels. When the mobile receives the system 5 information blocks on the SACCH it may be in the form of a bit map identifying the particular BCCH channel frequencies of the neighboring cells upon which the mobile is to make signal quality measurements to be reported back to serving base station in a measurement report. Any change in the neighboring cell's description contained in the system 5 information on the SACCH is used to overwrite any old data held in the memory of the mobile station which it may have initially received on the BCCH when it entered active mode within the cell.
Once a mobile receives the, so-called, active BA-list in the system 5 information, it regularly measures the signal strength on each of the BCCH carrier frequencies of neighboring cells contained in the active BA-list. As part of this measurement, the mobile must also attempt to decode the particular base station identity code (BSIC) encoded into the signal being broadcast by each of neighboring base stations on its respective BCCH carrier. The mobile's ability to decode the BSIC information encoded into a neighboring base station's BCCH is used as one criteria of the quality of signal currently being received by the mobile from that neighboring base station.
In accordance with a standardized procedure, such as the GSM specification, once the mobile has made each of the measurements on the BCCH signals of the neighboring base stations in the active BA-list sent on the system 5 information, it then formulates a measurement report which is structured in a particular defined format. This format contains information on the six strongest BCCH carrier frequency signal measurements upon which the mobile was able to decode the BSIC. The information in the measurement report received from each mobile station is then used by its serving base station and the network to maintain a list of possible hand-off candidates for the base station in the event that the signal from a neighboring base is better than the signal quality of the signal of the mobile's currently serving base station. That is, the MAHO signal measurements made by a mobile within current cellular systems, such as the GSM system, is focused principally on measuring the signal quality of the BCCH carrier frequencies and reporting those back to the serving base station primarily for purposes of hand-off. Even though a mobile station will measure the signal strength on a TCH frequency included in the system 5 information, the mobile station will not include that measurement in the measurement report. This is because the mobile station will not decode any BSIC on a TCH carrier since no BSIC is transmitted on TCH frequencies. Although the capability exists within the mobiles for measuring the signal quality of any frequency it is instructed to measure, there is in neither the system 5 information messages a provision to tell a mobile station which frequencies in the active BA-list are TCH frequencies nor is there any facility within the measurement report format and structure for reporting to the base station the signal quality of any channels other than the BCCH channels included in the BA-list sent to the mobile.
In order to provide the ability within existing cellular system to use the mobile's measurement capabilities to measure traffic channel (TCH) signal quality and report its measurements on those traffic channels back to the base station for purposes of automatic frequency allocation, there needs to be both a structure and procedure for using such enhanced capabilities which can co-exist within the existing procedures. The method and system of the present invention provides such a capability.

Method and system for radio frequency measurement and automatic frequency planning in a cellular radio system


The present invention exploits the benefits obtainable from using transmit diversity by designing the size of the interleaver matrix to avoid the case where most or all of the bits in a row are transmitted on a single antenna (110 or 112). This can be accomplished, for example, by specifying the interleaver matrix based on the type of modulation (308) used. A symbol scrambler can also be used to exploit the benefits obtainable from using transmit diversity.

In mobile communications systems, signal performance may be reduced due to signal fading occurring as a result of physical interference and/or motion of the mobile terminal. Fading can be reduced by a number of methods, such as increasing transmitter power and/or antenna size and height. However, a more cost effective method is to implement transmit diversity at the base station, in systems such as wideband code division multiple access ("WCDMA") and CDMA-2000, in order to improve link quality. Transmit diversity provides an advantage in the forward link by balancing the spectrum efficiency in the uplink and downlink.
Several transmit diversity techniques are known in the art. Among these are orthogonal transmit diversity ("OTD") and time-switched transmit diversity ("TSTD"). OTD is a technique in which a data stream is split into two (2) separate streams that are then transmitted on two (2) transmit antennae at the same time by employing different Walsh codes. TSTD is a technique in which symbols of a data stream are alternately transmitted from two (2) transmit antennae. One problem with OTD and TSTD is that full diversity is not achieved if the interleaver is not well-designed. For example, if a data stream is convolutionally encoded and many consecutive bits are transmitted from the same antenna, then there is not much gain over simply using a single transmit antenna.
It is therefore desirable to provide a solution that adequately exploits the benefits obtainable from using transmit diversity. The present invention provides this by designing the size of the interleaver matrix to avoid the case where most or all of the bits in a row are transmitted on a single antenna. This can be accomplished, for example, by specifying the interleaver matrix such that the number of rows is an odd multiple of the number of bits/symbol or such that the number of rows is determined by the type of modulation.


