To provide effective navigation directions to a user in an automotive environment, a system determines information related to navigating the user to a destination, determines whether a screen of the portable device currently is in a line-of-sight with the user and generates a navigation instruction based on the determined information. Generating the navigation instruction includes selecting a level of detail of visual information for the navigation instruction in view of whether the screen is in the line-of-sight with the user.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Many navigation systems operating in portable devices such as smartphones or in head units of vehicles provide navigation directions to users. Some of these systems can generate visual information audio announcements based on these directions. For example, a navigation system can generate a digital map image illustrating a route and an audio announcement explaining a maneuver. However, the user may not always find every presentation of auditory or visual information useful. For example, when a navigation software provides a visual overview of a navigation route via a display of a portable user device, this overview is not very useful is the portable device is in the user's pocket.

Providing navigation directions in view of device orientation relative to user


Techniques and devices for measuring phase noise in radio frequency (RF), microwave, or millimeter signals based on photonic delay.

This document relates to techniques and devices for measuring phase noise in radio frequency (RF), microwave, or millimeter signals.
RF, microwave or millimeter signals can be generated by oscillators operating in the respective spectral ranges. The output of an oscillator may be used in communications and other applications. The oscillation frequency of an oscillator can be used as a frequency reference where it is desirable that the noise of the oscillator be low and can be properly measured. A measurement apparatus for characterizing an oscillator should have low noise.

Measuring phase noise in radio frequency, microwave or millimeter signals based on photonic delay


A drive circuit for a brushless DC motor includes a switch constructed and arranged to drive the motor with a pulse signal responsive to a control signal, and control circuitry coupled to the switch and constructed and arranged to generate the control signal responsive to rotor position information from the motor so as to synchronize the pulse signal to the rotor position. A current sensing device can be used to provide the rotor position information to the control circuitry by sensing current flowing through the motor.

Brushless direct current (DC) motors typically include electronic circuitry that energizes and de-energizes electric coils (windings) in the motor in order to make the rotor spin. Brushless DC motors are commonly used to drive cooling fans in electronic devices such as personal computers (PCs). A typical brushless DC motor used in a PC is packaged in such a way that only two terminals are accessible: a positive power supply terminal VS and a ground terminal GND (also referred to as a positive and a negative rail, respectively). A third terminal which provides a signal that indicates the speed of the motor is sometimes accessible as well.
Cooling fans driven by brushless DC motors have traditionally been run at full speed at all times since this is the simplest implementation. In a typical PC, this is accomplished by simply connecting the GND terminal to a power supply ground, and the VS terminal to the computer's +12 Volt or +5 Volt power supply. This is an inefficient scheme, however, since most electronic devices only require maximum cooling power for short periods of time and at random intervals. Running the fan constantly at full speed wastes energy and generates unnecessary noise.
A recent trend is to run the fan motor at different speeds depending on the cooling demand. One way to accomplish this is to drive the motor with a variable voltage power supply. This is sometimes referred to as linear fan speed control. Linear fan speed control, however, can be difficult and expensive to implement because it requires a variable voltage power supply. There are also problems such as those associated with fact that most 12 Volt fans must initially be driven with at least 6 to 8 Volts to overcome the initial resistance to rotation.
Another solution involves the use of pulse width modulation (PWM). In a PWM scheme, the power supply to the motor is repetitively turned on and off at a fixed frequency but variable duty cycle. When the power supply signal has a relatively low duty cycle, for example 25 percent (that is, the power supply is on 25 percent of the time and off 75 percent of the time), the motor to turns at a relatively slow speed. Increasing the duty cycle causes the motor to spin faster. Full power is achieved by leaving the power supply signal on at all times, i.e., 100 percent duty cycle.

Method and apparatus for driving a brushless DC motor


Modified adhesive layers are prepared by contacting an adhesive layer to a modified microstructured release liner. The modified release liner has a release layer surface with a set of microstructured depressions and a discontinuous pattern of ink material located on the surface of the release layer. A portion of the discontinuous pattern of ink material overlaps with and is located within some of the depressions. The ink material comprises a non-adhesive but adhesively transferrable material, or an adhesive material. Upon removal of the adhesive from the release liner, the ink material transfers to the adhesive surface.

Adhesives have been used for a variety of marking, holding, protecting, sealing and masking purposes. Adhesive tapes generally comprise a backing, or substrate, and an adhesive. One type of adhesive, a pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) is particularly preferred for many applications.
PSAs are well known to one of ordinary skill in the art to possess certain properties at room temperature including the following: (1) aggressive and permanent tack, (2) adherence with no more than finger pressure, (3) sufficient ability to hold onto an adherend, and (4) sufficient cohesive strength to be removed cleanly from the adherend. Materials that have been found to function well as PSAs are polymers designed and formulated to exhibit the requisite viscoelastic properties resulting in a desired balance of tack, peel adhesion, and shear strength. The most commonly used polymers for preparation of PSAs are natural rubber, synthetic rubbers (e.g., styrene/butadiene copolymers (SBR) and styrene/isoprene/styrene (SIS) block copolymers), and various (meth)acrylate (e.g., acrylate and methacrylate) copolymers. With the exception of several (meth)acrylates, which are inherently tacky, these polymers are typically blended with appropriate tackifying resins to render them pressure sensitive.

Microstructured release liners for selective transfer of ink to film


A software as a service platform employing novel means and methods to do demographic and behavioral data collection on and analysis of human UI/UX interactions. By utilizing adaptive testing, adaptive tester selection, and persistent tester pools with verified demographic data and ongoing behavioral data collection via a wide range of manual and algorithmic methods, decomposing, recomposing, and delivering optimized UI or UX data sources, collecting, integrating, delivering, and analyzing demographic and behavioral data regarding human interaction with interactive user interfaces and experiences using manual, hybrid, or algorithmic methods such as machine learning algorithms or path-finding algorithms, the present invention provides a novel framework for the extraction of comprehensive, consistent, and dynamic insights into the demographic and behavioral interactions of humans with interactive digital media sources. These insights can be used to dynamically and adaptively improve human experiences with interactive digital media.

The present invention is in the technical field of computer software. More particularly, the present invention is in the technical field of computer software as a service. More particularly, the present invention is in the technical field of computer software as a service for the purpose of interactive UI/UX or algorithmic learning system analysis and improvement using adaptive testing, adaptive tester selection, and persistent tester pools with verified demographic data and ongoing behavioral and psychographic data collection.
Traditional approaches to interactive user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) testing, analysis, and delivery have many significant drawbacks. Testing and analysis does not generally take place during the UI/UX development process, nor is it generally an integral part of the industry standard design, develop, deploy build cycle. When UI/UX testing does occur, tester pools are not optimized: either they are not persistent in which case tester behavior can only be analyzed on a case by case basis, or dedicated tester pools are small in size and insufficiently diverse from a demographic and behavioral standpoint.
In addition, the use of non persistent tester pools provides limited data points for doing algorithmic analysis of behavioural variances amongst testers and pools of testers, inter-rater reliability, and tester psychographics ("inter tester analysis"). When A/B testing is utilized, it is frequently conducted on an ad hoc basis with live testers or users, this drastically increases the difficulty of creating and managing control groups and accurately validating tester data. More sophisticated multivariate testing is generally infeasible from a UI/UX perspective because the overhead associated with configuring statistically meaningful tests in conjunction with assembling demographically diverse tester pools of sufficient size is daunting. As a result, often when UI/UX testing is conducted, detailed information about tester demographics is not available or not verifiable or both.
Furthermore, not having sufficiently large demographically diverse tester pools readily available results in highly skewed tester selection and pervasive self selection bias. Without reliable inter tester analysis and demographic data available, the utility of adaptive tester selection algorithms during the UI/UX testing process is minimized. Perhaps as a consequence of some of the drawbacks associated with traditional UI/UX testing, many other powerful adaptive testing methodologies are also not generally utilized—specifically, adaptive algorithms are not used within individual tests nor are they used to modify tests on an iterative basis during the overall testing process. Without the availability of large and persistent tester pools, inter tester analysis, accurate and verifiable demographic tester data, traditional approaches to interactive UI/UX testing tend not to support most accurate advanced testing methodologies. Even when some adequate testing and analysis is utilized on an interactive user interface (UI) or user experience (UX), the results are rarely applied to the generation of an optimized UI or UX and its subsequent delivery to a user.
Moreover, despite rapid recent advances in state of the art 'expert systems', heuristic models, and other algorithmic learning systems, many challenges to the implementation of effective supervised or reinforced learning methods remain. Simply sourcing a large enough pool of experts (or testers) to provide consistent, high quality signals to utilize in supervised or reinforced learning can be logistically challenging. Even if a large enough pool of experts can be acquired, validating expert tester feedback continuously for a specified problem regime can be difficult without a persistent expert pool. If the expert pool is not persistent, maintaining the historical awareness required to meaningfully track, rank, and accurately weight feedback from various testers is virtually impossible. Without some capacity for dynamic experiment generation and delivery, effectively managing inputs and outputs for a reinforced or supervised algorithmic learning system is difficult at best.

