In accordance with an embodiment, a system and method for verifying presence at a vendor location is defined. Preferably, an identification tag is coupled to a device, and the identification tag is operable to transmit a unique user identifier representing the user in possession of the device. The identification tag preferably includes a low frequency RFID device. Further, an identification tag reader is provided that is operable to receive from the identification tag the user identifier. The identification tag reader is preferably placed at a location of a vendor. Further, a computing device is provided that is operable to receive the user identifier from the identification tag reader. The computing device is further operable to receive from the identification tag reader a vendor identifier representing the vendor location, and is still further operable to receive a time identifier representing a time when the identification tag reader received the user identifier from the identification tag. Preferably, a database is also provided that stores the user identifier, the vendor identifier and the time identifiers with a plurality of other user identifiers, other vendor identifiers and other time identifiers. The computing device determines the name of the user and the name of the vendor as a function of the user identifier and the vendor identifier.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to communications, and, more particularly, to integrating remote hardware and software in a social networking application and a direct-to-consumer marketing application.
2. Description of the Related Art
Interpersonal communication has dramatically improved over the past decades, largely due to technological advances in cellular telephone technology, and the internet. Although mechanisms for people to communicate are known and available, vendors and consumers, as well as people in purely social contexts, continue to strive for improved access to each other.
In one example, a vendor with a business desires to advertise on a social network. Examples of social network internet web sites include www.myspace.com and www.facebook.com, which typically allow an end-user to create a personal profile to be shared within the confines of the respective web site. Social networks typically facilitate private messaging between users, sharing of media such as photos, blogs or videos, personal interests of an end-user and comments or feedback on other end-user's content. Social networks may also function as a social calendar. In the prior art, the vendor, typically, was charged a significant amount of money to be represented as a normal "end-user," and, in exchange, the vendor has access to "friends" for sending marketing-related messages. The vendor, typically can post pictures, comments, videos and bulletins and interact with other end-users, and even pose or otherwise be represented as a non-vendor end-user. Additionally, the vendor may be provided with options to collaborate with the social network, such as to run banner advertisement campaigns across the social network to reach a target demographic. The social network typically segments end-users most likely to be influenced by such banner advertisements, based on information those end-users have provided.
While it is possible that end-users supply erroneous information that may not accurately represent respective the end-users' social class, status, locations or interests, known social networks do try to reach target demographics accurately so that end-users are enticed to select banner advertisements and purchase respective products or services. Prior art social networks make a great deal of money from pseudo-end-user avatars, as known in the art, and may also charge vendors per end-user click on the vendor's banner advertisements. A pseudo-end-user avatar is any vendor that assumes an identity on the social network, but is backed by an organization or company as opposed to a single person, and functions in exactly the same way as a normal end-user. Prior art social networks also attempt to mine end-user demographic data to provide the most relevant and potential customers for vendors.
In another example, a vendor at a trade show desires to collect contact information. The vendor has a booth to sell his goods/services, and to present promotional signs and displays. In case a potential client or someone of interest walks by the vendor's booth and is interested in what the vendor is offering, the vendor speaks to the person directly, or hands the person a brochure or other marketing materials. In order for the vendor and the person to remain in contact in the future and away from the trade show, contact information of the vendor and/or person must be exchanged to allow the parties to communicate.
In yet another example, a vendor desires to provide relevant information to end-users. The vendor wants to advertise to existing and potential end-users in several different ways. Combined with typical known market research, the vendor can communicate in various ways, such as by direct mail, e-mails, as well as with other non-traditional marketing messages, such as short message service ("SMS") and online banner-advertisements. However, the vendor must rely on prior experiences to guide choices about where and when to place such advertisements and may feel required to enlist the help of third parties to analyze customers and make recommendations for the best strategy to reach a particular demographic. The vendor may feel inclined to cull an end-user list for example, for a direct mail or SMS campaign from various sources and hope that the end-users are still interested in the vendor's products or services. Active and constant collection and tracking of user-provided data allows for more relevant and timely messages to the end-user.
In still another prior art example, a vendor wants to target end-users for additional sales during a point of sale, as known in the art. In the prior art, the vendor strategically places a sign or employs knowledgeable and charismatic salespeople with an ability to promote the vendor's campaign. This option is, typically, not available to most vendors. Occasionally a venue, such as a large stadium, however may provide a similar option, such as to promote some campaign, such as a "lucky seat" that entitles one or more customers to win something.
Another prior art example regards end-user communication, in which end-users desire to communicate with each other. In the prior art, the end-user can use a telephone, which may be impractical for contacting many people. Another option for the user is to read blogs or visit web sites to check whether plans or events are posted. Yet another option is for the end-user physically to visit places where friends might be present.
In yet another prior art example, an end-user desires to locate people having similar interests. Known choices that are available to the end-user include reading people's profiles on a social network, but the information posted thereon may be obsolete or wrong. Moreover, information may be poorly organized or otherwise difficult to locate. Another alternative includes physically meeting people in real-world places, or the user can join a club in the real-world or virtual group of other end-users and hope to find people having similar interests.
In yet another prior art example, an end-user wants to publish to his friends that he just attended an event, such as an exclusive concert or play. In the prior art, the end-user can call, write, or post about the shown on the internet to share the experience with friends and family. Unfortunately, the story of the end-user's experience must be taken at face value, though the end-user can back up claims with pictures or verification from other people who can confirm the user was present.
Thus and as described above, although mechanisms and devices are available for communication in the prior art, problems and shortcomings still persist that impede people from communicating with each other.

System and method for tracking individuals via remote transmitters attached to personal items


A device for the sterilization and encapsulation of bio-hazardous materials, especially including needles and syringes, which provides a sealable container to receive the materials and a rotating carousel to successively position the container for processing, a heat device to raise the temperature within the container to sterilize the contents and melt any plastic material, a compactor to crush the container into a smaller volume, and an ejector to remove the compacted container from the carousel.

The invention relates generally to the field of devices which are used to safely destroy or encapsulate used syringes, needles or similar objects which may expose handlers to infectious diseases or similar biological hazards from accidental contact, sticks or punctures. In particular, the invention relates to such devices which sterilize the objects and melt any plastic present by exposing the objects to sufficiently high temperatures, which crush or compress the objects to present a compact waste product for disposal, and which encapsulate the non-meltable and sharp components to prevent punctures during subsequent handling. Even more particularly, this invention relates to such devices which provide a non-melting, crushable container to receive the object to be destroyed, where the container can be used for safe storage prior to destruction, and where the container itself is crushed to form the compact encapsulation means.
Syringes, needles and other similar objects are well-known in medical situations for use in delivering treatment fluids into the bloodstream or for removing blood samples. Syringes and needles are also used in a criminal manner to self-administer illegal drugs. There are numerous blood borne diseases, including HIV, TB, Hepatitis B & C, etc., which can be accidentally transferred from the carrier to another person coming into contact with the disease laden blood. Unfortunately, law enforcement and medical personnel must routinely deal with potentially contaminated syringes and needles and are thereby often exposed to such diseases during the handling, storage and disposal of the used syringes and needles. Law enforcement personnel often must retain and preserve the contaminated syringes and needles for use as evidence, presenting an increased likelihood that someone will be accidentally stuck.
Since the syringes and needles are considered bio-hazardous waste, special steps must be taken to properly and safely dispose of them. It is necessary both to sterilize any biological hazards present and to encase the sharp point of the needle to prevent accidental needle punctures. Once safely sterilized and encapsulated, the waste is non-hazardous and may be routinely disposed of in a non-regulated manner.
It is an object of this invention to provide a device which provides a means to safely and easily dispose of potentially hazardous syringes, needles or other bio-hazardous material by providing a non-meltable (at sterilization temperatures), crushable, sealable container sized to receive and store the syringe or needle in a manner which precludes accidental puncture during handling, and by further providing a means to sterilize, crush and encapsulate the syringe, needle or other hazardous material while retained within the sealable container. It is a further object to provide such a device where the sealable container is placed into the destruction means and sterilization, compaction and encapsulation are performed without need for further human contact. It is a further object to provide such a device where the plastic components of a syringe are melted to provide the primary encapsulation for the sharp needle and the sealed container acts as a secondary encapsulation for both the plastic and the needle.