This invention effectively limits light incidence on an adhesive material fixing an optical element. An optical device includes an optical element, a supporting member connected to the optical element through an adhesive material to support the optical element, and a light shielding film formed in an unirradiated region on the surface of the optical element to limit light incidence on the adhesive material.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical device, an exposure apparatus including the optical device, and a device manufacturing method using the exposure apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An exposure apparatus is used in lithography for manufacturing a device such as a semiconductor device. The exposure apparatus illuminates an original by an illumination optical system, and projects the pattern of the original onto a substrate via a projection optical system, thereby exposing the substrate. An adhesive material is used to fix an optical element on a supporting member in an optical system such as an illumination optical system and projection optical system.
FIGS. 2 and 3 schematically show a partial arrangement of an optical system such as an illumination optical system and projection optical system of an exposure apparatus. An optical element (e.g., a lens or mirror) 2 of the optical system is used while being fixed on an annular supporting member 3. The side portion of the optical element 2 is fixed on the supporting member 3 through an adhesive material 1 (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-242364).
Upon irradiating the optical element of the optical device of the exposure apparatus, light enters positions other than a light propagation portion, which is determined based on the numerical aperture and the angle of view of the optical element, due to diffraction and scattering. For example, as schematically shown in FIG. 3, light which has entered the optical element 2 often reaches the adhesive material 1 upon being transmitted through the optical element 2 and reflected by the supporting member 3. Upon being irradiated with light (typically, ultraviolet rays), the adhesive material connecting the optical element to the supporting member deteriorates, which can result in a decrease in adhesive force and a change in elastic force. This can change the position, orientation, and shape of the optical element, and can therefore decrease the performance of the optical system.

Optical device, exposure apparatus, and device manufacturing method


According to one embodiment, a system is provided. The system includes a memory, at least one processor coupled to the memory and an object network modeler component executable by the at least one processor. The memory stores an object network including a plurality of objects, the plurality of objects including a first object, a second object, a third object, and a fourth object. The object network modeler component is configured to implicitly associate, within the object network, the first object with the second object and explicitly associate, within the object network, the third object with the fourth object.

Information systems that discover and explore associations between entities described by underlying data abound into today's information based economies. Examples of these information systems include data warehouses, business intelligence systems, search engines, and the like. Many of these systems utilize commercial data base management systems, such as ORACLE 12c available from Oracle Corporation of Redwood City, Calif. Other systems, such as the GOOGLE search engine available from Google Inc. of Mountain View, Calif. utilize proprietary data base systems, such as BigTable and Spanner.
However, conventional information systems, including conventional database systems, have fallen behind today's enhanced hardware and software capabilities. Stated differently, conventional information systems are not designed to leverage the enhanced processing power and expanded addressable memory space presently available or, further still, the enhanced processing power and expanded addressable memory space on the horizon.
For example, various CPUs now exist that are capable of implementing the 64-bit version of the x86 instruction set (also known as x64). As will be appreciated by those having ordinary skill in the art, these x64 computing systems include vastly larger sets of addressable memory as compared to conventional computing systems. Moreover, it is anticipated that 512-bit extensions to the 256-bit Advanced Vector Extensions SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) instructions for x86 instruction set architecture will be available in the coming year(s). One example of such 512-bit extensions that is eagerly anticipated is the AVX-512 extensions proposed by Intel in July 2013. However, conventional information systems are ill equipped to leverage the parallel processing capabilities that will be available with, for example, the AVX-512 extensions and processors configured to execute the same. In addition, it is anticipated that GPGPUs (General Purpose Graphics Processing Units) will represent attractive hardware options for performing highly efficient processing moving forward because of their architecture, which lends itself to massive parallel processing. Yet, conventional information systems are not designed in a way to leverage the computing power that is currently available, or will be available shortly.
Accordingly, what are needed are computing systems and methods of modeling object networks that account for the dramatic improvements in computer hardware and software presently available and on the near horizon.