Software as a service platform utilizing novel means and methods for analysis, improvement, generation, and delivery of interactive UI/UX using adaptive testing, adaptive tester selection, and persistent tester pools with verified demographic data and ongoing behavioral data collection


The present invention intends to generally maintain the microplate having added test samples in wells therein at even temperature for measuring biochemical or biological reaction accompanying changes in absorbance such as enzyme reaction. Monochromatic lights with various wave lengths from a light source 3 are transmitted through the test samples added to a plurality of wells in a microplate 1 to measure absorbance of the test sample. For this end, a metal plate 2 with good heat conductivity is substantially contacted with the bottom of each well in the microplate 1 and a perforated board 7 is disposed with an air space over the microplate 1 at the starting position thereof. Warmed air heated by a heater 17 is blown onto the microplate 1 through the perforated board 7 and is circulated along the metal plate 2 within a chamber 9.

The present invention relates to an photometer for use in measuring biochemical or biological reaction accompanying changes in absorbance such a s enzyme reaction and the like, more specifically to one for evenly heating the microplate separately adding a test sample in wells and maintaining the temperature so that no temperature difference is present between wells.
As illustrated in FIG. 4(a), (b) and (c), a test sample 14 is added to each well 11 in a microplate comprising a lid part 15 made from a transparent synthetic resin and a wells part 12 made from a transparent synthetic resin and having a plurality of wells 11 inter-coupled with a plate member 10. The microplate is evenly heated to accelerate enzyme reaction and the like. Monochromatic lights with various wave lengths are transmitted to the test sample 14 during or after reaction to measure the absorbance of the test sample 14 in each well 11. Then, the biochemical or biological measurements such as the enzyme activity or quantitative measurements of the substrate in the test sample 14 are carried out based on the measured absorbance.
In other words, as illustrated in FIG. 6, a monochromatic light source 3 and a light detector 4 face each other. A microplate 1 containing the test sample 14 during or after reaction placed on a carrier 5 is transported between the light source 3 and the light detector 4. All test samples 14 in the wells 11 in the microplate 1 are scanned to measure absorbance and the absorbance values are related to the biochemical or biological reaction.
It is to be noted here that accurate and reproducible data cannot be obtained unless the absorbance measurements are carried out by maintaining the temperature of each test sample 14 in each well 11 in the microplate 1 even and constant. Otherwise, the reaction temperature condition differs for each test sample 14 in each well 11.
For this end, temperature control means are proposed to use a fan to enforcedly circulate warmed air so that the microplate 1 is evenly heated and maintained at constant temperature region without causing any temperature difference between wells.
However, in circulating warmed air within a chamber using a fan to stir air over the microplate 1, air flow on the surface of the microplate 1 partly differs; faster at the circumference and slower at the center portion.
This results in faster temperature rise at the circumference of the microplate 1 but slower at the center portion when the temperature of the microplate 1 in a chamber is to be raised by circulating the air. As a result, temperature difference between the test samples 14 in wells 11 in the microplate 1 is caused, thereby making it very difficult to obtain accurate and reproducible data due to uneven reaction temperature.


A virtual grid imaging method capable of eliminating scattered radiation effect and an imaging system thereof for imaging with high energy rays, in which scattered rays reaching a surface of a detector are not filtered, and data of the scattered rays and straight rays are all sampled. The method includes decomposing a digital image into multi-band images from high to low according to frequencies; performing de-scattering process for low-frequency band images; performing contrast enhancement process for high-frequency band images; and merging the images of various frequency bands processed in the second and third steps, and forming an output image. In digital X-ray imaging the scattered radiation effect is eliminated. Significant reduction of the dosage of the rays, in which only one third of the required dosage of a common grid is used to obtain the same image brightness.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a virtual grid imaging method for eliminating scattered radiation effect and an imaging system thereof, and more particularly to a virtual grid imaging method and imaging system thereof capable of eliminating scattered radiation effect generated by high energy rays such as X-rays and gamma rays after passing through a to-be-detected object, which belongs to the field of digital image processing technology.
2. Description of Related Art
High energy rays including X-rays and gamma rays have a strong penetration power, capable of penetrating through many substances opaque to visible lights, such as inking sheet and timber. With this penetration power, the high energy rays are used to perform medical diagnosis and treatment, used to test nondestructive materials in industry, and widely used to analyze crystal structure and perform chemical analysis and researches on atomic structure through spectrum and absorption situation of the rays in the fundamental science and applied sciences.
When irradiating the to-be-detected object with high energy rays, after the rays penetrate through the to-be-detected object, not only primary radiation is generated, but scattered radiation is also generated. The scattered radiation generates extra exposure, which overlaps on the image of the rays as a "scattering fog", thereby reducing the contrast and definition of the image of the rays, and reducing the noise-to-signal ratio at details of the image. The specific reducing degree depends on the intensity of the scattered radiation.
In order to alleviate adverse effects caused by the scattered radiation, several technical solutions have been researched. Taking the most commonly-used X-rays for an example, a special anti-scatter grid has been generally used at home and abroad. This type of anti-scatter grid is referred to as a grid, which is published by U.S. Pat. No. 1,164,987 the earliest. The grid is disposed between the to-be-detected object and an X-ray detector, allows the primary radiation from a focal point of the X-ray tube to pass through, but substantially absorbs scattered radiation from the to-be-detected object and incident in different angles. The grid is generally made of lead with a small volume and a high absorptivity. A medium between the absorbers is paper, fiber, aluminum, or a kind of inelastic foam with a high resistance. The latest technical development for the grid can be obtained with reference to documents such as Chinese Patent Application, entitled "Anti-scatter Grids for X-ray Equipments" (Application Number: 02126906.8, Date of Publication: Apr. 2, 2003).
With the anti-scatter gird, the scattered radiation generated in the to-be-detected object is reduced and the imaging quality is improved, however, the anti-scatter gird itself also blocks a portion of the X-rays that should be incident to the X-ray detector. In order to alleviate the adverse effects, the radiation dosage of the X-rays must be increased, which causes disadvantages in two aspects. In one aspect, the to-be-detected object, particularly patients and medical workers, suffers from an increased radiation, and in the other aspect, the requirements for the X-ray tube and high-voltage generator are increased, thereby the manufacturing cost of the X-ray detecting apparatus is increased.
In Chinese Patent Application, entitled "Anti-scatter X-ray Shielding used in CT Scanner" (Application Number: 02829542.0, Date of Publication: Sep. 21, 2005), an anti-scatter (AS) material used for absorbing X-rays between X-ray detector rows, and an AS material used for absorbing X-rays between X-ray detector columns are provided, in which the AS materials are respectively located between every two rows/columns of detectors. Furthermore, the thickness and/or height of the foil between rows can be different from the thickness and/or height of the foil between columns. Moreover, in Chinese Patent Application, entitled "Incoherent Scattering Eliminating Device Used in X-ray Phase Imaging Based on Energy Recognition" (Application Number: 200610024489.1, Date of Publication: Aug. 23, 2006), an incoherent scattering eliminating device used in X-ray phase imaging based on energy recognition is provided, which includes three parts: an X-ray generation and modulation system, a to-be-detected object fixing device, and a back-end X-ray modulation and detection system. This invention selects different filtering materials, and ensures that substantially no loss occurs in the valid X-rays, and almost all the primary radiation with a constant wavelength reach the X-ray detector, thereby eliminating the influences to the imaging quality caused by the incoherent scattering.

Virtual grid imaging method and system for eliminating scattered radiation effect

Beijing Sinopharm Hundric Medline Info. Tec. Co. Ltd.


A method and apparatus for facilitating a splicer operator's pre-splice preparation and positioning of the leading end of a new web for splicing, in a splicer, to the running web of an expiring roll. The webs both include regular and longitudinally spaced registration marks and identical, repeating and longitudinally spaced patterns.. A movable table is used for the initial, off line, pre-splice web preparations. It includes a fixture for guiding the leading end of the new web along a longitudinal path and a hole puncher adjacent to the path. An optical instrument is also mounted on the table and is movable transversely across the path. The optical instrument is spaced longitudinally a preselected distance from the hole puncher. The operator moves the new web along and the optical instrument across the path until a registration mark is aligned beneath the optical instrument. The operator then punches holes in the new web using the hole puncher. The leading end of the web is next introduced into the splicer and the web holes are placed over splicer locating pins mounted a preselected distance from a splicing reference position. An optical sensor is disposed a predetermined distance from the reference position and initiates the web splicing by signaling the passage of a registration mark on the running web.

