A digital receiver (200) and transmitter (300), wherein the digital receiver includes a plurality of antennas (202) for receiving uplink radio frequency signals; a plurality of analog to digital converters (210) for converting the received radio frequency signals into digital signals; a switched digital down converter (214) for down converting one of the digital signals to a baseband IF signal; and a channel processor (228) for recovering one of a plurality of communication channels contained within the baseband IF signal.

Transmitters and receivers for communication systems generally are designed such that they are tuned to transmit and receive one of a multiplicity of signals having widely varying bandwidths and which may fall within a particular frequency range. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that these transmitters and receivers radiate or intercept, respectively, electromagnetic radiation within a desired frequency band. The electromagnetic radiation can be output from or input to the transmitter or receiver, respectively, by several types of devices including an antenna, a wave guide, a coaxial cable and an optical fiber.
These communication system transmitters and receivers may be capable of transmitting and receiving a multiplicity of signals; however, such transmitters and receivers generally utilize circuitry which is duplicated for each respective signal to be transmitted or received which has a different frequency or bandwidth. This circuitry duplication is not an optimal multi-channel communication unit design architecture, because of the added cost and complexity associated with building complete independent transmitters and/or receivers for each communication channel.
An alternative transmitter and receiver architecture is possible which would be capable of transmitting and receiving signals having a desired multi-channel wide bandwidth. This alternative transmitter and receiver may utilize a digitizer (e.g., an analog-to-digital converter) which operates at a sufficiently high sampling rate to ensure that the signal of the desired bandwidth can be digitized in accordance with the Nyquist criteria (e.g., digitizing at a sampling rate equal to at least twice the bandwidth to be digitized). Subsequently, the digitized signal preferably is pre- or post- processed using digital signal processing techniques to differentiate between the multiple channels within the digitized bandwidth.
With reference to FIG. 1, a prior wideband transceiver 100 is shown. Radio frequency (RF) signals are received at antenna 102 processed through RF converter 104 and digitized by analog-to-digital converter 106. The digitized signals are processed through a discrete fourier transform (DFT) 108, a channel processor 110 and from channel processors 110 to a cellular network and a public switched telephone network (PSTN). In a transmit mode, signals received from the cellular network are processed through channel processors 110, inverse discrete fourier transform (IDFT) 114 and digital-to-analog converter 116. Analog signals from digital-to-analog converter 116 are then up converted in RF up converter 118 and radiated from antenna 120.
A disadvantage of this alternative type of communication unit is that the digital processing portion of the communication unit must have a sufficiently high sampling rate to ensure that the Nyquist criteria is met for the maximum bandwidth of the received electromagnetic radiation which is equal to the sum of the individual communication channels which form the composite received electromagnetic radiation bandwidth. If the composite bandwidth signal is sufficiently wide, the digital processing portion of the communication unit is very costly and consumes a considerable amount of power. Additionally, the channels produced by a DFT or IDFT filtering technique must typically be adjacent to each other.
A need exists for a transmitter and a receiver, like the one which is described above, which is capable of transmitting and receiving a multiplicity of signals within corresponding channels with the same transmitter or receiver circuitry. However, this transmitter and receiver circuitry preferably should reduce communication unit design constraints associated with the above transceiver architecture. If such a transmitter and receiver architecture could be developed, then it would be ideally suited for cellular radiotelephone communication systems. Cellular base stations typically need to transmit and receive multiple channels within a wide frequency bandwidth (e.g., 824 megahertz to 894 megahertz). In addition, commercial pressures on cellular infrastructure and subscriber equipment manufacturers are prompting these manufacturers to find ways to reduce the cost of communication units. Similarly, such a multi-channel transmitter and receiver architecture would be well suited for personal communication systems (PCS) which will have smaller service regions (than their counterpart cellular service regions) for each base station and as such a corresponding larger number of base stations will be required to cover a given geographic region. Operators which purchase base stations ideally would like to have a less complex and reduced cost unit to install throughout their licensed service regions.
An additional advantage may be gained by cellular and PCS manufacturers as the result of designing multi-channel communication units which share the same analog signal processing portion. Traditional communication units are designed to operate under a single information signal coding and channelization standard. In contrast, these multi-channel communication units include a digital signal processing portion which may be reprogrammed, at will, through software during the manufacturing process or in the field after installation such that these multi-channel communication units may operate in accordance with any one of several information signal coding and channelization standards.
Another disadvantage of traditional communication system design is that the hardware associated with the communication system is typically dedicated to a single access method (i.e., advanced mobile phone service (AMPS), narrowband advanced mobile phone service (NAMPS), United States digital cellular (USDC), personal digital cellular (PDC) and the like communication access methods). In order to provide multiple access, i.e., access to the communication system through any of the access methods, significant hardware duplication, at considerable cost, is required. Therefore, there is a need for a communication system which provides for multiple access while not significantly increasing the amount of required hardware, and hence associated cost.
Digital signal processing is evolving as the preferred implementation in many signal processing applications. The advent of improved, higher speed and lower cost digital signal processors (DSPs) and other digital circuit elements coupled with increased flexibility and accuracy of digital circuits is driving a move to converting a number of signal processing applications from the analog forum to the digital forum. Digital signal processing, while offering the above mentioned advantages and other advantages, does not come without some drawbacks. For example, some applications, particularly in the field of radio frequency (RF) communications, are inherently analog. Signal processing for RF applications often require converting an analog signal, for example an RF or intermediate frequency (IF) signal, to a digital signal and likewise converting digital signals to analog signals. An example of such an application is in wideband digital transceivers such as shown and described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 08/366,283, the disclosure of which is hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference.
In many digital processing applications, including those accomplished in a wideband digital transceiver, the precision of a signal must be converted from a high level of precision to a lower level of precision. For example, a signal represented as 32 bits of information may have to be reduced to a signal represented as 16 bits of information. This is due to the limited capabilities of certain digital processing elements such as, for example, digital-to-analog converters (DACs). In making such a conversion, however, there is a loss of information. One will appreciate in the above example that 32 bits can represent more information than 16 bits at a given data rate. The result of this loss of information is quantization noise.
Often the noise is distributed over the entire Nyquist bandwidth and the noise power per Hertz is negligible. However, frequently the noise appears at discreet frequencies, like second and third harmonics of the signal, which pose significant problems.
To overcome the problem of noise dwelling at particular frequencies, it has been proposed to introduce psuedorandom noise to the signal, often referred to as dithering. A number of dithering techniques are taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,901,265, 4,951,237, 5,073,869, 5,228,054 and 5,291,428. A major disadvantage of dithering is the requirement of having to provide pseudorandom noise generator circuitry which is often complex making the application implementation intensive and costly.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for reducing quantization noise without significantly increasing the cost and complexity of the digital signal processing circuit.
There are numerous advantages to implementing a radio communication system using digital techniques. Notably, there is enhanced system capacity, reduced noise, and reduced hardware and associated power consumption. Fundamental to the digital radio communication system is the requirement that the received analog radio signal be digitized. The well known Nyquist criteria provides that such digitization is accomplished with minimal error at about twice the bandwidth of the analog signal. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,218 a methodology typical of the prior art is disclosed for digitizing an analog radio frequency signal in accordance with this principle. It will be appreciated, however, where the radio signal occupies a large bandwidth, ADCs capable of operation at very high sampling rates are required. Such devices, to the extent they are available, are expensive and often suffer reduced performance, i.e., have significant distortion and increased power consumption when operated at high sampling rates.
The spectrum allocated to radio communication systems is typically large with respect to the requirements for digitizing. In some radio communicatiorn systems, however, although the desired signal occupies a large bandwidth, not all of the bandwidth is occupied by signals of interest. In cellular radio telephone communication systems, for example, the communication bandwidth is not contiguous. The cellular A-band, for example, is allocated a bandwidth of 12.5 megahertz (MHz). Spectrally, however, the entire A-band covers 22.5 MHz of bandwidth in two discontinuous portions. In order to digitize the A-band, one would need an ADC capable of operating, according to Nyquist criteria, at least at 45 MHz or 45 million samples per second (Ms/s), and more reliably at 56 Ms/s. Splitting the signal into smaller segments allows the use of multiple ADCs at lower sampling rates. Using multiple ADCs has the disadvantage of requiring more hardware. Furthermore, clock frequency and higher order harmonics thereof inevitably fall into the frequency band of the signal being digitized. Still another disadvantage is the amount of digital data handling required to filter, interpolate, compensate for band overlap and sum the resulting multiple digital signals.
Therefore, there is a need for a device for digitizing wideband frequency band signals which is does not require high sampling rates, and does not significantly increase the amount of hardware required for the communication system.
The many advantages and features of the present invention will be appreciated from the following detailed description of several preferred embodiments of the invention with reference to the attached drawings in which:

Multiple access digital transmitter and receiver


A method is performed by a device in a wireless network. The method includes receiving a transmission that includes a wideband channel quality indicator, determining a received signal power estimate for each frequency band of a frequency domain, and determining an average interference-plus-noise based on the wideband channel quality indicator and the received signal power estimate. The method further includes determining a signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio estimate for each frequency band based on the average interference-plus-noise and the received signal power estimate, and performing a communicative operation based on the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio estimate.

