An improved arrow rest for use in combination with an archery bow is disclosed. The present arrow rest provides complete radial support to an arrow disposed in a ready-to-draw position even if the bow is tilted or rotated radially relative to an axis of the arrow. Such radial support is provided by an inverted coil brush comprising a disc-shaped structure having a plurality of radially disposed, inwardly projecting bristles of a predetermined length attached therein forming a central opening in the arrow rest wherein the arrow shaft is radially supported. The bristles are arranged within the coil brush so as to impart no significant hindrance to the passage of an arrow therethrough. Thus, no angular orientation of the arrow vanes to the arrow nock is required which permits the use of the arrow rest with any configuration of arrow fletching or number of vanes. In addition, the present arrow rest can be used with any diameter of arrow shaft while maintaining both vertical and horizontal position without adjusting the rest position. Further, the present arrow rest improves the stability of an arrow in flight by dampening arrow vibration in all directions as it is released from the bowstring.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to archery equipment and, more particularly, to an arrow rest for guiding and supporting an arrow on an archery bow.
Arrow supporting devices or so-called arrow rests are well known to those skilled in the art. The arrow rest provides several important functions for the archer. Initially, the arrow rest supports an arrow prior to and during drawing the archery bow to a shooting position and guiding the arrow toward the target after it has been released from the bow string. In addition, the arrow rest must cause a minimal amount of frictional resistance to the arrow as it is released from the bow, and minimal damage to the arrow shaft or fletching i.e. feathers.
In addition, the arrow rest will ideally support the arrow in a drawn position when the bow is tilted or rotated radially which is often the case during hunting. In this situation the mid-section of the arrow may slip from the arrow rest invariably causing the hunter to miss the target.
Although some prior art devices as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,282,850, 5,460,153 and 4,372,282 provide radial support of the arrow shaft, such devices have proven to be less than satisfactory. In particular, such devices impart severe frictional resistance to the passage of the arrow unless the fletching is oriented rather precisely to the radial openings in the arrow rest.
Thus, the present invention has been developed to overcome these problems and other shortcomings of the prior art devices.
2. Description of Related Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,282 to Edward Sanders discloses a device for supporting an arrow disposed in a ready-to-shoot position on an archery bow. Although this arrow rest provides radial support to the mid-portion of an arrow, the arrow must be radially oriented to the arrow support to avoid damaging the arrow fetching as it passes through the arrow rest.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,450 to William J. Jacobson discloses a device for supporting an arrow on an archery bow including an annular body wherein three support fingers provide radial support and guidance for the arrow. However, this arrow support also requires proper angular orientation of the fetching to the opening between the finger supports to prevent damage to the fletching.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,460,153 to Robert L. Huntt discloses an archery arrow guide including an elastomeric diaphragm having a central opening for receiving an arrow shaft and a plurality of openings through which the vanes on the arrow are projected as the arrow is released from the bow. However, this arrow guide also requires proper orientation of the arrow vanes to the radial openings in the diaphragm to prevent damage to the arrow vanes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,282,850 to Allen E. Warnicke discloses an archery bow having an arrow guide apparatus for holding and guiding a vaned arrow. The apparatus includes a channel formed in the bow's handle section and three flexible fins mounted at angularly spaced intervals within the channel and projecting radially inwardly therein. This apparatus also requires angular orientation of the arrow fetching to the openings between the flexible fins.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,858,589 to Steven Chang discloses an archery arrow sighting apparatus which is mounted to an archery bow. An arrow supporting element is formed from an elastomeric material having a generally truncated triangular configuration which must be aligned with the arrow fletching.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,917,072 also to Steven Chang discloses a combination arrow sighting and support apparatus including a conical arrow support portion having a central aperture and arrow feather slots arranged in a triangular pattern to permit passage of the feathers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,242 to Eric J. Ruholl discloses an arrow rest for an archery bow having a guide plate defining a central opening, three slots extending radially from the central opening, and a plurality of set screws projecting into the central opening to provide an adjustable support structure for arrow shafts. This arrow rest includes the typical triangular configuration for passage of the arrow fletching.


A secondary air supply system includes an electric air pump that supplies secondary air to a location upstream of an exhaust gas purification catalyst arranged in an exhaust passage; a control valve that opens/closes a secondary air supply passage; a pressure detector that detects a pressure between the pump and the control valve; and a control unit that detects a first pressure in a first operating state where the control valve is closed, and detects a second pressure in a second operating state where the control valve is open, using the pressure detector. The control unit corrects at least one of the first and second pressures based on a first driving voltage for the pump in the first operating state and a second driving voltage in the second operating state, and estimates a secondary air flow rate based on the first and second pressures after correction.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a secondary air supply system for an internal combustion engine.
2. Description of Related Art
There is known an exhaust gas control system in which an exhaust gas purification catalyst is arranged in an engine exhaust passage of an internal combustion engine and then components of carbon monoxide (hereinafter, referred to as "CO"), hydrocarbons (hereinafter, referred to as "HC") or nitrogen oxides (hereinafter, referred to as "NOX) in exhaust gas are purified.
There is known a secondary air supply system in which secondary air is supplied into an exhaust pipe to increase an oxygen concentration by feeding air under pressure from an air pump to a secondary air supply passage connected to an engine exhaust passage at a portion upstream of such an exhaust gas purification catalyst and, by so doing, HC and CO in exhaust gas are oxidized, and accordingly purification of exhaust gas is facilitated. In a related art, there is suggested a secondary air supply system that is able to estimate the flow rate of secondary air that is supplied to an engine exhaust passage.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-163709 (JP 2005-163709 A) describes a secondary air supply system that includes a control valve and a pressure sensor. The control valve is able to open and close a secondary air supply passage that is provided downstream of a pump that supplies air. The pressure sensor is arranged between the pump and the control valve. JP 2005-163709 A describes that a pressure in the secondary air supply passage is measured at the time when the control valve is open and at the time when the control valve is closed and then the flow rate of air that flows through the secondary air supply passage at the time when the control valve is open is calculated using these measured pressures.
As for a driving control device for an actuator that drives a predetermined driving target device, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-209785 (JP 2010-209785 A) describes a driving control device for an actuator. The driving control device includes: a reference voltage output unit that outputs a reference voltage; a supply voltage output unit that amplifies a voltage or a current and that outputs a supply voltage on the basis of the reference voltage; a sensor that is supplied with the supply voltage and that outputs a detected signal based on an operation amount of an operating target; and control means for calculating a correction signal by multiplying the detected signal by a value obtained by dividing the reference voltage by the supply voltage and then executing drive control over the actuator on the basis of the correction signal. JP 2010-209785 A describes that the driving control device is able to execute drive control over the actuator without receiving the influence of fluctuations in the supply voltage even when the supply voltage to the sensor fluctuates due to a high temperature.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-215129 (JP 2008-215129 A) describes a control system for an internal combustion engine. The control system includes: an air flow meter that receives a power supply voltage from a direct-current power supply; a voltage sensor that detects the power supply voltage; and a control unit that controls a parameter that causes a change in intake air flow rate, and that controls a fuel injection amount that is supplied to an engine on the basis of a signal that indicates the intake air flow rate detected by the air flow meter. The control unit controls a throttle opening degree so as to limit the intake air flow rate in response to a decrease in the power supply voltage when the power supply voltage detected by the voltage sensor becomes lower than a first voltage. JP 2008-215129 A describes that the control system for an internal combustion engine is able to maintain engine operation close to a normal state by suppressing an error of the air flow meter even when the power supply voltage decreases.
When a secondary air supply system for an internal combustion engine is used for an extended period of time, fine particles contained in intake gas taken in from an intake system of the internal combustion engine and fine particles produced from lubricated portions and driving portions of an air pump adhere to an inner wall, or the like, of a secondary air supply passage, and accumulate as a deposit. Fine particles in exhaust gas also adhere to the inner wall, or the like, of the secondary air supply passage, and accumulate as a deposit. In this case, the pressure in the secondary air supply passage increases because the pipe resistance of the secondary air supply passage increases. When a secondary air flow rate is estimated from the pressure in the secondary air supply passage, it may be erroneously determined that the secondary air flow rate has increased due to accumulation of a deposit although the secondary air flow rate has actually decreased.
Secondary air is supplied to an exhaust system of the internal combustion engine via the secondary air supply passage by actuating an air pump. When the air pump is used for an extended period of time, a pump discharge capacity gradually decreases with aging degradation. Therefore, when the secondary air supply system is continuously used, the flow rate of air that can be supplied to an engine exhaust passage gradually decreases.
The secondary air supply system described in JP 2005-163709 A is able to estimate a secondary air flow rate in consideration of both the influence of a deposit that adheres to the inner wall of a secondary air supply pipe and a decrease in the discharge pressure of the air pump due to aging degradation.
In this secondary air supply system, the pressure in the secondary air supply passage during valve shutoff operation, that is, when the control valve arranged downstream of the air pump is closed, is detected in order to estimate the secondary air flow rate. At the time of a start of valve shutoff operation, that is, at the time when the control valve is closed, the pressure in the secondary air supply passage increases, and then becomes substantially a constant value after a lapse of a predetermined period of time.
There is a case that the secondary air supply system desirably early opens the control valve to supply secondary air to the engine exhaust passage. In this case, before the pressure in the secondary air supply passage becomes substantially constant, the control valve is opened, and secondary air is supplied to the engine exhaust passage. For example, at the time of a cold start of the internal combustion engine, it is desirable to start supplying secondary air as early as possible in order to early increase the temperature of the exhaust gas purification catalyst. It is desirable to open the control valve at the time of a transitional state before a steady state, in which the pressure in the secondary air supply passage is substantially constant, after the air pump is started. However, because a pressure is detected in the transitional state during valve shutoff operation in which the control valve is closed, when the secondary air flow rate is estimated using the detected pressure, the estimated secondary air flow rate may have an error.
When the internal combustion engine is arranged in a vehicle, or the like, an electrical load device that is an electrical load is connected to a battery. The air pump that supplies air in the secondary air supply system is the electrical load device, and is actuated by electric power that is supplied from the battery. Another electrical load device other than the air pump may be connected to the battery. When the amount of electric power that is consumed by the other electrical load device is large; the output voltage of the battery may decrease as the other electrical load device is operated. When the secondary air flow rate is detected in the case where the output voltage of the battery has decreased and accordingly the driving voltage for the air pump has decreased, the detected secondary air flow rate may have an error.
In the secondary air supply system described in JP 2005-163709 A, a transitional state at the time when such valve shutoff operation is performed, an operation state of another electrical load device, or the like, is not taken into consideration, so there is room for improvement.

