A method and apparatus are provided for printing using mixed printing devices. Images are formed by separating jobs, in a predetermined page order of the job, with color pages printed by a color MFP and black/white pages are printed by a black/white MFP. Thereafter, it is displayed that each sheaf of sheets is set in which bin of a collator. The collator mixes color pages with black/white pages. Further, each MFP prints bar codes representing job information. The collator reads the bar codes to mix the color pages with the black/white pages. Further, in mixing sheets corresponding to different plural jobs into one group, images outputted from a computer are printed by an MFP and images outputted from another computer are printed by another MFP. The collator reads the bar codes and mixes sheaves of the printed images into a group of the sheets.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image formation system having image formation apparatuses which are connected to a network.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, in a system having a color printer and a monochrome printer which are connected to a network, in a case where an user at a client computer causes the printers to perform a network print, it has been known that the user selects a printer among plural printers including the color printer and the monochrome printer to perform a print on a computer network. Although the color printer can perform the print in full color, in respect of printing speed and the cost of printing, the monochrome printer is superior to the color printer. Therefore, in a case where color originals coexist with black/white originals in a job, it is desirable that color pages are to be printed by the color printer and black/white pages are to be printed by the monochrome printer.
However, since sheets printed by the color printer and the monochrome printer have to be assorted in page order by the handwork of the user, there occurs an inconvenience situation. Particularly, in a case where a lot of sheets are to be printed, although processing time and the cost are remarkably exposed, required time for the handwork by the user becomes considerable. It is desired to save this waste of time.
Further, conventionally, in a system having the printers connected to the network, it has been known that the user at the client computer causes the printers to perform the network print. In a case where images of plural different formats held on the client computer are intended to be printed out, it is required to perform the print according to an application software adapted to each of the formats.
However, in a case where the images of plural different formats are intended to be made in a book as one material, after performing the print according to respective application softwares, the user has to assort sheets, on which the images are printed, in page order by the handwork.
Like this case, when the sheets, on which the images of plural jobs in different environments are printed out, are intended to be collected as one material, some portions which can not be processed on a computer are found. That is, the user has to deal with the printed-out sheets by the handwork while spreading the sheets on a desk. This situation is inefficient, therefore, it is also desired to save this waste of the work.
Also, in a case where sheets, on which images from plural client computers running with different OS are printed out, are intended to be collected as one material, there occurs the same problem as above.


A surface light source apparatus has a light emitting element, a light flux controlling member and a light diffusing member. The light flux controlling member has: a light control/emission surface that controls a traveling direction of light; a concavity that allows a main beam to be incident inside; and a back surface that extends in a radial direction from an opening rim part of the concavity and that allows sub-beams to be incident inside. One of a grid convex part which arranges a plurality of strips of convex parts in a grid pattern and a grid concave part which arranges a plurality of strips of concave parts in a grid pattern is formed in the back surface of the light flux controlling member. Surface roughening treatment is applied to one of the strips of the convex parts and the strips of the concave parts.

Conventionally, a surface light apparatus that uses a plurality of light emitting diodes ("LEDs") as point light sources is known as an illuminating means for a liquid crystal monitor used in a personal computer, television and so on.
The surface light source apparatus arranges a plurality of LEDs in a matrix shape on the back surface of a flat light flux controlling member having virtually the same shape as a liquid crystal panel of a liquid crystal display monitor. The surface light source apparatus allows light emitted from the LEDs to be incident inside the light flux controlling member, and controls the traveling direction of light when emitting light from the light flux controlling member. Then, the surface light source apparatus diffuses light emitted from the light flux controlling member by a light diffusing member, and then planarly illuminates the liquid crystal display panel from the back.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a planar light source from which light having transmitted through an optical element is emitted virtually vertically with respect to the plane surface. FIG. 1 schematically shows a surface light source apparatus that uses as light sources the LEDs disclosed in Patent Literature 1. As shown in FIG. 1, in surface light source apparatus 100, micro lens arrays 102 are arranged to meet a plurality of LEDs 101 on a one-by-one basis. Micro lens arrays 102 control the traveling directions of light emitted from LEDs 101, so that surface light source apparatus 100 emits light in the direction vertical to the plane surface of the substrate (i.e. upward).
Patent Literature 2 discloses a display apparatus in which a hollow part is formed inside a convex part of a lens case and in which void parts with inclining surfaces which reflect light emitted in the horizontal direction from a light emitting element, toward the convex parts, are formed outside the outer periphery of the hollow part.
FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a display apparatus disclosed in Patent Literature 2. As shown in FIG. 2, matrix display apparatus 130 aligns light emitting elements 132 in a matrix shape, on display panel substrate 131, and arranges lens cases 133 on the side of the surface of light emitting elements 132. Lens case 133 is mounted on display panel substrate 131 to be closely attached. In lens case 133, convex part 134 of virtually a semispherical shape is formed in the position meeting light emitting element 132, and hollow part 135 that includes light emitting element 132 inside convex part 134 is formed. The sidewalls of hollow part 135 takes in light emitted from light emitting element 132 by refracting the light such that the light travels toward the front side (i.e. upward in FIG. 2). The sidewalls of hollow part 135 are only the incidence planes for light emitted from light emitting element 132. Further, in lens case 133, void parts 136 are formed around hollow part 135 that includes light emitting element 132. Void parts 136 totally reflect light emitted in the horizontal direction from light emitting element 132 and taken in by lens case 133, toward the front side through inclining surfaces 137 of void parts 136 and insulating substrate 138. By this means, the luminance of illumination light in the front side of matrix display apparatus 130 increases.


A joint code-encoder-decoder design approach and circuit architecture design for (3,k)-regular LDPC coding system implementation. The joint design process relies on a high girth (2,k)-regular LDPC code construction. The decoder realizes partly parallel decoding. The encoding scheme only contains multiplications between sparse matrices and vector and multiplication between a very small dense matrix and vector.

Codes on graphs have become a topic of great current interest in the coding the-ory community. The prime examples of codes on graphs are low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes that have been widely considered as next-generation error-correcting codes for many real world applications in digital communication and magnetic storage. However, because of their distinct properties, LDPC codes decoder/encoder design and implementation are not trivial and design of these codes stills remain a challenging task. How well one attacks this problem directly determines the extent of LDPC application in the real world. As a class of LDPC codes, (3,k)-regular LDPC codes can achieve very good performance and hence are considered in this invention.
The main challenge when implementing the message passing algorithm for decoding LDPC codes is managing the passing of the messages. The realization of the message passing bandwidth results in very different and difficult challenges depending on whether all the messages are passed in fully parallel or partly parallel manner. By fully exploiting the parallelism of the message passing decoding algorithm, a fully parallel decoder can achieve very high decoding throughput but suffers from prohibitive implementation complexity (see, e.g., A. J. Blanksby and C. J. Howland, "A 690-mW 1-Gb/s 1024-b, rate-½ low-density parity-check code decoder", IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 37, pp. 404–412 (March, 2002)). Furthermore, the large number of interconnection may limit the speed performance and increase the power dissipation. Thus the fully parallel design strategy is only suitable to short code length scenarios.
In partly parallel decoding, the computations associated with a certain number of variable nodes or check nodes are time-multiplexed to a single processor. Meanwhile, since the computation associated with each node is not complicated, the fully parallel interconnection network should be correspondingly transformed to partly parallel ones to achieve both the communication complexity reduction and high-speed partly parallel decoding. Unfortunately, the randomness of the Tanner graph makes it nearly impossible to develop such a transformation. In other words, an arbitrary random LDPC code has little chance to be suited for high-speed partly parallel decoder hardware implementation.
Furthermore, to perform LDPC encoding, the generator matrix is typically used, which has quadratic complexity in the block length. How to reduce the encoding complexity for the practical coding system implementation is another crucial issue.
What is needed is new joint code-encoder-decoder design methodology and techniques for designing practical LDPC coding system, that overcomes the limitations of the conventional code first scheme and/or designs.