For years, various splicers have been used to splice a new web wound on a roll, to a running or expiring web wound on an expiring roll. At the time of the splice, the running web is usually being run through the splicer and then to and through one or more downstream web processing and/or web handling operations.
It has long been recognized by those working in the field that a splice should be made as expeditiously as possible. Depending on the splicer, the running web may be momentarily stopped or slowed during splicing. This may adversely affect the performance and efficiency of the downstream web processing/web handling operations if there is any delay in returning the spliced web to full speed running conditions.
To achieve expeditious splicing, it is obviously important to prepare and position the leading end of the new web for splicing before the time for making the splice is at hand. These pre-splice preparations are often done by an operator who may be responsible for several splicers. In many instances, the new web roll to be spliced is positioned close to the running, expiring roll and adjacent to the splicer. The operator must introduce or feed the leading end of the new web into the splicer and attempts to prepare and accurately position it in the splicer. Proper preparation and positioning is usually critical to the making of a "good" splice, and heretofore, have required the operator to exercise some degree of skill and care. This is not always an easy task because the expiring web is usually running, at full speed, nearby to where the new web's leading end must be positioned.
Usually there is a work space or aisle along side the splicer where the operator may stand during the new web preparation and positioning. Often he or she must bend over and lean into the splicer to prepare and position the leading end of the new web in the splicer. Not only is the proper preparation and positioning time consuming, but having the operator's hands, arms and head in the splicer, while the operator is attempting to concentrate on preparing and positioning the new web, poses potentially serious concerns for the safety of the operator as well as the potential for causing accidental damage or breakage to the running, expiring web.
These potential concerns are aggravated and accentuated when the new and running webs each have identical, regularly repeating and longitudinally spaced patterns on them. The operator is then required to prepare and position the new web so that the patterns are matched during splicing, that is, so that the regular repetition and longitudinal spacing of the patterns continues uninterruptedly across the splice. In the past, this required the operator to spend even more time measuring and adjusting the new web, often while leaning into the splicer, in order to be sure that the pattern of the new web was properly located with reference to a reference position in the splicer.

Method and apparatus for preparing and positioning a web for splicing


A method of aligning a first and a second structure, the first structure comprising one or more first surface relief features and a channel system communicating with a surface of the first structure at one or more of the first surface relief features, the second structure comprising one or more second surface relief features shaped complementarily to the first surface relief features; the method comprising: generating suction in the channel system to draw the first and second structures together in a drawing direction; wherein, when the first and second structures are drawn together, the interaction between one or more of the first surface relief features and one or more of the second surface relief features aligns the structures in a plane perpendicular to the drawing direction such that the first and second surface relief features mate.

Precise alignment of components is of critical importance in many fields. For example, many optical, microfluidic, mechanical and electronic components require features to be precisely aligned during manufacture. As well as alignment accuracy, the speed at which components can be aligned is of importance as this affects the throughput of the manufacturing process. Furthermore, the cost of preparing the features/components to be aligned is relevant to ensuring that the manufacturing process is commercially viable.
Existing precision alignment systems generally use one or more of three conventional methods: visual passive alignment, mechanical passive alignment, and active alignment.
Visual passive alignment traditionally employs cameras and alignment markers in which components are moved to match sets of alignment markers, and then fixed by curing an adhesive. Alternatively, solder balls may be applied to locations on a substrate relative to alignment markers, and the final alignment achieved by the surface tension of the solder during the reflow process.
Visual passive alignment generally presents a trade-off between throughput and accuracy. For example, surface mount electronic pick and place can achieve precision and accuracy of roughly 10 μm with a cycle time of 3 s. Conversely, silicon wafer alignment systems tend to be slower but more accurate.
Mechanical passive alignment using features such as grooves and ridges is often used for applications where high throughput must be combined with high accuracy. However, for ease of manufacture, these features are generally limited to aligning in a single dimension.
Active alignment systems, in which components are roughly aligned by some method and then optimised using a feedback system, are often labour and/or resource intensive.
All of the aforementioned alignment methods suffer to some extent from: lateral and asymmetric movements during adhesive curing processes, having to sacrifice accuracy for speed (or vice versa), the necessity for complex and expensive aligning equipment, and the necessity for a clean room (this being expensive and preventing field-assembly of components).
There is a need for alignment methods and apparatus that address these problems.

