A method of configuring a header compression or decompression algorithm in a packet network. The method comprises the steps of analyzing or receiving packet information associated with packet traffic, and determining a representative header length to consider as the header length for a plurality of packets. The method further comprises using the representative packet header length to configure one or more compression or decompression algorithms used in the network.

Data communications in packet switched (PS) networks includes the transmission of data over a network as a sequence of small data chunks or suitable sized data blocks called packets. Each packet is passed through the network from a source (e.g. a user equipment or other network entity) to a destination (e.g. another user equipment or another network entity) via one or more network entities or nodes. Each packet typically includes a data payload, which is a small chunk of the data being transmitted, and a packet header, which typically provides information such as the destination and/or source address and the type of packet or communications protocols being used. PS networks may comprise or represent a communication network that groups all transmitted data into suitable sized data blocks called packets. Examples of specific PS networks that may be used in certain embodiments of the described network include, but are not limited to, legacy PS networks such as the second generation (2G), 2.5 generation (2.5G), third generation (3G), and fourth generation and beyond (4G and beyond) type networks, and/or evolved packet switched (EPS) networks, and/or all internet protocol (IP) based PS networks.
For example, the so-called Universal Mobile Telephone System (UMTS) (a legacy PS network commonly known as a 3G radio communication system), which has evolved into using enhanced PS network technologies such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) technology. In addition, air interface technologies within the UMTS framework have begun to evolve towards new air interface technologies defined in the so-called Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced systems.
The next generation radio communication systems and networks such as LTE and LTE-Advanced are considered to be all IP networks. These networks will have an upgraded PS network infrastructure called the evolved packet system (EPS). The EPS includes an evolved packet core (EPC) that forms the basis of the core PS network for the all IP network. These enhanced PS networks will provide all the mobile core functionality that, in the previous generations (2G, 2.5G, and 3G), has been realised through the existing CS networks and legacy PS networks.
The user equipment (UE) may comprise or represent any device used for communications. Examples of user equipment that may be used in certain embodiments of the described network are wireless devices such as mobile phones, terminals, smart phones, portable computing devices such as lap tops, handheld devices, tablets, netbooks, computers, personal digital assistants and other wireless communication devices, or wired communication devices such as telephones, computing devices such as desktop computers, set-top boxes, and other fixed communication devices.
A network element or entity may comprise or represent any network node, device, function, or entity for use in a telecommunications network which can be managed over a specific interface. Examples of network elements or entities that may be used in certain embodiments of the described network(s) are network elements, nodes, devices, functions, or entities that make up core network(s), access network(s) such as packet or circuit switched network(s), IP based networks, 2G, 3G, 4G and next generation networks, IMS core network, IMS service network, and service and external networks and the like.
Data communications has evolved to use many different communications protocols or standards (e.g. Internet Protocols, TCP/IP protocols, UDP protocols etc.) for use in transmitting data from a source to the destination. These communications protocols may be layered in a so-called protocol stack in which a layer of the protocol stack serves the layer above it and the layer below it.
Typically a protocol stack includes an application layer, a transport layer and a network layer. The application layer includes logic needed to support various user applications or application programs, the transport layer includes mechanisms to provide reliable communication of application data controlled by the application layer, and the network layer is concerned with exchange of data between the source and the destination or the physical devices in the network. Examples of protocol stacks include the TCP/IP protocol suite (providing application, transport, internet, network access, and physical layers) or the open systems interconnection (OSI) model (providing application, presentation, session, transport, network, data link, and physical layers).
FIG. 1a illustrates the structure of an example packet with IP and transport protocol headers in the packet header followed by the packet payload, which includes higher layer protocol information and the data or data chunk being transmitted. In order to provide reliable communications, data is passed between the layers in the form of packets, in which at each layer may insert additional data related to that layer to the payload of a packet and a header related to that layer. This means that packets may include one or more packet headers associated with the various communications protocols and/or layers of the protocol stack that may be used when communicating the data from the source to the destination. The headers depend on where in the network or at what level/layer (e.g. application layer, transport layer, or network layer) of the communication protocol or system the packet data is situated.
Since most of the packet header information is either static or are updated according to predictable patterns, the packet headers can be compressed to increase transmission efficiency. Conventionally, packet headers in packet traffic transmitted over a network are compressed by analysing the header(s) of each packet to determine the number of bits that are to be compressed. For example, when applying packet header compression, the packet header is analyzed in detail, and specific packet header fields are divided into static, semi-dynamic and dynamic fields. In this case the packet header shall be treated as a bit stream without making specific considerations about the header, except for limiting the compression range to cover the bits of the header.
FIGS. 1b-1d illustrates various protocol header formats that may be used. FIG. 1b illustrates the protocol header format for the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) protocol, FIG. 1c illustrates an Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) header format for the IPv4 protocol, FIG. 1d illustrates an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) header format for the IPv6 protocol, and FIG. 1e illustrates a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) header format for TCP. The sizes of the headers for the different IP level protocols are shown in Table 1.
TABLE 1Example IP level protocol headers and sizes.Protocol header (size) [bytes]Optional fields, size [bytes]IPv4 (20)Options (20-60)IPv6 (40)Extension headersUDP (8)TCP (20)Options (0-40)
It is apparent that each protocol uses a different header format that has a different size. In the header, the IP version is visible in the "version" field in the IP header, and the underlying transport protocol is also given in the IP header. IP packet inspection (PI) is normally sufficient to identify which protocols are being used over a specific connection.
Packet Inspection may comprise or represent the analysis of packets at different levels, from IP header classification to the deep packet inspection (DPI). The following describes some of the different levels of packet inspection and analysis that may be performed; these include, but are not limited to, IP header classification, shallow inspection, DPI, and heuristic detection.
IP header classification (a.k.a. 5-tuple inspection) is used to inspect packets up to the Internet layer, the so-called 5-tuple (Source IP address, Source IP port, Destination IP address, Destination IP port, Protocol (which runs on Transport layer, e.g. TCP, User Datagram Protocol (UDP), etc.) IP header classification is useful for identifying traffic targeting a specific port number, or a specific protocol. It is also useful when traffic from certain traffic domains, e.g. the Internet or Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), shall be treated in a specific way. For example, giving all Internet traffic a certain quality of service treatment (e.g., priority) or adding a different security protocol to a VPN.
Shallow inspection (a.k.a. Stateful inspection) is an analysis of the Transport Level protocol state, by inspecting the current protocol header (TCP, UDP etc.). For example, analysing the sequence of TCP header flags like SYN, ACK and FIN tells the state of the connection, and the receiver window size. Shallow inspection is useful when link layer algorithms are triggered by sequences of events of higher layer protocol interactions, without the need of knowing what content is carried. One example of use is to decrease the user terminal battery consumption by letting lower layer protocol states follow higher layer protocol layers. Shallow inspection also includes the analysis of all the fields of the IP header.
Deep packet inspection (DPI) is an analysis of data content on the Application Layer, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) state, video frame content etc. One common example where DPI is used is caching, where the HTTP request is analysed to identify which content to fetch from the cache. Link layer algorithms can also be made to adapt to specific types of content or applications.
Heuristic detection includes pattern detection or statistical identification methods on Application Layer data. Typically needed for classification of services with encrypted content, or for applications that intentionally tries to avoid identification (e.g., to avoid blocked of free voice of IP applications).
Conventionally, due to the large variation of possible packet headers in packet traffic transmitted over a network, PI needs to be performed on each packet when applying packet header compression, as the packet header is analyzed in detail, and specific packet header fields are divided into static, semi-dynamic and dynamic fields. PI may be used to determine the length of the packet header such that the header may be compressed using packet compression algorithms prior to transmission. The header length may represent the number of bits or bytes of the packet header, which may include one or more headers from the different communications protocols used in transmitting the packet.
For example, a file compression method, or compression methods working on bit streams, like GZIP or similar (which is LZ77 lossless compression combined with Huffman entropy coding), may be applied on specific parts of a bit stream, e.g. the packet headers only. Alternatively, a network operator or session or application may apply compression to IP packet headers only, that is, it is desired to compress the headers without further parsing of the IP packets. This means PI may need to be performed on each packet to determine the number of bits in the packet header that are to be compressed.
Given the sheer number of packets being transmitted in a network, performing PI such as IP header classification, shallow inspection, DPI, and/or heuristic detection for each packet in order to determine the header length of the header to be compressed is becoming infeasible. This is due to the large amount of packet traffic, the computational resources required for PI on each packet due to insufficient hardware or software (e.g. UEs), and/or the delays incurred for performing PI on each packet. Therefore, there is a significant need to optimise the compression and decompression of packet headers for packet traffic in the network while minimising the computational resources and delays in transmitting packets in the network.
Whilst performing packet inspection (PI) on each and every packet in the network may determine the header length of each packet, it is rather computationally intensive and can incur significant delay.