Device for destruction and encapsulation of syringes


An optical imaging lens set includes a first lens element to a plastic fifth lens element from an object side toward an image side along an optical axis. The second lens element has an image-side surface with a convex portion in a vicinity of its periphery. The fourth lens element has an image-side surface with a concave portion in a vicinity of the optical axis and a convex portion in a vicinity of its periphery.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an optical imaging lens set and an electronic device which includes such optical imaging lens set. Specifically speaking, the present invention is directed to an optical imaging lens set of five lens elements and an electronic device which includes such optical imaging lens set of five lens elements.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, the popularity of mobile phones and digital cameras makes the photography modules of various portable electronic products, such as optical imaging lens elements or an image sensor . . . develop quickly, and the shrinkage of mobile phones and digital cameras also makes a greater and greater demand for the miniaturization of the photography module. The current trend of research is to develop an optical imaging lens set of a shorter length with uncompromised good quality.
With the development and shrinkage of a charge coupled device (CCD) or a complementary metal oxide semiconductor element (CMOS), the optical imaging lens set installed in the photography module shrinks to meet the demands as well. However, good and necessary optical properties, such as the system aberration improvement, as well as production cost and production feasibility should be taken into consideration, too.
For example, JP 4197994, JP 2008-281760, TW M-369459, TW 200722785, US 2010-0254029 and U.S. Pat. No. 8,248,713 all disclose an optical imaging lens set made of five lens elements. However, the total length of the optical imaging lens set is longer than 9 mm so they are disadvantageous for a smaller design.
These disclosed dimensions do not show good examples of the shrinkage of portable electronic products, such as mobile phones and digital cameras. It is still a problem, on one hand, to reduce the system length efficiently and, on the other hand, to maintain a sufficient optical performance in this field.

Optical imaging lens and electronic device comprising the same

Central Taiwan Science Park, Daya District, Taichung


The buffer circuit includes a first transistor MP1 having a first end coupled to an output node N2 and a control node coupled to an input node N1; a second transistor MN2 coupled to a second end of the first transistor MP1; a third transistor MN1 coupled to the second transistor MN2 such that a current in the third transistor MN1 is mirrored to the second transistor MN2; a first sense device MP3 coupled to the output node N2; a first current source I2 coupled to the output node N2; a second current source I1 coupled to the third transistor MN1; a second sense device MP2 coupled to the third transistor MN1; and a bipolar device Q1 coupled to the output node N2 and having a base coupled to the second end of the first transistor MP1.

Many devices now require low drop out regulators (LDO's) that have stability at very low capacitive loads (1 μF typical) . This is attractive for reducing the costs of external components and board area. Also, devices require low dropout voltages and very low power consumption for battery-operated applications.
These requirements force LDO designers to use Miller compensated PMOS LDO's with quiescent current boosting techniques. This is because the output capacitor is no longer large enough to produce a large enough dominant pole and quiescent current boosting (dependent on sensed output current) is required in order to save current during light load conditions and meet transient performance requirements. Transient voltage dip requirement, resulting from sudden load current changes, are more difficult to meet as the load capacitor is reduced.

Power efficient dynamically biased buffer for low drop out regulators


A method and circuit provide a system level reset function for an electronic device. An initial reset function is provided under a low voltage condition of supply voltage, such as occur upon first energizing the electronic device. A tunable reset function is also provided, which can first be asserted at a voltage level setting less precise than that setting becomes upon tuning. Further, a boot-up reset function is provided, which provides its reset function at a voltage level setting that is set according to a calibration. Calibration can be based on data stored in a non-volatile memory, and can involve a checksum operation. The electronic device, a microcontroller for instance, is held in a reset state with any of the initial, tunable, and boot-up reset functions.

It is generally beneficial for electronic devices such as integrated circuits (IC) to function within expected operating modes, e.g., for which they were designed. For many electronic devices, it is important that they do not inadvertently enter an unexpected mode of operation. Certain voltage profiles, particularly at power-up, can cause an electronic device to enter an undesired mode of operation. In extreme cases, such operation may cause permanent damage to the device, for instance, through excessive current flow resultant from the operation at lower voltage.
Devices that contain re-programmable memory (such as Flash-based microcontrollers) and other particularly voltage sensitive components may enter an unintended mode where memory contents are altered so that proper future operation is disturbed or not possible. As it is generally desirable to provide a wide voltage range where operation is allowed, devices may require internal blocks or similar components to operate at supply voltage limits. For instance, such blocks may be needed where a voltage source provides very little margin for safe, guaranteed operation. If the device is operated outside of the specified range, erroneous operation may occur, perhaps even damage.
Exemplary voltage levels 100 relevant to this discussion are shown in FIG. 1, which reflects no particular scale. A minimum voltage V0 is required for operation of any components of a device. While the minimum voltage specified for operating a device is shown by voltage V3, a margin Mo exists below it wherein the device will continue to perform reliably. Below voltage V2 however, unreliable performance may be expected. Where the supply voltage to the device (e.g., Vcc, Vdd, etc.) is below V2 yet sufficient, e.g., above voltage V1, to perform certain minimal functions therein components of the device may function to keep the device in a reset mode.
Holding the device in a reset mode can thus deter improper operation. A reset threshold tolerance band Br thus exists between voltage levels V1 and V2. A margin Mr exists above V0 and below V1, above which the device can effectively be held in reset. In some modern microelectronic devices, for instance, microcontrollers, flash memories, and other such devices, the magnitude of the difference between such voltages, for instance even between V3 and V0, can be very small, e.g., on the order of fractions of a Volt or smaller.
One conventional approach to this issue is the use of a power-on-reset (POR) circuit to provide the reset functions. FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary POR circuit 200, typifying this conventional approach. Resistors 201 and 202 divide the supply voltage Vcc to provide a bias voltage Vg to the gate of transistor 203, e.g., effectively sensing the magnitude of Vcc. Transistor 203 operates with resistor 204 to provide an input to amplifier 205 based on the magnitude of Vcc. Amplifier 205 provides a reset signal R corresponding to this input, e.g., where Vcc is below V2 (and e.g., above V1).
POR circuits such as POR circuit 200 are common components in many modern electronic devices or systems. However, because their function entails reliable reset operation during low voltage conditions (e.g., below V2) and such precision is difficult to implement or achieve at such voltages, the reset functions they provide may lack precision, relative to other circuitry. For instance, some conventional POR circuits have tolerances that are on the order of ±20%.
Thus, where circuit 200 is implemented in an integrated circuit (IC), its trip point for generating its reset signal R may vary, e.g., from approximately 1.4 V to approximately 2.1 V over normal process and temperature (PT) variations. Such a degree of POR circuit imprecision has the undesirable consequence of restricting the voltage range in which the IC or other device is operated and various approaches have been used to attempt to remedy this.
One conventional approach to POR circuit imprecision relies on external components performing a supervisory function (e.g., supervisory components) to monitor system voltage and provide reset signaling where insufficient voltage is present, for instance when low voltage conditions occur (e.g., voltage is below V2). However, such supervisory components typically use special sensing circuits, some implemented using costly technology, to achieve precision monitoring. Further, the external supervisory circuits consume space and conductor availability on the circuit board housing them (and e.g., the IC with the POR circuit), which may be at a premium, and require electrical connections that can introduce negative heating and reliability effects.
Integrating voltage sensing precision into a device that itself may be inherently low-precision can sometimes reduce overall system costs. Thus, another conventional approach uses any of various trimming or tuning methods to achieve acceptable voltage monitoring circuit precision. However, this approach can be expensive in terms of manufacturing costs, because special circuits may be needed to implement it. The approach can also be expensive in terms of processing because, for instance in ICs, processing resources are typically demanded to provide the trimming/tuning functionality.
Moreover, the trimming or tuning may occur in some devices only once they have powered up, such as where trim and/or tune values, stored for instance in the device non-volatile memory, are used to facilitate the trimming/tuning. While such tuning may indeed bring a part's reset threshold detection to the desired precision, during the time before the precision tuning has been applied, the device remains exposed to potentially deleterious voltage. Under low voltage conditions or with an unfavorable voltage supply profile, retrieving and/or implementing the needed calibration settings may not be by entirely reliable; it may for instance be at risk of error.
Yet another conventional approach uses a relatively imprecise power-on reset circuit along with a more precise voltage monitoring reset circuit. In one such implementation, a voltage comparator with a reference voltage source is used. Using such an approach, the uncertainty in the trip threshold can be reduced as low as approximately five percent. Without special trimming methods however, it can be difficult to place the low voltage reset (e.g., trip) levels of such a device to allow both reset-free operation over an intended voltage range, and yet assert reset before faulty operation occurs, when voltage leaves the allowed voltage range. Further, conventional retrieval and implementation of reset calibration settings can be subject to error in the presence of unfavorable voltage supply profiles.

Method and circuit for providing a system level reset function for an electronic device


A method has been designed for storing drilling knowledge and experience in a highly structured fashion that permits the user to identify drilling cases that meet user-specified criteria and to retrieve the knowledge and experience relating to those cases. In this way the user is able to retrieve the knowledge and experience learned in cases that are analogous to one or more current cases they are studying.

A method has been designed for storing drilling knowledge and experience in a highly structured fashion that permits the user to identify drilling cases that meet user-specified criteria and to retrieve the knowledge and experience relating to those cases. In this way the user is able to retrieve the knowledge and experience learned in cases that are analogous to one or more current cases they are studying.