Systems and methods of modeling object networks


A paving machine including a right hopper, a left hopper, an apron and an automated hopper and apron control system is provided. The right hopper, the left hopper and the apron are configured to move in a vertically upward and downward direction. The automated hopper and apron control system is configured to control the movement of one or more of the right hopper, the left hopper, and the apron. The automated hopper and apron control system may include a controller. The controller is configured to operate the automated hopper and apron control system in a manual mode and an auto mode as desired by an operator. In the auto mode, the controller actuates one or more of the right hopper, the left hopper, and the apron from a first position to one of a fully raised position and a fully lowered position.

Road construction equipment, such as paving machines, are used for constructing road surfaces by laying leveling and preliminarily compacting paving material such as asphalt. The paving material is added to the hoppers of a paving machine by a dump truck. The material is transferred from the hoppers to a hopper conveyor of the paving machine. The hoppers and apron are raised or lowered to gravity feed an optimum pile of the paving material over the hopper conveyor. The material from the hopper conveyor is conveyed to a distributing auger on a rear end of the paving machine. The distributing auger lays the material on a paving surface as a stockpile. As the paving machine moves forward, the stockpile is flattened by a screed mounted on the rear end of the paving machine. The screed compacts the material over the width of the paving surface. For a smooth paved surface, there is a need for constant speed and consistent supply of the material to the hopper conveyor. Hence, the hopper and the apron needs to be raised and lowered to maintain consistent supply of the paving material for hopper conveyor. The hoppers and apron are controlled by a control system for an up/down movement.
Traditionally, the control system includes a keypad or control panel which has a plurality of keys or buttons or switch to control the up/down movement of the hoppers and the apron. There are buttons corresponding to the up/down movements of the hoppers and the apron. An operator initiates a process of emptying the material from the hoppers and/or apron by pressing the corresponding buttons. The operator holds the buttons throughout the process of emptying the material from the hoppers and the apron, or returning the hoppers and the apron to their starting position. As the operator holds the buttons, the control system actuates the corresponding functions for which the buttons are pressed. Such a control system is exhausting, less ergonomic and tedious for the operator as the operator needs to hold one or more of the buttons of the keypad, throughout the emptying process or while returning them to their starting position. Hence, there is a need for a control system that may enable the operator to work in a productive manner with better ergonomics.

Automated hopper and apron control system on a paving machine


A computer-implemented method for image adaptation includes accepting a digitally-represented input image and a target size requirement. The input image is modified by optimally determining at least one of a resolution of the input image and a quality of the input image, the quality defining an amount of information allocated to represent each pixel value of the input image, so as to produce a compressed output image meeting the target size requirement.

Various systems and applications apply image adaptation and compression techniques to reduce the data size of digitally-represented images. A number of compressed image standards are known in the art, such as the Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) standard, the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) standard and the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) standard.
The GIF file format is described in a specification published by Compuserve Inc. (Columbus, Ohio) entitled "Graphics Interchange Format Programming Reference," July 1990, which is incorporated herein by reference. The specification is available at www.w3.org/Graphics/GIF/spec-gif89a.txt.
The PNG file format is specified in a recommendation of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) entitled "Portable Network Graphics (PNG) Specification (Second Edition) Information technology—Computer Graphics and Image Processing—Portable Network Graphics (PNG): Functional Specification," November 2003, which is incorporated herein by reference. The PNG specification is also available at www.w3.org/TR/PNG.
The JPEG file format is defined in recommendation T.81 of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) entitled "Information Technology—Digital Compression and Coding of Continuous-Tone Still Images—Requirements and Guidelines," September 1992, which is incorporated herein by reference. Further information regarding the JPEG standard is also available at www.jpeg.org.

Image adaptation with target size, quality and resolution constraints


An apparatus is provided for processing items moving along a transport path of a document processing system. The apparatus comprises a number of light sources located on one side of the transport path. A number of light sensors is located on the other side of the transport path and is provided for (i) sensing light from the light source transmitted through a variable first location of at least one item moving along the transport path and providing a first sensor output signal indicative of the extent of light transmitted, and (ii) sensing light from the light sources transmitted through a redefined second location of the at least one item moving along the transport path and providing a second sensor output signal indicative of the extent of light transmitted. A processing unit is responsive to the first and second sensor output signals and is provided for producing a first control signal indicative of a double-item feed condition when the first sensor output signal is indicative of transmitted light being below a first predetermined value and the second sensor output signal is indicative of transmitted light being below a second predetermined value. The processing unit produces a second control signal indicative of a false double-item feed condition when the first sensor output signal is indicative of transmitted light being below the first predetermined value and the second sensor output is indicative of transmitted light being above the second predetermined value.

