In an image processing apparatus that is capable of setting desired image processing conditions for each of images that have been shot, an image of interest for which number of prints is to be set is specified and it is determined whether image processing conditions have been set for the specified image of interest. If image processing conditions have not been set for the specified image of interest, a number of prints for the image of interest is allowed to be set. If setting of number of prints has been allowed, then the setting of number of prints is accepted and the set number of prints is stored in correlation with the image of interest.

Cameras equipped with a function for recording the number of prints on film are now in wide use. Such a camera is typified by an ASP camera.
Assume that a group photo, for example, is taken. With the above-mentioned camera, the number of prints of the group photo, which is equivalent to the number of people in the photo, is set before the photo is taken, whereby this information is recorded in a magnetic recording area of the film. Then, when the film is developed at a laboratory, the number of necessary prints can be developed. This is a very convenient feature.
There are also cameras and viewers that enable the number of prints to be set after photos have been taken. With such a device, the number of prints necessary can be recorded in one-to-one correspondence with each frame of the film after photography but before development. This eliminates errors in correspondence between a photo for which a plurality of prints are desired and number of prints. In addition, if the setting is made on the spot upon taking the photo, the user will no longer forget to make extra prints later. This also is a convenient feature.
There have also been proposals in which an already shot image or an image that will be shot has its enlargement magnification changed by trimming using an electronic zoom or the like, or in which a setting is made to print after development in a color tone different from the original color tone, as by specifying development in sepia tones.
By way of example, the specification of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-43955 proposes a technique in which a print zone is shown explicitly in the form of a border on an index print so as to enable identification of trimming information appended to each frame, or in which identification can be made as by a change in the color of a symbol or character that indicates a print zone. This enables the user to ascertain in advance the zone to be printed and therefore makes it possible to verify composition or make a change to trimming in simple fashion. These also are convenient features.
Further, the specification of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-32215 proposes the simultaneous printing of a standard original image, which is obtained by applying standard image processing to one photosensitive material, and a processed image obtained by application of processing conditions (e.g., image color tone, sharpness, gradation, trimming, enlargement magnification, etc.) different from those of the original image. With this technique, the original image and the processed image can be seen simultaneously so that the user can ascertain the differences between the images, the effects of processing, etc. This is convenient.
However, in regard to a camera or viewer equipped with both the above-mentioned function for setting and storing numbers of prints and the image processing function obtained by applying processing (e.g., image color tone, sharpness, gradation, trimming, enlargement magnification, etc.) under conditions different from those of the original image, the examples of the prior art do not particularly address the relationship between numbers of prints and image processing.
Accordingly, if, in a case where a number of prints has been set to the number of people that appear in the image, processing has been specified that will result in a sepia color (or a black-and-white photo) of the image for which the number of prints has been set, or an enlarged photo of a particular person in the image has been specified, then, with a camera or viewer that does not indicate how these functions are interrelated, the prints required may not be obtained or a large number of unnecessary prints may be produced.

Image processing apparatus and method of controlling same


A method of producing stone set jewelry includes the step of forming at least one affixation groove within the stone to be set in the jewelry. A stone to be set with the present method should have an upper and a lower portion which is at least substantially entirely hidden from view when the upper portion of the stone is viewed. In accordance with the present method the affixation groove should be formed in the lower portion of the stone such that it too is hidden from view when the upper portion of the stone is viewed. A heat setting method is disclosed for improving the bond between the pavilion of the stone and the wax model used in the casting process. The method also includes the deposition of a mounting material within the affixation groove by applying a conventional casting method. Finally, any excess deposited mounting material can be removed and the stone affixed to the article of jewelry via the mounting material such that the mounting material of a completed article of jewelry is not visible when the stone is viewed from the upper portion thereof. New articles of jewelry formed from the methods of producing jewelry are also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the fields of jewelry and jewelry manufacturing. More particularly, the invention concerns methods of producing articles of jewelry with one or more stones discretely mounted thereon.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of stones as decorative elements of jewelry is extremely widespread and dates back thousands of years. Among the more popular precious and semi-precious stones used in such jewelry are diamonds, emeralds, rubies, opals and sapphires. Jewels such as these are commonly set in rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, etc. which are primarily made of metal such as gold, silver, platinum, etc. Such articles of jewelry utilize xe2x80x98settingsxe2x80x99 to mount the stones onto the carrying portion of the jewelry and shall be referred to herein as xe2x80x9cstone setxe2x80x9d jewelry.
In addition to manufacturing considerations found in any sphere of mass production, jewelry designers and producers place a premium on the overall aesthetics of an article of jewelry. Thus, jewelry designers have striven to create the most attractive works possible at a minimum cost. In large part, the overall beauty of stone set jewelry is derived from the quality and brilliance of the stones used therein. Since the manner in which a stone is set into an article of jewelry is a major factor in determining the quality of the overall work, the stone used in an article of jewelry must be retained therein in a manner which emphasizes the brilliance of the stone. Accordingly, jewelry manufacturers have long striven to develop methods of retaining stones within jewelry in the least obtrusive manner possible.
Unfortunately, stone settings used in conventional jewelry invariably interfere with the visual appearance of the stones themselves. This is true regardless of whether such jewelry is prong set, channel set or bezel set, etc. For example, prong set jewelry typically utilizes four prongs which extend from the stone carrying portion of the jewelry over the top of the stone to secure the stone against movement. Restated in more conventional terms, in prong set jewelry, stones are retained in the jewelry by the use of prongs which emanate from below the pavilion of the stone, extend over the girdle and terminate on the table of the stone. This manner of affixing stones to jewelry necessarily causes at least some degradation of the stone""s brilliance due to the fact that at least a portion of the stone is covered by the prongs. Thus, in order to achieve a given level of brilliance, a higher quality stone must be used to compensate for the presence of such prongs. Naturally, this leads to increased costs. Finally, the fact that the conventional method of setting stones in jewelry occurs on an individual basis further increases costs relative to a method in which multiple settings can be simultaneously formed.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide methods of producing jewelry of the type having stones set in a carrying member wherein the setting is not visible when the jewelry is viewed from the top side of the stones.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide methods of producing jewelry of the type having clusters of stones set in a carrying member wherein the setting for each of the stones in each cluster are produced simultaneously.
A further object of the present invention is to provide methods of producing jewelry of the type having stones set in a carrying member, such methods reducing manufacturing wastes, costs and production times.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide methods of producing jewelry of the type having stones set in a carrying member wherein the stones can be set in the jewelry simultaneously with the casting of the remainder of the article of jewelry.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an improved method of mounting stones to the wax jewelry models used in conjunction with lost-wax casting.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide methods of producing jewelry utilizing precious and semi-precious stones wherein the stones appear to be of higher quality than stones of comparable value when set in conventional jewelry.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide methods of producing jewelry of the general character noted above, such methods offering an optimal combination of versatility, economy, simplicity and efficiency.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention are provided in one embodiment by providing methods of producing stone set jewelry in which at least one affixation groove is formed within the stone to be set therein. The stone should have an upper and a lower portion which is at least substantially entirely hidden from view when the upper portion of the stone is viewed. The affixation groove should be formed in the lower portion of the stone such that it too is hidden from view when the upper portion of the stone is viewed.
The inventive method further comprises the deposition of a mounting material within the affixation groove by applying one of a number of conventional casting methods such as the lost-wax casting method. Finally, any excess deposited mounting material can be removed and the stone fixed to the article of jewelry via the mounting material such that the mounting material of a completed article of jewelry is not visible when the stone is viewed from the upper portion thereof.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the lost-wax casting method is utilized to deposit the mounting material (preferably the same metal used to form the carrying portion of the jewelry and most preferably gold) within the affixation groove of the stone. This method of casting preferably comprises the following steps: forming a wax model of the stone-receiving portion of the article of jewelry; mounting the stone to the model such that wax occupies at least a portion of the affixation groove; forming an investment about the wax mold and the stones; removing the wax from the investment by the application of heat; replacing the wax removed from the investment with a mounting material such that the mounting material occupies at least a portion of the affixation groove; and removing the investment from the stone and mounting material.
One aspect of the present invention improves upon the lost-wax casting method by using heat and pressure to aid in mounting each stone to the wax model prior to forming the investment. The heat and pressure ensure that the stone is properly positioned in the model and that wax of the model penetrates the affixation grooves. Stones securely mounted to and properly positioned on the wax model improve the quality of the resultant cast jewelry.
The methods of the present invention further improve over the prior art in that the only modification to the gem stone is to cut affixation grooves in the pavilion of the stone. U.S. Pat. No. 5,649,434 to Itzkowitz, for example, discloses an invisible setting for round diamonds which requires extensive modifications to the girdle of the stone prior to creation of the affixation grooves. Not only are such modifications to the stone expensive, some size, weight and brilliance of the stone are necessarily lost.
Variations of the preferred embodiment of the present invention focus on different ways of forming the affixation groove within a stone to be set in an article of jewelry. For example, one method of forming the affixation groove entails cutting the groove into a stone using a blade which is advanced toward and into the pavilion of the stone at an angle of 90xc2x0 and then causing relative rotation between the stone and the blade whereby a generally annular groove is formed in the stone.
It is also possible to form first and second linear affixation grooves on the pavilion of a stone in order to secure the stone to the settings in two locations. The affixation groove can be defined between two substantially symmetric adjoining walls. In certain circumstances, the affixation groove can also be defined between two opposing side walls and an adjoining bottom wall.
Numerous other advantages and features of the present invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art from the following detailed description of the invention, from the claims and from the accompanying drawings.