An update notification system is capable of efficiently acquiring updated contents. Provided are an update monitoring apparatus 6 for monitoring contents stored in a server 7 for their update situations to transmit an update notification signal when the contents is updated, a mobile communication terminal 3 for notifying the user that the contents have been updated, in response to receipt of the update notification signal and for transmitting an acquisition instructing signal for instructing acquisition of the updated contents, and an information processing apparatus 2 for downloading the updated contents from the server 7 in response to receipt of the acquisition instructing signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an update notification system, an update monitoring apparatus, a mobile communication terminal, an information processing apparatus, a contents acquisition instructing method, a contents acquiring method, and a program storing medium, and more particularly, is suitably applied to an update notification system which can monitor contents on a network to acquire only updated contents.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a personal computer, when a desired uniform resource locator (URL) is entered with a web browser program running thereon, a home page server indicated by the entered URL is accessed through the Internet based on the web browser program to download home page data from the home page server and display the home page data on a monitor, thereby allowing a home page on the Internet to be viewed. Also, the contents of the home page data displayed by the personal computer is regularly or irregularly updated.
In the personal computer configured as described above, it cannot be known whether or not the contents of home page data have been updated unless the home page server is accessed. Therefore, acquisition of the latest home page data requires frequent accesses to the home page server to confirm whether the home page has been updated, thereby giving rise to a problem that tedious operations are imposed to the user.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Update notification system, update monitoring apparatus, mobile communication terminal, information processing apparatus, contents acquisition instructing method, contents acquiring method, and program storing medium


A system for implantation dosage control. A first interface receives scan position information. A second interface receives beam current information specifying a first beam current value between scans and a plurality of second beam current values during one of the scans. A controller, determines a tolerance range according to the first beam current value, determines whether the second beam current values exceeds the tolerance range, and calculates number of the second beam current values exceeding the tolerance range.

The invention relates generally to process control, and more particularly to implant dosage control.
Ion implanters, commonly used in semiconductor manufacturing, implant ions into semiconductor substrates to change conductivity of the material in such substrates or in pre-defined regions thereof. Ion implanters generally comprise an ion source for generating an ion beam, a mass analyzer for selecting a particular species of ions from the ion beam, and means to direct the mass-selected ion beam through a vacuum chamber onto a target substrate supported on a substrate holder.
Typically, cross-sectional area of the ion beam at the target substrate is less than the surface area of the substrate which necessitates scanning of the beam over the substrate using a one or two-dimensional scan so that the beam covers the entire surface of the substrate. In the semiconductor manufacturing, it is critical to ensure that for any selected species of ions the wafers are implanted with the correct ion dose and that the dosage is uniform throughout and across the wafer or the part of the wafer targeted to receive the implanted ions. The dosage delivered during an implant process is monitored by measuring beam current using a beam current detector (such as a Faraday cup) positioned behind a wafer. As the beam and the wafer effect movement one relative to the other so that the beam is no longer obstructed by the wafer, the beam can fall on the beam current detector. Where implantation of multiple wafers is concerned, this may be achieved by positioning the beam current detector behind the movable wafer holder with one or more gaps/slits in the holder through which the beam can pass to the beam current detector that is aligned with the general path of the ion beam. Where single wafer implantation occurs, the beam current detector will normally be placed in a fixed position behind the wafer so that the beam impinges on the beam current detector as the wafer is moved out of alignment with the ion beam after each single traverse of the ion beam across the wafer.
Referring to FIG. 1, position voltage measures and corresponding beam current measurements are shown. Conventional beam current detectors measure beam current between transits of the ion beam across a wafer, when the ion beam is not obstructed by a wafer (as shown in point A) Therefore, the true beam current of the ion beam patterning the wafer cannot be obtained using the conventional method.

Systems and methods for implant dosage control

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


A patch antenna has: a driven patch fed with a high-frequency signal and radiates a high-frequency electromagnetic field from its one surface; a parasitic patch receives the high-frequency electromagnetic field from the driven patch at a first surface and reradiates the high-frequency electromagnetic field from a second surface; and a radome which protectively holds the driven patch and the parasitic patch inside of the radome; wherein the parasitic patch is held by the inner surface of the radome which contacts the second surface of the parasitic patch and by a holder which protrudes from the inner surface of the radome and covers a part of the first surface of the parasitic patch.

It is known that a patch antenna, composed of a driven patch and a parasitic patch structured as two electromagnetic wave radiating layers, has an excellent broad-band performance. By protecting such patch antenna inside a radome, a patch antenna structure leaving the advantages in terms of portability as mobile communication means, reliability, and aesthetic appearance can be provided. For example, such structures are disclosed in Japanese patent application laid-open No.2-141007(1990) and Japanese patent application laid-open No.3-74908(1991), where the former discloses a microstrip antenna in which a parasitic patch is adhered to inner surface of a radome and the latter discloses a stacked microstrip antenna in which a parasitic patch is buried in the wall of a radome.
However, in these conventional patch antennas disclosed a problem is that the number of fabrication steps must increase due to requiring the adhesion of the parasitic patch to the radome or the burying of the parasitic patch in the wall of the radome. Also, it is difficult to position the parasitic patch at a proper position on the radome or in the wall of the radome.

Patch antenna and method for making the same


A computer system employs a process on warm boot which obviates the need to copy code in non-volatile memory to volatile memory; a normal function in a warm boot process. The computer system checks a warm boot flag which indicates that the code was previously copied on cold boot. By avoiding copying this already copied code and executing directly from the volatile memory considerable time is saved. Since BIOS code is typically on the order of 10K bytes, elimination of the necessity to rewrite BIOS and vectoring directly to BIOS image file in RAM saves on the order of ten thousand clock cycles.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a warm boot-up process for a computer system and more particularly to a relatively faster warm boot process which eliminates standard predetermined warm boot functions, such as rewriting the system BIOS when booting the computer system from a predetermined condition.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Personal computers have several modes of reset operation, including power-up, often referred to as cold boot, reset during operation (i.e., warm boot), and reset from protected mode operations. Each of these three modes has a specific set of requirements, depending upon the state of the computer system. In a computer system, any unnecessary access to cold boot routines residing in non-volatile memory space adversely affects perceived performance because non-volatile memory devices are typically slower than volatile memory devices. Booting time is reduced by slushing BIOS from non-volatile memory to volatile memory and then operating out of the volatile memory. This, however, does require repeated access to the lower non-volatile memory initially to copy the BIOS during the slushing operation.
On a cold boot, the computer system initializes all registers, tests and sizes all memory devices and tests all peripheral devices. This initialization and testing also can be time consuming, adversely affecting the computer user's perception of the computer system performance. It is desirable to avoid unneeded initialization and testing, and therefore warm boots were created as a subset to the cold boot process eliminating the need for initialization and testing previously performed during a prior cold boot.
Unfortunately, computer system architecture allows for only one reset entry point or reset vector to support all modes of reset and does not distinguish between warm and cold boots. Since several modes of reset are desired, however, it would be advantageous to provide several points of entry, allowing initialization to depend upon the predetermined state of the computer system. The problem is further aggravated by the needs of having the power-up or cold boot vectors being stored in a non-volatile storage device since the vector is the starting point for the computer system when power is applied. For example, the cold boot vector, normally stored in the reset vector location of the memory system, normally points to code that must initialize the computer system for basic operations, including determining the size of the memory, configuration of the memory controller, validation of configuration storage, and validation of memory integrity. In many systems, the cold boot routine also rewrites the BIOS system from the top of the memory map to an assigned system BIOS area in random access memory (RAM).
Each of the functions discussed above required on cold boot are relatively time-consuming. Normally a cold boot is not executed after the system has been operational, since the system starts from a clean slate and must be entirely reconfigured. Therefore, during such a condition a warm boot is executed which provides only a subset of the cold boot initialization routines, and therefore not subsequently requiring complete reconfiguration of the system after booting. Therefore, the reset vector in prior art systems must determine whether the entry was a cold boot entry or a warm boot entry. In the case of a cold boot entry, the cold boot specific code is first executed, then the warm boot code is entered to continue the booting process. In the case of a warm boot entry, the cold boot code is skipped and the warm boot code is executed directly. The warm boot code is used to perform all remaining system initialization and verification before code execution is transferred to the operating system. This code is particularly destructive of system configuration, as it will configure programmable devices in the system architecture in accordance with configuration information in the non-volatile configuration storage memory.
The reset from protected mode operation is a very abbreviated reset process used during extended memory operations on 80.times.86 computer systems. It is used to reset the processor, thus exiting the extended memory access mode of operation known as protected mode. In the Intel 80.times.86 family processors, this is the only way to exit from protected mode. In operation, the cold boot code will recognize the reset as warm boot, passing execution directly to the warm boot code. The warm boot code performs testing on circuitry to determine if it is a protected mode exit. In this case, the entire system initialization is skipped, as well as the loading of the operating system and the configuration of the system is preserved for reset. The warm boot code will transfer execution directly to the reset from protected mode code, which in turn returns the program execution to the code requesting the exit from the protected mode.
Even though the warm boot process is quicker than a cold boot because only a subset of functions are performed, the BIOS is still rewritten from ROM to RAM which takes considerable time, adversely affecting system performance. Two problems remain during a warm boot. Specifically, warm boots require access to slow non-volatile memory, and require a substantial amount of code copying to volatile memory while the BIOS is slushed. These problems are aggravated when memory is shared between processors.


