A multi-staged framework for detecting and diagnosing Denial of Service attacks is disclosed in which a low-cost anomaly detection mechanism is first used to collect coarse data, such as may be obtained from Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) data flows. Such data is analyzed to detect volume anomalies that could possibly be indicative of a DDoS attack. If such an anomaly is suspected, incident reports are then generated and used to trigger the collection and analysis of fine grained data, such as that available in Netflow data flows. Both types of collection and analysis are illustratively conducted at edge routers within the service provider network that interface customers and customer networks to the service provider. Once records of the more detailed information have been retrieved, they are examined to determine whether the anomaly represents a distributed denial of service attack, at which point an alarm is generated.

The present invention relates generally to the detection and prevention of malicious attacks over computer networks and, more particularly, to the automatic detection of large-scale denial of service attacks.
As computer networks have increased in number, size and complexity, the number of attacks directed toward those networks has also increased. One such type of attack, known as a denial of service (DoS) attack is an attack on a computer network that may cause a loss of service to users, typically by consuming the bandwidth of a network or by overloading the computational resources of the network. In these attacks, a target network is typically flooded with an overwhelming number of packets to saturate the network connections and/or to deplete network resources. A common way of initiating such attacks is via Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), which typically uses a widely-distributed network of computers that have been compromised (e.g., via viruses, Trojan horse or other well-known means) to permit an attacker to control the computers remotely. Then, at a time of the attacker's choosing, these compromised computers attack the target simultaneously and flood that target with packets.
As a result of the threat posed by DDoS attacks, attempts have been made to detect such attacks and, ultimately, to prevent them. Such prior detection techniques generally used either coarse-grained detection techniques or, alternatively, fine-grained detection techniques to identify anomalies that could indicate a DDoS attack was underway. As used herein, the term coarse-grained data is defined as data from which only a high-level overview of the flow of data, such as time series trends, may be obtained. Analysis of such coarse-grained data to detect DDoS attacks typically involves time-series forecasting and signal processing to detect larger, more significant events that could indicate a DDoS attack. On the other hand, the term fine-grained data is defined as data from which a detailed analysis of individual elements or clusters of elements of data can be obtained. Analysis of fine grained data, for example, enables the analysis of flow or packet-header data to detect much more subtle events indicative of a DDoS attack. In some implementations, such techniques are deployed in monitoring systems within the core of the service provider network. However, implementing such monitoring systems in the traffic-heavy core network using either technique makes it difficult to detect the relatively subtle indications of some attacks that, while possibly small relative to the aggregate traffic in the core network, could still overwhelm a targeted network. Additionally, fine-grained detection techniques usually are not suitable for such traffic-intensive monitoring for the additional reason that these techniques require significant processing capabilities and/or time to detect such subtle anomalies and, as a result, are relatively more expensive to implement.
Other detection methods have been developed for use by an end user (i.e., a customer of a service provider) to detect DDoS attacks. However, such methods are typically ineffective at detecting the DDoS attacks prior to loss of service. This is because, once a DDoS attack begins, the bandwidth capacity of the access link connecting the user to a service provider may quickly become consumed and/or the packet handling capacity of routers of the service provider or user can be quickly overloaded. Thus, once this occurs, there is little that the target of the attack can do independently to alleviate the loss of service.

Method and apparatus for large-scale automated distributed denial of service attack detection


A method of forming a doped region within a monocrystalline silicon layer of an integrated circuit having an electrically erasable and electrically programmable memory device on a semiconductor substrate, wherein the doped region lies within a channel region near a drain region, but does not lie within a source region. After a patterned layer is formed over the channel region, the substrate is doped by ion implantation with a first dopant at a tilt angle no less than a minimum tilt angle and at about a predetermined azimuthal angle, such that a significant number of ions enter a drain region and a channel region near the drain region and substantially no ions enter a source region. The first dopant is the same dopant type as the monocrystalline silicon layer dopant. The drain region is masked. The source region is doped with a second dopant. The second dopant is an opposite dopant type as the monocrystalline silicon layer dopant. The source region and the drain region are doped with a third dopant. The third dopant is the same dopant type as the second dopant. The third dopant dose is heavier than the first dopant dose, and the second dopant diffusion coefficient is greater than the third dopant diffusion coefficient.

A flash EEPROM is a memory device that typically includes a memory array having field-effect memory cells. Each memory cell typically includes a source region, a drain region, a channel region, a tunnel dielectric layer, a floating gate layer, a control gate layer, and an intergate insulating layer (between the control gate layer and the floating gate layer). In the flash EEPROM, the floating gate layer typically has a charge state, which is a programmed state or an erased state. When the floating gate layer is in a programmed state, the floating gate layer has a relatively high number of electrons. The electrons typically lower the floating gate potential below the threshold voltage of the cell. When a programmed cell is at read biasing conditions, the cell typically has a relatively low current flow through its channel. When the floating gate layer is in an erased state, the floating gate layer has a relatively low number of electrons. Fewer electrons cause a higher floating gate potential that is typically above the threshold voltage of the cell. When an erased cell is at read biasing conditions, the cell has a relatively high current flow through its channel.
For one prior art flash EEPROM, the charge state of the floating gate layer may be changed by programming the cell using hot electron injection through the drain side or by erasing the cell using Fowler-Nordheim tunneling through the source side. A prior art flash EEPROM has been found to have a limited number of cycles. After about 10,000 cycles, the cell's programming and erasing efficient is typically lowered. The lower efficiency is believed to be due to electrons and holes trapped in the tunnel dielectric layer. The trapped charge can reduce the effective field across the layer and slow down the programming or erasing process. After about 100,000 cycles, the cell typically can no longer be programmed or erased properly.
Programming performance of the cell is typically improved by increasing the channel dopant concentration near its drain region. The higher channel doping concentration causes a relatively high channel current and electric field near the drain region and allows sufficient generation of hot electrons near the drain region. However, the increased dopant concentration typically lowers the source-substrate breakdown voltage because the breakdown voltage generally decreases as the channel doping concentration increases. The source potential during erase is typically limited by the source-substrate diffusion junction breakdown voltage. If the device is erased when the source potential is higher than the source-substrate diffusion junction breakdown voltage, reliability problems including damage to the tunnel oxide-substrate interface and hole accumulation within the tunnel oxide layer may occur. As the device is cycled more times, the device is more likely to become non-functional because of the reliability problems. If the channel doping concentration is lowered to give a higher source-substrate diffusion junction breakdown voltage, the programming performance is typically not optimized. Therefore, one typically chooses to optimize the programming performance of the cell or the erasing performance of the cell.

Method of making electrically erasable and electrically programmable memory cell with extended cycling endurance