In a communication system, such as a wireless communication system, devices may communicate with one another via a wireless communication link. For example, a wireless station and user equipment (UE) may communicate via wireless channels. A fundamental aspect to maintaining this communication link is link adaptation. For example, the wireless station communicates to the UE in a manner tailored to the channel conditions experienced by the UE. The wireless station is able to perform link adaptation based on receiving one or more channel quality indicators (CQIs) from the UE. For example, the UE may transmit a CQI report that includes one or more CQIs. The UE generates the CQI(s) based on its estimation of existing channel conditions. CQIs may also provide a basis for adapting other communicative operations, such as scheduling, etc.
In wideband communication systems (e.g., employing orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM)), the bandwidth may be divided into several sub-bands, where each sub-band covers a number frequency units (e.g., sub-carriers in OFDM). In such a communication system, wideband CQI(s) may cover the whole bandwidth or a part of the whole bandwidth (e.g., one or more sub-bands). Based on this framework, when the frequency domain granularity of the CQI is narrow, the performance of link adaptation, scheduling, and other communicative operations (e.g., power control, timing control, handover, beamforming, etc.) may be improved compared to when the frequency domain granularity of the CQI is broader.
Problems exist, however, when implementing a narrower frequency domain granularity for CQI(s). For example, this typically results in more overhead. This is especially true in time division duplex (TDD) communication systems (e.g., long term evolution LTE-TDD or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax)) because of the asymmetric allocation of uplink and downlink timeslots. For example, where a high asymmetry exists (e.g., DL to UL is 9:1) and/or heavy data traffic exists, an UL CQI report channel may support only wideband CQI (e.g., the whole bandwidth or sub-band CQI(s) having a coarse frequency domain granularity). Another problem is that when the frequency domain granularity of the CQI(s) is narrow, the wireless station may take a longer period of time to update and/or adapt. As a result, the performance of the wireless station with respect to link adaptation, scheduling, and/or other communicative operations may be degraded.
While the existence of channel reciprocity in TDD communication systems is well known, channel reciprocity does not resolve all the issues related to link adaption, scheduling, and other communicative operations. For example, in a TDD communication system, the interference between uplink and downlink directions does not necessarily correlate at all (i.e., interference is not reciprocal).


An electrically variable transmission includes a power source, three differential gear sets, first and second motor/generators each connected to at least one of the gear sets, and torque-transmitting mechanisms. An input member transfers power from the power source through the differential gear sets to an output member. The torque-transmitting mechanisms are selectively engageable to provide an input-split first electrically variable mode having equal forward and reverse speed ratios for given input speeds and a compound, power-split second electrically variable mode. Torque provided from the power source is added to torque provided from the second motor generator in both forward and reverse electrically variable modes.

Internal combustion engines, particularly those of the reciprocating piston type, currently propel most vehicles. Such engines are relatively efficient, compact, lightweight, and inexpensive mechanisms by which to convert highly concentrated energy in the form of fuel into useful mechanical power. A novel transmission system, which can be used with internal combustion engines and which can reduce fuel consumption and emissions, may be of great benefit to the public.
The wide variation in the demands that vehicles typically place on internal combustion engines increases fuel consumption and emissions beyond the ideal case for such engines. Typically, a vehicle is propelled by such an engine, which is started from a cold state by a small electric motor and relatively small electric storage batteries, then quickly placed under the loads from propulsion and accessory equipment. Such an engine is also operated through a wide range of speeds and a wide range of loads and typically at an average of approximately a fifth of its maximum power output.
A vehicle transmission typically delivers mechanical power from an engine to the remainder of a drive system, such as fixed final drive gearing, axles and wheels. A typical mechanical transmission allows some freedom in engine operation, usually through alternate selection of five or six different drive ratios, a neutral selection that allows the engine to operate accessories with the vehicle stationary, and clutches or a torque converter for smooth transitions between driving ratios and to start the vehicle from rest with the engine turning. Transmission gear selection typically allows power from the engine to be delivered to the rest of the drive system with a ratio of torque multiplication and speed reduction, with a ratio of torque reduction and speed multiplication known as overdrive, or with a reverse ratio.
An electric generator can transform mechanical power from the engine into electrical power, and an electric motor can transform that electric power back into mechanical power at different torques and speeds for the remainder of the vehicle drive system. This arrangement allows a continuous variation in the ratio of torque and speed between engine and the remainder of the drive system, within the limits of the electric machinery. An electric storage battery used as a source of power for propulsion may be added to this arrangement, forming a series hybrid electric drive system.
The series hybrid system allows the engine to operate with some independence from the torque, speed and power required to propel a vehicle, so the engine may be controlled for improved emissions and efficiency. This system allows the electric machine attached to the engine to act as a motor to start the engine. This system also allows the electric machine attached to the remainder of the drive train to act as a generator, recovering energy from slowing the vehicle into the battery by regenerative braking. A series electric drive suffers from the weight and cost of sufficient electric machinery to transform all of the engine power from mechanical to electrical in the generator and from electrical to mechanical in the drive motor, and from the useful energy lost in these conversions.
A power-split transmission can use what is commonly understood to be "differential gearing" to achieve a continuously variable torque and speed ratio between input and output. An electrically variable transmission can use differential gearing to send a fraction of its transmitted power through a pair of electric motor/generators. The remainder of its power flows through another, parallel path that is all mechanical and direct, of fixed ratio, or alternatively selectable.
One form of differential gearing, as is well known to those skilled in this art, may constitute a planetary gear set. Planetary gearing is usually the preferred embodiment employed in differentially geared inventions, with the advantages of compactness and different torque and speed ratios among all members of the planetary gear set. However, it is possible to construct this invention without planetary gears, as by using bevel gears or other gears in an arrangement where the rotational speed of at least one element of a gear set is always a weighted average of speeds of two other elements.
A hybrid electric vehicle transmission system also includes one or more electric energy storage devices. The typical device is a chemical electric storage battery, but capacitive or mechanical devices, such as an electrically driven flywheel, may also be included. Electric energy storage allows the mechanical output power from the transmission system to the vehicle to vary from the mechanical input power from the engine to the transmission system. The battery or other device also allows for engine starting with the transmission system and for regenerative vehicle braking.
An electrically variable transmission in a vehicle can simply transmit mechanical power from an engine input to a final drive output. To do so, the electric power produced by one motor/generator balances the electrical losses and the electric power consumed by the other motor/generator. By using the above-referenced electrical storage battery, the electric power generated by one motor/generator can be greater than or less than the electric power consumed by the other. Electric power from the battery can sometimes allow both motor/generators to act as motors, especially to assist the engine with vehicle acceleration. Both motors can sometimes act as generators to recharge the battery, especially in regenerative vehicle braking.
A successful substitute for the series hybrid transmission is the two-range, input-split and compound-split electrically variable transmission now produced for transit buses, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,931,757, issued Aug. 3, 1999 to Michael R. Schmidt, commonly assigned with the present application, and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Such a transmission utilizes an input means to receive power from the vehicle engine and a power output means to deliver power to drive the vehicle. First and second motor/generators are connected to an energy storage device, such as a battery, so that the energy storage device can accept power from, and supply power to, the first and second motor/generators. A control unit regulates power flow among the energy storage device and the motor/generators as well as between the first and second motor/generators.
Operation in first or second variable-speed-ratio modes of operation may be selectively achieved by using clutches in the nature of first and second torque transfer devices. In the first mode, an input-power-split speed ratio range is formed by the application of the first clutch, and the output speed of the transmission is proportional to the speed of one motor/generator. In the second mode, a compound-power-split speed ratio range is formed by the application of the second clutch, and the output speed of the transmission is not proportional to the speeds of either of the motor/generators, but is an algebraic linear combination of the speeds of the two motor/generators. Operation at a fixed transmission speed ratio may be selectively achieved by the application of both of the clutches. Operation of the transmission in a neutral mode may be selectively achieved by releasing both clutches, decoupling the engine and both electric motor/generators from the transmission output. The transmission incorporates at least one mechanical point in its first mode of operation and at least two mechanical points in its second mode of operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,527,658, issued Mar. 4, 2003 to Holmes et al, commonly assigned with the present application, and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, discloses an electrically variable transmission utilizing two planetary gear sets, two motor/generators and two clutches to provide input-split, compound split, neutral and reverse modes of operation. Both planetary gear sets may be simple, or one may be individually compounded. An electrical control member regulates power flow among an energy storage device and the two motor/generators. This transmission provides two ranges or modes of electrically variable transmission (EVT) operation, selectively providing an input-power-split speed ratio range and a compound-power-split speed ratio range. One fixed speed ratio can also be selectively achieved.

Two mode electrically variable transmission with equal forward and reverse input-split modal performance


Disclosed are perfluoropolyether silicon compounds, coatings containing the perfluoropolyether silicon compounds, methods of making the perfluoropolyether silicon compounds, and methods of making perfluoropolyether silicon coatings.