Secondary air supply system for internal combustion engine


A liquid crystal display device, a color filter substrate and a protruding structure, and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. The color filter substrate includes a transparent substrate, a black matrix, a plurality of color filters, a plurality of first protruding structures, and a plurality of second protruding structures. The black matrix is disposed on the transparent substrate and exposes part of the transparent substrate for defining a plurality of first openings, a plurality of second openings, and a plurality of pixel regions, wherein the size of each first opening is different from the size of each second opening. In addition, the color filters are disposed in the pixel regions. The first protruding structures and the second protruding structures are disposed on the transparent substrate, wherein the first protruding structures correspond to the first openings respectively and the second protruding structures correspond to the second openings respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a display structure and a method for fabricating the same, and more particularly, to the structure of a liquid crystal display device and a method for fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A conventional liquid crystal display (LCD) device generally includes a pair of substrates, in which the substrates are parallel and separated from each other by a distance. The space between the substrates is usually referred to as the liquid crystal cell gap or, simply, cell gap. Additionally, a liquid crystal material is disposed between the two substrates within the cell gap, in which the liquid crystal material is able to respond to an outside electronic signal, thereby altering its optical characteristics. The electronic signal is controlled by a plurality of electrodes disposed on the inner surface of the substrates. The electrode arrangement of some particular LCD devices is able to generate a group of predetermined characters or symbols whereas the electrode matrix of other LCD devices is able to produce a display image. The display image essentially includes a large number of pixel devices, in which each pixel device can be optionally turned on to generate an image with many variations.
In order to ensure proper operation of the LCD device, the cell gap has to be maintained precisely and uniformly, since imprecision within the cell gap can easily result in a defective display image (a condition usually referred to as mura). Moreover, a slight touch from a finger tip will also influence the image of the display. To respond to such pressure, the cell gap within the influenced area is slightly decreased, thereby reducing the contrast and intensity of the dark spot or any other side effect in the display image.
As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional LCD display includes a thin film transistor (TFT) substrate 61, a color filter (CF) substrate 71, and a liquid crystal material 69 disposed between the two substrates. The cell gap is usually maintained by a plurality of spacers 79 formed between the substrates 61 and 71. Disposed randomly via a dispersion technique within the cell gap, the spacers 79 are equal in height, which often result in partial uneven distribution of the spacer density. In order to maintain a uniform cell gap and the concentration of the spacers, an exceedingly higher number of spacers is often utilized. Additionally, the spacers are often disposed in both inactive and active areas of the display panel according to the conventional method. Located between two corresponding electrodes on the substrate, the active area is an area where the liquid crystal material can be selectively activated, whereas the liquid crystal material in an inactive area is unable to be selectively activated as the area lacks a pair of corresponding electrodes.
In general, the structure and function of a LCD display utilized by the conventional spacer technique results in several unwelcoming features. For instance, the spacers located within the active area will likely result in numerous disadvantages including reduced contrast or abnormal light irradiation in proximity to the edge of the spacers.
According to the European Patent No. 1,030,211 A2, an LCD utilizing a method of eliminating the step of dispersing the spacers thereby preventing the uneven distribution of spacers and difference in cell thickness is disclosed. As shown in FIG. 2, the LCD device includes a TFT substrate 30, a CF substrate 40, and a liquid crystal layer 49 sealed in between the two substrates. Additionally, protruding patterns formed on the CF substrate 40 are spacers 45, in which the spacers are approximately 4 μm in height and utilized for maintaining the uniformity of the cell gap.
In general, the cell gap of an LCD is the average distance between the two alignment films of two substrates, in which the average distance often equals to the height of the spacer after the two substrates are combined.
Nevertheless, the spacer 45 from the conventional technique or the European patent are disposed on a glass substrate 41, in which a color filter 43 is disposed in between the spacers 45 and the glass substrate 41.
Please refer to FIG. 3. FIG. 3 is a stress-strain diagram showing the relationship between a 20Φ μm columnar spacer directly disposed on a glass substrate and a columnar spacer disposed on a glass substrate having a color filter disposed in between. As shown in FIG. 3, the spacers disposed directly on the glass substrate are mostly elastomers, as shown by curve A, whereas other spacers disposed on the glass substrate having color filters in between are partially elastic, as shown by curve B, in which a permanent strain d will be generated when a loading is released from the spacers. If the loading (a pressure or stress) of the LCD device is big enough to generate the permanent strain, the total height of the spacer and the color filter disposed on the glass substrate will be altered. In other words, after a relatively large pressure is applied to the LCD panel, the uniformity of the cell gap will be disrupted, thereby resulting in effects such as mura.
In addition, numerous methods have been introduced regarding the deposition of the liquid crystal material between two substrates of an LCD. For instance, necessary components of a display panel including the thin film transistor, circuits, and color filters have to be prepared first. Next, epoxy is utilized to laminate the two substrates together, in which the substrates are separated by a distance of about 5 μm. Next, the laminated substrate is placed in a vacuum room with a container holding liquid crystal materials, in which the gap of the laminated substrate is situated in a vacuum environment. Next, the laminated substrate is moved towards the liquid crystal container and by disrupting the vacuum, the liquid crystal material is slowly absorbed by the laminated substrate via a capillary effect and the pressure outside the substrate.
In recent years, a more advanced deposition technique referred to as one drop fill has been introduced. According to this technique, a liquid crystal material is dropped into one of the substrates before two substrates are laminated. U.S. Pat. No. 5,263,888 issued to Teruhisa Ishihara et al. on Nov. 23, 1993 describes a method of manufacture a liquid crystal display panel, in which the one drop fill technique is disclosed.
One of the most influential factors regarding the one drop fill technique is the elasticity of spacers. When the number of spacers is too small or the elastic deformation is too large (such as a very small elastic coefficient), the volume of the liquid crystal is likely to overly increase, thereby resulting in gravity mura. Conversely, when the number of spacers is too large or the elastic deformation is too small (such as a very large elastic coefficient), the volume of the liquid crystal will overly decrease, thereby generating air bubbles. Ideally, spacers with much bigger height will be able to obtain a much better operation window.

Method of manufacturing spacers on a color filter substrate


Exemplary methods, apparatuses, and systems include a first host system configuring storage of the first host to serve as a primary cache for a virtual machine running on the first host. A second host system configures storage of the second host to serve as a secondary cache and boots a placeholder virtual machine. The first host transmits, in response to write operations from the virtual machine directed to the primary cache, copies of the write operations to the second host to create mirrored copies on the secondary cache. The first host acknowledges each write operation from the virtual machine when the write operation is committed to both the primary cache and the secondary cache. When the virtual machine is restarted on the second host in response to a failure or migration event, the secondary cache is promoted to serve as a new primary cache for the virtual machine.