Hand rests are desirable to the artist for steadying the hand when performing delicate brush strokes. The use of this invention provides added control to both the oil and water color artist. The hand rest is a welcome addition to the recreational artist because it can help him complete more difficult brush strokes with a steadier hand. Additionally, the hand rest is lightweight and easy to install on either an easel or canvas, making it readily portable. The hand rest for an artist""s easel consists of a peg assembly and a hand rest. The peg assembly consists of a lightweight aluminum rod with pegs incorporated along its length and is positioned vertically on the left or right side of the easel depending upon which hand the artist uses to paint. The hand rest consists of a cylindrical birch wood rod with end caps, one end of which is positioned upon one of the pegs and the other end of which is supported by the artist""s free hand. Positioning is easily changed by moving the hand rest rod to another peg.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hand rest for use in connection with an artist""s easel. The hand rest has particular utility in connection with helping the artist to steady his hand when painting.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hand rests are desirable to the artist for steadying the hand when performing delicate brush strokes. The use of this invention provides added control to both the oil and watercolor artist. The hand rest is a welcome addition to the recreational artist because it can help him complete more difficult brush strokes with a steadier hand. Additionally, the hand rest is lightweight and easy to install, making it readily portable.
The use of hand rests is known in the prior art. One conventional device, which is widely known in the art, is a maulstick; however, there are problems inherent in its use. The major problem is that one end of the maul stick rests on the media which may damage the artwork, especially for oils which have extended drying times. Since substantial effort and skill are required for an artist to hold the rubber-tipped end of the maulstick firmly against the work surface with one hand at the same time painting or drawing with the other hand while it rests on the stick, amateur artists and those without strong hands would not benefit from using this device.
Other types of hand rest devices are also known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,198 to Marion E. Hoyt discloses an apparatus for steadying one""s arm at an easel and use thereof. However, the Hoyt ""198 patent provides only a single point of origin for the arc of the hand rest member such that the hand rest member is at an uncomfortable angle for some portions of the canvas, and has the further drawback of not providing a means of ensuring that some part of the hand rest member will not drag against the artist""s work if accidentally dropped.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,815,856 to Angelo J. Cortimilia discloses a hand rest attachment for artist""s easel that enables the artist to rest and steady his hand. However, the Cortimilia ""856 patent applies only to floor easels and makes no provision for tabletop easels. Additionally, since the Cortimilia ""856 device is affixed to the easel with several fasteners, it is not easily attached or detached from the easel for multiple uses on the same piece of work. Thereby, the artist would be forced to either paint with the device interfering with his workspace or take several minutes to attach and detach the device with each use.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,765,791 to Raymond R. Givonetti discloses a hand rest for an easel that provides a palm rest within which the artist""s hand rests. However, the Givonetti ""791 patent does not provide for free movement of the hand along the support member, and the device must be remounted if the arc defined by the initial placement does not cover the area within which the artist desires to work.
Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 5,299,772 to Michael S. Weber discloses multifunctional tools for artists that provide a hand bridge upon which the hand can be rested. The Weber ""772 patent is similar to the previously described maulstick device, with a hand bridge pivotally mounted on the frame of a canvas. However, the Weber ""772 device allows only three positions in which the hand bridge may reside, and has the further drawback of supporting the distal end of the hand bridge against the canvas.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,883 to Acop J. Amirian discloses an artist""s tool which enables the artist to rest his hand while painting a canvas. The Amirian ""883 device has a horizontal support that can be vertically adjusted and a vertical support which can be horizontally adjusted. However, the Amirian ""883 device is designed such that it can be used on only one type and or size of easel. This device can not easily be removed from the easel and placed on another easel of a different size and construction.
Lastly, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 376,618 to Tommy N. Hix discloses an ornamental design for a hand rest, presumably to be used in conjunction with an artist""s easel. However, the Hix ""618 patent does not provide any means of attachment to an easel, and has the additional deficiency of only allowing motion in a horizontal plane.
While the above-described devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not describe a hand rest for an artist""s easel that allows easy attachment to and detachment from any type of easel for both right and left-handed artists and provides multitudinous angles and positions from which to paint. The Hoyt ""198 patent makes no provision for protecting the artist""s work if the end of the device is accidentally dropped and also requires the artist to work from an uncomfortable angle for some portions of the canvas since the hand rest is fixed at one end. The Cortimilia ""856 patent applies to only floor type easels and requires the artist to adjust several fasteners for attachment and detachment, rendering it difficult to remove during the artist""s work session. The Givonetti ""791 patent does not provide for free movement of the hand along the support member, and the device must be remounted if the arc defined by the initial placement does not cover the area within which the artist desires to work. The Weber ""772 patent allows only three positions in which the hand bridge may reside, and has the further drawback of supporting the distal end of the hand bridge against the canvas. The Amirian ""883 patent can only be used on one type and or size of easel and can not easily be removed from the easel and placed on another easel of a different size and construction. Finally, the Hix ""618 patent does not provide any means of attachment to an easel, and has the additional deficiency of only allowing motion in a horizontal plane.
Therefore, a need exists for a new and improved hand rest for an artist""s easel that can be used for supporting the artist""s hand while painting. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills this need. In this respect, the hand rest for an artist""s easel according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of supporting an artist""s hand while painting.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known types of hand rest for an artist""s easel now present in the prior art, the present invention provides an improved hand rest for an artist""s easel, and overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages and drawbacks of the prior art. As such, the general purpose of the present invention, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a new and improved hand rest for an artist""s easel which has all the advantages of the prior art mentioned heretofore and many novel features that result in a hand rest for an artist""s easel which is not anticipated, rendered obvious, suggested, or even implied by the prior art, either alone or in any combination thereof.
To attain this, the present invention essentially comprises a hand rest for mounting on a canvas or easel which consists of a first adjustable vertical member having a series of uniquely shaped pegs extending therefrom for engaging an easel in a plurality of orientations, such that a supplemental rod further removably couples to the peg-like members for presenting a horizontally adjustable arm resting element.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated.
The invention may also include a means for mounting the hand rest for an artist""s easel on a canvas or easel. There are, of course, additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims attached.
Numerous objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon a reading of the following detailed description of presently preferred, but nonetheless illustrative, embodiments of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In this respect, before explaining the current embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of descriptions and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved hand rest for an artist""s easel that has all of the advantages of the prior art hand rest for an artist""s easel and none of the disadvantages.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new and improved hand rest for an artist""s easel that may be easily and efficiently manufactured and marketed.
An even further object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved hand rest for an artist""s easel that has a low cost of manufacture with regard to both materials and labor, and which accordingly is then susceptible of low prices of sale to the consuming public, thereby making such a hand rest for an artist""s easel economically available to the buying public.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a new hand rest for an artist""s easel that provides in the apparatuses and methods of the prior art some of the advantages thereof, while simultaneously overcoming some of the disadvantages normally associated therewith.
Even still another object of the present invention is to provide a hand rest for an artist""s easel for providing support to the artist""s hands during painting. This allows the artist a greater amount of control while completing delicate brush strokes, leading to a more attractive work of art.
Lastly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved hand rest for an artist""s easel that is lightweight and can easily and quickly be secured to the easel or canvas.
These together with other objects of the invention, along with the various features of novelty that characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and the specific objects attained by its uses, reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there are illustrated preferred embodiments of the invention.


A rotary apparatus for hydraulic forming of shaped containers including a rotatable forming wheel having a central axis of rotation and a plane of rotation perpendicular to the axis of rotation. A plurality of forming stations is supported by the forming wheel. The forming stations are operable to expand a preform into a shaped container by forcing a liquid into the preform. The longitudinal axis of each forming station forms an angle with the plane of rotation of the forming wheel of less than 20° while the preform is being expanded. The projection of the longitudinal axis of each forming stations onto the plane of rotation of the forming wheel forms an angle with the radial direction at the position of the forming station of less than 20° while the preform is being expanded.