Polymerizable amphiphilic molecules and hydrolysable alkyl silanes are employed to form thin films on various surfaces. Thin films have numerous and diverse useful purposes. For example, a thin film may be formed on a lens for scratch resistance or on a metal for corrosion protection.
Oil repellent coatings and water repellent coatings may be provided to certain substrates by applying to a substrate fluorinated silanes. The applied fluorinated silanes are often cured by heating with a catalyst to chemically affix the fluorinated silanes to the substrates. In some instances, durability of the oil repellent coatings and water repellent coatings is an issue.
One problem with applying fluorinated silanes to substrates is that the fluorinated silanes may not have a long shelf live. Another problem is that fluorinated silanes often require high-shear mixing before coating on a substrate. Many fluorinated silane compositions have a high solids content, which results in thick coatings. This can be a problem when thin coatings are desired.

Fluorinated organic silicon coating material


A coffee making apparatus comprises a roaster for roasting dried coffee beans, a tank having a meshed case for temporarily storing roasted coffee beans, a blower which sends air to the roasted coffee beans in the meshed case to cool the roasted coffee beans, a milling/extracting unit receiving the cooled roasted coffee beans from the tank for milling the roasted coffee beans and thereafter extracting a coffee solution therefrom by pouring hot water, a coffee server for receiving the coffee solution which has been extracted, and a case in which the roaster, the tank, and the milling/extracting unit are provided.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a coffee making apparatus for obtaining coffee from unroasted dried coffee beans through the steps of roasting the unroasted dried coffee beans, milling the roasted coffee beans and extracting the coffee granules.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The inventor of this invention proposed a coffee making apparatus for automatically obtaining coffee from unroasted dried coffee beans. The coffee making apparatus has a roaster for roasting unroasted dried coffee beans, a milling/extracting unit for milling the unroasted dried coffee beans into coffee granules and thereafter extracting coffee from the coffee granules, an air blower for blowing air into the milling/extracting unit, a pouring unit for pouring hot water onto the coffee granules to produce water-and-coffee-granule mixture, and a coffee server for receiving a coffee solution filtered from the water-and-coffee granule mixture.
However, at least the roasting of unroasted dried coffee beans, the cooling of the roasted coffee beans, the milling the cooled roasted coffee beans and the extracting coffee solution are carried out in a cycle in this order and thus the next coffee making cycle cannot be started until the extraction of the coffee solution by the milling/extracting unit or the reception of the coffee solution by a coffee server in the previous cycle ends. Since, therefore, the new step of roasting coffee beans cannot be carried out during the extraction process in the previous cycle, a lot of cups of coffee cannot be made at a high efficiency.
In this coffee making apparatus, hot water is uniformly poured by the pouring unit on the substantially whole upper surface of coffee granules deposited in the milling/extracting unit. In this respect, the layer-portion of the coffee granules lower than a rotary cutter is likely to become denser when a coffee solution is extracted from water-and-coffee-granule mixture by means of the milling/extracting unit provided, at the vicinity of the bottom portion thereof, with the rotary cutter. This coffee making apparatus, in which the uniform pouring step is employed, is encountered with a problem that the layer-portion of the coffee granules lower than the rotary cutter hinders extracted hot water from flowing down through a filter and a long time is required for the filtration of an extracted coffee solution. The apparatus has a further problem that a coffee solution to be extracted overflows from the milling/extracting unit. The apparatus has a still further problem that the milling/extracting unit cannot extract a coffee solution in an ideal manner.

High capacity coffee maker with improved filtration


A pelletized, environmentally friendly animal litter. The animal litter includes birch bark waste in pellet form that is mostly hydrophobic to allow liquid waste to quickly pass therethrough while trapping a small amount of waste therein that adheres to the surface of the pellet and is then absorbed over time. The litter is used in a litter box system that includes a base, a drawer slidably received therein for capturing waste in a preferred absorbent pad and a removeable grate suspended thereover for retaining the litter thereover. The drawer defines a container of sufficient volume to receive all of the litter when a standard amount of litter is used to fill the box which improves ease in changing litter by removing the grate and allowing the litter to drop into the drawer.

Animal litter and containers for litter called litter boxes have allowed animals, particularly cats, to reside inside owner's homes. However, many health and environmental issues have been identified with respect to materials and designs utilized for the litter and the litter box system containing the litter. The current disclosure of a litter and litter box system addresses the problems discussed below.
Many types of litter particulate are utilized with animal litter boxes, with most of them intended to absorb urine or other moisture and decrease odor. Animals, such as cats and dogs, tend to use their paws to kick litter particles to cover their feces and urine. To help mimic this natural behavior, litter is frequently at a depth of 1 inch or more and is often loose and granular. Traditional litter has been clay-based cat litter which was introduced in the 1940's, and sodium bentonite, a clumping cat litter, was introduced in the 1980's. Clumpable litters clump together with liquid waste and can be sifted together for removal of the clumps containing the waste. This creates much dust, and often pieces of the clumps containing urine and feces break off and remain in the litter box. Clay litters tend to be dusty, and frequently stick on cat's paws, and can be breathed by cats and their owners, along with being tracked all around their homes. Clay litters and dust may be ingested when animals clean themselves. Further, clumping clay litter can contain chemicals such as sodium bentonite and crystalline silica which have been associated with health issues developed by breathing or ingesting. Dust in cat litters can lead to respiratory problems in cats, especially kittens. Ingestion of these litters, or any non-biodegradable litter, with moisture absorption can lead to blockages and dehydration.
According to the United States Geological Survey Mineral Commodities Summaries 2020, in the United States in 2019, 5.27 billion pounds of bentonite clay and 4.32 billion pounds of Fullers Earth clay, for a total of 9.59 billion pounds of clay was mined for pet waste litters, and since clay is not biodegradable, most of that ends up in landfills as waste after use. Clay for litters is often strip mined, which is destructive to the land and harmful to wildlife. Clays are also heavy to transport and carry, utilizing much energy to do so.
Some alternative litters have been developed. For example, silica gel, made with sand and mixed with water and oxygen, is another popular litter material. It absorbs well, and lasts longer than clay litters, but it is another mined product, and therefore not sustainable, while adding significantly also to landfill waste. There are also plant based litters that are easier on the environment, including litter made from corn, wheat, beet pulp, pine, and other plant materials. These are all meant to absorb liquid excrement. The plant-based litters tend to be dusty and quite messy. They have granules that tend to stick to animal's paws and fur and are tracked around a home. There are wood based pellets, but they are designed to absorb liquid excrement and then fall apart when they get wet.
Because corn and wheat-based litters are edible, many animals will eat the litter. Aflatoxins may grow on these litters in the moist urine and feces environment that they are used. If transformed into mycotoxins, they could be deadly if ingested. Many litters have dust associated with them, including clays, silicate, wood, corn, and walnut, and the dust is amplified with pouring it out of a container into the litter box, and when the animal paws and kicks to cover its solid waste. This can be unhealthy for animals and can cause respiratory problems for both the animals and the people in the home.
Many litters also have added fragrances to mask bad odors associated with the liquid and solid waste in a litter box. Animals, particularly cats, are sensitive to many perfumes and deodorizers, which can cause them to avoid using their litter box, causing them to relieve themselves outside of the litter box. Cats urinating outside the litter box is the number one behavioral problem seen by veterinarians and the leading cause of cats being relinquished to shelters. In addition to having a large box, and avoiding fragrances, the latest research is showing that the most important factor in getting cats to consistently use their litter box, is to keep it clean.
Non-clumping non-water repellant litters also require frequent removal of the entire contents and cleaning of the box, which is wasteful, time consuming, and requires much maintenance. The clumpable litters require daily scooping, and need to be fully changed out less often, but little pieces and chunks of litter containing urine and feces break off the clumps and contaminate the litter and do require full removal and cleaning of the box as they contribute to odor while retained in the litter box.
Litters having some water repellant or pass through properties have been disclosed, such as those in Matsuo, U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,230,811 and 8,453,604, and Sogou U.S. Pat. No. 9,854,782. However, all the particles disclosed include inorganic porous material which must be mined or manufactured and are not biodegradable. After use they are landfill waste. Ikegami, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,387,075 discloses an animal litter that has a water shedding portion and a liquid absorbing portion on each litter particulate, where the shedding part is treated with a water repellant finish, so the repellency is just on the outside surface, and not throughout the litter particle.
In contrast to known animal litter, consumers are looking for alternative litters that are biodegradable, clay-free, silica-free, produce low dust, minimize tracking, have great odor control without fragrances, require minimal maintenance, and that are healthy and safe for cats, people and the planet.
In addition to animal litters, many types of litter boxes have been disclosed in the art to improve the overall waste capturing and clean-up operations. In Matsuo U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,994,054 and 7,131,396, the bottom part of the granular material container is detachable from the dripping container for cleaning purposes, but their design does not allow removal while the litter is still in the container, nor does it allow a means of directing of soiled litter into the reservoir formed by the drawer for easy removal of soiled litter. Further, the design does not allow the ability to change out the grate to allow different size grate openings. Many animals will accept a pellet litter, but others have more sensitive paws, and require a softer and smaller particulate size. Other pass through or filtering litter boxes, as in Matsuo, U.S. Pat. No. 10,076,098, require the upper side cover, or in Matsuo U.S. Pat. No. 9,888,666, require the upper container which holds the litter, and in Maguire U.S. Pat. No. 6,408,790, require that the whole litter containing part needs to be lifted and removed and put down on another surface to be cleaned, or carried unhygienically with soiled litter, to a larger space for cleaning and disposing of the litter and for cleaning of the entire box. Having to fully remove the litter containing parts to clean a litter box exposes any area in contact with it to animal excreta, is unhygienic, requires a large place and space to clean, and requires carrying a dirty litter container to an area to clean it. It also requires the carrying of a heavy, awkward, large container with soiled litter. Some of the soiled litter and particles can also fall through the holes that are in the bottom of the litter container as it is being moved. Many houses and apartments do not have spaces to allow easy, hygienic cleaning of a prior art litter box. Many people, particularly older seniors have difficulty lifting and carrying a heavy, large and awkward litter box.
In Matsuo U.S. Pat. No. 10,076,098, a pass-through litter box is disclosed that includes a shallow tray having therein an absorbent pad. The pad includes a non-absorbent (Lc) flap of the pad that can come into contact with the bottom wall of the side cover and become curled up. To avoid this, the length of the side wall (Lb) in FIG. 14, is to be larger than the length of the flaps. Due to this, it is difficult to shorten the fall length, as was their goal to decrease splattering of droplets. Their solution was to angle the tray side walls out to increase the total area of the bottom and side walls footprint to be larger than the liquid passable region of their litter tray. With the tray inserted, the fall length is reduced, but the flap lengths don't change. The pad flap size is limited by side wall length, 15 mm. When the absorbent portion of the pad is soiled, it's difficult to lift and carry the saturated pad with small flaps. A user ends up touching the absorbent portion of the soiled pad which is unsanitary and unpleasant and can also create leakage of liquid excrement when removing to dispose.
Another identified problem with current animal litters, whether clay, cellulosic, grains, pellets, silica or any material, is that they tend to get stuck in animal's paws, tracking litter particles and dust outside of the box creating a mess for the owner. The tracked litter and dust are unsanitary, malodorous, and can be gritty on surfaces all over the house. Animals also ingest the litter and dust with their meticulous grooming. Crystalline silica dust, a common ingredient in clumping litters, is a known carcinogen for both humans and household pets when inhaled.
Numerous methods have been used to address animals tracking litter outside the litter box. One approach is the use of various screens over basins or trays to collect loose litter. These have either been not cat friendly or not easy to use. Another approach to prevent litter tracking involves animal litter boxes that have ramps built inside the litter box. These can be difficult to clean and to keep clean. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,386,143, they attempt to collect and recycle litter by use of multiple elongated raised surfaces sitting over a tray positioned in front of a cat box entrance. In U.S. Pat. No. 8,181,601 it is disclosed to use sticky sheets to capture the litter from cats' paws, but cats avoid sticky surfaces. It fails to consider that cats have sensitive paws and will avoid a surface that is not to their liking, by either avoiding using the box and begin urinating and defecating outside of the box, or by jumping over the adverse surface.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,983,720 they use louvered slats lined up to form a ramp over a tray. Again, louvered slats are undesirable to cats. U.S. Pat. No. 8,181,601 has a ramp with fabric on it to clean the paws and facilitate entering and exiting their specific cat box, but no means of catching any loose litter. Also, the ramp is only usable on their cat box. U.S. Pat. No. 5,992,350 has a tray that is underneath a cat box that can be pulled out, and a textured surface. This tray must be fully pulled out from under the cat box to be emptied, and does not direct the flow of loose litter to a place the cat would not step on again, so cleaning of the surface would need to be done each time the cat exited the box, or else the cat could pick up the loose litter from the tray and track it outside of the tray.
None of the prior US patents attempts to resolve the problem of animals tracking soiled litter and dust outside of their box and cleaning their paws in a way that is easy to use, easy to clean, easy to return loose litter back into the litter box, and that captures the loose litter, is low cost, is adaptable to many different cat box styles, and pays great attention to known cat and or animal preferences, and facilitates entering and exiting the litter box so it can be accessed by animals of all ages and physical abilities.
There is a great need and desire for an animal litter and litter box system that overcomes the above deficiencies in the prior art. In particular, the system would maximize odor reduction, minimize maintenance, clean easily, be healthy and safe for the animals using it and their human family members, and be environmentally friendly.