The present invention relates to document processing systems, and is particularly directed to a method of processing documents moving along a transport path of a document processing system, such as a check processing system, and an apparatus therefor.
There are a number of known arrangements of components for detecting a double-item feed condition in a document processing system having a transport path along which documents are movable. One known arrangement of components includes a number of light emitting diodes located on one side of the transport path and a corresponding number of phototransistors located on the other side of the transport path. Each phototransistor senses the amount of light transmitted through a document moving along the transport path and provides a sensor output signal indicative of the amount of transmitted light. If a single document is fed along the transport path, then the sensor output signal is within a predetermined range of values to indicate a normal feed condition. If overlapping multiple documents are fed along the transport path, then the sensor output signal is outside the predetermined range of values which would indicate a multiple-item feed condition.
A disadvantage in using this known arrangement of components is the inability to distinguish between detection of an actual multiple-item feed condition and detection of a "carrier" document. A carrier document is simply an envelope into which a damaged document can be placed to transport the damaged document along the transport path. The above-described arrangement of components may detect the presence of a carrier document as a multiple-item feed condition. Since a carrier document is not an actual multiple-feed condition, the result is a false indication of a multiple-feed condition. This false indication of a multiple-feed condition may cause the carrier document to be rejected. To avoid rejection of the carrier document, an operator may need to manually override the sensor output signal so that the carrier document can be processed as a normal feed condition along the transport path.

Method of processing documents moving along a transport path of a document processing system and an apparatus therefor


A method of updating a suffix tree includes providing an initial suffix tree based on a first sequence of symbols drawn from an alphabet. The suffix tree includes existing nodes representing respective subsequences occurring in the first sequence of symbols. The existing nodes are associated with information relating to membership of the subsequences in at least one class of repeat subsequences. A second sequence of symbols is received and the initial suffix tree is updated to form an updated suffix tree by adding new nodes representing subsequences occurring in the second sequence of symbols that are not represented by the existing nodes. The subsequences represented by the new nodes are ordered in a new node data structure which is processed to updating the information relating to the at least one class of repeat subsequences associated with at least some of the nodes in the updated suffix tree.

The exemplary embodiment relates to systems and methods for incrementally updating a data structure, such as a tree, to compute repeat subsequences in a sequence of symbols. It finds particular application in representing a textual document using identified repeat subsequences for interpretation of documents, such as classifying the textual document, and comparing or clustering of documents.
Inferring constituents, such as a set of repeated words or sequences of words, is a basic step for many applications involving textual documents. These are the semantic blocks that define the meaning of a document. They can be used to represent the document, and an accurate description of a document is beneficial to tasks such as classification, clustering, topic detection, and knowledge extraction. They are also useful in inferring the structure of a document. In grammatical inference, where it is assumed that the document samples are generated by a grammar, it is also useful to determine which sequences of the document correspond to the same grammatical constituent before detecting how different rules are related to each other.
The standard approach for extracting features and creating representations for textual documents is called the "bag-of-words," where each dimension in a vector space model represents one word. To consider longer sequences, higher level language models, such as n-grams, may be used.
Document processing is often batch mode, but limiting processing to batch mode reduces the application space. For many applications (such as online news analysis, real-time classification, etc.) it is common to have a set of already processed documents d1, . . . , dk to which is added a new document dk+1. Despite sophisticated algorithms and implementations, computing the set of repeats in a batch mode on the successive sets {d1}, {d1,d2}, . . . is not readily scalable. Additionally, a repeat sequence which is not observed in the original set of documents {d1, . . . , dk} may be present later when a further document is added to the collection.
There remains a need for a system and method for detection repeats in a document collection in which the set of documents is not static. For example, documents are added to a pool of documents one at a time or in small batches. The method described permits updating the count of existing repeats, and computing new ones, in such a streaming framework.