In a virtualized environment, high availability (HA) and migration enable a virtual machine running on a one host system to be resumed or restarted on another host system with minimal interruption to the service provided by the virtual machine. As a part of migration or fail over, one or more virtual devices associated with a virtual machine are moved from one host to another host. For example, the virtual hard drive for the virtual machine may be copied from source to destination while the virtual machine is still running on the source. The virtual machine is then stopped or suspended at the source and restarted or resumed at the destination. While the virtual machine is stopped or suspended at the source, device state and other data that had not been committed to the virtual hard drive are also be copied to the source (if available).
Virtual machines commonly utilize caching to improve input/output performance. Caches typically run in one of two modes, using write-through (WT) or write-back (WB) caching. In both modes, reads are cached in accordance with one of a number of algorithms (e.g., least recently used (LRU), adaptive replacement cache (ARC), CLOCK with Adaptive Replacement with Temporal filtering (CART), etc.). In WT caching, writes are written both to the cache and to the backing storage (e.g., for a virtual machine, to a corresponding virtual hard drive image, which may be implemented as a file in a file system on persistent storage media such as a storage area network (SAN) or network-attached storage (NAS)). The write is not returned as successful until both the write operation to the cache and the write operation to the backing storage succeed. As a result of the data being committed to the backing storage, a virtual machine utilizing a write through cache may be migrated or failed over to another host system without the cache and, therefore, without losing any data that was stored in the cache. In WB caching, however, a write is returned as successful when the write to the cache succeeds (i.e., without waiting for a write to backing storage). As a result, writes to a WB cache may be performed more quickly than writes to a WT cache. A subsequent flush operation writes the WB cache data to the backing storage. Data written to the WB cache but not yet flushed to the backing storage is referred to herein as "dirty data." WB caches typically batch many writes into a single flush operation so a large amount of dirty data may be present in the cache. A large amount of dirty data, having not been committed to the virtual hard drive or other backing storage, slows down the migration/recovery of a virtual machine. For example, when the cache is not accessible for use by the destination host system (i.e., the host upon which the virtual machine has been restarted or resumed), the cache (or at least the dirty data) is to be copied to the destination host while virtual machine is stopped or suspended. The larger the amount of cached data that needs to be transferred, the longer the migration/recovery will take. Even when the cache is accessible to the destination host system, use of the original cache by the migrated/recovered virtual machine typically incurs the expense of slower access to the cache over the network.

Replication of a write-back cache using a placeholder virtual machine for resource management


Vent structures are provided on the upper and lower sides, and lid of an organic waste cart so that wet biomass deposited in the cart is dried by convective air currents passing through the cart. The lid vent is hooded to prevent moisture from passing into the biomass. A perforated false bottom within the cart elevates the biomass above the lower vents to assure that drying air can circulated throughout the biomass.

The transport and elimination of biomass such as grass clippings, leaves, twigs and other residential organic debris traditionally has been accomplished by placing the debris in plastic bags or trash cans for pickup at the curb. As residential users of trash pickup services have become more sophisticated, the use of plastic bags has raised environmental concerns about adding unneeded plastic to landfills. Back injuries occurring when residential trash cans of various weights are manually lifted have driven municipalities and trash pickup services to automated trash pickup trucks, which usually require specially constructed waste containers. Normally these waste containers are constructed from plastic material and have a hinged lid, a handle, and wheels so that a residential user can easily position the waste cart at the curb for proper engagement with automated lifting machinery on the trash truck. In some locations, residential users are required to separate their trash into paper, plastic, garbage and organic biomass.
Wet biomass is particularly difficult to handle in an automated waste collection environment because it tends to stick within the waste cart, and the moisture therein makes compression difficult and increases the overall weight per unit volume of the biomass, resulting in more trash truck trips to the incinerator, dump, or landfill.
Therefore there has been a need to provide an organic waste cart, which can interface with automated lifting equipment on trash trucks and which facilitates the drying of biomass deposited therein during the time the biomass is contained therein.


A sample of porous material is placed in a calorimeter cell and a pressure in the cell is increased starting from a pressure value of a first step by filling the cell with a wetting fluid. Measurements are taken of a heat flow to the cell and a fluid volume at each step. Then, the pressure in the cell is decreased to the pressure value of a first step with continued measurements of the heat flow to the cell. Increase and following decrease of the fluid pressure in the cell are repeated at least once. Then a temperature in the cell is decreased below a wetting fluid crystallization point. Once the fluid has been fully crystallized in sample pores, the temperature in the cell is increased above a wetting fluid melting point. Wetting limiting angle of the pores filled with fluid, and pore sizes are determined based on the results of heat flow measurements with due consideration of heat effect of fluid compression.

Wettability is an important phenomenon significantly impacting fluid distribution and dynamics in porous media. Specifically, in order to find solutions to multiple research and engineering problems in the petroleum industry rock characteristic properties need to be determined, including mineral composition, pore volume structure, and pore surface wettability. These are the key properties for understanding oil and gas formations and simulating fluid flow properties: phase permeability, displacement factor, etc. Changes in free surface energy associated with rock/fluid interface result in heat emission or absorption. The heat effect value is a function of specific surface and pore volume wettability. In endothermic processes, such as most phase transitions, heat is absorbed.
The conventional approach to core wettability determination is the Amott method and its modifications (See, for instance, J. C. Trantham, R. L. Clampitt, Determination of Oil Saturation After Waterflooding in an Oil-Wet Reservoir—The North Burbank Unit, Tract 97 Project, JPT, 491-500 (1977)). The Amott method is based on the fact that a wetting fluid can spontaneously saturate a rock core displacing a non-wetting fluid. The main disadvantage of the Amott method is a big error in core analysis both of neutral wettability samples and small-sized samples (less than 1 inch).
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is also a core analysis method used to determine pore size distribution (U.S. Pat. No. 4,291,271). The method is based on determining fluid distribution in the core and could only give indirect evidence of rock sample wettability.
The results of calorimetric studies have been increasingly used lately in determining properties of porous materials. Calorimetric methods can be used to study solid/liquid interfaces. The Differential Scanning calorimetry (DSC) can measure heat effects caused by phase transitions, changes in the system inner energy, and chemical reactions as a function of temperature. In DSC a difference between heat flow to a sample and a reference at the same temperature is recorded as a function of temperature. The reference may be an inert material such as alumina, or just an empty cell (International Standard ISO 11357-1, Plastics—Differential Scanning calorimetry (DSC), First edition 1997 Apr. 15). The heat effect may be either positive or negative. In most phase transitions, heat is absorbed. Therefore heat flow to the sample is higher or than that to the reference. Hence, the difference is positive.

Method for determining the properties of porous materials


In order to avoid large-scale arithmetic circuit and a complicated processing procedure in performing modular arithmetic such as a modular arithmetic exponentiation and modular multiplication in use for encrypting plaintext or the like, the method and apparatus of the present invention for performing the modular arithmetic which executes a first common equation of a modular multiplication arithmetic f(A, B)=A.times.BmodN ("mod" denotes modular arithmetic) to calculate a remainder of a product of an integer A and an integer B divided by an integer N, using a second common equation of Montgomery's replacement arithmetic f(A, B)=A.times.B.times.R'modN corresponding to the first common equation f(A, B)=A.times.BmodN (R' denotes a value to meet the equation R.times.R'modN=1 with respect to R which is an exponent of 2 slightly larger than modulus N), a first replacement arithmetic f.sub.1 '(R.sup.S modN.times.A.sup.T, B.sup.U) (S denotes one of 0, 1, and 2; T denotes one of 0 and 1; and U denotes one of 0 and 1), and a second replacement arithmetic f.sub.2 '{R.sup.2-S modN.times.A.sup.T .times.f.sub.1 '(R.sup.S modN.times.A.sup.T, B.sup.U), R.sup.S modN.times.A.sup.1.multidot.T .times.B.sup.1.multidot.U)} are performed.