LDPC code and encoder/decoder regarding same


Shifts in the apparent charge stored on a floating gate of a non-volatile memory cell can occur because of coupling of an electric field based on the charge stored in adjacent floating gates. The shift in apparent charge can lead to erroneous readings by raising the apparent threshold voltage, and consequently, lowering the sensed conduction current of a memory cell. The read process for a selected memory cell takes into account the state of one or more adjacent memory cells. If an adjacent memory cell is in one or more of a predetermined set of programmed states, a compensation current can be provided to increase the apparent conduction current of the selected memory cell. An initialization voltage is provided to the bit line of the programmed adjacent memory cell to induce a compensation current between the bit line of the programmed adjacent memory cell and the bit line of the selected memory cell.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to technology for non-volatile memory.
2. Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor memory has become more popular for use in various electronic devices. For example, non-volatile semiconductor memory is used in cellular telephones, digital cameras, personal digital assistants, mobile computing devices, non-mobile computing devices and other devices. Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM), including flash EEPROM, and Electrically Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM) are among the most popular non-volatile semiconductor memories.
EEPROM and EPROM are non-volatile memories that can be erased and have new data written or "programmed" into their memory cells. Both utilize a floating gate in a transistor structure that is positioned above and insulated from a channel region in a semiconductor substrate. The floating gate is positioned between the source and drain regions. A control gate is provided over and insulated from the floating gate. The threshold voltage of the transistor is controlled by the amount of charge that is retained on the floating gate. For a given level charge on the floating gate, there is a corresponding threshold voltage that must be applied to the control gate before the transistor is turned "on" to permit conduction between its source and drain regions.
The floating gate can hold a range of charges and therefore, can be programmed to any threshold voltage level within a threshold voltage window. The size of the threshold voltage window is delimited by the minimum and maximum threshold levels of the device, which in turn correspond to the range of the charges that can be programmed onto the floating gate. The threshold voltage window generally depends on the memory device's characteristics, operating conditions, and history. Each distinct, resolvable threshold voltage level range within the window can, in principle, be used to designate a definite memory state of the cell.
Some EEPROM and flash memory devices have a floating gate that is used to store two ranges of charges and, therefore, the memory cell can be programmed/erased between two states (an erased state and a programmed state). Such a flash memory device is sometimes referred to as a binary flash memory device.
A multi-state flash memory device is implemented by identifying multiple distinct allowed/valid programmed threshold voltage ranges separated by forbidden ranges. Each distinct threshold voltage range corresponds to a predetermined value for the set of data bits encoded in the memory device.
When programming an EEPROM, such as a NAND flash memory device, typically a program voltage is applied to the control gate and the bit line is grounded. Electrons from the channel are injected into the floating gate. When electrons accumulate in the floating gate, the floating gate becomes negatively charged and the threshold voltage of the memory cell is raised so that the memory cell is in a programmed state. More information about programming can be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/379,608, titled "Self-Boosting Technique," filed on Mar. 5, 2003 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/629,068, titled "Detecting Over Programmed Memory," filed on Jul. 29, 2003, both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Shifts in the apparent charge stored on a floating gate can occur because of coupling of an electric field based on the charge stored in adjacent floating gates. This floating gate to floating gate coupling phenomena is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,867,429, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. An adjacent floating gate to a target floating gate may include neighboring floating gates that are on the same bit line, neighboring floating gates on the same word line, or neighboring floating gates that are on both a neighboring bit line and neighboring word line, and thus, across from each other in a diagonal direction.
The floating gate to floating gate coupling phenomena occurs most pronouncedly, although not exclusively, between sets of adjacent memory cells that have been programmed at different times. For example, a first memory cell can be programmed to add a level of charge to its floating gate that corresponds to a set of data. Subsequently, one or more adjacent memory cells are programmed to add a level of charge to their floating gates that correspond to a set of data. After one or more of the adjacent memory cells are programmed, the charge level read from the first memory cell may appear to be different than when it was programmed because of the effect of the charge on the adjacent memory cell(s) being coupled to the first memory cell. The coupling from adjacent memory cells can shift the apparent charge level being read from a selected memory cell by a sufficient amount to lead to an erroneous reading of the data stored.
The effect of the floating gate to floating gate coupling is of greater concern for multi-state devices because in multi-state devices the allowed threshold voltage ranges and the forbidden ranges (range between two distinct threshold voltage ranges that represent distinct memory states) are narrower than in binary devices. Therefore, floating gate to floating gate coupling can result in memory cells being shifted from an allowed threshold voltage range to a forbidden range.
As memory cells continue to shrink in size, the natural programming and erase distributions of threshold voltages are expected to increase due to short channel effects, greater oxide thickness/coupling ratio variations and more channel dopant fluctuations, reducing the available separation between adjacent states. This effect is much more significant for multi-state memories than binary memories using only two states. Furthermore, the reduction of the space between word lines and between bit lines will also increase the coupling between adjacent floating gates.
Thus, there is a need to have a non-volatile memory that effectively manages the aforementioned problems of floating gate coupling.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Non-volatile memory read operations using compensation currents


A program creation system is described which generates sets of subprograms for respective input-output examples. The program creation system then groups the sets into partitions by performing an intersection operation. According to one aspect, the program creation system generates subprograms so as to exclude tokens that are not represented by the input strings of the input-output examples. According to another aspect, the program creation system first generates the subprograms without attempting to generate loop-type expressions. If this operation produces unsatisfactory results, the program creation system repeats its processing, this time including loop-type expressions. According to another aspect, the program creation system performs the grouping operation using an expedited graph-intersection operation. According to another aspect, the program creation system ranks programs (which are created based on the results of the grouping operation) based on the presence of preferred features found in the programs.

A user of a spreadsheet system may encounter a situation in which is it desirable to transform a large amount of data from one form to another. For example, consider a user who receives a list of customer addresses. The user may wish to transform the addresses into a uniform format. For small data sets, a user may opt to perform this transformation in a manual manner. However, this manual approach is not feasible for larger data sets.
Spreadsheet systems provide various tools to assist the user in performing the type of transformations described above. For example, a spreadsheet system may allow a user to write custom macro programs to perform string transformation tasks. However, this solution is not fully satisfactory. Many end-users have little or no formal experience in creating programs. Hence, a user may be dissuaded from even attempting to create a macro program. If the user does make such an attempt, the user may find the task confusing and burdensome, contributing to overall poor user experience. Further, the user's needs may change over time, requiring manual modification of a macro program.

Expedited techniques for generating string manipulation programs


An apparatus, method and computer program product for supporting dynamic multipoint communication configuration stations include defining at least two different communication transmission sets for cellular-based communication between base station and terminal, wherein the communication transmission sets are related to a downlink reference signal configuration; and assigning a communication transmission set for use in a current transmission related to the cellular-based communication.

Prior art which is related to this technical field can e.g. be found by the technical specifications of the 3GPP 36 series standard. Particular reference is made to TS 36.814 (current version: 9.0.0) of the 3GPP.
The following meanings for the abbreviations used in this specification apply:    3G: 3rd Generation    3GPP: 3rd Generation Partnership Project    CoMP: Coordinated Multi-Point Transmission    CRS: Common Reference Symbols    CSI-RS: Channel State Information Reference Symbols    CQI: Channel Quality Indicator    DCI: Downlink Control Information    DL: Downlink    DM RS: Demodulation Reference Symbols    DRS: Dedicated (UE-Specific) Reference Symbols    eNB: evolved Node B (base station)    ID: Identifier    LTE: Long Term Evolution    LTE-A: Long Term Evolution Advanced    PDCCH: Physical Downlink Control Channel    PDSCH: Physical Downlink Shared Channel    PMI: Precoding Matrix Indicator    RI: Rank Indicator    RRC: Radio Resource Control    RS: Reference Signal    TM: Transmission Mode    TX: Transmit (ter)    UE: User Equipment
Recently, in LTE-Advanced related standardization meetings it is under discussion whether data transmission from multiple cells towards one user should be supported. Such data transmission from multiple cells towards one user is also called Coordinated Multipoint Transmission (CoMP).
Since the present discussion merely focuses on rather general aspects, there is a need for detail solutions related to the technical implementation.

Supporting dynamic multipoint communication configuration


A method performs biometric verifications to authenticate the identification of users using a central biometric authority (CBA). This allows parties to an electronic transaction to be assured of each other's identity. Specifically, at the sender side, a first message to a receiver is generated, wherein the first message includes a message text and a unique message identifier (UMI). At the sender side, a second message concerning a posting to the CBA is also generated, wherein the second message includes the sender's biometric sample, the UMI, and the sender's submission profile record. At a receiver side, it is decided that if a receiver wishes to verify the sender's identity and if so, the first message is automatically verified. At the receiver side, a third message concerning a receiver's posting to the CBA is issued, the third message including only the UMI, as received from the sender side. Finally, at the CBA, a reply to the third message is provided, the reply including the sender's verification result.