Provided are embodiments that include a system for performing humidity analytics. The system includes an air conditioning system, and one or more sensors operably coupled to the air conditioning system, and a computing server including an HVAC analytics engine operably coupled to the air conditioning system, the HVAC analytics engine configured to actively monitor the air conditioning system based at least in part on data from the one or more sensors over a period of time, and a processor. The processor is configured to monitor moisture characteristics, receive inputs from the one or more sensors to perform a humidity calculation, perform the humidity calculation based on the received inputs from the one or more sensors, and track the humidity calculation over a period of time. Embodiments also include methods for performing humidity analytics.

The present disclosure relates generally to the tracking of moisture in a home, and more specifically to using humidity analytics for performing diagnostics.
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are used for maintaining the air for a variety of environments. For example, HVAC systems are included in residential buildings such as homes, apartments, and hotels. HVAC systems can also be included in vehicles such as cars, airplanes, and ships. HVAC systems can include a number of equipment such as compressors, evaporators, condensers, fans, etc. Due to the complexity of the system each portion of the HVAC system can require periodic maintenance to ensure optimal performance. There may be a need to obtain insights into the HVAC system to more effectively diagnose moisture management problems resulting in occupant discomfort.


An image display apparatus includes a plurality of display devices wired in a matrix through a plurality of scanning signal wirings and a plurality of modulated signal wirings, and a driving circuit for applying a modulated signal having a pulsewidth corresponding to an image signal to each of the plurality of modulated signal wirings. The driving circuit causes the modulated signal to fall in discrete decrements to a non-display state from a display state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a driving circuit for an image display apparatus, an image display apparatus using this circuit, and a driving method for them.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, low-profile, large-screen display apparatuses have enthusiastically been studied and developed. The present inventor has studied a low-profile, large-screen display apparatus using a cold cathode device as an electron source.
Two types of devices, namely hot and cold cathode devices, are conventionally known as electron-emitting devices. Known examples of the cold cathode devices are surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices, field emission type electron-emitting devices (to be referred to as FE type electron-emitting devices hereinafter), and metal/insulator/metal type electron-emitting devices (to be referred to as MIM type electron-emitting devices hereinafter).
A known example of the surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices is described in, e.g., M. I. Elinson, "Radio Eng. Electron Phys., 10, 1290 (1965) and other examples will be described later.
The surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device utilizes the phenomenon that electrons are emitted by a small-area thin film formed on a substrate by flowing a current parallel through the film surface. The surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device includes electron-emitting devices using an Au thin film [G. Dittmer, "Thin Solid Films", 9,317 (1972)], an In2O3/SnO2 thin film [M. Hartwell and C. G. Fonstad, "IEEE Trans. ED Conf.", 519 (1975)], a carbon thin film [Hisashi Araki et al., "Vacuum", Vol. 26, No. 1, p. 22 (1983)], and the like, in addition to an SnO2 thin film according to Elinson mentioned above.
FIG. 19 is a plan view showing the device by M. Hartwell et al. described above as a typical example of the device structures of these surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices. Referring to FIG. 19, reference numeral 3001 denotes a substrate; and 3004, a conductive thin film made of a metal oxide formed by sputtering. This conductive thin film 3004 has an H-shaped pattern, as shown in FIG. 19. An electron-emitting portion 3005 is formed by performing electrification processing (referred to as forming processing to be described later) with respect to the conductive thin film 3004. An interval L in FIG. 19 is set to 0.5 to 1 mm, and a width W is set to 0.1 mm. The electron-emitting portion 3005 is shown in a rectangular shape at the center of the conductive thin film 3004 for the sake of illustrative convenience. However, this does not exactly show the actual position and shape of the electron-emitting portion.
In the above surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices by M. Hartwell et al. and the like, typically the electron-emitting portion 3005 is formed by performing electrification processing called forming processing for the conductive thin film 3004 before electron emission. In the forming processing, an electron-emitting portion is formed by electrification such that a constant DC voltage or a DC voltage which increases at a very low rate of, e.g., 1 V/min is applied across the two ends of the conductive thin film 3004 to partially destroy or deform the conductive thin film 3004, thereby forming the electron-emitting portion 3005 with an electrically high resistance. Note that the destroyed or deformed part of the conductive thin film 3004 has a fissure. Upon application of an appropriate voltage to the conductive thin film 3004 after the forming processing, electrons are emitted near the fissure.
These surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices have a simple structure and can be easily manufactured, and thus many devices can be formed on a wide area. As disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 64-31332 filed by the present applicant, a method of arranging and driving a lot of devices has been studied.
Known examples of the FE type electron-emitting devices are described in W. P. Dyke and W. W. Dolan, "Field emission," Advance in Electron Physics, 8, 89 (1956) and C. A. Spindt, "Physical properties of thin-film field emission cathodes with molybdenium", J. Appl. Phys., 47, 5248 (1976).
FIG. 20 is a sectional view showing the device by C. A. Spindt et al. described above as a typical example of the FE type device structure. In FIG. 20, reference numeral 3010 denotes a substrate; 3011, an emitter wiring made of a conductive material; 3012, an emitter cone; 3013, an insulating layer; and 3014, a gate electrode. In this device, an appropriate voltage is applied between the emitter cone 3012 and gate electrode 3014 to emit electrons from the distal end portion of the emitter cone 3012. As another FE type device structure, there is an example in which an emitter and gate electrode are arranged on a substrate to be almost parallel to the surface of the substrate, in addition to the multilayered structure of FIG. 20.
A known example of the MIM type electron-emitting devices is described in C. A. Mead, "Operation of Tunnel-Emission Devices", J. Appl. Phys., 32,646 (1961). FIG. 21 shows a typical example of the MIM type device structure. FIG. 21 is a sectional view of the MIM type electron-emitting device. In FIG. 21, reference numeral 3020 denotes a substrate; 3021, a lower electrode made of a metal; 3022, a thin insulating layer having a thickness of about 100 Å; and 3023, an upper electrode made of a metal and having a thickness of about 80 to 300 Å. In the MIM type electron-emitting device, an appropriate voltage is applied between the upper and lower electrodes 3023 and 3021 to emit electrons from the surface of the upper electrode 3023.