Method and apparatus for suction alignment


A method and apparatus for improving call setup efficiency in multimedia communication systems is disclosed. The present invention performs call setup in H.323 systems using fewer message exchanges, thereby resulting in a more efficient call setup mechanism. Moreover, no call setup functionality is sacrificed by resorting to fewer message exchanges. The method includes placing a call at a first endpoint to a remote endpoint, requesting admission from a gatekeeper for the call, returning an accept message to the first endpoint, the accept message including a token for providing information to the remote endpoint alleviating the need of the remote endpoint to request admission from a gatekeeper, routing a setup message to the remote endpoint, the setup message including the token and completing a call setup based upon information in the token.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to a multimedia communications, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for improving call setup efficiency in multimedia communication systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Of the communication tools found in most offices today, such as E-mail, fax machines, pagers, and cellular phones, videoconferencing has yet to make the short list. However, this is changing, as companies move to take advantage of lower system costs and emerging new standards. For example, videoconferencing over an enterprise IP network is very appealing. It makes better use of an organization""s finds rather than sinking additional investments in ISDN lines. Up to now, ISDN has been the only reliable way to connect video-enabled workstations and conference-room-based systems. However, the technology isn""t readily available, and it""s still expensive. Nevertheless, H.323-standard LAN-operable DVC (desktop videoconferencing) solutions are available.
The H.323 standards architecture specifies gateways and gatekeepers that enable connections among LAN-based DVC units, ISDN-connected H.320 units, analog telephone-connected H.324 devices, and ISDN and POTS telephones. One rapidly emerging branch of this market includes gateway and billing server systems devoted to Internet telephony.
The H.323 standard provides a foundation for audio, video, and data communications across IP-based networks, including the Internet. By complying to H.323, multimedia products and applications from multiple vendors can interoperate, thereby allowing users to communicate without concern for compatibility. H.323 will be the keystone for LAN-based products for consumer, business, entertainment, and professional applications.
More specifically, H.323 is an umbrella recommendation from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) that sets standards for multimedia communications over Local Area Networks (LANs) that do not provide a guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS). These networks dominate today""s corporate desktops and include packet-switched TCP/IP and IPX over Ethernet, Fast Ethernet and Token Ring network technologies. Therefore, the H.323 standards are important building blocks for a broad new range of collaborative, LAN-based applications for multimedia communications.
The H.323 specification was approved in 1996 by the ITU""s Study Group 16. Version 2 was approved in January 1998. The standard is broad in scope and includes both stand-alone devices and embedded personal computer technology as well as point-to-point and multipoint conferences. H.323 also addresses call control, multimedia management, and bandwidth management as well as interfaces between LANs and other networks.
H.323 is the latest of the recommendations on the H.32X series which specifies standards for videoconferencing over a variety of networks. H.323 includes much of the work done since the approval of the H.320 recommendation in 1990, which is an specification for multimedia over circuit switched digital telephone networks. The H.32X is composed of the following recommendations:
H.320 allows videoconferencing over narrowband switched ISDN.
H.321 is for videoconferencing over broadband ISDN ATM LAN.
H.322 allows videoconferencing over Guaranteed bandwidth packet switched networks.
H.323 allows videoconferencing over non-guaranteed bandwidth packet switched networks.
H.324 is for videoconferencing over PSTN or POTS (the analog phone system).
The H.323 Protocol Stack supports many real time applications that the industry is eager to use through the Internet such as: Desktop Videoconferencing, Internet Telephony and Videotelephony, Collaborative Computing, Business Conference Calling, Distance Learning, Support and Help Desk Applications, etc. These applications already exist in the market, but most of them do not address the problem of how to run these applications over a packet switch network like the Internet and most corporate LANs which are based in the TCP/IP suite of protocols. With the pressure of the market to use this kind of applications over the Internet, H.323 emerges as a possible solution to the business needs.
H.323 defines four major components for a network-based communications system. FIG. 1 illustrates a H.323 system 100. In FIG. 1, the four major components of a H.323 system 100 are shown including their interaction with existing networks. These components interact with LANs that don""t provide QoS. The four components include Terminals 110, Gateways 120, Gatekeepers 130 and Multipoint Control Units (MCUs) 140.
These four elements 110-140 are specified only for the Application Layer of the Internet Layer Model. There is no specification about the lower layers (Transport, Network, Data link and physical layers). These characteristic makes H.323 flexible and allows H.323 devices to communicate with device of other networks.
H.323 Terminals 110 are the client software that runs in the end user computers that allow users to communicate in real time using all the power of multimedia. These terminals are also called Endpoints.
A Gateway 120 is a component of the H.323 specification that provides world wide connectivity and interoperability from LAN. That is, a Gateway 120 will allow computers connected to a LAN to communicate to regular phones 150 connected to the PSTN 152, to digital phones 154 (H.320 terminals) connected to an ISDN network 156. A gateway 120 also translates between different types of codecs used by different kinds of terminals, maps call signaling between Q.931 to H.225 and maps control signaling between H.242/H.243 to H.245.
In general, a Gateway 120 is a component that makes possible to interconnect a packet switched network with no QoS to other types of networks. If connections to different types of networks are not required, then a Gateway 120 is not required since terminals can communicate between them if they are on the same LAN. Terminals communicate with gateways using Q.931 and H.245 protocols.
A Gatekeeper 130 is an H.323 component that performs four basic functions:
Address Translation: It is the mechanism that allows to have different kinds addressing systems. For example, regular phone numbers (E.164 addresses) can be used in conjunction with e-mail addresses. The Gatekeeper 130 allows to communicate with terminals addressed in different ways.
Admission Control: The Gatekeeper 130 could reject calls from users. An user must be registered with the Gatekeeper 130 in order to complete a call.
Bandwidth Control: Networks managers can restrict the amount of bandwidth used for videoconference, which provide a way to control LAN traffic. The remaining of the bandwidth can be used then for web requests, e-mail, file transfers, etc.
Zone Management: The Gatekeepers 130 provide the functions of Address Translation, Admission Control and Bandwidth control for Terminals 110, MCUs 140 and Gateways 120 registered with the Gatekeeper 130 in its zone of control. This zone is called H.323 zone.
The functions of the Gatekeeper 130 are included in the Gateway 120 by most vendors, although they are logically separated and they perform different kind of functions.
The Multipoint Control Unit (MCU) 140 is a logical device that supports conferences between three or more endpoints. The MCU 140 typically is integrated with the implementation of the gateway, so in most implementations the MCU 140 won""t be a separate computer performing conferencing functions. Also, with a combined implementation of the functions of the MCU 140 with the functions of the gateway 120, conferences among participants of different networks (LAN and PSTN) will have better performance than divided implementations.
Call setup in H.323 systems requires the exchange of several messages between several entity pairs. The sequence of message exchanges is specified by H.323 and depends upon the presence or absence of gatekeepers for the calling and/or called endpoint and on the choice of direct/gatekeeper routed models. Nevertheless, the call setup time could be reduced and efficiency improved if the number of message exchanges could be reduced without sacrificing any of the call setup functionality.
If can also be seen that there is a need for a method and apparatus for improving call setup efficiency in H.323 systems.
To overcome the limitations in the prior art described above, and to overcome other limitations that will become apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, the present invention discloses a method and apparatus for improving call setup efficiency in multimedia communication systems.
The present invention solves the above-described problems by performing call setup in H.323 systems using fewer message exchanges, thereby resulting in a more efficient call setup mechanism. Moreover, no call setup functionality is sacrificed by resorting to fewer message exchanges.
A method in accordance with the principles of the present invention includes placing a call at a first endpoint to a remote endpoint, requesting admission from a gatekeeper for the call, returning an accept message to the first endpoint, the accept message including a token for providing information to the remote endpoint alleviating the need of the remote endpoint to request admission from a gatekeeper, routing a setup message to the remote endpoint, the setup message including the token and completing a call setup based upon information in the token.
Other embodiments of a system in accordance with the principles of the invention may include alternative or optional additional aspects. One such aspect of the present invention is that the first endpoint and the remote endpoint are registered with a common gatekeeper.
Another aspect of the present invention is that direct call signaling is implemented by the first endpoint and the remote endpoint, the routing of the setup message being performed by transmitting directly to the remote endpoint the setup message including the token.
Another aspect of the present invention is that gatekeeper routed call signaling is implemented, the routing of the setup message is performed by routing the setup message including the token from the first endpoint to the common gatekeeper and routing the setup message including the token from the common gatekeeper to the remote endpoint.
Another aspect of the present invention is that the first endpoint is registered with a first gatekeeper and the remote endpoint is registered with a second gatekeeper.
Another aspect of the present invention is that the requesting admission from a gatekeeper for the call further includes requesting admission by the first endpoint from the first gatekeeper, analyzing by the first gatekeeper the admission request to determine if a criterion for the call is acceptable according to requirements local to the first gatekeeper, routing the admission request to the second gatekeeper when the first gatekeeper determines the criterion for the call is acceptable, analyzing by the second gatekeeper the admission request to determine if a criterion for the call is acceptable according to requirements local to the second gatekeeper and sending an admission confirmation including the token to the first gatekeeper when a required criterion for the call is determined to be acceptable according to the requirements local to the second gatekeeper.
Another aspect of the present invention is that the first and second gatekeepers implement direct call signaling, the routing of the setup message being performed by transmitting directly to the remote endpoint the setup message including the token.
Another aspect of the present invention is that the first gatekeeper implements direct call signaling and the second gatekeeper implements routed call signaling, the routing of the setup message is performed by transmitting the setup message including the token to the second gatekeeper and the second gatekeeper transmitting the setup message including the token to the remote endpoint.
Another aspect of the present invention is that the completing the call setup further comprises routing of the setup message by transmitting connect/facility messages from the remote endpoint to the second gatekeeper and transmitting the connect/facility messages to the first endpoint setup message from the second gatekeeper.
Another aspect of the present invention is that the first gatekeeper implements routed call signaling and the second gatekeeper implements direct call signaling, the routing of the setup message is performed by transmitting the setup message including the token to the first gatekeeper and the first gatekeeper transmitting the setup message including the token to the remote endpoint.
Another aspect of the present invention is that the completing the call setup further comprises routing of the setup message by transmitting connect/facility messages from the remote endpoint to the first gatekeeper and transmitting the connect/facility messages to the first endpoint setup message from the first gatekeeper.
Another aspect of the present invention is that the first gatekeeper and the second gatekeeper implement routed call signaling, the routing of the setup message is performed by transmitting the setup message including the token to the first gatekeeper, the first gatekeeper transmitting the setup message including the token to the second gatekeeper and the second gatekeeper transmitting the setup message including the token to the remote endpoint.
Another aspect of the present invention is that the completing the call setup further comprises routing of the setup message by transmitting connect/facility messages from the remote endpoint to the second gatekeeper, transmitting the connect/facility messages to the first gatekeeper from the second gatekeeper, and transmitting the connect/facility messages to the first endpoint setup message from the first gatekeeper.
Another aspect of the present invention is that the routing the admission request to the second gatekeeper further comprises routing the admission request through a cloud of gatekeepers.
Another aspect of the present invention is that the token comprises a transport address of the second gatekeeper.
Another aspect of the present invention is that the token comprises resource allocations for the call.
An alternative embodiment of the present invention includes sending a setup message from a first endpoint to a remote endpoint, requesting admission from a gatekeeper for the call, the request for admission including all information required for performing call setup, returning an accept message to the remote endpoint, the accept message indicating to the remote endpoint that the gatekeeper is implementing routed call signaling and including a transport address for the gatekeeper, and routing a facility message to the first endpoint informing the first endpoint of the transport address for the gatekeeper and that the call signaling channel is through the gatekeeper.
Another aspect of the present invention is that the first endpoint is not registered and the remote endpoint is registered with the gatekeeper.
Another embodiment of the present invention is a multimedia communications system, the multimedia communications system including a first endpoint for placing a call to a remote endpoint, and a gatekeeper, operatively coupled to the first endpoint, the gatekeeper performing address translation, admission control and bandwidth control, wherein the first endpoint requests admission from the gatekeeper for the call, the gatekeeper returns an accept message to the first endpoint, the accept message including a token for providing information to the remote endpoint alleviating the need of the remote endpoint to request admission from a gatekeeper, the first endpoint routes a setup message to the remote endpoint, the setup message including the token and the remote endpoint completes the call setup based upon information in the token.
These and various other advantages and features of novelty which characterize the invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed hereto and form a part hereof. However, for a better understanding of the invention, its advantages, and the objects obtained by its use, reference should be made to the drawings which form a further part hereof, and to accompanying descriptive matter, in which there are illustrated and described specific examples of an apparatus in accordance with the invention.

Method and apparatus for improving call setup efficiency in multimedia communications systems


A method for integrating an application into a flight deck includes receiving, by the flight deck, an identification of the application for integrating into the flight deck, wherein the application is running on a portable electronic device (PED) separate from the flight deck. The method also includes transmitting, by the flight deck, the identification of the application to the PED. The method additionally includes locating an application window corresponding to the application on a display of the PED and reading pixel data corresponding to the application window on the display of the PED. The method further includes transmitting the pixel data from the PED to the flight deck and integrating the application into the flight deck using the pixel data.

Information used by flight crews in performing their overall mission, such as for example manuals, flight plans, charting information, performance tables, etc. were once provided in paper form but more recently are being provided in electronic form in what is known as an electronic flight bag (EFB) embodied on a portable electronic device (PED). This portable electronic format is much easier to maintain and update and eliminates the weight and inconvenience associated with the previous paper format. In order to be used during all phases of flight, however, these PED-based EFB systems must be securely mounted in the flight deck. Unfortunately, in some flight decks, there is not sufficient space or a suitable location to mount a PED for easy viewing and interaction. In addition, it is sometimes difficult to position a tablet computer for shared viewing or convenient viewing alongside flight deck multifunction displays resulting in more difficult crew coordination reducing the overall usability of the PED-based EFB information.

Integrating an application running on a portable electronic device into a flight deck display of an aircraft


This invention relates to the treatment of antibiotic-resistant infections, including particularly infections caused by bacteria, Mycobacteria and gi. A preferred group of compositions of the invention contain as active agents compounds containing pyridyl, quinolyl or benzoquinolyl ring systems substituted on the nitrogen-containing ring at the carbon opposite the nitrogen by a carbon bound to an oxygen which is also bound to a nitrogen through a saturated carbon or carbon chain, or, in the case of the pyridyl ring system, the substituent at the 4 position of the pyridyl ring may be an alkyl which may be substituted with halo, hydroxy, alkoxy, amino or alkylamino.