Case-based drilling knowledge management system


A non-contact type tonometer includes a fluid blowing device which blows fluid against a cornea of an eye of an examinee; an intraocular pressure measurement part which detects a deformed state of the cornea caused by the blown fluid and determines intraocular pressure of the examinee's eye based on a result of detection of the deformed state; a pulsation detection part which detects pulsation of the examinee; a measurement timing determination part which can determine a measurement timing based on the detected pulsation to obtain a predetermined number of results of measurement on the intraocular pressure in synchronization with different phase points in the pulsation; a command signal input part which inputs a command signal for execution of the measurement; and a control part which outputs a control signal for controlling driving of the fluid blowing device based on the determined measurement timing and the input command signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a non-contact type tonometer for measuring intraocular pressure of an examinee's eye by blowing compressed air (fluid) to deform a cornea of the eye and detecting a deformed state thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Intraocular pressure changes with time in synchronization with pulsation (pulse wave) of blood. When the intraocular pressure is measured at random in time by a non-contact type tonometer, it is uncertain which point in variations in intraocular pressure is being measured. For example, if the number of times that measurement is executed is small, the lowest value in the variations in intraocular pressure may be measured even though the actual intraocular pressure is high. In the case of screening such as a mass examination, intraocular hypertension may be overlooked. For this reason, there has been proposed a non-contact type tonometer which measures intraocular pressure in the timing synchronized with a predetermined phase point (position) in pulsation while detecting the pulsation.
As to which value in the variations in intraocular pressure is measured, in general, it depends on purposes of diagnosis, etc. When a contact-applanation-type tonometer is used for making evaluations of measurement results, it requires an average value of measurement results obtained at plural different points in the pulsation phase in addition to a measurement result at an arbitrary point in the pulsation phase. The conventional non-contact type tonometer, however, could provide only the measurement result corresponding to the arbitrary point in the pulsation phase.
It is said that such detection of the pulsation is preferably executed with respect to the forehead of an examinee because the pulsation in the forehead has the periods close to the periods of the intraocular pressure variations. When the pulsation is detected in the forehead, however, there may occur changes due to blinking or otter reasons and reflective movements of the examinee's body by air blow. This results in difficulty in accurately detecting the pulsations Moreover, there are some examinees whose pulse rate and blood pressure change as the measurement is started. This makes it more difficult to perform measurement of accurate intraocular pressure.


A method for operating a vehicle system of a motor vehicle is disclosed. The method is designed to determine a trajectory to be followed and/or to perform driving interventions, wherein a communication device on the vehicle system side receives, from a computation device external to the motor vehicle, a lane map describing travel lanes that are determined by the computation device from actual driving courses of other vehicles in the past and that relate to a region surrounding the motor vehicle, and a control device on the vehicle system side determines a trajectory to be followed by the motor vehicle and/or performs a transverse guiding intervention depending on the lane map.

In conventional motor vehicles, vehicle systems designed to determine a trajectory to be followed and/or to perform driving interventions realize driver assistance functions, such as a lane departure warning system, or, in motor vehicles designed for completely autonomous operation, assume all required interventions in transverse and longitudinal guidance. In doing so, the trajectory and/or the driving intervention to be performed are typically calculated based on sensor data of a sensor device of the motor vehicle. For instance, with the aforesaid lane departure warning system, it is known to determine, based on lane markings detected by means of a camera, a trajectory that guides the vehicle within a roadway segment delimited by the lane markings, and/or to undertake a driving intervention in the form of a steering intervention if undesired departure from such a roadway segment is imminent.
However, conventional vehicle systems suffer from the drawback that their availability and thus their assisting function is dropped if the sensor device cannot detect lane markings with adequate certainty.
Likewise, in many cases a trajectory determined by a vehicle system and/or a steeling intervention performed by the vehicle system is not the equivalent of the driving behavior that a practiced human driver would demonstrate. The steering movement resulting from control by the vehicle system is therefore perceived by occupants of the motor vehicle as unnatural and less comfortable.
The underlying technical problem is therefore to provide an option for more user-friendly operation, in particular with respect to availability and driving comfort, of a vehicle system designed to determine a trajectory to be followed and/or to perform vehicle interventions.

Method for operating a vehicle system designed to determine a trajectory to be followed and/or to perform driving interventions, method for operating a control system, and motor vehicle