China Diamond Production Company Limited


Probabilistic parsing is described for calculating information about the structure of text and other ordered sequences of items to enable downstream systems such as machine translation systems, information retrieval systems, document classification systems and others to use the structure information. In various embodiments, a parsing inference component comprises inference algorithm(s) compiled from a probabilistic program which defines a stochastic process for generating text or other ordered sequences of items. In examples, the parsing inference component receives one or more observations or examples of text that are compatible with the stochastic process defined by the probabilistic program. The parsing inference component may apply the inference algorithms to the text to update one or more probability distributions over strings or other values relevant to the parse. In some examples, the parsing inference component uses the inference results to complete partial examples to assist a user with information retrieval tasks.

Parsing can be thought of as a process of finding structure in text or other ordered sequences of items. A grammar or other rules which may have been used to generate the text may be available and used to find the structure; or the grammar itself may need to be found. However, parsing unstructured text is a very challenging task because of the variety of ways in which people can express themselves using text and the natural ambiguity of language.
Because large amounts of information are available only in the form of unstructured text (such as most information available on the Internet), accurate, fast and cost effective ways of parsing that unstructured text are needed in order to enable automated systems such as information retrieval systems, document classification systems, machine translation systems and other systems to make use of that information.
Some previous parsing approaches have involved manually writing large amounts of machine learning code, which is time consuming, difficult to understand and maintain and bug-prone.
Classifiers trained using large amounts of labeled training data may be used to extract information from unstructured text. However, obtaining the labeled training data is typically expensive and time consuming and, once trained, the classifier does not adapt to changing use of language, such as new words or phrases.
Some previous parsing approaches have used regular expressions to analyze text. However, regular expressions are difficult to use by novice users and are defined using a limited language, so do not allow rich and complex parsing processes to be defined, for example, the parse cannot depend on non-textual cues.
The embodiments described below are not limited to implementations which solve any or all of the disadvantages of known systems for parsing text and other ordered sequences of items.


A power supply system allowing remote adjustments of the power output of the power supply unit without having to physically access the power supply unit itself is disclosed. A power supply system in accordance with the present invention utilizes a central processing unit (CPU) to provide a command that adjusts to the power output via a modified pulse width modulator (MPWM). Moreover, the central processing unit (CPU) may also be used to provide fine tune adjustments to the error signal of the power supply system, wherein the central processing unit (CPU) produces a command for the modified pulse width modulator to control the power output.