The benefit from use of antibiotics as a means of treating infections has been increasingly compromised by the development of resistant strains of microorganisms. Most of the new drugs are derivatives of older compounds. It is necessary to develop new agents that will respond to the current needs for medicinals that will effectively control pathogenic microbial populations that are resistant to antibiotics.
Mefloquine is quinolyl compound having two trifluoromethyl groups attached to the quinolyl ring. This compound has been used to treat malaria. It has also been found to have some activity against bacterial pathogens in vitro.

Methods for treating antibiotic-resistant infections

The United States of America as respresented by the Secretary of the Army


A method and apparatus for phase-domain semi-coherent demodulator including a receiver for receiving at least a phase component of an input signal. The phase domain semi-coherent demodulator may include a decision unit for forming a decision based on a delayed reference signal and the phase component of the input signal. In addition the phase domain semi-coherent demodulator may include a phase sum adder for subtracting the decision from the phase component of the input signal to form a rotated input phase, a second phase sum adder for subtracting the delayed reference signal from the rotated input phase to form a resulting signal, and a scaler for scaling the resulting signal to form an update signal. A third phase sum adder adds the update signal to the delayed reference signal to form a reference signal.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of wireless technology and, more particularly, to a method of and system for digital radio transceivers.
2. Description of Related Art
Wireless technologies such as, for example, terrestrial and satellite mobile communications and short-range wireless systems such as BLUETOOTH, often use M-ary differential encoded phase shift keying (MDPSK) for transmitting data. MDPSK is typically employed because of its advantageous characteristics, such as nonnecessity of carrier recovery circuits, fast acquisition performance, phase ambiguity resolution, and good performance over multipath fading channels.
A current solution for improving MDPSK detection performance utilizes a conventional differential detection circuit equipped with an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter combined with decision feedback. The carrier frequency offset typically generated in mobile communications is compensated for by a carrier frequency tracking loop. The semi-coherent demodulator approximates the performance of a coherent MDPSK demodulator without requiring carrier phase acquisition and tracking.
Referring now to FIG. 1, a known semi-coherent demodulator 100 is illustrated. In the FIGURES, the bold arrows indicate a complex signal and the thin arrow indicate a real signal. An input signal xi is received in complex form by the semi-coherent demodulator 100. The semi-coherent demodulator 100 manipulates the input signal xi into amplitude Ai100 and phase θi100 components of a real signal via a magnitude calculator 104 and a phase calculator 106, respectively, according to the following equation:xi=Ai100ejθi100 i=1,2,3  (1)To create a reference signal ui100, an impact of modulation on the input signal xi is removed from Equation 1. The impact of the modulation may be removed by rotating the input signal xi by a delayed decision φi−1100 of a decision unit 110. The decision φi100 is based on a reference phase ψi100 and the phase component θi100 described in more detail below. The rotation of the input signal xi is achieved by subtracting the output decision φi100 of the decision unit 110 from the phase component θi100 of the input signal xi.
A phase sum adder 112 performs the subtraction of the decision φi100 from the phase component θi100 in order to yield a rotated input phase ξi100. The rotated input phase ξi100 is input along with the amplitude Ai100 to a magnitude-and-phase-to-complex converter 114. The magnitude-and-phase-to-complex converter 114 outputs the reference signal ui100. The following equation holds true for the reference signal ui100:ui100=Ai100ej(θi100−φi100) i=1,2,3  (2)
The reference signal ui100 may remain disturbed by impairments such as noise and intersymbol interference (ISI). The impairments may be averaged out by integration at an integrator 108. The integrator 108 operates in the complex domain in order to ensure that the amplitude Ai100 of the semi-coherent demodulator 100 is considered. A coherency parameter α is input with the reference signal ui100 to form the output of the integrator 108, a reference vector ri100. Many approaches may be employed to integrate the reference signal ui100. In an embodiment of the invention, an exponential integration window yields the following equation:ri100=α*ri−1100+(1−α)*ui100 i=1,2,3  (3)The reference vector ri100 is input to a complex-to-phase converter 116. A reference phase ψi100 is output from the complex-to-phase converter 116 to a unit delay 118.
As noted above, in order to remove the impact of the modulation, a tentative decision is made at the decision unit 110 about a transmitted symbol of the input signal xi. The tentative decision is input to the phase sum adder 112. The decision φi100, which is made at the decision unit 110, is based upon a phase difference between the actual input phase component θi100 and a previous reference phase ψi−1100. The previous reference phase ψi−1100 is output from the unit delay 118. The unit delay 118 receives as an input the reference phase ψi100 from the complex-to-phase converter 116. The phase difference between the actual input phase component θi100 and the previous reference phase ψi−1100 is calculated by a second phase sum adder 120 and input to the decision unit 110.
The function of the decision unit 110 is dependent on the number of modulation levels M. For example, for M=2, the following equation is true:
                              φ          i          100                =                  {                                                    π                                                                                if                                                                                                                                      θ                          i                          100                                                -                                                  ψ                                                      i                            -                            1                                                    100                                                                                                                            ≥                                      π                    2                                                                                0                                            elsewhere                                              }                                    (        4        )            The decision φi100 is input to a second unit delay 122. A delayed decision φi−1100 output by the second unit delay 122 is then input to a phase sum adder 124 and a phase sum adder 126. The first additional phase sum adder 124 subtracts the delayed decision φi−1100 from the output of the phase sum adder 120. The output of the phase sum adder 124 is an output yi100 of the semi-coherent demodulator 100.
A previous phase difference θi−1100 is replaced with a corrected previous phase difference γi−1100. The corrected previous phase difference γi−1100 includes less noise than the previous phase difference θi−1100. The corrected previous phase difference γi−1100 is denoted by:γi−1100=ψi−1100+φi−1100 i=2,3  (5)The output yi100 of the semi-coherent demodulator 100, and thus also the output of phase sum adder 124, is given by the following equation:yi100=θi100−γi−1100 i=2,3  (6)
The phase sum adder 126 subtracts the delayed decision φi−1100 from the decision φi100 to produce a decision of the output D(yi100). The decision D(yi100) is input to a look-up table (LUT) 128 to output detected bits.
Calculations in both the phase and complex domains increase computational complexity. Phase-to-complex converters, complex-to-phase converters, integrators, etc. are needed to perform the necessary additional calculations. The additional computations result in excessive power consumption and silicon area in order to achieve the increased performance of the MDPSK semi-coherent demodulator 100.

Method and apparatus for phase-domain semi-coherent demodulation


The present disclosure provides implants, sensor modules, networks, and methods configured to establish transcutaneous power and transcutaneous bidirectional data communication using ultrasound signals between two or more medical devices located on and within a body of a patient.

Medical implants have various forces exerted on them in vivo, especially medical implants that are adjustable in situ. Such adjustable medical implants for example, are used in limb lengthening and spinal adjustable surgical procedures to treat conditions such as limb deformities and scoliosis. Typically, these adjustable medical implants are secured to one or more bones and gradually adjusted over time until some patient outcome is achieved.
These surgical implants and procedures do not include an accurate and non-invasive means of measurement of in vivo conditions, such as forces and pressures, present at the implant site. Particularly, during the course of treatment. A need exists for a device and method to facilitate the ability of care providers to non-invasively ascertain conditions present at the implant.

Ultrasonic communication in medical devices


A particle monitoring apparatus including a light source configured to emit plural light fluxes, a projecting optical system configured to convert the plural light fluxes into a band-shaped light flux, to lead the band-shaped light flux into a flow passage of a given gas stream, and to partially superpose the plural light fluxes to form a substantially uniform light intensity distribution of the band-shaped light flux in a widthwise direction; a light detector configured to detect intensity of light; and a particle detector configured to determine sizes of the particles passing the light flux based on intensities of the scattered lights detected by the light detector and to count the number of the particles.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a particle monitoring apparatus configured to be arranged in a so-called clean room or the like, mainly in a vacuum processing apparatus in a semiconductor producing process line or the like and to monitor sizes and number of particles ("dust" so-called particles, etc.) in a gas stream. The invention also relates to a vacuum processing apparatus equipped with the particle monitoring apparatus. More particularly, the invention relates to an improvement on the gas-bonre particle monitoring apparatus configured to determine the sizes of the particles depending upon the intensities of the lights scattered by the particles.
2. Related Art Statement
In the semiconductor producing process line, for example, particles are heretofore removed to a high level, while the number and sizes of the remaining particles are constantly being monitored.
A particle counter (particle monitoring apparatus) has been known to monitor such particles (contamination/supernatant). The particle counter is arranged inside an exhausting section of a processing apparatus in the semiconductor producing process line, for example.
When the gas stream in the process, which flows into the exhausting section, passes a light beam (light flux) shaped in a sheet-like (band-like) form, any particles contained in the gas stream scatter the light. Therefore, presence of the particles can be detected by sensing the scattered light (Patent literature 1: JP-A 2000-146819).
It is known that there is a specific correlation between the intensity of the detected scattered light and the size of the particle. Thus, if the correlation between the sizes of the particles and the intensities of the scattered lights is empirically determined in advance, the sizes of the particles can be determined based on the detected intensities of the scattered lights in actual use.
Further, the particle counter monitors the cleanness state inside the dry etching apparatus by countering the number of particles for each of the discriminated sizes of the particles.
When the correlation between the sizes of the particles and the intensities of the scattered lights is to be determined in advance, test particles having known sizes (PSL: Polystyrene Latex) are used.
On the other hand, it is laterally inhomogeneous that the projected light intensity distribution of the band-shaped light beam formed with the conventional particle counter. The band shape of the projected light intensity distribution in the horizontal direction of the laser beam is Gauss distribution. And, it is identified not a function mode (TEM00: Transverse Electromagnetic 00) but a multimode in the propagating characteristic that Gauss distribution of a light induced through a multimode-fiber with a projected light system.
According to any conventional particle counter, the widthwise central portion of the light beam has the highest light intensity, and the light intensity decreases as the location goes from the center toward a widthwise edge portions of the light beam.
Therefore, the intensity of the scattered light obtained when the particle passes the widthwise central portion of the band-shaped light beam is different from that of the scattered light obtained when the particle passes near the widthwise edge portion of the band-shaped light beam, even if the size of the former particle is identical with that of the latter one. The intensity of the scattered light obtained when the particle passes the widthwise central portion of the band-shaped light beam is greater than that of the scattered light obtained when the particle passes near the widthwise edge portion of the band-shaped light beam.
For this reason, when the size of the particle is determined based on the detected intensity of the scattered light, it is feared that a considerable error is contained in the determined value.
When the correlation between the sizes of the particles and the detected intensities of the scattered lights is to be determined in advance, the intensities of the scattered lights are repeatedly detected by using the test particles having the same size, or the intensities of the scattered lights are detected by using a number of the test particles determined corresponding to said size based on the frequency distribution of the detected intensities of the scattered lights. However, since the intensity of the scattered light depends upon the passing position of the particle through the light beam as mentioned above, a peak among the frequencies is not clear. Consequently, there is a problem in that the correlation between the sizes of the particles and the intensities of the scattered lights cannot be accurately set.

