A control unit aggregates packets which are to be sent to one or more terminal apparatuses, and produces aggregated packets. The control unit divides a certain period into a plurality of partial periods, allots each of the plurality of partial periods to any of the plurality of terminal apparatuses and produces a control signal with which to convey an assignment condition to the terminal apparatus. In the case of an aggregated packet where the packets for the plurality of terminals are aggregated, a baseband processing unit and the like transmit the aggregated packet together with the control signal to the plurality of terminal apparatuses. In the case of an aggregated packet where the packets for a single terminal are aggregated, they transmit the aggregated packet to the plurality of terminal apparatuses, without sending the control signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to radio apparatuses, and it particularly relates to a radio apparatus using multiple subcarriers and a communication system utilizing said radio apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) modulation scheme is one of multicarrier communication schemes that can realize the high-speed data transmission and are robust in the multipath environment. This OFDM modulation scheme has been applied to the wireless standards such as IEEE802.11a/g and HIPERLAN/2. The packet signals in such a wireless LAN are generally transferred via a time-varying channel environment and are also subjected to the effect of frequency selective fading. Hence, a receiving apparatus generally carries out the channel estimation dynamically.
In order for the receiving apparatus to carry out the channel estimation, two kinds of known signals are provided within a packet signal. One is the known signal, provided for all carriers in the beginning of the packet signal, which is the so-called preamble or training signal. The other is the known signal, provided for part of carriers in the data area of the packet signal, which is the so-called pilot signal (See Reference (1) in the following Related Art List, for instance).
Related Art List
    (1) Sinem Coleri, Mustafa Ergen, Anuj Puri and Ahmad Bahai, "Channel Estimation Techniques Based on Pilot Arrangement in OFDM Systems", IEEE Transactions on broadcasting, vol. 48, No.3, pp. 223-229, September 2002.
In wireless communications, adaptive array antenna technology is one of the technologies to realize the effective utilization of frequency resources. In adaptive array antenna technology, the directional patterns of antennas are controlled by controlling the amplitude and phase of signals, to be processed, in a plurality of antennas, respectively. One of techniques to realize higher data transmission rates by using such an adaptive array antenna technology is the MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) system. In this MIMO system, a transmitting apparatus and a receiving apparatus are each equipped with a plurality of antennas, and a plurality of packet signals to be transmitted in parallel are set (hereinafter, each of data to be transmitted in parallel in the packet signal is called "stream"). That is, streams up to the maximum number of antennas are set for the communications between the transmitting apparatus and the receiving apparatus so as to improve the data transmission rates.
Moreover, combining such a MIMO system with the OFDM modulation scheme results in a higher data transmission rate. In such a MIMO system, CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access) is carried out to allow the base station apparatus to multiplex a plurality of terminal apparatuses. For the purpose of improving the transmission efficiency or reducing the processing delay, the base station apparatus specifies, in partial periods of time, the timing at which the signals are to be transmitted to a plurality of terminal apparatuses (hereinafter referred to as "transmit timing") and the timing at which the signals from a plurality of terminal apparatuses are to be received (hereinafter referred to as "receive timing"). Then the base station apparatus informs respectively the plurality of terminal apparatuses of said specification, and each of the plurality of terminal apparatuses carries out a processing in accordance with said specification (hereinafter, such a processing will be referred to as "assignment mode"). Here it is assumed that after a plurality of transmit timings for the plurality of terminals are specified consecutively, a plurality of transmit timings are specified consecutively. A terminal apparatus receives a signal at the specified transmit timing. When the receiving has been successful, a terminal apparatus generates an ACK signal and transmits the ACK signal to the base station apparatus at the specified receive timing. When the receiving has failed, the terminal apparatus does not generate the signal.
To raise the transmission efficiency of such a MIMO system, the longer packet signal length is preferred. Thus, when transmitting the data to a receiving apparatus, a transmitting apparatus gathers up the data to be transmitted and then generates packet signals. In this manner, the aggregation of packet signals may be done also in a case when they are destined to a single terminal apparatus, besides the case when they are destined to a plurality of terminal apparatuses. The aggregated packets destined to a single terminal apparatus and those destined to a plurality of terminals may be processed without making distinction there between. However, in such a case, if the aggregated packets destined to a single terminal apparatus undergo the above assignment mode, it will be wasteful for both the base station apparatus and the terminal apparatuses, thus causing the transmission efficiency to deteriorate.

Radio apparatus and communication system using the same


The present disclosure relates to a method and a device for recognizing speech in a vehicle. The method for recognizing the speech in the vehicle may include collecting one or more types of information, determining information to be linked with each other for speech recognition based on an information processing priority predefined corresponding to each type of the collected information, analyzing the determined information to perform the speech recognition for a signal input through a microphone, and extracting at least one of a wake up voice or a command voice through the speech recognition to control the vehicle. Therefore, the present disclosure has an advantage of more accurately performing the speech recognition by linking collected various information in the vehicle with each other.

A speech recognition technology is a technology of receiving and analyzing an uttered speech of a user and providing various services based on the analysis result.
As conventional representative speech recognition services, there are a speech-to-text conversion service that receives the uttered speech of the user, converts the uttered speech to a text, and outputs the text, a speech recognition-based virtual secretary service that provides various secretarial services by recognizing the uttered speech of the user, a speech recognition-based device control service that controls a corresponding electronic device by recognizing a control command from the uttered speech of the user, and the like.
Recently, a variety of speech recognition services that combine artificial intelligence with an IT technology are being released.
In a case of existing vehicles, a navigation, music, a phone call, air conditioning, lighting, and the like were mostly controlled through a button or a screen touch. However, as a traffic accident increases because of negligence in keeping eyes on a road during manipulation of the button or the screen touch, efforts are being continuously made to simplify vehicle control by the automakers.
Recently, research on a vehicle control technology through the speech recognition has been actively conducted.
A driver or a passenger of a conventional vehicle activated a speech recognition function through manipulation of a hardware push to talk button, a software key touch input, or the like.
Recently, a wake up voice-based speech recognition service that activates the speech recognition function through a speech of the user by replacing the physical button input has been generalized.
A wake up voice-based speech recognition performance may be evaluated largely by a function of normally performing a function suitable for a corresponding keyword when the keyword is spoken and a function of not performing any operation when the keyword is not spoken. For example, performing of an unwanted function by misrecognizing the keyword while the vehicle passenger has a general conversation in which the keyword is not included is a factor that significantly deteriorates the wake up voice-based speech recognition performance.
However, in a case of a vehicle with a conventional wake up voice-based speech recognition technology, accurate wake up voice recognition is difficult because of playback of a multimedia device such as radio broadcasting, the navigation, and the like, conversation between the driver and the passenger, vehicle environment noise during traveling, and the like, and a system frequently wakes up because of incorrect wake up voice recognition.
In addition, even after the speech recognition function is activated, a keyword spoken by the passenger is not able be accurately recognized because of the playback of the multimedia device, the vehicle environment noise, and the like.

Method and device for recognizing speech in vehicle


The present invention relates to a process of manufacturing high, very high, and ultra high molecular weight polymers comprising predominantly ethylene monomers. Ethylene is reacted in the presence of a catalyst system to produce a polymer having a viscosimetrically-determined molecular weight of at least 0.7×106 g/mol. The catalyst system generally includes a bridged metallocene catalyst compound, optionally with a co-catalyst. The catalyst is characterized by a zirconium dichloride central functionality and a dimethyl silandiyl bridge between five-membered rings of indenyl groups. Both rings of the metallocene compound are substituted at the 2-position with respect to the dimethyl silandiyl bridge with a C1-C20 carbonaceous group.