The current invention relates generally to a modified pulse width modulator (MPWM) in a power supply system that allows an operator to modify the output of the power supply without the need to physically access the power supply system itself. More particularly, the present invention relates to an innovative modified pulse width modulator (MPWM) connected to a power supply system utilizing a central processing unit (CPU) to control the inputs to get the desired output out of a power supply system.
Traditional power supply units are of analog in nature, utilizing an analog pulse width modulator (APWM) to control the frequency and duty cycle for an output voltage. A traditional analog power supply is shown in FIG. 1, depicting the components and operations of an analog power supply.
FIG. 1 shows the various components of a traditional analog power supply system 100 containing a power input 101, an electromagnetic interference (EMI) filter 102, and a transistor 108, all located on the primary side 104 of the traditional analog power supply system 100. On the secondary side 106 of the traditional analog power generator system 100, various components such as a rectifier 110, an error sensor 112, and a power supply output 122 are shown in FIG. 1. A power supply for CPU 120 within the traditional analog power supply system 100 is comprised of a transformer dividing the power from the primary side 104 from the secondary side 106 to eventually deliver power to the CPU 118. Finally, traditional analog power supply system 100 also contains a feedback loop 111 that reports the error at the power supply output 122 using an error sensor 112 and relays the error to an analog pulse width modulator (APWM) 116 on the primary side 104 through an isolation component 114.
It is worth noting that traditional analog power supply systems 100 are continuous, linear, and non-intelligent systems, and the analog pulse width modulator (APWM) 116 is used to control the pulse width and maintain the output voltage at power supply output 122. The analog pulse width modulator (APWM) 116 adjusts the pulse width based on the error detected by the error sensor 112 coming back from the feedback loop 111 when the output deviates from the desired output.
Traditional analog power supply system 100 does not adapt well to situations where the power supply output 122 needs to be changed. In order to change the power supply output 122, the entire analog power supply system 100 needs to be disconnected and various new parts needs to be installed before the traditional analog power supply system 100 can produce a different power supply output 122.
Turning now to FIG. 2, which shows a digital power supply system 200 that address the deficiencies of an analog power supply system 100 as identified above in FIG. 1. A digital power supply system 200 utilizes a microprocessor 216 instead of an analog pulse width modulator (APWM) 116 (see FIG. 1) to provide a discontinuous and intelligent control that is capable of making adjustments to the power supply output 222 without changing physical components. However, in order to make adjustments to the microcontroller's 216 behavior, an operator still needs to physically access the microcontroller 216 in order to reprogram it.
FIG. 2 shows the digital power supply system 200 containing a primary side 204 and a secondary side 206. The primary side 204 contains a power input 201, an electromagnetic interference (EMI) filter 202, a transistor 208, and the microcontroller 216 mentioned above. The microprocessor 216 in this prior art embodiment is used to control the pulse width associated with error adjustment instead of using the analog pulse width modulator (APWM) 116 (see FIG. 1) as seen in analog power supply system 100 (See FIG. 1). The digital power supply system 200 also contains a secondary side 206 with a rectifier 210, an error sensor 212, a feedback loop 211, a central processing unit (CPU) system 218, and a power supply output 222. Finally, digital power supply system 200 also contains a feedback loop 211 that reports the error at the power supply output 222 using an error sensor 212 to the microcontroller 216 on the primary side 204 through an isolation component 214.
The microcontroller 216 in the digital power supply system 200 is capable of functioning like an analog pulse width modulator (APWM) in creating a pulse width to compensate for the error detected by error sensor 212. It is advantageous to use a microcontroller 216 instead of an analog pulse width modulator (APWM) 116 because a microcontroller 216 provides an intelligent, dynamic control over the output of the power supply 200. Moreover, a digital power supply 200 reduces the total part count and allows the power supply output 222 to be operated in the discontinuous mode.
However, although microcontroller 216 contains memory and a processor, the microcontroller 216 is independent apparatus deriving its power directly from the power input 201. Because of this, the microcontroller 216 needs to be reprogrammed for a new power supply output to be implemented; this requires a physical interaction with the microcontroller 216.
Hence, it can be seen that there is a need for an innovative modified pulse width modulator (MPWM) that can address the drawbacks of both the analog pulse width modulators (APWM) and the microprocessors in their inability to adjust the output needs remotely without having to physically replace components or reprogram the microcontroller 216.

Power supply with remotely adjustable output


The present disclosure relates to a method for manufacturing nose implant, including obtaining a 3-dimensional image of a nasal bone and a 3-dimensional image of a nasal cavity; modeling a nasal cartilage by applying information of anatomy between the nasal bone, nasal cavity, and nasal cartilage, to the 3-dimensional image of the nasal bone and the 3-dimensional image of the nasal cavity; and modeling an inner shape of where the implant may be seated, from the 3-dimensional image of the nasal bone and the modelled nasal cartilage.

Along with the recent increase in interest in beauty, interest in plastic surgery is also exploding. Among facial plastic surgeries, nasal plastic surgeries have been widely performed from the past. And for these nasal plastic surgeries, rhinoplasty is most generally used, which is a technique to raise the appearance of the nose by inserting an artificial implant such as silicone, inside the nose.
In a conventional nasal plastic surgery, the manufacturing method would proceed as the operator selects an implant that conforms to the shape of the patient's nose from implant sets having various lengths and thicknesses, and during the operation, checks the curves of the nose bone and cartilage and then carves the inner shape on which the implant will be seated.
However, this method had a problem that it takes a lot of time and that it is not easy to manufacture an implant of a desired shape by hand carving. Further, if the implant is not placed in close contact with the nasal bone and cartilage, but forms a space in between, side effects such as infection and positional deformation may occur.


A clamping system for a component, especially for an article of footwear or a sports article, may include: (a) a first member; (b) a second member, (c) a pivot about which the first member and the second member are rotatable relative to each other; (d) a first bracket slidably movable along a first path on the first member and a second path, by a first distance, on the second member, when the first member and the second member are rotated relative to each other from a first angle to a second angle; and (e) at least a second bracket slidably movable along a third path on the first member and a fourth path, by a second distance, on the second member, when the first member and the second member are rotated relative to each other from the first angle to the second angle.

Numerous clamping systems are known for temporarily fixing workpieces during assembly. It is frequently required in a production environment to secure workpieces of different sizes for a particular process. In order to allow an accurate and secure arrangement of a workpiece, it is presently required to use a number of custom-fitted forms or molds. This is especially true for fragile and/or soft workpieces, which cannot be clamped with great force without risking damage to the workpiece.
For example, an issue in the production of footwear concerns the securing of a midsole during assembly. Present methods involve a number of forms that are fitted specifically for one particular type, size, and side (left/right) of midsole. This leads to a large inventory and lost processing time due to tooling change over.
It may be desirable therefore to provide an improved clamping system and method that allows even fragile workpieces of different sizes, shapes, and types to be secured during processing in a simple and effective manner.


A refractive block includes a light-entrance surface configured to be mounted in contact with a refractive boundary of a vehicle, and a light-exit surface wherein the refractive block is configured to refract an optical path of light corresponding to an imaged area and to direct the light to an image-sensing component.

Imaging systems are frequently used in automotive systems to provide imaging of the roadway around the vehicle. In the case of frontal images, the images provided by the imaging systems are often used by other systems, such as lane tracking systems, adaptive cruise control systems, or other systems. The function of these system depends, at least in part, on the quality of the images acquired by the imaging system.
In order to implement imaging systems for automotive applications that involve imaging outside the vehicle, several issues need to be addressed. One such issue relates to maintaining a clean optical path between the scene to be imaged and the imaging system itself. Many implementations make use of the existing optical cleaning systems afforded by vehicle windshield wipers that are used to help maintain a driver's vision clear. Such systems place the image-sensing component inside the vehicle, such that it "looks" out through the windshield in a region that is swept clean by the windshield wipers.
Typically, such an implementation would involve a location near the top of the windshield, in the center of the vehicle. The resulting geometry tends to reduce the amount of light that passes through the system to the imaging or detector, and the physical mounting of the imaging system becomes very cumbersome and bulky. Further, such a placement frequently results in the placement of the sensor system, in some cases, nearly parallel to the windshield. As shown in FIG. 1A, the portion of the inside of the windshield (10) through which the light impinging upon the sensor (12) passes, i.e. that portion of the windshield that must be kept clean in order for the sensor to function properly, combined with the area of the windshield obstructed by the camera itself becomes relatively large.
In attempts to minimize this accumulation of contaminants, some systems make use of an optically opaque boot or enclosure to completely enclose the optical path within the vehicle and isolate it from the rest of the vehicle passenger compartment. Such enclosures tend to further increase the apparent bulk of the imaging system implementation.
Other optical systems make use of mirrors. One such example includes external rearview mirrors. These mirrors are located in protrusions that extend outside of the vehicle. These protrusions limit the aerodynamic efficiency of the vehicle. Further, many attempts have been made to reduce or eliminate the protrusions for aesthetic reasons.