Particle monitoring apparatus and vacuum processing apparatus


A planer reader and method of probing the magnetic permeability of a material using a magnetic flux circuit comprises a substrate; a near-circular soft magnetic layer adjacent to the substrate; a gap configured in the soft magnetic layer, wherein the gap creates an opening between two ends of the soft magnetic layer, and wherein the gap is configured to align with a material located a distance from the soft magnetic layer; a magnetic flux generator adapted to provide magnetic flux to the material; and a magnetic sensor adapted to measure the magnetic flux traversing the material. The circuit further comprises an insulator covering the soft magnetic layer, the gap, the magnetic flux generator, and the magnetic sensor. The magnetic flux generator comprises a magnet or a magnetic coil proximate to the soft magnetic layer. Moreover, the soft magnetic layer comprises a soft ferromagnet. In one embodiment, the substrate is flexible.

1. Field of the Invention
The embodiments of the invention generally related to reading the magnetic permeability of a material on or near a surface such as the reading or nondestructive testing of magnetic storage devices, and more particularly to devices and techniques used for probing the local magnetic permeability of magnetic materials.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the constantly evolving magnetic recording industry, information is generally stored as magnetic bits on thin ferromagnetic films. Generally, magnetic bits of information are stored in the direction of the magnetization in small, local regions of magnetic media (i.e., magnetic films). Magnetic films are typically used in a variety of devices that include magnetic random access memories (MRAM) and magnetic recording media. However, defects or magnetization reversals in these films can cause failure and potentially lead to serious accidents depending on the particular application implementing the ferromagnetic films.
Conventionally, in reading the magnetic bits of information, detection devices are used to measure the direction and amplitude of the magnetization of small regions along a magnetic track. Computer storage devices, such as magnetic disk drives utilize read/write heads to store and retrieve data. A write head stores data by utilizing magnetic flux to set the direction and amplitude of the magnetic moment of a particular area on a magnetic medium. The state of the magnetic moment is later read by a read head, which senses the magnetic fields.
Conventionally, read heads utilize giant magnetoresistance (GMR) read heads, which are spin valve transistors or other devices similar to spin valves. These GMR thin-film read heads employ a magnetoresistive structure, generally formed in a layered structure of ferromagnetic and non-ferromagnetic metals, to detect the magnetic moments of the data bits on the media. A sensing current is passed through the magnetoresistive material to detect changes in the resistance of the material induced by the data bits as they pass the read head. Spin valve transistors can be formed in different arrangements, but are usually configured as four-layer structures including a hard or pinned ferromagnetic layer, a layer that performs the pinning, a soft ferromagnetic layer, and a thin intervening conductor layer. The layer that performs the pinning is typically an antiferromagnet.
However, this stored magnetic information in the media can be destroyed (i.e., altered or deleted) by applying a large magnetic field that will modify the direction of the magnetization on the magnetic media. Because of this, there is a need for a more permanent technique of storing magnetic information in magnetic media. Moreover, there is a need for improved methods with heightened sensitivity for finding defects and micron size imperfections in the surfaces of materials.
Nondestructive testing of components during manufacture or in use is important to avoid malfunctions that can lead to lost time or injury. Many parts of magnetic storage devices are either ferromagnetic or contain designed or damaged openings on their surface that can be infiltrated with ferromagnetic particles. Thus, magnetic sensors can be used for nondestructive testing. Unfortunately, most conventional testing methods measure the magnetization and/or do not measure on a micron-size scale. For example, while magnetic atomic force microscopes (MAFMs) measure on a micron-size scale, they tend to measure the magnetic field rather than the magnetic permeability. Furthermore, MAFMs tend to be complicated, expensive devices that are very sensitive to vibrations. Measuring the magnetic permeability provides an additional method for nondestructive testing. For example, two components might have the same magnetization but very different magnetic permeability if one of them has been strained or work hardened. Thus, there is a need to measure the magnetic permeability of materials on a micron-size scale.

Planer reader of non-erasable magnetic media and local permeability

United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army


A DCI sending method and an apparatus are provided. A base station determines a first channel resource, where the first channel resource is located in the ith time unit of a subframe in a time domain, the subframe includes NT time units, NT is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and i is a positive integer less than or equal to NT; and the base station sends DCI to a terminal device on the first channel resource. In this solution, the first channel resource that carries the DCI is located in the ith time unit of the subframe in the time domain, where i is a positive integer less than or equal to NT. That is, there is a first channel resource in each time unit of the subframe. Therefore, when data needs to be transmitted in any time unit, the data can be transmitted immediately.

In an Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, before receiving downlink data or sending uplink data, a terminal device needs to know scheduling information that is configured by a base station for the terminal device, such as time-frequency resource allocation and a modulation and coding scheme. In addition, the base station also needs to notify the terminal device of power control command information related to uplink transmission. Such scheduling information and power control command information belong to DCI. At present, the base station mainly adds the DCI to a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH).
An existing transmission time interval (TTI) is duration of a subframe, that is, 1 ms. With evolution of technologies, to reduce a delay, the TTI duration needs to be shortened.
This poses a new requirement on an existing data transmission mechanism.
All currently defined PDCCHs, such as a PDCCH defined in release (Rel)-8 and an enhanced PDCCH (ePDCCH) defined in Rel-11, are used to schedule a data packet with TTI duration being 1 ms. When used for scheduling a data packet with TTI duration less than 1 ms, the currently defined PDCCHs have a problem of a relatively long delay.
For example, in FIG. 1, a PDCCH region is located at the first two symbols in a subframe. When the base station needs to schedule a data packet on the 6th symbol of the subframe, the data packet cannot be immediately scheduled in a current subframe by using the PDCCH defined in Rel-8. Instead, the data packet can be scheduled only in a next subframe, that is, after a latency of eight symbols. Therefore, there is a problem of a relatively long delay when a data packet with a TTI less than 1 ms is scheduled.

Downlink control information DCI sending method and apparatus


A two-chamber electron impact emission sensor effective for monitoring vapor flux of materials in the presence of interfering species is described. The sensor includes two independent electron excitation regions and one photodetector for monitoring emission from excited species from both chambers. Copper vapor flux from an evaporation source was accurately measured in the presence of interfering H2O vapor, and Ga vapor flux from an evaporation source was accurately monitored in the presence of interfering CO2 gas. The invention permits deposition rates to be monitored using electron-impact emission spectroscopy with significantly improved accuracy in the presence of interfering gases at high partial pressures.

Electron-impact emission spectroscopy (EIES) is a versatile technique for monitoring the vapor flux density in a vacuum environment by measuring characteristic photon emission from such species. The EIES technique may monitor multiple materials simultaneously using a single sensor which makes EIES useful for fabricating thin film products such as high-temperature superconductors, compound semiconductor devices, and solar cells, as examples. More specifically, EIES may be used for controlling film composition during co-deposition processes for the fabrication of multi-component thin film materials including the high-efficiency CIGS (copper-indium-gallium-diselenide) photovoltaic cells, as an example.
One or more outer shell electrons of vapor phase atomic or molecular species may be excited to higher energy levels when these species are subjected to bombardment by low-energy electrons. Such excited electrons emit photons having specific energies when returning to lower energy states which are characteristic of the atomic or molecular species. Further, the intensity of a particular emission line is proportional to the particle number density of the species generating this line. The measured intensity may therefore be converted to a deposition rate in the situation where the emitted photons are emitted from a flux of atoms or molecules being deposited on a substrate.
Emission spectra of most species consist of multiple lines and/or bands. The high specificity of EIES for atomic species derives from the unique emission spectrum of each element and the narrow widths of atomic emission lines. Well-spaced, non-overlapping emission lines may generally be allocated to different atomic species. For practical reasons, the preferred emission line is typically the one with the strongest intensity.
By contrast, the electron-impact emission spectra of many molecular species are often broadband in nature. When optical emission from an EIES sensor is measured using a wavelength selection device having a chosen resolution, such as an optical filter or monochromator, as an example, the emissions from common residual gases may interfere with those from the vapor flux and cause erroneous flux measurements. Such interference is most pronounced when measuring low-flux densities in the presence of gases such as are present in reactive deposition processes.