A method and a device for communication/control of access, the term access including access to services and or goods. According to the invention should a person wishing to use the method for obtaining access establish contact via telephone with machine or called person (B-replier); as a following step should said person, verbally or by signalling via existing keypad, request access; and as a subsequently following step evaluates contacted machine/person (B-replier) whether or not the request for access should be accepted; and as a final step, on accepted received information from the calling person, initiates called machine or person (B-replier) performance of relevant action by signalling to the required unit. When the B-replier is a person within a building, the final step is performed by a call from the B-replier to a telephone network connected device, which checks the authority of the call by means of the callers number ID against a preprogrammed list of accepted telephone numbers, and on acceptance, the B-replier can further input a code sequence by means of the keypad, which is checked by the called unit, which performs a for the specific sequence related action. According to one embodiment, the user's own mobile telephone is used for the final step, placed connected to the B-replier in a “cradle” facilitating two-way data communication between the acting unit and the B-replier.

Code locks, card readers, or such-to corresponding functions of a visiting preauthorized mobile telephone as disclosed in e.g. WO 00/62521, biometrical readers etc. all have a common disadvantage; in a varying degree they form a bar for occasional and welcome visitors/users (hereinafter "visitors"). This disadvantage is particularly obvious when visiting a tenant or similar in a locked building. Furthermore, the possibility for the visited party to make a "final" judgement/authentification based on from case to case varying situation may not exist. In order to overcome this disadvantage, in particular with regard to tenant buildings, so called entrance telephones, often combined with code locks, have been introduced, which basically can be divided into two groups: A—intercom systems, among which among which also in the trade so called 'no telephone bill' systems (e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 3,484,561), which by switching, hardwiring etc. connects to the separate incoming telephone lines of a building at the subscriber side of the Central Office switches, can be counted; and B—"entrance telephone systems" (e.g. SE 7308086-3 and its U.S. counterpart U.S. Pat. No. 3,947,641). "Hybrids" therebetween also exist (e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,083).
Group A has normally, particularly in larger installations, high complexity and considerable costs for hardware/installation, but involve no running costs as long as the system operates in intended fashion.
Group B has, despite simplicity and low initial costs, another major disadvantage, namely continues running costs, i.e. a building having such an installation involves, apart from payment of a running basic subscriber fee, also pay for completed calls, which on one hand makes it expensive, and on the other is unfair for tenants having few visitors if the running costs are divided equally and charged on top of the rent paid by the tenants.
Various solutions aimed to minimize these problems have been proposed in e.g. SE 9901299-9 and WO 99/44353, each having features that might be of interest for more advanced installations/applications, but less suited for a conventional tenant building and other more common applications.