The process of manufacturing liquid containers from polymeric materials has been widely used for many decades now. More specifically, such containers are often manufactured using a stretch blow molding process in which a pre-manufactured preform is softened by heating and then inserted into a blow mold. By first mechanically stretching the softened preform using a stretch rod and second blowing high pressure air into the preform, the preform is expanded until its shape conforms to the inner surface of the blow mold and thus forms—after cooling—a shaped container, such as a bottle. At the end, the shaped container is removed from the mold and transferred over to downstream processing steps such as filling, closing, and labeling.
Producing a filled container using the known stretch blow molding process, however, always requires two separate steps, blowing and filling. Due to the different natures of these two steps and the time it takes to complete them, these two process steps are typically carried out by two different machines which are operating sequentially in the same manufacturing line. In some instances, empty containers are even produced in one factory and shipped to a second factory in order to be filled at a later point in time. Many state of the art filling machines rely on gravitational flow of the liquid consumable into the empty container. Often, the fill nozzle does not touch the neck of the container during the filling process such that using an elevated pressure for urging the liquid into the container without causing significant spillage is not possible. Such a filling process relying on gravitational forces takes considerable time—especially for large bottles—of ten to twenty seconds per bottle and more.
It has already been suggested (see for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,267,185 published on Aug. 16, 1966) to combine the steps of expanding the preform into a shaped container and of filling the shaped container by using the consumable liquid as the fluid medium for imparting the pressure onto the preform to cause its expansion. After this step, the consumable liquid is already inside the container and the subsequent filling step is no longer necessary. This process of simultaneously forming and filling a shaped container is termed hydraulic forming. In a system described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,267,185 mold stations circulate along a circular path. A tube is extruded along the circular path. The tubular parison is progressively closed, forming a first end of the future container. Then the closed tubular shape is filled and expended. Then the other end of the future container is closed and cut. A drawback of such a system is that the throughput is very low.
Industrializing the process of manufacturing filled shaped containers from polymeric materials usually takes the form of rotary machines, each comprising a rotary wheel. A plurality of rotary machines is coupled to form a manufacturing line. The manufactured container is transported along an arcuate path by the rotation of the rotary wheel of the first machine and then transferred to the second machine where it is again transported by rotation of the rotary wheel along an arcuate path. That way, a continuous manufacturing process which can accommodate high manufacturing throughputs is made possible. Linear machines—in contrast thereto—operate in batch mode only and cannot be accelerated to achieve the same high throughputs at which rotary machines can be operated. Linear machines are used only under exceptional circumstances such as low output equipment.
An apparatus described in US2012/0048683A1 comprises a transport device having a central rotation axis. A receiver device, for example a gripper clamp, receives a preform. The receiver device has a swivel movement driven by a servo drive such that the resulting force extends in the longitudinal direction of the preform. US2012/0048683A1 further describes an air blow machine having a blow mold, a stretch rod for forming a preform. All the described embodiments have the neck of the preform oriented outwardly with respect to the machine rotation axis. Upon rotation of the machine, a compression force is exerted on the lower section of the preform including the closed end of the preform.
Document W02013/020885 describes in its FIG. 3 a rotary system for simultaneously blowing and filling plastic containers. The longitudinal axes of the molding stations are inclined at 45° relative to the vertical axis. The document explains that this inclination makes it possible to avoid splashing of the liquid due to the centrifugal force exerted on the liquid in motion.
The inventors of the current invention have discovered that the example of an inclination of 45° indicated in W02013/020885 is an optimized value of the inclination for preventing spillage for almost any rotational speed. As illustrated in FIG. 1a, when the container 21 has been expanded up to the shape of the mold 22 and is full of liquid 23, the injection nozzle 24 is retracted and an head space 25 free of liquid is provided, for example during the nozzle retraction. Therefore, there is a free level of liquid 26 inside the formed container with the atmospheric pressure above it. The orientation of the free level of liquid depends on the rotation speed of the machine. If the rotation speed is very low or null, the free level of liquid would be almost horizontal as illustrated in FIG. 1a. The liquid free level is inclined by almost 45° inside the container. The size of the free head space 25 is such that the liquid is still contained in the container without splashing. FIG. 1b illustrates the position of the free level when the centrifugal acceleration 27 due to the rotation speed is more than 4 times the gravity acceleration 28. The liquid free space is almost vertical and so inclined by 45° inside the container. There is no splashing.
The inventors of the current invention have further discovered a drawback of the rotary system described in W02013/020885, which is illustrated in the current FIG. 1c. The forming method may include introducing the stretch rod 29 down to the bottom of the heated preform 30. The stretching force exerted by the stretch rod contributes to keep the bottom 31 of the preform 30 well centered inside the cavity 32. When the liquid is injected in the preform, the centrifugal acceleration 27 exerted on the liquid tends to move the liquid and the central part of the preform 30 outwardly, and to bend the preform 30 even if the preform is guided by its neck 33 and by its bottom 31. This may provoke cold spots 34 on the container when the central part of the preform 30 under expansion comes too early in contact with the cold wall of the mold 22 or of the stretch rod 29. This may provoke some container blowouts. That phenomenon did not exist when the forming fluid was air, wherein the tension of the preform 30 provided by the stretch rod is high enough to keep the preform well centered inside the cavity all along the expansion phase. With a forming fluid being a liquid, guiding the preform by it neck and by its bottom may not be sufficient to avoid cold spots and blowouts.
A further complexity for rotary apparatus and processes is that the shaped container should preferably be removed from the mold after hydraulic forming in an upright position in order to reduce the risk of spillage and provide for transferability to further processing on rotary machines. If the shaped container is removed from the mold in a tilted orientation in order to accommodate for centrifugal forces while being expanded on the forming wheel, this tilt would have to be reversed or at least be eliminated before the shaped container can be placed on the arcuate manufacturing path of a downstream rotary wheel which must rotate in the opposite direction.
It is accordingly desirable to overcome the above disadvantages of the prior art machines for manufacturing filled shaped containers. In one aspect, it is desirable to develop a rotary machine which is capable of performing the hydraulic forming process at high throughputs. It is another aspect to develop a rotary process for hydraulic forming of shaped containers. It is another aspect to provide a rotary apparatus and a rotary process for hydraulic forming of shaped containers which reduce the detrimental effect of centrifugal forces acting on the expanding preform.

Rotary machine and method for hydraulic forming of shaped containers


An improved grid for computer-aided strain analysis of a deformed metal sheet comprises a preferred grid pattern of noncontacting uniform solid circles formed of thin plated copper and surrounded by exposed sheet surface. The copper circles are applied to the sheet surface and the sheet is deformed, whereupon the circles are stretched into ellipses. After sheet deformation, the ellipse pattern is oxidized to enhance contrast between the copper ellipses and the surrounding sheet metal and thereby enable the pattern to be reliably photographed for computer analysis.

This invention relates to a method for analyzing metal strain caused by deformation of sheet metal, which analysis comprises measuring distortion in a grid applied to the sheet surface prior to deformation. More particularly, this invention relates to decorating a metal sheet surface with a grid featuring uniform solid circles that are stretched into ellipses during sheet deformation and thereafter readily measured to calculate strain in the underlying metal.
Sheet metal components are fabricated by stamping a flat sheet between suitable dies. Improved die design is possible by understanding the metal strain produced by stamping at various locations of the sheet. A preferred method for analyzing the strain involves printing on the flat sheet a grid pattern of uniform small circles of predetermined diameter. During metal forming, the circles are stretched into ellipses. By determining the change in dimensions for each ellipse, the strain of the underlying metal may be calculated. Accurate human measurement of each ellipse is tedious and timeconsuming, typically requiring up to two minutes per point. However, coassigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 098,260, filed Nov. 28, 1979, and entitled "Method and Apparatus for Automatically Determining Sheet Metal Strength", teaches a method for determining the ellipse dimensions and calculating the strain that is adapted to be carried out by a computer in a fraction of the time. The method comprises photographing the elliptical pattern on the sheet metal surface with a solid-state instrumentation camera. The computer divides the picture into light and dark regions, determines the boundary points between the regions and fits the boundary points to an ellipse. The strain is then computed from the major and minor axes of the ellipse.
One method of printing the circle grid comprises electro-etching. The desired pattern is defined with an electrolyte-soaked silkscreen and is etched in the metal by suitably passing a current through the screen between the sheet and a roller counterelectrode. Grids produced by electro-etching have intolerable variations in the circle diameters and poor circle (and thus ellipse) edge definition. This reduces the accuracy of the strain measurements. In addition, etching sufficient to produce a visible pattern may affect the sheet metal formability. Another grid-printing method comprises coating the sheet with a polymeric photoresist and exposing to ultraviolet light through a suitable mask to define the circles. The usually clear polymer must be dyed to make the pattern visible, particularly for photographing. Although photoprinting improves circle uniformity, the circles are frequently abraded or wrinkled during stamping because the polymer-metal adhesion is not sufficient to withstand the wiping die action. In addition, the polymer tends to deteriorate, particularly where high temperatures are encountered during stamping.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a method for decorating a surface of a metal sheet with a sharply defined, dimensionally accurate grid of a pattern suitable for strain analysis in the deformed metal, preferably an array composed of uniformly spaced solid circles of predetermined diameter. The grid does not significantly affect the metal sheet formability, and tightly adheres to the surface without deteriorating during deformation to thereby form a distorted pattern on the formed sheet, preferably of ellipses. After deformation, the distorted grid develops a high-contrast pattern having accurately locatable boundaries that is readily photographable and adapted for computer strain analysis.

Copper grid for strain analysis of sheet metal deformation


A CT or other radiographic scanner (A) generates data that is arranged into sets (32). Each set is convolved (40) with a convolution function (42) and backprojected (44) into an image memory (46) along a corresponding one of a plurality of rays. A corresponding gradient image (52) in which each pixel value has either a one or a zero value is forward projected (54) and compared (60) with a standard. The comparison indicates along which rays data sets including bad data were projected. To subtract the bad data contribution from the image, the image representation is forward projected (90) along the identified rays, convolved (40) with a negative of the convolution function (84), and backprojected (44) along the identified ray into the image memory (46). Further correction may be obtained by replacing the subtracted data with interpolated data. To this end, the image representation is again forward projected (90) along the identified ray, convolved (40) with the original selected convolution function (42), and backprojected (44) into the image representation (46) along the identified ray.

The present invention relates to the art of image processing. It finds particular application in conjunction with cleaning up images generated by computerized tomographic scanners and will be described with particular reference thereto. However, it is to be appreciated that the invention may also find application in conjunction with other diagnostic images, particularly images generated using a convolution and backprojection or analogous processing technique.
Each CT scanner image conventionally represents a plane about one or one and a half millimeters to ten millimeters thick through the subject. For greater diagnostic value, a series of images are commonly generated, each representing an adjacent or closely adjacent plane.
To provide images with good resolution, there are a large multiplicity of samplings per image. In fourth generation scanners, the scan circle may be surrounded by one thousand, two thousand, four thousand, or more detectors, about a quarter of which are irradiated at any given time. The irradiated detectors are repeatedly sampled as the x-ray source rotates about the examination region. Thus, a very large number of data samplings are generated per image. Several images, e.g. ten or twenty, may be generated per study. In order to freeze the region of interest of the subject and eliminate motion defects, the multiple images are generated as quickly as possible.
The multiple samplings are assembled into data lines which are convolved and backprojected into an image representation. Various processing techniques have been developed in order to generate the resultant images quickly. Various hardware advantages and cost reductions are achieved when the data lines or views are processed as fast as they are generated. This enables the massive amount of raw data values which are used to construct the series of images for each diagnostic study to be discarded as each is processed. Rather than saving raw data, only the series of images, which also represents a massive data storage commitment, is retained.
From time to time, one of the thousands of detectors in the scanner array will go bad and give an aberration at each sampling. When these bad data values are convolved and backprojected with the multiplicity of good data values, streaks are caused in the resultant image. These streaks disrupt the resultant image and often render them useless for diagnostic purposes. Moreover, when a detector goes bad, or intermittently puts out bad data, all of the images within a single study are commonly affected.
The simple solution to a set of streaked diagnostic images is to put the patient back in the scanner and generate a new set. However, this is not always advisable or even possible. In some studies, a contrast agent is injected into the patient's blood as a part of the diagnostic scanning procedure. To get good contrast, it may be necessary to wait for the first dose of contract agent to be out of the patient's system. Further, it is advantageous to minimize patient dosage of the contrast agents to avoid any potential physiological reactions to the agents. In other instances, the patient has already left the hospital or facility. The scanner and scanning procedure is in many instances conducted by a technician to generate the set of diagnostic images which are reviewed at a different location or at a different time by the radiologist. Also, it may not be advisable to re-radiate the patient by conducting another scanning procedure.