It is known that a public/private key infrastructure is (PKI) is an excellent mechanism to ensure that data remains confidential and unchanged during transit over insecure networks such as the Internet. The PKI is based on the premise that a user has two mathematically related numerical keys, a private key and a public key, which serve to encrypt data. It is possible to secure a message by encrypting it with a sender's private key and a receiver's public key, which is obtained from a repository known as a certificate authority (CA). The receiver can read the message by decrypting it using his private key and the sender's public key.
The keys used in the PKI are very long; and, the longer they are, the more secure the system is. It is not feasible, however, for a user to remember or input a long key, e.g., 64 character or longer, when the user wants to send or receive a message. To prevent unauthorized users from accessing private keys and thus falsely originating, reading or changing messages, private keys are usually protected by a secret code.
Secret codes such as a personal identification number (PIN) and a password can be compromised through the use of various techniques well known in the art. For instance, people often choose easy to remember pins and passwords, which also make them easy to guess. Birthdays, children's names and social security numbers are among the most commonly chosen. To combat this, many organizations require that passwords be changed often, and many PINs are assigned to is prevent easily guessed PINs. Unfortunately, many times this leads to people writing down the secret information, making it accessible to fraud perpetrators.
Shoulder surfing is also a known technique that can be used to compromise secret codes. This simply involves a fraud perpetrator watching over the shoulder of the person entering the code as a secret code is entered.
Also brute force attacks can compromise secret codes. This method simply involves rapidly entering many codes, until the secret one is stumbled upon. Long codes, mixing letters and numbers and frequent changing of codes can prevent the success of brute force attempts. Additionally, systems locking up after a predefined number of incorrect password attempts can prevent the success of brute force attacks.
If the private key is compromised by one of the various techniques, then it is no longer possible to ensure that information is kept confidential and unchanged. Therefore, the reliability of the PKI depends on any method used to secure the private key.
Various techniques have been suggested to enhance the performance of the PKI, such as securing the private key with biometrics instead of secret codes. Biometrics are more secure than secret codes; and therefore the security of the PKI can be enhanced. Biometrics are technologies that verify identity based upon one's physiological or behavioral characteristics, such as one's fingerprint, eye scan, voice print, hand geometry, facial image or signature. Biometrics can verify one's identity by either performing a one-to-one comparison to authenticate a submission or by performing a one-to-many comparison to identify one's submission out of a database containing a plurality of biometrics samples. A biometric sample is either the direct information obtained from the user, e.g., fingerprint, hand image, voice print, facial image, handwriting sample or facial image, or processed form of such information. For example, a biometric sample includes one's fingerprint and a minutia template based on one's fingerprint. By securing the private key with a biometric, the sender can assure the integrity of the private key so that a message using it will not be fraudulently originated. Likewise, a receiver protecting his private key with a biometric can rest assured that no one will be able to read the message that is intended for his eyes only. Only after a local verification of the biometric submission releases a local private key, the message can be originated or read.
However, even with a biometrically protected private key, neither party is assured that biometric authentication is processed on the other end. That is, the sender is not assured that the intended receiver is reading the message and the receiver is not assured that the intended sender sent the message. For example, neither party is assured that the other party uses a biometric, instead of a secrete code to protect the private key. There are myriad problems with one party relying on the other to use a biometric system to secure the private key. Neither party can be certain that other party has installed a biometric system on its computer; nor can they be certain that the other party's private key is securely protected by the biometric.
Furthermore, there is no quality control over enrollment. That is, there is no way to ensure that samples submitted during enrollment belong to a claimed enrollee. And a fake sample could have been enrolled. Additionally, neither party has any control over the environment of other party's computer. In other words, there could be a network of supercomputers working to hack into the biometrically protected key. Dozens of attempts might be made before a sample is falsely verified.
If the sender and the receiver know with certainty that the other's private keys are being secured with a biometric, and if they could receive, interpret and rely on a biometric verification score, then the process would be secure. In addition, there are different disciplines of biometrics (e.g., voice verification, finger scanning, iris scanning, retina scanning, hand geometry), and many vendors within each of these disciplines, each having its own accuracy levels. There is currently no infrastructure for interpreting the verification score of each of these vendors. As such, if the receiver learns that the sender is verified on a biometric system from a vendor with a score of 75, they would have difficulty in determining if this was a good match. Finally, there is no way for a sender or receiver to ensure that the results of a biometric comparison are in fact legitimate. Because in the conventional approach all biometric verifications are performed on local machines, there is no assurance that the biometric verification is processed as it should.
A revocation list used in the PKI is a list of certificates that have been compromised and are thus no longer valid. The fundamental problem with relying solely on this list to confirm that a certificate is being used by a legitimate user is that revocation lists are not immediately updated. The moment a private key is compromised it does not appear on the revocation list. No one, with the exception of the fraud perpetrator, knows that a compromise has taken place and certainly he or she will not notify the CA to add that certificate to the revocation list. In addition, once is the certificate is reported as compromised, there is a time lag before the distributed lists are updated. The real value of a revocation list is to prevent repeated fraud to be perpetrated on the same certificate.
Without the CBA infrastructure, individual institutions will have to maintain local databases of biometric enrollments. There are a number of problems with this scenario. First, there is a large overhead for a typical company to create and maintain a biometric enrollment for each customer. This includes the cost and time to properly identify each enrollee, train each enrollee on proper system use, etc. Second, customers may trust a company enough to buy from them, but may not want to enroll in their biometric system. Third, there are a number of bills pending relating to the use of such local databases. Companies risk losing the right to use their database in the manner they intend, or having a databases or related processes that do not comply with new laws. There could be substantial overhead in restructuring databases to comply with new laws. There are liability issues with maintaining databases of enrollments. It is preferable for companies avoid such risks and not maintain an internal biometric database.

Identity verification method using a central biometric authority


Computing systems and methods to producing a reverse time migration model dip-guided image using processed vertical seismic profile data are provided. In one embodiment, vertical seismic profile data for a subsurface geological formation is obtained. One or more dip estimates corresponding to the subsurface geological formation are also obtained. One or more model dip-guided reverse time migration imaging conditions are determined and applied to the obtained vertical seismic profile data to produce the processed vertical seismic profile data.

In situations involving complex structures and steeply dipping reflectors often found in complicated subsurface geological formations such as those in and below salt flanks, current ray-based migration methods have significant limitations due to waveform multi-pathing, including caustic and prismatic waves. Reverse time migration (RTM), however, can better handle those complicated wavepaths by correlating wave fields that are properly propagated forward in time for sources and backward in time for receivers. Two drawbacks of RTM when applied to a surface seismic profile (SSP) are: (1) imaging artifacts from backscattering; and (2) unbalanced amplitudes. Those undesirable effects can be removed or reduced by applying: (1) a Laplacian filter; (2) an imaging condition; and (3) an obliquity compensation factor.
For a vertical seismic profile (VSP), RTM imaging artifacts may also arise from limited aperture and data coverage. Such artifacts cannot be eliminated using the above-mentioned filters since one cannot compute such filters from VSP data alone. To illustrate, FIG. 1A shows a 2-D VSP survey and corresponding survey geometry, and FIG. 1B shows an RTM image computed using synthetic data that was generated using the survey geometry of FIG. 1A. In FIG. 1A, the "X" at the surface (zero depth) represents the source position and the receivers are distributed directly below in a vertical borehole from 1200 meters to 2700 meters. The heavy bars on the layer (acoustic impedance) boundaries indicate the portions of those boundaries for which data can be collected for the given source/receivers configuration. In FIG. 1B, the image area bounded by the superposed quadrilateral represents the portion of the subsurface formation that the VSP data can cover. Thus, all the plot features outside that region are considered imaging artifacts that should be suppressed. In addition, even within the targeted (i.e., interior) region, there are other artifacts (e.g., "swing" artifacts) that do not correspond to real spatial reflectors.

Reverse time migration model dip-guided imaging


The present invention provides a novel cellulase composition obtainable from Bacillus sp. CBS 670.93. A preferred cellulase has a calculated molecular weight of approximately 50 kD, a calculated isoelectric point of about 4 and a pH optimum on CMC of about 6-10 at 40.degree. C. and about 7 at 60.degree. C.