A phantom for co-registering a magnetic resonance image and a nuclear medical image is disclosed. The phantom includes a longitudinal member having a first end cap and a second end cap and a chamber contained within the longitudinal member. The chamber contains a fluid for producing a first image using a first imaging modality. The phantom further includes a first rod disposed within the chamber of the longitudinal member. The first rod contains a radioactive substance for producing a second image using a second imaging modality.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is primarily used in medical imaging to visualize anatomical structure of a patient's body. MRI technology can provide detailed images of the body in any plane. MRI has the ability to show soft tissue contrasts, which makes MRI scans especially useful in neurological, musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and oncological imaging. MRI scans use a powerful magnetic field to align the magnetization of hydrogen atoms in the body. Radio waves are used to systematically alter the alignment of such magnetization, thereby causing the hydrogen atoms to produce a rotating magnetic field detectable by the MRI system. The resulting signal can be manipulated by additional magnetic fields to build up enough information to reconstruct an image of the body.
Positron emission tomography (PET) is a nuclear medicine imaging technique that produces a three-dimensional image or map of functional processes in a patient's body. A PET system detects pairs of gamma rays emitted indirectly by a positron-emitting radioisotope, which is introduced into the body on a non-metabolically or metabolically active molecule. As the radioisotope undergoes positron emission decay (also known as positive beta decay), it emits a positron, the antimatter counterpart of an electron. After travelling up to a few millimeters, the positron encounters and annihilates with an electron, producing a pair of annihilation (gamma) photons moving in opposite directions, which are then detected when they reach a scintillator material in a scanning device of the PET system. Images of metabolic activity and other physiological and biochemical events in space are then reconstructed by computer analysis.
The most significant fraction of electron-positron decays result in two 511 keV gamma photons being emitted at almost 180 degrees to each other. Thus, it is possible to localize the source of the positron annihilation event along a straight line of coincidence (also referred to as a line of response (LOR)), and then an image reconstruction can be performed using coincidence statistics. For example, using statistics collected from a plurality of coincidence events, a set of simultaneous equations for a total activity of each parcel or bit of tissue (also called a voxel) along many LORs can be solved by a number of techniques, and thus a map of radio-activities as a function of location for parcels or bits of tissue can be constructed and plotted. The resulting map shows the tissues in which the molecular probe has become concentrated, and the resulting map can be interpreted by a physician and used for patient diagnosis and treatment. The parcels or bits of tissue can be quite small since the gamma ray event energy is large. This is one of the advantages of PET—a high signal to background ratio.
PET scans are commonly read alongside CT scans, in an attempt to produce a combination image by "co-registration" that gives the physician both anatomic and metabolic information about the patient's body. It is widely accepted that co-registration of anatomical information improves the diagnostic value of functional imaging, as can be seen in the success of hybrid scanners using PET and CT imaging. Recently, hybrid scanners using PET and MRI imaging have become available. The combination of PET and MRI may offer advantages, such as higher soft tissue contrast in the MRI anatomical images, real simultaneous acquisition, and minimum radiation exposure to the patient.
In general, a phantom is used to calibrate and/or verify the accuracy of nuclear medical imaging devices such as PET scanners or MR scanners. In essence, a phantom contains positron emitting activity in a known shape and uniform distribution of radiation activity throughout the body. Thus, by imaging the phantom with its known geometry and radiation distribution, the accuracy of the software used to assemble the various tomographic slices acquired by the imaging apparatus into three-dimensional representations of a patient's region of interest can be assessed and, if necessary, the various apparatus settings can be adjusted.
More specifically, the purpose of the alignment phantom is to measure the orientation and offset of the PET field of view with respect to the MR field of view.
Recently, a fully integrated magnetic resonance/PET scanner has been developed, which integrated scanner allows for simultaneous MR and PET imaging (see, U.S. Pat. No. 8,073,525, to Ralf Ladebeck et al. and incorporated herein by reference). Such a scanner requires a dedicated phantom which, in addition to facilitating quality control assessment of the PET scanning functionality of the machine, facilitates a determination of the extent to which operating the MR functionality of the machine influences the PET signals acquired by the machine.
A conventional phantom will not work for this purpose because the MR coil of the scanner has to experience a certain load in order to dampen the resonance peak sufficiently, even when maximum RF power is applied to the coil. Otherwise, if the MR coil is not loaded when maximum RF power is applied, too much current will be developed in the MR resonance circuit, and that current could potentially be large enough to destroy the MR coil itself.
Thus a need exists for a hybrid phantom that can accommodate a PET scanner, a MR scanner and/or a MR/PET scanner and overcome the problems in the prior art.


In order to make it easier to use a garbage can, a self-bagging mechanism is placed in the bottom of the garbage can with an opening provided for a plurality of bags to be placed within a housing. The empty bags will be taken from the housing and will provide garbage bags to the trash cans at all times. The bag holder is designed to be refillable.

A. Field of the Invention
This relates to the common household garbage can but has a housing on the bottom of the garbage can to make the garbage can self bagging.
B. Prior Art
There are many prior art references to garbage cans in general and trash storage apparatuses. A representative example of this type of device can be found at Lin, U.S. Pat. No. 7,033,039, as well as a standard garbage can that is found in virtually every home or business. This, however, incorporates the use of a self-bagging mechanism, which will rest on the bottom of the garbage can by which an individual does not have to worry about gathering a replacement bag during the re-bagging process.


This invention provides restriction endonuclease, Srf I, capable of recognizing the eight nucleotide base palindromic sequence shown below on a double-stranded DNA molecule and cleaving the DNA chain at the asterisk-marked position resulting in blunt ends. 5' GCCC*GGGC 3' PA1 3' CGGG*CCCG 5'. (wherein C and G respectively represent cytosine and guanine). The restriction endonuclease is produced by culturing Streptomyces rf in a culture medium and recovering it from the culture.

Restriction endonucleases are capable of recognizing a specific sequence of bases of a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule and of enzymatically cleaving in a process termed restriction the double-stranded DNA chain at specific sites. Different restriction endonucleases have an affinity for different recognition sequences. When they are purified away from other contaminating bacterial components, restriction endonucleases can be used in the laboratory to cut DNA molecules into specific fragments. This property enables DNA molecules to be uniquely identified and to be fractionated into their constituent genes. Restriction endonucleases, thus, allow the researcher to manipulate the DNA molecule and analyze the resulting construction.
Bacteria usually possess a limited number of restriction endonucleases per species. The endonucleases are named according to the bacteria from which they are derived. For example, the species Proteus vulgaris contains two known restriction endonucleases, named Pvu I and Pvu II. These restriction enzymes recognize and cleave the sequences CGATCG, and CAGCTG respectively. E. coli RY13, on the other hand synthesizes only one enzyme, Eco RI which recognizes the sequence GAATTC.
More than 1000 class-II restriction endonucleases have been identified. See, Kessler et al., Gene, 47:1-153 (1986) and Roberts, Nuc. Acids Res., 17:347-387 (1989) and Kessler et al., Gene, 92:1-248 (1990). The majority of these enzymes recognize four or six basepair palindromic sequences. Thus far, only eight restriction endonucleases with octanucleotide recognition sequences have been found: Asc I (5'-GG/CGCGCC-3', New England Biolabs, Beverly, MA); Fse I (5'-GGCCGG/CC-3', Nelson et al, Nucl. Acids Res., 18:2061-2064 (1990); Not I (5'-GC/GGCCGC-3', Qiang et al., Nucl. Acids Res., 12:4507-4515 (1984); pac I (5'-TTAAT/TAA-3', Polisson et al., unpublished observations; Sfi I (5'-GGCCNNNN/NGGCC-3', where N is either A, C, G or T, Qiang et al., supra; Sgr AI (5'-CR/CCGGYA-3', where R is either A or G and Y is either C or T, Tantz et al., Nucl. Acids Res., 18:3087-3089 (1990); Sse 8287 I (5'-CCTGCA/GG-3', Kotani et al., Nucl Acids Res., 8:5637-5640 (1990); and Swa I (5'-ATTTAAAT-3', Boehringer Mannheim Biochemicals, Indianapolis, IN). Restriction enzymes having these specificities are especially useful for mammalian genome analysis. The purification and characterization of a novel octanucleotide restriction endonuclease, designated Srf I, is the subject of this invention.

Octanucleotide restriction endonuclease, Srf I, and method for producing the same


An automated robotic quick change force controlled arbor device particularly to apply a sanding disk to surface finish metal and an automatic replacement of the disk.