Post-processing technique for cleaning up streaks and artifacts in diagnostic images


A method for adjusting a throat area of a jet aircraft exhaust nozzle assembly includes positioning a lower structure within a substantially rectangular nozzle assembly, coupling a ramp flap to the lower structure, and coupling an outer flap to the nozzle assembly such that movement of at least one of the ramp flap and the outer flap adjusts the throat area of the nozzle assembly.

This invention relates generally to jet aircraft exhaust nozzles and more particularly, to methods and apparatus for adjusting a nozzle throat within a jet aircraft exhaust nozzle.
At least some known engines include either a fixed exhaust nozzle system, such as is typical of commercial subsonic engines, or a variable exhaust nozzle system, such as is typical of supersonic military aircraft. The geometry of fixed nozzle systems are not kinematically changed or variable and as such may not operate as efficiently as variable exhaust nozzle systems.
More specifically, variable geometry systems are configured to operate over a wide range of pressure ratios (P8/Pamb) by adjusting a nozzle throat (A8) based on the demands of the engine cycle, and adjusting a nozzle area ratio (A9/A8) to facilitate achieving a desired engine performance at various operating points.
In at least some known variable exhaust nozzle systems, A8 and A9/A8 control is established by "linking" A9/A8 to A8, i.e. establishing a kinematically-linked area ratio schedule. For example, at least one known engine includes a variable exhaust nozzle system that includes a circumferential series of overlapping flaps and seals that define a convergent flowpath that establishes a desired nozzle throat A8. A similar set of overlapping flaps and seals is connected to an aft end of the convergent flaps and seals and establishes a divergent portion, or an exit area (A9) of the nozzle. The divergent flaps are also kinematically-linked using a separate kinematic member, such as a compression link that is coupled to a relatively stationary part of the exhaust system, such as a duct. The resulting four bar linkage, duct, convergent flap, divergent flap, and compression link, define the kinematic relationship of the exit area A9 to the nozzle throat area A8, and thus also defines the A9/A8 schedule as a function of A8. Such an arrangement typically results in an A9/A8 schedule which increases as A8 increases.
However, the use of an overlapping flap and seal structure in the nozzle design may result in numerous leakage paths which may cause a corresponding decrease in engine operating efficiency. Additionally, the relatively large quantity of parts used to fabricate the nozzle may increase the cost, weight, and maintenance of such engines.

Methods and apparatus for flade engine nozzle


A method in a network node is disclosed. The method comprises receiving channel state information from a user equipment, the channel state information comprising a first transmission rank reported by the user equipment for downlink transmission of a packet. The method further comprises determining whether the packet is a signaling bearer packet or a data bearer packet, and upon determining that the packet is a signaling bearer packet, modifying the first transmission rank to a second transmission rank, the second transmission rank comprising a lower rank than the first transmission rank reported by the user equipment.

3GPP LTE represents the project within the third generation partnership project, with an aim to improve the UMTS standard. The 3GPP LTE radio interface offers high peak data rates, low delays, and an increase in spectral efficiencies. The LTE system supports both Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD). This enables operators to exploit both the paired and unpaired spectrum, since LTE has flexibility in bandwidth as it supports 6 bandwidths: 1.4 MHz, 3 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 15 MHz, and 20 MHz.
The LTE physical layer is designed to achieve higher data rates. This is facilitated by turbo coding/decoding, and by higher order modulations (up to 64-QAM). The modulation and coding is adaptive, and depends on channel conditions. Orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) is used for the downlink, while single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) is used for the uplink. The main advantage of such schemes is that the channel response is flat over a sub-carrier, even though the multi-path environment could be frequency selective over the entire bandwidth. As a result, the complexity involved in equalization is reduced, as simple single tap frequency domain equalizers can be used at the receiver. OFDMA allows LTE to achieve its goals of higher data rates, reduced latency, and improved capacity/coverage, with reduced costs to the operator. The LTE physical layer supports Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ), power weighting of physical resources, uplink power control, and multiple input multiple output (MIMO). By using multiple parallel data stream transmission to a single terminal, the data rate can be increased significantly.
MIMO is an advanced antenna technique to improve spectral efficiency, thereby boosting the overall system capacity. The MIMO technique uses a commonly known notation (M×N) to represent MIMO configurations in terms of the number of transmit antennas (M) and receive antennas (N). The common MIMO configurations used or currently discussed for various technologies are: (2×1), (1×2), (2×2), (4×2), (8×2) and (2×4), (4×4), (8×4). The multiple input single output (MISO) and single input multiple output (SIMO) configurations represented by (2×1) and (1×2), respectively, are special cases of MIMO.
It is well known that MIMO systems can significantly increase the data carrying capacity of wireless systems. MIMO can be used for achieving diversity gain, spatial multiplexing gain and beamforming gain. For these reasons, MIMO is an integral part of the 3rd and 4th generation wireless systems. In addition, massive MIMO systems are currently under investigation for 5G systems.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of multi-antenna transmission in LTE. More particularly, FIG. 1 illustrates data modulation 5A and 5B, antenna mapping 10, antenna ports 15, OFDM modulator 20, and antennas 25. Antenna mapping 10 can, in general, be described as a mapping from the output of data modulation 5A and 5B to different antenna ports 15. In the example illustrated in FIG. 1, there may be up to eight antenna ports 15. The input to antenna mapping 10 consists of modulation symbols (e.g., QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM, 256QAM etc.) corresponding to the one or two transport blocks. More specifically, there is one transport block per Transport Time Interval (TTI), except for spatial multiplexing, in which case there may be two transport blocks per TTI. The output of the antenna mapping 10 is a set of symbols for each antenna port 15. The symbols of each antenna port 15 are subsequently applied to the OFDM modulator 20. In other words, the symbols of each antenna port 15 are mapped to the basic OFDM time-frequency grid corresponding to that antenna port 15. The output of OFDM modulators 20 may then be transmitted by antennas 25. For example, data may be transmitted by antennas 25 to a user equipment (UE).
FIG. 2 illustrates an example signal flow diagram for downlink data transfer in LTE. At step 205, UE 110 receives pilot or reference signals transmitted by network node 115, such as an eNodeB. From the pilot or reference signals, UE 110 computes channel estimates, and then computes the parameters needed for channel state information (CSI) reporting. The CSI report may include, for example, a channel quality indicator (CQI), a precoding matrix indicator (PMI), and rank information (RI) (see TS 36.213 V8.8.0, section 7.2).
At step 210, UE 110 sends the CSI report to network node 115 via a feedback channel, such as, for example, the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). The PUCCH may be used for periodic CSI reporting, while the PUSCH may be used for aperiodic reporting. A scheduler associated with network node 115 uses this information in choosing the parameters for scheduling of UE 110. At step 215, network node 115 sends the scheduling parameters to UE 110 in the downlink control channel called physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). At step 220, actual data transfer takes place from network node 115 to UE 110. Data transfer between network node 115 and UE 110 may continue for any suitable period of time. In certain circumstances, however, it may become necessary for UE 110 to be handed over from network node 115 to another network node (i.e., a target network node). The handover (HO) procedure is described in more detail below.
FIG. 3 illustrates an example signal flow diagram of LTE handover. More particularly, FIG. 3 illustrates the Inter-eNode B intra-frequency LTE HO. At steps 302 and 304, downlink and uplink user data is transmitted between UE 110 and source network node 115A. At step 306, UE 110 transmits an RRC MEASUREMENT REPORT A3 (intra-LTE) or A2 (inter-LTE) message. As disclosed in TS 36.331 V8.21.0, section 5.5, UE 110 may send the RRC MEASUREMENT REPORT when UE 110 is on the cell border.
At step 308, source node 115A sends a handover request (over an internode interface, such as X2, if setup), which target node 115B acknowledges at step 310. At step 312, source node 115A sends an RRC Connection Reconfiguration message in response to target node 115B's acknowledgement. The RRC Connection Reconfiguration message is referred to as the signaling radio bearer message (SRB). The SRB instructs UE 110 to the new cell by means of the PCI, carrier frequency, antenna ports, etc.
At step 314, source node 115A sends an eNB_Status_Transfer message to target node 115B. At step 316, UE 110 sends a Random Access Preamble message to target node 115B, and at step 318 target node 115B sends a Random Access Response message to UE 110. At step 320, UE 110 sends a Random Access Msg3 message to target node 115B, and at step 322 target node 115B sends a Contention Resolution (UL Grant) message to UE 110.
At step 324, UE 110 sends an RRC Connection Reconfiguration Complete message to target node 115B when it has added the new radio link (e.g., through contention). Steps 326 and 328 illustrate the exchange of Path_Switch_Request and Path_Switch_Request_Acknowledgement messages between target node 115B and core network node 130. At steps 330 and 332, downlink and uplink user data is exchanged between UE 110 and target node 115B. At step 334, target node 115B sends a RRC Connection Reconfiguration message to UE 110, and at step 336, UE 110 sends an RRC Connection Reconfiguration Complete message to target node 115B. At step 338, target node 115B sends a UE Context Release Command to source node 115A.
When network nodes 115A and 115B are deployed with multiple antennas, and UE 110 is configured to receive the SRB transmission from multiple antennas, the HO performance becomes more critical. This is because there are cases when UE 110 reports higher transmission rank at the cell edges. The interference pattern, however, can change dynamically at the cell edge. For example, at the time of CSI reporting there might be less interference in the neighbor cell 115B, while at the time of data transfer (both data and signaling) there might be high interference. In such a case, packets may get an error, and HARQ might be useful. Retransmitting SRBs, however, is costly in terms of payload, and signaling messages are delay sensitive, which eventually impacts the HO performance.
Typically, HO performance and call retainability are key performance indications (KPIs) when setting up a new mobile network. Dropped calls and long HO interruption would be very annoying for customers. This can badly impact a customer's willingness to continue subscriptions. In both homogeneous and heterogeneous networks (including macro, micro, and pico cells), HOs typically occur on cell edge. Usually, the HO fails due to transmission failure of key HO signaling messages, such as, for example, the RRC Connection Reconfiguration message. Thus, there is a need for a more reliable method of transmitting key signaling messages.