Ultra high molecular weight ethylene polymers refer to those having a viscosimetrically determined molecular weight of greater than 1×106 g/mol. Because of their extraordinary properties, such as higher abrasion resistance and low sliding friction, such polymers have a multitude of uses. Consequently, they are used in materials handling, bulk materials handling, as well as in medical applications such as joint sockets in prosthetic joints.
High and very high molecular weight ethylene polymers refer to those having a viscosimetrically determined molecular weight of greater than that of a conventional high-density polyethylene, for example, greater than about 400,000 g/mol, and less than that of an ultra high molecular weight polyethylene. Such polymers have good impact strength and abrasion resistance, although somewhat lower than that of ultra high molecular weight ethylene polymers. They are melt processible and are used, for example, in food handling cutting boards and ortheses.
Because of these novel properties, the processing of high to ultra high molecular weight polyethylene is highly complex. Ram-extrusion and compression molding of powdered raw materials are processes used to produce molded parts, whereby the molded parts manufactured often still exhibit the characteristics of the raw powder. Films and fibers are produced using solution or gel processes, which require large amounts of solvents. An objective is therefore to develop new high to ultra high molecular weight polyethylenes, which have improved processability.
According to the present state of technology, ultra high molecular weight polyethylene is manufactured according to the low pressure process using heterogeneous Ziegler catalysts. Such catalysts are, for example, described in the following patent documents: EP186995, DE3833445, EP575840 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,559,249.
Other known catalysts for olefin polymerization are single site catalysts. According to the present state of technology, ultra high molecular weight polymers are manufactured using these catalysts only in exceptional cases and under economically unprofitable conditions. Consequently, heterogeneous constrained-geometry catalysts form ultra high molecular weight polyethylene only with moderate activity and increased long chain branching, which can lead to reduced hardness and worse abrasion properties. With so-called phenoxy-imine catalysts, UHMWPE is obtained only at low activity at economically unprofitable temperature levels. Examples of these as well as other metallocenes are described in WO9719959, WO0155231, Adv. Synth. Catal 2002, 344, 477-493, EP0798306, as well as in EP0643078.
While some bridged metallocene catalysts are known, the catalysts have not been taught in a heterogeneous polymerization process in such a way as to achieve high to ultra high molecular weight in production of ethylene homopolymers and copolymers comprising predominantly ethylene monomers. Examples of such catalysts are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,417,302; 7,005,398; 7,109,278; and 7,169,864.
Surprisingly, bridged single site catalysts with a suitable ligand structure were found in connection with the present invention, which when optionally used with aluminoxanes as co-catalysts, not only permitted the manufacture of ultra high molecular weight polyethylenes with a viscosimetrically determined molecular weight of at least about 0.7×106 g/mol, but also produced products with improved processability. The reason for the improved processability, without being bound to a theory, has to do with the narrower molecular weight distribution Mw/Mn of 2 to 6 compared to polymers that were manufactured using Ziegler catalysts and have a molecular weight distribution Mw/Mn of 3 to 30.

Process for manufacturing high to ultra high molecular weight polymers using novel bridged metallocene catalysts


An electronic device (such as an origin server) in a content delivery system performs intelligent content server handling of client receipt disruptions. The electronic device may receive requests for segments of a content asset submitted using a manifest that has segment request addresses with session identifiers, estimate a session interruption using the requests and the session identifiers, and handle the session interruption. The electronic device may handle the session interruption by scheduling a recording of the content asset, reallocating network resources, and so on. In some examples, the electronic device may also provide the manifest.

Content delivery systems may provide a wide variety of content assets to a wide variety of client devices over a variety of different wired and/or wireless communication media. For example, content delivery systems may provide television programs and movies and/or other video, music and/or other audio, images, and so on. Content delivery systems broadcast content assets, provide content assets on demand, and/or provide access to content assets in a variety of different ways.
A content delivery system may provide content assets using one or more origin servers. Such an origin server may obtain content assets from a source of content, such as a terrestrial broadcast system or a programming provider, and provide the obtained content assets to client devices via one or more communication media.
For example, the origin server and/or another device may provide a manifest to one or more client devices. The manifest may include pointers and/or other mechanisms that a client device may use to request segments of a content asset stored at the origin server. In some implementations that use ABR techniques, the origin server may store segments for different versions of the content asset that each have different bitrates and may switch between providing segments having different bitrates according to changes in available communication network bandwidth, client device hardware and/or software resources, and/or a variety of other different conditions.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Intelligent content server handling of client receipt disruptions


A miniature high density connector including a thermoplastic insulating body having contact cavities for the insertion, the positioning and the retention of electrical, optical or electro-optical contacts, a back plate having clips for the locking of the contacts into the contact cavities of the insulating body, a receptacle shell constituting an interface element for coupling with a complementary mating connector having a flange for the assembly and the retention of the insulating body and the back plate in the receptacle shell, the back plate being movable and including a projecting dimple located on the side wall, making possible its locking into the receptacle shell.

1. Field
The aspects of the disclosed embodiments provide a high contact density miniature connector, and in particular a miniature electrical connector equipped with a movable insulating body.
The aspects of the disclosed embodiments are applicable in data processing, telecommunication and in general, in fields calling for the processing of high-speed signals in very restricted spaces.
2. Brief Description of Related Development
Extensive need exists in the aforementioned fields for the size reduction of components, which need to be introduced into ever decreasing available spaces. Likewise in progress is a search for a reduction of the weight of components, as well as for solutions for the replacement of parts of components fixed on installations, in terms of both maintenance work and of signal processing improvement via the introduction of more efficient means.
There are numerous embodiments of connectors called miniatures or sub-miniatures of a rectangular or a circular shape, which make possible the introduction of high-density electrical or optical contacts that is to say, contacts distributed in the insulating bodies, or inserts, according to the smallest possible square or triangular pitch networks.
In these embodiments according to the size of the contact used, the pitch is calculated in order to allow a distance between the contacts conferring the required electrical insulation properties.
This distance must moreover be compatible with the size of the means of locking the contact into the contact reception contact cavities made in the insulating body.
Their number, the distribution and the dimensions of these contact cavities as well as their internal geometry often has several shoulders for the positioning and holding in place of the contacts consequently make it difficult and indeed impossible to secure an insulating body by a simple moulding operation of the thermoplastics which they consist of.
There is accordingly a need to make available on the market high contact density miniature and sub-miniature connectors in which the introduction or the replacement of their constituent parts can be implemented at any time during their life, simplifying the operations of moulding of the insulating bodies used in these connectors.
The aspects of the disclosed embodiments are directed to a high-density miniature connector comprising a thermoplastic insulating body containing contact cavities for the insertion, the positioning and the retention of electrical, optical or electro-optical contacts, a back plate comprising clips for the locking of the contacts into the insulating body contact cavities, a receptacle shell constituting an interface element for coupling with a complementary mating connector comprising a flange making possible the assembly and the holding in place of the insulating body and the back plate in the said receptacle shell, in which the back plate is movable and comprises at least one projecting dimple located on its side wall and making possible its locking into the receptacle shell.
According to one embodiment, the receptacle shell comprises a thermoplastic flange comprising at least one oblong opening into which the projecting dimple of the back plate locks.
According to one embodiment one of the sides of the opening in the flange defines an elastic beam.
According to one embodiment, the back plate is made up of at least two movable modules.
According to one embodiment, the modules are assembled by one of their respective ends.
According to another embodiment, the ends of the modules joint consist of half-walls which, on being assembled, constitute a total thickness of insulation which is compatible with the connector contacts density.
According to another embodiment, the insulation thickness of the ends of the modules joint is a function of the size and the pitch adopted for the arrangement of the contacts.
According to an embodiment, the back plates are polygonal or circular in shape.

High contact density miniature connector


An image capture system including a camera body and lens unit, a shake detection unit configured to detect a shake, an image stabilization unit arranged in the lens unit to correct a blur of the object image, a correction amount detection unit configured to detect a correction amount of the image stabilization unit, a distortion correction amount calculation unit configured to calculate a distortion correction amount of an image, a motion vector detection unit arranged in the camera body to detect a motion vector from the image captured by the image sensor, and a signal processing unit configured to correct the image based on the motion vector and an output from the distortion correction amount calculation unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique of realizing satisfactory image stabilization in a lens-interchangeable image capture apparatus capable of movie shooting.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, not only still cameras but also video cameras of a lens-interchangeable type have been commercialized. Along with popularization of large-screen televisions and improvement of the video quality, these products have received attention as a means for obtaining a video the user expects. As a lens to be used, these products are designed to use, for example, an interchangeable lens for a single-lens reflex camera. The user can apply the property he always has. The image stabilization performance of image capture devices such as a video camera is improving year by year, and even a large blur generated when the user walks or runs can be corrected on the wide angle side of the lens.
Considering the image stabilization performance of a lens-interchangeable camera system, when an image stabilization shift lens arranged in the lens is greatly moved to correct a large blur during walking or the like on the wide angle side, some optical performances such as the peripheral brightness and MTF may be impaired. To stop a large blur during walking in this system, electronic correction needs to be performed in the camera. A large blur is corrected using extra pixels of an image sensor mounted in the camera for image stabilization.
As this image sensor, a CMOS sensor is often used nowadays. This is because the CMOS sensor has higher sensitivity, smaller power consumption, and lower cost, compared to a CCD sensor, and can read out data of each pixel at random. However, when electronic correction is performed by the CMOS sensor, a wobbling image distortion occurs under the influence of a rolling shutter distortion, causing an adverse effect such that the user who views the movie feels motion sickness.
As a method of correcting the rolling shutter distortion, Japanese Patent No. 3925415 discloses a method of correcting a rolling shutter distortion by using a gyro sensor output. Japanese Patent No. 4340915 discloses a method of detecting a motion vector from a captured video and correcting a rolling shutter distortion by using the detection result. By correcting the rolling shutter distortion, even an image capture apparatus which incorporates a CMOS sensor and performs electronic correction for a camera shake can achieve satisfactory image stabilization.
However, the rolling shutter distortion correction using motion vector detection has problems such as a correction error arising from a motion vector detection error, and a long processing time. It is therefore difficult to use this correction in movie processing directly. When distortion correction is performed using a gyro signal, an output from a gyro sensor arranged in the lens or camera is used. In a camera system in which an optical image stabilization mechanism is mounted in a lens, an image formed on the CMOS sensor is an image having undergone optical axis correction by the image stabilization mechanism. That is, the correlation between a gyro output and a formed video is lost. For this reason, if a rolling shutter distortion is corrected simply using only a gyro output, the influence of the distortion is not completely removed, or over-correction is executed, leaving a wobbling image.