Refractive block and imaging systems for use in automobiles


An apparatus and method for rapidly distinguishing positive blood cultures from negative bloodcultures in sealable containers, and for determining the combination of blood volume and hematocrit in a sealable container. The apparatus comprises an optical source for illuminating the culture with a light beam under an oblique angle to generate an asymmetric spatial distribution of backscattered light, which is imaged onto an imaging detector connected to a data analyzer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of growth-based detection of microorganisms in sealable containers, such as blood culture bottles. The present invention relates specifically to a system and method for performing optical measurements on a sealable container that can be used to rapidly distinguish positive blood cultures from negative blood cultures, and determine the combination of blood volume and hematocrit in a sealable container.
2. Description of the Related Art
Usually, the presence of biologically active agents such as bacteria or mycobacteria in a patient's body fluid is determined using culture vials. A small quantity of body fluid is injected through the enclosing rubber septum into the sterile vial containing a culture medium. The vial is incubated at 37° C. and monitored for bacterial growth. Known methods preferably detect changes in the carbon dioxide content of the culture bottles, which is a metabolic by-product of the bacterial growth. Changes in the carbon dioxide concentration are usually monitored using chemical sensors disposed on the inner walls of the culture bottles. The chemical sensors respond to changes in the carbon dioxide concentration by changing their color or by changing their fluorescence intensity (see, for example, Thorpe et al. "BacT/Alert: An automated calorimetric microbial detection system", J. Clin. Microbiol., July 1990, pp. 1608-12; and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,945,060, 5,217,875, 5,266,486, 5,372,936, and 5,580,784, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference). It has also been suggested to employ carbon dioxide-dependent and/or oxygen-dependent changes in the fluorescence lifetime of fluorescent sensor materials (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,593,854, 5,686,300, 6,074,870, and 6,080,574, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference).
However, these and other known methods generally do not take into account certain factors relevant to the reliability of the detection. These factors include a sufficiently large blood volume for detection and the question of any time delay between extraction and detection.
With regards to the blood volume factor, for the timely and efficient recovery of bacteria from blood samples, it has been found that a sufficiently large blood volume is required (see, for example, Jonsson et al. "Theoretical aspects of detection of bacteremia as a function of the volume of blood cultured", APMIS 1993 (101:595-601); Mermel et al. "Detection of bacteremia in adults—Consequences of culturing an inadequate volume of blood", Annals Internal Med 1993 (119:270-272); Arpi et al. "Importance of blood volume cultured in the detection of bacteremia", Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 1989 (8:838-842); Isaacman et al. "Effect of number of blood cultures and volume of blood on detection of bacteremia in children", J Pediatr 1996 (128:190-195); Li et al. "Effects of volume and periodicity on blood cultures", J Clin Microbiol 1994 (32:2829-2831); Wilson et al. "Controlled evaluation of Bact/Alert standard anaerobic and FAN anaerobic blood culture bottles for the detection of bacteremia and fungemia", J Clin Microbiol 1995 (33:2265-2270); Wormser et al. "Improving the yield of blood cultures for patients with early Lyme Disease", J Clin Microbiol 1998 (36:296-298); and Shafazand et al. "Blood cultures in the critical care unit—Improving utilization and yield", Chest 2002 (122:1727-1736), the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference).
The need for employing a large volume of blood in culture bottles arises because, depending on the microorganism species, the number of cell forming units per mL of patient blood may be very low. In practice, and depending on the status of a patient, smaller than optimum amounts of blood are frequently used, which has a negative impact on the reliability of such tests.
Up to this point in time, however, no routine method for the blood volume determination has been introduced into the market. Weighing of the sample container after filling and subtracting an average weight has been used in some studies (see Mensa et al. "Yield of blood cultures in relation to the cultured blood volume in BACTEC 6A bottles", Med Clin (Barcelona) 1997 (108:521-523), the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference). Due to the variability in the weight of individual containers, however, this weighing method suffers from substantial errors, in particular if a low blood volume is involved.
As known to those skilled in the art, the metabolism of the blood itself, independent of any bacterial activity within the container, contributes to the observed increase in the growth of the concentration of carbon dioxide and, may, therefore, cause false-positive culture results. The magnitude of this artifact depends on the blood volume, in that the magnitude is larger the higher the blood volume. As a consequence, much effort is directed toward optimization of sophisticated detection algorithms in an attempt to achieve a shorter time-to-detection while avoiding false-positive culture results (see, for example, Marchandin et al. "Detection kinetics for positive blood culture bottles by using the VITAL automated system", J Clin Microbiol 1995 (33:2098-2101) and Chapin et al. "Comparison of BACTEC 9240 and Difco ESP blood culture systems for detection of organisms from vials whose entry was delayed", J Clin Microbiol 1996 (34:543-549), the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference).
With regards to the time delay factor, blood culture containers, once they have been inoculated with a patient's blood, should preferably be immediately loaded onto an instrumented blood culture detection system. It is well known, however, that a substantial time delay frequently occurs between the time of inoculation and the time of incubation in an instrument. In some countries, delay times up to 48 hours can be expected. This "delayed container entry" phenomenon may cause serious problems if, during the delay time period, the blood culture container is experiencing elevated temperatures that may already support bacterial growth. As a consequence, the container may be already "positive" (i.e., may contain a fully developed population of microorganisms), when the container arrives at the detection instrument. It would not be advisable, of course, to incubate the container, wait for thermal equilibration to 35 degrees Celsius, and then monitor the container for the occurrence of further bacterial growth. Instead, it would be of great advantage if one could rapidly check the incoming bottle for possible "positivity", and, if it is already positive, re-direct the container to an instrument that performs a microorganism identification so that appropriate antibiotics can be selected for treating the patient.
In addition, if a "delayed" blood culture container contains already a fully developed microorganism population at the time it arrives at an instrumented detection system, the system's sensor will not see a typical transient. Therefore, the system can only rely on absolute detection signal levels. Depending on the performance characteristics of the sensing method, this represents a higher challenge than under typical monitoring conditions, in particular if culture bottles with highly varying blood amounts are expected.
Accordingly, there exists a need for systems and methods capable of rapidly distinguishing positive blood cultures from negative blood cultures and of determining the combination of the blood volume and the hematocrit of a blood sample after extraction from the human body.

Apparatus for performing optical measurements on blood culture bottles


Methods and systems are disclosed for carrying out penetration testing campaigns of a networked system. These include having a reconnaissance agent software module (RASM) installed on a first network node detect an occurrence of a risky event in the node, an event that would allow an attacker of the penetration testing campaign to compromise the node if a specific Boolean condition is satisfied; in response to detecting the risky event, the RASM sends queries to a second network node requesting information, receives answers to the queries including at least one or more portions of the requested information, and, based on the received information, determines that the specific Boolean condition is satisfied and concludes that the node could be compromised by the attacker of the penetration testing campaign. Based on the above, a security vulnerability may be reported.