Method to transmit signaling radio bearer messages in multi antenna wireless communication system


A computer system and a method of searching for information to construct an information object includes querying a resource having information stored as bindable data elements and returning results of the query. The system and method includes a fragment base that stores the bindable data elements as fragments and/or primitives that may be used to satisfy the query. The computer based system and method can include a sense process that reads data referred to a client process and tests the data to determine whether the data can be bound to existing data or produces new data within the fragment database. Fragments and primitives represent information in small pieces that can have both generalized structure and particular data. As information changes and grows incrementally, fragments can be added to or modified within a fragment base to define a larger composite concept that is an information object.

This invention is related to databases and the manner in which information is represented and searched.
Computers are often used to store and maintain databases. Databases can be of many types. One type of database stores data in tabular form. One type of tabular form is the relational database that stores information in tables related to each other. Relational databases are defined by properties that are present in the table. The table holds data records, which conform to the properties that define the table. However, if one record presents a new piece of information a new table structure needs to be defined to hold that one record.
Other types of databases include hierarchical databases and flat-file structures that are similar to a table or a spreadsheet. Another type of database is the so-called object-oriented database. Object-oriented databases are also called "persistent objects." Persistent objects are defined in classes that have data structure and procedural function and at run time are instantiated to have actual values. The object database can persistently store that object so that it can be retrieved with the same run time state as when it was stored.
The world wide web stores information in resources that can be found through an address such as a uniform resource locator (URL). Initially, most resources on the world wide web were plain text or hypertext mark-up language (HTML) documents. Now there are more dynamic forms of resources available. A resource will use a database to provide information and display it as an HTML document.
A Web crawler is a software program used to search information on the web. A web crawler starts at a page or a set of pages and searches through documents by following links. The links lead from one document to another. The links only contain locational information, i.e., a uniform resource locator (URL) that gives an address or location of the resource, i.e., a server that contains the referenced page.