1. Field of Invention This invention relates to a force controlled polishing device, having an automatic quick change arbor, for surface finishing metals.
2. Description of the Previous Art
Surface finishing of metal traditionally has been a manual work effort using, for example power operated grinding and polishing equipment wherein the finished surfacing results from the application of the workers skill.
Further the hand operation requires the worker to operate in a dust laden atmosphere. Also the repetitive motion of applying the surface finishing tool has resulted in many workers developing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

Automated robotic quick change force controlled arbor device


A system for suppressing even-order distortion in a photonic link includes a laser for providing laser light to a first input of a Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM), where the MZM has a second input for receiving an RF input signal, a third input for applying a DC bias voltage to the MZM, and an optical signal output. A dc-voltage-biased photodiode has an input, coupled to the MZM optical signal output, and a modulated RF signal output. The MZM DC bias voltage is set at a value to generate an even-order distortion amplitude substantially equal to an even-order distortion amplitude from the photodiode and 180 degrees out of phase so as to substantially cancel the photodiode even-order distortion. The invention provides the cancellation of photodiode even-order distortion via predisortion linearization with a MZM biased slightly away from quadrature, employing a single fiber run and a single photodiode. The invention provides an improvement in carrier-to-intermodulation ratio (CIR) upwards of 40 dB.

High-linearity photodiodes are actively researched in the field of microwave photonics, with applications in the academic, industrial and military sectors. A recent survey collects reported state-of-the-art results from the component level (V. J. Urick, J. F. Diehl, M. N. Draa, J. D. McKinney, and K. J. Williams, "Wideband analog photonic links: some performance limits and considerations for multi-octave limitations," Proc. SPIE 8259, 1-14 (2012) ("Urick et al. 1"). The concentration of high-linearity photodiode work is largely in terms of single-octave third-order-limited intermodulation distortion as quantified by a third-order output intercept point (OIP3). One of the inherent advantages of photonic solutions is the wide bandwidth available in the optical domain, making analog optical links attractive for multi-octave applications. However, even-order distortion generated by photodiodes can be inhibiting in such implementations as described in Urick et al. Previous works, e.g. Urick et al. 1 and V. J. Urick, A. S. Hastings, J. D. McKinney, P. S. Devgan, K. J. Williams, C. Sunderman, J. F. Diehl, and K. Colladay, "Photodiode linearity requirements for radio-frequency photonics and demonstration of increased performance using photodiode arrays," in 2008 IEEE International Meeting on Microwave Photonics Digest, pp. 86-89 ("Urick et al. 2"), have described the photodiode requirements in high-linearity photonic links for single- and multi-octave applications in terms of OIP3 and second-order output intercept point (OIP2), respectively. Oftentimes the present photodiode technology falls short of the system requirements, particularly in multi-octave applications. Architectural techniques have been devised to mitigate the component limitations. For example, photodiode arrays have been shown to achieve better linearity than the individual photodiodes are capable of alone. Two- and four-photodiode arrays have been demonstrated (see, respectively, A. Joshi, "Highly linear dual photodiodes for Ku-Band applications," in 2009 IEEE Avionics Fiber Optics and Photonics Conference Digest, pp. 9-10, and Y. Fu, H. Pan, and J. C. Campbell, "Photodiodes with monolithically integrated Wilkinson power combiner," IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 46, 541-545 (2010); and S. Itakura, K. Sakai, T. Nagatsuka, E. Ishimura, M. Nakaji, H. Otsuka, K. Mori, and Y. Hirano, "High-current backside-illuminated photodiode array module for optical analog links," J. Lightwave Technol. 28, 965-971 (2010) and Y. Fu, H. Pan, Z. Li, and J. Campbell, "High linearity photodiode array with monolithically integrated Wilkinson power combiner," in 2010 IEEE International Meeting on Microwave Photonics Digest, pp. 111-113). This simple but quite effective technique is based on dividing the input signal between numerous non-linear devices and then linearly combining their outputs. The "array gain" scales with the number of elements for both even- and odd-order distortion, assuming that each element exhibits the same nonlinearity. Balanced photodiode arrays have been demonstrated that improve the OIP3 by the array gain but suppress photodiode-generated even-order distortion through the balanced detection process (Urick et al. 2, and A. S. Hastings, V. J. Urick, C. Sunderman, J. F. Diehl, J. D. McKinney, D. A. Tulchinsky, P. S. Devgan, and K. J. Williams, "Suppression of even-order photodiode nonlinearities in multioctave photonic links," J. Lightwave Technol. 26, 2557-2562 (2008). This technique is attractive for multi-octave applications but requires two phase-matched fibers for the transmission span when implemented with a Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM).

System and method for suppression of even-order photodiode distortions

The United States of America, as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


A dipper assembly includes a dipper, a dipper door, ands a closure mechanism. The dipper door is pivotally linked relative to the dipper, and has a closed position in which the dipper door closes the open bottom. The closure mechanism has a lock position and an unlock position, and is fixed relative to the dipper and linked to the dipper door. In the lock position, the closure mechanism holds the dipper door in the closed position. In the unlock position, the closure mechanism allows the dipper door to swing away from the closed position.

Shovel dippers are formed with teeth at their leading edge and a dipper door that normally closes the rear of the dipper to hold earth and other materials that are loaded into the dipper by the action of the shovel. The dipper door must be held closed while the dipper is being loaded and while the load in the dipper is swung to a deposit point. At that point, the dipper door must be opened to allow the contents of the dipper to fall out. Typically, the locking of the dipper door has been accomplished by a mechanical latch proximal a cutting face of the dipper. The mechanical latch holds the door in a closed position, and is released by a cable or trip wire rope to allow the door to swing open under its own weight and the weight of the contents of the dipper. The door is relatched by allowing it to swing closed by virtue of its own weight and the changing attitude of the dipper as the dipper rotates back in preparation for its next loading cycle. An example of such a mechanical latch is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,958 issued Oct. 6, 1998, for "Excavator Dipper Latch Assembly Having Removable Tapered Latch Bar".
The existing latching mechanisms include a latching keeper and striking plate which must be located on the front wall of the dipper in order to engage a latch bar mounted within the confines of the dipper door. The front wall of the dipper forms the cutting face of the dipper and is subjected to extreme abuse as the dipper cuts into the earth. As a result, the existing mechanical latching mechanisms are subjected to false door release or failure to latch due to fouling caused by rocks and dirt being lodged into the latchkeeper mechanism. Moreover, the constant abuse caused by the latch mechanism being on the dipper cutting face results in excessive wear and resulting high maintenance costs and efforts.

Dipper assembly including a closure mechanism


The wafer marks of each shot area are measured by an alignment sensor, and the linear coordinate values of the reference point of each shot area are obtained on the basis of the measurement result and design data by EGA (steps 101 to 109). Curvelinear array coordinates which take the nonlinear components of the shot array into consideration are obtained using an approximate expression on the basis of the linear coordinate values (step 110). Contour curves representing the contours of each shot area are calculated on the basis of the curvelinear array coordinates by interpolation (step 111). The exposure operation is performed while changing the reticle stage scanning direction, the rotation direction, and the level of the wafer stage in correspondence with the distortion of each shot area represented by the contour curves (step 114).

When a semiconductor device, a liquid crystal display device, or the like is to be manufactured by photolithography, a projection exposure apparatus (e.g., a stepper) which transfers, through a projection optical system, the pattern of a reticle as a mask on each shot area on a wafer (or a glass plate or the like) coated with a photoresist is used. In addition to a stepper type projection exposure apparatus, a step and scan type projection exposure apparatus which synchronously scans the reticle and the wafer with respect to the projection optical system to increase the exposure area without increasing the load on the projection optical system is recently becoming popular.
For example, a semiconductor device is formed by overlaying multiple layers of circuit patterns on a wafer. When the circuit patterns of the second and subsequent layers are to be projected and exposed on the wafer, alignment between each shot area on the wafer, on which a circuit pattern has already been formed, and a reticle pattern to be exposed next, i.e., wafer alignment must be accurately performed. As a highly accurate wafer alignment method for the conventional projection apparatus, an alignment method called enhanced global alignment (to be abbreviated as "EGA" hereinafter) disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-44429 is known, in which the coordinate positions of alignment marks (wafer marks) provided to a predetermined number of selected shot areas (sample shots) on a wafer are measured, and the measurement result is subjected to statistical processing to calculate the array coordinates of each shot area on the wafer.

Alignment method for performing alignment between shot areas on a wafer


In a method for providing access to resources, a virtual world application executing on a first server transmits, to a client, data representative of at least one virtual world object. The virtual world application receives, from the client, a request to access a resource executed on a second server. The virtual world application requests access to the requested resource and, in response, receives output data generated by the resource. The virtual world application transmits, to the client, the received output data and data representative of a second virtual world object. In some aspects, the virtual world application receives a request to render, on a virtual world object, output data generated by a resource executed on the client. An agent intercepts the output data generated by the resource executed on the client. A virtual world client applies the intercepted output data as a texture to a virtual world object.

Conventional virtual world applications generate and maintain graphical environments in which users may interact with each other and with objects displayed within the graphical environments. Typically, users interact with objects and users in the virtual world via a command line interface, a graphical avatar, or a combination of the two. In many conventional virtual worlds, a virtual world application executing on a server transmits, to a user's computer, the graphical information required to render virtual world objects for display to the user. Typically, the virtual world application enables the display of static data onto objects or surfaces generated by the virtual world application, and the static data is generated within the virtual world application.