The present invention relates to an encryption and decryption technique of information used in the field such as information communication networks, traffic systems, banking facilities, medical services, distribution industries and the like, and more particularly to a circuit and a system for modulo exponentiation arithmetic and an arithmetic method of performing modulo exponentiation arithmetic for realizing the encryption and decryption of the information.
With the development of the information communication technique, ensuring the security on the information network (to prevent stealing and destruction of data) is being regarded as important. For this purpose, the encryption and decryption technique of information is being used not only in the information communication field but also in the fields such as traffic systems, banking facilities, medical service, distribution industries and the like. Accordingly, the encryption and decryption technique of this kind is required to be able to realize the high-degree security by a simple principle.
In order to facilitate understanding of the technique of this kind, encryption and decryption of information is now described in brief.
In cryptography, the "asymmetric cryptograph algorithm" is excellent qualitatively. In the asymmetric cryptograph algorithm, the encryption key and the decryption key are different from each other and one key cannot be calculated easily from the other key.
The representatives of the asymmetric cryptograph algorithm involve the RSA cryptograph, the Elgamal cryptograph, the Rabin cryptograph and the Williams cryptograph using the modulo exponentiation arithmetic. In the application of the cryptograph algorithm, there is the "digital signature" system and there is a tendency to standardization thereof in the present. The representatives of the digital signature systems to be standardized involve the RSA signature method, the Elgamal signature method, the Schnorr signature method and the DSA (Digital Signature Algorithm) method, all of which use the modulo exponentiation arithmetic of a long bit length. Accordingly, it is indispensable to develop an arithmetic unit capable of completing the modulo exponentiation arithmetic having a long bit length in a short time in order to realize the digital signature system.
The RSA cryptograph, the Elgamal cryptograph, the Rabin cryptograph and the Williams cryptograph basically use the modulo exponentiation arithmetic form represented by the following equation (1). The equation (1) means that a remainder of X.sup.Y divided by N is calculated. Further, in the equation (1), X represents a plaintext to be encrypted (decrypted), and Y and N represent keys for encryption (decryption). EQU X.sup.Y modN (1)
The modulo exponentiation arithmetic can be used to perform the encryption and the decryption of information easily and make it difficult to cryptanalize the keys by lengthening the bit length of operands of X, Y and N.
However, when the bit length of the operand is made long, it takes a long time to perform the modulo exponentiation arithmetic. The point is how the modulo exponentiation arithmetic having a long bit length of the operand is completed in a short time.
The actual encryption and decryption using the modulo exponentiation arithmetic and the usage thereof are now described by taking the RSA cryptograph as an example.
(1) SUMMARY OF ENCRYPTION AND DECRYPTION OF THE RSA CRYPTOGRAPH
For the encryption, the following equation is used: EQU C=M.sup.e modn (2)
For the decryption, the following equation is used: EQU M=C.sup.d modn (3)
where M represents a plaintext to be encrypted and C represents an encrypted plaintext, that is, a ciphertext. In the equation (2) e and n represent encryption keys and in the equation (3) d and n decryption keys. These keys are previously given the following conditions: EQU n=p.times.q (4) EQU 1==e.times.dmod{LCM(p-1,q-1)} (5)
where "==" means that the left side and the right side of the equation are similar and LCM means the least common multiple. Further, p and q are relatively prime integers. In addition, the keys e and n are public keys and d, n and q are secret keys.
The above equations (4) and (5) both define conditions of numerical values of the modulo exponentiation arithmetic in the encryption algorithm. The equation (4) defines that n is a product of large prime numbers p and q which are prime to each other. The prime numbers p and q are both odd numbers and accordingly the product n must be naturally an odd number. Further, the equation (5) shows that a remainder of a product c.times.d of c and d divided by the least common multiple of values obtained by subtracting 1 from p and q shown in the equation (4) is 1.
On the basis of the equations (4) and (5), the plaintext M is encrypted by means of the equation (2) and the encrypted plaintext M (ciphertext C) is decrypted by means of the equation (3).
(2) EXAMPLE OF ENCRYPTION AND DECRYPTION
Referring to FIG. 2, description is made to a processing method performed by a transmitting person A and a receiving person B in the case where "the transmitting person A encrypts the plaintext M into the ciphertext C to transmit it and the receiving person B decrypts the ciphertext C into the plaintext M." (with the digital signature) as a definite example.
THE PROCESS PERFORMED BY THE TRANSMITTING PERSON A:
The plaintext MA prepared by the transmitting person A is encrypted by means of the transmitting person's own secret key dA to prepare a signature text CA (signature). EQU CA==MA.sup.dA modnA (6)
The public key eB of the person B is used to prepare an encrypted signature text cA (encryption). EQU cA==CA.sup.eB modnB (7)
The cA is transmitted to the person B.
THE PROCESS PERFORMED BY THE RECEIVING PERSON B:
The encrypted signature text cA received by the person B is decrypted by means of the receiving person's own secret key dB (decryption). EQU cA.sup.dB modnB==(CA.sup.eB modnB).sup.dB modnB (8)
When CA.sup.eB =X, the equation (8) can be transformed to: EQU (CA.sup.eB modnB).sup.dB modnB=(XmodnB).sup.dB modnB (9)
In the equation (9), when XmodnB=Y, that is, when a remainder of X divided by nB is Y and a quotient thereof is k, the equation can be expressed by: EQU X=k.times.nB+Y EQU Y=X-k.times.nB (10)
Accordingly, when the equation (10) is substituted for the corresponding portion in the right side of the equation (9), the equation (9) is expressed by: EQU (XmodnB).sup.dB modnB EQU =Y.sup.dB modnB EQU =(X-k.times.nB).sup.dB modnB (11)
When (X-k.times.nB).sup.dB of the equation (11) is expanded by using constants ai (i=1, 2, . . . ), the (X-k.times.nB)dB can be expressed by: EQU (X-k.times.nB).sup.dB EQU =(X.sup.dB -a1.times.X.sup.dB-1 .times.nB+a2.times.X.sup.dB-2 .times.nB.sup.2- . . . -ai.times.nB.sup.dB) (12)
When the equation (12) is substituted for the corresponding portion of the equation (11), ##EQU1## The second and subsequent terms of this equation can be all divided by nB and can be hence deleted. Accordingly, this equation is expressed by: EQU =X.sup.dB modnB (13)
CA.sup.eB =X is assumed above and accordingly when X is returned to CA.sup.eB, the equation is obtained as follows: EQU =(CA.sup.eB).sup.dB modnB (14)
When the above process is summarized, the above equation is as follows: ##EQU2##
Since the eB and dB satisfy the equation (5), the eB and dB are expressed by the following equation by using a certain integer h. EQU eB.times.dB=h(pB-1)+1
When the Fermat's small theorem that the equation: X.sup.p-1 modp=1 is effected for the prime number p and any integer X which is prime to p is used, the above equation is expressed by: ##EQU3## Since the above equation is satisfied even if CA is a multiple of pB, CA.sup.eB.times.dB -CA for all CA can be divided by pB. Similarly, CA.sup.eB.times.dB -CA can be divided by qB. Since pB and qB are different prime numbers, CA.sup.eB.times.dB -CA CA can be divided by nB=pB.times.qB. Accordingly, the following equation is effected. EQU cA.sup.dB modnB==CA.sup.eB.times.dB modnB(=CA)
The public key eA of the transmitting person is used to prepare the plaintext MA (authentication of signature). ##EQU4## When calculation is made in the same manner as the above decryption process, the following equation is derived. EQU =MA
As described above, values of e, d and n are determined under condition of the equations (4) and (5) and the modulo exponentiation arithmetic form represented by the equation (1) is used basically, so that plaintext can be encrypted and the encrypted plaintext can be decrypted.
For example, when n=15, e=3, p=5, q=3 and d=11 (n=p.times.q=5.times.3=15, e.times.dmod(p-1).times.(q-1)=3.times.11mod4.times.2=33mod8=1) and plaintext M=13, encryption and decryption are made as follows, respectively: EQU C=M.sup.e modn=13.sup.3 mod15=2197mod15=7 EQU M=C.sup.d modn=7.sup.11 mod15=1977326743mod15=13
It is confirmed that the plaintext M=13 is decrypted.
(3) MODULO EXPONENTIATION ARITHMETIC METHOD
The modulo exponentiation arithmetic method used in encryption and decryption is now described.
The modulo exponentiation arithmetic of A=M.sup.e modN is executed by using the iterative square and multiplication method shown in the following flow 1 with the binary expansion of the integer e being e=e.sup.k-1 . . . e.sup.1 e.sup.0. ##EQU5##
The iterative square and multiplication method is expressed by a flow chart of FIG. 3.
First, an initial value 1 is loaded into a register A. The value stored in the register A is multiplied by itself to calculate A.times.A and the product A.times.A is divided by N to obtain a remainder. The remainder is stored in a register a. Then, the value stored in the register a is loaded into the register A. At this time, if the exponent e is equal to 1, the value stored in the register A is multiplied by the plaintext M and the product thereof is divided by N to obtain a remainder, which is stored in the register a. Then, the contents of the register a is stored into the register A again. If the exponent e is equal to 0, the above calculation is not performed and the value stored in the register A remains as it is without any operation. The above calculation is repeatedly performed from the most significant bit to the least significant bit of e, so that the value stored finally into the register A is a solution of the modulo exponentiation arithmetic to be calculated.
As described above, the foundation of the arithmetic is the multiplication and division (modular arithmetic) as shown by the equations (16) and (17). The multiplication performs A.times.A or A.times.M for the value of A having 1 as its initial value and the division performs modN for the value obtained by each multiplication. A pair of arithmetic operations of the multiplication and the division (A.times.AmodN or A.times.MmodN) are repeated in accordance with bit values of "e". That is, the multiplication and the division are performed in accordance with the contents of bits from the most significant bit to the least significant bit of "e".
The foregoing has described the modulo exponentiation arithmetic which can obtain a solution by repeating the basic remainder arithmetic or modular arithmetic, while the number of times of the repetition is several hundreds to thousands at most and accordingly the repetitive operation can be treated even by the software process. However, the modular arithmetic itself requires a large-scale arithmetic circuit and a complicated processing procedure in order to perform the division and accordingly it is desired to improve the modular arithmetic.

Circuit and system for modulo exponentiation arithmetic and arithmetic method of performing modulo exponentiation arithmetic


A split rotor cooling fan clutch includes an input member that is constantly driven at engine speed, or at some selected proportion thereof. An output member is journaled on the input member so as to be supported thereon in a substantially nonrotating state when decoupled and alternately, to be concentrically rotatable in concert therewith at a variety of speeds. A space presented between the input and output members contains a quantity of magnetorheological fluid. An engagement mechanism includes the split rotor and coil, with a ferromagnetic element positioned to define an operative gap between the rotor and the ferromagnetic element. The coil is selectively energized with a given current to result in a torque transfer between the input and output elements that provides a rotational speed of the fan tailored to the cooling requirements of the associated engine. Internal heat generation is managed electronically to prevent overheating.