A. Technical field
The present invention relates to novel cellulase compositions. The invention further relates to novel cellulase compositions, preferably derived from Bacillus sp. The present invention further relates to the use of the novel cellulase in compositions recognized in the art as advantageously having cellulase added thereto, including, as an additive in a detergent composition, in the treatment of cellulose containing fabrics, in the treatment of pulp and paper and in the treatment of starch for the production of high fructose com-syrup or ethanol.
B. State of the Art
Cellulases are enzymes which are capable of the hydrolysis of the 1,4 .beta.-D-glucosidic linkages in celluloses. Cellulolytic enzymes have been traditionally divided into three major classes: endoglucanases, exoglucanases or cellobiohydrolases and .beta.-glucosidases (Knowles, J. et al. (1987), TIBTECH 5, 255-261); and are known to be produced by a large number of bacteria, yeasts and fungi.
Primary among the applications that have been developed for the use of cellulolytic enzymes are those involving degrading (wood)cellulose pulp into sugars for (bio)ethanol production, textile treatments like `stone washing` and `biopolishing`, and in detergent compositions. Thus, cellulases are known to be useful in detergent compositions for removing dirt, i.e., cleaning. For example, Great Britain Application Nos. 2,075,028, 2,095,275 and 2,094,826 illustrate improved cleaning performance when detergents incorporate cellulase. Additionally, Great Britain Application No. 1,358,599 illustrates the use of cellulase in detergents to reduce the harshness of cotton containing fabrics.
Another useful feature of cellulases in the treatment of textiles is their ability to recondition used fabrics by making their colors more vibrant. For example, repeated washing of cotton containing fabrics results in a greyish cast to the fabric which is believed to be due to disrupted and disordered fibrils, sometimes called "pills", caused by mechanical action. This greyish cast is particularly noticeable on colored fabrics. As a consequence, the ability of cellulase to remove the disordered top layer of the fiber and thus improve the overall appearance of the fabric has been of value.
Despite knowledge in the art related to many cellulase compositions having some or all of the above properties, there is a continued need for new cellulases having a varying spectrum of characteristics which are useful in, for example, treating textiles, as a component of detergent compositions, in the treatment of pulp and paper, and in the conversion of biomass. Applicants have discovered certain cellulases which have such a complement of characteristics and which are useful in such known applications of cellulase.

Alkaline cellulase and method of producing same


It is related to a mode S secondary surveillance radar system for carrying out a target (aircraft) surveillance with a high reliability, where a surveillance processor 39 produces a detection report of a acquisition surveillance by a scan of an antenna thereafter by adopting the mode A code information with coinciding code data among mode A code information acquired by scans of a plurality of times. In this way, the efficient utilization of RF channels during the roll-call period can be maintained while improving the reliability of a target detection report.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement of a mode S secondary surveillance radar system capable of detecting aircraft mounted with a mode S transponder or an ATCRBS transponder.
2. Description of the Related Art
Targets (aircrafts) of a secondary surveillance radar system (referred hereafter as SSR) of a ground station include an aircraft mounted with an ATCRBS transponder and an aircraft mounted with a mode S transponder.
The SSR for detecting the ATCRBS transponder and the mode S transponder carries out the surveillance in which a beam dwell time T is divided into a plurality of sweeps (four sweeps, for example), and each sweep is divided into an all-call period and a roll-call period.
For example, as described in Takashi Yoshida (ed.): "Revised Radar Technology", the Institute of Electronic, Information and Communication Engineers, published Oct. 1, 1996, in the all-call period, a mode A/C specialized transaction detecting an aircraft mounted with the ATCRBS transponder and a mode S specialized collective transaction detecting an aircraft mounted with the mode S transponder will be carried out. In the roll-call period, the mode S individual interrogation (roll call) and reply will be carried out by such a schedule that the transaction for respective targets will not overlap, according to a position information (range, azimuth) and a mode S address of targets (aircrafts) obtained from replies of the transponders to the mode S specialized collective interrogation.
Note that the beam dwell time T is a time corresponding to an angle range based on a rotational speed of an antenna that is scanning in a direction of the SSR (azimuth) and a transmission beam width, which is defined uniquely.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration of the conventional mode S secondary surveillance radar system and a positional relationship with a target (aircraft) to be detected by the mode S secondary surveillance radar system, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a concrete configuration of a processor 3 shown in FIG. 1.
As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the mode S secondary surveillance radar system (ground station) on the ground which is a sensor comprises an antenna 1, a transceiver 2 connected to the antenna 1 and formed by a transmission and reception switch 21, a transmitter 22 and a receiver 23, and a processor 3 with a built-in computer connected to the transceiver 2, where the transceiver 2 and the processor 3 constitute an interrogator.
The processor 3 comprises a transmission controller 31 connected to the transmitter 22, a mode S reply processor 32 and an ATCRBS reply processor 33 connected to the receiver 23, a channel manager 34 connected to the mode S reply processor 32 and the transmission controller 31, a surveillance processor 35 connected to the channel manager 34, the transmission controller 31, the mode S reply processor 32 and the ATCRBS reply processor 33, and a timing signal generator 36 for generating and supplying timing signals for scan operations in a direction of the antenna 1 (azimuth), the interrogation transmission, etc., in order to realize an overall control of a system of the processor 3 as a whole.
On the other hand, the transponder of the target (aircraft) comprises an antenna 4 for receiving a interrogation transmitted from the antenna 1 of the ground station (mode S secondary surveillance radar system) and transmitting a reply to that interrogation, i.e. a mode S reply or a mode A/C reply, towards the ground station, a transceiver 5 connected to the antenna 4, and a signal processor 6 connected to the transceiver 5, where the transceiver 5 and the signal processor 6 constitute a transponder.
Note that, an own site ID (identification code) that is necessary in decoding the reply from the target is set in advance in the mode S reply processor 32 of the processor 3, and parameters such as PR (reply probability), a target information obtained by a plurality of scans when a so called target information such as a range (distance), an azimuth and an altitude regarding the target position is obtained over a plurality of scans, and a parameter to become a reference for judging whether it is within a correlated range among scans, i.e. a correlation value are set in advance and stored in the surveillance processor 35.
The channel manager 34 allocates the all-call period TA and the roll-call period TR in the beam dwell time T according to signals from the timing signal generator 36.
The transmission controller 31 generates the mode S specialized collective interrogation and the mode A/C specialized interrogation of the reply probability 1 in the all-call period according to the own site ID and the PR value supplied from the surveillance processor 35, and transmits them towards the target (aircraft) from the antenna 1 through the transmitter 22 and the transmission and reception switch 21.
Then the collective interrogation (of the mode S specialized one plus the mode A/C specialized one) from the ground station is transmitted towards the target mounted with the mode S transponder, and the reply to that transmitted collective interrogation from the transponder is received through the antenna 1 and the transmission and reception switch 21 of the ground station, digitized by the receiver 23 which has amplification, detection and quantization functions, and supplied to the mode S reply processor 32 and the ATCRBS reply processor 33.
The mode S reply processor 32 carries out the preamble detection and the message decoding for the received reply X, estimates a distance to the target and a direction of the target from the position information of the target that can be obtained from the reception timing of the reply X, judges whether the own site ID and the PI (Parity/Interrogator ID) field coincide or not according to a mode S address contained in the reply X, and supplies the reply X for which the own site ID and the PI field coincide to the channel manager 34 and the surveillance processor 35 as a processing target reply. Here, data for which the own site ID and the PI field do not coincide, i.e. non-coincident reply data, will be discarded as not a processing target.
Then, at the surveillance processor 35 which received a supply of the reply of the target which is judged as the processing target at the mode S reply processor 32, a detection report regarding that target is produced, registered and outputted, for those replies for which the mode S all-call coincides among the replies obtained in the same direction and the distance and the direction are within predicted ranges in the previous scan of the antenna 1 and which are within the correlated range that is set in advance. Here, the reply data which are not correlated will be discarded.
Note that, at the surveillance processor 35, if there exists targets for which the mode S address overlaps among targets within the control coverage area controlled by that ground station, in relation to the replies supplied from the mode S reply processor 32, then a case where the air traffic control cannot be carried out properly as one of them is false may occur, so that the acquiring by the all call is carried out again for all the overlapping targets in the case where the mode S address overlaps.
Then, the surveillance processor 35 outputs a command to the channel manager 34, such that the individual interrogation (roll-call) containing a command of a lockout for not responding to the all call will be scheduled, in relation to the target of the reply which is judged as correlated.
The channel manager 34 that received the command carries out the scheduling such that the transaction will not overlap, sequentially from the target (aircraft) for which the distance is farther, for the purpose of the effective utilization of the RF channels.
In the roll-call period, the selective interrogation is scheduled and its reply is received in order to acquire the mode A code information and the altitude information along with the mode S address, for the target acquired by the all call.
For the individual reply of the mode A code information and the altitude information received, the mode S reply processor 32 carries out the preamble detection and the message decoding, sets the mode S address acquired by the earlier all call as a predicted mode S address, and judges whether the predicted mode S address and the mode S address acquired by the roll call coincide or not.
Here, the mode S reply processor 32 supplies the reply for which the mode S address coincides as a processing target to the surveillance processor 35, so that the surveillance processor 35 initially acquisition a target (aircraft) through the correlation processing, and then carries out the production, registration and output of the target detection report according to the acquired mode A code information at the roll-call, and stores code data of that acquired mode A code information into a memory such as RAM. Note here that data of the reply which is not correlated will be discarded as not a processing target.
Note that the mode A code information stored in a memory at the surveillance processor 35 is unique to a flight of the target (aircraft), so that usually it will not be changed while the surveillance and the control of that target are to be continued.
For this reason, in the continued surveillance of the target by the scanning of the antenna 1 after the mode A code information is acquired by the selective interrogation soon after the initial acquiring, the transaction for acquiring the mode A code information will be omitted in order to increase the utilization efficiency of the RF channels.
Consequently, in the production of the target detection report at the scan after the initial acquiring, the detection report for that target is produced by reading out the mode A code information acquired soon after the initial acquiring and stored in a memory whenever necessary.
However, the mode A code information of the target will be acquired again, stored in a memory and utilized by reading it out, when acquired again soon after the coast occurs or when the flight status (FS) of the target changes, for example.
As described above, the mode A code information unique to the flight of the target (aircraft) is usually changed very rarely, so that in the conventional mode S secondary surveillance radar system, the interrogation for acquiring the mode A code information will be omitted in the selective interrogation at the scan of the antenna 1 after the initial acquisition after acquired the mode A code information.
Also as described above, in the conventional mode S secondary surveillance radar system, the mode A code information acquired first that target is used repeatedly in the target detection report production by the scan of the antenna 1 after the initial acquisition, so that if the code data of the mode A code information acquired first contain erroneously converted characters or errors due to some other causes, this erroneous mode A code information would be adopted again, such that there arises a possibility that the air traffic control will not be carried out properly.