Methods and systems for providing access, from within a virtual world, to an external resource


A pelvis fixing device with a screw for the latter is provided. The screw comprises a screw element with a threaded shank and a head. Also provided is a holder which receives the head and which comprises a lower portion facing towards the shank side and an upper portion facing away from the shank side. The two portions encompass a rod. Also provided is a screw element for connecting the two portions and simultaneously fixing the rod. The pelvis fixing device comprises at least two such screws and at least one rod connecting them.

For fixing bones, in particular on the pelvis, or long bones in case of a fracture, plates and screws are used in a known manner. These are constructed so as to be to some extent adaptable to the curvature of the bone or pelvis portion to be fixed. The plate shape itself and the position of the screws therefor can be varied only to a minor extent.
From U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,542 is known a clamp for a bone screw, comprising two sections for receiving the head of the bone screw, a hook which receives a rod, and a clamping means which holds the two sections together so that they clamp fast the head of the bone screw and the rod guided by the hook. Due to the large number of different component parts, however, this clamp is very complicated to handle and elaborate to make.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,831 shows a bone fixing device with a bone screw and a clamp. The clamp consists of two portions which comprise ball segment-shaped recesses on one side for receiving the ball-shaped head of the bone screw and cylinder segment-shaped recesses on the other side for receiving a rod. The two portions are connected to each other by a screw so as to clamp fast the head of the bone screw on the one hand and the rod on the other hand. This fixing device too is complicated to handle and elaborate to make.


A lead frame includes a first lead and a second lead formed on the first lead. The second lead may comprise a conductive adhesive and a conductive layer attached to the first lead. Such leads may be used for a package where the second leads are exposed on the outside exterior of a molded resin and/or a semiconductor chip has a plurality of center chip pads.

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal cross-section of a conventional bottom lead semiconductor package. As shown in this drawing, a conventional bottom lead semiconductor package includes a semiconductor chip 1, and a lead 2 composed of a plurality of substrate-connected leads 2a on top surface of which the semiconductor chip 1 is mounted and the bottom surface of which is connected to the substrate (not illustrated). A plurality of chip-connected leads 2b extends from the substrate-connected leads 2a to be wire-bonded to the semiconductor chip 1.
An adhesive 3 bonds the semiconductor chip 1 on the top surface of the substrate-connected lead 2a of the lead 2. A plurality of wires 5 electrically connects the chip pads/bonding pads (not illustrated) of the semiconductor chip 1 with the chip-connected leads 2b of the lead 2. A molding resin 4 molds a predetermined area including the wire-bonded semiconductor chip 1 and the two kinds of leads 2a, 2b of the lead 2 such that the bottom surfaces of the substrate-connected leads 2a of the lead frame are exposed on the bottom surface of the package body. The substrate-connected leads 2a of the lead 2 are down-set from the chip-connected leads 2b at a predetermined depth.
The semiconductor package having the above construction is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,248, assigned to the assignee of the present invention and whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference. However, in the above conventional semiconductor package, when the chip pads are located at the sides of the semiconductor chip, a wire bonding can be carried out, but when the chip pads are located at the center thereof, it is not possible to carry out a wire bonding.


Roving bobbins of a weight of about 5 kg, by contrast to standard bobbins with weights up to 3 kg, can be used in a spinning system in which the flyer frames are of the multi-axial drive type and are equipped with an automatic bobbin change mechanism which transfers the full bobbins to suspension carriage trains displaced thereby to ring-spinning machines and wherein the suspension carriage trains pass into the creels of the ring-spinning frames directly or are transferred from such suspension carriage trains to the creels.

In conventional spinning processes for cotton spinning plants and combed yarn spinning plants operating with roving frames, also known as flyer frames, roving bobbins with weights up to about 3 kg are used. These bobbins have had a starting winding height of about 360 mm to about 410 mm (14 inches in the English system to 16 inches in the English system) and a greatest winding diameter of about 140 mm to 180 mm (51/2 inches to 7 inches). These bobbin dimensions have generally been found to be an optimum in the past and have determined the production speed of the roving frame, the way in which the roving bobbins have been handled, the configuration of the creel of the ring-spinning machine and other factors in the processing of yarn to the point that there has been no basic change in these parameters of the roving yarn for many many years.
In recent years, however, machines and systems in the spinning field have undergone improvement and development. To the extent that such improved machines and concepts are utilized for the present invention, reference may be made to publications, especially patents, it being understood that the systems described in such publications or patents are the ones intended to be used for the present invention when a more detailed description has been avoided in favor of a citation of the particular reference.
For example, in terms of roving frames or flyer machines, so-called multi-axial flyers or roving frames have been described in which the machine has been equipped with a variety of independently controllable drives. A four-axis machine is described, for example, in German patent document DE 34 17 779 C2. This machine has independent drives for the flyer, the bobbins, the bobbin rail (i.e. the upwardly and downwardly movable support for the bobbins while they are within the flyers), and the drafting frame. These drives may be separate motors whose individual speeds are independently controllable. With such a system the conventional steplessly adjustable cone transmission which is used to drive the bobbins and the bobbin rail from a common prime mover is eliminated. The multi-axial drive has been described as enabling a simplified construction of the roving frame with the advantage of greater accuracy of control of the working elements, especially in terms of a speed difference between the flyers and the bobbins and the lifting speed of the bobbin rail. This permits a more precise building of the turns on the roving bobbin with a reduction in defects and elimination of slippage of the windings.
In connection with roving frames bobbin replacement mechanisms have also been described which permit the fully-wound, roving bobbins to be automatically removed from the bobbin rail and, for example, suspended from hangers of a suspension carriage train traveling as a rule overhead in the plant. The automatic bobbin-change system eliminates the heavy work which previously had to be performed by an operator in the doffing of the full bobbin from the flyer frame and the suspending of the full bobbin from the suspension carriage train. A suitable bobbin change or bobbin replacement mechanism has been described in German patent document DE 36 30 214 C3.
The suspension carriage systems which have been developed in recent years also include tracks which enable the suspension carriage trains to be introduced into the creels of the ring-spinning machines so that the full roving bobbins can remain suspended from the trains while they are in a creel. Such an arrangement has been shown and described, for example, in German patent document DE 37 09 540 C2.
In other cases automatic bobbin exchange units are used which can remove the full roving bobbins from the suspension carriage train and attach them to the hangers of the creel of the ring-spinning machine. Such an arrangement is described, for example, in German patent document DE 37 34 275 A1. In either case the muscle work required earlier by service personnel in the handling of overhead full roving bobbins is eliminated.
While all three of these developments have been available for a number of years, we are not aware that they have ever been combined before so as to enable the dimensions and weight of the bobbins which are handled to be substantially increased and hence the productivity of the system to be significantly increased.

Spinning process utilizing roving frames and ring-spinning frames


There is disclosed a method and system for configuring a data dependency graph (DDG) to handle instruction scheduling in computer architectures permitting dynamic by-pass execution, and for performing dynamic by-pass scheduling utilizing such a configured DDG. In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, a heuristic function is used to obtain a ranking of nodes in the DDG after setting delays at all identified by-pass pairs of nodes in the DDG to 0. From among a list of identified by-pass pairs of nodes, a node that is identified as being the least important to schedule early is marked as “bonded” to its successor, and the corresponding delay for that identified node is set to 0. Node rankings are re-computed and the bonded by-pass pair of nodes are scheduled in consecutive execution cycles with a delay of 0 to increase the likelihood that a by-pass can be successfully taken during run-time execution.

The present invention relates generally to data processing systems and software optimization, and in particular to a method and system for configuring and for using a data dependency graph ("DDG") for dynamic by-pass instruction scheduling.
As known to those skilled in the art, a DDG is a type of directed acyclic weighted graph that may be used to represent relationships between instructions during scheduling. For example, a DDG may contain a plurality of nodes representing instructions within a "basic block" containing straight-line execution code. Directed edges between the nodes in the DDG identify causal dependencies (by convention, a "successor" node has a causal dependency upon a "predecessor" node).
The edges between a pair of nodes may be annotated with "weights" representing a sum of delays and latencies between the nodes. Delay is incurred, for example, as a result of pipeline stalls that typically occur when an instruction requires the results of another instruction before it can execute. Latency is a characteristic lag time resulting from the execution of an instruction. Both delay and latency may be measured in the same time unit, namely execution cycles, and may be summed together to obtain the "weight" or total time in cycles.
Given a DDG representing a basic block of instructions, a heuristic function can be used to rank nodes representing instructions in the DDG for the purposes of scheduling those instructions. In a commonly used heuristic function, nodes in the DDG are ranked based on the "critical path" length of a node. Generally speaking, the critical path for a node "i" in a DDG (representing an instruction "i") is defined as the sum of the weights of edges along a path from node "i" to the furthest leaf node in the graph (i.e. to a node having no further edge connections to other nodes in the DDG). As known in the art, scheduling may be prioritized so that instructions (i.e. nodes in the DDG) with longer critical paths are scheduled first. This scheduling strategy assumes that executing instructions with the longest critical paths first will generally tend to minimize the total execution time for a given set of instructions.
A closely related concept in instruction scheduling based on DDG analysis is an "earliest time" for an instruction. Generally speaking, the earliest time for a node "i" in a DDG (representing an instruction "i") is the earliest execution cycle in which instruction "i" may be scheduled in view of causal dependencies with predecessor nodes.
Known scheduling techniques based on DDG analysis are limited in that they generally support only delays that are fixed when a DDG is first created. These known techniques are not optimal for handling delays that can change dynamically, such as may be found in some modern computer architectures permitting dynamic by-pass execution. (Such computer architectures permit a delay between a by-pass pair of instructions to change dynamically between a full delay and a zero delay, as explained in further detail below.)
What is needed is a technique for configuring a dependency graph to handle instruction scheduling in architectures permitting such dynamic by-pass execution.