Image capture system, control method thereof and image capture apparatus


It is possible to control electronic documents for partial disclosures and non-disclosures and prove to the third party that information other than non-disclosure part thereof has not been altered and the originality of decrypted information is assured. There is provided a section that controls electronic information for partial disclosures and non-disclosures according to conditions and situations such as viewers, systems and time and also a technological concept for proving to the third party that information other than non-disclosure part thereof has not been altered and the originality of decrypted information is assured, while controlling electronic information for partial disclosures and non-disclosures, by generating partial signature information (to be referred to as piat signature information in the embodiment of this invention which is described hereinafter) apart from the text of electronic information, dividing it for holding and separating the function and the role of electronic information and those of partial signature information (verifying information).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic document management program, an electronic document management system and an electronic document management method that make it possible to prove to the third party that electronic data other than non-disclosed information are unaltered and the originality of decrypted information is assured, while controlling electronic data for partial disclosures and non-disclosures.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a result of the development of IT in recent years, the mode of usage and storage of administrative documents of central and local governments and books and contracts of private enterprises are gradually shifting from paper to electrons (digital signals). More specifically, it is already currently easy to turn paper documents into electronic data as scanners are being widely and popularly used. Additionally, as the resolution of scanners is improved, electronic storage of paper documents that has not hitherto been permitted is currently accepted provided that such a form of storage meets certain security requirements.
Meanwhile, as the demand for electronic storage of documents and images increases, techniques for safely storing and managing electronic data become indispensable. It is commonly accepted that technological requirements such as "detection and prevention of falsifications", "identification of the person who prepared a document", "access management and access control" and "history management" have to be met for electronically storing documents that have been stored on paper, while maintaining the level of trustworthiness of paper documents. Known document management systems are functionally not satisfactory for meeting those requirements. Therefore, efforts have been and being paid for developing and marketing "originality assurance systems" that meet those technological requirements.
The security element technique that is being most popularly used for "originality assurance systems" is electronic signature. It is possible to identify the person who prepared a document (identity) by means of electronic signature and prove and confirm that the document has not been altered (unfalsifiedness) since the time of preparation of the document to the third party. A technique of time stamp is also known. It is a technique that resembles electronic signature but, with time stamp, it is possible to prove the clock time when an electronic document is finalized in addition to the functions of electronic signature. Three related known techniques will be described below.
(1) Technique of Storing Original Electronic Documents
Patent Documents 1 and 2 (Jpn. Pat. Appln. Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-285024 and Jpn. Pat. Appln. Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-117820) are known as technique for assuring the originality of an electronic document.
(2) Technique of Blotting Out Electronic Documents
A method of solving the problem of blotting out electronic documents is proposed in Non-Pat. Document 1 (Information Processing Society/Computer Security Committee (CSEC) Paper "The Problem of Blotting out Electronic Documents" (Jul. 17, 2003) (2003-CSEC-22-009). Non-Pat. Document 2 (SCIS2004 Paper "A Technique of Blotting out Electronic Documents that can Control Disclosure Conditions").
(3) XACML (Extensible Access Control Markup Language)
This technique is authorized as standard by the OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) and provides specifications for defining the right of accessing XML (extensible Markup Language) documents. With this technique, it is possible to describe "who" can access a resource at "what place" and by what "right". In other words, it is possible to control accesses that require judgment on complex conditions such as "users over twenty" or "only registered users".
The prior art originality assurance is directed to documents whose originals are stored at clearly identifiable places. In other words, the prior art is based on an idea similar to that of storing paper documents in key-locked lockers in the sense of managing the originals in a finalized format in safety. Then, in such an original storing environment, electronic signature is very effective for assuring the identify of a person and the unfalsifiedness of a document in such conditions.
However, from the viewpoint of originality assurance of documents to be subjected directly to additions, corrections, partial manipulations such as concealment and processing and circulated around such as letters of application and those of proposal, the general technique of electronic signature can make an obstacle because it does not allow any processing by natures. In other words, the prior art does not take manipulations, processing and circulations of documents into consideration and is centered at storing electronic data by means of electronic signature.
Now, the problems of the prior art of (1) through (3) listed above will be discussed below.
(1) Technique of Storing Original Electronic Documents
Pat. Documents 1 and 2 provide a technique of providing electronic information with characteristics of original paper documents when electronic data are stored and protecting electronic data against falsifications and, if falsified, detecting falsifications.
Thus, this technique is developed by paying attention on the mechanism of safely storing and managing electronic documents in the finalized format as originals whose places of storage are clearly identifiable in an organization.
In such an original storing environment, when an electronic document is corrected, if partly, the correction is recognized as "falsification". For example, when "correcting a letter of contract written on paper", "a character to be corrected is overwritten by double lines and sealed by the corrector, and the right character is written in a space located right above". If the character is corrected, the original of the letter of contract remains as proper and authentic original.
As far as paper is concerned, such an action of correction is officially judged to have followed proper procedures and its validity and authenticity can be proved to the third party.
On the other hand, if the conventional technique of storing an original is applied to an electronic document, there arises a problem that it is not possible to determine if the corrected part is a falsification or a correction made by following proper procedures because current electronic signature is designed and characterized in that any alteration made on electronic data can be detected.
(2) Technique of Blotting Out Electronic Documents
The paper on "the problem of blotting out electronic documents" proposes a technique of blotting out electronic documents that can dissolve the problem that the signature put to a document cannot be verified when the document is partly hidden. Thus, by applying the technique of blotting out electronic documents according to the paper, it is possible to verify the signature of a signed electronic document even when it is blotted out and prove to the third party that the document is not altered except the blotted out part or parts "to make it possible to prove to the third party in a condition of partly concealing (blotting out) the contents".
However, the technique of blotting out electronic documents according to the above-cited paper only assures the person who prepared an original document but cannot identify the person who blotted it out, if partly. Additionally, the paper describes a conceivable scene of utilization where the problem of blotting out electronic documents arises in an information disclosure system and an inhabitant argues with an administrative agency. In other words, the paper is written without taking a situation where a partly blotted out document is circulated among a plurality of entities and used by them into consideration.
Additionally, the technique replaces a blotted out part of an electronic document with hash information. In other words, it cannot control an electronic document for partial disclosures and non-disclosures depending on the condition and the situation of each viewer. Furthermore, the viewer cannot confirm and prove if non-disclosure part of information is prepared by the person who prepared the document and has not been altered.
(3) XACML (extensible Access Control Markup Language): Specification for Establishing the Right of Access to XML Documents
This technique makes it possible to control "who" can access a resource at "what place" and by what "right". This known technique is realized by specifically relying on the fact that electronic documents can be controlled for partial disclosures and non-disclosures and it is possible to prove that non-disclosure part of information is not leaked to other than the entities (persons and systems) authorized for viewing. In other words, it is not possible to prove that information other than non-disclosure part thereof has not been altered (originality, integrity) and confirm or prove that non-disclosure part of information is prepared by the person who prepared the document and has not been altered.

Electronic document management program, electronic document management system and electronic document management method