Motor vehicles with internal combustion engines conventionally employ a fan to move cooling air through a radiator to reduce the temperature of coolant fluid circulated therein. For improved efficiency, a clutch is generally included that engages when the engine coolant is above a certain preselected temperature, and disengages when the coolant is below that temperature. Often, the clutch utilizes the viscous properties of a contained fluid to provide increased angular fan acceleration. A typical viscous clutch design utilizes fluid that is carried in a reservoir and is introduced to a working chamber, engaging the clutch and rotating the attached fan. The clutch drives the fan at approximately the input speed when additional cooling is required and allows the fan to rotate at a low disengaged speed when additional cooling is not required. The clutch is generally engaged by a thermostat that responds to air flowing through the radiator that is at a temperature representative of the engine's coolant temperature. The viscous clutch can generally only be engaged or disengaged, and it is engaged at or near engine speed, even when the cooling requirements could be supplied at a lower speed.
Coupling devices, including clutches for use in environments such as cooling systems, that operate with electro-magnetomechanical engagement mechanisms are known wherein rotation of an output member relative to a driven input member is controlled by means of magnetic flux. The magnetic flux lines pass through the input and output members and through air or fluid gaps to transfer torque. Fluids have been developed that free the input and output members from one another permitting relative and independent rotation therebetween when the magnetic field was absent. When the necessary electromagnetic coil is energized, the magnetic fluid locks the input and output members together for unitary rotation. Generally, this means that the fan is nearly instantaneously accelerated to engine speed, which results in the impartation of high stresses and tends to generate undesirable noise levels. Additionally, the electrical current is generally applied to the coil at a single engagement effective rate, whenever it is desirable to drive the fan.
Fluids for use in electro-magnetomechanical force transmission devices are known wherein material such as finely powdered iron or iron alloy particles are carried in a liquid such as mineral oil or silicone. The suspension of ferromagnetic particles in a fluid medium is known to affect the rheology of the fluid, particularly when subjected to magnetic flux. More specifically, flow characteristics can change by several orders of magnitude within milliseconds when subjected to a suitable magnetic field. The ferromagnetic particles remain suspended under the influence of magnetic fields and applied forces. Such magnetorheological fluids have been found to have desirable electro-magnetomechanical interactive properties for advantageous use in variable power transmission devices such as clutches, where magnetic fields provide the essential coupling in the energy transfer process. For example, magnetorheological fluids exhibit a self reversing increase in viscosity when subjected to an increase in an externally supplied magnetic field. The common magnetic field is distributed throughout a region of space, generally in a variable manner depending on distance from the field's source with the flux density being high close to the surface of the source. The fluid's rheology varies depending on the magnetic flux density and the location in the magnetic field.
Actual application of magnetorheological fluid technology in uses such as vehicle cooling fan clutches has been slow to develop. A practical and competitive design has been elusive and therefore, a need continues to exist.


A method for dynamically controlling sense amplifier differential margin of a memory during operation, in an integrated circuit, including a plurality of addressable units, is provided. The method includes setting the sense amplifier differential margin corresponding to the plurality of addressable units to a first value. The method further includes if a read data error occurs when data is read from a set of the plurality of addressable units, then setting the sense amplifier differential margin corresponding to the plurality of addressable units to a second value, wherein the second value is greater than the first value.

1. Field
This disclosure relates generally to integrated circuits, and more specifically, to an integrated circuit memory having dynamically adjustable read margin and method therefor.
2. Related Art
Reducing power consumption is a continuing desire in integrated circuits. One way of reducing power consumption is by reducing the power supply voltage. However, there is a limit on how low the power supply voltage can be reduced for reliable operation for a given circuit. A static random access memory (SRAM) is a type of memory that is generally used in applications requiring high speed, such as a memory in a data processing system. An SRAM cell is only stable in one of two possible voltage levels and is read by sensing a relatively low differential voltage on a pair of bit lines. A sense amplifier is used to sense and amplify the differential voltage. The sense amplifier is expected to be able to operate reliably over a wide voltage range, and yet be fast enough so that the performance advantage of the SRAM is maintained. However, the sense margin of the sense amplifier is reduced as the power supply voltage is reduced.
Therefore, there is a need for a reliable memory with good performance over a wide range of power supply voltage levels.

Integrated circuit memory having dynamically adjustable read margin and method therefor


An implant includes an implantable portion and a housing. The implantable portion has a head and a shank extending from the head. The shank has a solid outer surface and defines a radius of curvature. The housing is pivotally and rotatably coupled to the head and is configured to secure a rod to the implantable portion. The housing is fixed relative to the implantable portion when a rod is secured within the housing.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to methods, systems, and apparatuses for bony fixation and, more specifically, to methods, systems, and apparatuses adapted for fixing the bones of the spine.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Fixation or fusion of vertebral columns with bone or material, rods or plates is a common, long practiced surgical method for treating a variety of conditions. Many of the existing procedures involve the use of components that protrude outwardly, which may contact and damage a body part, such as the aorta, the vena cava, the sympathetic nerves, the lungs, the esophagus, the intestine, and the ureter. In addition, many constructions involve components that may loosen and cause undesirable problems, often necessitating further surgical intervention. Additionally, limiting the success of these procedures are the biomechanical features of the spine itself, whose structure must simultaneously provide support to regions of the body, protect the vertebral nervous system, and permit motion in multiple planes.
As indicated above, spinal surgery for spine fusion generally involves using implants and instrumentation to provide support to the affected area of the spine while allowing the bones thereof to fuse. The technology initially evolved using bone chips around and on top of an area of the spine that had been roughened to simulate a fracture in its consistency. The area, having encountered the bone chips, would then proceed to heal like a fracture, incorporating the bone chips.
Surgical procedures dealing with the spine present notable challenges. For example, bioengineers have been required to identify the various elements of the complex motions that the spine performs, and the components of the complex forces it bears. This complexity has made it difficult to achieve adequate stability and effective healing in surgical procedures directed to the spine. One surgical technique, involves cutting a dowel type hole with a saw across or through the moveable intervertebral disc and replacing it with a bone graft that was harvested from the hip bone. This procedure limits motion and mobility and results in a fusion of the adjacent vertebral bodies. However, as a result of the complex motions of the spine, it is often difficult to secure the dowel from displacing. Further, it has become apparent over time that this particular technique does not always yield a secure fusion.
Other techniques have been developed that involve the placement of various hardware elements, including rods and hooks, rods and screws and plates and screws. The dowel technique also has advanced over the past five years or so, with dowels being fabricated from cadaver bone or metals such as titanium or stainless steel. These techniques, whether using hardware, dowels or some combination thereof, have a common goal to enhance stability by diminishing movement, thereby resulting in or enhancing the potential of a fusion of adjacent vertebral bones. For example, in one of these other techniques, the disc is removed and adjacent vertebrae are positioned in a stable position by placing a plate against and traversing them, which plate is secured or anchored to each by means of screws.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a new apparatus, system, and methods for spinal fixation that enhances healing of the bone while providing structural support to the spine. It would be particularly desirable to provide such an apparatus, system, and method that would involve the use of open surgical or minimally invasive surgical techniques. In addition, it would be desirable for an implant placeable adjacent the sacrum at the end of a long construct with numerous screws and/or hooks securing one or more rods to the spine where fixation at the sacrum can experience considerable stress, which can in some instances break traditional screws, pull rods free from screws or fatigue the bone-screws interface, in all cases compromising the security of the fixation to the sacrum.

Fixation implant and method of insertion


A method of evaluating a driving skill executed by a computer includes a skill evaluation step of evaluating a driver's driving skill based on a detection value of a vehicle state, a component separating step of separating the detection value of the vehicle state into a driver's operation component reflecting a driver's motion and a non-driver's operation component without reflecting the driver's motion, and a skill evaluation modifying step of correcting or abandoning evaluation of the driving skill based on at least one of an amount of the driver's operation component and an amount of the non-driver's operation component.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a driving skill evaluation method, a driving skill evaluation program, a driving skill evaluation apparatus that evaluates vehicle driving skills, and a vehicle provided therewith.
2. Description of the Related Art
A currently-used driving skill evaluation apparatus evaluates a driver's driving skills for driving a two-wheeled vehicle or a four-wheeled vehicle. For a four-wheeled vehicle, the driver's driving skills are determined from a steering angle. For a two-wheeled vehicle, the driving skills are determined from detection values obtained by detecting a variation in yaw direction, roll direction, pitch direction, or caster angle. The driving skills evaluated with the driving skill evaluation apparatus are displayed to the driver via a monitor. Alternatively, the driving skills are notified to the driver as voice information.
International Publication No. WO 2011/077638 discloses a rider characteristic determining apparatus that detects a variation in yaw direction, roll direction, pitch direction, or caster angle. Then, a vehicle stability characteristic and a turning characteristic of a rider are determined from detection values of the above, and a monitor displays the determination results.
JP Patent No. 3516986 discloses a driving skill estimating apparatus that determines an actual track of a vehicle from a vehicular motion quantity, and determines a target track from a driver's operation quantity. Then a driver's skill is estimated based on an integral value of a deviation between the actual track and the target track.
In the driving skill determining apparatus disclosed each of in International Publication No. WO 2011/077638 and JP Patent No. 3516986, the detection values for the state quantity of the vehicle contains components that are not derived from the driver's motion. The driving skill determining apparatus in International Publication No. WO 2011/077638 and JP Patent No. 3516986 evaluates the driver's driving skills while the components not derived from the driver's motion are contained. This may degrade the evaluation accuracy.