This invention concerns a two-stroke cycle engine, more specially it concerns a two-stroke cycle engine using a preceding air-layer for scavenging. It has a scavenger passage connected to a branching scavenger passage opened to said scavenging port. The engine has a connecting passage to link the air passage and the fuel passages so that negative pressure in the air passage forces the fuel-air mixture in the fuel passage into said air passage. Further, the engine according to this invention has a removable guide with a surface forming a curved smooth channel which is attachable to the scavenger passage in the crankcase from the mounting surface, and forms a portion of said scavenger passage with the curved channel. The blow-up angle of the scavenger passage varies along the circumferential direction of the cylinder. The crankcase is configured in such a way that the front and rear portions, which are separated by a block, and a scavenger passage is provided inside both said front and rear portions of said crankcase, and the cylinder. The air cleaner has two air passages running from it in parallel, the first one is connected to said air passage, and the second one is connected to the air inlet of the carburetor to provide air for the fuel passage, and a choke valve on the air cleaner is provided to open and close both of the first and second air passages.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention concerns a two-stroke cycle engine which uses a layer of scavenging air pressurizing the crankcase. More specifically, it concerns a small two-stroke cycle engine using a preceding air-layer for scavenging, which drives a layer of scavenging air in advance of the fuel-air mixture.
2. Description of the Related Art
Two-stroke cycle engines belonging to the prior art take advantage of the fact that a negative pressure is created in the crankcase when the piston reaches the top of its stroke. This negative pressure causes the fuel-air mixture to be sucked into the crankcase. When the piston reaches the bottom of its stroke, the pressurized fuel-air mixture in the crankcase reaches the scavenging port and is conducted from the crankcase into the combustion chamber. The fuel-air mixture fills the combustion chamber, pushing the exhaust gases ahead of it. In this scavenging process, the opening duration of the scavenging port and the exhaust port experiences significant overlap, with the result that approximately 30% of the fuel-air mixture is sucked out with the exhaust gases. This is the primary cause of the large component of THC (total hydrocarbons) in the exhaust, and it results in the wastage of fuel.
To reduce the quantity of fuel-air mixture which is pushed out of the combustion chamber, scavenging air designs which drive a layer of air ahead of the fuel-air mixture have been proposed. In engines which use scavenging air, the fuel-air mixture goes into the crankcase as the piston travels upward in the intake process. At the same time, air is sucked into the crankcase through a scavenger passage connected to the scavenging port so that the passage is filled with air. In the combustion and exhaust processes which occur when the piston drops and the scavenging port is open, the air in the scavenger passage is forced into the combustion chamber ahead of the fuel-air mixture to scavenge the exhaust gases from the combustion. Immediately after the scavenging air, the fuel-air mixture is admitted into the combustion chamber. This scavenging-air method reduces the quantity of fuel-air mixture which is pushed out of the combustion chamber to one third that which occurred with prior art engines.
A design for a scavenging-air two-stroke cycle engine which forces a layer of air ahead of the fuel-air mixture, in which the fuel and air valves on the carburetor are realized as a single valve, is disclosed in the Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) 10-252565.
In the prior art scavenging-air engine which drives a layer of air ahead of the fuel-air mixture, the preceding layer of air admitted to the cylinder and crankcase through the air control valve was routed through the same number of passages (either two or three) as there were scavenging ports downstream from the air control valve. These were connected to the passages for the scavenging ports of the cylinders by rubber tubes. The air was fed through lead valves on the scavenger passages to passages on the cylinder and crankcase.
The air introduced via the air control valve was sucked into the crankcase temporarily when the cylinder of the piston was pressurized. When the piston dropped and scavenging occurred, the scavenging air was led into the combustion chamber from the scavenging port.
In another prior art design proposed in the Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) 7-139358, an air passage was provided which fed into the scavenger passage at a location adjacent to the scavenging port. A non-return valve was provided on the air passage, as was a control valve. The control valve was interlinked with the operation of the engine throttle. In this engine, the crankcase experienced negative pressure when the piston was up. At the same time that the fuel-air mixture was sucked into the crankcase through its supply port, the non-return valve was opened and the air was sucked in through the air passage. This air would completely or partially fill the scavenger passage. When the piston fell during the ignition and exhaust processes and the scavenging port was opened, first the air would rush into the combustion chamber and then the fuel-air mixture would be supplied.
With this prior art technique, a means was devised which would supply the air from the scavenging port to scavenge the combustion chamber quickly at the start of the scavenging process so as to minimize the quantity of fuel-air mixture lost through the exhaust port. This device admitted the fuel-air mixture from the crankcase into the combustion chamber via the scavenging port with a slight delay after the scavenging air was admitted.
This sort of two-stroke cycle engine which admitted a layer of air in front of the fuel-air mixture reduced the quantity of mixture exhausted with the combustion gases, prevented an excessive quantity of THC (total hydrocarbons) from being exhausted, and minimized the quantity of fuel wasted.
In the preceding air-layer type two-stroke cycle engine proposed in the Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) 10-252565, the preceding air was brought in through a number of rubber tubes with lead valves which was equal to the number of scavenging ports. The design thus required a large number of parts and assembly processes, both of which drove the cost up. Furthermore, the supply passages for the air were provided on the outside of the cylinder, so the dimensions of the engine in its axial direction were increased.
In a two-stroke cycle engine, combustion must be kept stable by supplying a rich mixture with little air when the engine is operating under a light load, including when it is idling, and a comparatively thin mixture when it is operating under a heavy load. This will reduce fuel consumption and decrease the harmful component of the exhaust gas. However, in the prior art design proposed in the Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) 7-139358, the airflow supplied via the supply passages during scavenging is not controlled to conform to the operating state of the engine.
Under light load conditions, then, such as when the engine is idling, too much air is supplied; and it would be difficult to stabilize combustion by limiting the quantity of air admitted to produce a rich mixture. Similarly, it would be difficult to maintain a thin mixture under heavy load conditions in order to reduce the pollutants in the exhaust gas and lower the fuel consumption.
In the invention disclosed in the Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) 9-125966, a mixture control valve is provided to open and close the mixture passage which connects the carburetor to the crankcase, and an air control valve is provided to open and close the air passage which connects the air cleaner. The mixture control valve and air control valve are linked so that it is possible to control the flow rate of the fuel-air mixture and that of the air in such a way that their ratio remains constant.
In this type of preceding air-layer type two-stroke cycle engine, when the engine is idling the negative pressure in the air passage increases until it is higher than that in the fuel mixture passage. This causes the throttle to open more, suddenly increasing the speed of the engine. The delay in the fuel supply allows the excessively rich fuel mixture to be thinned out by radically increasing the quantity of preceding air. The extra air reduces the concentration of the fuel mixture.
But when the engine is operating at high speed, an increase in the quantity of air will not be followed by an increased quantity of fuel. The concentration of the fuel will decrease and proper combustion will no longer be possible. Problems with acceleration or engine cut-off may result.
However, in the inventions disclosed in the Japanese Patent Publications 7-139358, 10-252565 and 9-125966, no means are provided to control the ratio of air flow to air-fuel mixture flow during normal operation so as to prevent an excessive quantity of air from being supplied when the engine suddenly accelerates as was described above.
Furthermore, when this sort of two-stroke cycle engine is used in a lawnmower, in many cases it must operate while mounted obliquely. When an obliquely mounted engine operates, fuel collects in the portion below the passage for the fuel-air mixture. When the position of the engine changes, this fuel is sucked in suddenly, resulting in combustion problems due to excess fuel in the engine.
However, the prior art techniques did not offer any method to counteract problems arising from the engine being operated while mounted obliquely.
Generally in two-stroke cycle engines, the passage for the scavenging air which leads into the chamber inside the crankcase follows a smooth curve inside the crankcase, goes through the surface where the crankcase is attached to the cylinder, and is connected to the scavenging port in the cylinder.
FIG. 39 shows an example of a scavenger passage in a two-stroke cycle engine belonging to the prior art. In this drawing, 1 is the engine, which is configured as follows.
2 is the cylinder; 5 is the crankcase. The cylinder 2 and crankcase 5 are fixed to each other with gasket 3 between them by bolts 110 at surfaces 04 and 05. 6 is the crankshaft, 7 is the cylinder head, 10 is the air passage and 60 is the center of the crankshaft.
9 is the scavenging port, which opens into the side of the cylinder 2. 109a is the scavenger passage formed in the cylinder 2, which connects to the scavenging port 9. 109c is the inlet for the scavenger passage formed in the crankcase 5, which opens into the crank chamber. 109b is the scavenger passage in the crankcase 5. It follows a smooth curve inside the crankcase 5 and connects scavenger passage 109a in the cylinder 2 with scavenging inlet 109c.
In this two-stroke cycle engine, the scavenger passage comprises passage 109b in crankcase 5 and 109a in cylinder 2, which meet at the surfaces 04 and 05. Because scavenger passage 109b in crankcase 5 is curved, it has a portion 16 which protrudes between the upper wall of the passage 109b and surface 04.
In the Japanese Patent Publications 58-5423 and 58-5424, scavenger passages are disclosed such that a curved scavenger passage in the crankcase and a scavenger passage in the cylinder come together at the surface where the crankcase and the cylinder are fixed to each other.
However, in the configuration of the scavenger passage in the two-stroke cycle engine shown in FIG. 39, scavenger passage 109b in crankcase 5 is a curved passage with a portion 16 which protrudes between the upper wall of the passage 109b and surface 04. When the crankcase is cast, the die to form scavenger passage 109b in crankcase 5 cannot be removed as a single die in the direction of axis 61 of the cylinder.
With the prior art design shown in FIG. 39, then, to enable the die for scavenger passage 109b to be removed, several different dies were combined to cast the scavenger passage. This complicated the casting work and increased the number of casting processes. Also, because it required combining a number of dies, the probability of a defective cast due to slippage of a die increased.
In the Japanese Patent Publications (Kokai) 58-5423 and 58-5424, too, a protruding portion is formed between the upper wall of the scavenger passage and the surface where the cylinder is fixed to the crankcase. These designs, then, suffer from the same problems as were just described.
Further, with the prior art design shown in FIG. 39, the curved scavenger passage in the crankcase and the scavenger passage in the cylinder meet to form a scavenger passage which goes through the surface where the crankcase and the cylinder are fixed to each other. The fuel in the fuel-air mixture which flows through the scavenger passage will thus seep into the microscopic gap between surfaces 04 and 05 where gasket 3 is inserted. When the engine is operated in an oblique position, this fuel will return to the scavenger passage and result in defective combustion.
In the Japanese Patent Publications (Kokai) 58-5423 and 58-5424, too, a scavenger passage in the crankcase and a scavenger passage in the cylinder meet to form a common passage which goes through the surface where the crankcase and the cylinder are fixed together. These designs thus suffer from the same problem which is described above.
In a two-stroke cycle engine with a pressurized crankcase, the design takes advantage of the fact that a negative pressure is created in the crankcase when the piston reaches the top of its stroke. The fuel-air mixture is sucked into the crankcase through the air inlet. When the piston reaches the bottom of its stroke, the scavenging port opens and the pressurized fuel-air mixture in the crankcase is conducted from the crankcase into the combustion chamber via the scavenger passage and the scavenging port. The fuel-air mixture fills the combustion chamber, pushing the exhaust gases ahead of it.
In the scavenging process in a two-stroke cycle engine, the opening duration of the scavenging port and the exhaust port experiences significant overlap. To address this problem, a number of devices have been proposed to prevent the fuel-air mixture from being sucked out with the combustion gases and to insure that the mixture fills the combustion chamber uniformly.
One such device is proposed in the Japanese Utility Model Publication (Kokai) 1-44740. In this proposal, a two-stroke cycle engine has two scavenger passages, one on the right and one on the left, which lead up from the crankcase. Their upper ends curve toward the axial direction of the cylinder, and they lead into the cylinder. The angles at which the surfaces of the upper walls of the curving scavenger passages meet the cylinder vary continuously from one side to the other.
In this sort of scavenging two-stroke cycle engine with a pressurized crankcase, it is necessary to reduce the quantity of fuel-air mixture which escapes with the exhaust gases, eliminate the exhaust of a large quantity of THC (total hydrocarbons) and minimize the wastage of fuel.
In the scavenging two-stroke cycle engine with a pressurized crankcase proposed in the Japanese Utility Model Publication (Kokai) 1-44740, the angles at which the surfaces of the upper walls of the tops of the scavenger passages meet the cylinder, that is, the angles at which the air is blown into the cylinder, do vary continuously from one side of the scavenging port to the other. However, as can be seen in FIG. 3 of the same publication, the angles θ of the airflow differ from each other. The portion (θa) nearer the exhaust port, which is shown in FIG. 3(a) is larger than the portion (θc) nearer the intake port, which is shown in FIG. 3(c).
Thus in the prior art design proposed in the Japanese Utility Model Publication (Kokai) 1-44740, the angle θ of the airflow in the location closer to the exhaust port is made larger. As a result, after the fuel-air mixture forced into the combustion chamber from the portion of the scavenger passage closer to the exhaust port reaches the top of the combustion chamber, it is liable to be caught in the flow of combustion gases travelling toward the exhaust port. The fuel-air mixture supplied from the location closer to the exhaust port, then, is likely to escape out the exhaust port with the combustion gases which comprise the exhaust gas. This will increase the quantity of the THC (total hydrocarbons) which are exhausted and the quantity of fuel which is wasted. The scavenging efficiency will decrease, the density of the fuel-air mixture filling the combustion chamber will be lower, and the engine output will go down.
In a two-stroke cycle engine which is used in a lawnmower, the long scavenger passage which connects the scavenging port to the crankcase and supplies the air-fuel mixture from the crankcase to the combustion chamber must be formed in both the crankcase and the cylinder. The crankcase and cylinder, which are generally made of cast aluminum, must assume a complicated shape, so that their casting requires many processes.
Two-stroke cycle engines for universal applications have been proposed in the Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) 58-5424 and the Japanese Utility Model Publication (Kokai) 4-26657, among others.
In the Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) 58-5424, the crankcase has both a primary and an auxiliary scavenging port. The two scavenger passages which lead into the interior of the crankcase, i.e., into the crank chamber, go from the interior of the crankcase through the surface where the crankcase and the cylind r are fixed together. In the cylinder, these two scavenger passages connect to the primary and auxiliary scavenging ports.
In the Japanese Utility Model Publication (Kokai) 4-26657, two pairs of curved scavenger passages go from the interior of the crankcase through the surface where the crankcase and the cylinder are fixed together and then through the interior of the cylinder.
As has been discussed, this is an air-layer type scavenging two-stroke cycle engine. In it, a long scavenger passage which connects the scavenging port and the crankcase is formed in the interior portions of the crankcase and the cylinder. In addition, an air passage is formed in the cylinder to transport the preceding air to the scavenging port. This air passage connects to some intermediate location on the scavenger passage. The crankcase and cylinder, which are generally made of cast aluminum, must be shaped in such a way that the scavenger passage forms a smooth channel in order to minimize the resistance experienced by the fuel-air mixture and the airflow. The shapes of the dies for the casting must be simple, the number of dies must be small, and the engine must be able to be produced in a small number of production processes.
In the design in the Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) 58-5424, however, the inventors limited their improvement to giving the two long primary and auxiliary scavenger passages in the crankcase and cylinder a smooth contour and so reducing the resistance of the two channels. They did not devote any attention to improving the shape or number of dies used when the crankcase and cylinder were cast or to improving the casting work by reducing the number of casting processes required.
In the design proposed in the Japanese Utility Model Publication (Kokai) 4-26657, the inventors limited their improvement to providing a shape for a curved scavenger passage running from the interior of the crankcase through the interior of the cylinder and preventing the fuel-air mixture from escaping toward the exhaust side. In this prior art design, then, just as with that discussed above, no consideration was given to the casting of the crankcase and cylinder.
In a two-stroke cycle scavenging engine using a layer of air, there is a scavenger passage which connects the scavenging port on the side of the cylinder and the crankcase; an air passage which connects to the scavenger passage at a point midway along its length and supplies scavenging air from the air cleaner to the scavenger passage; and a passage which supplies the fuel-air mixture produced in the carburetor to the crankcase. Before the fuel-air mixture is supplied from the scavenging port to the combustion chamber, a mass of preceding air filtered by the air cleaner is conducted into the combustion chamber by way of the air passage, scavenger passage and scavenging port. This air scavenges the chamber, enhancing both the scavenging and the combustion efficiency.
Two inventions which have proposed such two-stroke cycle scavenging engines which use a layer of air are those disclosed in the Japanese Patent Publications (Kokai) 9-125966 and 10-252565.
In the invention disclosed in the Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) 9-125966, there are two air cleaners. The outlet of one of the air cleaners connects via the carburetor to the supply passage for the fuel-air mixture. The outlet of th other air cleaner connects through a control valve to the passage which supplies the preceding air to the scavenger passage.
In the invention disclosed in the Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) 10-252565, the passage which supplies the fuel-air mixture from the carburetor to the crankcase is parallel to the passage which supplies the preceding air to the scavenger passage. The air inlet of the carburetor and the inlet of the air supply passage are connected directly to the outlet of the air cleaner.
When this air layer-type scavenging two-stroke cycle engine is started up, the quantity of air which is to go through the air supply passage must be controlled and a negative pressure must be obtained. The quantity of fuel-air mixture supplied to the combustion chamber from the air mixture supply passage by way of the crankcase and scavenger passage must be increased to produce a rich mixture and so improve the starting characteristics of the engine.
In the invention proposed in the Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) 9-125966, the air control valve is shut during start-up, so the air supply passage is closed. The air passage on the carburetor is open, and the fuel-air mixture supplied from the carburetor to the air mixture supply passage is increased to produce a rich mixture. However, this design requires two air cleaners, so the configuration is complicated and large, which drives up the equipment cost.
In the invention proposed in the Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) 10-252565, the air inlet of the carburetor and the inlet of the air supply passage are connected directly to the outlet of the air cleaner. For this reason it would be extremely difficult to completely shut off the preceding air, that is, the air which flows into the air supply passage, at the outlet stage of the air cleaner during start-up.
It is thus impossible, in this invention, to supply a rich mixture to the combustion chamber. And since it is difficult to achieve a high negative pressure as well, the start-up characteristics are unavoidably poor.
Furthermore, in the two prior art designs discussed above, the choke valve which closes off the air passage when the engine is started up is generally a rocking choke valve which rotates about its valve shaft. When the engine is connected to a lawnmower or other working machine and is to be operated, the operating lever of the choke valve gets in the way when the engine is started with the recoil starter. Also, the rocking diameter of the operating lever is considerable, which makes it difficult to operate and so affects the ease of operation.