A method for recovering spin locks in a system having one or more processes capable of accessing a shared resource, the system providing a lock indicating exclusive access to the shared resource by a single process and enabling one or more processes to repeatedly attempt to gain access to the lock when ownership of the shared resource is desired. The method includes generating a linked list queue structure containing a first process currently having exclusive access to the lock and one or more processes added to the queue structure to spin on the lock, each process capable of modifying the queue structure by obtaining exclusive access of the lock from a process having exclusive access of the lock and releasing the lock to another process in the linked list queue structure; detecting when one or more processes having exclusive access to the lock terminates, and upon detection, removing the terminated process from the queue structure, and restoring consistency to said linked list queue structure.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a shared memory computer system 10 that includes plurality of processes P1, P2, . . . , Pn-1, Pn operating simultaneously and in parallel under the control of a virtual operating system 14. In such shared memory computing environments, each process is capable of directly addressing memory, indicated generally as 12, and particularly, the processes may simultaneously access a memory resource 13, creating the possibility of collision. It is understood that processes may simultaneously access a hardware or other shared resource. Thus, such a system requires a mechanism for ensuring mutually exclusive access to the shared resource, e.g., 13.
A primitive concept for providing mutual exclusion in the virtual operating system 14 and preventing conflict between two or more processors attempting to access the shared memory location is to provide a semaphore which is a mutual exclusion construct or variable having values of either binary "0" or "1" that is implemented to provide mutual exclusion. However, operating system implemented semaphores may require context switching leading to overhead on the order of thousands of instructions. As a result, such semaphores are usually quite expensive to implement. If semaphores are frequently acquired and released, and if most acquisitions are uncontested (i.e., the semaphore is not held, and no other process is trying to acquire it), then the overhead of operating system semaphores can dominate the cost of computation.
Hardware supported semaphore implementations have been developed that guarantee mutual exclusion. For instance, semaphore implementations based on hardware provided processes such as test-and-set or compare-and-swap have been developed that are several orders of magnitude faster than operating system semaphores in that they consist of instructions that atomically read and then write to a single memory location. If a number of processors simultaneously attempt to update the same location, each processor will wait its turn. For critical sections operating on the shared memory structure, a lock is needed to provide mutual exclusion, and the atomic instructions are used to arbitrate between simultaneous attempts to acquire the lock. If the lock is busy, the processor attempting to acquire the lock can either relinquish its desire to obtain the lock so it can do other work, or it can wait or "spin" until the lock is released. In particular, an implementation in which a process repeatedly tries to acquire the lock in a tight loop is called a spin lock and the activity or retrying is known as "busy waiting" or simply "spinning".
In elementary spin lock algorithms, all processors operating in a multi-processor system frequently access and attempt to write to a single lock control variable to obtain access to the shared memory location. On most modem computer architectures, each processor will also attempt to cache the control variable, i.e., spin on locations in their caches. Since each update (or possibly even each attempted update that uses a synchronization instruction) will lead to cache invalidation messages being sent to all other processors, such elementary algorithms can overburden the caching system and hence, are not viable for processor-scalable architectures, i.e., shared memory multiprocessors of arbitrary size.
Many alternative software implemented elementary spin lock algorithms have been devised and the reader is directed to Anderson, Thomas E., "The Performance of Spin Lock Alternatives for Shared Memory Multiprocessors", I.E.E.E. Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 6-16, January 1990, and Graunke, Gary, et al., "Synchronization Algorithms for Shared Memory Multiprocessors", I.E.E.E. Computer, Vol. 23, No. 6, pp. 60-69, June 1990, for an assessment of performance characteristics. One spin lock, in particular, is an array based queuing spin lock that comprises an explicit FIFO queue of spinning processors that spin on their own lock flag in a separate cache block associated with the process. When one processor finishes executing on the shared resource, it de-queues itself and sets the flag of the next processor in the queue that is waiting for exclusive access to the resource, i.e., it passes ownership of the lock. The array-based queuing spin lock makes use of a variety of hardware supported instructions.
One protocol called the MCS-lock protocol was developed to enable each lock acquisition and release with as a small number of accesses to remote memory locations. A detailed description of this protocol is to be found in John M. Mellor-Crummey and Michael L. Scott, "Algorithms for Scalable Synchronization on Shared-Memory Multiprocessors", A.C.M. Transactions on Computer Systems, 9(1):21-65, February 1991 (hereinafter the "MCS algorithm") the contents and disclosure of which are wholly incorporated by reference herein.
In the MCS algorithm, the spin lock acquisition queue is constructed dynamically by swap instructions, which is an atomically implemented function provided in the multiprocessing system architecture that exchanges the contents of a register with memory. In this algorithm, each processor of the multiprocessing system spins on a different variable in a different cache frame, with the first process in the queue holding the lock, and the next process in the queue acquiring the lock when the lock holding processor releases it. By assuring that 0(1) cache-invalidation messages will be sent by any acquisition or release of the lock in non-error cases, adding new processors does not significantly increase bus and invalidation traffic--thus, the scalability property is obtained. FIG. 1 illustrates the multiprocessing system including the MCS-algorithm spin-lock acquisition and release features 20. In the MCS-algorithm, an atomically implemented compare-and-swap function may be used for the transition during lock release from a queue to determine if it is the only processor in the queue, and, if so, to remove itself from the queue upon release of the lock Specifically, compare-and-swap compares the contents of a memory location against a first given value, returns a condition code to the user to indicate whether they are equal or not, and if they are equal, replaces the contents of the memory location with a second given value. For example, if the contents of the memory location are not equal, a NULL value may be returned.
FIG. 2A illustrates a queue node Qnode 15 that is associated with each process P1, P2, . . . , Pn of the multiprocessing system and that is a readable/writable data record or structure comprising a memory register or memory location located in the processor cache (not shown). In the MCS-algorithm, the Qnode 15 is constructed to contain a field having a locked flag 21 the contents of which represents the status of the spin lock for that process and having a value indicating whether the process owns the lock (OWNED) or whether the process is spinning (WAITING) prior to lock acquisition, or whether the lock has been released (RELEASED), i.e., the lock has been transferred to the next process in the queue. As shown in FIG. 2A, the Qnode 15 also contains a next pointer 23, which is the queue link and comprises an address location of the next member of the queue structure that will hold the lock.
FIG. 2B illustrates the lock acquisition queue structure 30 which is a linked list of one or more Qnodes 15.sub.1, 15.sub.2, . . . , 15.sub.n corresponding to one or more processors P1, . . . , Pn, one of which is holding (owns) the lock and having exclusive access to the shared resource, and the remainder of which are spinning (waiting) on a lock as indicated by the value in their locked flags. Usually, the first process Qnode, e.g., 15.sub.1, of the queue 30 holds the lock and the subsequent processes desiring to acquire the lock are spinning on the lock with its next pointer, e.g., 23.sub.1, pointing to the address of the locked flag of the next Qnode, e.g., 15.sub.2, of the queue that is to hold the lock, e.g., 21.sub.2. To add a new processor to the queue that desires lock ownership, a spin lock acquisition function is implemented by the processing system 10 which utilizes the swap function atomically to add the new processor to the queue. As shown in FIG. 2B, the MCS algorithm also makes use of a lock structure 24 which is represented by a single variable called a lock tail 25 that always points to the last node, e.g., 15.sub.n, on the queue as shown by the broken arrow and may be atomically updated by invocation of the swap and/or compare-and-swap functions.
The MCS-algorithm is vulnerable to process failure in the respect that if a process terminates while waiting for the lock, once it receives the lock it will never release it. Similarly while owning or releasing the lock, the death of the process will prevent ownership from being passed on. Particularly difficult is the window of time between an initial swap in the lock acquisition code and a subsequent assignment which links the new node into the queue by filling the next field of the predecessor process. If a process has died or terminated after executing the swap, and before setting the next field, then the queue will become "broken" at that point. Thus, in pathological cases involving multiple process failures occurring in this same window, the queue becomes fragmented into separate lists.
In attempting to recover this fragmented list, it is difficult to distinguish between a next field which has not been set due to a terminated process from one which has not been set due to a very slow process.
In view of this drawback, there is the necessity to provide in a multiprocessor system, a recoverable lock, i.e., one that does not become permanently unavailable even if one or more of the processes accessing the lock terminates. An implementation of a recoverable lock would afford the system the ability to determine when a process terminates and to make the lock available again. The capability of recovering a spinning lock is particularly useful for servers such as transaction processors which consist of several processes which are often in continuous operation. The ability to determine the process having exclusive access of a standard spinning lock in spite of any sequence of process failures is a key requirement for recoverability. If the process having exclusive access can be reliably determined, then the shared data guarded by the lock can be returned to use if that process has terminated. However, such processes cannot be determined, a lock held by a terminated process is not easily distinguishable from a lock held by a very slow process.
In view of this, it would be highly desirable to provide a recoverable spin lock protocol that maintains the integrity of the spinning lock queue structure should there be a failure of the process having exclusive access to the lock or termination or failure of one or more of the spinning locks.


A ternary near eutectic alloy of Ni, Ti, Cr is described having a relatively low melting temperature of approximately 1230 deg. C. or less, suitable for fusing cracks in turbine blades and vanes without substantial risk of cracking during the repair process. Such an alloy is suitable for low temperature joining or repair of turbine blades since it contains the same components as typical turbine blades and vanes without foreign elements to lower the melting point of the repaired material or adversely affect the mechanical properties of the repaired component. Exclusion of boron eliminates the formation of brittle boron compounds, detrimental to the properties of the repair or seam.

Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the repair of superalloy components, and in particular, to superalloy components used in gas turbines, and most particularly, to Ni—Ti—Cr near ternary eutectic alloys for effecting such repairs.
Background and Related Art
Superalloys are typically understood to be high-temperature materials which display excellent resistance to mechanical and chemical degradation of properties even as temperatures approach the melting points of the materials. Ni superalloys are based upon nickel (Ni) and typically contain significant amounts of numerous other elements such as chromium (Cr), aluminum (Al), titanium (Ti), tungsten (W), cobalt (Co), tantalum (Ta), carbon (C), among others. The high-temperature superalloys found early application in aircraft turbine engines. Since a higher operating temperature typically leads to increased fuel efficiency and lower carbon emissions, causing superalloys to find increasing uses in ground-bases turbine systems as well. For example, see The Superalloys, by Roger C. Reed, (Cambridge University Press, 2006, particularly Chapter 1. The entire contents of this reference is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.
Thus, as superalloys are used in greater numbers of airborne and ground-based turbine systems, and operated at higher temperatures, increasing number of blades vanes and other components are subject to cracking and other forms of material degradation requiring repair. It is important that the repair of such turbine components be effectively carried out to result in repaired components having properties as close as possible to those of the original components.
The economic importance of superalloys has generated considerable research in their welding and repair. See, for example, Welding Metallurgy and Weldability of Nickel-Base Alloys, by J. N. DuPont, J. C. Lippold, Samuel D. Kiser (John Wiley & Sons, 2009), particularly Chapter 4. The entire contents of this reference is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.
In spite of this considerable amount of research, problems still arise in the joining or repair of superalloy components. Typically, shortcomings of other approaches include cracking during or after repair, short service life of the repaired component, increased brittleness, among other problems. Thus, a need exists in the art for improved methods and materials for the repair of superalloy turbine components.

Ni—Ti—CR near ternary eutectic alloy for gas turbine component repair


An Inverted Cylindrical Magnetron (ICM) System and Methods of Use is disclosed herein generally comprising a co-axial central anode concentrically located within a first annular end anode and a second annular end anode; a process chamber including a top end and a bottom end in which the first annular end anode and the second annular end anode are coaxially disposed, whereby the first annular end anode, the second annular end anode, and the central anode form a 3-anode configuration to provide electric field uniformity, and the process chamber including a central annular space coupled to a tube insulator disposed about the central annular space wall; a cathode concentrically coupled to the tube insulator and a target; and a plurality of multi-zone electromagnets or hybrid electro-permanent magnets surrounding the exterior of the process chamber providing a tunable magnetic field.

The invention generally relates to inverted cylindrical magnetron sources and the methods of use.
The use of magnetron sputtering in the rapid deposition of metal films, reactively sputtered compound films and etching processes has found broad acceptance. The most-used type is the planar magnetron and its deposition profile and shown that the uniformity of the film thickness depends on the plasma sheath thickness and the magnetic field strength. The so-called inverted cylindrical magnetron (ICM), in which the target is a cylinder eroded by the sputtering plasma at the inner surface, is more complicated in target geometry and bonding, and hence its greater fabrication cost.
In addition, conventional ICM sources are developed mainly for single substrate deposition and have only annular end-anodes as the actual anodes. Imaginary central virtual anode (plasma with potential equal to the end-anode potential) provide electron-conducting path along axial direction without blocking deposition flux. However, such virtual anode forming along magnetic field lines is still inferior as the magnetic field lines are curved to cathode side towards two ends, and also the virtual anode is subject to operation conditions and actual hardware design. Under some ICM operation conditions, plasma impedance can be quite high such that the electrical field uniformity is not as good as that with actual anode (made of metal: very low resistance).
With conventional art, the chamber wall is electrically connected to the target as the cathode and thus electrical insulator at each end is required. Those electrical insulators are normally made of brazed ceramics-metal tubular structure, which will add alignment error and can still be subject to electrical short due to metallic deposits.
Conventional art ICM sources using metallic bonded target to copper tube is very expensive and has significant operation temperature limit due to lower melting point of bonding materials, which makes it almost impossible for high deposition rate applications. For some applications that require specific target temperature control, copper construction may lead to temperature non-uniformity due to copper's very high heat conductivity and relatively lower heat capacitance.
The prior art of ICM magnetron uses permanent magnets and has only fixed magnetic field and inherently suffers from non-uniform target erosion and related film deposition non-uniformity. Implementation of some motion mechanisms can help improve the uniformity to certain extent, but it creates hardware complexity and is still lacking easy magnetic field tunability, which cannot meet stringent requirements of high demanding applications such as ultra-precise stoichiometry control in medical device material deposition that exceeds known PVD film applications at over 1 um thickness range.
In the conventional configuration, the endcap is made of metallic component such as a cathode end flange to electrically reflect high energy electron back into plasma so that "end losses to anode" can be significantly reduced. Although the main cathode/target is sputtered, the cathode end flange should be of the same material or coated with the same target materials when contamination is not tolerable and very high purity coating is required.
Conventional coil design applies a single zone solenoid coil and suffers non-uniform magnetic flux density along the axial direction. Multiple solenoid coils in series suffer from non-smooth magnetic field transition profiles. And conventional ICM magnetron sputtering has fixed substrate-to-target distance per equipment design and it is normally not an available process-tuning knob.
The present invention attempts to solve these problems as well as others in order to meet stringent requirements of high demanding applications.

Inverted cylindrical magnetron (ICM) system and methods of use


An oral dosage form comprising,    (i) an erodable core, which core comprises a pharmaceutically active weak base or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or solvate thereof; and    (ii) an erodable coating surrounding said core, which coating comprises one or more openings extending substantially completely through said coating but not penetrating said core and communicating from the environment of use to said core;characterized in that release of the pharmaceutically active weak base or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or solvate thereof from the dosage form occurs through the said opening(s) by the erosion of said erodable core and through erosion of said erodable coating under pre-determined pH conditions; a process for preparing such a dosage form and the use of such a dosage form in medicine.

The use of a coating to control the rate of release of an active agent has received considerable attention and many different devices have been developed for such a purpose. For example, International Patent Application, Publication Number WO 01/05430 describes a drug delivery device that enables the delivery of drug substances which exhibit pH dependent solubility, in particular compounds that are more soluble at low pH levels (less than pH 2) than at near neutral levels (greater than about pH 5). Such delivery devices are characterised by the presence of a coating that is impermeable and insoluble in the fluid of the environment of use.
International patent application, Publication Number WO 95/30422 describes a series of controlled-release dosage forms of azithromycin. In particular, there is described a series of dosage forms that reduce the exposure of the upper GI tract (e.g. the stomach) to high concentrations of azithromycin, by the use of a pH dependent coating. Such dosage forms do not feature openings through which release of the drug substance may occur.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,099,859 describes a controlled release tablet for the delivery of an antihyperglycemic drug, which comprises an osmotically active drug-containing core and a semipermeable membrane, wherein the semipermeable membrane is permeable to the passage of water and biological fluids and is impermeable to the passage of the drug substance. The semipermeable membrane contains at least one passageway for the release of the antihyperglycemic drug.
Additional devices that utilise a coating to control the rate of release of an active agent are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,614. This patent describes a tablet core provided with an outer coating that is substantially impermeable to environmental fluid. The said outer coating may be prepared from materials that are either insoluble or soluble in the environmental fluids. Where a soluble material is used, the coating is of sufficient thickness that the core is not exposed to environmental fluid before the desired duration of the controlled release of the active agent has passed. Through this impermeable outer coating, one or more opening(s) has been created, so as to provide environmental fluids with an access route to the core. Therefore, upon ingestion of the coated tablet, gastro-intestinal fluid can enter the opening(s) and contact or penetrate the core, to release the active agent. The result is that the active agent is released in a controlled manner out of the opening(s) only. The preferred geometry is such that there is a circular hole on the top and bottom face of the coated tablet. The opening(s) in question have an area from about 10 to 60 percent of the face area of the coated tablet. The rate of drug release is found to be directly related to the diameter of the opening(s) and to the solubility of the matrix core and active agent, allowing the possibility for a variety of drug release profiles be it zero or first order release.
This invention is based on the finding that the substantially impermeable coatings of U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,614 are not suitable for the controlled release of all active agents, especially pharmaceutically active weak bases or pharmaceutically acceptable salts and solvates thereof. Such active agents exhibit a marked pH dependent solubility, i.e. they are more soluble at around pH 2, associated with regions found in the stomach, compared to their solubility in the generally neutral conditions of the small intestine, around pH 7.
We have found that for administration of a pharmaceutically active weak base or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or solvate thereof, where it is desirable that release of the active compound takes place in more than one pH environment, it is beneficial for the coating to be erodable or soluble in a pH dependent manner.

Oral dosage form for controlled drug release


System and method for digitally signing messages using multi-party computation.

Several cryptocurrency protocols requiring signing of transactions for operations related to management of a cryptocurrency protocol. Such transactions are typically separate from transactions for transfer of cryptocurrency assets. Ordinarily, a private key is used to sign such transactions. However, accessing and using such a private key for transaction signing can increase the likelihood of the private key being accessed by an unauthorized entity.
There is a need in the computer networking field to create a new and useful systems and methods for secure signing of transactions. This disclosure provides such new and useful systems and methods.