Mode S secondary surveillance radar system


A method for identification of a standard text token in a dictionary that corresponds to a non-standard token identified in text includes identification of a first standard token that is associated with the non-standard using a predetermined conditional random field (CRF) model and identification of a second standard token that is associated with the non-standard token using a spell checker. The method further includes identification of noisy channel scores using data from the CRF model and the spell checker for the first standard token and the second standard token, respectively. The method further includes presentation of one of the first and second standard tokens having the greatest identified noisy channel score to a user with a user interface device.

The field of mobile communication has seen rapid growth in recent years. Due to growth in the geographic coverage and bandwidth of various wireless networks, a wide variety of portable electronic devices, which include cellular telephones, smart phones, tablets, portable media players, and notebook computing devices, have enabled users to communicate and access data networks from a variety of locations. These portable electronic devices support a wide variety of communication types including audio, video, and text-based communication. Portable electronic devices that are used for text-based communication typically include a display screen, such as an LCD or OLED screen, which can display text for reading.
The popularity of text-based communications has surged in recent years. Various text communication systems include, but are not limited to, the Short Message Service (SMS), various social networking services, which include Facebook and Twitter, instant messaging services, and conventional electronic mail services. Many text messages sent using text communication services are of relatively short length. Some text messaging systems, such as SMS, have technical limitations that require messages to be shorter than a certain length, such as 160 characters. Even for messaging services that do not impose message length restrictions, the input facilities provided by many portable electronic devices, such as physical and virtual keyboards, tend to be cumbersome for inputting large amounts of text. Additionally, users of mobile messenger devices, such as adolescents, often compress messages using abbreviations or slang terms that are not recognized as canonical words in any language. For example, terms such a "BRB" stand for longer phrases such as "be right back." Users may also employ non-standard spellings for standard words, such as substituting the word "cause" with the non-standard "kuz." The alternative spellings and word forms differ from simple misspellings, and existing spell checking systems are not equipped to normalize the alternative word forms into standard words found in a dictionary. The slang terms and alternative spellings rely on the knowledge of other people receiving the text message to interpret an appropriate meaning from the text.
While the popularity of sending and receiving text messages has grown, many situations preclude the recipient from reading text messages in a timely manner. In one example, a driver of a motor vehicle may be distracted when attempting to read a text message while operating the vehicle. In other situations, a user of a portable electronic device may not have immediate access to hold the device and read messages from a screen on the device. Some users are also visually impaired and may have trouble reading text from a screen on a mobile device. To mitigate these problems, some portable electronic devices and other systems include a speech synthesis system. The speech synthesis system is configured to generate spoken versions of text messages so that the person receiving a text message does not have to read the message. The synthesized audio messages enable a person to hear the content of one or more text messages while preventing distraction when the person is performing another activity, such as operating a vehicle.
While speech synthesis systems are useful in reading back text for a known language, speech synthesis becomes more problematic when dealing with text messages that include slang terms, abbreviations, and other non-standard words used in text messages. The speech synthesis systems rely on a model that maps known words to an audio model for speech synthesis. When synthesizing unknown words, many speech synthesis systems fall back to imperfect phonetic approximations of words, or spell out words letter-by-letter. In these conditions, the output of the speech synthesis system does not follow the expected flow of normal speech, and the speech synthesis system can become a distraction. Other text processing systems, including language translation systems and natural language processing systems, may have similar problems when text messages include non-standard spellings and word forms.
While existing dictionaries may provide translations for common slang terms and abbreviations, the variety of alternative spellings and constructions of standard words that are used in text messages is too broad to be accommodated by a dictionary compiled from standard sources. Additionally, portable electronic device users are continually forming new variations on existing words that could not be available in a standard dictionary. Moreover, the mapping from standard words to their nonstandard variations is many-to-many, that is, a nonstandard variation may correspond to different standard word forms and vice versa. Consequently, systems and methods for predicting variations of standard words to enable normalization of alternative word forms to standard dictionary words would be beneficial.

Broad-coverage normalization system for social media language


Methods and arrangements for a radix sort with a read only key. A plurality of keys are received, an array and a link table are populated for the first digit of the keys based upon the keys; and an array and a link table are populated for each successive digit of the keys based upon the array and link table populated for the preceding digit of the keys. Embodiments may be implemented in both hardware (FPGAs, ASICs, information handling devices, etc.) and software. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed.

Sorting is generally acknowledged to be one of the most time-consuming computer-implemented procedures. It has been estimated that over twenty-five percent (25%) of all computer running time is devoted to sorting. Many installations use over half of their available computer time for sorting. Numerous proposals and improvements have been disclosed in the art for the purposes for reducing sorting time and increasing sorting efficiency.
There are various known sorting schemes, one of which is a radix sort. In general terms, a radix sort is a non-comparative integer sorting algorithm that sorts data with integer keys by grouping keys by the individual digits which share the significant position and value. A positional notation is required, but because integers can represent strings of characters (e.g., names or dates) and specially formatted floating point numbers, radix sort is not limited to integers.
Issues with implementing a radix sort include trade offs of time vs. memory space required for the sort. For example, in the counting sort variety, the space required is 2(M*L), and the time required is 2(M*W), where M is the number of keys, L is the length of keys, and W is the number of digits in key. In the naïve variety, time is reduced to M*W, however, space required increases and becomes 2(|D|*M*L), where |D| is the cardinality of digit.