A method and apparatus for reducing color error bands occurring due to the abrupt difference in brightness between sub-pixels. In the method of displaying an image signal of an apparatus for displaying the image signal, the apparatus includes a plurality of pixels each having at least two sub-pixels, and the method includes detecting pixels that belong to an edge of an input image, changing pixel values of the sub-pixels constituting the pixels belonging to the edge, and driving a display in accordance with the new pixel value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for displaying an image signal, and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for reducing color error bands occurring due to the abrupt difference in brightness between sub-pixels in an apparatus for displaying an image signal, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), a plasma display panel (PDP), a light-emitting diode (LED), or an organic light emitting diode (OLED).
2. Description of the Related Art
A color space is a model for representing color numerically in terms of three or more coordinates. Different image processing systems employ different color spaces for different reasons. At present, most apparatuses for displaying an image signal, such as a color CRT monitor, LCD monitor, or a PDP monitor, use the RGB color space.
The RGB color space uses the three primary colors red (R), green (G), and blue (B), which can be added to form other colors. Spectral components of these colors are added to one another to make other colors.
An RGB model includes a three-dimensional cube whose corners are red, green and blue, its origin is black, and the opposite end of the three-dimensional cube is white. For example, in a 24-bit color system having 8 bits per color, red is denoted by (255,0,0).
The RGB model makes design of a computer graphic system simple, but it is not ideal for every application. This is because of relations among R, G and B color components. Various image processing techniques such as histogram equalization depend on the brightness of an image. Accordingly, RGB images need to be frequently converted into brightness images. In order to convert images from RGB colors into a brightness level, Equation (1) is used (National Television Systems Committee (NTSC) standard).Y=0.288R+0.587G+0.114B  (1)
Among R, G and B components, since the G component acts as a significant component in a brightness level, only the brightness corresponding to green is used as data for the brightness level. Consequently, the G component is generally positioned in the center of a pixel in a display of a sub-pixel structure; sub-pixels are arranged in the order of R, G and B, or B, G and R.
The image display technique based on the aforementioned RGB sub-pixels may be divided into a technical field for enhancing resolution and a technical field for correcting a pixel error. Examples of enhancing resolution include a technique for generating image data using a controller in pixel and sub-pixel driving modes as discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,823,088 and a technique based in a re-sampling filter as discussed in U.S. Patent Application No. 2004/0080479.
Examples of correcting a pixel error include a technique for sub-sampling an image after magnifying the image three times in a state where a database for font is maintained as discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,992, and a technique for removing jagging of text as discussed in U.S. Patent Application No. 2003/0214513.
The present invention belongs to the aforementioned technical field of correcting the pixel error but has aspects and solutions different from those of the aforementioned technical fields.
FIG. 1 illustrates a character "A" displayed by an RGB sub-pixel type display. As shown in FIG. 1, one pixel has a structure in which a plurality of RGB sub-pixels 11 is alternately arranged in a space. If each of the RGB sub-pixels 11 has a pixel value of a certain size, all the colors can be displayed by combination of the pixel values of the sub-pixels. A black pixel 12 constituting a character row can be displayed as RGB sub-pixels having values of 0, 0 and 0. However, since the RGB sub-pixels respectively occupy different spaces, a problem occurs in that exact sub-pixel blending may not be provided. Particularly, this problem is most noticeable in the case of a large-sized pixel or at the boundary between pixels. For example, blue may be displayed at the left side of a character row by a blue sub-pixel positioned at a left boundary of the black pixel 12.
FIG. 2 illustrates color error bands. As shown in FIG. 2, color error bands 21 and 22 may occur where a brightness value is abruptly varied by perceptive characteristics, such as a boundary between objects. A distorted result different from the strength of an actual image signal is caused by the color error bands 21 and 22. These color error bands are most noticeable when the pixel is large.