A small size electronic component has a small direct current resistance value of conductor pattern and minimal dimensional irregularity of a conductor pattern. In order to form such a component, a photosensitive conductive paste applied on a ceramic substrate and is then exposed through a photo mask and developed so as to form a lower conductor pattern layer of a coil conductor pattern. Then an insulating paste is applied on the ceramic substrate so as to cover the lower conductor pattern layer and the insulating paste is removed with a solvent until at least the upper surface of the lower conductor pattern layer is exposed so as to form an inter-line insulating layer. Furthermore, after applying a photosensitive conductive paste as a film, the exposure and development operation is conducted again while using the photo mask so as to form an upper conductor pattern layer on the lower conductor pattern layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic component and a production method thereof. More specifically, the present invention relates to an electronic component such as a surface mount type inductor or strip line component, or other similar component, which is to be mounted on the surface of a pattern of a printed circuit board, and a production method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
A method of manufacturing a surface mount type inductor having a high Q value includes forming a coil conductive pattern on a ceramic mother substrate by a screen printing process with a large coil conductive pattern film thickness (large cross-sectional area) for having a small coil conductive pattern direct current resistance value (conductor loss) is commonly known. However, according to this screen printing method, the size of the coil conductive pattern is extremely irregular in terms of the accuracy. In addition, the deviation of the inductance values is large and it is difficult to have a narrow conductor width for the coil conductor.
On the other hand, as a method of manufacturing an inductor with a small inductance value deviation, a method of forming a metal film on a mother substrate via sputtering, deposition, or the like, and forming a coil conductor pattern using photolithography technology is commonly known. However, according to this method, it is difficult to have a thick coil conductor pattern thickness compared with the screen printing method, and thus, it is difficult to produce an inductor with a high Q value.
Then, as a method of producing an inductor with a high Q value and a small inductance value deviation, a method of forming a coil conductor pattern including a combination of thick film printing and photolithography technology, using a photosensitive conductive paste, and a method of forming a coil conductor pattern with a thick film and a high size accuracy via a method referred to as a semi-additive process have been proposed (see, for example, the Official Gazettes of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Nos. 8-316080 and 945570).
However, due to a high production cost caused by a large number of manufacturing and processing steps required by the semi-additive process, a method of using a photosensitive conductive paste is preferable. However, in order to obtain a small size inductor having a large inductance value, a very small size coil conductor pattern must be formed within a limited coil conductor forming area. Therefore, even in the case of using a photosensitive conductive paste in the conventional method, a problem occurs in that the line width of the coil conductor pattern becomes small so as to have a large conductor loss, and thus, the Q value is lowered. Moreover, since the limit of the resolution of a photosensitive conductive paste in the thickness direction has an aspect ratio of 1 (after development), it is difficult to have a thicker photosensitive conductive paste film. The aspect ratio of a coil conductor pattern is defined as the ratio of the thickness to the pattern width of a coil conductor pattern.
To overcome the problems described above, preferred embodiments of the present invention provide a very small size electronic component having a small direct current resistance value in a conductor pattern and an extremely accurate conductor pattern size, and a production method thereof.
According to one preferred embodiment of the present invention which achieves the advantageous results described in the preceding paragraph, an electronic component includes a conductor pattern having a lower conductor pattern layer disposed on an insulating substrate and an upper conductor pattern layer laminated on the lower conductor pattern layer, wherein a ratio of the conductor pattern thickness and the pattern width is equal to or greater than about 1.
Since the conductor pattern includes the lower conductor pattern layer and the upper conductor pattern layer, the cross-sectional area thereof is preferably substantially equal to the sum of the cross-sectional area of the lower conductor pattern layer and the cross-sectional area of the upper conductor pattern layer. Accordingly, the cross-sectional area of the conductor pattern can be large, and thus, the direct current resistance value of the conductor pattern can be reduced. Furthermore, by having a coil conductor pattern preferably having a spiral shape as the conductor pattern, an inductor having a high Q value and a large inductance value is achieved. Moreover, since the aspect ratio defined as the ratio of the conductor pattern thickness to the pattern width is equal to or greater than about 1, the pattern width size of the conductor pattern can be minimized, and thus, the area on the insulating substrate occupied by the conductor pattern is greatly reduced without increasing the direct current resistance value of the conductor pattern.
Moreover, another preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a method of manufacturing an electronic component including a conductor pattern having a lower conductor pattern layer disposed on an insulating substrate and an upper conductor pattern layer laminated on the lower conductor pattern layer, the method including the steps of forming the lower conductor pattern layer on the insulting substrate, applying an insulating material on the insulating substrate as a film so as to cover the lower conductor pattern layer and eliminating the insulating material until at least the upper surface of the lower conductor pattern layer is exposed so as to form an inter-line insulating layer, and forming the upper conductor pattern layer on the lower conductor pattern layer.
Furthermore, according to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a method of manufacturing an electronic component including a conductor pattern having a lower conductor pattern layer disposed on an insulating substrate and an upper conductor pattern layer laminated on the lower conductor pattern layer, the method including the steps of applying a photosensitive conductive material on the insulating substrate as a film and exposing and developing the photosensitive conductive material through a photo mask for forming the lower conductor pattern layer, applying an insulating material on the insulating substrate as a film so as to cover the lower conductor pattern layer and eliminating the insulating material until at least the upper surface of the lower conductor pattern layer is exposed so as to form an inter-line insulating layer, and applying a photosensitive conductive material on the inter-line insulating layer and the lower conductor pattern layer as a film and exposing and developing the photosensitive conductive material through a photo mask for forming the upper conductor pattern layer on the lower conductor pattern layer.
According to the above-mentioned methods, a lower conductor pattern layer and an upper conductor pattern layer of a conductor pattern can be formed easily. Moreover, the resulting conductor pattern has a high aspect ratio which is higher than the resolution limit of the conductive material in the depth direction.
Furthermore, by repeating the steps of forming an inter-layer insulating layer having via holes on the inter-line insulating layer and the conductor pattern, forming a lower conductor pattern layer, forming an inter-line insulating layer and forming an upper conductor pattern layer subsequently, an electronic component having a multi-layer structure in which a plurality of the conductor patterns are provided with an inter-layer insulating layer provided therebetween is provided.
To achieve the advantages described in the preceding paragraph, a method of manufacturing an electronic component according to the present invention includes the steps of applying an insulating material on an insulating substrate as a film and eliminating a specific component of the insulating material so as to form an inter-line insulating layer having a pattern groove and filling the pattern groove with a conductive material, applying the conductive material on the inter-line insulating layer as a film and eliminating a specific component of the conductive material so as to form a conductor pattern projecting from the surface of the inter-line insulating layer at the position of the pattern groove.
Furthermore, a method of manufacturing an electronic component according to a further preferred embodiment of the present invention includes the steps of applying a positive type photosensitive insulating material on an insulating substrate as a film, exposing the positive type photosensitive insulating material through a photo mask having a light transmitting component corresponding with a conductor pattern, and eliminating the exposed component of the positive type photosensitive insulating material so as to form an inter-line insulating layer having a pattern groove and applying a negative type photosensitive conductive material on the inter-line insulating layer as a film, exposing the negative type photosensitive conductive material through the photo mask, and eliminating the unexposed component of the negative type photosensitive conductive material so as to form a coil conductor pattern at the position of the pattern groove.
Moreover, another preferred embodiment provides a method of manufacturing an electronic component including the steps of applying a negative type photosensitive insulating material on an insulating substrate as a film, exposing the negative type photosensitive insulating material through a photo mask having a light blocking component corresponding with a conductor pattern, and eliminating the unexposed component of the negative type photosensitive insulating material so as to form an inter-line insulating layer having a pattern groove and applying a positive type photosensitive conductive material on the inter-line insulating layer as a film, exposing the positive type photosensitive conductive material through the photo mask, and eliminating the exposed component of the positive type photosensitive conductive material so as to form a conductor pattern at the position of the pattern groove.
By applying a conductive material on an inter-line insulating layer as a film according to the above-mentioned methods, a pattern groove is filled with the conductive material. Therefore, the sum of the depth of the pattern groove formed in the inter-line insulating layer and the thickness of the conductive material film on the inter-line insulating layer is the thickness of the conductor pattern. Accordingly, even if the ratio of the inter-line insulating layer film thickness and the pattern groove width is set to be less than about 1, a conductor pattern having a ratio of the conductor pattern thickness to the pattern width of about 1 or more and a high aspect ratio which is more than the resolution limit of the photosensitive conductive material in the depth direction can be formed. As a result, the direct current resistance value of the conductor pattern is much smaller than a conventional one. Furthermore, by having a coil conductor pattern with a spiral shape as the conductor pattern, an inductor having a high Q value and a large inductance value is achieved.
Moreover, by repeating the steps of forming an inter-layer insulating layer having via holes on the inter-line insulating layer and: the conductor pattern, forming an inter-line insulating layer and forming a conductor pattern subsequently, an electronic component having a multi-layer structure in which-a- plurality of the conductor patterns are provided with an inter-layer insulating layer provided therebetween, is obtained.

Electronic component having a coil conductor with photosensitive conductive paste


Techniques disclosed herein display depth effects in digital artwork based on movement of a display. In one technique, a first rendering of the digital artwork is displayed on the display. While the first rendering is displayed, a movement of the display is determined based on motion information from a motion sensor associated with the display. Based on the movement of the display, a position of the digital artwork is determined relative to a fixed gaze direction and a fixed light direction in a 3 dimensional (3D) model. A second rendering of the digital artwork is displayed on the display on the artwork. Displaying the second rendering involves displaying a depth effect based on variable depth of the digital artwork and the position of the digital artwork relative to the fixed gaze direction and the fixed light direction in the 3D model.

Variations in paint thickness in a painting often enhance the painting's appearance. For example, paint thickness is an important aspect of impasto paintings. Impasto is a technique where paint is laid very thickly in places to provide intriguing visual effects. Impasto paintings often show the shape of brushes and strokes, interleaving between paint and canvas fiber, and the layered mixture of paint colors. Techniques used to render impasto paintings on computing devices generally provide an inadequate, unrealistic, and unintuitive viewer experience. Two dimensional (2D) representations appear flat and do not allow the user to appreciate the thickness variations in the paintings. Attempts to instead represent impasto paintings using three dimensional (3D) shapes also do not provide an adequate user experience. With real artwork, the user can change his viewing position or rotate the artwork to observer shadow and other effects caused by the depth variations to get a spatial appreciation of the depth variations in the painting. In contrast, computer renderings of 3D shapes representing impasto paintings are presented in virtual 3D environments that are complicated and cumbersome to manipulate. Such an environment can include a 3D model in which the artwork is displayed, and a light source is defined, and a viewer position is defined. To change his viewing perspective, the user must manually interact with the 3D model using a computer input devices such as a mouse, pen, or trackpad to specify a new position for the artwork or viewer position. This is cumbersome, difficult, and not intuitive for many users. As a result, the user does not have the same real-world, intuitive experience of moving or rotating the artwork to change his or her viewing perspective to appreciate the artwork's depth.

Displaying depth effects in digital artwork based on movement of a display


First streaming video content may be received from a provider. The provider may issue a request to replace part of the first streaming video content with replacement content, such as advertisements. Second streaming video content may be selected as a replacement for a first video player, while third streaming video content may be selected as a replacement for a second video player. Instructions may be sent to the first and the second video player to play a first portion of the first streaming video content, followed by their respective selected replacement content, followed by a third portion of the first streaming video content, with the respective selected replacement content replacing a second portion of the first streaming video content. Replacement of the second portion of the first streaming video content may sometimes introduce latency, which may be reduced using various techniques.

The popularity of transmitting video content over computer networks, such as the Internet, has increased dramatically in recent years. In some examples, video content may be provided using streaming transmission techniques, in which portions of the video content may be played and displayed to a viewer while subsequent portions of the same video content are still being transmitted. In some cases, in a technique commonly referred to as live streaming, video of an event (e.g., a video game, sports event, news event, etc.) may be transmitted and played as the event occurs with only small amounts of latency relative to its capture, such that at least a portion of the video content is played prior to completion of the event. In some examples, in combination with certain live or other streamed content, it may be desirable to provide certain additional content, such as advertising, notifications, and other additional content.

Provider-requested streaming content replacement


There are provided a method, a system and machine-readable medium for encoding a video broadcast. The method includes obtaining one or more first compression settings for the video broadcast from an electronic program guide (EPG), the EPG associating the video broadcast with the one or more first compression settings. The method further includes compressing the video broadcast using the one or more first compression settings into a distribution broadcast. Yet further, the method includes distributing the distribution broadcast. There is also provided a method, system and machine readable medium to provide compression settings for encoding a video broadcast. The method includes inserting one or more compression settings into an electronic program guide (EPG) in association with the video broadcast based on a content type of the video broadcast. The method further includes distributing the EPG.