International Business Machines Corporation


The invention separates defined, active complexes by a characteristic from Defined, active complexes that share a particular physicochemical characteristic such as density, surface charge or particle size are separated from complexes formed by the association of a polynucleotide with a transfecting component that increases transfection activity, such as a lipid, cationic lipid, liposome, peptide, cationic peptide, dendrimer or polycation. In a preferred embodiment, polynucleotide-transfecting component complexes are ultracentrifuged to resolve one or more bands corresponding to complexes having a specific polynucleotide-transfecting component interaction. Polynucleotide complexes having a cationic liposome transfecting component resolve into two primary bands corresponding to complexes formed either under excess lipid conditions or under excess polynucleotide conditions. In an alternate embodiment, polynucleotide-transfecting component complexes are resolved using cross-flow electrophoresis to identify complexes having specific interactions and to separate them from excess initial components.

Molecular biologists have identified the chromosomal defects in a large number of human hereditary diseases, raising the prospects for cures using gene therapy. This emerging branch of medicine aims to correct genetic defects by transferring cloned and functionally active genes into the afflicted cells. Several systems and polymers suitable for the delivery of polynucleotides are known in the art. In addition, gene therapy may be useful to deliver therapeutic genes to treat various acquired and infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases and cancer.
Polycations such as polylysine and DEAE-dextran promote the uptake of proteins and single- and double-stranded polynucleotides into animal cells. Polylysines help assemble DNA into a compact structure, destabilize cell membranes, and provide a handle for the attachment of other effectors to the nucleic acid. The neutralization and condensation of DNA by polylysines into small (ca 100 nm) toroid-like structures, promotes the endocytosis of the nucleic acid into cells in vitro. The endocytic process may be further stimulated by the covalent attachment to the polycation of specific ligands like transferrin, asialoorosomucoid or insulin.
Other useful polynucleotide complexes involve masking the polynucleotide to prevent degradation. Microparticulates, such as erythrocyte ghosts, reconstituted viral envelopes and liposomes have been used in part as protection in gene transfer. One successful liposome system uses the cationic lipid n-[1-(2,3-dioleyloxy)propyl]-N,N,N-trimethylammonium chloride [DOTMA], mixed with phosphatidylethanolamine [PE] to form the reagent Lipofectin.TM.. Substitutes for DOTMA including lipopolyamine, lipophilic polylysines, and a cationic cholesterol have been used to mediate gene transfer in culture. Other useful lipids include 2,3-dioleyloxy-N-[2-(sperminecarboxyamido)ethyl]-N,N-dimethyl-1-propanamin ium trifluoroacetate [DOSPA], [DOTAP], [DOGG], dimethyldioctadecylammonium bromide [DDAB], cetyldimethylethylammonium bromide [CDAB], cetyltrimethylethylammonium bromide [CTAB], dioctadecyidimethylammonium bromide [DDMB], DL-stearyl stearoyl carnitine ester [DL-SSCE], L-stearyl stearoyl carnitine ester [L-SSCE], DL-stearyl oleoyl carnitine ester [DL-SOCE], DL-palmityl palmitoyl carnitine ester [DL-PPCE], DL-myristyl myristoyl carnitine ester [DL-MMCE], L-myristyl myristoyl carnitine ester [L-MMCE], dioleoylphosphatidylcholine [DOPC], monooleoyl-glycerol [MOG], and cholesterol [Chol]. A difficulty associated with polynucleotide-liposome complexes is that depending on the ratio of the two components, the concentration of the components, and the ionic conditions while mixing, the complexes formed vary greatly in size, in electrostatic properties, in lipid and polynucleotide composition and in ability to interact with biological systems.
Gene transfer efficiency may also be improved by targeting the polynucleotide to the cell of choice. Various procedures based upon receptor mediated endocytosis have recently been described for gene transfer. A cell-specific ligand-polylysine complex was bound to nucleic acids through charge interactions, and the resulting complex was taken up efficiently by the target cells, such as in the case of the human hepatoma cell line HepG2 and of rat hepatocytes in vivo using this delivery system with asialoorosomucoid as a ligand. The stable expression of an enzymatic activity in HepG2 cells following insulin-directed targeting as well as the transferrin-polycation-mediated delivery of a plasmid into the human leukemic cell line K-562 and the subsequent expression of the encoded luciferase gene, have been reported. However, the described delivery systems require the linking of high molecular weight targeting proteins to polynucleotides through a polylysine linker. These large ligand-polycation conjugates also are heterogenous in size and composition, chemically ill-defined, and difficult to prepare in a reproducible fashion.
The use of polycations to neutralize the polynucleotide charge aids the permeabilization of the membrane and the translocation of the polynucleotide. Cationic lipids have also been used for this purpose. Certain cationic lipids termed lipopolyamines and lipointercalants are also known.
Transfection efficiency may also be increased when the polynucleotide is associated with various peptides. Certain useful amphipathic peptides assume .alpha.-helix or .beta.-pleated sheet secondary structures, presenting a charged face and a neutral face. Cationic proteins increase transfection by condensing the polynucleotide.
Other polycations have been shown to promote transfection when associated with polynucleotides. Complexes formed with dendrimers, bulky three-dimensional polymers built by reiterative reaction sequences around a core molecule that may be prepared in varied molecular weights and sizes, efficiently transfer polynucleotides. Other three-dimensional, branched polycations are also useful.
Specific examples of useful self-assembling polynucleotide delivery systems may be found in U.S. patent applications Ser. No. 08/092,200, filed Jul. 14, 1992, and Ser. No. 07/913,669, filed Jul. 14, 1993, which are hereby incorporated in their entirety by reference thereto.
Despite the usefulness of polynucleotide delivery systems, the polynucleotide conjugates can be heterogenous in size and composition, chemically ill-defined, and difficult to prepare in a reproducible fashion. Further, the compound associated with the polynucleotide often is cytotoxic. This greatly limits the concentration at which the complexes can be delivered. Accordingly, there remains a need for means to select desirable polynucleotide complexes and to maximize the permissible concentration of delivered polynucleotide. The present invention satisfies this and other needs.

The Regents of the University of California


In an inspection or processing machine machine for returned PET multitrip bottles the bottles are acted upon by a laser beam, in order to examine the bottles and/or read a code on the bottle and/or write a code on the bottles. The bottles run in the machine on a carousel. The laser beam is directed through a central hollow shaft of the carousel via mirrors onto the bottle. The moving bottles can thereby be acted upon in a simple manner.

The invention relates to a process for acting upon containers, particularly PET bottles, moving through a conveying means, having at least one laser beam for the inspection and/or processing of the containers, more especially for the introduction of at least one code symbol. Furthermore, the invention relates to an inspection machine for bottles in order to carry out the process.
It is known for containers, particularly reusable or multitrip PET bottles, to be inspected in inspection machines and to be provided with a code. The inspection may include in particular the examination of the bottle for damage and/or the reading of one or more code symbols existing on the bottle. As a rule, at least one further code symbol is introduced by the inspection machine. This introduction or sealing-in of the code symbol and if necessary, the reading of code symbols is achieved by means of at least one laser beam which is generally directed onto the bottle at a desired predetermined point. An examination for damage can also be made by means of laser beams.
Known installations for the inspection and/or coding of PET bottles with laser radiation are characterised by static beam guidance. The parts being processed are so positioned in front of the beam that the coding surface is acted on by the beam. For this, the conveying movement must be suspended for the period of the coding operation or the coding must be carried out in the shortest possible time. The disadvantages of this manner of operation lie in the high accelerations and low productivity of laser and machine.
The problem therefore underlying the invention is to process and/or measure or inspect containers, more especially PET bottles, by means of a laser beam during passage through the inspection machine, this being intended to take place with as high as possible frequency and productivity.