Method and device for access communication/control


A transient simulation system, methods and program product that implement an adaptive piecewise constant (PWC) model are disclosed. The invention evaluates an error criteria to determine a maximum allowable change in one of a current and a voltage; and simulates the transient conditions by implementing an adaptive step in the PWC model according to the maximum allowable change. The invention allows dynamic or static adaptation of a PWC model according to an error criteria.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to transient simulators, and more particularly, to a transient simulation system, methods and program product that implement an adaptive piecewise constant model.
2. Related Art
With the continuing miniaturization of very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuitry, interest in conducting formal circuit tuning using circuit transient simulation for gradient calculation is increasing. "Transient simulation" is the analysis of a circuit during time-varying conditions. "Tuning" includes optimization of a number of circuit parameters, e.g., device widths, to maximize circuit performance relative to circuit parameters. A challenge for circuit transient simulation is improving simulator performance, i.e., run time. Tuning also requires conducting another simulation to determine "gradients" for the circuit, which are circuit measurement sensitivities to other circuit parameters, e.g., a transistor's width effect on circuit delay, resistor size effect on circuit speed, etc. This technique further increases the importance of performance. Performance of a simulator is based on how many operations are required to determine circuit performance and gradients. Unfortunately, it is common for a particular simulation operation to be called millions of times during a tuning run.
One common simulation approach tests a circuit design by conducting simulations based on directly solving for voltages and currents via a simultaneous solve technique. Many of these type transient simulators provide for optimization of simulation by allowing an adaptive timing step, with the allowable timing step being chosen to ensure that some user-defined error criteria is satisfied. For example, a local truncation error (LTE) may be implemented that describes a single-step voltage error as a function of the time step. This adaptive timing step is advantageous for two reasons. First, it allows the simulator to adapt its rate of progress as needed to maintain accuracy, while maximizing performance. Second, it allows the user to have some level of control over a performance/accuracy tradeoff. There are some types of event-based fast simulators, however, for which this adaptive timing step capability is not possible.
One type of simulator in which an adaptive timing step is not possible are those that rely on piecewise constant (PWC) table models to represent the simulation parameters. FIG. 1 illustrates a graphical representation of a PWC table model in which a change in current (ΔIR) is constant within the model and a change in voltage (ΔV) is constant for each step within the PWC model. In some cases, a change in current (ΔIR) may vary. PWC table models know current and voltage changes occurring at a particular circuit element at issue, but do not know the timing of the changes. PWC simulators solve for the time to the next step (h), or "segment boundary," in the PWC model. Once the time solving step is complete, the relevant values are then obtained directly from a PWC table model, i.e., these parameters remain constant between steps by definition. This model is in contrast to the above-described simulators in which a timing change is known and the current and voltage parameter values are simultaneously determined.
Although PWC approximation aids in rapid circuit simulation by limiting all circuit changes to predefined values at discrete points in time, this approach also makes it difficult to balance performance and accuracy available in other simulators because the integration scheme and simulation accuracy are essentially predefined in the PWC table models. That is, the simulation steps are determined solely by the table step size. To ensure accurate simulation with these simulators, the step sizes of the PWC model must be made fine enough to maintain accuracy over the worst case predicted simulation conditions. Unfortunately, this situation typically results in a very conservative level of accuracy for at least a portion of the simulation so as not to lose performance.
While it is possible to affect performance versus accuracy at a crude level in a PWC simulator, for example, through definition of a single optimized table step size during PWC model generation, it is not possible to implement, for example, an LTE relation to provide a controlled performance/accuracy balance. This inefficiency is particularly troublesome given the typical application for a PWC simulation approach—circuit tuning. Despite PWC simulators not providing the most efficient approach for transient simulation, their use remains advantageous because they provide the most efficient means of evaluating sensitivities for non-stiff systems. Unfortunately, as gradients are typically calculated many times inside a particular tuning loop, the effect on performance of a PWC simulation is significant.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need in the art for way of improving simulation performance for a PWC-based transient simulator.

Transient simulation using adaptive piecewise constant model

International Business Machines Corporation


A carrier powder is thermodynamically stable and conductivity can be easily provided thereto. A carrier powder includes an aggregate of carrier fine particles; wherein: the carrier fine particles include a chained portion structured by fusion bonding a plurality of crystallites into a chain; the carrier fine particles contain titanium oxide; and a ratio of anatase phase/rutile phase of the titanium oxide of the carrier powder is 0.2 or lower.

Patent Literature 1 discloses a metal oxide primary particle fusant having a chained or tufted structure, which is superior as a carrier for electrode catalyst of a solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell. Example 3 of Patent Literature 1 discloses a solution prepared by dissolving titanium octylate and niobium octylate in mineral turpentine, which is made into a mist and introduced in a chemical flame, thereby generating niobium-doped titanium oxide.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Carrier powder, method for producing same, carrier metal catalyst, and method for producing same


A system and method can detect and track targets in a scene of interest. Interframe differencing can be performed on sequential pairs of images of the scene and a Bayesian model analyzer can obtain an interframe difference density function. The interframe difference density function can be partitioned into static and mobile regimes to provide an objective function. A tracking module can construct a level set and geodesic active contours can be determined for the targets. An adaptive control can apply a spatial transformation and level set perturbation to the geodesic contours to oscillate the contours such that the level set can drop to a lower energy level. The expanded contour can be fed back for use in processing subsequent interframe differences. Target motion analysis data, such as bearing and bearing rate data, can be extracted from the geodesic active contours by applying geometric based transformations on the curve's coordinates.

The acquisition and tracking of targets in an image sequence presents a difficult and challenging image processing problem. To date, numerous approaches for automatic target tracking have been proposed. Many of these algorithms suffer from excessive constraints imposed on the motion of the targets being tracked and the need for an explicit motion model. Such constraints may include requirements for strong intensity boundaries or constraints on the target shape, e.g., the target acquisition may require the target to belong to a parameterized family of shapes.
Motion detection and target tracking can be of critical importance in conducting submarine operations, such as surface operations in high contact density environments, where collision avoidance is critical. Difficulties in detection and tracking can be acerbated by poor situational awareness brought about by the lack of a truly integrated approach in assimilating acoustic and non-acoustic data. Combat control operators may be unable to rapidly process multiple surface contacts while operating at periscope depth, which can compromise own ship safety and jeopardize mission success. The solution to these problems may require improved sensor information management and system automation at several levels.
Present submarine surface operations can require manual extraction and analysis of periscope video data, including numerous separate actions required to process a single periscope report. This processing can result in long time delays in situational assessments, which can increase own ship vulnerability to collision. Thus, the inability to rapidly extract and process tactical information from periscope observations in high contact density environments can compromise ship, and more importantly, crew safety.
Typically, when conducting operations at periscope depth, tactical information on visual contacts can be manually entered into the combat system for further analysis. Although contact bearing can be automatically extracted based on periscope data, it may be manually input into the combat system. Contact range and orientation may be both manually extracted and manually input. Automatic correlation with sonar contacts can be typically performed using simple bearing or bearing-range gating functions. While the traditional approach may be adequate for low contact density, blue water scenarios, for high contact density scenarios, as may be common in littoral environments, this approach can be too operator intensive, especially in poor visibility and close contact spacing. Shallow water operations can constrain own ship depth excursions while high contact density scenarios can constrain own ship course and speed maneuvers. These limitations can require faster reaction times for situational assessment and avoidance of collision.
In order to reduce risks when operating in such environments, successful approaches to target detection and tracking can include addressing boundary constraints in order to operate under visually impaired conditions, e.g., low-light, poor weather, etc. Additionally, the shape constraints can be addressed to avoid a plethora of false detections from common littoral features such as landmasses, bridges and other man-made structures. Further, in high-density contact management (HDCM) problems, a successful algorithm can include automatic handling of target occlusions that can occur when targets pass in front of each other.

Automatic target detection and motion analysis from image data


The present invention provides a differential gear which is capable of constructing an axle supporting structure at a low cost and obtaining a differential limiting effect without adding a special mechanism. In the present invention, each axle is coupled to the main body of the differential gear by regulating movement of each axle in the insertion direction and the counter-insertion direction by both a regulating member engaging with each axle and a regulating member interposed between the end surfaces of the axles. In this case, differential motion is achieved by both grooves provided in a pair of rotating bodies which rotates integrally with drive shafts and a plurality of balls 5 which roll along the grooves, and the differential motion is limited by the reactive force generated between each groove and the rolling bodies. Thus, a differential limiting effect is obtainable without adding a special mechanism.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a differential gear that allows the difference of rotation between the left and right driving wheels of an automobile.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A differential gear is generally known as an apparatus that allows the difference of rotation between the left and right driving wheels of a vehicle when it travels curves in a road. The differential gear includes a pinion gear interposed between a pair of bevel gears coupled to the left and right axles of the driving wheels. If the shaft of the pinion gear is given an external rotational force, the pinion gear rotates on its axis during differential operation so that the difference of rotation between the axles is allowed. Such a differential gear has been utilized mainly in small tracks. In the differential gear for small tracks, the left and right axles of a vehicle are first inserted into the coupling holes provided in the bevel gears. Then, regulating members for antislip-out are mounted on the end portions of the left and right axles to regulate the movement of the axles in a direction (hereinafter referred to as a counter-insertion direction) opposite to the direction in which each axle is inserted. Furthermore, the end surfaces of the left and right axles abut the shaft of the pinion gear interposed between the bevel gears, thereby regulating the movement of each axle in the insertion direction in which the axle is inserted. A structure such as this renders it unnecessary to provide a complicated bearing for regulating the axial movement of each axle and has the advantage that the support structure for each axle can be constructed simply and inexpensively. For this reason, this structure has been utilized mainly in vehicles where low fabrication cost is desired, such as small trucks.
During travel on a road, if only one of the driving wheels runs on a road surface whose friction coefficient is extremely small, such as a snowy road surface and a sandy road surface, the one driving wheel will skid due to differential motion and the entire driving force will be lost, and in some cases, the vehicle cannot escape from that place. Also, while traveling curves in a road at high speeds, when the weight of the inner wheel is extremely reduced due to the centrifugal force, there arises the problem that the wheel skids on the road and therefore a driving force for traveling curves in the road at high speeds is lost. Hence, some vehicles are provided with a mechanism which limits the differential motion between the driving wheels in such a circumstance. It is general to employ a pressure clutch disc or a viscous coupling as a differential limiting mechanism. However, the differential limiting mechanism employing a clutch disc or a viscous coupling is a device which is added separately to the differential gear, so the structure becomes complicated and expensive, and even if the axle supporting structure were constructed at a low cost, there would arise the problem that the cost would be increased as a result of the complicated structure of the differential limiting mechanism.