Systems and methods for generating signatures


A plurality of antenna elements, each of which has first and second linear conductors whose first ends are electrically interconnected are formed. The antenna elements are arranged in plane in such a way that the first and second linear conductors are alternated and separated from one another at regular intervals, thereby forming one or more array antennas which are disposed in a chamber. The second ends of the first linear conductors are connected to a high-frequency power supply, and the second ends of the second linear conductors are connected to ground. A plurality of substrates are parallel placed on both sides of the array antennas at distances approximate to the distances between the linear conductors. A film is formed by introducing an ingredient gas into the chamber.

There are great expectations for solar cells as clean energy sources, whereas further reduction of cost is necessary to attempt extensive diffusion. For this purpose, a thin film formation apparatus capable of uniform deposition of high quality amorphous silicon (hereafter "a-Si") thin film on larger substrates is desired.
Moreover, a tandem structure solar cell, where a-Si solar cell is stacked on microcrystalline silicon (hereafter, "μc-Si") solar cell, gives higher conversion efficiency than a-Si used individually. Therefore, a thin film formation apparatus for the deposition of μc-Si thin film is also desired.
As an art of thin film formation apparatus, Japanese unexamined patent publication No. S59-014633 discloses an art of a capacitively-coupled parallel plate type plasma CVD apparatus.

Method for forming thin film and apparatus therefor

Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co., Ltd.


A pair of pivotally attached handles are normally displaced away from each other via a spring biasing arrangement, and are displaced toward each other as by squeezing the handles against the spring bias. A wire or pin is introduced into a fixed fracture or osteotomy and an end thereof is received in an angled slot at an operating portion of one of the handles so that when the handles are squeezed against the spring bias the operating portions of both of the handles cooperate to bend the wire or pin to prevent migration or skin puncture, as the case may be.

This invention relates generally to surgical instruments and, particularly, to a surgical instrument for stabilizing and bending a wire or pin such as used after either internal or external fixation of fractures or surgical osteotomies.
When a fracture or osteotomy of a bone is surgically fixed, it is necessary to hold the fracture or osteotomy in place until healing occurs. This is often accomplished via a wire or pin, or the like which is left buried under the patient's skin or exposed external the skin. After the pin or wire is introduced it is usually bent to prevent migration or skin puncture, as the case may be.
Prior to the present invention, the aforenoted bending has been accomplished using a pair of clamps. One of the pair of clamps is used to stabilize the position of the wire or pin and the other clamp is used to bend same. With an arrangement of the type described, there is the danger of losing the desired stability while manipulating the wire or pin.
The applicant is aware of the following patents which relate generally to wire manipulating apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,421,553 which issued to Redman on Jan. 14, 1966 (U.S. Class 140-106), discloses wire-bending pliers, which are provided with integral cutoff blade portions (20) and (22), column 2, lines 9-10, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3. These blades are immediately adjacent the portion of the pliers adapted to receive a piece of wire. If a piece of wire is engaged between faces (28) and (30), and the pliers are squeezed, then two 90 degree bends are imparted to the wire to form a substantially Z-shaped right angled stepped or joggled portion (40), column 2, lines 42-45, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,357,460 which issued to Gowura on Oct. 12, 1965 (U.S. Class 140-106), discloses a wire-forming implement, which can be operated in the same manner as a pair of pliers. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, a wire (54) may be inserted into the implement, and after the handles are squeezed, the implement imparts two 90 degree bends in the wire, as shown in FIG. 7 (column 2, lines 48-55).
U.S. Pat. No. 2,591,649 which issued to Whiting on Jan. 13, 1948 (U.S. Class 7-5.4) discloses a wire former and stripper, which is also operated in the same manner as a pair of pliers. A portion of the wire which has been stripped of insulation may be placed into the device, and when the device is compressed, it imparts a generally U-shaped bend in the wire, as shown by FIG. 7.
U.S. Pat. No. 715,674 which issued to Lemon on Dec. 9, 1902 (no class indicated) discloses a pin bender, which is likewise operated in the same manner as a pair of pliers. When a pin is placed into the device, and the device is compressed, two 90 degree bends are imparted to the pin, as shown by FIG. 4.
None of the above patents teaches or suggests the structure of the present invention as will be hereinafter described. Moreover, these patents relate to devices such as used by electricians, mechanics, or the like and are not within the confines of the surgical instrument art as is the present invention.

Surgical instrument used in conjunction with fixation of fractures or surgical osteotomies


A graphical user interface arrangement for use in connection with a computer system, the computer system providing a plurality of accessible resources. The graphical user interface arrangement enables the computer system to display graphical images from one or more of a plurality of image sets as selected by the user, and is responsive to user resource information display input to enable the display of resource identification information from a resource list that is associated with a displayed image. In response to user resource selection input selecting a resource identified in the displayed resource identification information, the graphical user interface arrangement provides access to the associated resource.

Over the past several years, the processing power, information storage capacity and flexibility of computer systems such as personal computers have increased markedly. As a result, personal computers are finding increased use in business and, in particular, the home. Powerful personal computers permit the user to process data that is stored on the computer itself, and also to access myriad amounts of information over computer networks such as the Internet.
There are, however, several problems that reduce the efficient use of computers by the general public. One problem arises from the computers increased information storage capacity, namely, that it becomes more difficult for a user to find information on the computer. Information is typically stored in files, which, in turn, are organized in tree-structured "folders" (in an Apple Macintosh.RTM.) or "directories" (in an IBM-compatible Personal Computer). Although the user can name the folders, directories and files with mnemonic names which may suggest the types of information stored therein, it often becomes difficult to find files, particularly as the number of folders, directories and files that a computer can store increases. A second problem arises when a user attempts to obtain information over a computer network such as the Internet. Typically, communication with a particular information provider over the Internet requires use of arcane communications protocols, including providing complex addresses to identify the provider. Protocol errors, such as typographical errors in providing the addresses, can make communications with an information provider quite frustrating if not impossible for novice computer users.

Uniform mnemonic associations of computer resources to graphical images


The present invention pertains to a screwdriver blade. The screwdriver blade comprises a shank having a central axis and a tip portion which extends from the shank. The tip portion has a pair of opposing concave driving faces and a concave terminal end surface. The concave driving faces are torsidal having a first radius R.sub.1 disposed in a plane which is parallel to the central axis. The first radius R.sub.1 has a center disposed at a distance x from a side edge of the concave terminal end surface. The concave driving faces have a second radius R.sub.2 disposed in a plane perpendicular to the central axis. The terminal end surface is cylindrical and has a third radius R.sub.3 which is disposed in a plane perpendicular to the plane through first radius R.sub.1. The tip portion has a width b and a maximum thickness c and preferably, 0.2b.ltoreq. x.ltoreq. 0.5b, 0.2b.ltoreq. R.sub.1 .ltoreq.b, R.sub.2 =Kb.sup.2 /c where K is a constant and 0.5R.sub. 2 .ltoreq.R.sub.3 .ltoreq.2R.sub. 2 and the angle .alpha. between a line tangent to R.sub.1 at the maximum thickness c and the central axis is between 15.degree. and 45.degree.. In one embodiment, x= 0.5b, R.sub.1 =b, R.sub.2 =0.32b.sup. 2 /c and R.sub.3 =R.sub.2 and .alpha.= 30.degree..

It is known that during the turning of a screw with a screwdriver, the tip of an ordinary screwdriver with a planar blade is twisted due to the material of the tip undergoing elastic deformation. This twisting causes the tip to assume a spiral shape that results in a longitudinal force, along the screwdriver axis, pulling the screwdriver tip out from the screw spline. As a result, the edges of both operating sides of the screwdriver are rubbed out increasing the pulling effects. This destroys the screwdriver tip as well as the screw spline. This backfeed effect is illustrated in FIGS. 5a and 5b.
The present invention prevents this backfeed effect by providing a screwdriver tip which is specifically shaped such that when it is deformed during turning, the tip assumes a flat shape against the screw spline. In this manner, the screwdriver tip cannot push away from the screw spline to cause backfeed.


A process for removing chlorophyll color impurities from vegetable oils, the process comprises:. i) dispersing a source of phosphoric acid in vegetable oil to form a mixture having a moisture content of less than 0.1% by weight which mixture is maintained at a temperature in the range of 70.degree. C. to 160.degree. C. until a precipitate containing chlorophyll color impurities is formed; and PA1 ii) at any time thereafter during conventional oil processing up to and including the removal of bleaching clay from the oil, separating the precipitated material from the oil to remove the chlorophyll color impurities with the precipitated material.