Method and system for configuring a dependency graph for dynamic by-pass instruction scheduling

International Business Machines Corporation


A process and apparatus for allocating bits between the stages of a multi-stage digital image compression scheme with quantizer feedback is disclosed. The process selects a quantization schedule (from a finite number of possibilities) for all stages that minimizes an estimate of total distortion while keeping total bit demand below a constraint; uses said schedule to actually quantize one stage of the compression scheme; selects a new quantization schedule for the remaining stages using estimates for distortion and bit demand that are updated to reflect the quantization of the previous stage; actually quantizes the next stage according to the new quantization schedule; and continues recursively until it has chosen an actual quantization scale for every stage of the compression scheme.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to the field of video processing. In particular, this invention relates to bit allocation during digital image compression.
2. Description of the Related Art
A transition to digital technology has pervaded the communications, information, and entertainment industries in recent years. Digital images and digital video are proliferating and filling an important role in this technological conversion. Digital cameras, DVD movies, and streaming video over the World Wide Web provide a few examples of the ubiquity of digital images. But because digital images, and digital video in particular, contain large quantities of information, they can be costly in terms of storage capacity needed and bandwidth required for transmission. Thus, compression of the data required for storage or transmission is necessary, and consequently the problem of achieving more efficient compression has drawn significant attention.
A variety of techniques for image and video compression have been explored. For example, the H.261, H.263, JPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 industry standards have employed various strategies with improving results over time. The feasibility of image compression derives from the fact that images often contain areas that are consistent, or correlated, in color (or in intensity, in the case of gray-scale images). Compression schemes seek to exploit these correlations by summarizing the data by regions rather than point by point. For instance, a typical digital image is stored as an array of pixels with a color value associated to each pixel. The array might be 720 by 480, and the color for each pixel might be represented by three (red, green, blue) component values ranging from 0 to 255. To digitally record three eight-bit numbers for each pixel in a 720 by 480 array requires at least 3×8×720×480=8,294,400 bits, or approximately 1 megabyte. But by noticing that in certain regions neighboring pixels have substantially the same color, one may avoid recording three eight-bit numbers for every pixel and instead record color data for each of several pixel regions, or use a smaller number of bits for some pixels.
In the case of a digital video sequence, one may also exploit the similarities between images that are close together in the sequence to further compress the data. For instance, rather than recording new data for a subsequent frame, one may retain the data for the previous frame and record only the differences between the subsequent frame and the previous frame. If the compression scheme successfully captures the similarities between frames in this way, these difference values for the subsequent frame will be substantially smaller than the original values for that frame's pixels. The crucial observation that makes compression possible is that these smaller values potentially require fewer bits to store. But in order to realize this advantage fully, one must take the additional step of quantizing the data, or replacing each numerical value with an approximation chosen from a discrete set of values. For example, rounding decimal numbers up or down to the nearest integer value is a standard case of quantization. Quantization is necessary because small decimals, for example 0.245, may require as many bits to encode as do large integer values, like 255. But when small numbers are rounded, for instance to integer values such as 0, 1 or −1, they require very few bits to encode. After quantization, the difference values mentioned above will often be small integers and will ideally include many zeros. A number of existing coding strategies dramatically conserve bits on zero values and small integers, so these difference values require far fewer bits to encode than the original values (which in the prototypical example are integers ranging up to 255).
Unfortunately, compression involving quantization comes with some cost in terms of image quality. As pixel values, or even difference values or other specifications for image reproduction generated by an encoder, are quantized, they no longer match exactly the data of the original digital image. Thus, the image reproduced by a decoder will not be exactly the same as the original image. For example, FIG. 1 illustrates the dramatic effect quantization can have. The original image 100 consists of a gradual smooth transition from black to gray to white. The new image 104 shows the result of quantizing (102) all gray-scale values between 0 and 255 into two values: black and white. Values between 0 and 127 are quantized as black, and values between 128 and 255 are quantized as white in this example of coarse quantization. While such a coarse approximation of an original image may be adequate for some purposes, clearly a large amount of information is lost resulting in a noticeable visual disparity between images 100 and 104.
The preceding example indicates an important trade-off in the field of image compression. Generally speaking, the smaller the number of bits used to encode a compressed image, the worse the distortion of that image will be. In fact, in "Coding theorems for a discrete source with a fidelity criterion," IRE Nat. Conv. Rec. 4, 142–163, 1959, C. E. Shannon showed that a theoretical limit for image quality versus compression can be found under certain assumptions on the class of images. A rate-distortion curve indicates the smallest distortion that is possible for a given bit rate allocation in image compression. A common situation in which this trade-off becomes important involves transferring image or video data under a constraint on the available bandwidth. If the bandwidth constraint is small enough to prevent expedient transfer of the full image or video, then a compression scheme becomes necessary. The desire arises to obtain the least possible distortion (i.e. the best possible image quality) while maintaining the bit rate allocation below the limit imposed by the constraint. The degree to which a compression strategy successfully allocates bits to preserve image quality while meeting its bit-rate constraint largely determines its viability in limited bandwidth applications.
Pyramidal Decomposition
The method of pyramidal image decomposition, which can be applied either to still images or to video, was introduced by Peter J. Burt and Edward H. Adelson in "The Laplacian Pyramid as a Compact Image Code," IEEE Transactions on Communications, Vol. Com-31, No. 4, April 1983. This method uses the correlation of color values within an image to take differences, resulting in small difference values that can be coded very efficiently. A variety of pyramidal decomposition schemes have been proposed, but the general approach is as follows. A base image I0 is filtered (with some filtering function) and downsampled at a lower resolution resulting in I1. Then, I1 is filtered and downsampled at yet a lower resolution yielding I2, and the process continues sequentially until a hierarchy (or pyramid) I0, I1, . . . , Im of bands of decreasing resolution is generated. Burt and Adelson refer to this hierarchy of filtered and downsampled images layers (called "bands") as a Gaussian pyramid, due to the approximately Gaussian shape of the filtering function they employ. In this specification, a hierarchy of image bands formed by the above process with any filtering function and any method of downsampling is referred to as a Filtered Pyramid. FIG. 2a is a diagram showing the process for creating Ij+1 given Ij, comprising the steps of applying a filtering function (202) to the initial image 200 and then sampling pixels at a coarser scale (206) to create a new smaller-scale image 208. Next, a prediction function is applied to Im to create an approximation Jm−1 for band Im−1, and this process continues sequentially until a hierarchy Jm−1, . . . , J1, J0 of predicted bands is generated. The pyramid of predicted bands, Im, Jm−1, . . . , J1, J0, is herein referred to as a Predictive pyramid. For band i where i=0, 1, . . . , m−1, let Ei=Ii−Ji, be the difference between the original band image and the predicted image. FIG. 2b illustrates the process of predicting Ji from Ii+1 and computing the error terms Ei. If appropriate filtering and predicting functions are applied, then the Ii and the Ji should be very similar, resulting in small error terms Ei. In theory, the original image I0 can be reconstituted using only Im and Em−1, . . . , E0, E1 since Jm−1 may be computed from Im by applying the prediction function, since Im−1=Em−1+Jm−1, and since one may recursively apply the predict function and add the error term until one arrives at I0. Thus, a decoder can generate the original image I0 if it is given only data for Im and E0, E1, . . . , Em−1. Burt and Adelson refer to their "difference" pyramid composed of Im at the top level and Em−1, . . . , E1, E0 at the lower levels as a Laplacian pyramid. The more general term Difference pyramid is used herein to refer to this collection of Im and Em−1, . . . , E1, E0.
FIG. 3 illustrates a typical Difference pyramid. In this example, the bands of the pyramid (300) have been generated by the process described above, so that the top band is a coarse approximation of an original image and the lower bands provide error terms that may be used to reconstruct the original image in a downward sequential fashion. Each band consists of an array of pixel values (302). For example, for a color image these values may have three components for three colors (red, green, blue), and each component value may be an integer between 0 and 255. In FIG. 3, each higher band is a smaller array than the band below. Note however that in general the sizes of the bands need not differ (e.g. the subsampling step could sample fully at the same resolution).