Method and apparatus for displaying image signal


The invention includes a technique for efficient multi-slice image acquisition with black blood contrast in cardiac imaging such that MR data is acquired in each R-R interval of a cardiac cycle. The technique includes applying a non-selective inversion pulse, followed by a re-inversion pulse that is slice-selective over a region encompassing a plurality of slice selections. The inversion and re-inversion pulses are applied in each R-R interval. Execution of a series of RF excitation pulses in each R-R interval is timed such that signal from blood is near a null point before data acquisition.

The present invention relates generally to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and more particularly to, a pulse sequence, method, and apparatus for multi-slice acquisition imaging to acquire black blood contrast images during successive R-R intervals of a cardiac cycle.
MRI uses radio frequency pulses and magnetic field gradients applied to a subject in a strong homogenous magnetic field to produce viewable images. When a substance such as human tissue is subjected to a uniform magnetic field (polarizing field B0), the individual magnetic moments of the spins in the tissue attempt to align with this polarizing field, but precess about it in random order at their characteristic Larmor frequency. If the substance, or tissue, is subjected to a magnetic field (excitation field B1) which is in the x-y plane and which is near the Larmor frequency, the net aligned moment, or "longitudinal magnetization", MZ, may be rotated, or "tipped", into the x-y plane to produce a net transverse magnetic moment Mt. A signal is emitted by the excited spins after the excitation signal B1 is terminated and this signal may be received and processed to form an image.
When utilizing these signals to produce images, magnetic field gradients (GxGy and Gz) are employed. Typically, the region to be imaged is scanned by a sequence of measurement cycles in which these gradients vary according to the particular localization method being used. The resulting set of received NMR signals are digitized and processed to reconstruct the image using one of many well known reconstruction techniques.
Current techniques for the acquisition of Fast Spin Echo (FSE) images with enhanced black blood contrast are limited to acquiring data in every other heartbeat. Acquiring data in this manner allows the magnetization to relax between successive inversions. For a typical cardiac examination having 256 readout points, 192 phase encodes, a three-quarter phase FOV, and an echo train length (ETL) of between 12 to 16 echoes, the scan time is typically 18 to 24 heartbeats or R-R intervals. In order to minimize respiratory artifacts, the images are acquired during an end-expiratory breath-hold. In order to achieve sufficient coverage, typically, 8 to 12 contiguous slices are acquired in successive breath-holds, which may be exhausting for the patient undergoing the MR study. Additionally, since data is acquired in alternating heartbeats, the data acquisition process is extended which negatively affects patient throughput.
It would therefore be desirable to have a technique to acquire black blood contrast images with improved acquisition for efficient imaging that is capable of imaging in successive heartbeats or R-R intervals. It would also be desirable to acquire multiple slices of MR data in each heartbeat so as to shorten data acquisition time and increase patient throughput.

Multi-slice MR data acquisition in successive heartbeats with black blood contrast


Hash function constructions from expander graphs are described. In one aspect, an expander graph is walked to compute a hash function. The expander graph is walked using respective subsets of an input message. A label of a last vertex walked is an output of the hash function.

Hash functions constructions are used in many algorithms and cryptographic protocols. They are functions ƒ: U→S with |U|≧|S| that distribute their image "uniformly". In other words for most
                                          x            ∈            U                    ,                                          {                                            y              ∈              U                        ❘                          f                                            (                x                )                                              =          y                }                              is              close              to                                        U                                    S                      .
Hash functions that minimize the number of colliding pairs i.e., pairs (x, y) such that ƒ(x)=ƒ(y) are very useful. For cryptographic applications of hash functions, it is typically desired for the problem of engineering collisions to be hard. This means the task of finding distinct elements x and y such that ƒ(x)=ƒ(y) is computationally hard. Often, there is interest in the following weaker property: Given x finding another y such that ƒ(x)=ƒ(y) is hard.


Trenches are formed in a base layer and extend parallel to each other. A gate insulating film is formed on the inner wall of each of multiple trenches. A gate electrode GE is buried in each of the trenches. The source layer is formed in the base layer to a depth less than the base layer. The source layer is disposed between each of the trenches. A second conduction type high concentration layer is formed between the source layer and the trench in a plan view. The trench, the source layer, and the second conduction type high concentration are arranged in this order repetitively in a plan view. One lateral side of the trench faces the source layer and the other lateral side of the trench faces the second conduction type high concentration layer.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and, in particular, to a semiconductor device having a vertical transistor.
Some semiconductor devices have vertical transistors. The vertical transistor is used, for example, in a device for controlling a high current. Some vertical transistors have a trench gate structure. The transistor having the trench gate structure has a structure in which a p-layer as a channel layer is formed over an n-layer as a drain and, further, an n-layer as a source is formed to the surface layer of the p-layer as shown, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-353805 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (Translation of PCT Application) No. 2004-513518. The gate electrode of the trench structure extends from the p-layer to the n-layer. The lower end of the gate electrode enters in the n-layer.
Further, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-353805 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (Translation of PCT Application) No. 2004-513518, the n-layer as the source is disposed only on one lateral side of the trench gate. The p− region is formed to a depth more than the p well on the other lateral side of the trench gate. The p− region is disposed so as to lower the resistance of the drain region and ensure the withstand voltage of the transistor.

Semiconductor device with gate electrodes buried in trenches


An object of the present invention is to retrieve and process a piece of content to be processed by a simple method at the time of storing content recorded in a CD into an HDD or the like, reading desired content out of the content stored in the HDD from the HDD, and performing a process such as reproduction on the read content.

In recent years, an information recording/reproducing apparatus capable of performing so-called CD ripping, that records content such as music data recorded in a CD into an HDD is known. By such an apparatus, the user can record, for example, music data recorded in a number of CDs purchased by himself/herself to an HDD.
When the user reproduces the music data of a certain CD from the music data of CDs recorded in the HDD, in some cases, the number or title of the CD is selected by a controller provided for the apparatus or the like. A technique is disclosed in non-patent document 1 in which an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag is attached to a CD, and an apparatus reads the RFID tag attached to the CD and retrieves the corresponding CD.
Non-patent document 1: Koji Tsukada and Toshiyuki Masui, "MouseField: Augmentation of Daily Commodities using the "Put and Move" Idiom", Interaction 2004 Papers, pp. 45-46 (2004), http://mobiguitous.com/activity.html

Abstract: A processor of the invention includes: a storage 1 for storing at least one piece of information so as to be associated with jacket image information of an image related to the content; means for obtaining target medium image data by capturing an image of a jacket of a CD related to the content to be reproduced; means for collating the target medium image data with jacket image information stored in the storage 1 and obtaining the content corresponding to the target medium image data from the storage 1; and means for reproducing the obtained content.


A computer-implemented method for providing targeted data loss prevention on unmanaged computing devices may include (1) identifying a data loss prevention policy that defines permissible data handling within set bounds to prevent unauthorized data exfiltration from the set bounds, (2) identifying an application to install on at least one unmanaged endpoint device, where (i) the unmanaged endpoint device lacks a data loss prevention agent configured to apply the data loss prevention policy to the entire unmanaged endpoint device and (ii) the application is to be provided to the unmanaged endpoint device to operate on sensitive data from within the set bounds, and (3) wrapping the application in an application wrapper that intercepts system calls from the application and applies the data loss prevention policy to sensitive data implicated in the system calls. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

In the digital age, individuals and organizations may quickly and easily share, access, and disseminate large volumes of digital information. For many individuals and organizations, the ease with which information may be electronically disseminated is empowering. However, the ease of disseminating digital information may pose unique challenges for organizations concerned with preventing the exposure of sensitive data. Organizations are therefore increasingly looking to data loss prevention (DLP) solutions to protect their sensitive data.
Traditional DLP systems may monitor activity and intercept data at a variety of points in a network and/or computing system in efforts to detect and regulate the flow and access of sensitive data. However, these traditional DLP systems may assume a high level of organizational control over all devices with authorized access to sensitive data—a level of control that may no longer exist for many organizations. For example, many organizations currently allow (or may wish to allow) employees to use personal devices to access, manipulate, and even store the organizations' sensitive data. However, these employees may not wish to subject their personal devices to invasive DLP systems that may scan personal data and even issue reports to the organizations' administrators.
Accordingly, the instant disclosure identifies and addresses a need for additional and improved systems and methods for providing targeted data loss prevention on unmanaged computing devices.