Since the cold cathode device can emit electrons at a lower temperature than a hot cathode device, it does not require any heater. The cold cathode is simpler in structure than the hot cathode device and can shrink in feature size. Even if a large number of devices can be arranged at a high density, they are almost free from problems such as heat fusion of the substrate. In addition, the response speed of the hot cathode device is low because it operates upon heating. To the contrary, the response speed of the cold cathode device is high. For this reason, applications of the cold cathode devices have enthusiastically been studied.
Of cold cathode devices, the above surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices have a simple structure and can be easily manufactured, and thus many devices can be formed on a wide area. As disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 64-31332 filed by the present applicant, a method of arranging and driving a lot of devices has been studied.
Regarding applications of the surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices to, e.g., image forming apparatuses such as an image display apparatus and an image recording apparatus, charge beam sources, and the like have been studied.
Particularly as an application to image display apparatuses, as disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,066,883 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2-257551 and 4-28137 filed by the present applicant, an image display apparatus using the combination of a surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device and a fluorescent substance which emits light upon irradiation of an electron beam has been studied. This type of image display apparatus using the combination of the surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device and the fluorescent substance is expected to exhibit more excellent characteristics than other conventional image display apparatuses. For example, compared with recent popular liquid crystal display apparatuses, the above display apparatus is superior in that it does not require any backlight because it is of a self-emission type and that it has a wide view angle.
A method of driving a plurality of FE type electron-emitting devices arranged side by side is disclosed in, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,904,895 filed by the present applicant. As a known example of an application of FE type electron-emitting devices to an image display apparatus is a flat display apparatus reported by R. Meyer et al. [R. Meyer: "Recent Development on Microtips Display at LETI", Tech. Digest of 4th Int. Vacuum Microelectronics Conf., Nagahama, pp. 6-9 (1991)].
An example of an application of a larger number of MIM type electron-emitting devices arranged side by side to an image display apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-55738 filed by the present applicant.
The present inventors have examined surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices of various materials, various manufacturing methods, and various structures, in addition to the above-mentioned conventional surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices. Further, the present inventors have made extensive studies on a multi electron source having a large number of surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices, and an image display apparatus using this multi electron source. The present inventors have examined a multi electron source having an electrical wiring method shown in, e.g., FIG. 22. That is, a large number of surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices are two-dimensionally arranged in a matrix to obtain a multi electron source, as shown in FIG. 22.
Referring to FIG. 22, reference numeral 4001 denotes a surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device; 4002, a row-direction wiring; and 4003, a column-direction wiring. The row- and column-direction wirings 4002 and 4003 actually have finite electrical resistances, which are represented as wiring resistances 4004 and 4005 in FIG. 22. This wiring method is called a simple matrix wiring method. For illustrative convenience, the multi electron source is illustrated in a 6×6 matrix, but the size of the matrix is not limited to this. For example, in a multi beam source for an image display apparatus, the number of devices enough to perform desired image display are arranged and wired.
In a multi electron source constituted by arranging surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices in a simple matrix, appropriate electrical signals are applied to the row- and column-direction wirings 4002 and 4003 to output a desired electron beam. For example, to drive the surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices on an arbitrary row in the matrix, a selection potential Vs is applied to the row-direction wiring 4002 on a selected row, and at the same time a non-selection potential Vns is applied to the row-direction wirings 4002 on an unselected row. In synchronism with this, a driving potential Ve for outputting an electron beam is applied to the column-direction wiring 4003. According to this method, when voltage drops across the wiring resistances 4004 and 4005 are neglected, a voltage (Ve−Vs) is applied to the surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices on the selected row, while a voltage (Ve−Vns) is applied to the surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices on the unselected row. When the potentials Ve, Vs, and Vns are set to appropriate magnitudes, an electron beam having a desired intensity must be output from only the surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices on the selected row. When different driving voltages Ve are applied to respective column-direction wirings, electron beams having different intensities must be output from the respective devices on the selected row. Since the surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device has a high response speed, a change in length of time for which the driving voltage Ve is applied necessarily causes a change in length of time for which an electron beam is output.
The device application voltage (Ve−Vs) in selection will be called Vf.
As another method of obtaining an electron beam from a multi electron source having a simple matrix wiring, column-direction wirings are connected to not a voltage source for applying the driving potential Ve but a current source for applying a driving current. The selection potential Vs is applied to a row-direction wiring on a selected row, and at the same time the non-selection potential Vns is applied to a row-direction wiring on an unselected row. Then, an electron beam can be obtained from only the devices on the selected row owing to a strong threshold characteristic of the surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device. The current flowing through the electron source will be called a device current If, and an emitted electron beam current will be called an emission current Ie.
The multi electron source constituted by arranging surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices in a simple matrix has a variety of applications. For example, when an electrical signal corresponding to image information is appropriately applied, the multi electron source can be suitably used as an electron source for an image display apparatus.
An object of the present invention is to realize an arrangement capable of more accurately displaying an image.