Since Im is of very low resolution (i.e. contains few pixels), it requires few bits to encode. If the small error terms Ei are quantized, then they will also require very few bits. As a consequence, encoding Im and all of the Ei (after quantization) can result in substantial savings over encoding the original image I0 directly.
As stated before, the quantization step is crucial to realize this potential compression. But when the Ei are quantized yielding Q(Ei), in general the equations Q(Ei)=Ii−Ji will no longer be exactly true. Even worse, the quantization errors introduced at higher levels of the pyramid will propagate throughout the calculations (this is called quantizer feedback), causing inaccurate predictions i and causing the errors at lower levels to be magnified. As a result, the decoder will not be able to reconstruct an exact copy of the original image I0. A successful pyramidal coding scheme seeks to quantize carefully in order to keep the number of bits required below some bound while minimizing the amount of distortion.
When one considers the application of pyramid decomposition to image or video compression, the importance of the dependent nature of quantization choices becomes clear. By "dependent" it is meant that at least one later stage is affected by the quantization scale selected for an earlier stage of the compression scheme. In such applications, an encoder seeks to compress the data for an image into a smaller number of bits, and a decoder reconstructs an approximate image from this compressed data. A pyramid is useful for compression because the decoder can apply the prediction function to predict a lower band once it knows the next highest band, reducing the amount of data that must be transferred. Two primary coding strategies, open-loop coding and closed-loop coding, have divergent effects on the accumulation of quantization error during the reconstruction process.
In open-loop coding, the encoder sequentially quantizes and transmits the bands of the Difference pyramid to the decoder. At each stage, the decoder uses the previous reconstructed band to predict the next lower band, then it adds the quantized error term (from the Difference pyramid) sent by the encoder to this prediction in order to "correct" it, or bring it closer to the corresponding band in the Filtered pyramid. Using the above notation, the decoder reconstructs Îi=i+Q(Ei), where the hat symbol denotes that these values differ somewhat from the Ii and Ji in the Filtered and Predictive pyramids, respectively. At each stage of this process, the decoder's prediction differs from the corresponding predicted band in the Predictive pyramid (i.e. i differs from Ji) because the decoder makes its prediction from quantized rather than raw data. But the error term Q(Ei) sent to correct this prediction at each stage is designed to correct the corresponding band in the Predictive pyramid, not the decoder's flawed prediction. So even before the error term is quantized, it is clear that it will not correct the discrepancy due to quantization at the previous step. Since the error term is also quantized before reaching the decoder, even more of a discrepancy is introduced. In this way, quantization error mounts at each stage of the open-loop coding process.
In contrast, closed-loop coding seeks to correct the error due to quantization at each new step in the process. Whenever the encoder sends data for a band, some error is again introduced by quantization. Thus, at band i<m the decoder will create a prediction, i that differs from Ji in the Predictive pyramid as before. However, rather than merely encoding the error term contained in the ith band of the Difference pyramid, as in open-loop coding, the encoder performs the same prediction i from quantized data that the decoder performs and subtracts it from Ii in the Filtered pyramid to create a more accurate error-correction term, Êi=Ii−i. Note that this error term cannot be found until after the previous band has already been reconstructed, in contrast to open-loop coding. This term is more accurate because it forces the equation Ii=i+Êi to hold. Of course, this error term is quantized before reaching the decoder, so the decoder reconstructs Îi=i+Q((Êi), which still differs from the original Ii. But the discrepancy at this stage is only due to the most recent quantization error.
FIG. 4 illustrates the stepwise closed-loop process from the perspective of both the encoder and the decoder. In step 1, the encoder forms m bands by sequentially filtering and subsampling the previous band, resulting in a Filtered pyramid. In step 2, the encoder quantizes the top band m and sends the quantized data to the decoder, while the decoder receives said quantized data for band m. In step 3, the encoder and the decoder use an identical process to predict band m−1 using the quantized data for band m. In step 4, the encoder computes a band m−1 difference term by subtracting the predicted band m−1 of step 3 from the raw band m−1 of the Filtered pyramid. In step 5, the encoder quantizes the band m−1 difference term and sends the quantized data to the decoder, while the decoder receives said quantized data for band m−1. In step 6, the encoder and the decoder both add the quantized band m−1 difference term to the predicted band m−1, resulting in a corrected band m−1. In step 7, the encoder and the decoder use an identical process to predict the next lower band m−2 using the corrected band m−1. In step 8, as in step 4, the encoder computes a band m−2 difference term by subtracting the predicted band m−2 of step 7 from the raw band m−2 of the Filtered pyramid. The last box indicates that analogues of steps 5 through 8 should be repeated until no lower bands remain. At this stage, the corrected band 0 will be the decoder's reconstruction of the original image.
The filtering and predicting functions employed by Burt and Adelson and in many other pyramidal decomposition schemes are linear functions. If a function Φ is applied to an image I (an image is here conceived as a map assigning a numerical color value to each pixel in an array of pixels), we refer to the resulting image as Φ(I). The function Φ is linear if two conditions are satisfied: 1) For any two images A and B, Φ(A+B)=Φ(A)+Φ(B), and 2) For any constant number c, then Φ(cA)=cΦ(A). A function that does not satisfy the above two conditions is called nonlinear. A number of proposed pyramidal decomposition schemes employing nonlinear filtering and predicting functions promise more efficient compression than linear pyramidal schemes. For example, in "A study of pyramidal techniques for image representation and compression," Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation, 5 (1994), pp. 190–203, Xuan Kong and John Goutsias compare several linear and nonlinear pyramid decomposition schemes and draw experimental conclusions regarding which filtering and predicting functions produce the best results. However, the use of nonlinear filters can complicate the propagation of quantization errors throughout the process of reconstructing a compressed image, so special attention must be paid to the allocation of bits among the various bands. In particular, because of the effects of nonlinear functions on quantization error, the closed-loop coding process described above is often employed. But determining how to allocate bits for such a closed-loop process is a nontrivial problem.
K. Metin Uz, Jerome M. Shapiro, and Martin Czigler propose a method for allocating bits in a closed-loop pyramidal coding scheme in their paper "Optimal bit allocation in the presence of quantizer feedback," Proc. of ICASSP 1993, Vol. 5, pp. 385–388. In this method, the rate-distortion curves for each band are assumed to be of a simplified parametric form, and modeling is required to estimate the values of the parameters for these curves. Based on these assumptions, the authors use the method of Lagrange multipliers to calculate a closed form optimal solution that depends on the chosen parameters and a Lagrange multiplier (which can be approximated using iterative techniques).
In the unpublished manuscript "Alternative formulations for bit allocation with dependent quantization," authors Pankaj Batra, Alexandros Eliftheriadis, and Jay Sethuraman provide an integer-programming formulation of the dependent quantization bit allocation problem. They use linear and Lagrange relaxations with randomized rounding to find approximate solutions. Since their formulation only takes account of first-order dependencies (e.g. between adjacent bands) and because it is aimed at temporal rather than spatial dependencies, it does not provide an accurate solution for a multiple-band pyramidal coding problem.
In "Bit allocation methods for closed-loop coding of oversampled pyramid decompositions," Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference On Image Processing, 26–29 Oct. 1997, Santa Barbara, Calif., authors Uwe Horn, Thomas Wiegand, and Bernd Girod derive an optimal bit allocation model for closed-loop pyramidal coding under certain assumptions. They assume a Gaussian source to derive equations relating distortion to bit rate and use the method of Lagrange multipliers to find an analytical solution to the bit allocation problem. They note that this optimal solution actually results in large distortions at lower-resolution bands of the pyramid, so they propose using the optimal bit allocations for the simpler open-loop coding within the closed-loop scheme to achieve less distortion across all bands.
In "Bit allocation for dependent quantization with applications to multiresolution and MPEG video coders," IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, Vol. 3, No. 5, September 1994, authors Kannan Ramchandran, Antonio Ortega, and Martin Vetterli discuss an operational approach to allocating bits within compression schemes with quantizer feedback using a discrete set of quantizer choices. This approach requires no assumptions about the input data or quantizer characteristics, unlike the Horn/Wiegand/Girod calculation. The optimal bit allocation/distortion balance is found by minimizing a Lagrangian cost dependent on a Lagrange multiplier parameter, then iterating by adjusting until the solution found satisfies the original bit constraint. This iterative approach approximates the actual optimal allocation for closed-loop pyramidal coding but its computational complexity increases exponentially with the number of bands in the pyramid.

Bit allocation process for multi-stage image compression


Disclosed are methods and systems used with surgical navigation systems that enable a user to generate an optimized anatomical dataset for a spine level of interest. The systems and methods allow users to determine a target geometry for a spinal level targeted for spinal surgery. Additionally, the user can project loads across the spinal orthopedic implants and determine a projected subsidence overtime.