Systems and methods for providing targeted data loss prevention on unmanaged computing devices


The present invention provides a contact charging device, in which a contact member for charging is in contact with a charge receiving member for charging the same while suppressing charging irregularity. The contact member has a surface to be in contact with the charge receiving member. This surface has a volume resistivity in a range from 1.times.10.sup.4 .OMEGA..multidot.cm to 1.times.10.sup.10 .OMEGA..multidot.cm, and has a surface resistivity in a range from 1.times.10.sup.5 .OMEGA./.quadrature. to 1.times.10.sup.10 .OMEGA./.quadrature... Alternatively, the contact member has a surface to be in contact with the charge receiving member. This surface of the contact member has a surface hardness which provides a scratch width of 1 .mu.m or less under scratch hardness test.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a charging method and a charging device for charging a charge receiving member. In particular, the invention relates to a charging method and a charging device for charging a charge receiving member through a portion in contact with the charge receiving member. More specifically, the invention relates to a charging method and a charging device having a member to be in contact with an electrostatic latent image carrier such as a photosensitive member in an image forming apparatus for charging the electrostatic latent image carrier to a predetermined potential.
2. Description of the Related Art
In electrophotographic image forming apparatuses such as a copying machine and a printer, a charging device charges an electrostatic latent image carrier such as a photosensitive drum, image exposure is effected on a charged area to form an electrostatic latent image, the electrostatic latent image is developed into a visible image, and this visible image is transferred and fixed onto a transfer member. A charging device is employed for charging the surface of the electrostatic latent image carrier prior to formation of the latent image. The apparatus also employs other charging devices such as a transfer charger for transferring the visible image formed on the electrostatic latent image carrier onto a transfer member and a separating charger for separating the transfer member bearing the transferred visible image from the electrostatic latent image carrier.
As the charging devices, corona charging devices such as a Corotron charging device or a Scorotron charging device utilizing corona discharging have been used. Although the corona charging device can advantageously perform stable charging, it requires a high voltage and produces a large amount of ozone. In recent years, therefore, contact charging devices which can replace the corona charging devices have been proposed.
The contact charging device has a charging member which is subjected to a voltage and is brought into contact with a charge receiving member. The charge receiving member is charged by discharge occurring at a gap between a region, which is continuous to a contact region of the charging member with the charge receiving member and is spaced from the charge receiving member, and the surface of the charge receiving member.
These contact charging devices have such an advantage that they produce a particularly smaller amount of ozone than the corona charging device. Also, the contact charging device can operate with a voltage lower than that required by the corona charging device.
The charging member may take various forms such as a charging roller and a charging brush, and other forms such as a sheet-like charging member made of a film have been proposed. In particular, the sheet-like charging member is advantageous in view of reduction in size and cost of the charging device.
However, the contact charging device, and particularly the charging device employing the sheet-like charging member may suffer from the following problem.
The surface of the charge receiving member may be irregularly charged into a scale-like form (scaly form). Therefore, if the charge receiving member is an electrostatic latent image carrier and a mesh image of 1-dot/4-dots is formed as shown in FIG. 5, irregularity in image density occurs in the mesh image due to lack and/or drop of dots forming mesh points. This results in scale-like noises as shown in FIG. 6. This means that the surface of the charge receiving member was not uniformly charged, and charging irregularity occurred in a scale-like form.
Charging of the charge receiving member is primarily performed by discharging occurring at the gap between the region, which is continuous to the contact region of the charging member with the charge receiving member and is spaced from the charge receiving member, and the surface of the charge receiving member. However, charging is also performed by injection charging and specifically by injection of charges from the charging member at an area through which the charging member is in contact with the charge receiving member. This injection charging is strongly affected by a surface resistance of the charging member, and the surface resistance is strongly affected by environmental variation (temperature and humidity). Therefore, the charged potential of the charge receiving member varies with environmental variation as a whole. This prevents stable formation of good images.
Further, a pin-hole may be formed at the surface of the charge receiving member, in which case damages such as scorch and burn may occur at the charging member.
For example, when the contact charging device charges the photosensitive member, foreign matters such as shaved powder of the photosensitive member, residual toner and paper powder gradually stick locally to the surface of the charging member opposed to the photosensitive member as the printing and therefore image formation are repeated and the charging device is operated for a longer term. Abnormal discharging occurs at the portion bearing the foreign matters thus accumulated, so that the surface portion of the photosensitive member opposed to this portion bearing the foreign matters is abnormally charged in a brush-stroke-like form, so that brush-stroke-like noises occur at the image. FIG. 7 shows an example of an image (mesh image) bearing the brush-stroke-like noises.


A computer-based system and method to assign patients to providers. In one embodiment, the invention predicts the performance of provider-patient pairs in terms of different outcome-, financial- and satisfaction-related metrics across providers using advanced machine learning methodologies to develop distinct models for each of these metrics across each of the providers using a historical database. In another embodiment, patients are assigned to providers in a batch or online manner using this information through an optimization framework that looks to maximize or minimize arbitrary combinations of the outcome-, financial-, and satisfaction-related metrics subject to practical operational constraints. In another embodiment, the invention includes logic to avoid ‘boxing’ providers and uses exploration to continuously update the profiles of providers for metrics in a manner that accounts for provider performance getting better or worse over time, and the historical database not being representative of all potential patients to be assigned by this system.

Within a single geographic market, medical providers differ in quality, cost, and price of service. Existing approaches to match patients to healthcare providers are ad hoc and subjective. In many cases, patients will continue to visit the same providers that have treated them previously when making determinations for new episodes of care—despite variations in both patient health and needs, as well as in provider abilities on different tasks. In other cases, patients will seek new providers based entirely on third-party rankings, reviews from other patients, or recommendations from existing caregivers. In these cases, this approach is highly subjective and non-empirical. As a result of this, the existing delivery of care is sub-optimal. Patients experience worse outcomes (as well as lower satisfaction and higher co-pays) than if they were intelligently matched to providers suited for their individual conditions. Similarly, providers and payers are adversely affected in terms of reputation and finances due to an inability to match the specific needs of patients to the capabilities of the providers for each new episode of care.
Recent art has focused on using a computer model to predict which physicians might result in desirable outcomes for a patient. This approach reduces patients to features (e.g., age, gender, weight) and physicians to features (e.g., years of training, sub-specialty). It then trains a model on historical data from multiple patients and physician encounters to determine how different features of the patients and physician jointly correspond to outcomes. This information can be used to make predictions about new patient and physician combinations by passing features of these patients and physicians through the model. While a step in the right direction, this approach is limited in different ways.
For example, reducing physicians to a coarse set of features loses significant information about providers and fails to account for variations between two or more physicians who might, for example, have similar training and sub-specialty but may still differ in outcomes based on characteristics not accounted for in the feature set. While using a richer feature set is an option to try and mitigate this effect, it is associated with other issues (such as model over-fitting). What would be preferable in this case is an approach that does not have to abstract providers into a set of features but can distinctly preserve the identity of these providers during the course of modeling. As another example of the limitation in modeling methodology, any attempt to develop a single computational model by pooling data from across multiple physician and patient encounters is also limited in that it is easily biased by physicians with far more available training data than others. Due to the contribution of substantially more data by these physicians for model construction, information about providers with fewer cases is washed out. In this setting again, it would be preferable to avoid merging data from different providers by reducing it to coarse feature sets and to retain the distinct identity and information about the providers for modeling.
A second set of issues associated with the existing art of using a computer model to predict which providers might result in desirable outcomes for a patient is that this approach does not provide any intelligence in how to assign patients to providers. Many providers, for example, can only accommodate a limited number of patients. In this setting, it not sufficient to simply determine which providers will be the best one for a patient. Instead, there is a need for more intelligent allocation that can account for operational constraints and exploit opportunities for improvements in not just outcomes but also satisfaction, finances and other such metrics adhering to practical or policy restrictions across providers.
A third set of issues is related to a focus on only a single quantity of interest: patient outcomes. In many practical scenarios, there are multiple quantities that are of interest, e.g., outcomes, cost, margin, revenue, satisfaction etc. In such a setting, an approach that can more intelligently address the multiple needs of clinical care from the perspective of patients, providers, and payers would be desirable.
A fourth set of issues associated with the existing art is that it risks "boxing" providers into certain categories based on their previous performance. For example, if a provider does poorly initially on a set of patients then the existing art would not recommend that any other patients see that provider despite the provider potentially taking steps that will allow improvement for these cases. In this case, it is preferable for an allocation approach that performs exploration and has memory that decays over time to gracefully address the possibility of improvement or worsening of performance.

System to improve the logistics of clinical care by selectively matching patients to providers


A computer system executes a user-supplied query across multiple relational database tables linked by a common key. A new query form, called a composite join, takes a user-supplied query including one or more terms optionally joined by logical operations, an identification of two or more tables and an identification of a common join key shared across the tables. The composite join applies the query across the tables such that any of the query terms can be matched by any of the tables. A query is performed across all tables for each query term and any join keys associated with matching records from the tables are identified in a set of join keys associated with the respective term. The logical operations are then performed on the resulting sets of join keys to combine the results of the term queries according to the user query.