There is currently a proliferation of organizational networked computing systems. Every type of organization, be it a commercial company, a university, a bank, a government agency or a hospital, heavily relies on one or more networks interconnecting multiple computing nodes. Failures of the networked computing system of an organization or even of only a portion of it might cause a significant damage, up to completely shutting down all operations. Additionally, all data of the organization exists somewhere on its networked computing system, including all confidential data comprising its "crown jewels" such as prices, details of customers, purchase orders, employees' salaries, technical formulas, etc. Loss of such data or leaks of such data to outside unauthorized entities might be disastrous for the organization.
As almost all organizational networks are connected to the Internet at least through one computing node, they are subject to attacks by computer hackers or by hostile adversaries. Quite often the newspapers are reporting incidents in which websites crashed, sensitive data was stolen or service to customers was denied, where the failures were the results of hostile penetration into an organization's networked computing system.
As a result, many organizations invest a lot of efforts and costs in preventive means designed to protect their computing networks against potential threats. There are many defensive products offered in the market claiming to provide protection against one or more known modes of attack, and many organizations arm themselves to the teeth with multiple products of this kind.
However, it is difficult to tell how effective such products really are in achieving their stated goals of blocking hostile attacks, and consequently most CISO's (Computer Information Security Officers) will admit (maybe only off the record), that they don't really know how well they can withstand an attack from a given adversary. The only way to really know how strong and secure a system is, is by trying to attack it as a real adversary would. This is known as red-teaming or penetration testing (pen testing, in short), and is a very common approach that is even required by regulation in some developed countries.
Penetration testing requires highly talented people to man the red team. Those people should be familiar with each and every publicly known vulnerability and attacking method and should also have a very good familiarity with networking techniques and multiple operating systems implementations. Such people are hard to find and therefore many organizations give up establishing their own red teams and resort to hiring external expert consultants for carrying out that role (or completely give up penetration testing). But external consultants are expensive and therefore are typically called in only for brief periods separated by long intervals in which no such testing is done. This makes the penetration testing ineffective as vulnerabilities caused by new attacks that appear almost daily are discovered only months after becoming serious threats to the organization.
Additionally, even rich organizations that can afford hiring talented experts as in-house red teams do not achieve good protection. Testing for vulnerabilities of a large network containing many types of computers, operating systems, network routers and other devices is both a very complex and a very tedious process. The process is prone to human errors of missing testing for certain threats or misinterpreting the damages of certain attacks. Also, because a process of full testing against all threats is quite long, the organization might again end with a too long discovery period after a new threat appears.
Because of the above difficulties several vendors are proposing automated penetration testing systems. Such systems automatically discover and report vulnerabilities of a networked system, potential damages that might be caused to the networked system, and potential trajectories of attack that may be employed by an attacker.
A penetration testing process involves at least the following main functions: (i) a reconnaissance function, (ii) an attack function, and (ii) a reporting function. The process may also include additional functions, for example a cleanup function that restores the tested networked system to its original state as it was before the test. In an automated penetration testing system, at least one of the above three functions is at least partially automated, and typically two or three of them are at least partially automated.
A reconnaissance function is the function within a penetration testing system that handles the collection of data about the tested networked system. The collected data may include internal data of networks nodes, data about network traffic within the tested networked system, business intelligence data of the organization owning the tested networked system, etc. The functionality of a reconnaissance function can be implemented, for example, by software executing in a server that is not one of the network nodes of the tested networked system, where the server probes the tested networked system for the purpose of collecting data about it.
An attack function is the function within a penetration testing system that handles the determination of whether security vulnerabilities exist in the tested networked system based on data collected by the reconnaissance function. The functionality of an attack function can be implemented, for example, by software executing in a server that is not one of the nodes of the tested networked system, where the server attempts to attack the tested networked system for the purpose of verifying that it can be compromised.
A reporting function is the function within a penetration testing system that handles the reporting of results of the penetration testing system. The functionality of a reporting function may be implemented, for example, by software executing in the same server that implements the functionality of the attack function, where the server reports the findings of the attack function to an administrator or a CISO of the tested networked system.
All penetration testing systems can be characterized as doing either an "actual attack penetration testing" or as doing a "simulated penetration testing".
An actual attack penetration testing system does its penetration testing by attempting to attack the tested networked system. Such a system accesses the tested networked system during the test and is not limiting itself to simulation or evaluation. This includes verifying that the tested networked system can be compromised by actively attempting to compromise it and then checking if it was indeed compromised. This implies that a possible side-effect of executing an actual attack penetration test might be the compromising of the tested networked system.
A simulated penetration testing system does its penetration testing while avoiding disturbance to the tested networked system and specifically while avoiding any risk of compromising it. This implies that whenever there is a need to verify that the tested networked system can be compromised by an operation or a sequence of operations, the verification is done by simulating the results of that operation or sequence of operations or by otherwise evaluating them, without taking the risk of compromising the tested networked system.
In the present disclosure, the terms "a compromised node" and "a node known to be compromisable" are synonyms and are used interchangeably. When referring to an actual-attack penetration testing system, both terms mean a node that is already compromised in the current campaign. When referring to a simulated penetration testing system, both terms mean a node that was already determined to be compromisable in the current campaign.
Every penetration testing system operates by iteratively (physically or simulatively) compromising network nodes of the tested networked system. At any iteration during the testing process some of the network nodes of the tested networked system are considered to be already compromised by the potential attacker, and the penetration testing system is attempting to compromise an additional network node (not yet compromised) by utilizing the already-compromised network nodes that are operating under the control of the attacker. Once an additional network node is found to be compromisable, it is added to the group of already-compromised network nodes and a new iteration of the testing begins.
Each such iteration of compromising a new network node includes verifying the success of compromising the new network node under current conditions in the tested networked system. As explained above, in actual attack penetration testing systems the verifying is achieved by actively attempting to compromise the new network node, while in simulated penetration testing systems the verifying is achieved by simulating or evaluating of the compromising step.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Cooperation between reconnaissance agents in penetration testing campaigns