Driving skill evaluation method, driving skill evaluation program, driving skill evaluation apparatus, and vehicle provided therewith


At least one chamber is provided for transport of workpieces such as storage disks, at least at times, into the vacuum atmosphere, during their manufacturing and comprises at least two exterior openings for the guiding-though of a workpiece. It further comprises a majority of workpiece receiving devices which can be rotated jointly about an axis in an assignment to the openings. At least one transport element is provided and is aligned with an opening. The transport element is disposed in the chamber independently of the rotatable workpiece receiving devices and can be moved out and back in a radially controlled manner in at least one component, and engages on a workpiece in the opening area. A transport method for workpieces in an evacuatable chamber provides that at least two workpieces are rotated about a center in a plane of rotation and are displaced individually in a radial manner with respect to the center of rotation at least in one movement component.

The present invention relates to a chamber to a chamber combination, to a vacuum treatment facility, as well as to a transport method.
For the transport of workpieces, particularly of storage disks, such as CD's, magnetic or magneto-optic storage disks, in a chamber of a vacuum treatment facility, for example, for the treatment of the workpieces by reactive or non-reactive vacuum processes, such as etching processes, physical or chemical coating processes with or without glow discharge support, it has been known for a long time to provide a plurality of workpiece receiving devices which can be rotated jointly about an axis in an alignment with provided exterior openings of the chamber. Reference can be made in this respect to U.S. Pat. No. 3,856,654 or German Patent Document DEPS 24 54 544.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 3,856,654, it is known to rotate frame-type workpiece receiving devices in the chamber about an axis in the manner of a carrousel. When a frame containing the workpiece has reached the alignment position with the exterior opening of the chamber on which a working station is mounted, the workpiece is pushed into the treatment position by means of a lifting element which operates in parallel to the axis of rotation. This resulted in a three-dimensional displacement path for the workpieces, specifically in two dimensions according to the plane of rotation of the carrousel and in a third dimension, in parallel to the axis of rotation of the carrousel out of the chamber.
German Patent Document DE-PS 24 54 544 suggests a configuration in which the displacement path in the third dimension is reduced considerably in order to achieve a more compact construction of the facility. For this purpose, the workpieces are displaced in the treatment position only slightly in parallel to the axis within the framework of the suspension by means of which workpiece receiving frames are disposed on the rotating carrousel so that they can be displaced in the axial direction. For this purpose, a ram, which is mounted to be aligned with the respective exterior opening with the treatment station, engages on the workpiece holding frame, opposite the treatment chamber. Thus the wall of the treatment station mounted to the exterior opening of the chamber is completed by means of a part rotating with the carrousel.
In the case of the facilities according to German Patent Documents DE-OS 39 12 295, 40 09 603, 37 16 498 and European Patent Document EP-A 0 389 820, this principle is also pursued in partially constructive variants.
However, in the manufacturing processes, particularly of the above-mentioned circular-disk-shaped workpieces, it becomes more and more necessary to carry out a plurality of individual treatment steps on a corresponding number of treatment stations. The approach in which the workpieces in the treatment position were lifted only minimally on the transport plane of the workpiece holding carrousel is only a limited remedy in this case because the available space on the chamber with the carrousel is limited.

Chamber, at least for the transport of workpieces, a chamber combination, a vacuum treatment facility as well as a transport method


A method of determining the moment weight of a rotating component for a rotary machine includes the steps of: (a) supporting the component on a platform at a pair of spaced locations along a length dimension of the component, one of the spaced locations corresponding to a known radial distance from a centerline of a rotor of the rotary machine to a predetermined location on the component when the component is installed on the rotary machine, and wherein a center of gravity of the component is located between the spaced locations; (b) determining partial weights of the rotary machine component by supporting the platform on a pair of weight scales vertically aligned with and substantially centered on the spaced locations, wherein a total weight TW of the component is equal to a sum of the partial weights; (c) utilizing information obtained in step (b), locating a center of gravity of the component relative to the one of the spaced locations and determining a radial distance D1 between the center of gravity and the centerline of the rotor; and (d) utilizing information obtained in steps (a)-(c), determining the moment weight of the component by an equation: MW=TW*D1.

This invention relates generally to turbine engines and, more particularly, to a portable tool for determining the moment weight of rotating machine components such as turbine buckets.
At least some known gas turbine engines include a core engine having, in serial flow arrangement, a fan assembly and a high pressure compressor which compress airflow entering the engine. A combustor ignites a fuel-air mixture which is then channeled through a turbine nozzle assembly towards low and high pressure turbines which each include a plurality of rotor blades that extract rotational energy from airflow exiting the combustor. Gas turbines are used in different operating environments to provide, for example, propulsion for aircraft and/or to produce power in land-based power generation systems.
During normal operation, gas turbine engines may experience high rotational speeds. An imbalance of the rotor may cause vibration of the rotor and induce stresses in the rotor bearings and support structures. Over time, continued operation with such stresses may lead to failure of the bearings, bearing support structure(s) and/or other rotor components. Failure of a component within the engine system may damage the system and/or other components within the system, and may require system operations be suspended while the failed component is replaced or repaired. More particularly, when the component is a turbofan gas turbine engine fan blade, a blade-out condition may also cause damage to one or more blades downstream from the released blade.
To facilitate minimizing imbalance of the disk or wheel during operation, the blades or buckets are assembled in a controlled manner. For example, one control that may be used in assembling buckets to rotors includes determining the moment weight of each bucket and using that information to map each bucket into specific wheel slots.
Currently, fairly complex moment weight scales are available, but there appears to be no present option for a customer to perform these measurements on site due to the size, cost and complexity of the equipment. There remains a need, therefore, for a relatively simple, inexpensive and portable moment weight tool that a customer can use on site.

Methods and apparatus for determining moment weight of rotating machine components


The present system relates a platform for addressing the optimal privacy-accuracy trade-off in the revelation of a user's valuable information to a third party. Specifically, the present system formalizes the privacy-accuracy trade-off in a precise mathematical framework, wherein mathematical formalization captures user's privacy preference with a single parameter. The system possesses a revelation method of user data that is optimal, in the sense of abiding by user's privacy preference while providing the most accurate description to third party subject to the aforementioned privacy preference constraint.