Image display apparatus and image display method


A method for profiling an application on a virtual machine is provided. A series of analysis steps to be performed on profiled data can be created. The series of analysis steps can be saved as a report specification. A back-end profiler can then be caused to perform profiling on the application. Profiled data can be received from the back-end profiler. The profiled data can be stored as a model. The model can then be adapted based on the series of analysis steps from the report specification. Output data can be generated based on the adapted model. Finally, the output data is displayed to a user.

The success of applications is not only determined by functional correctness, but also by several non-functional requirements. One of the most important non-functional aspects is performance. Profiling of a virtual machine (VM) helps to analyze the resource consumption of an application or applications running on a VM. Profiling can be useful for a number of reasons, such as identifying performance bottlenecks, exhaustive memory usage, or poor synchronization.
Profiling typically involves an adapted configuration setup of the application, such as by applying command line arguments, starting other processes, or instrumenting an executable. The scenario to be profiled is then executed while the profiling backend monitors the execution. State of the art profiling techniques allow users to drill down during a manual analysis of the profiling data using a profiling frontend. Sometimes profiling experts (people who specialize in analyzing profiled data) are used to reduce the time of the analysis for the user, but the necessity of human interaction limits the use of profiling in highly distributed systems with lots of application nodes.


An automatic packing device for filling containers with products, includes: two separate feed stations, each adapted to arrange a stream of products in parallel rows; elements capable of picking up alternately, in each feed station and depositing in the container, a number of products forming a layer of the container. Each feed station includes: a conveyor having a plurality of articulated transverse profiles; elements for pivoting two successive profiles in opposite directions of rotation between a first position in which the profiles form a transverse trough in the shape of a V, and a second position in which the profiles form a ridge in the shape of an inverted V, so as to form waves of products on the conveyor; a plurality of channels disposed as a longitudinal continuation of the conveyor.