A communication system having a source node, at least one mobile node, and a router that transmits data packets transmitted from the source node to a corresponding one of the at least one mobile node and multiplexes response signals to the data packets received from the corresponding one of the at least one mobile node to transmit the multiplexed response signals to the source node. The communication system includes: a link monitoring unit which calculates a capacity of a wireless link between the router and the corresponding one of the at least one mobile node; and a congestion control and adjustment unit which adjusts window field values in the response signals according to the calculated capacity. The router transmits the response signals, the response signals including the adjusted window field values to the source node, and the source node sequentially transmits the data packets on the basis of the adjusted window field values.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a communication system capable of system having an improving a data transmission efficiency of a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) in a wireless network environment and a method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 1 is a view illustrating an example of data transmission and reception of a transmitting end 10 and a receiving end 20 according to the TCP of the conventional communication system. Referring to FIG. 1, to heighten the reliability of data transmission and reception, the TCP uses a method of transmitting an acknowledgement (ACK) packet so that the receiving end 20 acknowledges the data reception to the transmitting end 10. If the ACK packet is not received after a specified time elapses, the transmitting end 10 determines that the packet is lost during the transmission, and retransmits the packet.
In the existing wire network environment, most packet losses occur due to network congestion. If the packet loss occurs due to the network congestion, the TCP drives a congestion control mechanism for controlling the amount of data transmission. The TCP congestion control mechanism may be a slow start mechanism, a congestion avoidance mechanism, or a fast retransmit and recovery mechanism, and the amount of data transmission is adjusted according to the state of network through this mechanism.
In a wireless network, being different from the wire network, most packet losses occur due to the characteristic of a wireless link, that is, high error rate and handoff, rather than the network congestion. Accordingly, the control mechanism of the TCP proposed to match the characteristic of the wire network environment cannot properly cope with a mobile network environment. Specifically, since the packet loss wirelessly occurring due to a packet error is processed in the same manner as that occurring due to the network congestion, the slow start or fast recovery mechanism reduces a congestion window size in the same manner as the packet loss occurring due to the congestion. In other words, if the TCP of the wire network is applied to the wireless network, because all the packet losses occur due to the network congestion, the TCP unnecessarily lowers the transmission speed. As a result, due to the repeated packet losses, the bandwidth of the link is wasted, and this deteriorates the performance of the whole network.
For the above-described reason, it is recognized as an important matter to efficiently use the TCP in the wireless network. That is, it is important to improve the TCP, which has been developed to be suitable to the wire network, to match the characteristic of the wireless network and to properly cope with the packet loss due to the packet error rather than due to the congestion.
Techniques for solving TCP performance deterioration in the wireless network environment may be divided into a split connection method, a proxy-based method, and an end-to-end method. A representative split connection method may be an Indirect-TCP (I-TCP) method. The I-TCP method controls the TCP by dividing one TCP connection into two connections, that is, one connection between a source node and a wireless router and the other connection between the wireless router and a moving node, in order to conceal the packet loss on the wireless link from the source node.
A representative proxy-based method may be a snoop method. The snoop method controls the wireless router to retransmit the packet when the packet loss occurs on the wireless link. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which is an Internet standardization group, recommends the snoop method. However, this method has the drawbacks in that it cannot improve the performance deterioration of the TCP when a long disconnection occurs on the wireless link. Specifically, when the packet loss occurs on the wireless link, the source node does not retransmit the packet, but the wireless router locally retransmits the packet. If a degradation between a specified terminal and the wireless link is maintained during the retransmission of the packet, packet transmission to other terminals is not performed due to the repeated attempts to retransmit the packet to the specified terminal, and thus the performance deterioration of the TCP is not improved.
A representative end-to-end method may be a Freeze-TCP (F-TCP) method. The F-TCP method solves the problems of performance deterioration by informing the source node that the source node maintains its state before the occurrence of the error when the packet loss occurs on the wireless link. The F-TCP method focuses on the solving of the problems of performance deterioration during a handoff.

Communication system for improving data transmission efficiency of TCP in a wireless network environment and a method thereof


A roof joint cover (10) that accommodates expansion, contraction, shear, and rotational movement between the surfaces (12,14) broadly comprises a first bracket (16) to be attached to a first surface (12), a second bracket (18) to be attached to a second surface (14), and a central bracket (20) to be installed between the first and second brackets (16,18). The first bracket (16) presents a cylindrical socket (24). The second bracket (18) presents a cylindrical plug (30). The central bracket (20) preferably presents a cylindrical plug (34) operable to fit within the socket (24) of the first bracket (16) and a cylindrical socket (36) offset from the plug (34) and operable to wrap around the plug (30) of the second bracket (18). The plug (34) of the central bracket (20) is perpendicular to the socket (36) of the central bracket (20), thereby accommodating linear and rotational movement along two perpendicular axis.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to expansion joint covers. More particularly, the present invention relates to a roof joint cover that accommodates expansion, contraction, shear, and rotational movement between two surfaces.
2. Description of Prior Art
Buildings are typically constructed of rigid materials such as concrete and steel which are chosen for their ability to support loads and resist movement under those loads. Unfortunately, such rigid materials sometimes experience failures when they expand or contract due to changing temperatures or when they move due to seismic events.
To prevent failures, it is common practice to build expansion joints into buildings. Expansion joints are essentially gaps between two rigid surfaces of a building which allow the two surfaces to move with respect to each other without the failures described above.
Typically, an expansion joint is either filled, covered, or both. An expansion joint can be filled with a flexible material with desired characteristics such that it is, for example, waterproof and/or fire resistant. While the flexible material may effectively seal the expansion joint, it is typically not aesthetically appealing and therefore is often covered.
Several prior art expansion joint cover designs are commonly used. Some cover designs incorporate a plate which is secured to one of two surfaces to span an expansion joint between the two surfaces. An end of the plate typically slides against the other surface in order to accommodate variations in expansion and contraction. Unfortunately, these designs cannot effectively accommodate variations in sheer and torsion between the two surfaces.
Another prior art design includes a plate that slides within at least one housing. The housing is secured to one of two surfaces of an expansion joint. The plate is secured to the other surface. The plate slides within the housing in order to accommodate variations in expansion and contraction. However, the internal dimensions of the housing limit the allowable shear and torsion between the two surfaces.
Another prior art design includes a plate with a first end connected to one of two surfaces of an expansion joint by a hinge. A second end of the plate slides within a housing, which is fixedly mounted to the other surface. The plate is thus able to accommodate variations in expansion and separation between the two surfaces. The hinge is able to accommodate variations in torsion between the two surfaces. However, the internal dimensions of the housing still limit allowable shear between the two surfaces.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved expansion joint cover that overcomes the limitations of the prior art. Specifically, there is a need for an improved roof joint cover that can accommodate variations in expansion, contraction, shear, and torsion between two surfaces of an expansion joint.


A cable connector assembly includes a cover with a receiving space, a first open on one side thereof, a second open opening along a direction perpendicular to the first open and a third open, an electrical connector received the first open, a cable bounding a plurality of wires therein with one end electrically connecting to the electrical connector and the other end extending out of the cover through the second open, a longer first bolt located at one side of the first open and extending through a passage formed in the cover to disclose the two opposite ends out of the cover, and a shorter second bolt located at the other side of the first open opposite to the first bolt, and comprising an operation portion received in the third open of the cover and exposed out of the cover; wherein the second open and the third open are located at the same side of the electrical connector, and the distance between the third open and the first open is less than the distance between the second open and the first open.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a cable connector assembly, and more particularly to a cable connector assembly having a cable exiting from a direction perpendicular to a mating direction of an electrical connector.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The interconnection among different electronic devices is always through connectors and cables. To adapt to different kinds of relative positions among the electronic devices, sometimes a cable may be bent to a certain angle. So that one end of the cable connects a connector in a first direction and the other end of the cable connects the connector in a second direction different from the first direction. However, most of the times there are many cables or wires tied together to form a bundle of cable. Thus, it is difficult to bend a whole bundle of cable. For solving the above problem, front ends of the cable are usually received inside the connector. Therefore, the cable can be bent simply.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,059,599 discloses a cable connector assembly comprising a cover, an electrical connector, a group of cable, a shielding case and a pair of bolts. The electrical connector is received in a first open of the cover, and one end of the cable connects the electrical connector and the other end of the cable extend out the cover through a second open of the cover. The first open is perpendicular to the second open, so the cable has two exits in different directions. However, the pair of the bolts, disclosed in this patent, goes through the cover from a first side of the cover to a second side opposite to the first side. So it is obvious that the pair of bolts have gone through the shielding case. Thus, the protection from EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) provided by the shielding case is influenced. Furthermore, the design of the bolt crossing the cable make the front-back length of the whole cable connector assembly relatively big. So it needs to improve the prior art.
Hence, an improved cable connector assembly is desired to overcome the above-mentioned shortcomings of the cable connector assembly.