A semiconductor device includes a test target circuit; scan chains that enable scanning of the test target circuit; a first random number generation circuit that forms test patterns supplied to the scan chains; a second random number generation circuit that is provided separately from the first random number generation circuit; and a random number control circuit that uses the random numbers generated by the second random number generation circuit to change the random numbers generated by the first random number generation circuit. In a test of the semiconductor device, since a period of a clock of a scan chain does not need to be longer than that of a clock of a pattern generator, the number of clocks of the pattern generator needed for a test can be prevented from increasing. Accordingly, a test time can be prevented from increasing.

Among test methods of a semiconductor integrated circuit, there is a test method that is called a built-in self-test (BIST) method. According to the BIST method, in a semiconductor integrated circuit that includes a pseudo random number pattern generator and a code compressor, a pseudo random number pattern is applied to a test target logic, and a compression result of a response pattern and an expected value are compared with each other, thereby enabling self-diagnosis.
The BIST is configured to include a pseudo random number test pattern generator that applies a large amount of patterns to a test circuit that has been scan-designed and a code compressor that determines the good or not by compressing output response series and performing a comparison operation in only final codes. In general, in a pattern generator and a patter compressor, a linear feedback shift register is used. In the pattern generator that uses the linear feedback shift register, except for "0", all patterns can be pseudo-randomly generated.
As examples of a document that has described the BIST including the pattern generator, there are JP-A-Hei10(1998)-170609 and JP-A-2001-174515.
According to a technology that is described in JP-A-Hei10(1998)-170609, a test circuit and a test target LSI are formed. In this case, the test circuit has a plurality of shift registers that are configured to connect a test target circuit and a plurality of flip-flops. In the test target LSI, a random number pattern generator and a code compressor, each of which is composed of a linear feedback shift register, are incorporated. In this case, a clock frequency divider is incorporated, and a shift clock that is applied to the random number pattern generator is also applied to the clock frequency divider. The clock frequency divider changes a period of the shift clock to a period of ½, ¼,or ⅛ in accordance with signals input from a clock control pin, and applies the shift clock to the code compressor and the plurality of shift registers.
According to a technology that is described in JP-A-2001-174515, a flip-flop group in a logic integrated circuit is connected by scan chains, a random number generation circuit and a code compressor are incorporated in the logic integrated circuit, a clock signal is supplied to the flip-flop group, the random number generation circuit, and the code compressor, random number patterns that are sequentially generated in the random number generation circuit in synchronization with the clock signal are written in the flip-flop group and shift-scanned, and the result thereof is compressed by the code compressor. In addition, a portion or all of clock signals of latch elements that constitute the random number generation circuit are temporarily blocked to temporarily stop generation and output of random numbers, and an average value of a continuous length of 1 or 0 of random numbers that shift-scan the flip-flop group in the logic integrated circuit is increased.


In the method a graphical password is produced for an electronic system, such as a database, a computer program or Internet pages, the password being composed of various identifier images that are clearly distinguishable from each other. The system can be located in a terminal device used by the user, such as a mobile phone or an object separate from the terminal device, to which the user can be connected via the terminal device. For producing the password, the electronic system includes an image archive, in which various partial images representing certain subareas of a whole identifier image have been saved in electronic form. The partial images are divided into subgroups so that the partial images of the same subgroup always represent the same subarea of the identifier image. The identifier images belonging to the graphical password are composed by selecting partial images from different subgroups and by combining the selected partial images into one complete identifier image.

Passwords composed of alphanumeric characters are very commonly used for identifying users and for limiting rights of use. Passwords have a long history of use as a means for protecting computers, databases, telecommunication systems and Internet pages against unauthorized users.
However, the use of passwords entails many well-known problems. In order to help remembering the passwords, the users write the passwords on pieces of paper that are easy to find or use easily guessable letter combinations as passwords. In addition, in terminal devices that are only equipped with a numeric keypad, such as mobile phones, it is tempting to use only a combination of numbers as a password, because typing letters is laborious. For this reason, it is often fairly easy to break into systems protected with passwords in practice.
In some known user authentication systems, a password composed of alphanumeric characters has been replaced by a string of images, or a kind of graphical password. In one of such systems, a large number of different facial images of people have been saved in the database. Using facial images is based on the fact that research has shown that people easily remember a face they have seen. When a new graphical password is created for the user, the system or the user randomly selects from the image archive in the database five facial images, for example, and brings them to the display of the terminal device connected to the system to be viewed by the user. After this, the user is allowed to view the images for a suitable period of time, such as 3 to 5 minutes. After the viewing period, the user has been given a graphical password composed of a string of images, which in the future authenticates the user and thus provides access to the system.
When the user wants to sign into the system, the system asks the user to recognize the images belonging to the graphical password from the images produced on the display of the terminal device. The recognition takes place image by image so that the system produces a small number of images, such as nine, on the display, one of which is the "right" image belonging to the password and the rest eight are "wrong" images. The user must point out the right image from the group. After this, the system produces a new group of nine images on the display, among which there is again only one right image, which the user must point out. This is repeated as many times as there are images in the password. When all the images of the graphical password have been found, the system admits the user into the system. A graphical password provides the advantage that it is much easier for the user to remember a group of facial images than an alphanumeric character string. In practice, it is also impossible to write the graphical password on a piece of paper which could end up in the hands of unauthorized persons.
However, the use of a graphical password also entails some problems. To make sure that the graphical password would be clearly different for each user and would provide a sufficiently large number of alternative images when the user is signing into the system, there must be at least several hundreds, preferably thousands of different images saved in the system database. Maintaining such a large image archive naturally consumes a large amount of the system's memory capacity.

Method and system for producing a graphical password, and a terminal device


A system and method for providing status information during a power-on self-test routine. The system includes a basic input output system operable to execute the power-on self-test routine and output the status of the power-on self-test routine. The system includes an externally visible indicator such as a server chassis identify LED. A controller is coupled to the basic input output system and the externally visible indicator. The controller is operable to receive the status from the basic input output system, and to control the externally visible indicator in response to the status received from the basic input output system.

Servers are employed in large numbers for high demand applications such as network based systems or data centers. The emergence of the cloud for computing applications has increased the demand for data centers. Data centers have numerous servers that store data and run applications accessed by remotely connected computer device users. A typical data center has physical chassis structures with attendant power and communication connections. Each rack may hold multiple computing servers and storage servers. Each individual server is typically powered-up with a power-on self-test (POST) routine to begin operation. During a POST routine for a computer system, such as a processor core on a server, the basic input output system (BIOS) may provide status codes to an external controller, such as a baseboard management controller (BMC).
A computing server is typically designed to compute and share the amount of data accessed over the internet or the local network. Unlike a desktop computer, servers do not generally have an attached display that may display status information during the power up routine. When the server is powering-up, the user can only identify whether the server is powered on or off from a power LED on the exterior of the chassis.
In modern computers, non-volatile dual in-line memory modules (DIMM) integrate non-volatile NAND flash memory with dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and provide the additional advantage of handling data protection. Such memory modules can trigger a backup and preserve data when the electrical power fails to a server. In order to support this secure data protection function, the boot-up speed in the improved DIMMs will be much slower than in traditional DIMMs since additional time is required to charge the battery.
In servers with improved DIMMs, the user may be confused as to whether the server is starting properly due to the longer time needed to power-up. The user thus does not know whether the server is loading properly or has frozen, if the operating system does not start-up in an expected period of time. In the light of this situation, it would be helpful for the user to identify the status of the startup routine of the server.
In the typical design of modern server, a user is unable to determine the current BIOS POST progress status. Although many circuit boards include a BIOS POST LED that lights up when the POST routine is in process, this LED is currently contained within the interior of the server chassis. Thus, a user cannot determine whether the server is booting-up successfully or freezing while booting.
A chassis identify LED is incorporated in the general design of many server systems. A blue colored LED is used for the chassis identify LED. This LED is visible from the exterior of the server. The system administrator can remotely light the chassis identify LED to aid in visually locating the chassis. When the chassis identify LED is lit or flashing, it indicates the location of the chassis, or it indicates that the chassis management module has detected a condition in the chassis that requires attention. However, the chassis identify LED and other exteriorly visible LEDs on current servers are not used to indicate the status of startup routines.
Thus, there is a need for a system that provides an externally visible LED on a server chassis to indicate the BIOS status. There is another need for a system that uses existing indicator hardware to indicate the status of the BIOS POST routine. There is also a need for an indicator to be controlled to indicate different stages of a BIOS POST routine.

Method and system for indicating BIOS POST status from a chassis identifying LED


A non-volatile storage system includes a plurality of non-volatile storage elements arranged in two dimensional or three dimensional structures. The system applies programming to the non-volatile storage elements and performs verification of the programming. The verification includes performing a multi-strobe sensing operation to test for multiple data states while applying a common word line voltage.