Process and device for acting upon moving containers with a laser beam and carousel shafted mounted optics


Removal of fine particles by oxidation or/and sulfur poisoning recovery control may be required when an internal combustion engine has been in an extremely low load state for a predetermined period or more. In this case, the engine speed of the internal combustion engine (1) is adjusted to a range where the temperature of a filter (20) can be raised by heat-up control. The heat-up control is then executed by a filter temperature control means to raise the temperature of the filter (20) to a predetermined value. When the filter (20) reaches the predetermined temperature by means of low-temperature combustion, post-injection, VIGOM-injection, addition of 10 fuel to an exhaust system and the like, removal of fine particles by oxidation or/and sulfur poisoning recovery control for eliminating sulfur poisoning of a NOx absorbent are conducted. Removal of PMs captured by the filter and sulfur poisoning recovery control of the NOx absorbent can thus be conducted even if the internal combustion engine is left in an extremely low load operational state.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an exhaust gas purifying device and method for an internal combustion engine, and more particularly, to an exhaust gas purifying device and an exhaust gas purifying method which are capable of conducting recovery from sulfur poisoning and the like even if extremely low-load operation is continued.
2. Description of Related Art
In an internal combustion engine installed in an automobile or the like, especially in a diesel engine or a lean-bum gasoline engine in which a mixture containing an excessive amount of oxygen (a mixture exhibiting a so-called lean air-fuel ratio) can burn, the advent of an technology for purifying nitrogen oxides (NOx) contained in exhaust gas in the internal combustion engine has been expected.
A technology of disposing an NOx absorbent in an exhaust system of an internal combustion engine has been proposed to meet such a demand. An occlusion/reduction-type NOx catalyst has been known as one type of the NOx absorbent. The occlusion/reduction-type NOx catalyst absorbs nitrogen oxides (NOx) contained in exhaust gas when the exhaust gas flowing into the catalyst exhibits a high oxygen concentration, and discharges the absorbed nitrogen oxides (NOx) and reduces them to nitrogen (N2) when the exhaust gas flowing into the catalyst exhibits a decreased oxygen concentration in the presence of a reducing agent.
In the case where the occlusion/reduction-type NOx catalyst is disposed in the exhaust system of the internal combustion engine, nitrogen oxides (NOx) contained in exhaust gas are absorbed by the occlusion/reduction-type NOx catalyst when the exhaust gas exhibits a high air-fuel ratio during lean-bum operation of the internal combustion engine, and the nitrogen oxides (NOx) absorbed by the occlusion/reduction-type NOx catalyst are discharged and reduced to nitrogen (N2) when the exhaust gas flowing into the occlusion/reduction-type NOx catalyst exhibits a reduced air-fuel ratio.
It is to be noted herein that sulfur oxides (SOx), which are produced through combustion of sulfur contained in fuel, are also absorbed by the occlusion/reduction-type NOx catalyst according to the same mechanism as in the case of NOx. Sulfur oxides (SOx) are not discharged when nitrogen oxides (NOx) are usually discharged and reduced. Thus, if a predetermined amount or more of sulfur oxides (SOx) is accumulated, the NOx catalyst becomes saturated and unable to absorb NOx. This phenomenon, which is referred to as sulfur poisoning (SOx poisoning), causes a decrease in the NOx purification ratio. For this reason, a poisoning recovery process for recovering the NOx catalyst from SOx poisoning needs to be performed at a suitable timing. This poisoning recovery process is performed by allowing exhaust gas with a decreased oxygen concentration to flow through the NOx catalyst while the NOx catalyst is held at a high temperature (e.g., 600 to 650° C.).
However, exhaust gas is below the aforementioned temperature during lean-bum operation. Thus, when the engine is in a normal operational state, it is difficult to raise the bed temperature of the NOx catalyst to a temperature required for the recovery from sulfur poisoning. In such a case, it is possible to decrease the oxygen concentration of exhaust gas while raising the temperature of the aforementioned catalyst by adding fuel to an exhaust passage.
As a method for raising the temperature of the NOx catalyst, an exhaust gas purifying device for an internal combustion engine has been proposed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2845056. The exhaust gas purifying device for the internal combustion engine disclosed in this publication determines the addition amount of a reducing agent in consideration of the amount of the reducing agent consumed through a reaction with oxygen contained in exhaust gas in an occlusion/reduction-type NOx catalyst and the amount of the reducing agent required for the reduction of nitrogen oxides (NOx) absorbed by the occlusion/reduction-type NOx catalyst. This exhaust gas purifying device thus prevents the reducing agent from being supplied excessively or insufficiently and aims at inhibiting exhaust emission properties from being deteriorated by the discharge of the reducing agent or nitrogen oxides (NOx) into the atmosphere.
On the other hand, in a diesel engine, it is important to remove particulate matters (hereinafter, referred to as "PMs" unless otherwise mentioned) such as soot as a suspended particulate matter contained in exhaust gas. A technology of providing a particulate filter (hereinafter, simply referred to as "filter") for collecting PMs in an exhaust system of the diesel engine in order to prevent the PMs from being discharged into the atmosphere is therefore well-known in the art. This filter collects the PMs contained in exhaust gas and thus prevents them from being discharged into the atmosphere. However, if the PMs collected by the filter are accumulated on the filter, the filter may be clogged with the PMs. Such clogging raises the pressure of the exhaust gas upstream of the filter, thereby possibly causing reduced output power of the internal combustion engine and damage of the filter. In such a case, it is possible to remove the PMs by igniting and burning the PMs accumulated on the filter. Such removal of the PMs accumulated on the filter is called regeneration of the filter.
In order to ignite and burn the PMs collected by the filter, the temperature of the filter must be raised to a high temperature of, e.g., 500° C. or more. However, since the exhaust gas temperature of the diesel engine is lower than this temperature, it is difficult to remove the PMs through combustion in a normal operation state.
It is possible to use an electric heater, burner or the like to heat the filter to a temperature that causes ignition and combustion of the collected PMs. However, this requires a great amount of energy to be supplied from the outside. Regarding this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 6-159037 and the like use a filter carrying a NOx catalyst and a device for supplying hydrocarbons to exhaust gas as a reducing agent. This facilitates combustion of the PMs by using the heat generated by combustion of the hydrocarbons supplied to the exhaust gas in the NOx catalyst.
The aforementioned recovery from sulfur poisoning is carried out with the oxygen concentration of exhaust gas decreased. However, if the reducing agent is added during high-load operation of the internal combustion engine, the reducing agent bums in the occlusion/reduction-type NOx catalyst. As a result, the temperature of the occlusion/reduction-type NOx catalyst rises excessively. This may cause thermal degradation of the occlusion/reduction-type NOx catalyst. Accordingly, it is preferable that the recovery from sulfur poisoning be carried out while the internal combustion engine is in a low-load range.
However, in the case where the internal combustion engine is in an extremely low-load operation state for a long time, for example, in the case where a vehicle having the internal combustion engine is parked in an idle state for a long time or runs in heavy traffic in a town, the internal combustion engine discharges a small amount of exhaust gas and thus the absolute amount of heat generated by the exhaust gas is not enough to raise the overall temperature of the filter (e.g., filter with a 2-liter capacity) carrying the NOx catalyst.
Even if control for regeneration of the PMs accumulated on the filter or control for regeneration of the NOx catalyst from sulfur poisoning (also referred to as control for recovery from sulfur poisoning) need be carried out in such a state, it is impossible to raise the temperature of the NOx catalyst to a temperature range required for such controls. It is therefore impossible to carry out these controls. As a result, the PMs and NOx are not removed, thereby possibly causing insufficient purification of the exhaust gas.

Exhaust gas purifying device and method for internal combustion engine


A reusable energy-absorbing crash attenuator comprises a base, a rail disposed on and extending along a length of the base, and a plurality of energy absorbing modules slidably disposed on the rail. Each of the energy absorbing modules comprises a first module portion and a second module portion which are attached together. Each of the module portions comprise plastic, preferably high density polyethylene (HDPE), and have a combination of concave and convex curvature. A plurality of fender panels are disposed in adjoining end-to-end fashion along each side of the length of the crash attenuator. The fender panels are arranged to slide together in telescoping fashion upon impact of the crash attenuator by a vehicle.