As described in particular in the patents U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,712,818, 4,583,910, 5,117,611, FR 2,494,214, NL 7708236 . . . , the current packing devices intended for the automatic filling of containers by means of superposed layers of products, in particular fruits such as oranges, comprise mainly:                means for transporting the products which are capable, from a flow of products delivered in bulk, of dividing this flow into two separate streams,        two separate feed stations adapted to arrange each stream of products so that the said products are aligned one behind the other in parallel rows, the products of each row, at one feed station, being disposed in alternate positions with respect to the products of the corresponding rows of the other feed station,        a central packing station having means for positioning each container which are capable of holding the said container for the purpose of filling it,        pickup means capable of picking up alternately, in line with each feed station, a number of products forming a layer with dimensions matching the internal section of the container, and of depositing this layer in the said container so as to fill the latter by means of superposed layers of products fixed relative to one another.
Such packing devices have the advantage of being completely automated and of exhibiting a high filling rate. In addition, the filling of the containers is performed by means of layers of products disposed so as to be perfectly fixed with respect to one another, and the risks of damage to these products, particularly when the latter consist of fruits, during the handling and transport of the containers, are therefore dispelled.
A first major disadvantage of these packing devices resides however in the fact that, in particular at the feed stations, blocking phenomena of the products may lead, if not to immobilisation of the stream of products, at least to the formation of incomplete rows having spaces unoccupied by a product.
Consequently, the filling devices must be subject to constant surveillance, which nevertheless does not prevent the obligation to interrupt the device when blocking phenomena occur.
In particular, the feed stations comprising a plurality of parallel channels, each accommodating a line of products, do not permit the products placed in different lines to be disposed so that they are sufficiently compressed radially against one another to be put in place in a container. This is because a sufficient space must be provided between the channels to permit the displacement of the products in the channels.
To overcome this disadvantage, other devices (for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,453,802) provide that the ends of the channels are offset and the orientation of the pickup means is inclined in the plane of the channels with respect to the channels to form a layer of products in a staggered arrangement. Furthermore, a mechanism enables the lateral flanks of the channels either to be moved apart while they are being fed with products, or to be drawn in to compact the products before they are picked up by the pickup means. This solution requires a mechanism which is extremely complex, costly, unreliable and not very compatible with the agricultural environment in which such devices may move about.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,928,942 or 5,457,933 have proposed another solution consisting of articulated guide plates placed above and at the entrance to the container to compact the products as they fall. But this device lacks efficiency in that it may often produce a dislocation of the layer when the products fall into the container, so that they are not correctly placed in a compacted layer in the container, one or more products being raised with respect to the others.
Furthermore, the presence of the channels considerably increases the risks of blockage of the products at the entrance to each channel.
In view of these problems, the most recent packing devices, as described by U.S. Pat. No. 5,661,949 for example, have feed stations without channels, which are now considered to be incompatible with efficient filling of the containers.
The known packing devices also have another disadvantage resulting from the tiresome operations that have to be carried out when there is a change in the size of products to be packed, which change frequently arises when these products consist of fruits, such as oranges, that are sorted beforehand according in particular to their size. Although certain devices, in particular those described in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,818, are equipped with fixing devices permitting the rapid mounting and demounting of a plenum bearing the pickup members, for the purpose of adapting the distribution of these pickup members to the distribution of the products according to their size, the operations for modifying the feed stations are, for their part, tiresome.
The packing device described by U.S. Pat. No. 5,661,949 makes it possible to overcome this second disadvantage as well. In this device, any modification in the size simply requires, on the one hand, the changing of the cradles of the feed stations, this operation being quick and easy given the facility of access to these cradles and, on the other hand, the changing of the support bearing the pickup members. In practice, such an adjustment takes a very short time, which minimises the period of immobilisation of the packing device, and does not require personnel with specific skills. However, such a packing device does not solve the disadvantages associated with the recurrent blocking phenomena of the products.

Automatic packing device for the filling of containers by means of superposed layers of products, in particular fruits such as oranges