One of the most prevalent joint problems is back pain, particularly in the "small of the back" or lumbosacral (L4-S1) region. In many cases, the pain severely limits a person's functional ability and quality of life. Such pain can result from a variety of spinal pathologies. Through disease or injury, the vertebral bodies, intervertebral discs, laminae, spinous process, articular processes, or facets of one or more spinal vertebrae can become damaged, such that the vertebrae no longer articulate or properly align with each other. This can result in an undesired anatomy, loss of mobility, and pain or discomfort. Duke University Medical Center researchers found that patients suffering from back pain in the United States consume more than $90 billion annually in health care expenses, with approximately $26 billion being directly attributable to treatment. Additionally, there is a substantial impact on the productivity of workers as a result of lost work days. Similar trends have also been observed in the United Kingdom and other countries.
As part of the diagnostic process of determining the cause of pain coming from a joint such as the lumbar spine, health care providers rely on an understanding of joint anatomy and mechanics when evaluating a subject's suspected joint problem and/or biomechanical performance issue. Currently available orthopedic diagnostic methods are capable of detecting a limited number of specific and treatable defects. These techniques include X-Rays, MRI, discography, and physical exams of the patient. In addition, spinal kinematic studies such as flexion/extension X-rays are used to specifically detect whether or not a joint has dysfunctional motion. These methods have become widely available and broadly adopted into the practice of treating joint problems and addressing joint performance issues.
What us needed are new devices and methods for determining the target geometry for a level targeted for spinal surgery. Additionally, devices and methods for the safe operating range of spinal joints during surgery. Still other needs include devices and methods for modeling and projecting various loads across spinal orthopedic implants.

Methods for data processing for intra-operative navigation systems


System using on- or in-body communication technologies such as body-sound communication (BSC) or body-coupled communication (BCC) to obtain information on the body composition of a patient (e.g. water content/hydration level on bone density/joint status). The system, in a preferred embodiment, comprises a transmitter, receiver and processor connected to the receiver. The transmitter is arranged to transmit a signal through a medium (the body of the patient), the signal comprising a plurality of different frequency components and transmission technologies. The receiver is arranged to receive the signal following propagation through the said medium. The processor is arranged to generate, at a first time, one or more transfer functions from the received signal, each transfer function defining values for a predetermined signal parameter at different frequencies. The processor then generates, at a second time, one or more further transfer functions from the received signal and compares a transfer function with the further transfer function for the same signal parameter. An output is generated if the difference between the transfer function and the further transfer function exceeds a preset threshold.

Determining the body composition of an individual is of fundamental importance in many applications within the medical and fitness domains. An individual's personal parameters such as water, muscle or fat percentage play a key role to determine the health state of that individual. For example, determining the amount of water in the human body is especially important in a number of settings to prevent people from becoming dehydrated. However, current systems do not allow for the automatic measurement of the actual water percentage in the body without error, or even with small error. Consequently, this has to be determined or approximated manually. For example, nurses have to physically write down the amount of water a patient drinks and/or measure their urine to try to find out whether or not the patient's water balance is acceptable. This procedure is regularly practised, in intensive care stations, for example. This method is not only cumbersome, but also imprecise since it does not take into account other effects on the patient, such as sweating.
Therefore, having an approach or system that allows for the automatic and precise measurement of the actual composition of an individual's body is of key importance in medical and fitness applications. Some current systems for the analysis of body composition are based on bio-impedance. Bio-impedance (see for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bioimpedance) measures the propagation features of an electric current through the human body. The propagation of electricity (electric current) depends on different parameters such as the signal frequency. However, the current systems based on bio-impedance are not precise enough to provide results of sufficient reliability. There exist a number of models to choose from, in order to find out the actual body composition of the patient. Although the choice of the correct model is crucial, it is not always evident, since it depends upon a number of parameters such as the age or gender of the individual being assessed. Additionally, bio-impedance based systems require a number of electrodes interconnected by wires that limits the user experience when designing wearable systems and makes the resulting scheme more complex to use and expensive. Finally, these systems are highly dependent on the user's body position when the measurements are taken. As a result, current systems do not allow for the automatic and precise measurement of the patient's parameters. Furthermore, the systems based on bio-impedance present several drawbacks such as the use of imprecise models or the need of many electrodes.
International Patent Application Publication WO 2007/113756 discloses a method and apparatus for determining hydration levels by measuring velocity change. In accordance with an example embodiment, an apparatus includes a transmitting transducer operative to transmit a mechanical wave. The apparatus also includes a receiving transducer operative to receive the mechanical waves transmitted from the transmitting transducer, wherein the transmitting transducer and the receiving transducer are disposed over a same side of a layer of tissue. The apparatus includes a processor operative to calculate a velocity of the mechanical wave in a medium, wherein the velocity is representative of a hydration level in the medium. While the technology disclosed in this Publication is an improvement over many known techniques, it still nevertheless requires an accurate measurement of distance between the two transducers to be taken, which can be difficult to achieve in many practical situations with a patient, and also requires that a velocity calculation be made of the wave, which can be affected by factors other than just the hydration level such as the pressure of the transducers on the tissue, the temperature, or the orientation of the muscle fibers.
It is therefore an object of the invention to improve upon the known art.


A liquid crystal cell has a first substrate having a pixel electrode formed thereon, wherein the pixel electrode has a characteristic width; and a second substrate having a transparent conductive electrode layer formed thereon. Liquid crystal material is disposed between the pixel electrode and the transparent electrode layer. A wall of transparent conductive material projects from the transparent conductive electrode layer toward the liquid crystal material. The width of the wall is less than the characteristic width of the pixel electrode. The wall may comprise a transparent material layer formed on the second substrate and the transparent conductive electrode layer formed on the layer of transparent material. In the alternative, the wall may comprise a transparent conductive material layer formed on the transparent conductive electrode layer. The wall provides a lateral field that controls tilt direction of said liquid crystal material. The wall can also be a transparent non-conductive material projects from the transparent conductive electrode layer toward the liquid crystal material. The slope of the side walls of the wall control the tilt direction of liquid crystal material in the cell.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to liquid crystal displays (LCD's), and, more particularly to liquid crystal displays of the homeotropic and twisted nematic type having multi-domain cells.
2. Background Art
Flat panel displays have been become increasingly important in the computer industry and in other industries where the display of information is important. These types of displays provide unique opportunities for lowering the weight, size and eventually the cost of displaying information.
Liquid crystal displays seem to hold the most promise as the technology which will eventually be utilized in almost all practical flat panel displays. Considerable success has been achieved in small size color televisions and in monochrome flat panel displays as well as larger sizes used in color notebook or laptop computers. However, unlike the cathode ray tube display, which exhibits good viewing quality from a variety of angles, conventional liquid crystal displays suffer from a lose of contrast or contrast reversal when viewed from an angle other than normal to the plane of the display. This is due to the interaction of light with the molecules of the liquid crystal material in the liquid crystal display cells which make the flat panel display. Light traveling through these display cells at other than a normal angle of incidence interacts with the liquid crystal display molecules in a manner different from that of light traveling with normal incidence. The contrast between a light transmissive (white) state and a non-transmissive state (black) at other than the normal angle is drastically decreased, thus making such displays less desirable for use in many applications, such as flat panel television screens and large computer screens.
There have been various attempts to solve this problem. One method is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 05,309,264, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, wherein a pattern of openings is formed in the common electrode. Such openings cause the display elements of the display to have more than one liquid crystal domain. This is a elegant approach; however, in order to provide sufficient optical performance, the width of such openings is required to be about twice that of the cell gap or larger. Importantly, for high density displays, the width of a given display element may be in the order of twice or triple the cell gap. In this case, this method becomes ineffective.

Liquid crystal cell employing thin wall for pre-tilt control

International Business Machines Corporation


Collision-energy-absorbing means of an impact-absorbing steering column apparatus includes guide slots 31a1 and 31b1, guide slots 31a2 and 31b2, and transition portions 31a3 and 31b3, as well as energy-absorbing members 36 and 37, so as to change absorption load for secondary collision energy. A collar 42 plastically deforms the energy-absorbing member 36 or 37, thereby absorbing secondary collision energy of an occupant in the event of a collision of a vehicle. The guide slots 31a1 and 31b1, the guide slots 31a2 and 31b2, and the transition portions 31a3 and 31b3 change an absorption load for secondary collision energy dependently on the direction of a secondary collision of the occupant with the steering system.

A conventional impact-absorbing steering column apparatus effects absorption of secondary collision energy such that column drive means causes a steering column to retreat in relation to an occupant in accordance with the distance between the occupant and a steering wheel or the position of the steering column in relation to the occupant or such that energy absorption quantity adjustment means varies, in accordance with the distance or the position, the quantity of secondary impact energy to be absorbed by collision-energy-absorbing means. Such an impact-absorbing steering column apparatus is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. 2002-79944.
The above-mentioned conventional impact-absorbing steering column apparatus is configured such that the column drive means and the energy absorption quantity adjustment means are operated under the control of an electrical control unit. The distance between the occupant and the steering wheel or the position of the steering column in relation to the occupant is electrically detected. On the basis of the detected distance or position, at least either the column drive means or the energy absorption quantity adjustment means is electrically controlled. Thus, a problem of high cost is involved.

Impact-absorbing steering column apparatus