This invention generally relates to data privacy, and specifically to techniques for addressing the optimal privacy-accuracy trade-off in the revelation of a user's valuable information to a third party.
Recent advances in communication and computing technologies have made the internet an indispensable part of people's daily life. The ubiquity of web-based systems and services, along with the data-driven nature of the majority of these systems and services, make data arguably the most significant commodity of the 21st century. Indeed, utilization of user data is ubiquitous in contemporary systems and services, such as product recommendations, targeted advertising, personal assistants, navigation services, etc.
However, there is an inherent tension between the utility of user data and privacy of the user. Intuitively, this tension should be clear: as the user allows more of her data to be accessed by a service, the utility of that service increases since said service gains a better understanding of the user. Yet, by revealing more data to the service, the user exposes herself against possible privacy losses. Thus, when the user data is revealed to a third party for utility, the simultaneous quantification of the reduction in user's privacy and the amount of utility gain due to the said revelation is a problem of great significance, since such a quantification could allow the user to adjust how much she reveals and/or to seek quantifiable incentives for her revelation. The solution of this problem, however, necessitates a precise understanding of the trade-off between the utility of user data and the privacy of the user, as well as the characterization of the optimum trade-off between utility and privacy.
Although there are several studies that aim to formalize privacy loss associated with data release, as well as the trade-off between privacy and utility, none of them can be the complete solution of the aforementioned problem, as will be outlined next.
Specifically, a rich vein of studies aims to formalize quantification of privacy loss due to public disclosure from a private information source. See the survey by I. Wagner and D. Eckhoff entitled "Technical privacy metrics: a systematic survey," ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), vol. 51, no. 3, 2018, and references therein, the entirety of which are incorporated herein by reference. Since the focus of these works is to quantify privacy loss, they all treat the third party as an adversary, and hence they do not involve an explicit trade-off between privacy and utility.
Introduced by C. Dwork and co-workers, differential privacy, which is arguably the first study that recognizes the need to address the privacy-utility trade-off, lead to substantial amount of follow up work, see the survey by C. Dwork and A. Roth entitled "The algorithmic foundations of differential privacy," Foundations and Trends® in Theoretical Computer Science, vol. 9, no. 3-4, pp. 211-407, 2014, and references therein, the entirety of which are incorporated herein by reference. In its essence, differential privacy aims to restrict privacy loss individuals suffer when queries are made to a database that stores their information. On a high level, differential privacy formalizes the following observation: in order to protect individuals' privacy, answers to the queries should be corrupted by a certain amount of noise, whose statistics are dictated by the amount of privacy individuals would like to maintain. Since the data revelation is restricted to queries to the databases, differential privacy is too restrictive to provide a complete characterization of the trade-off between privacy and utility.
There are various generalizations of differential privacy aiming to formalize a privacy-utility trade-off. These generalizations possess at least one of the following two properties: First, most of these conventional systems that tackle privacy-utility trade-off assume the user data is partitioned into private-public components and model privacy (resp. utility) in terms of a relation between private user data and revealed data (resp. public user data and revealed data). Second, the conventional systems typically minimize the privacy loss user experiences subject to a utility constraint on third party's observation. Both properties have particular shortcomings, which, in turn, make the conventional systems inadequate as far as addressing the problems related to the trade-off between the utility of user data and the privacy of the user, as well as the characterization of the optimum trade-off between utility and privacy, as described above. These shortcomings are explained next.
One shortcoming of a private-public separation of user data is that the incentives of the data owner, i.e., user, and the utility-seeking party, i.e., third party, are not necessarily aligned with respect to the definition of this separation. In other words, a privacy-seeking user would prefer to keep all the data private whereas a utility-seeking party would prefer to make all the data public. Thus, one might need to prioritize one of the party's desire to define this separation.
Another shortcoming lies in devising a precise definition of such a separation, since it should consider desires of all possible users and third parties, which, in turn, makes scaling such a system quite challenging.
Yet another significant shortcoming of a private-public separation of user data is that in a typical scenario, a less-informed user could tend to pick only sensitive information, such as name, social security number, address, etc., as the private data. As such, all the non-sensitive information becomes public data, hence she would not have a control on how much of her data is shared and/or the system cannot measure the amount of privacy loss she experiences. It will be clear to those skilled in the art that sensitive data should never be a part of this trade-off. Hence the aforementioned scenario is useless in terms of capturing privacy-accuracy trade-off.
If, however, one tries to extend the current paradigm to address the aforementioned shortcoming, then almost all of the known methods of measuring privacy and accuracy somewhat trivializes. Specifically, almost all of the conventional systems measure both privacy and accuracy in an "algorithm-independent" way. Although such a methodology is adequate for privacy, it is not quite appropriate for accuracy, since third party does not primarily care about "archival quality" of her observation but rather its "utility" in making a decision based on it at that point in time. As such, measuring the utility in an algorithm-dependent manner is practically more meaningful to devise systems that accomplish privacy-adjusted data revelation.
A significant shortcoming of minimizing the privacy loss user experiences subject to an accuracy constraint on third party's observation is the fact that said formulation prioritizes the utility of third party over the privacy of the user. In light of the current privacy concerns of society, this de-prioritization of the user privacy could result in the public refraining from using services employing such formulations. Accordingly, there is a need to maximize the accuracy of third party's inference subject to a privacy constraint.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system that addresses the privacy-adjusted revelation of user data problem in an operationally meaningful and scalable way, since the conventional systems cannot achieve this goal. Specifically, one can criticize the conventional separation of user data into private-public parts because such a separation assumes some part of user's data could be revealed without a restriction. However, one should exactly quantify the amount of information user reveals, i.e., privacy loss she experiences, with respect to all of her data, so that she can be compensated for her revelation and/or control the amount of revelation. Further, conventional formulations prioritize third party's accuracy over the user's privacy. In light of the current privacy concerns of the society, user's privacy should be prioritized in order to build successful businesses based on the privacy-adjusted revelation of user data.

Systems and methods for optimal privacy-preserving information revelation


A method for the incrementation of counter statuses in memory cells, which are arranged respectively in rows and columns of a first memory adds a “1” to the memory content of a memory cell of a second memory, which corresponds to the memory cell at the start of a sequence of memory cells to be incremented in a row or column of the first memory in the case of every incrementation of a sequence of memory cells of the first memory, and adds a “−1” to the memory content of a memory cell of the second memory, which corresponds to the memory cell immediately following the memory cell at the end of the sequence of memory cells to be incremented associated with the start of the sequence, in the case of every incrementation of a sequence of memory cells of the first memory. It then recursively adds the memory content of a memory cell arranged in a row or column of the second memory to the memory content of the memory cell arranged in the next lower row or column of the first memory and stores the result of the addition in the memory cell arranged in the row or column of the first memory.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and a device for the incrementation of counter statuses stored in memory cells of a memory.
2. Related Technology
By way of example for the current state of organization of screen memories, reference is made to US 2006/0209081 A1.
Contemporary measuring devices and systems provide a display of level-value distributions for a signal to be measured over frequency or time. For this purpose, it is determined in each case whether a level value of the signal to be measured is present within a given time raster in the respective level range and with the respective value of the frequency or time raster. If a level value of the measured signal is present, a counter associated with the respective level range and the respective value of the frequency or time raster is incremented. At the end of the measurement time, the counter statuses of all counters are read out, and supplied to the display device in order to update the display.
The counter statuses of the counters associated with the individual level ranges and the individual values of the frequency or time raster are stored in the memory cells of a memory connected upstream of the display device. Several adjacent memory cells in a row or in a column of the memory are typically incremented at the same time (for example, in the case of a constant signal level, over a broad frequency or time range or, in the case of an equally high frequency of occurrence of the frequency or time value, in adjacent signal-level ranges).
In the worst-case, all of the memory cells in a row or a column of the memory must be incremented in every measuring cycle, which leads to an extremely-high access rate to the memory, which is significantly higher than the sampling rate of the sampled measured signal. At the present time, this kind of incrementation of memory cells of a memory in real time cannot yet be realized with a currently-available resolution of the display device—typically 1000·600 pixels—and with a high sampling rate of the sampled measured signal—for example, a few hundred MHz.

Method and device for the incremention of counter statuses stored in memory cells of a memory


An appearance inspecting method includes the steps of dividing a recognized image of an object into regions based on two attributes of image points within the image calculating the minimum distance of each point within a target region to a periphery of the target region, and measuring a size of the target region from the maximum of the calculated minimum distances of the points in the target region. A distance measuring method for measuring a distance of each point within a region to a periphery of the region includes the steps of dividing each region to be measured by lines made of picture elements arranged in one direction, sequentially integrating the distance of each point from the periphery of the region from its outer side to a middle point in each line from one end line to the other end line of the region to thereby obtain the minimum distance of each point, and the distance of each point from the periphery of the region is sequentially integrated from its outer side to the middle point in each line from the other end line to the one end line of the region to thereby obtain the minimum distance of each point.

The present invention relates to an inspecting method for inspecting the appearance, for example, processing irregularity of the surface of an object such as electronic parts, e.g. capacitors and a distance measuring method used for the inspecting method.
A specific example of a previously used appearance inspecting method will be described.
A UF capacitor is a kind of chip capacitor, which is applied with an ultraviolet curing resin on the surface thereof (referred to as an applied surface) coming in contact with a substrate when mounted, for the purpose of insulation and protection. If the resin is not applied sufficiently, the capacitor is judged to have poor wetting. A region of the capacitor where the resin is fully applied is called a wetting part, and a region thereof where the resin is not applied enough is called a poor wetting part. In the conventional example, the whole area of the poor wetting part is calculated and it is assumed that when the size of the area of the poor wetting part is within a predetermined allowable value, the capacitor is decided to be acceptable. On the other hand, if the size exceeds the predetermined allowable value, the capacitor is decided to be unacceptable.
According to a conventional method, however, the acceptability of the applied surface of the UF capacitor is determined based only by the size of the whole area of the poor wetting part, and the resulting decision may be different from the decision an operator would make. For example, in FIGS. 11A and 11B wherein reference numerals 31 and 33 denote wetting parts and 32 and 34 denote poor wetting parts, assuming the size of the area of the poor wetting part 32 in FIG. 11A is larger than a predetermined value it is decided that it is unacceptable and an operator would judge similarly. On the other hand, assuming the size of the area of the poor wetting part 34 in FIG. 11B is also larger than the predetermined value, it is decided that it is unacceptable, but the decision of the operator would acceptable because the actual poor wetting part is very small at the periphery of the UF capacitor.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A method for controlling structure-borne noise based on a combined-type vibration isolation device includes the following steps: S1: determining a combined-type vibration isolation device as required according to parameters of a mechanical device to be isolated, and installing the combined-type vibration isolation device on a horizontal bearing surface; S2: vertically placing the mechanical device to be isolated on the combined-type vibration isolation device; S3: adjusting a mass of an intermediate balance weight block of the combined-type vibration isolation device; and S4: adjusting an inherent frequency of the combined-type vibration isolation device to be lower than a structural vibration sound transmission frequency generated in the operation of the mechanical device to be isolated.