Raw vegetable oils obtained from crushing vegetable seeds require considerable processing to provide commercially acceptable products.
The standard processing steps for treatment of vegetable oils are outlined in many reference journals, articles and textbooks. Examples of such treatments are found in "Rape Seed Chemistry and Technology", Elsevier Science Publishers 1990, H. Niewiadomski: "High and Low Erucic Acid Rapeseed Oils", Kramer et al., Academic Press 1983; and Bailey's Industrial Oil and Fat Products, Volume 2, 4th Edition, John Wiley & sons.
The standard steps in the treatment of raw vegetable oils include:
i) degumming of the raw oil to remove by separation hydrophyllic materials which include phospholipids,
ii) optionally, phosphoric acid pretreatment of degummed oils may be carried out to remove remaining phospholipids with the removal of at least some chlorophyll color impurities, such precipitate being removed from the treated oils before the next step to avoid the resolubilization of precipitates,
iii) neutralizing the oil with a neutralizing agent and separating the developed soaps from the neutralized oil,
iv) optionally, water washing the oil to remove the residual soaps developed during neutralization,
v) treating the neutralized oil with bleaching clay to remove the remaining chlorophyll color impurities as well as other residual material remaining from neutralization such as soaps, phospholipids and carotenoid compounds, and
vi) deodorizing the bleached oil to provide an oil having a commercially acceptable flavor and color.
A process for treating vegetable oils is marketed under the trade-mark ZENITH PROCESS. It is available from Campro Agra Limited, Mississauga, Canada. The ZENITH PROCESS comprises the steps of degumming an oil by use of phosphoric acid, separating the phosphoric acid sludge from the oil, neutralizing the free fatty acids in the oil, removing the developed precipitates including soap stock from the oil and bleaching the oil to remove any remaining chlorophyll color impurities. The process includes a final filtration step and, optionally, a deodorization step. In the ZENITH PROCESS and many other commercially available processes, the degumming step is conducted in the presence of an acid to assist in removal of the non-hydratable forms of phospholipids. It is now fairly common to use citric acid or malic acid as a degumming agent. Phosphoric acid has also been suggested for this purpose. The acid is thought to convert non-hydratable phospholipids to hydratable forms which can then be readily removed from an oil. In the ZENITH PROCESS, such treatment of an oil with phosphoric acid is carried out at temperatures in the range of 35.degree. C. to 50.degree. C. with no control of the moisture content in the oil.
Raw vegetables oils, depending upon their species, contain varying amounts of chlorophyll. It is generally recognized that oil from rapeseed and particular varieties thereof, namely canola, contain very high levels of chlorophyll; frequently, 10 to 30 ppm.
The presence of chlorophyll renders a raw oil a dark black/green color. Such oils also contain high levels of phospholipids commonly called, "gums". Canola and other raw vegetable oils are generally destined for commercial use where a light color is important; therefore, the chlorophyll color impurities have to be removed from the oils before processing into final commercial products.
Raw oil can be processed in accordance with conventional techniques for degumming an oil. Degumming is generally carried out by water treatment in which the hydrophyllic precipitates are removed by centrifugation. Commonly, an acid is used to enhance the removal of non-hydratable forms of phospholipids. Citric acid or malic acid is frequently used in oil degumming processes. When acid is used in deguming a raw oil the degumed oil is commonly referred to as, "super-degummed vegetable oil".
The chlorophyll color impurities are due to the presence of chlorophyll and its derivatives. For purposes of the discussion of this invention, it is understood that wherever the term chlorophyll is used it is intended to also include chlorophyll derivatives and degradation products. These compounds are oxidatively unstable. Their removal enhances the stability of an oil as well as its appearance.
The conventional method to remove chlorophyll color impurities is to use bleaching clay. This clay absorbs the chlorophyll color impurities thereby removing them for the oil. The high chlorophyll content of rapeseed and canola oils requires bleaching clay levels two to three times greater than that needed for other vegetable oils. A method for removing chlorophyll color impurities in canola oil either without the use of bleaching clay or with reduced amounts of clay is desirable so as to reduce both clay costs and oil losses and increase system throughout. Bleaching is often the rate limiting step for processing canola oil.
Investigations concerning the use of phosphoric acid as a degumming agent for vegetable oils and in particular rapeseed oil as well as use of phosphoric acid in the removal of chlorophyll color impurities from rapeseed oil have been reported by Helena Szemraj of the Institute of Fat and Oil Industry, Warsaw, in the papers entitled, "Review of Technological Method for Degumming Vegetable Oils" (1973), "Phosphoric Acid as a Deguming Agent for Rape Seed Oil" (1973) and "Effect of Phosphoric Acid on the Color Change in Rape Seed Oil" (1974). A process is described for reducing chlorophyll color impurities in the oil by treating degummed rapeseed oil having a moisture content not exceeding 0.05% by weight and treating the oils at temperatures in the range of 60.degree. C. to 65.degree. C.. The quantity of phosphoric acid used is in the range of 0.05% through 0.3% by weight of a 75% aqueous solution of phosphoric acid, H.sub.3 PO.sub.4. In this treatment a precipitate is formed which contains the chlorophyll color impurities. The precipitate is then removed from the oil by filtration using filter paper. This treatment with phosphoric acid reduced the chlorophyll color impurities in the oil. The reduction of the amount of chlorophyll color impurities was determined by spectrophotometric analysis of the oils performed in the visible range of the spectrum at a wavelength of 400 to 750 nm. Additions of 0.05% of 75% H.sub.3 PO.sub.4 reduced chlorophyll color impurities in the oils by 50% to 70%. Use of 0.1% by weight of 75% H.sub.3 PO.sub.4 reduced chlorophyll color impurities in the oil in the range of 60 to 90%. Mixing times in the range of 15 min. were required to effect the necessary precipitation of chlorophyll color impurities from the oil.
The practice described by Szemraj and Bergmann et al., Fette Seifen Anstrichmittel Vol. 66, No. 3, 1964 p. 203-206, "A New Method for Refining Edible Oils and Fats--The Zenith Process", includes removing the precipitate formed by the phosphoric acid treatment before the step of neutralizing the oil because neutralization will re-solubilize the precipitate and cause the chlorophyll color impurities to go back into solution. Hence, a significant drawback of these two techniques is the requirement of an intermediate separation step via filtration or centrifugation prior to neutralization. In a commercial practice, this results in a significant loss of oil plus increased costs of processing.

Process for removing chlorophyll color impurities from vegetable oils


A cushion having a fibrous foam architecture. The cushion has a trim cover and a number of fibrous layers attached to the trim cover. One or more structural properties of a fibrous layer can be controlled to differ from that of other layers.

Cushions are used for seating in automotive and other applications. Current cushion materials include foam made of polyurethane. Such material may not have recycled content and may not be breathable. The foam fabrication process may involve pouring polymer, epoxy, or another precursor into a mold or soft trim cavity. Further, cutting waste material off and glue application may also be required. This may be a time-consuming and laborious process. Trim to foam assembly may include hog ring, hook and loop, and/or clipping methods. In such methods, alignment tolerances may need to be maintained, mating surface limitations may need to be met, trenches and stitches may need to be provided and so on. Glue application storage and handling may also be required. Current manufacturing processes may be labor-intensive and time consuming.
Hence, there is a need for an improved foam architecture and associated manufacturing process that overcome the aforementioned drawbacks.


A method of performing red eye correction in an image including storing a high resolution image on a server computer, transmitting a low resolution image derived from the high resolution image, from the server computer to a client computer, displaying the low resolution image on a display device connected to the client computer, receiving from a user an indication of a selected location within the displayed low resolution image, partially automatically defining an outline of an area in the low resolution image within which area red eye correction is to be carried out, by the client computer, based on the user's selected location, carrying out red eye correction on the low resolution image only within the area, by the client computer, and transmitting parameters of the area from the client computer to the server computer. A system is also described and claimed.

Red eye removal in photographs is well known in the patent literature. The following U.S. patents are believed to represent the current state of the art:    U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,588 August 1981 Mir . . . 396/158    U.S. Pat. No. 4,315,024 February 1982 Abelson . . . 514/400    U.S. Pat. No. 4,978,989 December 1990 Nakano et al. . . . 396/088    U.S. Pat. No. 5,130,789 July 1992 Dobbs et al. . . . 358/500    U.S. Pat. No. 5,748,764 May 1998 Benati et al. . . . 382/117    U.S. Pat. No. 5,990,901 November 1999 Lawton et al. . . . 345/429    U.S. Pat. No. 5,990,973 November 1999 Sakamoto . . . 348/576    U.S. Pat. No. 6,009,209 December 1999 Acker et al. . . . 382/275    U.S. Pat. No. 6,016,354 January 2000 Lin et al. . . . 382/117
When photographs are taken of people using a digital or traditional film camera with a flash, a common artifact that can appear in the picture is referred to as "red eye." This artifact manifests itself as a red coloration within the iris of an eye, instead of the natural eye color, and is referred to as a "flash effect."
Red eye is caused by the reflection of light from a flash off of the blood vessels of the retinas of a subject's eyes. The size of the area affected by red eye increases with increased dilation of the eye.
One can try to reduce the red eye effect by increasing the light level in a room. Alternatively, one can have a subject look at a bright light, such as a room lamp, just before taking the flash picture. Both methods of red eye reduction described above cause the pupils of the subject's eyes to contract, thereby reducing the amount of reflective surface.
Reference is made to FIG. 1, which is a simplified line drawing showing a typical red eye artifact in a photograph. An area 110 corresponding to the iris of an eye, of blue coloration, encompasses a pupil area 120 that exhibits redness. Within area 120 there is seen a small white flash area 130, which represents reflections of white light from the flash. Were it not for the red eye artifact, area 120 would appear similar in color to area 110, being part of the iris. Instead, the artifact gives it a red appearance.
Interestingly, this flash effect appears as red eye in humans, but as yellow eye in dogs and cats, and as green eye in some other animals. Photographers and image compositors commonly touch up their images and remove red eye flash effects from eyes.
Adobe Systems Inc.'s PHOTODELUXE® and Microsoft Corporation's PICTURE IT!® are digital photo-editing software applications that offer semi-automatic red eye removal as a feature.