Recent developments in digital technology have spurred the development and deployment of digital video broadcasting services. The digital video broadcasting services not only broadcast high quality video programming, including high-definition (HD) programs, but also provide the ability to broadcast data including an electronic program guide (EPG). Digital broadcast programs are typically provided by satellite broadcasters, terrestrial broadcasters and cable broadcasters. More recently, digital broadcast programs have also been deployed via the Internet Protocol (IP) by major telecommunication provides.
Video broadcasters have traditionally distributed video broadcasts to viewers using a variety of broadcasting standards, including the analog National Television Standard Committee (NTSC) standard. More recently, with the constant expansion of the number of video broadcast channels, HD video broadcasts and provision of data (including EPG), all of which have placed a premium on bandwidth for transmission, the distribution of video broadcasts has been achieved via digital standards, including the Advanced Technical Systems Committee (ATSC) standard, which use compression techniques to compress the video broadcasts being transmitted. Other digital standards which use compression include the Moving Picture Experts Group H.262 (MPEG-2) standard, the H.264 (MPEG-4) standard and the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) standard. While the foregoing standards provide for in-band transmission of EPG with the transmission of the video programming, typically EPG data has been provided out-of-band from the video programming by third-party aggregators of programming schedules, such as Tribune TV and Gemstar.
Digital video broadcasts are transmitted or distributed from the aforementioned video broadcasters via a variety of distributions systems to an end user's digital set top box (STB) which decodes the digital video signal for display on a video display device (e.g., television). The digital video signal may be received by the STB via a satellite dish, a coaxial cable, a telephone line (including digital subscriber line (DSL)), Ethernet, local and wide area wireless technologies, and the like.
Compression techniques used by the foregoing digital broadcasting standards have evolved significantly since their introduction. However, the video broadcasters have not been able to adapt these digital standards for the content of the digital broadcast programs on a dynamic basis. Dynamic content-based compression can improve end user experience and can also reduce transmission load over video broadcasters' distributions systems.


A system and process for winding and mechanically transporting a wound package includes: (a) a plurality of fibers; (b) a guide for gathering the fibers to form a bundle; (c) a winder having a rotatable package collector and an apparatus for rotating the package collector about a stationary generally vertical axis; and (d) a mechanical transport for receiving the wound package from the package collector and transporting the wound package from a first position to a second position horizontally spaced apart from the first position.

As raw material, labor and waste disposal costs escalate, technological advances provide a competitive means to increase productivity while decreasing cost. In labor intensive industries, advances in ergonomic or labor-saving technology can improve the work environment, as well as provide increased productivity and efficiency.
In the fiber glass industry, forming and roving operations, in which glass filaments and fiber strands, respectively, are wound into packages, are examples of labor intensive operations in which technological advances are needed. In the forming area, glass filaments are drawn at a high rate of speed from a fiber forming apparatus, or bushing, connected to a supply of molten glass. The filaments are gathered into one or more fibers and wound upon a rotating collet of a winder to create a forming package. During winding, a conventional collet rotates about a horizontal, longitudinal axis. Similarly, roving packages are formed by gathering a plurality of strands and winding the strands about a collet rotating about a horizontal, longitudinal axis.
Typical forming and roving packages weigh about 10 to about 250 kilograms and have diameters of about 0.18 meters to about 0.75 meters, making manual removal of the packages from the horizontal collet an unwieldy, inefficient and labor intensive process. Manual capabilities limit the practical package size when a horizontal collet is used.
It is desirable to increase package size to increase productivity and decrease waste, since the inner and outer layers of a package and product produced between winding packages (downchute waste) are typically discarded. A system is needed which facilitates winding of larger wound packages and manipulation and transportation of any size of wound package to reduce labor and waste disposal costs and increase efficiency and productivity.

Process and system for winding and transporting a wound package


A radiation therapy skin marking device which may be used to delineate a radiation therapy portal area on a patient's skin surface. The device includes a set of radiation therapy skin markers which are releasably attached to a backing liner and include an adhesive surface such that the markers may be releasably attached to a patient's skin surface. The markers include printed lines so as to facilitate radiation therapy treatments by more obviously defining a radiation therapy portal area. The markers include various shapes including, for example, a marker of substantially circular shape with a ninety degree wedge cut therefrom such that the marker may be used to outline a ninety degree corner and a marker of substantially circular shape with a circular cut-out center such that the marker is defined by a circular outer edge and a circular inner edge both of which circular edges share a common center point.

In recent years the incidences of cancer in general has significantly increased. Concurrently the use of radiation therapy to treat cancer has also increased. Radiation therapy is used to treat cancer patients in two ways: for curative purposes and for palliative reasons.
Virtually all radiation therapy centers are equipped with simulators--a fluoroscopic imaging unit equipped with all the characteristics and parameters found on the radiation treatment units. With the help of diagnostic imaging such as computerized x-ray tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), when combined with the fluoroscopic capability of the simulator, a radiation therapy portal (the area through which the treating radiation will be focussed) may be designed. Conventionally, the perimeter, isocenter, and set-up points of this radiation therapy portal are marked on the patients skin with magic markers, fuchsia color, and/or tattoo markings. However, there are many problems with these conventional markers.
The time between simulation and beginning treatment is usually zero to seven days. During this period, generally greater than one day, various types of markings may be lost. For this reason, tattooing is often used to establish the portal boundaries with some permanency and reproducibility. However, there are several disadvantages to tattooing, even though it may seem to be the most optimal means to establish portal boundaries.
One problem is that tattoos are difficult to recognize on dark skin. Thus, tattoos too may be lost.
An additional problem is that the tattooing process punctures the patient's skin multiple times and, therefore, exposes radiation therapy personnel to the patient's blood and the patient's blood to out-side contaminants. This exposure creates a risk that the radiation therapy personnel or the patient may be contaminated with various infectious organisms transmitted by blood exposure, especially the autoimmune virus.
Two further problems are associated with the permanency of tattoos. First, a radiation therapy portal boundary tattoo is aesthetically unattractive. This is especially problematic when the tattoo is placed on skin surfaces which are not ordinarily covered by clothing. Second, but technically of equal importance, a radiation therapy portal boundary tattoo is inflexible. Initially, this may seem to be a benefit because it limits the risk that the portal boundary markings might inadvertently shift. However, a portal field for a particular patient is frequently changed throughout the course of treatment thereby requiring a shift in the portal boundary markings. Once tattooing marks are established a re-tattooing is required to shift the portal boundaries thereby compounding the above described disadvantages.

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A physical layer network interface module (PHY-NIM) adaptation system provides a PHY-NIM device and an attachable media access control (MAC) device. The PHY-NIM device interconnects with the attachable MAC device and the attachable MAC device interconnects to a network appliance to provide at least one of network switch capabilities and MAC device capabilities for use by the network appliance. The PHY-NIM device interconnects directly to the network appliance where the network appliance has at least one of an internal network switch and an internal MAC device in a southbridge input/output (I/O) interface chip of the network appliance.

The present invention relates to network interface module design. More particularly, the present invention relates to a physical layer network interface module (PHY-NIM) adaptation system.
Computer networks allow computing devices to communicate with other computing devices. Users of the computing devices may send messages, such as electronic mail messages, to one another using a computer network.

Physical layer network interface module (PHY-NIM) adaptation system

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


An attachment mechanism for a surgically implantable medical device includes one or more fasteners which may be simultaneously moved from an undeployed position to a deployed position by operation of an integral actuator. The attachment mechanism may be configured to be deactuated, and the fasteners simultaneously moved from a deployed position to an undeployed position, allowing removal or repositioning of the medical device. An applier includes a locator for detachably holding the implantable medical device, locating it at the desired position, and actuating the attachment mechanism. The applier is configured to undeploy the attachment mechanism the implantable medical device can be detached from the body tissue.

Implantable medical devices are typically implanted in a patient to perform a therapeutic function for that patient. Non-limiting examples of such devices include pace makers, vascular access ports, injection ports (such as used with gastric bands) and gastric pacing devices. Such implants need to be attached, typically subcutaneously, in an appropriate place in order to function properly. It is desirable that the procedure to implant such devices be quick, easy and efficient. In many instances it would be beneficial if the surgeon could remove or reposition the device quickly, easily and efficiently.
The present invention encompasses an attachment mechanism to secure an medical implant device to body tissue quickly and easily. The attachment mechanism may be reversible, allowing the implantable medical device to be detached quickly and easily for repositioning or removal. Although standard, commercially available instruments may be used to actuate the attachment mechanism, the present invention also encompasses an applier for locating an implantable medical device in the desired location and quickly and easily actuating the attachment mechanism to secure the implantable medical device.
Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiment of the invention, an example of which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

Implantable medical device with reversible attachment mechanism and method


A method of fabricating an ultra narrow gate electrode for an FET and/or a conductive line in an integrated circuit by first forming a mask for the gate electrode and/or conductive line on a semiconductor substrate of minimal width dimension by optical lithography and reducing the width of the mask by laser irradiation with the beam at an angle and the semiconductor substrate rotating at a high rate of speed.