Apparatus and method for measuring vapor flux density


Provided is an article of cookware and a method of making same. The cookware is made from a bonded, multi-layer composite comprising a core construction having a central core disc of a high heat conductive material and an outer ring-shaped core disc surrounding and spaced from the central core disc by a gap to minimize thermal conduction from the central core disc to the outer ring-shaped core disc.

Field of the Invention
Multi-ply, bonded cookware having a central area of the cooking surface that has a higher level of thermal conductivity than the more distal area of the cooking surface as well as the sidewalls of the cookware. A method for making the cookware using solid state bonding is also disclosed.
Description of Related Art
Multi-ply bonded cookware is known in the art as shown in a number of patents, such as, for example: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,246,045 and 4,167,606 to Ulam; and U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,133,596 and 6,267,830 to Groll. These patents demonstrate that the manufacture of multi-layer bonded cookware comprising stainless steel outer layers bonded to central layer(s) of a higher conductivity aluminum and/or copper is well known in the art. The bonding between layers of these different materials is commonly achieved by conventional roll-bonding techniques using strips of aluminum and/or copper, roll-bonded to outer strips of stainless steel. It is known that roll-bonding between copper, aluminum, and stainless steel layers is conventional in the art of making composite cookware.
A solid state bonding technique using high pressure and heat to make a plurality of composite blanks of for example, stainless steel—aluminum—stainless steel in the manufacture cookware, is disclosed in our co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/215,287.


A wheel hub assembly for motor vehicles, having a rotatable hub, a bearing unit in turn comprising a radially outer ring, a radially inner ring and a plurality of rolling bodies. The axial interface between the wheel hub assembly and a knuckle of a motor vehicle suspension provides at least one piezoelectric spacer configured to detect first mechanical vibrations coming from the components of the wheel hub assembly and to implement corrective action consisting of second mechanical vibrations of almost equal amplitude but with opposite direction and phase, so that the resultant of the first and second mechanical vibrations is close to zero.

Wheel hub assemblies essentially have the function of rotatably supporting the driving wheels or the non-driving wheels operated by an axle of the motor vehicle and are well-known to the person skilled in the art.
It is also known that noise and vibration control is one of the main characteristics for ensuring the comfort in motor vehicles. The sources of noise and vibrations perceived inside the motor vehicle are many, but the main ones may be identified as being the engine, the movement transmission assembly and the road surface.
Nowadays the noise produced by the engine is becoming less and less obvious and cannot be heard inside the motor vehicle in most driving conditions. With the increasing electrification of the various components in motor vehicles, the other noise sources associated with the movement transmission system have also practically disappeared. Therefore, the main source of noise and vibration remains the noise produced by the rolling movement of the tires on the road surface. In particular, the higher frequency vibrations due mainly to the roughness of the road surfaces are not effectively dampened by the suspension system of the motor vehicle and may contribute greatly to the noise levels inside the motor vehicle.
In fact, the suspension systems currently used may filter only low-frequency vibration components, and therefore the vibrations which are within the audible frequency spectrum may normally reach the motor vehicle passenger compartment and eventually be converted into noise depending on the frequency spectrum and the efficiency of the surfaces of the vibrating structures.
One way to solve the problem is to interrupt the vibration propagation path. This is not easy however: in fact, since a suitable mechanical performance is required for the structures of the suspension system, it is not possible to use highly resilient materials which are effective in the audible frequency range.
There therefore exists the need to design a wheel hub assembly provided with an innovative system which is able to prevent the propagation of vibrations and which do not have the aforementioned drawbacks.

Wheel hub assembly provided with piezoelectric spacers


The apparatus provides for the determination of the instantaneous phase in the respiratory cycle, subject's average respiration rate and the provision of ventilatory assistance. A microprocessor (16) receives an airflow signal from a pressure transducer (18) coupled to a port (17) at a mask (11). The microprocessor (16) controls a servo (19), that in turn controls the fan motor (20) and thus the pressure of air delivered by the blower (10). The blower (10) is coupled to a subject's mask (ii) by a conduit (12). The invention seeks to address the following goals: while the subject is awake and making substantial efforts the delivered assistance should be closely matched in phase with the subject's efforts; the machine should automatically adjust the degree of assistance to maintain at least a specified minimum ventilation without relying on the integrity of the subject's chemoreflexes; and it should continue to work correctly in the presence of large leaks.

Subjects with severe lung disease, chest wall disease, neuromuscular disease, or diseases of respiratory control may require in-hospital mechanical ventilatory assistance, followed by longterm home mechanical ventilatory assistance, particularly during sleep. The ventilator delivers air or air enriched with oxygen to the subject, via an interface such as a nosemask, at a pressure that is higher during inspiration and lower during expiration.
In the awake state, and while waiting to go to sleep, the subject's ventilatory pattern is variable in rate and depth. Most known ventilatory devices do not accurately match the amplitude and phase of mask pressure to the subject's spontaneous efforts, leading to discomfort or panic. Larger amounts of asynchrony also reduce the efficiency of the device. During sleep, there are changes in the neural control of breathing as well as the mechanics of the subject's airways, respiratory muscles and chest wall, leading to a need for substantially increased ventilatory support. Therefore, unless the device can automatically adjust the degree of support, the amplitude of delivered pressure will either be inadequate during sleep, or must be excessive in the awake state. This is particularly important in subjects with abnormalities of respiratory control, for example central hypoventilation syndromes, such as Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome, where there is inadequate chemoreceptor drive, or Cheyne Stokes breathing such as in patients with severe cardiac failure or after a stroke, where there is excessive or unstable chemoreceptor drive.
Furthermore, during sleep there are inevitably large leaks between mask and subject, or at the subject's mouth if this is left free. Such leaks worsen the error in matching the phase and magnitude of the machine's effort to the subject's needs, and, in the case of mouth leak, reduce the effectiveness of the ventilatory support.
Ideally a ventilatory assistance device should simultaneously address the following goals:    (i) While the subject is awake and making substantial ventilatory efforts, the delivered assistance should be closely matched in phase with the patient's efforts.    (ii) The machine should automatically adjust the degree of assistance to maintain at least a specified minimum ventilation, without relying on the integrity of the subject's chemoreflexes.    (iii) It should continue to work correctly in the presence of large leaks.
Most simple home ventilators either deliver a fixed volume, or cycle between two fixed pressures. They do so either at a fixed rate, or are triggered by the patient's spontaneous efforts, or both. All such simple devices fail to meet goal (ii) of adjusting the degree of assistance to maintain at least a given ventilation. They also largely fail to meet goal (i) of closely matching the subject's respiratory phase: timed devices make no attempt to synchronize with the subject's efforts; triggered devices attempt to synchronize the start and end of the breath with the subject's efforts, but make no attempt to tailor the instantaneous pressure during a breath to the subject's efforts. Furthermore, the triggering tends to fail in the presence of leaks, thus failing goal (iii).
The broad family of servo-ventilators known for at least 20 years measure ventilation and adjust the degree of assistance to maintain ventilation at or above a specified level, thus meeting goal (ii), but they still fail to meet goal (i) of closely matching the phase of the subject's spontaneous efforts, for the reasons given above. No attempt is made to meet goal (iii).
Proportional asaistist ventilation (PAV), as taught by Dr Magdy Younes, for example in Principles and Practice of Mechanical Ventilation, chapter 15, aims to tailor the pressure vs time profile within a breath to partially or completely unload the subject's resistive and elastic work, while minimizing the airway pressure required to achieve the desired ventilation. During the inspiratory half-cycle, the administered pressure takes the form:P(t)=P0+R.fRESP(t)+E.V(t)where R is a percentage of the resistance of the airway, fRESP(t) is the instantaneous respiratory airflow at time t, E is a percentage of the elastance of lung and chest wall, and V(t) is the volume inspired since the start of inspiration to the present moment. During the expiratory half-cycle, V(t) is taken as zero, to produce passive expiration.
An advantage of proportional assist ventilation during spontaneous breathing is that the degree of assistance is automatically adjusted to suit the subject's immediate needs and their pattern of breathing, and is therefore comfortable in the spontaneously breathing subject. However, there are at least two important disadvantages. Firstly, V(t) is calculated as the integral of flow with respect to time since the start of inspiration. A disadvantage of calculating V(t) in this way is that, in the presence of leaks, the integral of the flow through the leak will be included in V(t), resulting in an overestimation of V(t), in turn resulting in a runaway increase in the administered pressure. This can be distressing to the subject. Secondly, PAV relies on the subject's chemoreceptor reflexes to monitor the composition of the arterial blood, and thereby set the level of spontaneous effort. The PAV device then amplifies this spontaneous effort. In subjects with abnormal chemoreceptor reflexes, the spontaneous efforts may either cease entirely, or become unrelated to the composition of the arterial blood, and amplification of these efforts will yield inadequate ventilation. In patients with existing Cheyne Stokes breathing during sleep, PAV will by design amplify the subject's waxing and waning breathing efforts, and actually make matters worse by exaggerating the disturbance. Thus PAV substantially meets goal (i) of providing assistance in phase with the subject's spontaneous ventilation, but cannot meet goal (ii) of adjusting the depth of assistance if the subject has inadequate chemoreflexes, and does not satisfactorily meet goal (iii).
Thus there are known devices that meet each of the above goals, but there is no device that meets all the goals simultaneously. Additionally, it is desirable to provide improvements over the prior art directed to any one of the stated goals.
Therefore, the present invention seeks to achieve, at least partially, one or more of the following:    (i) to match the phase and degree of assistance to the subject's spontaneous efforts when ventilation is well above a target ventilation,    (ii) to automatically adjust the degree of assistance to maintain at least a specified minimum average ventilation without relying on the integrity of the subject's chemoreflexes and to damp out instabilities in the spontaneous ventilatory efforts, such as Cheyne Stokes breathing.    (iii) to provide some immunity to the effects of sudden leaks.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for determining instantaneous inspired volume of a subject during ventilatory assistance