Relational databases provide substantial advantages when it comes storing and managing structured data. Unfortunately, database design techniques that are aimed at reducing data redundancy and enforcing data normalization rules typically do not support full-text indexing and querying of text documents as do modern search engines. When it comes to searching within structured data relational databases can impose significant constraints on a user's ability to query. Queries performed on a relational database can be exceedingly complex and frequently are beyond the skillset of the novice or untrained user. Relational databases also lack the simplicity of the one line search interface to which users of web search engines have become accustomed.
For example, the World Wide Web can provide access to a vast amount of information, and specialized search tools, known as "search engines" (e.g., Google, Yahoo, and MSN Search) have achieved great success in facilitating searching of static text documents. Conventional web-based search engines, however, are not designed for use in an enterprise environment because data can be stored in many different forms, using various localized repositories and databases. While a data repository on the Internet or an intranet may contain record-based data relevant to a search query, the search engine may not be capable of indexing and/or accessing the data. A similar problem may be encountered with other forms of content such as word-processing documents, graphical or image files, MP3 clips, interactive blogs, and other data that may change in real time.
Conventional methods of executing a query referencing multiple tables in a search engine tend to fall into one of two categories: (i) denormalization, in which the joined tables must be combined at index time, or (ii) subdivision, where the query is divided into two or more table queries, which are processed independently, and the results combined in a post-processing phase. Denormalization has several drawbacks, primarily the increase in the size of the index, because tables with multiple foreign keys can expand by orders of magnitude after denormalization. The post-processing approach involves extracting a large volume of data from the index (typically the entire contents of one or more tables) and then winnowing the data down based on the join constraints. This is also an inefficient use of resources.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,073,840, assigned to the assignee of the present application, titled "Querying joined data within a search engine index," and which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, provides techniques and systems for using a search engine interface to index and retrieve data and documents stored in a relational database management system (RDBMS).

Querying across a composite join of multiple database tables using a search engine index


A method and system for performing multicast broadcast handover in a wireless data network are disclosed. Each cell broadcasts administrative announcements over a logical channel to mobile terminals. The announcements indicate which multicast broadcasts are available in specified cells, as well as connection information for each cell. The mobile terminals may tune to a multicast broadcast as defined by the administrative announcements. While tuned to the multicast, the mobile terminal continues to receive administrative announcements. As the broadcast fades out or is otherwise interrupted, the mobile terminal can retune to the same multicast broadcast in another cell, based on the cell connection information included in the previously received administrative announcements.

Wireless data networking allows users to receive data packets from virtually any location served by a wireless telecommunications provider. For instance, using GSM digital cellular phone service, mobile users can send and receive short message service (SMS) messages, browse the Internet, receive news and stock quote information, and send and receive email. Similar services are becoming available for other telecommunications services.
Wireless data packets may be sent to multiple mobile terminals at the same time, referred to as multicasting. Currently, systems such as WLAN, digital video broadcast (DVB) systems and digital audio broadcast (DAB) systems can be used to transfer multicasted data. In the future, UMTS or GPRS networks may also have the capability of supporting IP multicasting.
In order for a wireless system to hand over a mobile terminal from one cell to another while receiving a multicast session, the mobile terminal generally must scan all the possible frequencies to find the available neighboring broadcast cells (or channels) and check which neighboring cells (or channels) support its on-going multicast session. The time consumed for finding a cell that supports its on-going session may result in significant packet loss during handover. There is presently no means by which a mobile terminal can automatically or intelligently hand off a multicast session from one cell to another without performing the above mentioned extensive scanning. Thus, a method and system enabling a mobile terminal to make intelligent channel selections based on a repository of session information is needed.


A fastening structure for an expansion card is provided. The card has a baffle and one end of the baffle is formed with a bending portion and a first long hole. The fastening structure includes a flat plate located at one side of a case and has a plane extending toward inside the case; a first supporting portion and a second supporting portion fastened at the plane of the flat plate; a fastening member having a pressing portion and at least one second long hole. The fastening member is disposed at the first supporting portion via the second long hole, and slidably leans against the plane. The pressing portion extends toward the bending portion. When the fastening member slides to a fixing position, the pressing portion presses the bending portion, and the baffle is fastened at the second supporting portion via the first long hole and leans against the plane.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fastening structure, and more particularly to a fastening structure for an expansion card.
2. Description of Related Art
In order to expand the functions of personal computers, servers, notebook computers, and the like, expansion cards can be connected via expansion slots of the computers. For example, display cards, network cards, sound cards, memory cards, or television cards are connected via PCI slots or PCI-E slots.
In the past, in order to fasten an expansion card into a case of a computer, after an expansion card 10 is inserted into an expansion slot ST, a screw 122 is required to pass through a bending portion 12a of a baffle 12 and to be threaded into a screw hole 120h of a bracket 120, as shown in FIG. 1. In this case, a securing tool is needed and the screw may be lost after being screwed off. A tooless fastening structure for an expansion card becomes another development solution.
However, in all such fastening structures, a back plate 140 of the case is required to be additionally provided with the bracket 120. As a result, the manufacturing cost of the case is increased. What's worse, the bracket has a concave shape toward inside the case, and thus the case cannot be made flat and the appearance thereof is also affected.


An identification tag is described in which a first tag member is formed of a polymer and includes a front surface. A second tag member, also formed of a polymer but that visually contrasts with the first tag member, includes slots formed as visual indicia that extend through the second tag member. The second tag member is welded to the first tag member to expose the front surface of the first tag member through the slots.

The present invention relates generally to identification tags, and more particularly to animal identification apparatus with visual indicia used to identify specific animals.
Those needing to label something for identification purposes will typically make use of an identification tag that visually communicates some form of identification. For example those in the business of dairying or ranching often need to use some method of identifying individual animals. Ear tags with individual identification indicia may be used for record keeping, herd separation, medicinal, feed or other important purposes where identification of specific animals is desired.
Many different materials and methods have been developed for identification tags. Many commercial tags are presently formed of a resilient plastic, which in the instance of animal tagging, are attached to an ears of animals by plastic spikes. The spike is driven through the ear. A barbed end of the spike is received through an aperture in the tag to hold the tag permanently in place on the ear. The spikes and tags hold well, but the identification indicia on the tag is often subject to such wear and exposure to adverse elements that the indicia often becomes difficult or impossible to read.
Perhaps the most currently used method of applying visual indicia on identification tags, especially animal tags, has simply been embossing or silk screening indicia on a plastic tag body. This may be accomplished with a paint or other coating used to form the visual indicia. While this works well temporarily, after constant exposure of the tags to varying environmental conditions and wear, the indicia will usually still become vague and difficult to read.
As a proposed solution to the above problem, tags have been developed in which laminated layers of flexible plastic material are used. The base layer is formed using a first color, and the second layer is formed using a second color. The two layers are typically secured together by application of adhesive to the joining surfaces. A high speed etching tool is used to grind or rout identification indicia through the second layer, thereby exposing the first layer. In other systems, a heated stylus is used to melt away the material. In either instance, the resulting indicia is often ragged at the machined or melted edges and can be difficult to read.
Further, laminated tags that have adhesively joined laminations have a tenancy to de-laminate under wear and adverse weather conditions. Even a tear in a lamination can reduce or confuse visual access to the indicia on the tag.
Die stamped tags have also been used in which the indicia is stamped into the material of the tag body, leaving either a recessed area, or an opening through the tag thickness in the shape of the indicia. The latter type of tag is durable except that the openings may become obscured if the tag is placed against a backdrop surface of the same or similar color to the tag. The former type tag is difficult and time consuming to make especially if consecutive, different indicia is to be used on successive tags.
Thus a need has remained for more permanent visual indicia on identification tags.


A golf ball for amateur golfers exhibits excellent flight characteristics when hit by the average golfer and also has a good feel at impact that is both soft and solid. The golf ball includes a core, an intermediate layer and a cover, and has coefficient of restitution and compressive deformation relationships that satisfy specific conditions.

In the golf ball market for amateur golfers, numerous balls intended to satisfy amateur golfers in terms of flight performance and feel at impact have hitherto been developed. To this end, various functional multi-piece solid golf balls have been disclosed in which the ball has a multilayer structure and the core, intermediate layer and cover (outermost layer) each have optimized surface hardnesses.
In addition, art concerning the coefficient of restitution for spheres such as golf balls and golf ball cores has been disclosed in, for example, JP-A 2009-39230 and JP-A 2009-29233.
This prior art, which relates to the coefficient of restitution for spheres such as golf balls and golf ball cores, computes the coefficient of restitution for these spheres when struck with a hollow aluminum cylinder at a velocity of 40 m/s.
However, there exists a desire to optimize the coefficient of restitution and the deformation at ball incident velocities typical of golfers who hit in, more specifically, the low to medium head speed range. Also, in order to obtain a better feel at impact that is solid and soft, there is a need as well to optimize the coefficients of restitution for these spheres at more specific given incident velocities.