The present invention relates to fabricating an integrated circuit with narrow lines and, more specifically, to fabricating a field effect transistor with a narrow gate width and, in addition, narrow interconnecting conductive lines.
Field-effect transistor (FET) devices are manufactured by disposing a gate material, such as polysilicon, over a relatively thin gate insulator, such as silicon oxide on and in a semiconductor substrate. The gate material and gate insulator are patterned to form gate conductors, and impurities are deposited adjacent to and on opposite sides of the gate conductors to render the gate material more conductive and to form source/drain regions of either N-type or P-type depending on the type of impurity. If the impurity is N-type, then the resulting FET is an NMOS FET with an N-channel and, if the impurity is a P-type, then the resulting FET is a PMOS FET with a P-channel. In addition, if a device contains both an NMOS and a PMOS, the device is a CMOS.
With the increased need to fabricate more complex and higher levels of integrated circuits with faster FETs, it has become necessary to reduce the FET""s threshold voltage, VT. One dimension of the FET which contributes to the VT is the effective channel length, Leff., which, in turn, is influenced by the gate width. The distance between a source and a drain on opposite sides of the gate conductor is the physical channel length and may be considered equivalent to the gate width. After the deposition of the impurities, the actual distance between the source and drain is less than the physical channel length or gate width because of lateral diffusion of the impurities under the gate conductor. As the physical channel length or gate width is reduced in fabrication, the effective channel length, Leff., also is reduced in length. Reducing the Leff., decreases the distance between the depletion regions associated with the source and drain of the FET. By reducing the physical channel length or gate width and, in turn, the effective channel length, Leff., a reduction in the threshold voltage, VT, of the FET can be achieved. Accordingly, the switching speed of the logic gates of an integrated circuit employing FETs with reduced Leff. is faster and allows the integrated circuit to quickly transition between logic states.
However, reducing the physical channel length or gate width of an FET is limited by conventional photolithographic techniques used to define the gate width of the gate conductor. Photolithography is used to pattern a photoresist, which is disposed above the gate material, such as polysilicon. An optical image is transferred to and exposes the photoresist by projecting radiation, normally deep ultraviolet light through the transparent portions of a mask plate containing the layout and dimensions of the gate conductor. Depending on whether the photoresist is positive or negative, the solubility of the exposed photoresist is either increased or decreased by a photochemical reaction. The photoresist is developed by dissolving the resist areas of higher solubility with a solvent, leaving a mask pattern on the gate material, such as polysilicon. This mask pattern protects the underlying gate material during etching of the material to define the shape and dimensions of the gate conductor and other lines in an integrated circuit.
Thus, the overlying photoresist pattern defines the lateral width of the gate conductor, which dictates the physical channel length of the FET. The minimum lateral dimension that can be achieved for a patterned photoresist is limited by the resolution of the optical system used to project the image onto the photoresist and, presently, is about 0.13 micron.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to develop an FET fabrication method in which the physical channel length or gate width of the FET can be reduced along with the effective channel length, Leff., without being limited by the photolithographic system. A method which avoids the limitations of photolithographic exposure for defining the gate width of gate conductors would allow the effective channel length, Leff., of the FET to be scaled down to a smaller size below 0.07 micron as well as other line widths in the integrated circuit. A method for fabricating such an FET and the FET itself would give the integrated circuit designer control over the effective channel length, Leff., and allow the designer the ability to design specific operational.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of fabricating an integrated circuit with line widths, such as ultra narrow gate conductors, which permits using normal photolithographic techniques.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of fabricating an integrated circuit with ultra narrow gate electrodes and other line widths by a method which does not complicate the overall fabrication method of the integrated circuit.
First, a semiconductor material, such as a silicon wafer, is formed with a layer, such as polysilicon doped with an impurity and capable of functioning as a gate electrode, and with a gate insulating layer, such as an oxide, sandwiched between the silicon surface and the polysilicon. Photoresist is disposed on the polysilicon layer and exposed and developed into a pattern, including gate electrodes of minimal gate width. Now, in accordance with the present invention, the sides and the tops of the photoresist pattern, especially those defining the gate width of gate conductors are reduced in size, preferably by laser ablation, so that the photoresist pattern is reduced to a lesser dimension than that achievable by exposure to an photolithographic system alone. More specifically, a relative motion in the range of about 1000 rpm to about 5000 rpm and a relative relationship of between about 40xc2x0 and about 80xc2x0 is established between laser and the silicon wafer to remove photoresist on the top and sides of the photoresist pattern. Preferably, it is the silicon wafer which is spinning at about 4000 rpm in a horizontal position and it is the laser which is at angle of about 60 relative to vertical. The amount of photoresist removed is greater than about 100 xc3x85 and may be as much as 500 xc3x85. Depending upon the specific laser, the photoresist is either evaporated or becomes more soluble in a developer or a solvent such as isopropyl alcohol/water. To assist in the decomposition of the photoresist, the laser ablation can be carried out in an oxygen-rich ambient. Next, the photoresist pattern is used as an etch mask and the gate electrode layer and insulating layer are etched to the semiconductor material surface.

Ultra narrow lines for field effect transistors


A technique is provided for forcing greater voltage investment in an arc developed during interruption of a current carrying path. A source element is provided in a secondary current carrying path parallel to a primary path through the device. Upon interruption of the primary current carrying path, an arc is forced to migrate towards a dissipating structure under the influence of an electromagnetic field. The source material then begins to carry current and undergoes surface ablation, releasing gas which is directed towards the migrating arc. The arc is thus caused to expand further, increasing voltage investment and resulting in more rapid extinction and reduction in let-through energy.

The present invention relates generally to the field of circuit interrupting devices. More particularly, the invention relates to a technique for enhancing interruption through such a device by gas dynamically forcing expansion of an arc by means of surface ablation of a source element.
Various circuit interrupters are currently available and have been developed for interrupting a current carrying path between a source of electrical power and a load. In general, such devices include one or moveable contacts and a mating contact. The contacts are joined to complete a current carrying path through the device during normal operation. The contacts may be separated, such as in response to overcurrent conditions, loss of phase, ground faults, or other unwanted events. Upon displacement of the moveable contact from its mating contact, an arc develops which is caused to expand and migrate towards a dissipating structure, such as a splitter plate stack. In general, a goal in such devices is to interrupt current as quickly as possible, to limit let-through energy and thereby to provide enhanced protection to downstream circuitry.
Approaches to rapid extinction of arcs circuit interrupters have taken various strategies. For example, devices have been proposed which cause rapid expansion of an arc by movement of the moveable contact or by movement of both mating contacts. The expansion of the arc may also be driven by electromagnetic means, such as a core structure which develops a magnetic field during interruption. While such approaches are useful in enhancing performance, further improvement is needed in circuit interrupters. There is, at present, a need for additional techniques to cause higher voltage investment in an expanding arc, and to force a further expansion of the arc to extinguish the arc even more quickly, and thereby to further limit let-through energy.
The present invention provides a novel technique for interrupting current through a circuit interrupter designed to respond to Such needs. The approach may be implemented in a variety of device configurations, including in devices which develop a single arc and in those which develop a pair of arcs by displacement of a conductive bridge or spanner. In accordance with aspects of the technique, the arc developed during circuit interruption is driven in a desired direction, typically toward a dissipating structure, such as a splitter plate stack. The arc may be driven in a variety of manners, such as electromagnetically by a field developed around a circuit interruption initiator. A source element undergoes surface ablation during the interruption event to provide a flow of gas which is directed toward the arc. The gas opposes the direction of migration of the arc, forcing expansion of the arc and more rapid extinction.
In a preferred embodiment described, the source element is provided in a second current carrying path which is parallel to the primary current carrying path in which the moveable contact is situated. The primary current carrying path supports all current through the device during normal operation, with no current through the parallel current path. During circuit interruption, current is partially directed through the parallel path including the source element, causing heating and surface ablation of the source element. Gas released by the surface ablation is directed toward the arc, which is forced to migrate in the direction of the source, element. The source element may be a material which transitions from a first resistance level to a second, higher resistance level due to heating, thereby protecting the source element from damage during operation. Where a conductive spanner or bridge is provided, source elements may be provided on either side of the spanner to direct flow of gas in the direction of a pair of arcs, both expanding and migrating toward dissipating structures on either side of the spanner.

Method and apparatus for extinguishing an arc through material surface ablation