The present technology relates to operation of memory devices.
A charge-trapping material can be used in memory devices to store a charge which represents a data state. The charge-trapping material can be arranged vertically in a three-dimensional (3D) stacked memory structure, or horizontally in a two-dimensional (2D) memory structure. One example of a 3D memory structure is the Bit Cost Scalable (BiCS) architecture which comprises a stack of alternating conductive and dielectric layers. A memory hole is formed in the stack and a NAND string is then formed by filling the memory hole with materials including a charge-trapping layer. A straight NAND string extends in one memory hole, while a pipe- or U-shaped NAND string (P-BiCS) includes a pair of vertical columns of memory cells which extend in two memory holes and which are joined by a bottom back gate. Control gates of the memory cells are provided by the conductive layers.
The memory cells can be used to store two ranges of charges and, therefore, the memory cell can be programmed/erased between two data states (an erased state and a programmed state). Such a flash memory device is sometimes referred to as a binary memory device.
A multi-state memory device stores multiple bits of data per memory cell by identifying multiple distinct valid threshold voltage distributions (or data states) separated by forbidden ranges. Each distinct threshold voltage distribution corresponds to a predetermined value for the set of data bits encoded in the memory device. For example, a memory cell that stores two bits of data uses four valid threshold voltage distributions. A memory cell that stores four bits of data uses sixteen valid threshold voltage distributions.
As the number of bits of data per memory cell (and, therefore, the number of valid threshold voltage distributions) are increased, the data capacity of a memory device increases. However, the time needed for programming also increases. For example, the greater the number of valid threshold voltage distributions, the greater the number of verify operations needed between program pulses.


According to one embodiment, a catalyst includes a metal ion, and an acyclic ligand having at least one aza-containing moiety, where the ligand is complexed to the metal ion.

Given the harmful consequences of global warming effects, there exists a current drive to develop carbon capture systems with the goal of reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) levels discharged into the atmosphere and the environment. A typical carbon dioxide capture/hydration method involves the absorption of generated CO2 into basic, aqueous solutions. The role of the base in the medium may be fulfilled by an organic amine base such as monoethanolamine (MEA). While efficient, this typical methodology contains inherently strong drawbacks that raise concern about its implementation in large scale productions. For instance, the basic solutions are expensive to use and regenerate, as the regeneration process often employs temperatures exceeding 100° C. to liberate the captured CO2. Additionally, the cost to a coal powered plant for driving this energy intensive process is about 20-30% of the total energy produced by the plant, which may translate into a substantial increase in energy cost for consumers.
A known, alternate approach to the use of basic solutions for CO2 capture is the employment of carbonate solutions. Unfortunately, the rate of absorption of CO2 by carbonate-based solution is orders of magnitude slower than their amine-based counterparts. However, the rate of CO2 absorption may be enhanced via the addition of catalysts such as carbonic anhydrase (CA). Carbonic anhydrase is an enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of CO2 into bicarbonate according to equation (1) below. The turnover rate for CA is about 106 mol−1 s−1, making it one of the fastest enzymes in biological systems.

Although the use of CA may result in an overall enhancement and improvement of the carbon capture process, the enzyme's function is greatly limited by the pH of the solution as well as the temperature of the environment. These are two issues that typically plague any process utilizing an enzyme as its main functional unit. Moreover, enzymes, in general, are also sensitive to highly saline or alkaline environments, where both denaturation and peptide hydrolysis may occur. For these reasons other viable systems are often sought for replacement.
Accordingly, zinc (II) cyclen (reproduced below), another active small molecule catalyst, is currently utilized in carbon capture systems, as it is capable of carrying out the hydration of CO2 in a manner similar to CA.
This small molecule mimic possesses characteristics that make it a superior candidate for use in industrial applications, such as its ability to withstand temperatures up to 120° C. and still retail catalytic activity upon cooling of the solution. However, while Zn2+ cyclen catalyzes the hydration of CO2 with a rate constant of about 103 mol−1 s−1, its catalytic profile still does not equal that of CA.

Acyclic aza-containing ligands for use as catalytic carbon capture systems

Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC


An improved bracket is utilized in a mounting system for a modular system connector used in connecting devices to cables such as network cable, coaxial cable, or fiber optic cable. The bracket has a pair of mounting portions for securing to an outlet box and a modular receiving portion for receiving a modular connector. The modular receiving portion is located in the outlet box and angled downward to allow the connection of the cable at such an angle and position that it can connect to a flush mounted device. Accordingly, the modular connector is not flush or projecting from the outlet such as in conventional devices and therefore is not required to be removed from its mounting in order to mount a flush mounted device such as a voice over IP telephone.

In the construction of both commercial and residential spaces, it is common to pre-wire spaces. Years ago, the pre-wiring was for telephones that were POTS (plain old telephone system) telephones. These previous systems did not have strenuous system requirements related to the interior wiring. In the current environment, locations are pre-wired for computers, telephone, video, and other items. The pre-wiring cables can include coaxial, network, such as CAT 5 (5th generation of twisted pair Ethernet cabling), or fiber optic cable. These cables typically extend from a distribution center at a central location having a rack with a series of boxes to an outlet having a modular jack. The cable is secured at both ends within a box and at a modular jack respectively. It is common to have cables terminated at locations that are not currently being used.
With certain systems and cables such as network cabling for computer systems/internet connectivity, the ends need to be held in a rigid location to maintain certification. The cable is secured go to a plate at the outlet that places the modular jack flush with the wall or projecting slightly outward.

Permanent terminations of network cables


A novel peptide adhesive motif is described that requires no receptor or cross-links to achieve maximal adhesive strength. Several peptides with different degrees of adhesive strength have been designed and synthesized using solid phase chemistries. All peptides contain a common hydrophobic core sequence flanked by positively or negatively charged amino acids sequences.

Most commercial adhesives contain chemicals that are harmful to the environment. The development of safe biobased adhesives holds the promise to attenuate these harmful effects. Strong protein (polypeptides) adhesives have been isolated from the phenol gland of mussels of the genus Mytilus (Papov et al., 1995; Waite, 1983; Yamamoto et al., 1983; 1990; 2000; Yu and Deming, 1998). Burzio and Waite (2000) showed that the adhesive strength of the principal mussel protein, mefp1, relies on DOPA-DOPA cross-links. The adhesive protein consists of tandem repeats of the consensus sequence AKPSYPPTYK (SEQ ID NO: 1) that have undergone posttranslational hydroxylation of the two tyrosines to DOPA.
These materials continue being studied since they can be prepared from a renewable resource, are biocompatible and biodegradable, and possess unique self-assembling properties.
Such protein adhesives have many potential applications, including tissue adhesives and bonding agents for implants and mucoadhesive drug delivery. On the other hand, abundant adhesive proteins are available from renewable resources and agricultural by-products such as soybean proteins. Developed in the 1920s, plant (soy) protein-based adhesives were used mainly in wood based products (e.g. particle board and plywood). Recently, modified soy protein-based adhesives have improved adhesive strength and water resistance (Hettiarachchy et al., 1995; Huang and Sun, 2000a,b; Sun and Bian, 1999; Kalapathy et al., 1995, 1996; Zhong et al., 2002). While the amino acid sequences of numerous adhesive proteins are known (Adachi et al., 2001; Nielsen, 1985; Staswick et al., 1981; 1984), the molecular interactions of protein binding on wood surfaces are poorly understood.
One molecular interaction is based upon the characteristic of the soy protein-based adhesives is the presence of long hydrophobic stretches of amino acids. Electrostatics do not appears to be important. The adhesive strength of wood composites bonded with isolated proteinaceous bioadhesives appears to be directly correlated to the number of the amine functional groups in the adhesive (Yamamoto et al., 1995). Also, peptides and protein-based polymers can be designed for a specific function using the biologically available native amino acids where the side chains are chemically modified with functional groups (Lee et al., 2001; van Hest and Tirrell, 2001; Yamamoto et al., 1995; Yamamoto et al., 1990).
What is needed is a rational design approach for making protein adhesives where the contributions of the different amino acid side chains, either singly or in groups, may be assayed for adhesive properties, secondary structure, and modes of action at the molecular level.

Kansas State University Research Foundation


A field memory self-refreshing device self-refreshes a field memory with a refresh clock signal derived from a reference clock and a self-refresh clock signal not derived from the reference clock. The field memory self-refreshing device has a reference clock stop determination circuit, a self-refresh clock generator and a refresh clock switching circuit. The reference clock stop determination circuit detects that input from the reference clock has stopped and outputs a reference clock stop signal when input from the reference clock stops. The self-refresh clock generator generates the basis for the self-refresh clock signal used for self-refreshing of the field memory when the reference clock stops. When the refresh clock switching circuit receives the reference clock stop signal from the reference clock stop determination circuit, the refresh clock switching circuit switches from a selection of the refresh clock signal based on the reference clock to a selection of the self-refresh clock signal.