A mobile telephone displays an image of a payment card in connection with a contactless payment function implemented in the mobile telephone. The mobile telephone constructs the payment card image from separate image elements. Data which represents at least some of the image elements is stored in an image data format which includes at least some dedicated storage fields for the various image elements.

Payment cards such as credit or debit cards are ubiquitous. For decades, such cards have included a magnetic stripe on which the relevant account number is stored. To consummate a purchase transaction with such a card, the card is swiped through a magnetic stripe reader which is part of a point of sale (POS) terminal. The reader reads the account number from the magnetic stripe. The account number is then used to route a transaction authorization request that is initiated by the POS terminal.
In pursuit of still greater convenience and more rapid transactions at POS terminals, payment cards have more recently been developed that allow the account number to be automatically read from the card by radio frequency communication between the card and a so-called "proximity reader" which may be incorporated with the POS terminal. In such cards, often referred to as "proximity payment cards" or "contactless payment cards", a radio frequency identification (RFID) integrated circuit (IC, often referred to as a "chip") is embedded in the card body. A suitable antenna is also embedded in the card body and is connected to the RFID chip to allow the chip to receive and transmit data by RF communication via the antenna. In typical arrangements, the RFID chip is powered from an interrogation signal which is transmitted by the proximity reader and received by the card antenna.
MasterCard International Incorporated, the assignee hereof, has established a widely-used standard, known as "PayPass", for interoperability of contactless payment cards and proximity readers.
It has been proposed that the capabilities of a contactless payment card be incorporated into a mobile telephone, thereby turning the mobile telephone into a contactless payment device. Typically a mobile telephone/contactless payment device includes integrated circuitry with the same functionality as the RFID IC of a contactless payment card. In addition, the mobile telephone/contactless payment device includes a loop antenna that is coupled to the payment-related IC for use in sending and/or receiving messages in connection with a transaction that involves contactless payment.
In the above-referenced provisional patent application, the present inventor has proposed an improved user interface for a contactless payment application in a mobile telephone. In connection with the proposed user interface the contactless payment application in the mobile telephone displays one or more images of payment cards for which the relevant information has been loaded into the mobile telephone. Both front and rear side images of the payment cards may be displayed in connection with the proposed user interface.
The secure data storage capacity available for use in a mobile telephone by the contactless payment application may be a relatively scarce resource, and it may therefore be desirable to reduce the amount of data storage capacity required in connection with the payment card images for the proposed user interface.

Card image description format to economize on data storage


Methods for post-etch deposition on a dielectric film are provided in the present invention. In one embodiment, the method includes providing a substrate having a low-k dielectric layer disposed thereon in a etch reactor, etching the low-k dielectric layer in the etch reactor, and forming a protection layer on the etched low-k dielectric layer. In another embodiment, the method includes providing a substrate having a low-k dielectric layer disposed thereon in an etch reactor, etching the low-k dielectric layer in the reactor, bonding the etched low-k dielectric layer with a polymer gas supplied into the reactor, forming a protection layer on the etched low-k dielectric layer, and removing the protection layer formed on the etched low-k dielectric layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to semiconductor processing technologies and, more specifically, to a post-etch deposition on a dielectric film in semiconductor processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Integrated circuits have evolved into complex devices that can include millions of components (e.g., transistors, capacitors and resistors) on a single chip. The evolution of chip designs continually requires faster circuitry and greater circuit density. The demands for greater circuit density necessitate a reduction in the dimensions of the integrated circuit components.
As the dimensions of the integrated circuit components are reduced (e.g. sub-micron dimensions), the materials used to fabricate such components contribute to their electrical performance. For example, metal interconnects with low resistance (e.g., copper and aluminum) provide conductive paths between the components on integrated circuits.
Copper is particularly advantageous for use in interconnect structures due to its desirable electrical properties. Copper interconnect system are typically fabricated using a damascene process in which trenches and vias are etched into dielectric layers. The trenches and vias are filled with copper which is then planarized using, for example, a chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP) process.
Copper interconnects are electrically isolated from each other by an insulating material. When the distance between adjacent metal interconnects and/or thickness of the insulating material has sub-micron dimensions, capacitive coupling may potentially occur between such interconnects. Capacitive coupling between adjacent metal interconnects may cause cross talk and/or resistance-capacitance (RC) delay which degrades the overall performance of the integrated circuit. In order to prevent capacitive coupling between adjacent metal interconnects, low dielectric constant (low k) insulating materials (e.g. dielectric constants less than about 4.0) are needed.
During fabrication of the interconnect structure, the dielectric etch processes (e.g., reactive ion etch (RIE), inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etch, and the like) are generally used to form the contact holes and trenches in the low-k insulator layers. However, these etch processes have adversely effected many low-k dielectric materials. For example, silanol terminated group, e.g., Si—OH bonds, may accumulate on the surface of the etched low-k film, thereby causing the carbon depletion at the film surface. Carbon depletion may cause the film surface to absorb moisture when exposed to an ambient environment. The absorbed moisture causes the dielectric constant of the low-k material to undesirably increase, resulting in a "k loss," in the materials dielectric properties. As a result, cross-talk and RC delay may increase after the etching process.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved process for etching low-k materials.

Methods for post-etch deposition of a dielectric film


The present invention relates to pest control agent having systemic activity and a high safety along with a wide insecticidal spectrum and excellent insecticidal activity, which are 1-aryl-3-cyano-5-pyridylalkylaminopyrazole derivatives represented by formula (1):

In the agricultural and horticultural field, a wide variety of insecticides as a pest control agent have been hitherto developed and put into practical use for the purpose of controlling various pest insects.
For example, as pyrazole compounds having insecticidal activity, 3-cyano-1-phenylpyrazole derivatives having an amino group which may be substituted at the 5-position are disclosed in JP-A-62-228065, JP-A-63-316771, and JP-A-3-118369, substituted 1-aryl-3-cyano-5-(het)arylmethylideneiminopyrazole derivatives are disclosed in JP-A-5-148240, and substituted 1-aryl-5-(het)arylmethylaminopyrazole derivatives are disclosed in JP-A-64-47768.
However, the compounds disclosed in the above literatures are not necessarily satisfactory in all of insecticidal effects, insecticidal spectrum, safety, and the like, and thus the development of novel compounds overcoming these problems has been desired. As a result, novel 1-aryl-3-cyano-5-heteroarylalkylaminopyrazole derivatives are disclosed as compounds exhibiting a high safety in JP-A-10-338676.
However, the compounds disclosed in JP-A-10-338676 and the like are more excellent in insecticidal activity and have a more reduced toxicity than known compounds but problems that the compounds have insufficient performance in view of systemic activity and that those having a high systemic activity have a relatively insufficient safety have been found. In view of efficient application of an agent for pest control and application for soil treatment especially effective for controlling pest organisms such as fluid-sucking pests, systemic activity is an important factor. Moreover, in recent years, the safety to organisms other than target pest insects and the environment has been increasingly demanded and, hereafter, measures for environmental protection will be strongly taken. Therefore, in order to develop pesticides satisfying more strict regulation, it has been an important problem to find compounds having a higher safety.

Pyrazol derivatives, pest control agent comprising the same as active ingredient, and process for producing the same

Abstract: wherein X represents an N or C-halogen atom; R1 represents a haloalkyl group, excluding a perhaloalkyl group; R2 represents a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group, R3 represents a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group, or an acyl group; and R4 represents a hydrogen atom, a hydroxyl group, an alkyl group, a haloalkyl group, an alkoxy group, a haloalkoxy group, an alkylthio group, an alkylsulfinyl group, an alkylsulfonyl group, a halogen atom, a nitro group, or a cyano group.