Described herein a bucket for use in the last stage of a steam turbine engine. The bucket includes a titanium-based alloy having a leading edge wherein the leading edge includes titania having a plurality of pores and a top sealing layer filling the plurality of pores, the sealing layer selected from the group consisting of: chromium, cobalt, nickel, polyimide, polytetrafluoroethylene and polyester.

The present invention relates to large titanium buckets for use in the last stage of steam turbine engines and to the method for manufacturing such high strength buckets. Specifically, the invention relates to titanium buckets having better erosion resistance.
It is generally recognized that the performance of a steam turbine engine is greatly influenced by the design and performance of later stage buckets operating at reduced steam pressures. Ideally, the last stage bucket should efficiently use the expansion of steam down to the turbine exhaust pressure, while minimizing the kinetic energy of the steam flow leaving the last stage.
The service requirements of steam turbine buckets can be complex and demanding. Last stage buckets, in particular, are routinely exposed to a variety of severe operating conditions, including the corrosive environments caused by high moisture and the carry-over from the boiler. Such conditions can lead to serious corrosion and pitting problems with the bucket material, particularly in longer, last stage turbine buckets. Thus, for some time, last stage buckets for turbines have been the subject of repeated investigations and development work in an effort to improve their efficiency under harsh operating conditions, since even small increases in bucket efficiency and life span can result in significant economic benefits over the life of a steam turbine engine.
Last stage turbine buckets are exposed to a wide range of flows, loads and strong dynamic forces. Thus, from the standpoint of mechanical strength and durability, the primary factors that affect the final bucket profile design include the active length of the bucket, the pitch diameter and the operating speed in the operative flow regions. Damping, bucket fatigue and corrosion resistance of the materials of construction at the maximum anticipated operating conditions also play an important role in the final bucket design and method of manufacture.
The development of larger last stage turbine buckets poses additional design problems due to the inertial loads that often exceed the strength capability of conventional bucket materials. Steam turbine buckets, particularly last stage buckets with longer vanes, experience higher tensile loadings and thus are subject to cyclic stresses which, when combined with a corrosive environment, can be very damaging to the bucket over long periods of use. In addition, the steam in the last stages normally is "wet," i.e., containing a higher amount of saturated steam. As a result, water droplet impact erosion of the bucket material often occurs in the last stage. Such erosion reduces the useable service life of the bucket and the efficiency of the steam turbine as a whole.
In the past, it has been difficult to find bucket materials capable of meeting all of the mechanical requirements for different end use applications, particularly mechanical designs in which longer vane buckets have been employed. Invariably, the longer buckets have increased strength requirements and, as noted above, suffer from even greater erosion and pitting potential. The higher stresses inherent in longer vane designs also increase the potential for stress corrosion cracking at elevated operating temperatures because the higher strength required in the bucket material tends to increase the susceptibility to stress cracking at operating temperatures at or near 140° F. The effects of pitting corrosion and corrosion fatigue also increase with the higher applied stresses in last stage buckets having longer vane lengths.
The strength of titanium buckets is lower than that of stainless steel buckets, and therefore titanium buckets can tolerate less erosion loss before a catastrophic failure. Near-zero erosion loss for titanium buckets is desirable. Moreover, titanium buckets are also more expensive than stainless steel buckets; thus for a titanium bucket to be cost effective, longer service life and less erosion loss of titanium buckets is desirable.

Protective coating for titanium last stage buckets


An improved vehicle wheel tire changing system having a tire mount/dismount head coupled to an articulating tire mount/dismount arm assembly and a tire pressure sensor system which is configured to detect the presence of a tire pressure monitoring system sensor, mounted within a vehicle wheel assembly, prior to altering the mounting of a tire on an associated wheel rim.