The present invention relates to a field memory self-refreshing device.
Because dynamic random access memory (DRAM) devices store data as electrical charges in memory cells, the accumulated electrical charge may be decreased by leakage current or other factors. Thus, it is necessary to periodically refresh all memory cells within a regular time period by increasing the charge and thus rewritting the aforementioned memory cells.
A field memory which is able to serially read/write, based on a reference clock, data of a single field in a television or video tape recorder which has the same memory cell structure as a DRAM memory cell. However, when the picture is scanned to display images based on the data in the field memory, the memory cells of the field memory are accessed serially based on a reference clock, and the result is the same as when the field memory is automatically refreshed. For example, when a single field of an NTSC color television signal is stored in a field memory, the refresh operation occurs every 16.6 ms because the field frequency of the NTSC signal is 60 Hz. However, when the memory cell access time is two to three times slower than the reference clock cycle, the refresh period becomes longer, possibly longer than the data hold time limit of the memory cell, and a self-refresh device becomes necessary.
Conventional field memory self-refresh devices are able to store the data for a single horizontal scan line in a single line memory block. Therefore, a refresh clock which executes multiple refresh operations while accessing the data for a single line (the same row address) is generated according to the reference clock and inputted to the refresh counter. Furthermore, a row address strobe signal for latching the refresh address is generated based on the aforementioned reference clock, and the refresh address from the aforementioned refresh counter is latched.
However, because the self-refresh device of the aforementioned conventional field memory generates the refresh clock and the row address strobe signal based on the aforementioned reference clock, the refresh clock and row address strobe signal generation operations will terminate if the reference clock stops, and the information in the memory cell will be destroyed.

Field memory self-refreshing device utilizing a refresh clock signal selected from two separate clock signals


In the method of updating a unique call back number for a wireless unit having originated an emergency call, a unique call back number for the wireless unit is updated (e.g., changed or added to a list of unique call back numbers) based on a received unique call back number.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telecommunications, and more particularly, to wireless communications.
2. Description of Related Art
Emergency service calls in North America may be originated by dialing "9-1-1." Other parts of the world may use another abbreviated string of dialable digits, such as "6-1-1" in Mexico, for example. These abbreviated strings of digits are intended to simplify an emergency call for help with an easy to remember number. These emergency calls may be routed to a local Public Service Answering Point ("PSAP") call center to enable the initiation of an emergency response (e.g., police, fire department, road repair, and/or ambulance) while the caller is kept on the phone. If, however, the call is somehow disconnected or dropped before the emergency is completely reported or the responder arrives, the PSAP call center may be required to call back the originator.
Presently, a record for a "9-1-1" call originated through a wired network may include Automatic Line Identification ("ALI") or the telephone number of the access line from which the call originated. The directory number ("DN") or telephone number of a wireless subscriber may not, however, be associated with a physical line or wireless unit. Calls to a roaming wireless subscriber are routed to the wireless unit by way of the mobile station identification ("MSID"), as opposed to the mobile DN ("MDN"). Accordingly, performing an emergency call back to a wireless unit poses hurdles not encountered with landline devices, for example.
The MSID may typically be characterized as either a 10-digit mobile identification number ("MIN") or a 15-digit International Mobile Subscriber Identifier ("IMSI"). The IMSI may be programmed into a wireless unit or a Subscriber Identity Module ("SIM") card by the service provider with whom the wireless unit user has entered into a service agreement. Accordingly, the MSID may not necessarily be a dialable number.
The DN of a wireless unit is a dialable number. The DN is dialed by a caller and used to route a call through the network to the wireless subscriber's home system. At the subscriber's home system, the home location register ("HLR") contains the MSID associated with the subscriber's DN. The MSID, as opposed to the DN, may then be used to route the call through the network to the serving wireless system and page the subscriber. The subscriber's DN may be provided to the serving system from the SIM card through the wireless unit or by the home system to the serving system in a separate data file called the subscriber profile.
The rollout of systems employing a separate number for DN and MSID is a relatively recent occurrence for some wireless systems. Others have used this technique since their inception. Historically, the mobile identification number of a wireless unit was the same as the DN for some systems, particularly in systems supportive of TIA/EIA-41 standards, prior to implementing wireless number portability ("WNP") or thousands block number pooling ("TBNP") based on the Local Routing Number ("LRN") method and international roaming ("IR"). However, with WNP and TBNP, the MDN became "portable" or "poolable" from one service provider to another service provider. Since a MSID may not be portable or poolable, the recipient service provider may assign a new MSID for a subscriber with a ported-in or pooled MDN.
International roaming has also forced the separation of MSID and MDN. While the MIN is a 10-digit number modeled after the North American Numbering Plan's 10-digit MDN, other nation's carriers using a different directory numbering plan may not allow their subscriber's DN to be equivalent to the internationally recognized MIN format. Another standard MSID is the IMSI. It may be used in TIA/EIA-41 and GSM systems around the world. IMSI is a 15-digit non-dialable number based on ITU-T Recommendation E.212, and therefore, may not serve as a 10-digit MDN.
Historically, when the MDN was the same as the MIN, the MIN would be delivered to a PSAP call center and would be used as a call back number. With the separation of MIN and MDN as described above, it became necessary to deliver the MDN as a separate call back number to the PSAP call center, as well as the caller's MSID. There are certain problems, however, associated with implementing this solution. One issue is that the serving system may not have the caller's MDN, only the MSID, to present to the PSAP call center with the call. Some of the reasons for this relate to the way MSID-MDN separation has been implemented according to standards. Another reason is that the network interface used to deliver the call to the PSAP call center may not have the capacity to signal both the DN and MSID or, in some cases, even a full DN.
An old serving TIA/EIA-41 system may not support WNP, TBNP or IR. This means that the older serving system may be expecting the MIN and the MDN to be the same. The older system would not even know to look for a separate MDN in the subscriber's service profile (e.g., keyed on MIN, not MDN). With this limitation, these subscribers may not be allowed to use basic services, but they must be allowed to call for emergency services. As a result, a roamer who dials "9-1-1" while on an old system will have his or her call delivered to the PSAP call center with an MSID but no MDN. Accordingly, no call back is possible.
A newer serving system that is WNP and IR capable may not be able to deliver MDN to the PSAP call center. This could happen if the calling wireless unit is not registered with any service provider (e.g., there are mobile phones used for emergency calls only). These wireless units may be referred to as non-subscriber initialized ("NSI") phones. It is also possible for a subscriber to place an emergency call before the HLR has responded to the serving system with the subscriber's service profile containing the DN. Even if the PSAP call center has been provided with a working DN for callback, the callback to the DN will not go through if the subscriber has call forwarding service for all inbound calls or if the subscriber has a limited, pre-paid service and there is no remaining balance available to pay for the inbound callback from the PSAP call center. Further, if the callback number is to a visiting international roamer, the PSAP call center may need to place an international call. Some PSAP call center may not have the ability to callback an international number. There is also the risk of network congestion or delay in completing an international call that would be detrimental to handling an emergency in a timely manner. Some PSAP call centers may not even be equipped to place any outbound calls through separate, outbound administrative lines.
The call back DN for an international roamer would require the PSAP call center to place an international call to reach a subscriber in their local Emergency Service Zone ("ESZ"). This is not a practical, timely or sufficiently reliable solution for a PSAP call center that normally does not place international calls and for applications that may require immediate call back information for emergency purposes. In addition, the entire international MDN (up to 15 digits including a country code) may not be presented to the PSAP call center for call back if the PSAP call center only supports 10 digits.
It is also possible that the calling wireless unit is not registered with any service provider. As a result, there may be no DN associated with the wireless unit or no permanent MSID encoded in the wireless unit—such wireless units are referred to as NSI mobile phones, for example. This could be because (a) the NSI phone was never intended to be registered (there are such phones to use for emergency calls only), (b) the phone is new and has not yet been initialized by a service provider, (c) the subscription has expired and the NSI phone is no longer registered with a service provider or (d) the SIM card is lost, stolen, or simply never been inserted or been removed either advertently or inadvertently.
Some wireless units also support a removable User Identity Module ("R-UIM") or SIM that may contain the MSID and the DN. If the R-UIM or SIM are not in the phone, then it can still be used to place an emergency call. However, there is no DN or MSID known to the phone or the serving system to provide the PSAP call center as a call back number.
Every MS contains a unique mobile equipment identification number ("MEIN") or mobile terminal identifier ("MTID") encoded in the phone by the manufacturer. The MTID may be, for example, an electronic serial number ("ESN"), as used in ANSI/TIA/EIA-41 systems or an International Mobile Equipment Identity ("IMEI") used in GSM systems. The MTID is independent of the MSID and DN. The MTID is signaled over the air between the wireless unit and the base station of a wireless system with a call origination attempt or soon thereafter. For example, if not supplied with the call origination attempt, the MTID may be requested by the serving system.
Current standards for wireless emergency services call for delivering "9-1-1+ the last seven digits of the MTID" to the PSAP call center as the form call back number when the directory number assigned to the wireless subscriber is not available. While this may serve to notify the PSAP call center that no working callback number is available with the call, the string of "9-1-1+the last seven digits of the MTID (MTID7)" do not uniquely identify the call (i.e., many emergency calls may be identified by the same "9-1-1+MTID7) and is not a routable number through the network. The "9-1-1+ the last seven digits of the MTID" do not contain a complete MTID, and therefore is not unique.

Method of updating a unique call back number for a wireless emergency call