The present invention relates generally to crash impact attenuators, and more particularly to motor vehicle and highway barrier crash impact attenuators constructed from molded plastic materials.
Vehicular accidents on the highway are a major worldwide problem and are undoubtedly one of the largest causes of economic and human loss and suffering inflicted on the developed world today. In an effort to alleviate, in particular, the human toll of these tragic accidents, guardrails, crash cushions, truck-mounted crash attenuators, crash barrels, and the like have been developed to attenuate the impact of the vehicle with a rigid immovable obstacle, such as a bridge abutment.
Existing plastic impact attenuators, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,403,112, herein expressly incorporated by reference, comprise a row of plastic tubes with retention cables. A key feature of the units is the ability to survive impact and recover to near original shape—minimizing maintenance costs. However, these existing systems, comprising an array of polyethylene cylinders attached to one another in some fashion, have a number of significant disadvantages. They are labor-intensive to assemble and material-intensive. With respect to force-deflection characteristics, existing designs are undesirable since the force increases continuously with deformation. The force cannot exceed the light vehicle limit, and therefore the initial force and deceleration is low, limiting the initial energy absorption.
With respect to maximum deformation characteristics, existing plastic attenuation systems are not ideal. A cylinder, when flattened, has extreme deformation at the outer edges so the recovery to original shape is difficult.
A crash attenuator of the type described must absorb the vehicle impact energy without exceeding limits on the vehicle deceleration. In addition, it must accommodate both heavy and light weight vehicles. The lightest vehicle will set the limit on the maximum force produced by the attenuator and the heavy vehicle—which will experience a lower deceleration, and thus will determine the total impact deformation required. The force cannot exceed the light vehicle limit and therefore the initial force and deceleration is low, limiting the energy absorption.

Crash impact attenuator systems and methods


A method includes receiving a query at a telephone number mapping (ENUM) server, the query identifying an emergency telephone number associated with a subscriber to an emergency contact service. The method also includes retrieving from the ENUM server, in response to the query, one or more emergency contact Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) associated with the subscriber, where each of the emergency contact URIs has an associated emergency contact indicator. The method also includes initiating routing of a communication to destination devices associated with each retrieved emergency contact URI via an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS).

Provisioning emergency contact services in a communication network typically involves multiple work flows and steps, and often involves a large coordination effort. It can be a tedious, time consuming and error prone process that may involve changes to several systems, such as central data storage Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems, Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) triggers, Central Office switch logic, and SS7 internetworking systems. Hence, there is a need for an improved method and system to provision emergency contact services in a communication network.
The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings may indicate similar or identical items.

Method and system to provision emergency contact services in a communication network


As robust hinge post structure for use with torsional hinged devices such as micromirrors and method of manufacturing is disclosed. The fabrication process uses a protective layer such as BARC on the bottom of the aperture used to form the hinge post structure to protect an oxide layer during an etching step. The oxide layer, in turn protects the metal layer at the bottom of the aperture. Therefore, the metal layer, the oxide layer, and the protective layer prevent the erosion and/or pitting of the bottom electrode during a cleaning process, and provide additional support to the structure.

Texas Instruments Incorporated of Dallas, Tex. has developed semiconductor chips containing an array of individually controllable mirrors (substantially square and/or diamond shaped) having a reflective surface. More specifically, the DMD is revolutionary in that it is truly a digital display device in an integrated circuit solution. The DMD is an electro/mechanical/optical SLM (Spacial Light Modulator) now being used to provide images for projectors and hard copy printers. The DMD is a monolithic single-chip integrated circuit SLM comprised of a high density array of square or diamond shaped moveable micromirrors. The micromirrors have an X and Y surface dimension of between about 9 micrometers and 17 micrometers. These mirrors are fabricated over address circuitry including an array of RAM cells and address electrodes. Each mirror forms one pixel of the DMD array and is bi-stable. That is, stable in one of two positions wherein a source of light directed upon the mirror array will be reflected in one of two directions. In the stable or "on" mirror position, incident light to the mirror will be reflected to a projector lens and focused on a display screen or a photo-sensitive element of a printer. In the other or "off" mirror position, light directed on the mirror will be deflected to a light absorber. Further, each mirror of the array is individually controlled to either direct incident light into the projector lens, or to the light absorber. The projector lens ultimately focuses and magnifies the modulated light from the pixel mirrors onto photoresistive medium or a display screen and produces an image. If each pixel mirror of the DMD array is in the "on" position, the displayed image will be an array of bright pixels. As is discussed below, each of the mirrors is supported by a pair of torsional hinges. However, it should be understood that although the invention is discussed with respect to mirrors, the invention could also be used with other microdevices requiring an array of structures supported by torsional hinges.
As detailed and commonly assigned in U.S. Pat. No. 5,535,047 entitled "Active Yoke Hidden Hinge Digital Micromirror Device" to Hornback, and shown in FIG. 1 of the present application, there is disclosed a digital micromirror device (DMD) spatial light modulator shown at 10. DMD 10 is a single chip integrated circuit that includes an array of micromirrors 20 monolithically fabricated over a memory cell array formed upon a substrate. As shown, each pixel mirror 20 includes a square or diamond shaped mirror supported upon and elevated above a butterfly shaped yoke generally shown at 22 by a rectangular support post 24. Support post 24 extends downward from the center of the mirror 20 and is attached to the center area 26 of the yoke 22 along the torsional axes 28 (indicated by dashed lines), as shown, to balance the center of mass of mirror 20 on yoke 22. Yoke 22 is actually supported at the center area 26 along torsional axes 28 by a pair of torsional hinges 30. The other end of each torsional hinge 30 is attached to and supported by a hinge support post cap 32 defined on top of a respective hinge support post 34. A pair of elevated mirror address electrodes 36 and 38 are supported by a respective address support post 40. The address support posts 40 support the address electrodes 36 and 38 away from and above a biased/reset bus, at a pair of substrate level address electrode pads 42. In a similar manner, the hinge support posts 34 support the torsional hinges 34, which in turn support the yoke 22. To selectively reflect light, mirror 20 and yoke 22 are together rotated about the torsional axes 28 of the yoke 22, defined by the hinges 30.
As the size of the individual pixels have shrunk below 16 micrometers, the electrode support post 40 and the support post 34 used to raise the reflective structure above electrode pads 36 and 38 on the substrate level, have developed integrity issues. More specifically, the hinge support post 34, which support the torsional hinges 30 and the electrode support post 40, are subject to corrosive structure damage during the fabrication processes.
Referring now to FIG. 2, there is a cross-section illustration showing the structure damage suffered during such fabrication. As shown, substrate 50 includes an electrode layer 52 which will be patterned and etched to define individual electrode pads, such as for example electrode pads 44 and 46 discussed above with respect to FIG. 1. A sacrificial spacer layer 54 is deposited over the electrode layer 52. The spacer layer 54 is then patterned and etched through to the electrical layer 52 to form hinge post apertures, such as hinge post aperture 56. A metal layer 58 is deposited over the top surface 60 of the spacer layer 54 in the sidewalls of the aperture 56. The metal layer 58 when originally deposited also covered the top or exposed surface of the electrode layer 52 (not shown), which is at the bottom of the aperture 56. However, the metal layer on the bottom of the aperture is subsequently removed during an etching process. The metal layer 58 on the sidewalls 62 of the hinge post aperture is also covered with an oxide layer 64, which provides additional support. The oxide layer 64 is originally deposited over the bottom 66 of aperture 56 and the top surfaces of the metal layer 58 as well as the sidewalls of aperture 56. However, as discussed below, the oxide is removed everywhere except the sidewalls of the aperture by etching.
More specifically, the process of patterning and etching the metal layer 58 includes the deposit of between about 2,000 Å and 5,000 Å layer of oxide over the metal layer including the metal covering the hinge post aperture 56. The oxide layer 64 is anisotropically etched, which, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, leaves the oxide layer 64 on vertical surfaces such as the sidewalls of the hinge post aperture. The oxide layer on the sidewalls array provides additional support to the hinge post.
Although not a significant problem with the 16 micrometer mirrors, the size reduction of the newer and smaller mirrors means that because of the very small dimensions of the aperture entrance at the top surface of the aperture, only a very thin layer of the protective oxide layer is deposited on the bottom 66 of the hinge post aperture and may be completely removed during the anisotropic etch. Likewise, as can be seen in the illustration of FIG. 2, the oxide layer thickness on the sidewalls is significantly decreased at the bottom of the aperture. In addition, the very thin layer of oxide often includes pores or holes that may extend completely through the thin layer. Consequently, during the patterning of the metal layer, the extremely corrosive developing solution is able to penetrate the protective oxide and attack the metal layer at the bottom of the aperture and may even significantly erode the electrode metal layer 52 as indicated by the pitting 68a and 68b at the bottom of the aperture 56. This corrosive attack of the electrode layer sufficiently weakens the integrity of the hinge post to cause structural and/or electrical failures. Therefore, it would be advantageous to develop a fabrication process that does not result in damage to the structural integrity of the hinge post.

Utilizing a protective plug to maintain the integrity of the FTP shrink hinge