Method and system for removal of red eye effects


Resins suitable for rotomolded articles comprise a bimodal polyethylene copolymer comprising from 0.1 to 5 weight % of one or more C6-8 alpha olefins and the balance ethylene, comprising from 20 to 50 weight % of a higher molecular weight polymer component having an Mw greater than 120,000 and correspondingly from 80 to 50 weight % of a lower molecular weight polymer component having an Mw less than 100,000 having a density greater than 0.942 g/cc [but less than 0.965 g/cc] and a bent strip ESCR as determined by ASTM D 1693 in 100 % Igepal® CO-630 (ethoxylated nonylphenols) for conditions A and B of greater than 1000 hours. The resulting articles have a very good balance of properties and significant ESCR.

There are a number of different considerations for manufacturing a resin suitable for use in rotomolding manufacture. The resin needs to be: capable of production at commercially acceptable rates of production; suitable for use in the rotomolding process (e.g., for example, having a suitable sintering temperature and a suitable cooling rate to be removed from the mold) and finally must have suitable properties for the end use application. One important property that is sought is environmental stress cracking. The resin should not develop cracks due to exposure to chemicals, sunlight, etc. in applications such as tank sprayers for agricultural use, cisterns, and smaller rotomolded parts.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,382,630, and 5,382,631, issued Jan. 17, 1995 to Stehling, assigned to Exxon, teach bimodal resins having superior physical properties. The patent requires that the blend have a two or more components, each having a polydispersity (Mw/Mn) of less than 3 and the blend having a polydispersity greater than 3 and no component in the blend having a relatively higher molecular weight and a lower comonomer content (e.g., the comonomer incorporation is reverse). The reference does not suggest improved ESCR.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,969,741, issued Nov. 29, 2005 to Lustiger et al., assigned to ExxonMobil, teaches a blend of polyethylenes suitable for rotomolding. The patent teaches the difference in the density of each component is not less than 0.030 g/cc. The difference in the densities of the component polymers in the present composition is less than 0.030 g/cc.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,230,054, issued Jun. 12, 2007 to Mavridis et al., assigned to Equistar, teaches a blend of a low density relatively higher molecular weight component and a high density relatively lower molecular weight component. The resin blends appear to be made in a slurry process suing Ziegler Natta catalysts or modified Ziegler Natta catalysts. The blends of the present invention are made using a solution polymerization process and a catalyst containing a phosphinimine ligand.
WO 2011/025742A1, published Mar. 3, 2011 in the name of Davis, assigned to Dow Global Technologies Inc., teaches a polymer blend having a high ESCR. The blend has a residual unsaturation of less than 0.06 per 1000 carbon atoms. The blends of the present invention have a residual unsaturation of greater than 0.06 per 1000 carbon atoms.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,067,518 B2, published Nov. 29, 2011 in the names of Davey et al., assigned to Univation, teaches a polymer made in gas phase using a very specific catalyst has enhanced ESCR properties and processability. The polymers produced in accordance with the disclosure do not appear to be bimodal.
The present invention seeks to provide a novel bimodal polymer having excellent ESCR.


A medical instrument comprises an elongate tube provided essentially along its entire length with a channel and further provided within a distal end region with a plurality of longitudinally and circumferentially spaced apertures communicating with the channel. A pressurized source of irrigation fluid is operative connected to the tube for feeding fluid through the channel and out through the apertures with an essentially uniform radial distribution. The tube is thin enough to fit down the biopsy channel of an endoscope.

This invention relates to a medical instrument. This invention relates more particularly to an irrigation instrument for use in laparoscopic and endoscopic surgery. This invention also relates to an associated endoscopic technique, particular for use in cleaning the colon.
In laparoscopic and endoscopic diagnostic investigations and surgery, fiber optic instruments are used to visually inspect internal parts of a patient's anatomy through small incisions or natural openings (mouth, anus) in the patient. Frequently, fluids are needed at the distal end of the laparoscope or endoscope to clean a transparent light receiving surface or to clear a site of blood, faeces or other organic debris to facilitate the transmission of optical radiation.
Generally, irrigation is accomplished in endoscopes and laparoscopes by feeding water or a saline solution through a biopsy channel or an irrigation channel of the instrument. Frequently, this irrigation technique is not particularly effective in attaining the desired end results. Laparoscopic surgeons and endoscopists must adapt themselves to the equipment.


A method determines actual power consumption for system power performance states (SPP-states) of a server. The method comprises initializing the server, performing a worst case workload test, measuring power consumption of the server at one or more SPP-states, and adjusting values in a lookup table to reflect the measured power consumption of the server.

Computers are ubiquitous in society. For example, computers are present in everything from user-oriented desktop computer systems to complex networks of computers that facilitate credit card transactions. These complex networks represent a trend toward consolidating computers to implement high-density computing configurations, which are sometimes referred to as "data centers." In fact, it is not uncommon for these data centers to include tens of thousands of servers or more. To support of these data centers, information technology (IT) professionals have had to shoulder new burdens that were previously not of concern to IT professionals: power consumption and temperature maintenance.
Previously, data center facilities managers were primarily responsible for providing the specified power to the computers within the data center and were also responsible for maintaining the ambient air conditions to match the specified operating conditions of the computers within the data center. Typically, power and cooling requirements of the data center were estimated based on the "name plate" ratings—an estimate of the power and cooling requirements provided by the computer manufacturer. Historically, when computer server power levels were low, this approach proved practical. More recently, however, IT professionals have begun implementing servers as "blade servers" where each chassis is filled with multiple server modules, or "blades." Increasing the density of the servers in this manner may result in cooling costs for some data centers (e.g., 30,000 ft2) running into the tens of millions of dollars per year and also may result in a higher incidence of undesirable service outages caused by cooling failures.
Some facilities and IT professionals have begun to "de-rate," or reduce the name plate power and cooling requirements by a fixed amount to increase the density of servers within a data center. De-rating, however, may still undesirably mis-predict actual power consumption. Other attempts to increase server density include estimating the actual power consumed with an anticipated application running on the server to provide a more accurate estimate of the actual power requirements of the server. However, an unexpected change in computing demand, for example as a result of a work load shift between servers, may increase power demand and trip a circuit breaker or cause localized over-heating.

Determining actual power consumption for system power performance states

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A fault tolerant generator apparatus includes subsystems isolated from each other, so that the generator may operate in a fault mode with low torque ripple. The apparatus comprises a machine and a power controller unit. In an embodiment, the machine has a plurality of electrical three phase windings and the power controller unit has a plurality of power converters. Each three phase winding of the machine is coupled to a separate corresponding power converter to form an operating subsystem. The operating subsystems are physically and electrically isolated from each other to provide fault tolerant operation of the apparatus. Accordingly, each of the operating subsystems is effective to provide a balanced electrical load for the machine.

Fault tolerant capability (that is, the ability to continue to operate, at full or reduced capacity, in the presence of a fault within one or more elements) is often required in generator or starter/generator systems used in applications requiring a high level of reliability. A typical generator system 1, shown schematically in FIG. 1, includes a machine (e.g. a permanent magnet alternator or PMA) 2 coupled to a power controller (e.g. power conversion unit or PCU) 3, which provides DC output power at terminals 5. Fault tolerant subsystems may be implemented by configuring one or more functions within the machine and/or the power controller with redundant or multiple elements. Fault tolerant system architectures, including use of multiple isolated windings, incorporating redundancy in the machine and/or the power controller/converter functions, etc. are described in more detail in U.S. Pat. No. 7,064,526 (assigned to the same assignee as the present disclosure), the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
When one of these elements is disabled, such as an open winding fault within a single phase of the machine stator, the generator or starter/generator function is then provided using the redundant element. When operating in this fault mode, the machine loads are typically unbalanced, which can result in significant levels of torque ripple. The high levels of torque ripple can cause damage to the machine, its drive system and/or the prime mover.
Accordingly, there is a need for a fault tolerant generator or starter/generator system which exhibits low torque ripple when operating in a fault mode.

Fault tolerant generator or starter/generator with low torque ripple

Astronics Advanced Electronic Systems Corp.