The present invention is related generally to vehicle wheel tire changing systems, and in particular, to an improved vehicle wheel tire changing system configured to detect the presence of a tire pressure monitoring system sensor mounted within a vehicle wheel assembly prior to altering the mounting of a tire on an associated wheel rim.
Modern vehicle wheel assemblies on most motor vehicles today consist of a pneumatic tire mounted or seated on a wheel rim, such as shown in FIG. 1. The tire is secured to the wheel rim by forces exerted between the inner peripheral edges of the tire, i.e. the beads, and the mating surfaces of the wheel rim, i.e. the bead seats. Pressurized air contained within the toroidal volume defined between the tire and wheel rim supports the tire against the weight of the vehicle. Tire pressure monitoring systems associated with motor vehicles such as passenger cars and light trucks are designed to provide a warning to drivers if the pressure level of air within tire on the vehicle becomes significantly decreased during operation. There are two types of tire pressure monitoring systems currently in use. The first is an indirect system, which relies upon rotational speed measurements acquired by the vehicle anti-lock braking system sensors during vehicle operation. A tire which is significantly deflated relative to the remaining tires on the vehicle will have a smaller rolling radius, and therefore will rotate faster. Significant differences in vehicle wheel rotational speeds are interpreted as being indicative of an under-inflated tire by an indirect tire pressure monitoring system, and a suitable warning is provided to the vehicle operator. However, indirect tire pressure monitoring systems cannot identify small changes in tire pressures, and are incapable of identifying situations in which all of the vehicle wheels are under-inflated.
The second type of tire pressure monitoring system is a "direct" system, in which each wheel assembly of the vehicle is equipped with a tire pressure sensor disposed in an operative relationship to the pressurize air contained between the tire and wheel rim. For example, as is shown in FIG. 2, a tire pressure sensor may be strapped about the surface of the vehicle wheel rim, such that the tire pressure sensor is disposed within the volume defined by the tire about the wheel rim. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 3, the tire pressure sensors may be coupled to, or associated with, the valve stem of the vehicle wheel assembly. Typically, tire pressure sensors are configured to transmit data using high-frequency radio waves in the preferred range of 300 MHz-450 MHz to a common control unit. Specific frequencies such as 303 MHz, 315 MHz, 418 MHz, 434 MHz, and optionally 868 MHz are generally employed by tire pressure monitoring systems currently in use. The common control unit is configured to process the received data and provide the operator with a suitable display of vehicle wheel tire pressures. An exemplary "direct" tire pressure monitoring system is manufactured and sold by Smartire Systems, Inc. of Richmond, Calif.
To prevent cross-talk between tire pressure monitoring systems of nearby vehicles, each tire pressure sensor is configured to transmit a unique identification code together with the tire pressure data signal. Depending upon the configuration of the particular "direct" system, and the signal range, the tire pressure monitoring system may be utilized to further monitor pressure in a vehicle's spare tire, or pressure in the tires of a towed trailer.
To provide a vehicle operator with useful information regarding tire pressure levels, a "direct" tire pressure monitoring system must provide the operator with a means to identify which monitored tires have reduced tire pressure. Identifying the vehicle wheel location for each tire pressure sensor in a vehicle tire pressure monitoring system may be done manually or automatically. Manual systems require some form of operator interaction, such as by physically installing predetermined tire pressure sensors in tires positioned in predetermined locations about a vehicle. Alternatively, each tire pressure sensor can be identified by a unique indicator to the common control unit, for example, a color-coded marking on the tire valve stem. When a low tire pressure condition is detected by one of the tire pressure sensors, the control unit displays a corresponding color to the vehicle operator, requiring the operator to inspect the vehicle wheels to locate the corresponding color marking. Manual systems often require the operator to retrain or reposition the tire pressure sensors following a vehicle wheel rotation or service, a time-consuming and error-prone procedure.
Alternatively, tire pressure monitoring systems may be configured to automatically identify the corresponding tire locations associated with each tire pressure sensor in the system. These "automatic" systems typically provide a trigger mechanism or signal to activate each tire pressure sensor's transmitter in a predetermined sequence. The unique identification associated with each transmitter is stored as it is received in the predetermined sequence, thereby associating each tire pressure sensor with a known tire location. For some systems, the tire pressure sensors include a magnetic switch which is activated or triggered by the proximity of a magnetic field to direct the tire pressure sensor to transmit the unique identification. Alternate systems incorporate a radio-frequency receiver into each of the tire pressure sensors. Each of the receivers responds to a specific trigger signal, typically around 125 MHz, to transmit the associated tire pressure sensor's unique identification. While the programming of an "automatic" system remains time consuming, the need to physically reposition each tire pressure sensor following a tire rotation or tire service is eliminated, saving significant time during a vehicle service procedure.
Still other tire pressure monitoring systems are fully automatic in terms of locating each of the tire pressure sensors associated with a vehicle. These systems typically employed radio-frequency antenna disposed in proximity to the vehicle wheels, and uniquely identify each individual tire pressure sensor by monitoring the strength of the signals emitted by each tire pressure sensor, specific antenna identification codes, or specific radio-frequency variations on the order of a few KHz, associated with each tire pressure sensor.
During a tire service procedure, it may be necessary to utilize a vehicle wheel tire changing system to remove a tire from a wheel rim, or to "break" the seated connection between the tire and wheel rim. A vehicle wheel tire changing system typically employs hydraulic or pneumatically actuated clamps and arms to secure and compress the tire during these procedures, thereby disassociating the tire beads or lips from the beadseat of the wheel rim. Significant forces are exerted on the tire and wheel rim during this process. If a tire pressure sensor associated with a tire pressure monitoring system is installed about the wheel rim, within the volume defined by the tire, it is possible for a vehicle wheel tire changing system to damage or destroy the tire pressure sensor if care is not taken during the tire service procedure.
Currently, an operator of a vehicle wheel tire changing system must either know in advance that a tire pressure sensor is present in a wheel assembly undergoing a tire service, or carry out a difficult visual inspection during the tire service to identify the presence of a tire pressure sensor. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a vehicle wheel tire changing system with a means to detect the presence of a tire pressure sensor associated with a tire pressure monitoring system in a vehicle wheel assembly prior to removing or altering the mounting of the tire about the wheel rim. It would be further advantageous to provide a vehicle wheel tire changing system with a means to determine the operational condition of a detected tire pressure sensor prior to removal or altering of the mounting of the tire about the wheel rim.

Vehicle tire changer with integrated detector for tire pressure sensors


A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor substrate includes a first doping region arranged at a main surface of the semiconductor substrate, an emitter layer arranged at a back side surface of the semiconductor substrate, at least one first conductivity type area separated from the first doping region by a second doping region of the semiconductor substrate and at least one temperature-stabilizing resistance area. The first doping region has a first conductivity type and the emitter layer has at least mainly a second conductivity type. The second doping region has the second conductivity type and the at least one first conductivity type area has the first conductivity type. The at least one temperature-stabilizing resistance area is located within the second doping region and adjacent to the at least one first conductivity type area. Further, the at least one temperature-stabilizing resistance area has a lower variation of a resistance over a range of an operating temperature of the semiconductor device than at least a part of the second doping region located adjacent to the at least one temperature-stabilizing resistance area.

The durability and life cycle of a semiconductor device is often affected by voltage peaks or current peaks during switch-off of the semiconductor device. For example, large currents can occur during the shutdown of power semiconductors (e.g. comprising blocking voltages above 100 V). It is desired to decrease the risk of destruction due to high currents in order to increase the durability or life cycle of semiconductor devices, for example.

Semiconductor device and a method for forming a semiconductor device


A rectangular electrical connector comprises a receptacle having two side walls that define two parallel passages extending in the longer direction of the receptacle and a plug displaceable with respect to the receptacle in an insertion direction. A U-shaped slide for forced insertion and extraction of the plug slides along the passages orthogonally to the insertion direction. It is formed with open-ended grooves for receiving studs projecting from the plug orthogonally to the insertion direction, having a shape such that displacement of the slide in a first direction causes the studs to move along the grooves from the open ends thereof, and displacement in the opposite direction forces the studs out of the grooves. The slide has resilient retaining lugs that project outwardly from the slide when at rest. Cut-outs are formed in the side wall of the receptacle to receive the lugs and are of a length enabling to fully insert the slide but preventing full extraction of the slide. The lugs have a shape such that the force required for pulling the slide out of the receptacle is much greater than the force required for inserting it into the receptacle.

The present invention relates to a rectangular electrical connector of the type comprising:
a receptacle receiving first electrical contacts, having two side walls that define two parallel passages extending in the longer direction of the receptacle, PA1 a plug receiving second contacts for cooperation with the first contacts, the plug being displaceable with respect to the receptacle in an insertion and extraction direction, the plug having studs projecting orthogonally to the insertion and extraction direction; and PA1 a U-shaped slide for forced insertion and extraction of the plug, the slide being arranged for sliding along the passages orthogonally to the insertion and extraction direction, being formed with open-ended stud-receiving grooves and having a shape such that displacement of the slide in the receptacle in a first direction causes the studs to move along the grooves from the open ends thereof, and displacement in the opposite direction forces the studs out of the grooves.
Connectors of the above type are often referred to as assisted insertion and extraction connectors.
They are used in particular in locations that are difficult to access. They enable the connector to be mated together by placing the plug on the receptacle while the slide is in a withdrawn position, and by then pushing in the slide. A drawback of many prior connectors of that kind is the risk of pulling the slide too far when it is desired to uncouple the connector. The slide may then escape from the receptacle and be lost or difficult to find.

Electrical connector having an insertion and extraction slide