Noise in a power distribution room mainly includes electromagnetism noise and mechanical noise generated during the operation of a transformer. The electromagnetism noise is generally caused by the magnetostriction of a silicon steel sheet and an electromagnetic force of windings, and the mechanical noise is generated from the device vibration and the running of a cooling fan.
Residential power distribution rooms mostly use dry-type distribution transformers. According to the domestic and foreign research results, noise of the dry-type distribution transformer is mainly caused by the magnetostriction of an iron core. A change cycle of the magnetostriction is exactly a half cycle of the power source frequency (the basic frequency of the power source is 50 Hz in China), therefore the basic frequency of the vibration of the transformer main body caused by the magnetostriction is twice of the power source frequency, and a frequency spectrum of the iron core of the dry-type distribution transformer generally ranges from 100 Hz to 500 Hz.
Generally, a vibration frequency being less than 6 Hz is referred to as a low-frequency vibration, a vibration frequency ranging from 6 Hz to 100 Hz is referred to as an intermediate-frequency vibration, and a vibration frequency being greater than 100 Hz is referred to as a high-frequency vibration. Generally, the vibration of the transformer is transmitted out at a frequency of 100 Hz or frequency multiplication of 100 Hz, which all belong to the high-frequency vibration.
At present, there are two technical measures for controlling structure-borne noise in an indoor transformer station or the power distribution room.
(1) A first measure is a sound absorption and isolation measure. On one hand, such measure has a good effect for controlling air-borne noise, however, the effect for controlling structure-borne noise is generally poor, and the frequency range of the noise to be absorbed and isolated is limited due to conventional sound absorbing and isolating materials. On the other hand, when the conventional measure of sound absorption and isolation is employed in the indoor transformer station or the power distribution room, the performance of ventilation and heat exchanging may be reduced, and the temperature of the running transformer may be increased, which may accelerate the aging of insulating materials of the transformer, and adversely affect the service time of the transformer.
(2) A second measure is to provide a simple vibration isolation system. At present, for controlling the structure-borne noise of the transformer, some construction units employ the simple vibration isolation system, which includes several damping springs, several shock pads, or a combination of the damping springs and the shock pads, however, since the simple vibration isolation system is not reasonably optimized during the assembling and adjusting process, the effect for controlling the high-frequency vibration generated by the transformer is not desirable.
The best manner for restraining the structure-borne noise from being transmitted out is to use a vibration isolation seat. In the classic vibration isolation theory, it is believed that the vibration isolation has a better effect for controlling the high-frequency vibration, however the efficiency for controlling the low-frequency vibration is low, and the difficulty of vibration isolation lies in the low-frequency range. In recent years, with the continuous development of the technology for designing and manufacturing the vibration isolation seat, the natural frequency of the vibration isolation seat may be lower. At present, in China, the natural frequency of the vibration isolation seat under the rated load is already as low as 3 Hz to 5 Hz, which solves the problem that the effect of the vibration isolation in the low-frequency range is poor, however, a problem of the vibration isolation in the high-frequency range is highlighted. According to a large amount of researches, the conventional simple vibration isolation device only has a good effect in the low-frequency range, and has an undesirable vibration isolation effect in controlling the vibration interferences in a high-frequency range which is above 100 Hz.
Thus, it is urgent to provide a method for effectively controlling the high-frequency structure-borne noise generated by a vibration device. The method may be adapted to the field of structure-borne noise transmission control and vibration control for vibration devices, such as transformers, electric reactors, or capacitors in the transformer stations and the power distribution rooms.

Method for controlling structural acoustic transmission on basis of combined-type vibration isolation device

STATE GRID CHONGQING ELECTRIC POWER CO. ELECTRIC POWER RESEARCH INSTITUTE


The present invention relates to the field of denim fabric processing, specifically to an environmentally-friendly processing method for dyeing denim fabric with zero discharge. The method includes: step 1, a treatment of white warp yarns; step 2, a primary drying operation; step 3, a coating spray-dyeing operation; step 4, a secondary drying operation; step 5, a sizing operation; step 6, a ternary drying operation; and step 7, a doffing operation. In the present application, as warp yarns are dyed using the coating spray-dyeing technology, highly corrosive auxiliaries such as sodium hydrosulfite and sodium sulfide are not needed in the dyeing process, and the dyed warp yarns are not required to be treated in a washing tank, so that zero effluent discharge is achieved.

Dyeing is a very common craft, which refers to a process of dyeing fabric in various colors. Various dyeing agents and auxiliaries need to be added in a dyeing machine. The features of fabric vary with fabric categories. For example, dyeing quality can be influenced by shrinking percentage, and therefore dyeing process changes accordingly. Denim fabric is one of popular fabric in trend. Traditional dyeing methods consume a huge amount of water and are high in cost when used to dye the denim fabric.
Warp yarns of the regular color denim fabric are dyed by continuous dip-dyeing and oxidization with sulfur dyestuff in a sizing-dyeing integrated machine (the dyeing process includes steps of pre-treatment of white warp yarns, fixation operation (dip-dyeing and oxidation) which is repeated for 2-4 times, water washing, soaping, washing, drying, sizing, drying, and doffing). Since sulfur dyestuff cannot be directly dissolved in water and has a feature of no affinity to fibers, a large amount of sodium sulfide is required at a high temperature during dyeing to reduce and dissolve the sulfur dyestuff for dyeing the fabric, and washing and soaping treatment are required after dyeing. Therefore, the whole dyeing process which consumes a huge amount of water, electricity and steam and generates a large amount of sewage to be purified is a dyeing approach that causes too much pollution. Besides, ready-made clothes also generate a large amount of sewage when washed with water. Moreover, the color denim fabric generated using the sulfur dyestuff also has disadvantages of lacking colors hue and brightness, being irresistible to bleaching, being crisp during storage, etc.

Environmentally-friendly processing method for dyeing denim fabric with zero discharge


An eaves trough for receiving water from a structure includes an elongated sheet that extends along a longitudinal axis and extends integrally from a first longitudinal edge to a second longitudinal edge. An upper portion of the sheet at least partially overlies the structure and extends from the first longitudinal edge to a longitudinal transition. A lower portion of the sheet extends from the longitudinal transition to the second longitudinal edge. The lower portion of the sheet extends generally downward from the upper portion of the sheet at the longitudinal transition and extends under at least part of the upper portion of the sheet, such that the lower portion of the sheet defines a trough below the upper portion of the sheet. Apertures are formed through the upper portion of the sheet such that the apertures overlie the trough. The water travels from the structure onto the upper portion of the sheet and through the apertures to the trough.

It is well known that eaves troughs tend to collect leaves and other debris and thus must be cleaned at regular intervals to prevent clogging. Numerous designs have been previously proposed to prevent debris from entering an eaves trough. Generally, these designs fall into one of two categories. Eaves troughs of the first category of designs include an impervious cap that extends completely over the eaves trough. The caps of such eaves troughs typically include a geometrical feature on the outboard end thereof, such as a semi-circular lip, that directs water into the eaves trough but prevents entry of leaves or other debris. The second category of designs regards screens that are attachable to the top surface of the eaves trough or insertable into the eaves trough, wherein the screen allows water to flow therethrough but prevents leaves or debris from entering the eaves trough.
It is well-known that so-called seamless gutters may be fabricated at the job site from a coil of stock material using a machine that bends the material to a desired cross-sectional shape. However, providing a cap or screen for the eaves trough conventionally requires a separate fabrication step, as well as a separate installation step, which often includes the use of hardware that is separate from the hardware used to hang the eaves trough itself. Accordingly, a need remains for an eaves trough that prevents the entry of leaves or other debris without requiring complicated fabrication and installation procedures.


A preferred embodiment of the invention provides a method for forming an integrated circuit. The method comprises forming a resist layer on a substrate. Preferably, the photoresist layer comprises a photo acid generator (PAG). Embodiments include irradiating the resist through a mask to generate a photoacid in the resist, heating the resist at a first temperature, and then heating the resist at a second temperature. Heating at the first temperature evaporates water from the resist. Heating at the second temperature deprotects the resist.

Lithography is widely used in the manufacture of integrated circuits. In lithography, and more particularly photolithography, a photoresist layer is formed on a semiconductor substrate. The photoresist is then exposed in certain areas to actinic radiation. The areas that are irradiated are defined by a mask which is projected onto the photoresist by a lens system. The mask contains a pattern of transparent and opaque areas. The mask is exposed to actinic radiation, such as ultraviolet light (UV), which is transmitted through the transparent areas of the mask to cause a chemical reaction in corresponding regions of the photoresist.
In a negative type photoresist the radiation impacted areas of the photoresist become insoluble in a developing solvent. For example, the radiation can initiate cross-linking, chain growth, photocondensation, or other such reaction to cause a chemical change in the photoresist. In a positive type photoresist the irradiated areas become more soluble in a developing solvent. For example, the radiation can cause photodegradation of the photoresist molecular structure.
Advancements in photoresist materials and methods have played a key role in the miniaturization of integrated circuits. Chemically amplified resists are an important class of photoresists for imaging wavelengths at or below 248 nm. Chemically amplified resists typically include four components: a base polymer with protected chemically reactive, hydrophobic groups; a photoacid generator (PAG); a base; and a solvent. Upon exposure to UV or other type of actinic, or activating, radiation, the PAG photodecomposes and generates a proton, H+. During a later post-exposure bake (PEB), the H+ acts as a catalyst to convert the hydrophobic protected groups on the base polymer into strong hydrophilic groups such as —COOH. This conversion, which is often called deprotection, makes a positive resist soluble in the developer.
One problem encountered with chemically amplified resists is the presence of water in the post exposure resist. The high affinity of the photo-generated proton for water severely interferes with its catalytic performance. Spatial variations in water concentration therefore causes uneven development, which in turn causes line broadening, blobs, and other defects in the completed integrated circuit.
In light of such problems, there is a need for improved methods and materials in high-resolution lithography.